BOOK REVIEW – GODDESS LUMINARY LEADERSHIP WHEEL, by LYNNE SEDGMORE CBE Leadership is a vast topic for modern education in a variety of fields. Given the power and influence of leaders, how they manifest and exercise it makes a vast difference to the organisations and communities and the resulting motivation and effectiveness. There are hundreds of books on leadership all over the world, although most of them are patriarchal, written by men for men. Very few books are by women, and given that we are living in the Anthropocene, and it is men who have brought us here, it is important that we learn from women. Their voice is likely to throw a different light on a man-made problem. Lynne is a highly accomplished leader, mainly in the field of education where she has been Dean of a Business School, Principal of a College and Head of the Centre for Excellence in Leadership in Education, for which she was awarded a CBE, a very high royal honour in the UK. She also has a PhD in Management, so she combines her experience of leadership with deep learning of various models of leadership. In this book, she has come up with a new model of leadership which is both spiritual and holistic, and beyond gender and sexuality. It is called the ‘Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel’, something she has developed through a number of training courses and deep reflection and study of leadership for the 21st century over several decades. What she has undertaken in this book is a very significant challenge and a synthesis which is very timely given the variety of silos in our world and the influence of ego and patriarchy combined with a deep secularism among the professional classes. The book has five chapters, the first two setting the scene as to why we really need a very different and holistic and spiritual model of leadership. In Chapter 3 she describes the Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel she has developed as a model for this approach, and Chapters 4 and 5 go into more detail about the various facets of the model, with many practical examples. The techniques involve meditation, breathing, lunar worship, and deepening self-awareness and listening. I like her preference for the word Luminary rather than leadership – the latter has much more control, power and authority embedded within its public understanding. In stark contrast, Lynne’s approach is more empowering and enabling and less controlling or forceful. The book has a number of quotes, verses and themed questions to help the reader learn and reflect. The word ‘Goddess’ in the title will put a lot of conventional management readers off, but for Lynne, this is central to her analysis. Sustainable leadership comes from a deep acknowledgement of the spiritual energy within all of us, and this divinity can become a significant resource for the risky and challenging task of leadership. The Wheel itself is complex and multi-layered and resonates with the classic elements of earth, air, fire and water – making it very grounded and elemental. It feels multi-dimensional and multi-layered, just like the very real challenges of authentic leadership. Her use of the various phases of the moon resonate with my own Dharmic upbringing where rituals and diet are regulated by the lunar phases – an awareness of the wider influences on our own mental health and well-being. There is no simple way to summarise the book in a few words. It has to be read and studied, and even better, readers could subscribe to her training courses to have a deeper personal experience of this unique leadership method and spirit. What is certain is that in the cacophony of leadership voices, we rarely hear from such perspectives, or approaches which synthesize both spiritual and material realities, and go beyond race or gender without diminishing either. The book is likely to appeal to those who have a deep desire to be authentic and whole in their leadership roles. ~ , Professor Atul K Shah ACA - City University of London

A Shining Example: The Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel: A Post-Patriarchal Paradigm, by Lynne Sedgmore Reviewed by Geraldine Charles Do we need leaders? Quite a few people I’ve come across in the Goddess movement during the last twenty years or so have been strongly opposed to any kind of leadership – but why? I suspect this is a holdover from early second-wave feminism: after all, those early consciousness-raising groups didn’t need much in the way of structure. Unfortunately, however, that led our groups to underestimate what such a lack of framework might mean when we began to move on to activism or, indeed in any direction that required more than listening and the pursuit of insight. “Going down the waterfall”I heard the waterfall metaphor many years ago, from a friend who had recently joined a group of women activists. It all felt chaotic to her and for a long time she struggled to understand the group dynamics and even what—if anything!—had been agreed in meetings. Then she became friends with some of the group members and suddenly – whoosh! Kim quickly realised that it was those very friendships that allowed her sudden ability actively to participate in the group and influence decisions. Not every “unofficial” leader ever becomes aware of her power in this way. I’ve banged on about the problems a lack of structure can cause for decades, so was delighted to see Lynne reference Jo Freeman’s The Tyranny of Structurelessness* and go on to concur that denial of any leaders can camouflage where the power really lies in a group, making challenges or changes of direction almost impossible to achieve. A new paradigm When I first heard about Lynne’s Luminary Leadership training a couple of years ago it didn’t take much thought to realise what an extraordinary—and necessary—path the training offers, one of many such routes to achieving the end of patriarchy and moving towards the vision of the MotherWorld†. And let’s face it, no-one who has been alive and taking notice during the last few years can possibly deny how essential this kind of pioneering work is. Workplaces, for example, can be truly horrible places right now, with or without Covid-19. Workplaces where bullying is an everyday occurrence. Workplaces where gaslighting is considered a great management tool. Toxic leadership is everywhere I look. Could the new paradigm Lynne describes, this new view of leadership in combination with Goddess spirituality really work? Lynne’s book helps us to see yet more ways that patriarchy has limited us, not just those we know only too well, but also how we can pursue our own dreams without becoming part of the problem. It also becomes clear that attibutes often seen as “feminine” are of fundamental importance in this new style, with the use of intuition as a prime example. But there is far more to this new paradigm than simply saying we should value such feminine attributes more. Please don’t be put off if, like me, you don’t think of yourself as a current or aspiring leader! There is plenty in this book for everyone interested in how we move forward towards our goals. Lynne quickly makes it clear that the very word “leader” has meant something quite different within patriarchy to the ideas and suggestions she puts forward here. “Luminary” is Lynne’s preferred term for leader and it’s easy to see why it’s so useful to replace a word with connotations of masculinity with one suggesting, as Lynne writes: “a person who inspires and influences others... also... someone who illuminates”. This isn’t just a book to read, digest and set aside: a fully interactive guide to excellence in leadership is here, allowing anyone who wishes to follow along the full power of Lynne’s decades of experience and learning. But that isn’t all, there are also links to online resources including videos, songs, chants and even labyrinth drawing instructions! I found the Luminary Leadership Wheel fascinating. For me it seems to condense all of Lynne’s teachings to the wheel’s centre, to “Illuminatrix” in that singular point of--I think the only word here is love--but then to explore out in each direction, towards the archetypes with their ways of knowing and of being leaderful. A path far less linear and quite unlike any management training course I’ve ever seen, but one which spirals between possibilities and strategies. It was also great to see some of Kat Shaw’s wonderful paintings being given the showing they so richly deserve! One of my personal measures of any book of this kind is the bibliography, and Lynne’s first-rate one means I’ve come away not only with a feeling of excitement at the many books I now look forward to reading, but also excitement at the thought that maybe more things can change than I once dared to dream of. * https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm † See https://goddesstemple.co.uk/motherworld/ ~ Lynne Sedgmore , Geraldine Charles - Goddess Pages editor

In all my recent works I’ve attempted to use language that de-genders the Divine, and it can be hard work, not least because (unconscious) patriarchy creeps in even among those men like me who have worked to get free of it (and hope we have). It’s like unconscious bias in racism. Even among the most well-intentioned it can worm its way into our discourse and behaviour. That’s why, in the field of leadership and spirituality, we need challenging and illuminating books like this. Lynne’s book works because it does two things - it makes us face up to our prejudices (whether carrying them or on the sharp end of them) and at the same time offers a way to get free. This admirable work is full of wisdom from a woman who walks her talk, and sound advice for those who want to change the way we do things in organisations, neutralise the power games and value every person in their own right. Sound advice too for deepening connection to the Divine, cultivating personal transformation and expanding awareness of the way patriarchy affects all of us. It can be valuable to women and men who may not know how far they have absorbed patriarchy’s subtle influences. For too long we have lived under the false dichotomy between men and women, between the feminine and masculine, between Goddess and God. Differentiation should enrich, instead it has historically impoverished us, both men and women. The imbalance of power needs to be addressed not only by a reframing of the masculine, but also a clarification and elevation of the feminine - at all levels. Men will never be full-filled until women are, and vice versa - its a win-win for all of us when works like this encourage such full-fillment. Lynne holds a mirror up to what is, and offers hope in showing us what might, and can be, in this richly informed, practical and poetically written book, earthed in wisdom that only decades of experience can bring. ~ Stephen G Wright Author Coming Home, Burnout: a spiritual crisis, Contemplation and Heartfullness.

A “new leadership development model and practice that transcends patriarchy and offers a radical transformative path” is how Dr. Lynne Sedgmore describes her groundbreaking new book Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel: A Post Patriarchal Paradigm. A beautifully written work that feels like it is being transmitted from the author’s heart directly to the reader’s, one cannot help but be affected or changed in some, perhaps major, way by this book. Dr. Sedgmore, a senior leader in further education in the UK for thirty years, has always seen leadership differently. Indeed, she contrasts her approach to leadership, or being “Leaderful” as she prefers to call it, to patriarchal leadership which is characterized by heroic, charismatic or individualistic models. The vast difference between traditional patriarchal leadership models and Dr. Sedgmore’s model is immediately apparent when one observes what Dr. Sedgmore places at the center of her leadership model and her wheel—Goddess Gnosis or a direct and visceral knowing of Goddess. Her unique leadership model is not only spiritual, it is female and feminist as well, and it seeks to achieve gender and racial justice. Dr. Sedgmore calls her leadership model Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel. She defines a luminary as “one who births their own fullest potential and the potential of others and is willing and ready to step into leadership.” It is based on her own journey as a leader, and utilizes those practices and ideas which were most helpful to her in her career—those which enabled her to integrate her leadership and spiritual experience. “The originality of the wheel lies its unique synthesis of my extensive leadership, spiritual and teaching experience integrated with Goddess spirituality, moons and elements and holding ritual and ceremony.” Dr. Sedgmore also acknowledges that the wheel is influenced by the work of Kathy Jones and her Brigit-Anna and Avalonian Wheel of the Year and its directions. Dr. Sedgmore has divided her model into six cycles. Her course, entitled “Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel,” is also organized in this way, and this work is the core text for the first year or spiral of the course. In each of the cycles, in addition to the explanatory text, there are questions for reflection, poetry—often by Dr. Sedgmore herself who is a published poet—exercises to complete, embodiment practices, chants, a discography of recommended music, and bibliographies of websites and books that expound upon ideas presented in each cycle. An integral part of the teaching is suggestions for the creation of altars and rituals related to each cycle I want to touch upon, briefly, what were for me, some of the highlights of each of the cycles. Cycle I is represented by the archetype llluminatrix. She is at the center of the Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel, as is the quality of love. The Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel is a leadership style that leads from love. Not the “fluffy” kind of love, but rather “a deep, authentic love that can be tough and fierce and challenging as well as kind, embracing, expansive and empowering”. Dr. Sedgmore shares with her students her own struggles to bring love into her role as a leader and into the workplace, and relates that the two ways she was able to do so was through her commitment to diversity and inclusion, and by proactively encouraging staff to bring their whole selves into the workplace. I found her discussion of maieutic listening, a deep form of listening, which I would describe as a very loving form of listening, extremely enlightening. Indeed, although one can find a great deal of current literature on the art and practice of listening, I have seen none as innovative and heart-centered as Dr. Sedgmore’s. In Cycle II, represented by the Initiatrix, the aim is to become conscious of how to lead, support, behave, and co-create the best outcome for all involved. Contrary to the patriarchal mindset, in the Luminary, Leaderful mindset leadership and power are shared and distributed among all participants: “anyone can step up to serve the needs of the collective.” The Ignitrix is the archetype for Cycle III of the Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel, and here the focus is on power in all its forms: learning to understand and express one’s own power, and develop a clear and conscious personal relationship with healthy power. Dr. Sedgmore’s eloquent description of power as a natural energy that exists and flows in everyone, an energy that anyone can learn to tap into and let flow and use for the greater good, was a completely new way of looking at power for me—a truly revolutionary one. Also, extremely important in this cycle is Dr. Sedgmore’s model of sources of power, and shadow or toxic forms of power. For the first time, I have words for forms of power, both positive and negative, that I have experienced in leaders.
 With the Connectrix, the fourth archetype of the wheel, Dr. Sedgmore introduces her “six facets of luminary connection”: Empathy, Inquiry, Shadow Aware, Communication, Resilience, and Engagement. She emphasizes not only that “leadership is relational,” but that we are all interconnected in this beautiful and mysterious web of life. Thus, “the more you [as a leader] can keep your heart open, know your own emotions, and stay open to flow and connection, the more adaptable, responsive, and impactful [a leader] you will be.” Wisdom Keeper is she who opens up more deeply to her shadow as well as to her “inner gold and wisdom.” The focus in Cycle V is on exploring one’s relationship to the dark moon and the Dark Goddesses; reflecting on one’s capacity for projection and reactivity; understanding the importance of doing one’s own shadow work; learning how to stop projecting onto others; and finally understanding how to survive toxic leadership. For me, the importance of doing one’s “shadow work,” especially as a leader, cannot be overstated. In Dr. Sedgmore’s book there is the understanding that there is no easy, or simple way to work with one’s shadow, but it must be done. Her honest acknowledgment of projection, and her strategies for eliminating that behavior in ourselves, is a refreshing acknowledgment of a common problem faced in many communities and organizations, and is a very welcome contribution. I also found her very straightforward discussion of toxic leadership, including her personal examples of the toxic leadership styles that she has encountered, and how to effectively counter toxic leadership, very practical and welcome. 
In the 6th and final cycle of the training, the phase of the Maturtrix, Dr. Sedgmore sets out her four styles of Luminary Leadership. This model has very practical applications for by understanding each of these four Luminary styles of leadership, one can not only understand oneself better, but discover areas in which to improve, expand one’s repertoire of styles, and learn how best to work with others who follow a different style from one’s own. Dr. Sedgmore tells us that her aim in writing Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel and teaching the wheel is “to birth a movement of Goddess Luminaries with the motivation, power, skill and capability to make our world a better place,” Judging from her students’ testimonies—sprinkled throughout the book—she is well on the way to accomplishing her goal. Dr. Sedgmore’s is an inspiring, loving, and far-reaching work. For those of us who put Goddess at the center of our spiritual lives, she has given us a blueprint for a way in which we can put Goddess at the center of our leadership roles as well. ~ Dr. Joan M. Cichon, Professor Emerita, Oakton Community College, DesPlaines, Illinois

This book rocks! The world urgently needs courageous new approaches to leadership and Lynne manifests a vision for our times. Weaving together her extensive personal leadership and spiritual experience, and drawing deep from the well of women’s thinking and practice, Goddess spirituality and feminist theorising. This book takes us on an adventure into important new pastures.  Professor Simon Western, CEO Analytic-Network Coaching, Author of Leadership a Critical Text ~

I find Lynne’s book quite amazing. I love the Luminary Wheel, and it can be used alongside my own Global Goddess training. Leadership has always been a minefield for women of Goddess. Lynne explores deeply the notion of "structurelessness" in the collective model, alongside the complex issues of understanding and using power. Working with the powerful principles and techniques offered by the Luminary Leadership Wheel, especially the Shadow Archetypes, I am sure many women, especially teachers, will find this book most helpful. Thank you Lynne for this revolutionary work. ~ Anique Radiant Heart, Elder Priestess of the Global Goddess, Temple of the Global Goddess, Maitland, Australia

Yet again Lynne defines leadership through a new lens. She deftly intertwines and explores spirituality and gender through a focus on divine feminine energy. The bold manifest it and cherish it, it forms the core of their character. This book is a wonderful tool of empowerment for all. Bravo! ~ Bawa Jain Founder and President, The Centre for Responsible Leadership, USA

In this book, Lynne offers a creative and powerful synthesis of the best of leadership development with an immersive experience of Goddess spirituality. Here you will find a unique, holistic new approach for leaders to birth their fullest potential and the potential of others. I urge you to take this journey. You will emerge all the more equipped and energised to be, and to lead, the change you want to see in the world. ~ Jody Fry, Ph.D. Regents Professor of Management and Leadership, Founder of the International Institute for Spiritual Leadership  

Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel is a mould-breaking and interactive work based on decades of priceless expertise. As Dr Sedgmore reminds us, re-acquainting women with their true power, in all its forms, and with their intuition, is essential to fostering 'thrive environments. Implementing the Clearing Conversations alone would be a life-changing practice for most people. The compilation of the powerful six Luminary Cycles is a life-time achievement, certain to empower women throughout the world. I can't recommend this work reverently enough. ~ Trista Hendren, MBA, Creatrix of Girl God Books

The Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel provides a powerful set of principles and techniques for spiritually-driven leadership. Delving deeply into concepts such as intersectionality, the shadow self and dealing with toxic leadership, this is an ideal work for anyone who is seeking a feminist-based structure of leadership and post-patriarchal concepts of power. ~ Dr Liz Williams, author of Miracles of Our Own Making

This book is a tremendous contribution and stimulus for positive change. It makes a passionate case, and provides meaningful pathways, for a post patriarchal world. It has a marvellous depth of scholarly insight. It is underpinned by well founded perspectives that Lynne has gained from the remarkable breadth of her experience, including as a highly successful CEO for many years. We recommend it wholeheartedly. ~ Lorna Pearcey and Dr Ian Williams, Co-Directors, Caplor Horizons Charity

Dr. Lynne Sedgmore CBE is resetting the management literature on leadership, directing it to a new path. Hers is a bold statement: Lynne doesn’t do things by half. She positions contemporary leadership as a spiritual enterprise, insisting on incorporating the sacred feminine as an essential component of successful (read: humane, impactful, holistic, globally conscious) leadership. Richly illustrated with practical evidence and timeless wisdom, this beautifully written book will inspire you to better yourself and make your world a better place too. ~ Prof. Dr. Yochanan Altman, Founding Editor, Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, Visiting Professor, WU Vienna