What I am Grateful for after 10 Years since launching Archeus
Georgina - self portrait with mugwort
Ten Years On
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of Archeus. I can hardly believe that it has been 10 long years and what a journey it's been.
Beginnings starts with a name, and the name Archeus has some ancient history behind it. The 16th century physician and alchemist Paracelsus created the word Archeus when he said that for alchemy and healing, we needed to first connect to the vital force, the Archeus that flows through us through nature, and Cosmos. That word and idea was absolute music to my ears, because since a very early age I have felt that force and that connection to nature and Cosmos, and it absolutely is that the bedrock of the work I do here at Archeus.
Ten years ago today Archeus began at the kitchen table in Wellington, New Zealand. I had returned to New Zealand in 2011 because I could see that my parents’ health was beginning to decline. For many of us, when we reach our mid-40s we can find ourselves becoming aware of the relationship of child and parent changing. We find ourselves navigating a new way of being as we step up for parents as they're aging and possibly unwell.
Returning to New Zealand was an opportunity to make a new start in so many ways, and so I thought, If not now, then when? And I started laying the groundwork for what would become Archeus.
I wanted to do something with my lifelong passion for working with the healing power of nature. I saw an opportunity to combine my herbal knowledge, environmental studies, and my training in aromatherapy, massage therapy, reiki to create something that was beneficial for people and treaded lightly on this earth. I recalled how, when living in London, I used to sometimes yearn for something in a jar that I could put on my skin and help me feel connected to nature physically, emotionally, and spiritually and so I decided to create that myself. I wanted to make things that were good for people and good for the environment and give back to the environment along the way.
Underpinning this idea was my own lived experience of connecting to the healing power of nature and the rich writings left for us by people like Paracelsus, the Renaissance physician and philosopher Marsilio Ficino, and the 12th century abbess Hildegard of Bingen to name but a few. The wisdom of healers reaches back through all traditions, and for me I found myself tugging a thread back through to Hippocrates, Asclepias, and into the wide blue sky of the Vedic traditions, with each part of this illuminating aspects of how we work with nature, spirit and cosmos for our health and well-being.
As I look back over this 10-year period with so much gratitude. And I really want to say thank you to everybody who has believed in me and bought my offerings, come to courses and workshops, done coaching, invited me to collaborate with them. I really love these connections.
People seem to like lists, so here is a list of ten things I have learned since starting Archeus:
1. Archeus has shown me that I am comfortable helping others with the stuff that can be hard to talk about or gets brushed away under the carpet like dry vaginas, and death and dying.
2. For me, working with plant medicine is a form of spiritual practice.
3. It can take a heap of courage to really step up and answer one's own calling. I have really learned how much courage is needed to do this.
4. Everything takes three times longer and costs three times more than you expect it to.
5. Stepping away from the corporate ladder means losing all the job titles that can become so much part of one's identity. And that can be difficult. And so I'm hoping that my own experience of that actually helps me help others as they navigate that in their own circumstance.
6. Acknowledging death and dying as a natural part of the lifecycle has been incredibly liberating, and life enhancing.
7. The Buddhist idea of beginner's mind gives permission to ask curious questions of everything. And I wish I'd realized that 10 years ago!
8. I am motivated by compassion, not hard-nosed commercial gain.
9. Nature, my customers, clients and students are all extraordinary teachers. Thank you for everything that you've all taught me along the way so far.
10. A decade feels like a really significant moment. There is water under that bridge. And those waters bring with them confidence. I’m ready now to deepen my soul work and offerings even further, to be able to support individuals as they navigate life, its changes and the life changes of those they love.
So I'm going to say thank you now to all the awards recognition that Archeus has received along the way:
· In 2013 Archeus was given the Start Up Star Award by the Dominion newspaper.
· In 2015, the New Zealand Sustainable Business Network, selected me as a finalist for Sustainability Champion, which was such a huge accolade. When I set up Archeus, placing nature at the heart of every business decision, and formulation, decision and marketing decision I made, was really important to me, and giving back to nature was right at the center of the work, it wasn't some kind of add on. So, to receive that recognition as a finalist was wonderful.
· In 2015 my Vital Ink Tattoo Conditioning Oil was selected for Best New Natural Product by the Pure Beauty Awards in the UK. I create this product for a woman who was getting a tattoo done over her mastectomy scars. She asked me if I had made anything that could help that with the healing of that process. And so I made this oil, and it was wonderful to be able to help her and be part of that journey with her. That product then went on to get selected for Best New Natural Product, so I was really delighted by that recognition.
· In 2018 I was the winner of a Good Magazine Award acknowledging the work that I was doing making these sorts of products and offering the healing and coaching work I do to support people through different life transitions. This was a beautiful affirmation and so thank you Good magazine.
· 2018 also saw my Botanic Repair Balm selected as a finalist for Best New Premium Skincare Product in the Pure Beauty Global Awards, which were announced in Dubai. Following on from the mastectomy tattoo, I wanted to create a product to be used for healing micropigmentation and cosmetic tattooing of nipples and eyebrows after cancer treatment. Micropigmentation can have a role in helping people with their self-confidence as they went through these treatments. I wanted to make a product that was beautiful and natural and would really help with the healing of that micro pigmentation work. To get global recognition for that was really wonderful.
I should mention there that COVID changed so much for us in this world, and for Archeus it was a moment that made me decide to focus on the menopause transition as the key driver for Archeus products – most notably the NatFem Botanics Collection.
· More recently, last year NatFem Super-Soothing Balm was selected as a finalist for Best New Intimate and Sexual Care Product in the UK
I want to thank all the health clinics, GPS practice nurses, gynaecologists, the cancer organizations and pelvic health physios and other medical or health professionals that use NatFem in clinic or make it available for their patients or clients. Thank you so much for seeing how this natural product can help soothe irritations and atrophy due to hormonal changes or medical interventions. I remember the day that I met with a gynecologist who said, “It is so helpful to have an alternative to be able to offer women who can't use estrogen creams.” Coincidentally as I write this blog I have received an email from a new customer saying her gynaecologist has given her a sample of NatFem to try for vaginal and vulval dryness.
Earlier this year, Hawke's Bay (where I live) was hit with by the devastating tropical cyclone Gabrielle. A week after that cyclone, I made a product called Love & Resilience, which was a plant essence elixir made from plants in my garden because I figured that all those plants had been through this trauma too, and we all needed to help each other heal. So I made this elixir and I donated all the proceeds for a couple of months to the Hawke's Bay Disaster Relief Fund. And I can't recall the exact number but I raised over $2500 for that fund. So thank you to all of you who helped make that possible.
When I started Archeus 10 years ago, I was woman in my mid 40s. Over this past decade, I've been navigating the changes and the pressures and the opportunities that come with midlife including the death of both of my parents. So alongside trying to build Archeus and get that up and running, I was also trying to support my parents. This is such a shared experience for so many of us in midlife, and as the decade moved on, I found myself wanting to step up for others navigating these life changes. I will talk more about this in a future post, but it has very much woven itself into the very fabric of my work.
If I have to think of one word to sum up the past 10 years I think it would be connection.
If I have to think of one word to sum up the past 10 years I think it would be connection. Connection to the natural world, and to people, and it is this connection that inspires me as I reflect on the 10 years that have been and ponder the 10 years to come. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to elaborate on different aspects of this more.
If you are in a situation where you are in a midlife change, you're reinventing yourself, you're following your passion. Keep going. Ten years goes by in a flash and there is so much to learn along the way (maybe I can help you through that with some coaching or courses). Just know that at times you're going to need courage, you're going to need dreams. Don’t be afraid to pivot.
I'm so grateful to you for supporting me. And I'm hoping that of course, my products are also and offerings are supporting you. Everything I think comes down to connection to the way that we each can as Ram Dass said, you know, walk each other home.