FEP67 Creating Potent Flower Essence Formulas with Lindsay Fauntleroy
Show Notes:
Lindsay Fauntleroy joins us in exploring creative methods of formulating potent flower essence blends. Lindsay is a medicine maker, acupuncturist, author, educator, and founder of The Spirit Seed.
This recording was excerpted from a live community event held for students of the School for Flower Essence Studies and students of Lindsay’s school.
We had a fascinating discussion about various approaches for creating potent blends, including formulation frameworks borrowed from eastern and western herbalism, perfumery, numerology, and sacred geometry.
Lindsay’s new course, Archetypal Flower Essence Formula Design, begins June 3rd, 2024. Use code FESTUDIES for a nice discount.
To get notified about future live community chats hosted by the School for Flower Essence Studies, sign up for our newsletter.
Audio:
Video:
Flower Essences discussed during the show:
- Yarrow
- Pink Yarrow
- Golden Yarrow
- Black Tourmaline
- Angelica
Show Transcript
Rochana Felde: [00:00:10] Welcome to The Flower Essence Podcast and join us on an exploration of the healing wisdom of flowers.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:00:17] With combined decades of experience in the study and practice of flower essence therapy, I, Kathleen Aspenns, and co-host, Rochana Felde guide you to reconnect to nature with these potent vibrational remedies. Welcome everyone. We are so excited to have another opportunity to gather together. Today our topic is formulation creation with flower essences and how we blend, how we formulate, how we structure our formulas as we work, in formulas that we make for ourselves or for clients, depending on who you serve. And we’re really delighted to be joined with Lindsay Fauntleroy, our friend and the head of Spirit Seed. And she has her own school where she teaches flower essence therapy. And we are so excited to be pals and partners. And we like to share her ideas because she’s coming from a different place and more ideas, more perspectives are better. So we are really excited to start this conversation. We’re going to throw the ball around between us. Rochana Felde is here also with her own great insights on formulation. And Lindsay, if you don’t mind just kicking us off.
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:01:43] Where to start with formula making. Well, one of the things that I’ll say is that the approach that we use and how we’ve built it out over time really started with my training with Patricia and Richard at FES, at the Flower Essence Society. And so in doing their certification training, they really teach this, the principles of how you use sacred geometry in your formula-making process. And so when I founded the Spirit Seed and I was thinking about the curriculum for the Spirit Seed and how I wanted to break the different parts of the certification into meaningful bits, and of course, reaching out to Patricia and Richard and throwing some ideas around, I knew that I wanted to bring that part forward because it is so powerful, it’s so potent, it’s such a different way of thinking about combining herbs and plant medicines. And the piece that I’ve added is really bringing in the sensibility of how we think about formulation in Chinese medicine. I come to this as an acupuncturist– flower essence practitioner first, then an acupuncturist, and now bringing those worlds together and thinking about how do we look at herbs in East Asian medicine in terms of formulas and how in each of those formulas, each herb has a role. So there’s this personification that happens that I felt was really useful, and also in line with how we think about this community of flowers. And that’s really what I’d like to bring to this idea of formula-making is that plants are people too. So how do we think about how these flowers are relating to each other in the formula, and then how that community of flowers is relating to the person that’s taking them? So that’s kind of the window. And then everything else is just layering in the specifics and the logistics and the protocols around, how do we facilitate that conversation.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:03:52] Yeah, fascinating. And I really love how you’ve been able to create a bridge between the sacred geometry approach and then the Chinese medicine approach, which is coming from very different worldviews but can be harmonious and it can inform each other. One of my primary ways that I see formulation is I’m looking through the lens of the botanical family. And it’s really fun that we all have these different ways and different approaches that enrich the process of essence formulation and client work. So there’s not only one way to do it. And it’s really fun that you’ve been able to create this way, a way of looking at your formulation. So for me, when I’m looking at a client formula, if I’m sort of going, okay, their primary issue resides within the topics brought forth by the Rosaceae, their primary challenge is with relationships and with the realm of interconnection. And so I’m really drawing on that family, but then I’m also looking at other families as well to sort of go, okay, where is more structure here, or where is more support for the center? So it’s kind of interesting to hear about the way that you’re bringing it forth. Ro, do you want to pop in with some– we’re just going to start this with some ideas about how you bring.
Rochana Felde: [00:05:19] Yeah, I’m really eclectic. I bring in lots of different lenses, from numerology to perfumery and the Alaskan three-part system is something that’s influenced me a lot, so I’m so curious to know more, Lindsay, about how you’re combining the East Asian medicine and the sacred geometries. That’s going to be really cool to hear more about. What’s interesting is after I started thinking about it and looking at all of the things that I think inform me, I realized that natural perfumery, since that was the first plant medicine making I really learned, I mean, I did some herbalism, but the concept of the top, middle, and base notes that is used in creating aromatic structures, and then the concept of chords is something that always really struck me, and that’s grouping two or more together that have this harmony like a musical chord. And I didn’t even realize I was doing that in my formulas for years. And then I started looking at what I was doing and the way that I would have all my essences on the table, and I’d start grouping them in these ways, and I started to realize it was very similar to that. I was creating these chords, these little mini groupings that I would then put together to create the overall harmonious blend. And when you look at the language of natural perfumery, and it talks about horizontal chords and vertical chords, there’s different concepts in the aromatic world that I think translate really interestingly if you just translate it, instead of aromatics, it’s energetics.
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:07:09] Yeah, what strikes me as you both are sharing is that– and we opened our pre-conversation was a little bit about this, this rationality, linearity, and that’s one way of understanding a thing. And then there’s this intuitive sense that taps into a larger current. And the way that I see it, that current flows through East Asian medicine, that current flows through perfumery, that current flows through the families because they’re all essentially talking about relationships. And so whether we call them in our– in the system that we use, we call them allies, but I could see how that aligns with what you’re saying about chords, it’s about resonance. It’s like, how do these two flowers support one another in this formula? How do we create this internal sense of harmony and relationship, whether we do that numerically or whether we do that through another language, whatever language we give to it, that’s essentially what we’re looking at. We’re looking at, how do these energies work together? And I find that math is one of the oldest languages of archetypes. So that’s one way, right? That’s one way of thinking about it and how it shows up in music and how it shows up in these different systems. But I think essentially we’re all looking at, how do we create cohesiveness and harmony in the way that we’re putting these flowers together? And those of you who are practitioners know that you can be sitting with a client and there might be 8 or 9 or 25 or 100 flowers that are all speaking to you at the same time. And obviously you’re not going to just throw all 100 of those essences into the bottle. So what is the process that you go through to narrow that down and to be really clear and coherent in your formula-making, I think that’s what we’re all speaking to and getting at.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:09:08] Both the platonic ideas of geometry, of the inherent geometries that are present as they express into the realm of the physical, I mean, that’s my understanding of the origins of these geometric patterns was is that it was seen as a way that the spirit realm, to put a word on it, that’s probably not the right word, expresses into nature, into life, but also they’re in part of that same philosophy, talked about the harmonies and the music of the spheres, right? I mean, I think that’s all part of that same flow line of philosophy. So there is something to be said with the way that you’re talking about it, Ro, where you’re talking about these chords and then also with the geometries. Can you talk, Lindsay, a little bit more about how you see geometry intersecting in the practice of flower essence blending?
[ppp_patron_only level=”2″]Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:10:08] Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things in our training program that we really emphasize is that when you start making your formula, and this is especially important for beginners because it can be so overwhelming to have so many essences at your disposal. And so the first step in even creating the formula in our practice is to hone in on the geometry, and using these principles of numerology, using these principles of spirit into form or spirit into matter, to really identify the primary archetype that the client is wanting to align with. So, for example, we think about the number one as being more of a constitutional archetype. This is going to be an essence that really speaks to the self if we’re looking from a Jungian perspective, or the Ori, if we’re looking from an afro-indigenous perspective, but what is the single essence that really is going to strike a chord that has resonance throughout the person’s life?
And so usually you don’t know that archetype in the first session, or two or three or four, that emerges over time. And so then we start looking at the most common basis for formulas that we use are three, four, five and six, with some variations. And so thinking about, okay, if this person is needing to bring in stability or a sense of home or being really grounded in their body, then we’re going to make a formula that is based on four, so either a square formula or an eight formula. And so an eight might be two interconnecting diamonds, for example. That’s still a four archetypally even though it’s eight essences, if that makes sense. If someone is moving into a period of dynamic change or needing to initiate, we might look at a triangle. And then the next question with the triangle is, is it an up-facing triangle moving towards the heavens, or is there a down-facing triangle like the sacred feminine embodying into earth? So we start there because that allows us to rein it all in and say, okay, I’m not going to give this person 25 flowers. But if I’ve decided or we’ve decided in our session that we’re calling in this four, then what are the four most important flowers? And then how do they relate to one another? We look at a five as being a five-pointed star. So that’s looking at self-actualization, realization of the self. And then of course the six is the six-pointed star, which is relating to the integration of masculine and feminine, or the integration of heaven and earth, or and I think this aligns with the botanical families’ perspective, like a lily flower, it’s calling in the feminine nurturing qualities. And so we start there as our first step in formula-making is, okay, what is the archetypal number and form that is really going to hold the intention of all these flowers together for this client?
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:13:32] Yeah. There’s so many thoughts. Oh, my God, I’m so excited. This is really interesting, and I’m just going to go back to the first point that you made of the one, and there certainly are circumstances where formulating around a unitive idea of, everything centers on this point, and maybe this is, are we always talking about the number, meaning the number of essences, I think that would be a good question to ask because I’m feeling somebody’s asking it. When you’re talking like this many essences, does it have to be that many essences, or can there be a chord or a harmony pair that sit in this place?
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:14:19] Yeah. So I didn’t want to get too– so what gets sometimes confusing for folks is that a formula can archetypally be a six, but it might have seven essences, right? So it’s not, I’m calling it eight, so I’m using eight flowers. No, it’s really speaking about the form and how those essences align with one another. So then the second level of the formula-making becomes looking at those interrelationships. And in this system, that unifying theme, I call it the mama, because in my house growing up, the mama was the one that told me what part of myself needed to show up. And so I think about a flower, if you look in a repertory, if you’ve studied these essences, we know that every single flower essence can do so many different things. And so it’s that mama flower essence that’s sitting in a particular place in the geometric form that is going to call out the specific aspects of the other flowers that are together. So essentially, that mama essence is playing the role of the one in the formula. And then we go into, in this system, we talk about allies, which I think aligns with chord. These are two flowers that are related to each other in some way, either by botanical family or by the color or by their gesture if we look through the 12 windows of plant perception. So we’re looking for these allies that can be supports to the mama. But that’s a couple of steps down the road. So we start with the geometric form. Then we think about who’s in charge here, who is carrying the primary signature of this moment, and then we build around that. But no, the short answer is just because your formula is calling in the geometry of four, doesn’t mean that you’re using four flowers.
Rochana Felde: [00:16:21] It’s so funny. I thought the answer was going to be different because of my numerology background in always adding up the numbers and then reducing them to that numerological equivalent. So a 13-essence blend would be a 4 because the 1 and 3 is 4, or a 4-essence blend. So that’s how I’ve looked at the numerology aspect of it. But what I wanted to say is that I love sacred geometry, but I don’t know technically how to make it work in an essence blend, and the way that you were talking about how the four is a square and the five is a five-pointed star, to me, my mind started connecting that with my numerol– the meanings that you said are the same meanings of numerology, so it makes that connection with numerology. And then I started thinking that I’m already kind of there. When I think about these numbers, I’m already kind of there in the sacred geometry. I’m just not thinking about it and drawing it out and putting it on a piece of paper. And do you do that when you’re creating formulas?
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:17:37] We sure do. Well, I mean, and also to your point, it’s like the five and how in numerology and in sacred geometry, what five represents is very similar to what five represents in MetaFlora five, right, or three and the correspondence to Mercury and MetaFlora three. So again, it’s like this one stream that has come up on different banks of time and been given different names, but when we are working intuitively, we can access that in ways that we might not– it’s almost like we might learn something or do something intuitively and then learn why later. And that’s really consistent in Afro-indigenous teachings, it’s like, you do it first, it’s experiential, and then you understand it intellectually later, which is kind of reversed in the Euro-American context where you understand why, and then you do what you learn. So it’s kind of flipping it on its head. But to your point, it’s, we already understand and know these archetypes in our own beings, but yes, when I make formulas with clients, it’s really funny because I have all kinds of scrap paper all over my desk. And as a client’s talking and I start landing in and I’m like, oh, okay, this is a five. So I’ll just draw a five-pointed star and then I’ll start moving the flowers around. And then sometimes I’ll do that with the client, I use PowerPoint and I have the diagram of the flower there, and we sometimes together just move things around so that we can see how the images of the flowers are sitting inside of that geometric form. So that’s a lot of how I learned it from Patricia and Richard because when I did the training, we would use the FES Affirmation Deck and we would put the cards in the formation and then add the essences according to how the cards were lined up on the table. So yes, and.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:19:45] Yeah. Always. And what you’re saying is that that difference in the way that we’ve been trained to think, like we need to know the reason or we need to follow a recipe or have a structure given to us, it’s really backwards from the way that this practice works. It’s like we’re coming from a feeling, knowing state first and then because we really want to structure a lot of times, and sometimes it really is valuable to help a client understand that there is some purpose behind what we’re recommending and why we think that certain essences are going to be helpful for them to funnel it through the structure of a model, but always remembering, always remembering and reminding ourselves that this is a model. It’s the map of the territory, it’s not the territory itself. And so we’re always struggling with that part of our brain that just wants it to be just locked in and know exactly how it works.
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:20:56] Right. And that’s one of the things that some of the students struggle with in the beginning of the process because– and this is maybe a little bit controversial, but I think that the sacred geometry and the layering of the families in terms of their roles in the formula, it’s really for the practitioner to focus their intention. So it’s not like it’s right or wrong. And this happens in the class that someone will make a completely different formula with a completely different figuration, and they’re both great. So there’s nothing that’s going to lock something in, in the way that we might crave as budding practitioners, like we want to be right. There’s a lot that we maybe absorbed around doing the wrong thing or harming someone. I know that was certainly part of my fears when I was starting because I wasn’t part of this accredited psychotherapy model, I was so afraid of doing the wrong thing, and I was so afraid to trust myself. And so really, the strategies that we use are a way of helping the practitioner to focus their intention, move with some sort of sensibility, but I think the larger training, both in the clinic and in the world is, how do we live with both sides of ourselves? How do we integrate our left brain and our right brain thinking? How do we allow them to live together in a way that they’re not in conflict with one another, but actually supporting one another in another chord, I guess, is one way to think about it?
Rochana Felde: [00:22:37] So many to say yes to right there because some schools of flower essences subscribed to the concept of not blending more than five essences together, or not blending one maker’s essence with another maker’s essence, I shall not name names, but where we really come from at the School for Flower Essence Studies is to open those doors and come back to the plants and to what makes sense, those relationships, the chord within that process. And these rules and structures, they’re what people have made up, and we can use them as guides and we can use what we’ve learned in our own journeys, but the most important thing is the plants and our intention. And so whatever is going to help us clarify our intention while we’re making that blend for the client to me is the most important thing so that we’re not off spacing out. We are focusing in on connecting with those flowers and connecting with the needs of that client and making it. And whether we’re using numerology or whatever it is that helps us do that and helps us stay focused and clear, I think that it almost doesn’t matter, but at the same time, the more we can learn and the more we can try and experiment, then we come up with what works best for us and what works best for our practice.
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:24:22] I agree 1,000%.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:24:24] And what you’re saying is like, especially in that beginning stage, when you’re just getting your feet underneath you, when you’re learning how to do this work, this practice, it is really helpful to have some kind of a structure for you to focus your mind, like you were saying, Ro. It’s like having a mantra. If you don’t have a mantra, your mind’s just going da, da, da. It gives you some way to create some sort of focus, some sort of structure. And then once you get familiar with that feeling sense of being in session, of feeling when the plants are coming forward and feeling what the client is saying and what they’re bringing and where that intersectional space meets, then you don’t have the same requirement for having that structure first. You rest on it initially and then you can be much more responsive to the needs of the client. And then maybe in order to help the client understand the formula better, then you go, oh yeah, I didn’t even think about it yet, but this is clearly an eight structure. So you go from structure first and then magic later into magic first, and then you can go, okay, yeah, this is where it fits in with the structure, yeah.
Speaker4: [00:25:40] Right. It’s like learning music, right? It’s like you learn the notes, you learn the scales, you learn the structure, and then you learn to riff on that and create something really new.
Rochana Felde: [00:25:52] And then you try to forget what you’ve learned.
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:25:55] And then you try to forget what you’ve learned. Yeah, exactly. And I do also find that for me, having the sacred geometry specifically is helpful because it helps me to think more, I don’t know if critically is the right word, but to really consider the relationships. So for example, if we have a five-pointed star, if you can picture that and you have that line across the center, I think about how are those two flowers related? And I’m thinking about it in a more personification point of way like, who can support each other here, so it helps me to be in the world of the flower a bit. If I’m working with Angelica and I’m like, well, who is going to give a high five to Angelica? Maybe it might be Deer Brush, or maybe it might be Star Tulip, but it gives me a way to be inside of the formula and to think about how the flowers are relating to one another and then how they’re relating to the client. Because I’ve heard these schools that only allow you to mix a certain amount of flowers, shall remain nameless, and I can say that if we’re not thoughtful and considerate about the flowers that we’re putting together, it doesn’t matter how many there are. There could be three flowers in there and you can get that fuzzy, headachy feeling of when the formula is just not quite right because there’s too many things going on and there’s no real coherence. So to me, it doesn’t matter so much the number of flowers in terms of a restriction around how many, but more of is there coherence, is there harmony, is there relationship? Or, which often happens in the beginning of practice, are we trying to do too many things at the same time? I’m trying to fix this person’s anger issues and their relationship issues, and they also have stuff going on at their job, and they also want to be an artist. Of course, there’s a through line in all of those things archetypally, but what is this formula doing, and really helping us to slow down that process where we’re not trying to treat the formula as if like one magic pill, one magic dropper bottle, but to really slow down the process and give ourselves more spaciousness in the journey of becoming. And I think the sacred geometry and the limitations that it brings helps with that.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:28:31] And having that structure also, and when you were talking about looking for partnerships within your formulas, having that structure also reminds me that it can help you notice where you have holes like, what am I missing here? Oh, there’s this whole sector of this formula that’s missing and needs something there. So I think that’s really helpful.
Rochana Felde: [00:29:00] Yeah. And I just wanted to, especially for those that are newer to this, I mean, this is definitely more of a advanced conversation, to not think that this is the way that all flower essence practitioners work, that there is as many ways of doing this as there are flower essence practitioners. And some may be working with the chakra system in the way that they think about putting blends together, some might use astrology, some might be purely intuitive and using a pendulum, and there’s no other structural thought that goes with it. So it really runs the gamut as far as techniques for putting a blend together. So that’s why I always go back to the most important thing is the focused intention of that blend. Also what Lindsay was saying is that we can’t be trying to solve all the problems with one bottle. Really the most important thing is having the single unified purpose of what those flowers are in that bottle together to do to help that person. Then as we progress and we think about it and we go further along and we start to put in our own– we all have different backgrounds. So some people may already have acupuncture training, and I want to ask you, Lindsay, about how you bring that in and how you bring the Eastern medicine in to the sacred geometry because I’m still not sure how that fits in. So that’s going to be great, and I want to make sure we have time to hear about that. But just to explain more and not to overwhelm, because this can be a lifelong practice, we are all in it for the duration, and we just keep going deeper and deeper, and that’s probably why it attracts so many of us, so that we can do that.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:31:04] Thanks for bringing that in, Ro, because it is, we are getting into the weeds here and also looping it back to our very early conversation, I think before we even started the recording, it’s like, there’s really no harm. And part of the joy of this practice is, is that when you’re in the early stages of learning and you’re working with your friends or your fellow students, making a mistake is pretty low-stakes, really low stakes, you’re not going to hurt anybody. Nothing might happen or it’ll be a muddy mess, but that’s the worst that can happen. So feel free to not do it right because there also isn’t a right, yeah?
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:31:50] I always I reference when I did my certification case study work, and I go back and look at some of those formulas and I’m like, what was I thinking? I would never give that to someone now, but at the time, it was what I knew and it was still beautiful. So I love that idea of lifetimes learning. I feel like every time I come back to this planet, I get a little bit deeper in my flower essence work, and who knows what I’ll do the next time I’m here. But it’s endless. I mean, and when we look at indigenous cultures, it could take someone 20 years, 30 years before they were able to be the medicine person of their community. And so thinking that we can know all the things that we need to know in a year or two or three is really unfair and unkind to ourselves because we learn it as we live it, and we’ve got a lot of living to do with these flowers, so.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:32:52] Yeah. And I love what you’re saying. Like when I first started toi, I was like, let’s put more stuff in there. And now I’m like, let’s back it off a little bit, and definitely that’s something that I did was try to solve all the problems in one bottle or less, because when somebody comes to you and you are just getting started and they present you with their laundry list of problems or concerns or whatever, what are you supposed to say to them? Like, no, no, we can only work on this piece. There’s a real tension there because you start this practice because you want to help people. You want them to feel better. And how do we find that balancing point of like, okay, well, let’s take this in steps and you have to learn how to have that dialogue and how to have that interaction with somebody and know what to expect like, okay, we need to start here with giving you a sense of structure and safety. Let’s start with the basics, and then we can work on some of these other things that are maybe downstream effects. But yeah. Lindsay, because you haven’t really gone into it yet and Ro prefaced it, the bridging and bringing in your expertise in Southeast Asian medicine, tell us how you see this integrating in the practice of flower essence therapy.
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:34:16] Yeah. I think what I borrowed most from the herbology is that in that system, they have what we call the chief and the deputy of the herbal formula. And in Chinese medicine, the position in the formula determines how many grams by weight of that particular herb in the formula. In flower essence work, it’s the same amount of drops. Some people say 2, I say 10, some people say 7, that’s a whole other conversation, but it’s the same amount, right? I don’t know if anyone else does, but I don’t put more of one particular flower essence because what I find is that that’s not what makes it stronger in the formula. I find that the geometry itself is what holds the rank and hierarchy, if you will. And so, that’s where I bring in that sensibility in terms of, instead of the chief and the deputy, it’s the mama, the allies, the elders. I think you could think of it very similar to, I think, Ro, when you were talking about, I think you said the top note, the middle note, I’m not sure what the terminology is, but it’s that same sensibility of, what comes first, what’s underneath, and what’s holding the ground and holding the solidity and that sort of way. So that’s how I bring them together. And then the other way that I think about it when I was learning herbs, we would look at a formula first, and then we would learn the individual essences in that formula, and then we would learn another formula– not essences, I’m sorry. Herbs. Then we would learn another herbal formula and learn those herbs, and then we would say, oh, okay, well, what does this formula and this formula have in common with this shared herb? And so it was another way of learning as opposed to just memorizing each of the herbs one by one and their indications one by one. It was a relational way to learn the flower, to learn the herbs. And so that’s how I think about it in the flower essence world. In one of our intro classes, we start, and a lot of people complain about it, but we start with a formula analysis where they have the sacred geometry of a formula and they have to talk about the herb– the flowers. I’m getting herbs and flowers mixed up today, but they have to talk about the flowers that are in that formula. And then in the next unit, they’ll learn another formula, and some of those flowers might overlap, and it’s like, oh, hey, well, what’s similar, what’s coming through? And it’s a very, I think, embodied and experiential and relational way of learning the flowers, in addition to learning their indications. So that’s how I’m bringing in the two. But I don’t blend my flower essences with herbs. I really hold them as separate medicines, complementary medicines, I call them cousins. They’re from the same root, they’re from the same Mother Earth, but they really have their own unique sensibilities and functions, and I don’t mix them together. Similarly with essential oils, like I really hold that each of these forms of plant medicine has their own unique beauty and glory in that they each work on different aspects of the subtle body in their own unique ways.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:37:44] Ro, can you speak to that early chat question asking about horizontal and vertical chords in perfumery and by extension, or if you had another thought you had to bring in, do that first?
Rochana Felde: [00:37:56] It’s interesting because, yeah, there’s so many similarities. So in perfumery, a horizontal chord is aromatics that are similar in volatility, like have a similar kind of strength in their aromatic volatility, whereas a vertical chord is like, it’s got the base, middle, and top like a formula would have, but just in a smaller blend, like a mini blend. So it’s the verticality is the base, middle, and top, whereas the horizontal is like all of the same. And then there’s the concept of integrated chords, which is like several aromatics of the same plant. And so that could be like where you combine an herb and a flower essence, an essential oil of Calendula, and that would be an integrated chord. And that’s how perfumery looks at it. So, perfumery is not flower essences and it’s not flower essence therapy, but I do like to think of those– when I’m combining things, I’m combining it by let’s say to the correlation to that would be a horizontal chord could be Pink Yarrow and White Yarrow and Golden Yarrow. They’re all kind of similar and the same kind of plant, similar for sensitivity, and a similar purpose. And that might be one way to look at it, just off the top of my head. And the vertical chord, like we’re thinking about a blend for somebody highly sensitive, I mean, Black Tourmaline and Pink Yarrow, that’s going to give you your base gemstone elixir, and then your Pink Yarrow and then maybe something else to go with that, like Angelica, that might create a nice vertical chord. And integrated, I think that could correlate with botanical families, Kathleen. So that could be– and so this is all sort of I have not thought this all the way through or written or taught extensively about it, but it seems to all have the synergy. Whenever we look at plant medicines, especially traditions of plant medicine-making and formulation that have been around for thousands of years, like herbalism and perfumery and all of these things, and so, Lindsay, you were talking about the Chinese medicine and you have your names, the allies and the mamas, right, but I’ve heard the similar kind of master advisor soldier guide or something like that. And then in Western herbalism, we have something also similar but without the fun names. And it’s like the primary herb in a blend, the supporting or nourishing herb in a blend, and the catalyzing or stimulating herb in the blend. And so that is, like the stimulating, you only use it a little bit and then you have a whole lot of support. And so that’s for the physical constituents of herbalism. But I think it also translates to flower essence blending because you might have a catalyzing flower essence and you just want a whole lot of support for that, and you want a whole lot of support for that person because they really need it. So that’s some of the ways that I think about it.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:41:40] Yeah, it’s really interesting. I was just going to be jumping in on that aspect that you were just touching on, Ro, that aspect of, certainly when I first started, so I can only speak from my experience, is I put essences in formulas because I wanted them to do something. The client had a need and I wanted it like, okay, I’ve got this one for the trauma release, okay, I’ve got this one for the fear, I’ve got– and so I’m choosing all from the list of catalysts. And what I discovered was, is that those formulas were not as effective as the ones where I could pick one catalyst. And not every formula gets a catalyst or gets a real strong actor. Some formulas really, they just need support and they just need grounding and they just need structure rather than action, action, action. It’s too much of that, once again coming to herbal language, our desire for the heroics, like we want those powerful herbs that do the big thing. And a lot of the times, we can do our own changes when we’re supported, when we’re held and we don’t need the superhero to come in and save the day, right?
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:42:55] I love that. It’s making me think about, sometimes in the clinic, someone will come in and they’ll have like, this is my formula. And it’s like, okay, well, what is the goal of this formula? And it’s like, oh, well, I wanted to do this. And it’s kind of similar to what you’re saying around really being streamlined and not underestimating how much support one little change requires, because this is such deep work and those little changes are big deals for most of us in this work, and it’s so unassuming because you’re like, oh, they’re just flowers, they’re so unassuming in that way. And then all of a sudden, someone’s whole world is completely different because of one little change that was supported enough to really land and stick.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:43:53] It’s the elegance of the one perfectly placed needle, right? It just gets the movement. Okay, and then everything else just rattles downstream. So there’s that beauty of the expertise that you bring and recognizing that just the right flower is just boom, it’s right there.
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:44:14] Yeah.
Rochana Felde: [00:44:15] And that really, I mean, it’s the same concept as art and design and every kind of design there is, where when you’re beginning, you end up getting too cluttered with all the ideas and thoughts and images or words and whatever that you’re creating, and that the more you grow, the more you start taking away from that and finding that simplicity is what takes the most practice. And it really, truly can be said for all the kinds of designing, when I design websites, when I write something, when I create anything that is any kind of visual or artistic media, my whole process is like, let’s think about all the things I want and then start to take away until I’m at exactly that place. And that’s really how I approach making a flower essence blend too. I’ll start with a list of all the things I think might work, and then I start moving them around, grouping them, organizing, dousing and then taking away, taking away until I’ve got exactly the focused intent that I would like.
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:45:37] It’s that metaphor, I mean, just even bringing back the geometry, it’s that metaphor of the downward triangle and the capacity to move from unlimited possibility, all things possible, into something that is specific and unique in a time and space. And I think that’s the birthing process, right? Taking unlimited capacity for spirit and life and incarnating it into something that’s very defined and finite. Sometimes that’s a painful process, right, because we want to be in the expansiveness. And so the limitation of, okay, we’re not going to put all 100 of these possibilities into this one bottle, it’s a metaphor for life really, but I think all of this flower essence process has been, at least for me, a huge reflection of my spiritual life as well. I find that the challenges that I run into or bump into are just reflected and ripple in other areas of my life as well, including when I feel frustrated about a client or a formula or something, there’s usually a resonance. So I think that’s the beautiful side of being in this work is that we’re constantly in this space of self and other discovery and relationships.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:46:59] I’m always coming from garden metaphors of growing a garden. It’s a process and it takes time, and you plant something and it doesn’t become a tree instantly, but it needs that constant regular daily care. It needs that constant seasonal attention in order for it to become something really beautiful. And it isn’t that the way we practice is I’m not the practitioner I was 10 years ago, I’m sure nobody’s a practitioner they were 10 years ago. And what I relied on then is not where I’m at now. And the people I was working with then aren’t the people I’m working with now. So it is this constant and continual process of refinement and evolution and learning to do more with less. It really is that– I’m trying to remember, but the beautiful ink brush painting that the classical Chinese scholar will do, it’s like they can do this beautiful painting in just a few moments, but it takes an entire lifetime to get to that place where they can reduce it down to just a few strokes. And that’s a little bit of what we’re doing here, what we’re talking about here in formulating.
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:48:18] I love that so much, that image.
[/ppp_patron_only]Kathleen Aspenns: [00:48:21] Can you tell students who are interested or want to know more about the course you’re teaching? We have the link in the chat here, but please tell us more about it.
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:48:30] Absolutely. So the class is Archetypal Flower Essence Formula Design. And it is a class where, as I mentioned before, we go through each of the archetypes, we group a couple together that are related, and we look at the archetypal expressions of that number, and then we look at– my favorite part of it is that we look at it through clients. And so we use pop culture as our clients, similar to what we do in our winter class, which is called Into the Depths because oftentimes a Disney character will tell you their whole life story in a three-minute song. So they make for really great practice patients. And so we use these principles that we are learning in the class around sacred geometry, about the different relationships between the flowers, and we’ll have a client, and everyone will make a formula based on that principle of geometry, based on what that client is saying in the song as their intake. And then we share them and we talk about how we created those formulas together. And what’s really beautiful about it is that you’ll see sometimes that there’s one flower that shows up for everyone, but everyone has kind of a unique way of entering into this particular client’s story. And so that’s the class. It starts on June 3rd, if I’m not mistaken. It meets on Monday evenings, and it runs for about five weeks. It’s not consecutive because we put some breathing space in there for folks to experiment and work on some of the projects that are related to what we’re up to. And this class is one of the required classes for our certification program. We’ve strongly encouraged our students to take the Botanical Families class so that they can bring that sensibility into the formula making. But I find that it’s just a really great way and a really fun way to start practicing and getting real-time feedback in community with other practitioners around how to bring formulas together. And we consider you a practitioner, whether you’re practicing on yourself or your friends and family, or whether you have a professional practice.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:50:48] Sounds great. It’s been really, really cool having you with us. We’ve really enjoyed this conversation and, boy, we can’t wait to have more because there are so many different paths that we could be traveling in these places. And it’s just really fun to be coming together as a community and having these conversations. And we really appreciate those of you who’ve popped into the chat or were bold enough to put your hand up, yay, because we’re all learning together, we are all learning and growing in this garden of community. So we really appreciate that everyone’s with us. And, Lindsay, do you have a parting thought, and Ro, I’ll ask maybe to you too after?
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:51:31] I would say just going back to a little bit of what was expressed earlier around feeling like, this is all really new and being in the beginning, and I just want to really say that what I love about this archetypal approach is that it’s already inside of us, right? We already know what spring feels like, we already know what fall feels like, we already know what it feels like to be in union with someone, we know what it feels like– so these are archetypal spaces. And I would say to just really play in that space, and just start working with it in small ways that feel organic and feel intuitive and feel alive or curious for you that we can always layer on more information and knowledge and training. But to really cultivate the practice of being with and being in relationship with this medicine, I think, is one of the most beautiful opportunities that we have.
Rochana Felde: [00:52:38] And ditto to all that. I hope this has been inspirational for everybody. And that was the intention, to spark that fire of creativity and inspiration and open the mind to possibilities. And I know for me, I mean, I’m very inspired. I can’t wait till I make my next formula and think about those geometric structures and what am I already doing that I didn’t realize I was doing or what can I experiment with and do better? So I hope that it has been inspiring for everybody here. And thank you so much for joining us.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:53:16] Thanks everyone for being with us. It’s been really, really sweet.
Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:53:19] Thank you, everyone.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:53:24] This podcast is meant for educational and entertainment purposes only. We are not physicians, and do not diagnose, prescribe, or treat medical conditions. Please consult with your own physician or healthcare practitioner regarding the suggestions and recommendations made by the hosts and guests of The Flower Essence Podcast.
