Show Notes:

Join us for a lighthearted episode where Rochana and Kathleen discuss which flower essences they would recommend for Star Wars characters. It is a fun game to play, but also useful practice for learning how to work with essences. We share our picks for classic characters like Luke and Leia, and also newer ones such as Rey and Kylo Ren. These films are rich territory for examining archetypal themes of abandonment, relationship issues, and how to find hope in dark times.

Audio:

Video:

Flower Essences discussed during the show:

• Forget-Me-Not – FES
• Baby Blue Eyes – FES
• Vine – Healing Herbs
• Ocotillo – Desert Alchemy and FES Range of Light
• Centaury – Healing Herbs
• Holly – Healing Herbs
• Mariposa Lily – FES
• Splendid Mariposa Lily – FES Range of Light
• Clematis – Healing Herbs
• Lotus – FES
• Sweet Pea – FES
• Cerato – Healing Herbs
• Yarrow – FES
• Angelica – FES
• St John’s Wort – FES
• Hematite – Alaskan Essences
• Pennyroyal – Delta Gardens
• Purification – Alaskan Combination
• Night Blooming Cereus – Jane Bell Essences
• Black Spruce – Alaskan Essences
• Cinnabar – Alaskan Essences
• Pine – Healing Herbs
• Hound’s Tongue – FES
• Agrimony – Healing Herbs
• Gorse – Healing Herbs
• Beech – Healing Herbs
• Vervain – Healing Herbs
• Impatiens – Healing Herbs
• Snapdragon – FES
• Oak – Healing Herbs
• Elm – Healing Herbs
• White Lupine – Alaskan Essences
• Chamomile – FES
• Scarlet Monkeyflower – FES
• Cherry Plum – Healing Herbs
• Sweet Chestnut – Healing Herbs

Show Transcript

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:00:18] Welcome back, flower lovers. Today is going to be a fun episode Rochana and I have planned for you. We have been talking about doing something kind of entertaining, something a little on the lighter side. And we both shared with each other our secret hobby, this game we play that whenever we watch films or TV shows or whatever, we go into what essences would I choose for this character? And I’ve been doing this for years and I never had a buddy to do it with. And it turns out Ro’s also been doing it. And we thought, oh, let’s do something crazy. And we thought we’d talk about flower essences for the Star Wars universe characters, because both of us are fans, obviously, and we hope you are, too. And even if you’re not, maybe listen in anyways because these issues are interesting to sort of play with and look and reflect in and see how they resonate in each of our lives. So welcome back. It’s been fun to think about this ahead of time, and I’m interested to hear what you have to say about these topics, Ro.

Rochana Felde: [00:01:49] Yeah, it’s just something I– yeah, I always do is really funny that we figured out that we both tend to do that with fictional characters. And of course, we are generation X through and through and grew up on the original Star Wars: A New Hope and that trilogy. And then of course, well, we’re not going to talk about the prequels today. We’re just going to pretend those don’t exist.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:02:19] Let those go.

Rochana Felde: [00:02:20] Even though I absolutely love Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman. But yes, the newer movies too have been just fantastic and also in deepening some of these characters that we know and love and have grown up with. So if you haven’t seen Star Wars or, you know, there might be some spoiler alerts here, because I don’t know if we can talk about it without giving some things away. So you might want to crawl out from under that rock if you haven’t seen them.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:02:55] Yeah, that was my thought. I’m like, if you haven’t seen it, then you don’t want to see it and maybe this is going to spur you to get involved.

Rochana Felde: [00:03:01] That’s true, too. But yeah, that’s another reason why we thought it would be a safe pick to do Star Wars because almost everybody has seen it or is at least aware of the characters in the universe. But before we get into that, I mean, you know, there’s kind of like a bigger– maybe a bigger picture, too, with this universe and the theme, the broader themes of these movies. What do you think about that?

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:03:28] Well, that’s what makes them interesting and timeless, especially the earliest ones are these archetypal mythic issues. You know, the characters aren’t as perhaps, well-drawn isn’t the word I’m looking for, but the characters in the newer ones have more, there’s more of like emotional, there’s more like connection to character as being– as if they are more like people. And in the earlier ones, they’re more sort of broadly drawn, mythic types of characters. So it is interesting to look at the range of the series and look at different essences for them because in the earlier ones we’re talking more of these– it’s really these mythic figures that we’re looking at. And so we’re talking about these really big picture issues that we can see reflected in our own lives.

I know that of late I’ve been doing some inner work on some things that have been coming up, particularly in the last year or two, that are really about my father. And my father passed away when I was a teenager. And so there’s a lot about him that I don’t really know him as an adult, obviously, because I was a kid. But these legacies, these family ancestral legacies and, you know, especially in Star Wars and in my life, not really healthy ones. And so I’ve been exploring and doing some release work with essences and inner processes to help to heal that because I’m carrying this legacy of some of these unhealthy beliefs or unhealthy patterns through in my life and I’m really ready to be moving forward with that. And it’s been really interesting to kind of do that inner work with the help of the essences. And, you know, when we’ve talked about and we’ve been thinking about planning this episode, it’s like, oh, yeah, this is this great mythic inner work that we do in our own lives that we can kind of see shown in things like these films.

Rochana Felde: [00:05:35] Yeah, that’s it– it’s really deep work, right, to be going there and working through that. And, you know, speaking of, you know, like working with the father, legacy, I mean, that’s such a theme in these movies. And also, you know, this abandonment with being given up at birth to be raised by other folks. We saw that with Luke Skywalker. We saw that with Rey and this sort of really, you know, deep sense of missing out on that family connection. You know, I know with Rey, you know, she’s always waiting for her parents to come back, but they– we kind of pretty much figure that they’re probably dead, you know. And so I think Forget-Me-Not would be really helpful for her, for her feelings of isolation and loneliness following that loss and that abandonment of her parents and then also to just promote that spiritual connection with them, you know, wherever they are. So in the beginning and that’s it’s more in The Force Awakens, right, where we meet her and see how she is. So just kind of isolated and alone and searching for that connection with her family.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:07:08] The orphan theme runs throughout the films and that, you know, it’s abandonment, but it’s also orphanhood, which is, you know, just one other version of abandonment, right? And this quality of not having that connection and seeking that connection with a paternal or maternal figure is something that, you know, essences can really help us to connect to maybe higher forms. You know, certainly, we see quite a lot of unhealthy father figures, let’s say, in these films, like super unhealthy. And so these qualities of helping you internally to connect to what is good and healthy about that relationship that we seek, there’s just so much there. And I think that the Baby Blue Eyes is one that I would be thinking of for, you know, a lot of the characters in the film of that positive quality of the father, those positive qualities of authority. You know, certainly, we see just endless shows of, you know, poor use of force and authority in, you know, certainly, Emperor Palpatine is sort of the ultimate Vine character. A lot of power used very badly and manipulative of the souls and spirits of others. So I think that’s one that I think of like the ultimate evil male character.

Rochana Felde: [00:08:46] Yeah, I agree. And then Kylo Ren, of course. So his character is so complex and wonderful and really well played by Adam Driver. And, you know, he becomes needy and self-centered. He’s always trying to get attention through his negative behavior. And that Baby Blue Eyes, you know, would help him feel more– to just nurture his own inner child that he was like so disappointed in his parents for kind of sending him off to Jedi school and not paying attention to him. And, you know, so his negative, attention-seeking behavior was a big thing, and then that turned into psychic manipulation. He also was very– became very hotheaded and radical just with a violent temper. So things like Ocotillo would be a– from Desert Alchemy would be a great essence, right, for that sort of psychic fire and emotional reactivity and how he would project that in a distorted way and act out in anger and violence. Those are some of the things I would think for Kylo Ren. But he also when he was in with the dark side, that Vine, like you say, to address that desire for power and control. But I would also add Centaury because he was easily seduced and dominated by supreme leader Snoke and the dark side. It’s so fun to talk about.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:10:29] It is pretty entertaining. I’m really hoping that at some point we get into a fierce, disputed argument about these things because, you know, isn’t that how this– how these sort of conversations go? The lower the stakes, the bigger the argument. But, yeah, I mean, and I think, you know, watching Kylo Ren and his just explosive temper tantrums, like all over the place, the whole time I was watching that, I was thinking, oh my God, like a huge dose of Holly needs to go into this whole field because it is that essence that helps with that uncontrolled emotionality, uncontrolled attention-seeking, uncontrolled jealousy and rages and things like that, and Holly is just one of those broad-based remedies that would be useful to kind of take off the edge of that. And then you can actually get more into what’s underneath that, which is probably more of that abandonment stuff, that pain and the pain is acting out in these really dramatic and, you know, really toxic ways, in so many toxic ways. I think I wanted to talk about the mother principle too a little bit because I think we were going to talk a little bit about Leia, about how that mother principle can play out and how certainly in Kylo Ren’s scenario, how he felt abandoned presumably. We’re all assuming by his mother as well being sent off. And so Mariposa Lily is one that I use a lot for sort of distorted mother relationship and it helps to connect to that higher quality of love, you know, even if it was only available in very small doses or if it just got distorted along the way. And it bridges with Luke’s scenario of feeling, you know, abandoned sort of orphanhood, with his family being absent roughly. The Splendid Mariposa Lily, which is from the FES Range of Light, it works on that quality of that soul, that deep soul abandonment, like the world has abandoned me. So the, you know, the Mariposa Lily, and there’s a variety of different Mariposa Lilies that all work on this mother principle. And there’s so many little pieces in each character where you could be thinking, oh yeah, that would be just the right thing for that individual. And I know that you wanted to talk about Leia.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:45:25] Hi, flower lovers. For the last two years, Rochana and I have been sharing practical insights and our professional experience working with flower essences on The Flower Essence podcast. There is so much more to come. Even after nearly 40 episodes, we find that we have many more topics and guests we’d love to introduce. In service of this project to connect people with plant wisdom and healing, we invite you to join us in building our Patreon community.

Rochana Felde: [00:45:52] There are some costs that come with creating a podcast, and we thought it would be really great for people that want to help us to be able to do it in this way. Patreon is such a great platform that helps creative people finance their projects and allows us to give you some perks for doing it. We’re offering early access to episodes, full transcripts, a flower essence QuickStart Guide, and more good stuff in the future. We’re excited to build this flower essence community with you as a critical part of it. And we thank you so much for helping to support us and our mission to spread the wisdom of nature around the world.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:46:37] 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 health care practitioner regarding the suggestions and recommendations made by the hosts and guests of The Flower Essence podcast.