Show Notes:

We are absolutely thrilled to have Lindsay Fauntleroy as our guest this month! 

Lindsay is an educator, acupuncturist, director of The Spirit Seed, and maker of Elementals Essences. She gave an amazing presentation at The Flower Essence Conference, so we just knew we needed to have her on the pod.  

Our conversation centered around the five element system as a process for understanding our own cycles, as well as where we are collectively in this moment and what beautiful flower essence is coming forward. 

We talk about Lindsay’s new book, “In Our Element: Using the Five Elements as Soul Medicine to Unleash Your Personal Power”, and the inspirational way she combines flower essences, yoga poses and music playlists as medicine for the body, mind and soul. 

We love how she joyfully weaves together Eastern medicine, western psychology, and African ancestral principles of spirituality in a modern way that is easy to understand, actionable and accessible. 

Audio:

FEP49 The Five Elements as Soul Medicine with Lindsay Fauntleroy

We are absolutely thrilled to have Lindsay Fauntleroy as our guest this month!

Video:

Resources:

Lindsay’s book: In Our Element: Using the Five Elements as Soul Medicine to Unleash Your Personal Power: www.inourelementbook.com

Lindsay’s website: www.TheSpiritSeed.org

Lorie Dechar book: Five Spirits: Alchemical Acupuncture for Psychological and Spiritual Healing

Francis Weller book: The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief

Show Transcript

Rochana Felde: [00:00:41] Hello friends and welcome to this episode of The Flower Essence Podcast. Today, we are absolutely delighted to have Lindsay Fauntleroy join us as our guest. Lindsay was a speaker at this year’s Flower Essence Conference, and she had an incredible presentation about attuning to magical consciousness to support our work with flower essences. We were so impressed with her work that we knew we had to invite her to the podcast.

So, for those of you not familiar with Lindsay, let me tell you a little bit about her. She’s a medicine maker, an educator, and an acupuncturist. Her new book, In Our Element, is a self-help guide that integrates acupuncture theory, flower essences, yoga, and ancient spirituality. Lindsay is a certified instructor for the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, as well as a facilitator of the Flower Essence Society’s Global Practitioner Certification Program. Lindsay’s approach to soul medicine emerges from over 15 years of clinical practice, her PhD studies of Indigenous and African diasporic psychology, and her commitment to community wellness. She’s the founder of The Spirit Seed, a community that offers personal and professional development courses rooted in ancestral understandings of health, humanity, nature, and the cosmos. Lindsay’s Five Element flower essence remedies, The Elementals, are available nationally and internationally. Welcome to the podcast, Lindsay. 

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:02:24] Thank you so much for having me here.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:02:26] We’re so glad that you’re here.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:02:28] Same.

Rochana Felde: [00:02:30] There’s so much in your book that as I was reading through, we love the five elements, the way that you were able to present it in such an accessible way and you have such a beautiful way of weaving together and synthesizing information from different cultures and different philosophies and then putting them into really actionable steps. And I’d love to get into that more with you. But first, I just want to kind of step back and find out more about you, your origin story. How did your journey with all of this begin?

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:03:15] I’m standing in a moment right now where I feel like I’ve come full circle, this back to where I began because I was introduced to both flower essences and acupuncture through trying to get pregnant. I was diagnosed with premature ovarian failure and I was told that I couldn’t conceive. And that was when I first was introduced to flower essences, and those flower essences were really a catalyst for bringing in all of the supports that I needed to heal my body. But what I often don’t talk about is how the flower essences were also a catalyst to my life work and the work that I’m doing now. Because when my daughter was around 3, I was feeling really lost. In retrospect, I’m sure I had postpartum depression and didn’t know it, but I just felt like I was supposed to be doing something else. I was doing social justice work in a non-profit organization, and I was like, There’s something else out there for me. And so I started working with Wild Oat flower essence, and I kept hearing this little voice that said, Go to acupuncture school. So I start looking up acupuncture schools. And acupuncture schools at the time are like $70,000 and it’s a 3-year master’s degree. And I’m like, No way, not doing that. Sorry, little voice, give me something else. And that voice just kept coming back. And so likely inspired through the Wild Oat, I found this book called Alchemical Acupuncture, and this book by Lorie Dechar, who later became my teacher and mentor, was looking at more of the classical roots of acupuncture. And initially, acupuncture was a spiritual medicine. It was a medicine for aligning and rooting the spirit into the body. And so, as I was reading her book, I was thinking, well, I’m not going to acupuncture school, but if I were going to go to acupuncture school, this is how I would want to practice.

And so as it turned out, I was looking online and there was an acupuncture school that was having an open house that night. And as I looked a little deeper, Lorie was one of the teachers at that school. And so, that coincidence, that meaningful coincidence that we know is part of our work with flower essences, I was like, well, I’ll just go and listen, right? I’m not going to go to acupuncture school, but I do want to hear a little bit more about it. And so, I went to the open house and I was hooked. I was like, okay, this is what I’m going to be doing. But the program didn’t start for another year. And so, in that time, I went out to Terra Flora with Flower Essence Society to do my flower essence certification and really started weaving together my ideas around how the elements and the flower essences are in conversation with one another.

And so, when I finally met Lorie about two years later, I already had my flower essence practice at that time, and I had written up this 2-page document of each of the elements and the flower essences that I thought spoke to each of those elements. And she was so gracious and kind because I was like a little student puppy, so excited and starstruck. And she looked at it and she said, This is a book. And now, 13 years later, today actually, there’s a book that brings these two worlds together. So, it does feel like this full circle moment that’s happening.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:06:58] That’s quite an alignment of the stars for you where these things came together and you had the opportunity before you started your acupuncture training to go deep into the flower essence certification process and really immerse yourself. So, it’s almost like the two streams came together. I’m so excited that you’re bringing this book into the world because this is such a great moment to be talking about these aspects.

Can you tell me for our listeners who are not as familiar, kind of what is this Five Element theory thing? Like, can you give us the basic instructions of what to be even thinking? Like, what are we talking about when we say metal? Like, what does that even mean?

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:07:44] I think the easiest way to think about Five Element theory and acupuncture theory in general, just to take a few steps back, if we can remember that it originated out of the same time period of humanity as flower essence therapy. Both of these medicines originated during a time where humans and nature were intrinsically connected and aware of each other in that connection. I don’t think we’re less connected now. I think we’re just less aware of it.

And so, when we’re talking about Five Element theory, we’re really looking at nature as a metaphor for the psyche and the soul. And so I think of these five elements and what we see in the classical literature is that we look at each of these elements, as reflected, we could even use the metaphor of a life of a plant.

So when we’re talking about the water element, we’re talking about the seed. We’re talking about when something is incubated and beneath the soil and in that mystery and not yet becoming. And that introverted quality of being a seed in the soil.

When we talk about the wood element, we’re talking about a sprout. We’re talking about that earlier stages of beginning to push towards change, push towards the sun, that determination and vision that that little sprout has to go against gravity and come into light.

When we’re talking about the fire element, we’re talking about a flower blossom. We’re talking about that magnetic, radiant, joyful quality of the soul that is full of light and reflecting light.

And then when we’re talking about the earth element, as it follows the cycle, the organic cycle, we’re talking about the fruit of a plant and that aspect of the plant that is giving nourishment to the human family, to the earth.

And then, finally, we come to the metal element, which is the season of the soul that is about composting and letting something shed and letting some things die so that something new can be born of it.

And so really, these five elements are the seasons of the soul. Each of the elements relates to a season. Each of these elements relates to a color, and they each relate to an aspect of what we’re trying to birth into the world and who we are becoming as humans in the different phases and changes that we go to, which is why the flower essences align so beautifully with them because they’re both about becoming and realizing our fullest human potential with the wisdom of nature as a guide. 

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:10:22] That’s a great introductory explanation for someone who hasn’t experienced it before. I’ve been meditating on this topic a little bit myself lately, and for me, I see the difference in the way we see the world from a Western point of view and a Chinese medicine point of view, or that aspect. In the Western thought, we see things as nouns, right? It’s an object, it’s a thing. And the Chinese medicine perspective is it’s a process. So it’s like in this concept of the element, it’s not the noun ‘metal’ or the noun ‘water’. It’s like the verb water, ‘to water.’ What is to water? And so looking at these things as processes brings them into this organic realm of change, and isn’t that what essences are? We can’t nail them down because they’re not nouns, right? They’re a process.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:11:21] They’re a process, they’re dynamic, they’re sentient, they’re responsive. And even the name, Five Elements, is a common translation. But if you go back into the language, what Wu Xing actually means is five changes, five transformations, five phases is a more accurate description.

And one of my favorite sci-fi writers is Octavia Butler. And in one of her books, she opens with this scripture that says, “Everything you touch you change. Everything you change changes you.” And that’s really the sentiment that I feel with both the flower essences and the elements. It’s a language of understanding and aligning with the process of change because nothing is static, that we live in a dynamic, responsive, loving universe.

Rochana Felde: [00:12:21] And that’s why it makes sense that these elements are often connected with the seasons and the wheel of the year and the way that things change and transform during the year. And where would you say that we are right now?

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Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:12:37] Well, here I’m on the East Coast, and we are in the summer season, which is really at its height at the summer solstice. So when we think about the summer season and the fire element, which is the associated element, it’s the most Yang part of the year. So the Yang force is the active, the external, the extroverted, moves very quickly, and that’s really what the summer and the fire element brings for us. It’s like all of this activity, too many things to do even though it’s almost 24 hours of sunlight it seems like sometimes, things are very bright, and it’s a very active time. And that fire element, which corresponds to the heart, is also about love and compassion and how we really connect to one another and also how we connect to that kind of divine creative spark. And so that’s what’s up for us in that fire season.

And so one of the things that I say in my practice, when someone’s like, Oh, I’m going to come see you, and in my mind I’m thinking, well, when it’s your season, you’ll come in. And it really is true that the folks that come into my practice during this time of year are really dealing with matters of the heart, whether it’s heartache or heartbreak, whether it’s trying to figure out why they don’t feel comfortable networking or promoting their business. They feel a little too shy or timid, or even in some cases, dealing with some childhood trauma. That trauma is what disconnects us from that spark of divinity in the philosophy of East Asian medicine. And so the fire element is what helps us to nurture and rekindle that connection to our divine source, whatever religion we practice. But that kind of spiritual connection to our true north and our authentic nature are all of the things that are coming up in this season of the fire element. And then we see that outside,  we see the flowers, there’s blossoming, and there’s that aliveness and that joie de vivre and that excitement and that enthusiasm, that nature’s showing us. And if we want to tap into it, we can experience in our life as well, that celebration of life in spite of the thorns.

Rochana Felde: [00:14:58] Do you think the seasons are going to be a little dependent on where– because you mentioned you’re in the East Coast, and do you think that the shifting would be a little different for us here on the West Coast? Is it more of a strict calendar date, or is it more depending on the location and the environment that you’re in?

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:15:19] From what I understand, the East Coast climate is very similar to the climate where this medicine originated. So, when you can see the seasons, it certainly helps. But what I found just in terms of traveling and moving around to different spaces is that, even if the climate doesn’t necessarily match the traditional fire element, summer kind of thing, you can still feel that almost psychic shift, right? So, there’s a time of the year where people feel more extroverted. There’s a time of the year when people feel more internal and introverted, even if the weather and the climate is pretty similar throughout those phases, depending on where you live. So, that’s why I love this medicine in terms of the seasons because when I’m teaching this in the class and I have students who are in all kinds of different time zones and countries, and they’re really just asked to look and say, okay, well, what does this element look like in your region, in your community? What are you seeing coming up in the collective in terms of soul issues and hiccups? What are you seeing pop up on your social media feeds? What are the kind of recurring themes that you’re seeing regardless of what nature is doing outside– not regardless of, because it’s still connected, but it’s not necessarily just based on the temperature? It’s more of this kind of season of the soul, this collective thought, these kinds of soul issues that come into prominence during different parts of the year. And I love the exploration that we do in class because we get to share and say, okay, this is what fire element looks like in my town right now or in my family right now or in my journal right now. And so, seasons are still there.

Rochana Felde: [00:17:08] Of course, we live in a place where we call fire season all year round now in California. So, that’s a little bit different.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:17:18] A little bit different. A little bit different.

Rochana Felde: [00:17:20] But yeah, I kind of notice around August when Oak leaves– I live in an area with a lot of Oak trees. When those Oak leaves start falling and the sun starts shifting and the afternoon has sort of a heaviness effect to it, that’s getting into the next phase, right, the earth phase. So, I think that’s coming up pretty soon for us here on the West Coast anyway.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:17:47] And same here. I mean, in New York, I call it like the most terrible humidity ever. It’s like, you just go outside, and everything kind of droops, and it’s that descending to the Yin. On the first side of the cycle of the elements, we’re going up towards the sun, which is the Yang side. And then on the other side of the cycle, we’re descending to the earth, which is the Yin side. And I think what you said is exactly it. And I think that it’s a very, what I would call, neo-ancient way of honoring and just seeing like, well, what do I feel and sense in my environment? And we can feel it. We can sense it. If we’re tuning in, we can feel those shifts in a very real way. It’s like, you go outside one day and you’re like, Oh, something’s different. I have that experience here where I’ll go outside and it can still be really cold, but I’ll feel a sense of spring. It doesn’t necessarily matter that it’s 18 degrees. It’s like underneath, there’s something awakening and you can kind of feel that pulse rising.

And then, I would say that we each have our own personal seasons too. Whatever you’re bringing into your life, you might be in a particular season in your relationship, you might be in a particular element in your career, and you can work with those as well with the flower essences to kind of align with that. And so that’s what I talk about in the first part of the book is, how do you figure out what season you’re in, which element to work with? Just because it’s summer outside doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re yourself working on a fire element thing. It’s really being able to tune in and see, well, which element is going to support me archetypally in stepping into this next phase of alignment?

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:19:38] And that was something that I really enjoyed about reading that aspect of your book is that you’ve got this wonderful synthesis of all of your expertise in that you can talk about all these elements and help guide a student into, this is the element you’re working with. And you’ve got so many different aspects that you can advise like, this may be the movement that would be appropriate, this is the yoga pose that would be appropriate, here are some essences that would be supportive. Can you share with us, in this moment, what essence maybe might be, as we sort of bridge from the peak of summer into the late summer earthier element, where are we? What essences are coming up for you right now that you’re thinking of?

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:20:32] For me right now and slightly because of a nod to being in Leo season, coming into this Leo new moon phase, this idea of celebration and this aspect of the fire element, it’s like the last push of fire before it descends to earth. So it’s like this last burst of exuberance and joy. And I think that why this particular season is so resonant for me right now is because, collectively, we’ve been going through a time, it’s just been a lot. And what the flowers teach us is that you can still love life in spite of the thorns.

And so, one of the flower essences that is really dear to me is a flower essence that a friend of mine has a garden. Her family line is from Turkey. And her mother bought over this branch of this Turkish Rosebush, I don’t even know how many years ago, and now it just blossoms. And these roses, they only blossom for about three weeks during the year. And so, it’s just like this burst of color, and then they’re gone. And what I’m learning from this Rose and being in conversation with this particular variety of Rose is this. Even if life is short, you can love it fully. Even though you have the risk of losing, you can still love. And I think that between the pandemic and wars and racial injustice, there’s so much grief that our collective is holding. And this Rose really teaches us that, yeah, but you can still love fully even though there’s pain. And I think that really ties into what we learn in the Five Element system, because in the Five Element system, the fire element is the heart and the metal element is the lungs. The fire element is love and joy, and the metal element is grief. And they sit next to each other in the chest. The heart and the lungs are right there next to each other. And there’s this beautiful quote from, I don’t know if you’re familiar with this book called The Wild Edge of Sorrow. And the quote says, “Grief and love are sisters woven together from the beginning. Their kinship reminds us that there is no love that does not contain loss and no loss that is not a reminder of the love we carry for what we once held close.”

And that Rose, that Turkish Rose, that 1000-petal Rose really just brings that alive for me right now. And I think as we kind of come out of the height of fire and start to descend to gravity, come out of the fun of summer and into, oh, I have to– maybe my workdays are going to get a little longer, my work week is I’m not going to have Fridays off anymore, I don’t know. The summer is just different out here on the East Coast. And as we kind of descend back to gravity, that loss of that exuberance, that connection with spirit, that high time, that high vibe of the fire element, the summer, and that descending down, I think that Rose really captures that essence of enjoying life and appreciating the value of this moment fully.

Rochana Felde: [00:23:54] What’s interesting is that the Rose plant used herbally is cooling, the petals are cooling, but the hips are stimulating. So it’s got both of those qualities. And I love how that kind of also speaks to that balance in cooling the heat of the summer, especially for those who are overheated or out of balance.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:24:20] Yes, definitely, and/or feeling frantic and mania. And I’m one of those people that I love when the weather shifts. And I love that feeling of like, okay– I’m inherently an introvert. So during the fire element season, my nervous system gets a little bit frayed. And so, I do value that moment where everything starts to come back to its center, which is really an earth element thing, bringing all of that external energy, all of that spirit, all of that light, and bringing it down to earth and coming back to center.

Rochana Felde: [00:24:58] So, your book is, well, it’s not just about flower essences, it’s not just about yoga, but it’s got all of those things, as Kathleen was mentioning, the exercises, the yoga poses, but it’s also got playlists, which I just found awesome. I really love that you included music as part of the medicine. And how did you come to that? And maybe tell us about some of the songs you picked for these elements? 

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:25:25] Oh, sure. Well, one thing that I’ll say is, as I’ve been learning and studying and growing is, maybe because flower essences were my first modality, they’ve always been my foundation, so whenever I’m studying a new archetypal system, whether it’s yoga or Orisha, which are the archetypal energies of African spirituality, I’m always learning them and saying, okay, well, what flower essence would do that? When I learned the five elements, I’m like, okay, this wood element thing, what flower essences are that? And that’s really how I learn.

And so in the book, the book really I think is centered around the flower essences because that’s how I’m wired, that’s how I learn and see the world. But the music has always been a huge part of my healing. I mean, even from way back when I was a little girl, I would make these mixed tapes with the cassette recorder, and I would have this list of songs that I would play when I wanted to cry, and I would have these songs that I would play when I needed to get up early for a test or something in high school. So that’s really where it started. And so when I learned that the Five Element system is really based on these energetic pulses, I was like, Oh, well, that’s music, right? And even my first teacher for acupuncture, she was teaching me how to read pulses. And she says, “All of the pulses have a name quality.” She was like, “But it’s really just music.” So, when you’re listening to someone’s pulse, do they have a boom-da-da-boom-da-boom-da-boom-boom pulse, or do they have another beat? And that’s the medicine because that pulse is going to tell you what it needs through the music.

And so, when bringing the music in, it was really fun because it gave me a chance to think about, what songs really capture this vibe of this particular element, what songs keep this element alive? Because as we were talking about before, these archetypal forces are dynamic and they’re sentient. And even though they’re ancient, they’re still so relevant and so prevalent now. And music is one of the ways that I feel that we can really see in real-time how these elements are showing up. So, I had a lot of fun playing around with some songs. I grew up in the ’90s on mostly hip-hop, so there is a bias to the playlist, but what I’m hoping is that people will take some inspiration, discover some new songs, and then create their own playlists that bring you into that element when you need to. So, I can share some of the songs, which element?

I guess we could start with fire since we’re in the fire season. So, some of the songs that seat for the fire element. One of them is, This Is The Best Day Of My Life by American Authors because it has that exuberant quality of the fire element that’s like, Yes, let’s do it, it’s a great day. Como la Flor by Selena, which I think is like a double because she’s talking about the flower of the heart and what happens when you water a flower and it blossoms, that’s love, and then when you don’t water a flower and it wilts and it dies because you’re not giving it enough attention. So, that metaphor of the heart and the flower come together really nicely. Dance Tonight by Lucy Pearl is one of my favorite songs for the fire element because, yeah, just life is a party. Look good, feel good, have a toast. And then, another one that’s on there is Eternal Flame by The Bangles. And I really think that that’s a nod to the aspect of the fire element that talks about that eternal connection that we have to source, that we are these ≤sparks of divinity that are living in human bodies, and that we can tune into that eternal nature of our larger consciousness. I don’t know that that’s exactly what they’re talking about in the song, but that’s what I hear, an eternal flame and that little bell ringing in the background. So, that’s one of them.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:29:45] Well, and everyone is going to respond in a different way. And so each person who listens can have their very own playlist for what means this element for them. I really enjoyed that part of your book is, is that you really open it up for people to get inspired and to start thinking in these ways because sometimes some books are so prescriptive. It’s like, This is for this and this is for this. But what your perspective and approach seems to be is to really get people to start opening their minds to the possibilities of what something could be beneficial for. And, oh yeah, okay, this part of my life is this, so maybe emphasizing this element in my experience, and I can do it in all these different ways. I love how accessible you’ve created this knowledge because most of what you’re writing about in your book isn’t about, you’ve got to go out and buy this, you got to go out and do this, you got to have all the things. You’re really making this medicine come forward because not everybody can afford to work with an acupuncturist, not everybody can afford to work with a flower essence practitioner. This focus on accessibility and equality is such a beautiful thing that you’ve brought together. I would love to hear a little bit from you about your focus here on making these medicines available.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:31:10] I really appreciate you saying that because sometimes when we’re reading and studying and learning about wellness, it can feel very intimidating. At least it has for me in my process. And what I want to bring forward about working with the five elements is that we all know nature. And so this is not so much about, these are all the things you have to learn about the five elements. This is more about, what do you know about being a sprout inside of yourself? You’ve been a sprout before. How do you tune into that? You’ve been a flower before. You’ve gone through moments where you’ve had to blossom and shine. So, how do you tune back into that? So, what I’m really hoping is that, as folks read this, that they will be able to remember for themselves what nature feels like inside their own psyche and tap into that and use that wisdom.

Another really big part of the book that was super important to me was about representation, because when I first started my practice about 15 years ago, I had images of my friends and family because they would let me take their pictures and use their pictures, and so everyone that was on my website was black or brown. And I remember a person called me and she asked if I worked with white women, and I was really surprised by that. I was like, Well, why wouldn’t I? And then I looked and I was like, Oh, because she doesn’t see herself represented on this website. And my second thought after that was like, Well, I don’t see myself represented anywhere in the holistic wellness industry. I don’t see– again, it’s changing, but 15 years ago, you didn’t see images of black women meditating or getting acupuncture or working with flower essences or any of those things. And so, when I started putting the illustrations together for the book, it was really important to me to show what these meridians look like on bodies of different sizes, on different ethnicities. The book is called In Our Element for a reason because these elements belong to all of us. So, I wanted to see representations of these, the meridians in Chinese medicine, on different kinds of bodies that we’re used to seeing. And I think the illustrations in the book look like books that I know that I see every day, and so I’m really excited about that and hoping that it’s an effort towards beginning to push and shift what we think about of in terms of who medicine is for and who deserves it, who has access to it, what’s the standard or the norm, I think not just in terms of ethnicity and race, but also in terms of body sizes. There’s often a idea of what healthy looks like. And what I want to put forward is that healthy looks a lot of different ways and that we can all celebrate the diversity of the human form, just like we can celebrate the diversity of the variety of roses.

Rochana Felde: [00:34:27] It’s so welcome. In your book, it’s just so refreshing to see all of the different representation. And I feel like it’s long overdue, and I’m just really, really happy that we have you, that we have others, that are bringing this forward into this world that has been very kind of closed off into its own cocoon for so long.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:34:57] Thank you. And I think we all share this, that this medicine is so alive and that it’s right in front of us. And a lot of times in the book I’m talking about flower essences as they relate to different characters. Who would the Daenerys in Game of Thrones, what flower essences remind us of her, or Elsa in Frozen? It’s relating to these characters, and I know that you have the episode where you talk about the Star Wars characters and the flower essences. So, this like, where are these touch points where we can take this ancient, old, old, old world medicine? And it’s like, how is it showing up for us now in 2022, ’23, ’25, and forward in this global society?

So, that’s what’s really exciting to be part of that conversation and bringing flower essences into this medicine in a way that it’s not something that’s over there, you know? It’s like I do my healing in a room with some sage, and then I go out in the world and I live a whole different life. It’s like, no, it’s all the same life. It’s messy and it’s beautiful. And I share a lot of my own personal stories about how messy it can really be when we need a particular flower essence. But this idea that where all aspects of our life can belong, all aspects of our psyche can be at the same dinner table, and that it doesn’t have to be this packaged idea of wellness, that it can be all of us and all of the ways that we show up.

Rochana Felde: [00:36:38] Absolutely. And another great thing about the elements is reminding us that we’re not apart from nature, that we are nature, that all the elements are in nature, all the elements are in us, and it’s not separate. So, that goes for all of us together as well.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:36:59] Someone described flower essences to me one time, it might have been at the conference actually, in terms of highlighting a particular vibration that’s already there, that’s already inside of you, it’s already part of your psyche, and then the flower essence comes in and amplifies it. And I think the same is true of working with these five elements is that we have all of the elements inside of us, and then we can put our attention to one of them and amplify it, and we can amplify it through a number of ways, through music, through yoga, through acupuncture, or also through just sitting in contemplation of that particular aspect of nature as it lives in us and as it lives in the world to amplify it and to give it more volume.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:37:49] This book that you’ve written is such a gift to the world, coming from the flower essence world, right? It’s a gift to the world of flower essences, but it’s also a more general gift. What is your dream for this book baby to be out in the world? Who do you see like, this book landing in someone’s lap and like, I want to give you this? Do you have a feeling on your benediction for this book, reaching out to the world and connecting with people?

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:38:24] Well, the first word that comes to me is remembrance because I want us to remember that we have this connection. And I think there are so many things in the world that show up as distractions to that connection. So, in this moment, my prayer is that we just remember. We remember our connection, we remember our wholeness. And then my second prayer would be that we add on, that we maybe use this as a springboard for the person who is new to flower essences, that they’re like, Oh, I want to try these. And whether they look at the flower essences I offer or any of the flower essences, that it opens a door to that, and that the flower essences, which I always call the wellness industry’s best-kept secret, because I’m always amazed that in some parts of the world flower essences are so prevalent and so common, and then in this country, people are like, “What’s that? You mean the essential oil?” “No, it’s not essential oil.” “Okay, great.” And so my prayer is that the flower essences, which I feel like have so much healing and so much wisdom specifically for the times that we’re in right now and for what’s being asked of humanity, so my hope is that it opens a door for more of us to be working with them and working with them with intention and doing that interpersonal work that is ultimately going to support the collective change that we need to see.

And then, to add on and to say, well, I use flower essences and I’m a Reiki practitioner, so I’m going to bring those worlds together. I’m a flower essence practitioner and I’m an acupuncturist, or I’m a psychotherapist or any of these modalities that are really waking up right now in terms of medicine, I’m hoping that this book will be a bridge for folks to start bringing in and adding to and spreading out this work, because there is so much healing at a soul level that humanity needs and none of us could do it alone. And so the more of us that are in this work and intentional about this work and excited about this work and authentic with this work, it’s just going to spiral out. And I’m really excited to be part of that, and part of that with you, and excited to see what comes of that.

Rochana Felde: [00:40:55] I really see you as a walker between the worlds, bridging all of these different modalities, communities, philosophies. And it’s such important work and so timely right now. And the way you’re synthesizing it for the layperson is beautiful and deep and so inspiring.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:41:24] Thank you so much. I’m really grateful for you.

Rochana Felde: [00:41:29] What are you offering and where can people find you?

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:41:32] So my baby is The Spirit Seed, which is where we teach all of our classes on flower essence therapy, but also through classes on shifting the lens in terms of how we think about healing and healing work. And so, at The Spirit Seed, we have practitioner certifications, but we also have drop-in classes where folks can learn about the elements and stages of soul healing. And so, that is one of the communities that I’m most proud of right now. I think the folks that end up in those virtual classes are doing phenomenal work in their communities, bridging and synthesizing, and representing this work into the communities that matter most to them. So that’s thespiritseed.org is where folks can find our classes. And also, on social media, you can find me @lindsayfaunt where I like to post my musings about all things flower essences and five elements and move through the seasons in that way.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:42:35] It’s been so beautiful to spend this time with you. I’m so excited about your book being in the world. It’s such a great gift. And your presence and your heartful sharing is doing wonderful things for the world of flower essences and beyond. It’s so great to spend this time with you. And I’m really excited for your book to be out in the world. Would you tell us the name of your book one more time so that it can have this little ripple effect and people will go, “I need that book, I need to read that book”?

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:43:09] Thank you so much. The book is In Our Element: Using the Five Elements as Soul Medicine to Unleash Your Personal Power. And it is available in all the places you love to buy books. So whether it’s your indie bookstore or your favorite online bookseller, it’s available in all the places and spaces.

Rochana Felde: [00:43:34] And you’re graciously providing our patrons an excerpt from the book that we’ll be loading onto our Patreon feed soon after this release. And so thank you for that. It’s about ecopsychology and the anima mundi. So that is a really beautiful chapter from the book and a little perk for our patrons.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:44:02] Thank you for spending this time with us. Thank you for spending this time with our listeners. Thank you, listeners, for being here with us. And thank you, patrons. You help us bring this work into the world. We are so grateful to you.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:44:17] I just wanted to say thank you so much for the stream of thought that you’re putting out into the world and for this platform for us to talk about this medicine and to connect with practitioners, with patients, and the listeners. And I just am really, really grateful to be here and thankful for your podcast and your conference and just the many ways that you are shifting things so that there is more space for this work to come out into the world. Thank you for the platform.

Rochana Felde: [00:44:50] Thank you.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:44:52] It’s been great spending time with you. Thank you for being here with us.

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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.