Show Notes:

Misinformation, Disinformation, Propaganda, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Fakes, Brainwashing, Phishing, Spam, Scammers, PsyOps, Cults, and sleazy Marketing, oh my!

There’s a war at play for our attention, our thoughts, our beliefs, and of course our money – whether it’s just an advertisement to buy a product or something more complex with higher stakes. 

• Every email and message we get that has a link – is it trustworthy, should we click on it? 
• Friend requests – is it really our friend or is it a fake account? 
• The news reports we watch or read – who’s delivering it and what’s their bias?
• That gifting circle invitation from a trusted friend that we really like – is it really an illegal pyramid scheme? 

It’s crucial now more than ever to cultivate skills of discernment – to be able to listen to that voice inside that raises a flag on what we see and hear. Yet, the daily practice of this can breed skepticism and distrust that may block the flow of life energy. 

How can flower essences help us with this practice in a healthy way, so we can navigate and survive these times? 

Audio:

FEP63 Cultivating your Power of Discernment

Misinformation, Disinformation, Propaganda, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Fakes, Brainwashing, Phishing, Spam, Scammers, PsyOps, Cults, and sleazy Marketing, oh my! There’s a war at play for our attention, our thoughts, our beliefs, and of course our money – whether it’s just an advertisement to buy a product or something more complex with higher stakes.  It’s crucial now more than ever to cultivate skills of discernment, to be able to listen to that voice inside that raises a flag on what we see and hear.

Video:

Flower Essences discussed during the show:

• Star of Bethlehem – Healing Herbs
• Pretty Face – FES
• Centaury – Healing Herbs
• Cerato – Healing Herbs
• Yarrow – FES
• Pink Yarrow – FES
• Bladderwort – Alaskan Essences
• Chestnut Bud – Healing Herbs
• Queen Anne’s Lace – FES
  
• Angelica – FES
• Redwood – FES
• Pyrite – Alaskan Essences
• Diamond – Alaskan Essences
• Smoky Quartz – Alaskan Essences
• Citrine – Alaskan Essences
• Herkimer Diamond – Alaskan Essences

Show Transcript

Rochana Felde: [00:00:40] Welcome to The Flower Essence Podcast. Today we have got an interesting topic to explore, and I’m going to start out with just throwing some words at you. Misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, artificial intelligence, deep fakes, brainwashing, phishing, spam, scammers, psy-ops, cults, and sleazy marketing, what do they all have in common? There is a war at play for our attention, our thoughts, our beliefs, and of course, our money. So whether it’s just an advertisement to get you to buy a product or something more complex with higher stakes, it’s at play. Today, we have to be on guard and think with every email and message we get that has a link, is it trustworthy? Should we click on it? When we get friend requests on social media, is it really our friend or is it a fake account? All the news reports we watch and read, who’s delivering it and what’s their bias because everybody has one? And the gifting circle invitation from a trusted friend who you may really like, is that really an illegal pyramid scheme? All these things are out there and many, many more. So it’s crucial now more than ever for us to cultivate our skills of discernment to be able to really listen to that inner voice inside that can raise those flags on what we see in here. Yet this daily practice can breed skepticism and distrust that can also block the flow of our life energy. So how can flower essences help with this practice in a healthy way so that really we can navigate and survive these times we’re in? Kathleen, welcome. What are your thoughts on this?

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:02:52] So many. I was really excited that you proposed this topic. I’m like, “Ah, yes, okay, we can sink our teeth into it.” And as we’ve been thinking about it independently and then coming together this morning to go, “Well, what are you thinking? Well, what are you thinking?” I’m coming from the angle of someone who has experienced a lot of the negative side of these things. As a cult survivor, I’m pretty familiar with manipulation techniques of a variety of sorts and the control methods that are required for people to essentially rob the free will of others. And how that whole process of recovery is of re-constellating my personality and helping others do so too in my practice. So I’m really eager to dig into this a little bit with you because there’s a lot of things that we can help people, help you guide into discernment of what’s intuition and what’s fantasy and how do we know when somebody’s lying to us? And then definitely there are flower essences that can help with this.

Rochana Felde: [00:04:16] Yeah, this topic has really been on my mind for a while now and I’ve been noticing, as I’m sure everybody has, just the real uptake in everything bombarding us that is requiring such navigation these days. And I’ve always had quite a strong BS meter from the time I was a young child and just a critical thinker by nature. And yet, there’s still things that fool me and they fool the best of us. So it’s really out there. And some of it is just can be fun and benign. I recently came across like a, I don’t really follow celebrities on social media, but this Keanu Reeves’ TikTok account, it’s got such funny skits that he’s doing. Well, that’s a deep fake. It’s not him. And these deep fakes are getting better and better. And it’s really scary to see where this is going and when it can be used in the wrong hands. What could happen? So I’m feeling like it’s even more critical now than ever to really be aware of this and how do we boost our powers of intuition and critical thinking without getting into that state. I can also get into that state of just not believing anything ever, just like the extreme skeptic, and that’s not a fun way to live either. So I always like the phrase that I heard, and I’m sorry I don’t know who originally said it, but it is, “Don’t open your mind so much that your brains fall out.” Right? Because I love being open-minded. I love learning new things. I’m very flexible-minded as well, but then that can lead to being gullible. So I can’t wait to dive into some flower essences that can help us with all of this.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:06:45] One of the first things that I think about when I think about that aspect of believing something– taking something in and assessing, is this true? And I’m putting a small t truth, not a capital T Truth on this because it can be true for you in this moment, and then it might not be true for everyone or even true forever for you, but how do you tell whether something is coming in a clear way, whether it is accurate, whether it is safe to believe? For me, the biggest starting place is to feel more than to listen. And to be able to feel the state of that content, of that information that’s coming through, learning to discern what the motivations are for the person who’s sharing it, discerning the channel through which it’s coming, inspiration can come through, but it can get really tainted along the way by the deliverer. So just always remembering that whatever you’re getting, it’s always coming from a person and to always just always have a little grain of salt with that and go, okay, people are always fallible. There are no perfect people, not even us. But no one always has the truth and no one is always telling the truth. So you’re always maintaining a level of awareness as you’re taking information. And just because it’s written in a book or written on a web page and you looked it up, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s absolutely true. So always be filtering in that way. Is that what you think about it too?

Rochana Felde: [00:08:41] Yeah, absolutely. And this is also interesting from when you think about channels like spiritual and psychic channels because I definitely think that there can be a lot of wisdom that comes through to us that way. But I also know that it is coming through a person, and so it’s always going to come through that filter. And I think just the practice of making flower essences and working with the plant and getting that sort of download from the plant during the making of flower essences, and all the times that I have done that, has really helped me to understand that, to understand that I’m getting something and that energy, that plan, and information is talking to me in a language that I can understand. And it may speak to somebody in a language that they can understand. And that’s why you can hear different descriptions of flower essences that are going to be a little different in language. But that practice helped me also know how to understand and trust the information from other channels from other people because now I understand that higher intelligence can come through people but it’s coming through their life experiences, their language, everything that makes that person them. It’s coming through that filter. So it’s not necessarily a bias. It’s just everything that makes that person them is how they’re receiving that information.

And so when you kind of learn– I mean, I think that learning that and really having that feel, there’s so much people, there’s people who just don’t believe in channels, “It can’t happen, it’s never going to happen.” And then there’s people who listen to it like it’s gospel, like it’s like it came from an angel. It came from whoever they know best. “We’re going to follow that diet or those words or that advice to a T and not question it whatsoever.” And so that’s where I think understanding that there may be some grains of truth, you have to kind of glean them and see what makes sense and works for you without thinking that just because it’s from a channeled source, it’s gospel, for lack of a better word.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:11:34] Well, I wanted to touch back on that concept of it being gospel, and I’m like, “Yeah, that’s pretty foundational to this,” because as somebody who grew up in a fundamentalist cult, no other word, that Bible got shaken at me, that whole premise and there was never a conversation of where that had come from. I’m like, “Pretty sure some humans were involved in this process.” So, yeah, there’s this initiating assumption sometimes that something is gospel, and therefore it’s just as pure as driven snow and directly handed from God to you. It’s not. There’s always an intermediary. There’s always somebody putting their spin on that, whether it’s very well-intentioned or whether it’s not well-intentioned at all. And so always, always, always feeling into it of like, “Hmm, does this feel right or does it not feel right?” And for me, the process of learning how to feel right and not right in my body was a real turning point of developing a level of intuition. Because when you are in a circumstance where you are being controlled, or just generally, culturally where you’re just told to do what you’re supposed to do and believe what they tell you to believe and all that, from a very early age, you’ve shut off your own bullshit-meter. It’s non-operational, it’s offline. And so developing that again is about getting in touch with your feelings, getting in touch with your body, how your body responds. I love to teach this to clients, a way of feeling in your own body what is true and what isn’t. There are a lot of ways to get– the first starting place is to figure out how to get a yes and a no, and there’s a lot of options for that. The Pendulum is a classic way, Kinesiology is a classic way, all those sorts of things. Me, I like to really encourage people to feel it in your body because you may not have your pendulum out. And even when you have a pendulum, it’s always kind of something outside of you that sometimes people start looking to as being something true. It’s like, “No, no, it’s just a tool. Just a tool, people, just like anything else.” But feeling it in your body, you’ll be able to use it anywhere you go. You’ll learn what a yes feels like and what a no feels like. What’s your take on that?

[ppp_patron_only level=”2″]

Rochana Felde: [00:14:16] I’m a huge fan of body dowsing and using the Pendulum. I tend to use the Pendulum more for other people or for clients when I’m dowsing for flower essences. But for myself, I do body dowsing which is feeling it in your body, and usually, it’s like standing up, a yes is leaning forward or a no is moving backward. And just feeling that pull of what you’re attracted to and what you’re repelled by is a really great practice. And I actually had not really started doing it until a few years ago, and I was more relying on a pendulum. But I feel like for things that are questions for me, is this the right vitamin for me to take right now? Is this the right food for me to eat? those kinds of things, listening to my body and asking my body is a really powerful way to make healthy choices without letting the monkey mind make excuses or talk you into things, especially when it comes to food choices. And I think that that’s such a valuable tool. So I’m really glad that you brought that up and that you really like to do that too.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:15:47] This was such a gift from one of my very early teachers who taught me a little technique for learning how to feel into your own body what’s a yes and a no is, is she encouraged me to sort of make an absurd statement like, “My name is Selena Gomez,” and you feel that reverberate in your body. And somewhere in your body is rebelling to that statement. And usually, I feel in my solar plexus, in my gut like that is not true at all, not even close to true. And so learning what the not true feels like, and then you start making true statements, and then you go for the feel. There’s usually some part of you that starts warming up or tingling or some thing is happening with a yes. And so you can just kind of be having that running almost in the background as you go through your life to be paying attention to what’s going on in your body as you’re interacting with people. It’s this intuition. As somebody who works with horses, I see this as being absolutely an essential survival skill because your intuition will tell you when something is dangerous. If you’re listening to your body all the time, you’ll know to get out of the way. You’ll know when something’s about to happen before you could visually pick it up or anything else. And this kind of fits in a little bit with what we were talking about earlier is, is that the words, the voices and other people telling you things and talking to you about, this is how it is and this is the truth, da, da, da, da, da, da, all of that chatter that either is intentional or unintentional is oftentimes really not aligned with what’s really true. In Tellington TTouch, we really like to listen to the horses rather than to talk to them. But I see a lot of training methods that utilize some sort of, well, they’re shady techniques that what you should really do when you watch some of these videos is turn the sound off, ignore what the trainer is saying because what they’re saying they’re doing is not what they’re actually doing. And I think that that’s something that it’s really clear when we’re working with animals, but it’s maybe not as clear with humans. But on that premise of watch what they’re actually doing, watch who they actually are and not who they say they are.

Rochana Felde: [00:18:17] That makes so much sense. And I think what we’re dealing with is the two chakras that are really part of this process are the third chakra which is that gut feeling, and what you’re talking about where you feel it in your body. And then also the sixth chakra, that third eye which can get foggy and confused by the illusions. And so clearing that so that you can really see are the two places, I think, that are dealing with cultivating discernment, so that body feeling and then that mental clarity, I think that’s a good combination. And I think a lot of the flower essences that were coming to my mind dealt with those two chakras.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:19:10] Well, and I would like to tag into that because for me, the sixth chakra is maybe less of my intention than my heart because I think that so often we underestimate the amount of intelligence in the heart and that the heart field is sort of the first organ of perception, and then the information that we receive from it starts to filter up through the higher organs of perception. So that’s an interesting, like I’m sure we’re not in dispute, but I’m like, “Hey, that’s not the way I look at it,” it’s kind of intriguing.”

Rochana Felde: [00:19:45] That’s really interesting. You’re right because we do have a brain in our heart. It is very intelligent. So yeah, that’s true too. I do feel like the way that manipulative stuff comes in is through our emotions. So all the things that’s coming at us that’s trying to manipulate us is usually doing so with fear or some kind of emotion, outrage, whatever it is that it’s trying– when you feel yourself really emotionally reacting to something, it’s a good time to stop and think, “Did I just get tricked into having that emotion?” And so that’s that heart level. It absolutely needs discernment. I guess it’s six of one, half dozen of other, where that discernment is coming from. But it also needs protection. And our whole being really needs protection from all of this bombardment. So maybe we should start with some Yarrow.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:21:01] Always. 

Rochana Felde: [00:21:02] Yeah, always, just to give us that protection and the Pink Yarrow especially for those of us that are feeling the pull with our heart to react in the way that these manipulations are wanting us to react.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:21:23] I really appreciate that you brought that in because one of the thoughts that I was having about this whole topic is it’s really easy to be fooled when you’re dissociated and disembodied because all your intelligence is trying to run through the higher chakras, and it’s really easy to get unclear. You’re not in your body, you’re not grounded, you’re not stable, and so you just kind of blow with whatever wind comes by. And that Yarrow being a really good starting place, I am completely in agreement because what you have to do in order to start with these bodily intelligences and connecting to these bodily intelligences is to be in your body. You have to actually be in here. And what you’re saying about having your emotions triggered, I feel that a lot of times we’re not in our bodies because the emotions that we feel are too strong, that there’s just too much, that we didn’t have space to process, that we weren’t supported in, we’ve got a backlog of stuff that we haven’t processed, and we don’t want to have anything to do with that. We want to be out of our bodies as much as we possibly can. So good news, bad news is like, let’s help you get back into your body. Let’s help your body be a safe place to be. And let’s help start processing some of these emotions, so you don’t have all of these buttons that can be pushed with a fabulous pitch about changing your whole world in two days or less. 

Rochana Felde: [00:23:09] Exactly. And I feel like that’s– totally agree, that grounding is absolutely key to cultivating discernment. And some of the gem elixirs,  they’re all going to be fairly grounding and some of them are really helpful for this particular topic but I would always consider a Smoky Quartz in there for that real grounding stabilizing force and for the clearing it brings because it can help move out some of the unwanted stuff that’s in the field. But I also really like Pyrite, and this is so great because it literally is for the prevention– like if you’re easily influenced by peer pressure or group-think, but it does it by strengthening your self-esteem and your self-trust and helping you to use your values to drive your choices. So it’s always kind of bringing you back to what do you value? But what I just love is just the fact that it’s also called Fool’s Gold. And it has that whole history of being used to trick people into thinking it’s gold or using it as gold at some point in time, I mean, people thinking it’s gold when they’re panning for gold or something like that, I don’t know. So that’s a great way to remember it, to remember that it can be helpful for the situation of being fooled by something. But I love that it’s doing it by strengthening you, like your self-esteem, your self-trust, and bringing you back to your own values in these situations.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:25:17] I totally am in agreement about the gems because there is something really important about the solidity of the gems and whether you’re taking them as the essences, which of course we think is great, but also having the crystals around can help you connect into something that’s a slower and denser quality of energy to help you drop into your body. A lot of us who early on started on a spiritual path or whenever you started on a spiritual path, there’s a lot of emphasis on these up and out kind of dynamics, connecting to spirit and sort of becoming more ethereal and it ends up enhancing the problem sensitivities and not helping you live your life any better. At least that’s been my experience, and I’ve seen it in a lot of others. And so having that crystalline energy of grounded Earth stone energy to help bring you into your body, and then bringing in those Yarrows of all the different types depending on the dynamic, the Pink Yarrow for sure for the empaths in the room. And then I often just layer that with regular old White Yarrow because my experience of Yarrow and the one that I’ve made is the Siberian Yarrow, there was just this numinous quality to being in that essence-making state where I just saw the world more clearly, the world felt safer, everything just felt more protected and angelic around me. And just having that energetic in my field just makes me feel so much better about being here in the body, like being here. It’s like, “It’s okay to be here. Okay, all right, we’ve got some work to do but being here is a good place to be.”

Rochana Felde: [00:27:06] Yeah. And all those Yarrows, they have that umbrella-like inflorescence in their flowers. And so it’s something that I always feel as a sort of protective dome around me and I feel like it also does help with grounding. It’s not maybe a word you’ve seen a lot in the description of Yarrow, right, but I had a really interesting experience with the Lavender Yarrow from Alaskan, and that felt like it was helping me to be grounded because it was keeping my soul from flying off because of that umbrella energy over me. And so in a way, that was like the first step to grounding was to keep my soul or my consciousness from going out there disassociating or just flying around wherever it wanted to go, in keeping it in with my body and then I could really like, okay, now I can feel my feet on the earth and do other grounding exercises where you imagine that cord going into the center of the earth and all that. That seemed like a really good step for me. And so, whatever flower essence works to help you to be in your body is the one. It’s the right one.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:28:33] I’m getting the image, it’s almost like that reverse Mary Poppins. Instead of flying away with the umbrella, it’s like umbrella coming down and grounding you into the earth.

Rochana Felde: [00:28:42] Exactly.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:28:42] One of the things I do like about Yarrow is, is that it’s very gentle and very easy for people to take. Some other essences that are grounding can be a little intimidating. And a lot of times we don’t want to be in our bodies because it’s scary to be in there because there’s a reason we left. But Yarrow has this real gentleness to the quality of the energetic. So most people can enjoy it and be part of it and feel supported by it in a really non-triggering way. The next piece that I would add in is the essences like Star of Bethlehem and then its related companion, Pretty Face. One of the things that a lot of these– oh God, I mean, people that I discern against, other people love, they want to change who you are. They’re selling you that you’re not good enough the way you are, there’s something wrong with you, you need to get fixed. Do this thing I’m selling you, and you can get fixed. And uh-oh, so getting into your body and realizing, you know what? There’s not really anything wrong with me. I am perfect and complete as I am. And I’m still growing and all that. But I think that being disembodied and dissociated, having Star of Bethlehem is such a good, soothing essence to help bring you back into your body. And then Pretty Face is very closely related. It’s a different essence, but very closely related. And I think someone who is attracted to some of these sort of messages that you’re not good enough, that there’s something wrong with you, has that Pretty Face dynamic within them that like, “I’m not attractive. I’m not good. There’s something wrong with me. That’s why they didn’t love me, and I need to fix that part.” And that’s really a Pretty Face wound. And I like using Pretty Face for a lot broader use than what the usual typical description is of just like when you don’t like the way you look.

Rochana Felde: [00:30:52] That’s really interesting because I don’t really think of using it for anything other than that. So I’m going to give that a try. That is a good point. I also like that you brought up Star Bethlehem and the Bach essences, let’s bring in some of the Bach essences. I mean, they’re definitely a few of them that can help in this scenario. And Centaury is of course a big one because it helps you resist the influence of others that are coming from outside of yourself. It’s something that’s talked about in the Bach flowers as for people who are doormats, we don’t like using that word, but that gives you an immediate indication of the personality type it might have been used for initially, but I love using that one a little bit more broadly as well because there’s all these times where we have trouble saying no and for whatever reason. And I think Centaury can really help people do that. It helps you feel very strong in yourself, in your core, in your center, and who you are to be able to resist something that might feel more powerful than yourself.

I also wanted to bring in another of the Bach essences, the Chestnut Bud. So this is one that it’s typically described for people that make the same mistakes over and over again. And we might not want to admit that about ourselves or even see that about ourselves, but I think that the broader use can be to prevent falling for the same things over and over again. And so this is perfect for people who are falling for clicking on buttons in emails, for falling on internet scams, for those of us who have elder parents on the internet, this is like a constant worry, and they get preyed upon. And they have a harder time understanding what the problem is that they’re doing when they’re clicking on the buttons and getting viruses or worse. So, the Chestnut Bud, I like to think about it as, so we don’t get fooled again, we’re not going to keep having to learn these lessons the hard way. We’re going to learn from them and move on.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:33:34] I use the Chestnut Bud a lot too, and it does help to break those repetitive patterns that you just keep getting suckered again. And I see it as working through the liver spirit of our life force, our will to enact, what we want to do in our lives and what we want to do in the world. And the virtue of the liver is benevolence. And I love the idea of benevolence because benevolence is not just somebody who just rolls over in whatever you want to do. Benevolence sets boundaries. Benevolence says, “No, no, no, no, that’s not okay.” Looking out for and setting a boundary so that everyone can be protected and safe. And so the Chestnut Bud rises up that spirit in you to go, “Yeah, no, we’re not going to be doing that. I might have done that once, but no not again.” So it has that strong green sappy energy. The Chestnut Bud is the first bit of spring, is all that energetic is coming up and coming out, and so it’s really got that strong liver energy of setting a boundary, “Nope. Not going to happen.”

Rochana Felde: [00:34:54] Yeah, the liver for the boundaries, exactly. Anything that’s helping you boost that liver energy will help you define your boundaries. I never thought of Chestnut Bud though as being associated with that, so that’s cool. So how about some higher guidance? It can’t hurt for us to also call upon our higher guidance. And so I also think about Angelica to bring in this sort of spiritual aspect to help give us guidance, clues, information, protection and all of those things. And Angelica in all its forms is so wonderful for that. What do you think?

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:35:47] Yeah. And when I think of Angelica, my first thought is of those flowers, that height, that connection, but my second thought is, don’t forget the roots. Angelica has such a powerful, rooted presence, and that’s what it takes. In order to open up that large, you have to be just as well solidly rooted in. And that’s such an important part of her presence and her being. So it’s part of what we’re talking about is getting into your body, getting into your own self, into your feet, Centaury, standing up for yourself, that spine. And Angelica helps us to root down deeply. And then only after we’ve rooted down deeply do we flower, do we open up to that higher dimension.

And the Queen Anne’s Lace is another one in the same Apiaceae that has a similar dynamic where it has that strong root while it opens up and has that discernment. I know Queen Anne’s Lace is one of your particular favorites.

Rochana Felde: [00:36:54] I do love that flower. And it adds that added sort of psychic clarity, clairvoyant aspect. But I also feel like it’s another one that helps you to understand your body and your cycles of life and the cycles of your body. And it has a protective aspect. It’s really interesting with the flower, when it starts to go to seed, it has a basket of bracts underneath the flower head that closes up and it protects all the seeds into this little birdcage-looking thing. It’s a really beautiful flower and all of its stages. So there is a protection there as well.

I would bring in Redwood now. I mean, it fits in with grounding. It fits in with keeping your perspective. Redwood is so good for that. It’s such a tall tree, so it helps you with that long view so you can see the forest for the trees or whatever that saying is. And it helps you with resilience. So it can help you weather these storms of information flying around at you, emotions bombarding you. It really helps with those things. I mean, there is nothing like standing next to a Redwood when you’re overwhelmed by life and you just need some grounding and clarity. And I feel so blessed to live next to Redwoods. And I will go walk down the street where a very big one is growing and stand next to it, put my hands on it, and just start to breathe. And it is really amazing how quickly it helps me calm down, it helps me to see things that I didn’t see before. So it’s definitely one that I’ve always seen as an ally, felt as an ally, and the flower essence does exactly that. It adds so much to a formula for all of those things.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:39:26] I like what you’re saying about getting clarity by going out and being with the Redwood because what that implies and what that says is that clarity and clear intuition is a practice and not a set point that you can just lock it in and forget about it. I think there’s an illusion there that when you open your intuition or it’s like, I want to get that figured out, that you’ll always have it figured out. And no, unfortunately not. I wish. We all question ourselves. There’s always these times of confusion and questioning, and yet what we can do is engage in that practice of coming back to what we know, what we know to be true, and having these plant allies that we can be in their presence or have their essence or have a crystal in your pocket, it’s a connection back to the real world that is clear. For me, Cerato is one of my favorites for this. I can’t go past this conversation without talking about Cerato because it’s such an important essence for getting that clear information, and it’s not a dissociated state. It’s coming into your body, dropping into your body, and feeling the truth in your heart. It’s not a mental chatter clarity. It’s not a mental chatter. It slows down the mental chatter. Cerato, when I made this essence because it was one of the first ones that I did make that I love it so much, it helped me– when I was in the state of getting ready to make the essence, I was going around asking different plants, “Do you want to be made? Do you want to be made? Is today the day?” It was just like confusion everywhere. And finally, I came back around two hours later to sit in front of Cerato. And I went, “Oh, okay,” but when you keep asking questions, you keep asking questions, you get so confused, and Cerato helps you drop into this state of not being confused and just letting go of the question and just allowing that calm clarity to come in. And maybe there’s not a big, complicated answer to your solution. Maybe you just need to go hang out with a tree for a while and just be in your heart and be in presence with your body. That would be my advice.

Rochana Felde: [00:41:56] Yeah, I knew that Cerato would be one that you would want to talk about, and I’m glad that you did. With the the mental clarity, I mean there are some gem essences that also are specifically for that, that I think can be helpful especially when it’s hard to turn that off or to see through. And Diamond is one of them. Seeing through illusion is one of the things that it really helps with, with accuracy basically, defining accuracy and also harmonizing with that accuracy. And the Herkimer Diamond is another one, the Herkimer essence, both of these from Alaskan. And that also works as well with the same light and with clarity and clearing fog. But what I like about the Herkimer is it’s actually a double-terminated stone, so it has points going out on each end. And so that moves the light. It moves things both ways. It moves debris out of your mind so that more light can come in. And I really like that.

I’ll just also quickly mention the Citrine because we’re talking about this mental clarity, but also bringing it back into our body. And Citrine is a quartz that is helpful for mental clarity, but it ties it into the third chakra. So it’s helping you to connect with that third chakra and to be able to hear that gut feeling. 

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:43:48] Yeah, these are some really beautiful suggestions from the gem world. I feel like I want to bring one more in, one flower because it goes to the core of the issue. When we want to believe that the solutions are outside of ourselves, we’re coming from a place of, what’s inside of us isn’t good. It’s not okay enough. It needs to be different. And a lot of us get drawn into these orbits of changing everything about ourselves. And why do they want us to become somebody we’re not? Why do we have to become somebody we’re not in order to be okay or good enough or whatever? And Columbine is such a perfect essence for this quality of really embracing your uniqueness and realizing that you’re here to be you. You’re here to be the most full experience of you and not trying to turn yourself into somebody that you think. Little doggy moved around underneath my lap and I jumped. You’re not trying to turn yourself into somebody that you’re not. And anybody who’s trying to teach you and give you guidance and tell you that you’re supposed to be somebody that you’re not does not have your best wishes at heart.

Rochana Felde: [00:45:22] So true. But anyone who is listening to this podcast right now and not watching the video, Kathleen just held up her little puppy, little Maple.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:45:35] She’s been sleeping on my lap this whole time, and then she just woke up and jumped a little bit, so she had to come up and say hi. So that’s a special for the video viewers. 

Rochana Felde: [00:45:46] Yeah. So if you want to see the video, you can go on YouTube and fast forward to whatever this timestamp. We’ll put the timestamp under it for your puppy. How about that, Kathleen?

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:45:58] Sounds like a plan. Right? 

Rochana Felde: [00:46:05] Well, yeah, if there was another, and so Columbine, yeah, that love that came through, Gosh, it’s so funny how these essences, they’ll come up a lot in life or with clients and then you don’t think about them for a long time and then, oh yeah, I forgot about Columbine. Yes, that’s such a good one for that. It’s such a great energy. It’s got so much joy and power and upward motion to it. So I absolutely love that flower.

There’s one more, and it’s not one– I don’t think I’ve ever used it, but it’s one of the Alaskan Essences, and it’s called Bladderwort. And so I have not met this plant in real life and don’t have a real connection with it, but the description seems absolutely perfect for this subject matter, and I thought I’d read it, or an excerpt of it. And where I’m getting this is from the Alaskan Essences Living Book. So we’ll put a link to that in the show notes. And if you know about Alaskan Essences, maybe you have them, maybe you’ve gone on their site and you’ve seen their short descriptions of essences, that’s great, but they have what’s called a Living Book. And that is like a, I don’t know, it’s a very small lifetime fee, like $30, and you get access to much longer descriptions of their essences and photographs, and they do get updated from time to time. So it is such a great resource, and I love it. So, “Bladderwort is for those who are actively seeking clarity and truth as it supports the development of a level of inner knowing that can be drawn upon to illuminate all areas of our lives. The essence of this unique flower strengthens and supports our ability to perceive that which lies at the core of an issue or situation, regardless of the illusory energies that might be surrounding it. Illusion is a network of energy made up of all the thoughts and feelings that surround a given circumstance. The saying that you can’t see the forest for the trees is very applicable here. We often can’t see the truth because of all the preconceived notions we have of what it should look like. Bladderwort also addresses the issue of discernment. It is a common occurrence in our world to be faced with dishonesty in others and to allow ourselves to be blinded or deceived by the illusions that others project in our direction. If we lack clear insight and keen judgment in such situations, it will be difficult to determine the path of action that will serve our highest good. Regardless of the source of our bewilderment, the essence of Bladderwort can work with our perceptions to create a higher perspective that will enable us to penetrate through any energy that is confusing an issue to the truth that lies at its center. The healing message of Bladderwort is clear. The truth is simple. It is only the web of illusion around it that is complex. Dissolve that web and we are left with the elegant beauty of truth.”

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:49:42] It’s definitely a great essence for this topic, for this experience. The Alaskan Essences really do bring a wonderful quality of helping us work through situations because they grow in such a challenging environment of such drastic change. The seasonal changes are profound. And I do use and love Bladderwort for this quality. It’s very much an air element essence. So as we drop down into our bodies with some of these other essences, as we clear our field with things like Yarrow, then bringing the Bladderwort in can help with that connecting to that clarity and truth.

Rochana Felde: [00:50:32] It’s one that I’m definitely going to experiment with more in these times. I just love that entire description of it and the way that it describes the illusion as being this network of energy and a web that’s around it. And then you just need to get through that and brush that away. And then at the center lies that elegant truth. It’s so profoundly written. It’s beautiful.

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Kathleen Aspenns: [00:51:03] And so as we bring this together, I really want to encourage everyone listening to take a little time to ground in and feel what truth feels like for you and to consider trying some of these essences and experiencing more clarity in your discernment, and like you said at the very beginning, not getting trapped in the skeptical trap, keeping your heart open, keeping yourself open to loving messages from wherever they might come from, and being in connection with the world because skepticism has an assumption that you’re not connected. It wants to be a part. And our job is to be here together as much as we possibly can. So I hope that everyone is able to feel more clarity, feel more discernment. We’d love to hear your stories, what’s going on with you, what’s up in your heart, how you’ve worked through some of these challenges. We really do enjoy hearing from you. And as we continue our process of working through our stuff, working with our clients and our students, we’re really excited. This month, we’re starting a practitioner training at Flower Essence Studies and really excited to meet a whole new group of people and learning flower essences together.

Rochana Felde: [00:52:33] Yeah. And we’ll have another course coming up, Canine Care: Bach Flowers for Dogs. And this is one that Kathleen is teaching. And it may be out by the time this podcast releases or very close to if not. So if you go on our website at floweressencestudies.com and you don’t see it, just make sure you’re on our mailing list and you’ll get notified if that’s something that you’re interested in. But this will be a great one. And it’ll feature another appearance from the pup, Maple.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:53:10] So thanks for being with us, everyone.

Rochana Felde: [00:53:13] Thanks. Bye-bye now.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:53:20] 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.