Show Notes

Kathleen Aspenns and Rochana Felde are joined by Ruth Toledo Altschuler to embrace the energy of creativity as a lifeline that sustains us with aliveness during challenging times. 

We discuss:

• How flower essences and gem elixirs can be used to spark and nourish creativity whether or not we think we’re creative
• How the creative process itself can be liberating and an integral part of healing because it’s connected to the vital life force within us
• How using art, writing, and creative acts as therapeutic tools in conjunction with Flower Essence Therapy can be synergistic for both processes

And we honor the creative energy of Spring bursting forth in the Northern Hemisphere. Happy Equinox!

Audio

FEP75 Tapping into Creativity for Vitality & Healing

Kathleen Aspenns and Rochana Felde are joined by Ruth Toledo Altschuler to embrace the energy of creativity as a lifeline that sustains us with aliveness during challenging times.  We discuss: How flower essences and gem elixirs can be used to spark and nourish creativity whether or not we think we’re

Video

Flower Essences discussed during the show

• 16:59 Gold – foundation for self-confidence and belief in our abilities and express it outwardly 
• 17:49 Spark the flow of energy to awaken ability to feel creative force  
• 18:58 Hornbeam – when feeling dull, bored, to see the wonderful in the ordinary and be engaging in life
• 19:38 Indian Paintbrush – to spark that emergence dynamic force to create
• 20:25 Iris – sparks the call of inspiration, the feeling in inspired feeling, awaken harmonics of beauty
• 22:42 Indian Paintbrush as bridge between self and world, and how it grows 
• 23:52 Yellow Paintbrush for creative frustration, 
• Ruth’s experience in participating with the making of the Alaskan essence with Steve Johnson and Jane Bell, the influence of the Alaskan environment and the potent elemental forces
• 28:25 Wild Iris – no question about attuning to it, meeting the Wild Iris in Alaska, feeling and experiencing the connection with beauty and being inspired 
• 30:39 Pacific Iris – nature’s intelligent design, how sitting and watching nature can help you see that creation is alive and exists around us 100% of the time, we are part of nature, nature is within us 
• 34:20 How Flower Essence Therapy strikes chords and awakens being part of creation and is enlivening, reconnecting us to the forces of creation
• 36:50 Connect to life force is the foundation for Creativity and Art, but it’s about life force in action flowing through us, everything we do and how we move through the world. Letting life flow through you is the creative act. 
• 38:42 tapping into creative flow is healing to the mind body spirit 
• Stimulate pure and free expression in children
• 40:28 engaging in act of creativity is joyful, we’re made for this as human beings + Ruth’s creative writing on her Essence Mentoring blog
• 43:58 it doesn’t have always be pretty and joyful, creatively expressing grief, loss, and heartbreak is powerful and integrating, also a very important part of this process
• 48:07 mushroom essences for the loss and what can we do and feed with, circling back to Indian Paintbrush to bring creativity out of the process 
• 48:34 Soul Collage and how the creative process helps transform unconscious emotions so they can move through your body 
• 52:28 essences are gift to nurture and enliven these aspects within us 
• Octaves of Irises as different notes on a scale to bring in inspiration  
• Pacific Iris a deep purple low growing flower by the ocean and connected to water
• Wild Iris a large and vigorous purple flower from Alaska
• Sierra Iris with a bit of yellow and growing in the Sierra foothills enhances creativity in the form of words
• Blue Flag Iris from a higher altitude
• 55:01 Columbine for freedom of expression, express the unique being that you are
• 56:10 upcoming Flower Essence Practitioner Training!

Resources

Soul Collage

Ruth’s Essence Mentoring Substack

Show Transcript

Rochana Felde: Welcome to The Flower Essence Podcast, and join us on an exploration of the healing wisdom of flowers.

Kathleen Aspenns: With combined decades of experience in the study and practice of Flower Essence Therapy, I, Kathleen Aspenns, and co-host, Rochana Felde, guide you to reconnect to nature with these potent vibrational remedies.

Rochana Felde: Welcome back to The Flower Essence Podcast. We’re so happy to be here with you on this day, very close to the Spring Equinox. And the rain clouds are starting to dissipate, and the sun is starting to shine, and nature is starting to bloom here in the Northern Hemisphere, and we thought this would be a great time to talk about creativity, the creative force, the creative process, and how creativity is a key part of our own healing process and healing work. 

And Kathleen and I have brought on our partner in The School for Flower Essence Studies. We’re here with Ruth Toledo Altschuler once again coming onto the podcast. And we’d love to get started just thinking about this time of year and how that is showing us—how nature is showing us the creative force, these bulbs that have lied dormant all winter, these seeds that are starting to sprout, and birds that are starting to sing, how that can inspire us to open our eyes and our hearts and our minds to the creative force and the beauty and magic of creativity all around us. So, welcome, Ruth. And hi, Kathleen. How’s it going?

Kathleen Aspenns: It’s really good to be talking about this topic in such a seasonal aspect, and it’s always lovely spending time with you, Ruth.

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: And I want to just bring in a big congratulations for the two of you and this podcast that has been inspiring so many people around the world. And whenever I get to see the feedback, and people send their testimonials of just how much they love it, I think that’s part of this creative cross-pollinization that happens, and that flower essences is able to spark in such a beautiful way.

Kathleen Aspenns: Thanks, Ruth. It’s such an interesting contrast for me in this moment of so much chaos surrounding, and just trying to reconnect with the energetic of Spring and trying to really intentionally spend time outdoors to go into my garden and look at the buds on my roses and the promise of that, and seeing my little lilies starting to pop up and just starting to engage in the character of Spring and just being in this moment of noticing all of the re-emergence, it does speak to this character of what Spring can offer us, can offer us this force to counter the density to start bringing up all of our energies into what we can do. And that’s what I’m really trying to focus on, whether it is in creativity, in working with some photographs and working with my images, or whether it’s creativity in other ways. I like to just frame this conversation about creativity in that creativity doesn’t mean being an artist or being good at anything. It’s about exercising that muscle, that creative outlet. And obviously, you, Ruth, are a profoundly creative person and have worked with your own creativity for much of your career and your life.

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: Yeah. And to that, I actually want to express my gratitude to the environment in which I was raised because I think that this ability to have this freedom and this stimulation to create in response to whatever is happening, is a gift that I received from the environment that I was raised. And my mother, not only she was an artist, which she was, but she was also someone who came towards things always thinking of how a touch here and a touch there and how you move things around, and how you bring color into this place, and how you do the cooking at home, and how you put things in the plate, or how you arrange a salad, or how you lay things out in a table, every one of these things was an act of creativity that she would do with so much joy and pleasure. So, that was just part of living around her, that we were just really stimulated to just be like that, doing our own thing. 

And the other aspect, which is one that I saw in action in her life as well, was that also as things got difficult and in times of great hardship, she would always find a very unique way of her own to speak of what was going on, even under a time, for instance, where we were living under a lot of coercion and suppression of expression. And she was able to create art that, in very unique and subtle ways, expressed feelings that many people were having and that people could relate to. And so, all of that is something that taught me how this is kind of like a lifeline. And when life is challenging, creativity can be a lifeline for just connecting to the forces of life and inspiration, and being connected to that which keeps us and sustains us in aliveness.

Rochana Felde: I too am blessed to have a mother who infused that same kind of artistic creativity in everything that she does. And very similar to what you’re saying, Ruth, I hadn’t really thought about how much that’s probably influenced me. And looking at just everything she does to set a table, gather some pieces of organic nature like rocks and flowers outside the back door, and to put them as a centerpiece in a really just natural way, not anything like a big deal, but every little thing, every way that she would—she’s still here and she’s still doing her thing. Every little way that she lives her life, there’s a creative force that is flowing through her. 

And I have really embodied that myself, even when I’m not doing anything, like Kathleen says, creating art, making dinner, following a recipe, changing that recipe. I feel like everybody can do this, everybody can have this experience of manifestation because to me, that’s what creativity is. There’s a vision of something, what you want to do, and then the steps and the actions that you take to make it happen, to manifest that vision. And that is that act of creating. But we don’t really think about it that way. We might be checking off tasks on our to-do list all day long in a very linear fashion, but we’re actually probably creating something. We’re just not seeing it that way, where maybe we’re making something very mundane for dinner like a meatloaf or something, but we’re still thinking about what we want to make first, and then thinking about what those elements or those components that go into it are. And even if we’re following a recipe exactly, we’re still participating in that act of creation. And then we can take it a step further and let our own ideas flow into that. We know we might like more of one ingredient than another, and we might adjust it, and we’re creating. And everybody does this. Everybody does this all day long. 

And I want to also mention, too, that’s really interesting what you said, Ruth, about being in an oppressive environment. Now, this is to a much lesser extent, my experience working for corporate America, and it’s still in the way it felt to me at the time, was very oppressive. There’s a lot of rules, a lot of them unwritten and unspoken, and for somebody with neurodivergence, it’s a constant exercise in masking to try to be normal and fit in and all of that, but yet, even while I was doing that, I was still trying to show my difference in the way that I dressed or dyed my hair or the pendants in the jewelry, big, chunky jewelry with a business suit kind of thing I did when I was in that environment, just to have that uniqueness to feel like I had my own identity. And I think that’s a big part of creativity as well, where we’re tapping into what makes us unique and infusing that into the things that we do in our lives in an environment that may not be normally great for that.

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: And today, I’m particularly remembering in writing a piece of this series that I’m writing, I went back to remembering this teacher that I’ve had with whom I first learned about the Chakras. And as he was teaching about his perception that was based on having studied in India, having learned Sanskrit, and studied directly from the Scriptures, etc., he would see that we had these energy wheels and that the energy from the life force would come up through our First Chakra. So, most of you people listening have some idea of that, but basically, it was this influx of energy that comes from below up, and also the influx of energy that comes from Cosmic forces down. And there’s this flow within us in which we receive the active energy towards action, towards movement, towards the will to live, and the will to create and procreate, and the will to feel strong, and then our ability to feel and connect with others and express ourselves and see beyond and also receive inspiration. 

And one of the things that was so interesting in his teachings was that people would ask, for instance, what do you do when people seem to be stuck in certain patterns, even things, like for instance, children who are discovering their sexuality and just keep rubbing themselves or whatever. And he would say, give them opportunity for creativity because creativity will raise the energy to all the levels of possibility, and it will make it flow so that they can be playing and inventing things and doing things. It was always a real channel for sanity for kids, was to give them opportunity of acting creatively in all kinds of ways. And I thought that that was one of the precious teachings that I keep from this teacher. 

And now with the flower essences, and with the language of flower essences, it’s fascinating because we have certain flowers that address bringing the will and the energy and the dynamic force for the creative act. And then we have certain essences that are for this receptive quality of being able to draw in higher harmonics of inspiration. And then as we bring these forces together and we bring out whatever we want to manifest, we’re being Alchemists in this blending of forces.

Kathleen Aspenns: And what options do we have? Like you’re saying, when children are young, they’re naturally creative. It’s part of just growing up as you play with things and you’re trying to fool around with things, and nobody tells you that you can’t paint that way—well, hopefully they don’t. And then you start growing up, and it’s terrible that the arts are less and less and less part of education, and there’s so much more focus on testing and training the brain into more linear activities. And there are so many people who, if you ask them if they’re creative, they’ll say, no, I’m not a creative person at all. And how do we restore some sense of creativity to someone who’s completely lost the thread, lost the ability to grasp that idea or that inspiration, whether it’s coming from below or coming from above or coming from nowhere? 

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: Do you want to speak to that first, Ro?

Rochana Felde: Well, what’s coming to my mind from the world of essences is Gold, is the Gold Elixir from Alaskan Essences, is one that’s a baseline foundation for giving us that self-confidence in our abilities. And if we don’t believe we have the ability to create or manifest or to tap into that creative power, that it’s not part of us, I think that Gold has that really broad application in helping us to do that and to seeing our own inner Gold and helping us to take that and express it in an outward way. There’s, of course, lots of flower essences that also help with this. I’ll throw it back to you, Ruth.

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: Yeah. I think one of the basic tenets is to spark the flow of energy because people are not necessarily told that they are creators. In the learning process, they are told that they need to receive stuff, or they need to perhaps these days just use artificial intelligence because there’s nothing within them that is real and able and capable of being a creator of anything. 

So, in terms of essences, the way I see it is that we’re going to look at each person as to where they are and ignite the movement of energy because it’s the movement of energy that awakens this ability to really feel the creative force flowing through you. And once the creative force is flowing through us, we know that we are creators. We just are. And so, for instance, if you are feeling dull and bored, and nothing is enticing you, perhaps you would want to take an essence such as Hornbeam that will awaken this ability to see the wonderful in the ordinary and to be interested in day-to-day activities and routine activities and just have that come to life and be engaging in things. 

So, it’s Flower Essence Therapy in general, but if people are needing that dynamic force, Indian Paintbrush is one of the essences that really helps us feel that; it’s red. And it’s an interesting plant because it actually also draws energy from other plants that it grows in intertwined with, but it can also draw energy directly. But it brings this energy up into this flower that’s like a paintbrush. And this one really has this ability to spark that emerging force of wanting to go out and create stuff. 

And on the other end, we have, which is of course the crowning of our essences for creativity, we have the Iris, and there’s different kinds of Iris flower essences. And that sparks the feeling of being inspired, of living life inspired, feeling that call of inspiration. And so, oftentimes, people’s outlook is muddled, it’s darkened, and there isn’t that sense of appreciating beauty in every little thing, that ability to really, woah, look at how beautiful this is when we put it together with that. And so, the Iris really brings out that awakening of the sense of harmonics, of beauty, of living life inspired. And there’s others, but these are a few that I can think of with that.

Kathleen Aspenns: I appreciate the bringing in the Indian Paintbrush because what I’m reflecting on is that characteristic of Indian Paintbrush as being that bridge between self and world because it has those characteristics of being—the way that it lives is connected to others, it’s connected to other life forms, and so, it has this quality of helping us coming out of this atomized state of being alone and trapped in self, and being able to bridge that and find that connectedness, which is that stability and support out of which life force can flow.

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: Yeah, I knew you would. And tell us a bit more about the plant. So, how is it that it grows in this interconnection with other plants?

Kathleen Aspenns: You’re catching me off guard here because I didn’t prep for this plant. So, I’d have to look it up, honestly. I mean, I think it’s a saprophyte, if I’m remembering correctly, but I’d have to look it up to be sure. It seems like it’s a saprophyte in which it connects to the roots of other plants. So, yeah, I’m not really 100% positive at this point.

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: Yeah. But basically, it’s not a parasitic plant that it draws all its sustenance from another plant, but it can also do that.

Rochana Felde: Well, if you’ve seen it in the wild, I know it grows around here, around the Pacific Coast, and one thing that’s so striking about it is how bright it is, how bright that color is. It’s like fluorescent. It’s like a reddy-orange fluorescent highlighter sprinkled in the midst of all the other plants that are growing along the coast. It definitely catches the attention. 

One variation on that is the Yellow Paintbrush made by Alaskan Essences. I have not seen that one in the wild, but I think that there’s a little bit of an interesting—the way that they describe how that works is, seems like when there’s more frustration about not being able to create or not being able to make something happen the way that you would like to make something happen, and so, there’s layers of how it can release that and connect you to the earth and also bring that flow of energy up from the earth. I think that when you just look at the difference between the colors, that red, you’re getting just that raw energy coming from the earth that’s sparking that flow. And then the yellow is maybe a little more mental when things are more stuck in the head and releasing that in order to allow that flow. So, that’s an interesting variation to have that other color Paintbrush flower as part of this conversation.

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: And it seems to be a plant that it recreates itself in so many ways because I’ve seen it right by the coast and all the way up to the High Sierras, in all the elevations, and there’s different subvarieties perhaps, but I’ve seen it in many kind of altitudes and, perhaps not all soils, but many kinds of altitudes. And I was actually part of the group that first made that Yellow Paintbrush in Alaska. It was a group of Brazilians that were there. And I think there was just so much engagement in wanting to be involved in the Flower Essence Therapy process. And Jane was there making the flower essence with Steve. So, I still have some of the original mother essence that was shared with us. So, yeah.

Rochana Felde: Wow. Is there anything more you’d like to share about that experience?

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: Yeah, I think being in the environment of Alaska, when you are actually learning about Flower Essence Therapy, is a super potentizing experience because you get the experience of connecting with those very vibrant environments that have to live through these cycles of growth, especially amongst the plants, in such fast ways and with so much vividness, while also, just from stepping out of the airplane in Alaska, you just feel the potency of the elemental forces. They are so potent there, anywhere you go. You just feel the quality of the element Air or Earth and Water and Fire through the volcanoes. So, all of that for this whole group of people who were there wanting to learn flower essences and Flower Essence Therapy with Steve Johnson, who had been the one who attuned to so many of these plants, and also with Jane, who had worked with him, was just a unique experience of immersion into the vibrancy of the world of Flower Essence Therapy and its language.

Kathleen Aspenns: Yeah, I remember Jane talking about—Jane Bell, in case we haven’t mentioned her last name, if we haven’t, she was talking about how a lot of the students would arrive and feel like they hadn’t had much attunement experience and that they might not be able to figure out what a plant was about. And she says, all you have to do is to be in the environment there. And with the profusion, for instance, she was talking about the Wild Iris, which is on topic for now, and how if you’re sitting in a meadow with the Wild Iris blooming all around you, there’s no question of being able to attune to the message and to the inspiration coming out from that flower’s emergence and bloom.

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: Yeah, and on those lines, I do have to add because one of the plants that I got to meet in person in quite a profusion was the Wild Iris. And they had it growing not too far from where Jane and Steve lived at the time. And we went out for a walk. And these Iris are large. They’re actually significant-sized beings, quite tall as well. And at the time, I had been for several years leaving my whole photography career totally dormant, but I did take my camera for that trip. And when I went out to take pictures, and especially of the Wild Iris, each one of those flowers is like a painting, and the details of each one of these flowers are absolutely amazing. So, I just couldn’t stop seeing the wondrous beauty, the cornucopia of beauty that came through that flower. So, like you said, you can’t but feel and experience this connection with beauty and being inspired. And that’s how my whole photography got revived and continued to be from that time onwards. 

Rochana Felde: It’s really true. I sat with the Pacific Iris and made an essence and attuned with it here right on my own property where it grows wild, which is so amazing. I think many people are used to Irises and bulbs as something they get at the garden store and bring into their gardens. And I mean, they’re very popular for a reason. They’re such a beautiful bulb. But to see them growing wild, especially in wild places out on the coast, it’s almost disconcerting at first. You’re like, well, did somebody come and plant that? Because we’re just so used to that horticultural aspect of that flower, and so, it doesn’t seem real in the beginning. 

But to sit with that flower, exactly what you’re saying, Ruth, the patterning, the design, it’s like, you can’t look at that and not think, wow, there’s intelligent design happening here. This is incredible. And when it’s blooming, the bees are coming in and pollinating, and the intelligence of the design of that flower, and there are other flowers that do this too, but it’s so beautiful the way the Iris creates this runway of color in this design, bringing in the bee. And I sat and watched that in awe of nature. And I think anyone just going out in nature, and I don’t mean just going out in nature, but sitting and really watching some aspect of nature in a bee pollinating a flower, in an ant carrying something across somewhere, in the way that each new plant comes up in the spring, or the way a flower blooms, the way something creates a vegetable or a fruit, anything, whether it’s something that you’ve planted or you’re in the wild, to sit there and really tune and focus in on this just amazing thing that’s just happening by itself, we’re not doing it, it happens in nature, and nature is full of wonders, all around us all the time. And I think when we stop seeing that is when we get uncreative. 

And so, in order to bring that creativity back into our lives, that is such a great step, that’s such a great way to do it to help to see—nature can help you see that creation is alive, creation exists 100% of the time, all around us, it’s happening all the time whether we’re aware of it or not. And we’re actually part of that. We just forgot, and we continually forget, but we are nature, we’re part of nature, nature is within us, and we can just open our eyes to that in order to bring more creativity and to help us get into the flow, I think, in our lives.

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: Yeah. And back to the thread that I started off with talking about that flow of energy, I think Flower Essence Therapy, in any way you’re applying it, is going to be striking chords and awakening this sense of being part of creation within the individual, or the pet or someone who is close to dying as well, which is also a part of creation to move through that process. 

So, whatever process you were following, and you may, as a listener, be someone who has only the Bach Flower Essences, or you have only certain flower essences that you’ve made, but you don’t have the Iris from Alaska or the Iris from California that we’re talking about, I just want you all to know that the simple fact that you were bringing in a flower essence to meet an area that is constrained and blocked, that you identify that person needs, and that will resonate with whatever is blocking in their system, that will strike a chord that will enliven the whole process. So, it’s so much about reconnecting us to the forces of creation within and the whole interconnectedness of us to these forces of creation. And so, wherever you strike a chord, you are actually enhancing the movement of the forces of creation within the individual. And you can, of course, progressively also work in a more targeted way towards creative expression and creativity, but it may be necessary to do this preliminary work of first helping to bring back to life that spark of being a creative being that’s part of this whole creation. And the doorways for that might vary.

Kathleen Aspenns: I appreciate how you’re grounding it in, I think what I would understand is that, our connection to life force is the foundation for something that we might consider in its refined state, capital C, Creativity, or capital A, Art. But the whole process is about expressing life force. It’s not about the end result, which might be something we might consider art, but it’s about the life force that flows through us in the same way that it does when we go outside and we watch nature in work as she creates life and growth. And the way a dandelion drops a root through a crack in a sidewalk and grows leaves and creates a flower and then expresses that flower through the dandelion seeds that float, that whole process is life force in action. And that whole process is creativity. 

Just, I want to encourage people who don’t see themselves as being artists. Your whole life, everything you do, the way you move through the world, can be a creative act. And the essences and nature supports us to be reminded of that in every moment that we are here, we are expressing creativity. We walk on this planet, and our life is as creative as the life of a dandelion, as the life of a flower, of the Iris that we’re talking about right now. It’s letting that life flow through you. That is the creative act.

Rochana Felde: And that’s why it’s so healing. The act of creativity, creation, doing something creative, and feeling that flow of life force is really healing to the mind, body, spirit complex and can be such an integral part of a healing journey, and I firmly believe that. I mean, that’s why art therapy is a thing. Again, you don’t have to be an artist, but it’s that life force. We need life force to heal and to be healthy, so creative projects and tapping into that flow are a way to access that. It has so much benefit.

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: Yeah. And to stimulate in ourselves and, of course, in our kids, the opportunities of just this pure and free expression of putting things together, whether in drawings or in play or in creating these little environments with their toys and creating the stories, etc., without having to copy standards, without having to fit into how it should be, but just really feeling very encouraged to just experience the adventure of creation. And one of the things that I have been feeling during this time that I decided I was going to start off this Substack blog that has the same name as my work, Essence Mentoring, my personal brand, Essence Mentoring, what I have been finding is that when I sit and I begin to write a piece, it’s just enrapturing. It’s almost like I get into that state of flow that I forget about time, and before I know it, it’s been two hours, and I’ve been rewriting the phrases and adding some image, and it’s just such a joy to engage in that. And so, this process of engaging in an act of creation, whatever that is for you, which can also be, let’s say, oh, I’ve got some leftovers in the fridge. What can I put together here and create a delicious meal with just what I have? And the engagement with that is enthralling and is just a pleasure. I think we’re made for this as human beings.

Rochana Felde: And now more than ever, it’s so important to exercise that muscle rather than just asking your AI chat buddy, what can I do with these ingredients or have it do the creative process. I think decades ago, when we envisioned artificial intelligence, I don’t think we envisioned it being this creative force on its own as it’s emerging to be. We thought we’d have flying cars and robots doing chores for us and computers that crunch the hard numbers, which it does, but it’s really interesting how it’s coming in with this ability to write poetry, to paint pictures, to do these creative things that we thought were uniquely human. And if we allow that to take the place of our own creativity, then we lose that. We might lose that in our humanity, but our creations, they manifest as something completely unique from us and from our humanity, so I think it’s a benefit to us to make a point to exercise that muscle. And that goes for everything, just our own independent thoughts. I think we need to continue to hold on to that and continue to exercise that so that we don’t lose that muscle, and again, nature is our teacher in this in all ways, and just to remember that we are part of nature and so that we can do it.

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: And I wanted to add a piece that I think is so important, that it’s not all about what seems pretty and joyful. It also is creating upon deep feelings of grief, of loss, and of heartbreak can also be incredibly powerful and part of our ability to integrate. And so, for instance, you can assemble and make an altar for something in your world that is dying, either a person or an expectation that you had, a dream that you had, or whatever, and to bring in elements of nature that can be helpful and symbolic of this whole process of the decay and the transmutation that things are going to go through, and the cycle that one is in sometimes is that cycle of death and decay and of the dissolution of the forms that used to be, from which eventually new life will emerge. So, that is also a very important part of this whole process, that one needs to give space and honor, and as Ro has been underscoring, you will find in nature the elements for that, and also amidst the flower essences for yourself. And so, as one is going through these deep processes of just heartbreak and prostration and feeling so down and crushed by that which is so disappointing and heartbreaking, there is also a creative process that can be very supportive to help us live through and integrate these essential cycles of life and death.

Kathleen Aspenns: I appreciate that you bring that in because it’s certainly some of my thought process of some of the really memorable and some incredibly famous art has come about as a result of to process or to bring forward or to remember experiences that happen. I mean, you can’t not think perhaps of Picasso’s Guernica, just a piece that’s so profoundly moving of an atrocity. And that’s the creative impulse as well to process things that are happening, to be able to make sense on some level of the things that are taking place, and perhaps part of our humanity and our creative force can be to unfreeze that part that sits shocked and can start to work with it in the way that nature does. When trees fall, when giant storms happen, and there is destruction, nature has a way of taking a breath and starting to break down and starting to feed to the next cycle. 

I certainly am thinking about Mushroom essences right now for just the loss and what can we do with that? What can we feed with that? So, I’m really appreciating that you brought in the Indian Paintbrush because it has that characteristic of feeding off and joining creativity or emerging creativity out of something, out of a process.

Rochana Felde: What’s coming to my mind is a practice I’m involved with called SoulCollage, and Kathleen, you’re the one who introduced me to this amazing technique, I guess you could call it. There’s a book out there and people who do gatherings and classes about it, but in a nutshell, it’s just collage, and it is such a great way to process emotions in whatever way, shape, or form, whatever you’re going through without having to, okay, I’m going to learn how to draw or paint or anything like that. You can use just pre-existing images. So, just even the act of connecting with that emotion and looking through images and cutting out what seems to match that emotion or that feeling or be representative of a process and putting it together with other like images, there is such a healing process in that. And then through that process, more thoughts and ideas come through and realizations. 

I mean, it’s a really amazing form of therapy that you can just basically do by yourself in your living room with a minimum amount of tools or training, and I’ve found it very helpful in doing shadow work, in working with flower essence blends that are helping me process epigenetic trauma and shadows and things that are coming up. And I might feel, wow, there’s a lot going on here, but I don’t know, I can’t articulate what’s even happening right now. So, that’s such a great time to sit down and do something like this, where you can just let it emerge, let it come out of you and see where it goes into that flow. So, I really appreciate this practice, and it’s fun too. It’s a lot of fun. Over time, you can create your own deck and do your own readings and things like that, but really what I’m focusing on is just that process and using that as an example of how the creative process can be so useful and helpful in a healing journey, for lack of a better word, but whenever we’re going through something, and it’s a way of accessing the intelligence of those emotions in a more indirect way, so you don’t block yourself from doing it. That’s how I see it. I don’t know if that makes sense, but if I were to say, okay, why am I feeling this way about such and such and being in a mental place? Oh, it comes from my ancestors and this and that and the other thing. I mean, that’s this logical mental process that you may uncover some things and it may make sense, but it doesn’t move the energy through your body, it doesn’t move those things through you and out of you, and the creative process does.

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: And in any case, I think it’s worth having at hand those essences that bring the inspiration because I think they are such a gift to really nurture and enliven these aspects within us and that sense of beauty, because in so many ways, the connection with beauty is so healing. 

And so, I would love to, as my own wrap-up, to talk about octaves of Irises. We talked a lot about the Indian Paintbrush, and then we have the Iris that grows near where Ro lives, that grows by the ocean. So, this one is very connected to the element of water, and they’re deep purple and they’re so prolific, they are absolutely wondrous and beautiful. And then we do have the Wild Iris from Alaska, these vigorous, also deep purple and larger, amazing Iris, in California, but also in many other places and places around the world, but there’s one Iris that we can see in the foothills, they begin having some warmer colors in them. They change a bit. There’s a little more yellow. So, in the FES research line, they have a Sierra Iris that has some more yellow. I often use it when I want to enhance that creativity in the use of words. 

And then we have the Blue Flag Iris that grows high up in the Sierra in these windy spots, and the flower just stays open in bloom for just a few hours because the wind can be so fierce that it will rip up all the flowers, and they’re large and absolutely beautiful in how, what an art piece of many dimensions those flowers are, growing in the higher altitudes. So, you can see each one of them almost being like a different note on a scale of this ability to bring in inspiration. 

And amongst the FES flower essences and the Alaskan, we also have the Columbine. And the Columbine is this flower that has this very unique shape. It’s given this name because it looks like a dove perhaps, but it has this orange-red color with some yellow, and it’s so much about this freedom of expression, this ability to just be yourself and allow yourself to express the unique being that you are. And those, I think, are just wonderful allies to have and to hold and to put a little note of that in the essence formulas for our clients and for ourselves, of course.

Kathleen Aspenns: It’s a perfect note to close on. I’m glad that you brought Columbine in. It certainly is one that we wouldn’t want to have forgotten and left out. Thanks, Ruth. 

We are so excited to be offering again the Flower Essence Practitioner Training, the Certification Program from the Flower Essence Society. It’s a real honor at Flower Essence Studies to be able to provide this level of depth and education. And so, Ruth, we cannot wait for the beginning of this course in April. Would you like to invite our listeners to explore more and find out more about this program?

Ruth Toledo Altschuler: Yeah. When we talked about Flower Essence Therapy being this awakener of the fullness and the flourishing of each being and the interconnectedness of each being with the whole of creation, I see this course, this program as one that is so valid for people to do, beginning to do it mostly for themselves and as part of their own healing journey and the awakening of their own peace in this greater creation. And also, if you feel the calling to be helping others through flower essences, it provides an amazing foundation of both understanding as well as inspiration. And it’s also really great to engage in a group of like-minded souls because we become almost like a flock of birds flying together, and the connections that are made in this opportunity can be connections that are very long-lasting as people experience working together, working in pairs, and being part of this cohort. So, it’s just really a joy to be able to be offering this as a team, the three of us through The School, because the sum of the part is greater than the parts. So, we really offer so much in this opportunity for each person that engages in it. So, if that’s a good time for you, come join us.

Rochana Felde: Yeah. Just go to floweressencestudies.com, and at the top of the page, you’ll see The Flower Essence Practitioner Certification Program and a picture of an Iris, and that’s the training that we’re talking about. It’s open for registration now, self-study modules are open now, and live sessions will begin on April 11th, and we would love to have you with us. 

What a great conversation. Thanks for joining us, Ruth, and thanks for all you listeners for showing up and listening again. And I hope this inspires you to connect with nature, to try a flower essence, to start to remember that we are creative always. We’re part of creation, and we are creation ourselves.

Kathleen Aspenns: 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.