TOTEM Flower Essence Deck Preview #5

The alchemical magic of creation!

It’s official: the TOTEM Flower Essence Deck has been printed and is en route to various fulfillment centers and retailers around the country!

There’s a strange sensation that takes hold during this precise stage of the deck-making process: a kind of liminal limbo in which, after pushing and ramping up and leaving it all on the field, there’s suddenly nothing else to do but surrender. You can’t make any more changes or edits. You don’t get one more last look. And all you can really do is wait— and trust— that it will manifest in reality the way you had imagined it in your head.

In other words, it’s a lot like shamanic work!

And, as with all work of a Woo nature, this project has been a major reminder of the power of personal alchemy.

The power of personal alchemy

Back when I was working in corporate, I would frequently get strangely hyperbolic reactions from those that discovered my shamanic predilections. Many would remark on just how disparate these two worlds were, pantomiming cartoonish confusion as they attempted to make me make sense in their heads.

One leader even said, “That couldn’t be any more different than what we do.”

But he was wrong.

You see, my entire corporate career was a strangely specific, immersive education for everything I now do at TOTEM— especially when it comes to making and self-publishing these decks.

For many years, I worked on very complex, large-scale business proposals: multi-thousand page technical documents with complicated fold-outs and high-touch printed materials.

These proposals, if successfully persuasive and technically compliant, were worth hundreds of millions of dollars in multi-year, new business contracts.

It was high-stakes work and, as the “last man on the bridge” in these projects, any errors or issues would fall squarely on my shoulders when the punitive mob came looking for vengeance— regardless of how many dozens of other stakeholders and contributors took part!

As we undertook our final print proof review for the TOTEM Flower Essence Deck (see photos from printer, below), I was overcome by a very distinct feeling of Deja Vu that conjured all of these past experiences:

I had been here before. Many, many times.

And, looking back at all of those late nights drinking stale coffee on the 40th floor of the Aon Center, looking at final print proofs, the whole picture came into focus.

This is the magic of personal alchemy: when you bring together all of the seemingly disparate elements in your life, transmuting them into something new— and hopefully something valuable!

For any of you reading this, just know: you’re not stuck. You didn’t waste any time getting good at stuff that you cannot take with you moving forward. You’re not too old to make a pivot. And you’re not limited to the choices presented to you by otherwise well-meaning people who lack vision.

Nothing is ever lost. Everything you’ve learned and experienced can be easily repurposed in the pursuit of your soul’s mission here on earth. To pursue your passion. To embrace your weird. To do the wild crazy shit you daydream about at your standing desk.

If you’ve been waiting for the universe to give you permission to make or do or try something “crazy”, consider this Substack post the sign!

Besides, in the words of American Treasure Tim Dillon, “all business is fake business until it’s not.”

(You’re welcome).

A summer of flower magic

We expect that the TOTEM Flower Essence Deck will be available for sale on Amazon and Etsy no later than mid-June (if not much sooner), and I will be updating our website, Instagram and this Substack with live links to the deck as soon as they become available.

We are also hosting a Flower Essence Deck-themed evening garden party at The Herb Bar here in Austin, TX on the Summer Solstice: Friday, June 21st. If you want to secure your spot and get a sweet swag bag containing the TOTEM Flower Essence Deck, several TOTEM Flower Essences, and great freebies from The Herb Bar, sign up HERE asap!

Stay tuned for announcements for online classes and workshops about how to use the TOTEM Flower Essence Deck in various spreads, make and formulate your own flower essences, and more throughout this coming summer.

And I’ll continue to share TOTEM Flower Essence Deck previews here on Substack, sharing inside baseball, tips and tricks you won’t be getting anywhere else.

Thank you all for being with us on this journey! I truly believe that we stand at the precipice of a tremendous shift that, at least in part, will hinge on the natural “medicines” and spiritual support tools available to all of us via the natural world.

And, if the fairy activity around the deck is any indication, I also suspect that nature spirits, elementals and more are going to have a big, banner year!

-Rachel