Mysteries of the Rose with Rebecca Campbell

Do you love roses? Feel deeply connected to the Divine in nature? Or find symbolism in little things all the time?

Everything around you–from the birds you pass on your morning walk to the numbers on the clock when you wake up in the middle of the night–are symbols, tools for finding meaning in Life. You just have to learn how to look for them.

In today’s episode, I’m chatting with author and mystic Rebecca Campbell about how she finds and connects with symbols in nature, especially flora, in her daily life.

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For years, Rebecca has had a deeply personal relationship with roses. She admires them for their duality: a beautiful, soft bloom surrounded by hard thorns. In contemplating the rose, she’s able to connect more deeply with her version of the divine.

And now, she’s released an oracle deck to help others find symbolism and meaning in the natural world. She shows us that every bloom, every leaf, every thorn is a tool for seeing ourselves more clearly.

Join me in today’s episode as I chat with Rebecca Campbell about her relationship with roses and how they’ve popped up throughout her spiritual journey. She’s sharing her process for designing her oracle decks, and she’s shedding light on how she maintains a strong marriage while also growing on her own.

Listen to episode 387 now!

In episode 387 of the Embodied Podcast we discuss:

[2:59] How I first connected with Rebecca and how our relationship has grown over the years
[5:01] How Rebecca communes with God and how her vision of God has shifted over time
[8:58] Why it’s important to find ways to talk about the divine even if our words aren’t sufficient
[10:18] Rebecca’s Rose Oracle Deck and how she uses nature to commune with the divine
[14:21] Connecting with your ancestry and using it in your spiritual practice
[21:50] Finding and creating symbolism that’s meaningful and personal to you
[25:28] Rebecca’s connection to roses and how they play a part in her practice and work
[33:50] How to connect with roses and find meaning and comfort in the nature around you
[36:51] Rebecca’s Rose Oracle Deck and how we find meaning in the cards
[40:45] Free tools for your spiritual practice
[42:42] Reading a few of the Rose Oracle cards and uncovering what they mean to us
[44:56] How Rebecca created the oracle deck and shared it with the world
[52:19] The duality of the rose and thorn and finding that duality in your own life
[54:24] How Rebecca and her husband have grown alongside one another and in their own journeys

Resources mentioned by Elizabeth in the episode “Mysteries of the Rose with Rebecca Campbell”:

Quotes from this Week’s Episode of the Embodied Podcast:

“When I look back, I’m like, I feel like it’s that yearning for the connection to the wisdom of the ancestry, to the land of my ancestry that has brought me here.” [00:18:30] Rebecca Campbell
“The rose isn’t just all flowers in bloom, she shows you where to have boundaries. She’s got the thorn, she is also the dark mother who holds you in the depths.” [00:51:21] Rebecca Campbell

How was this episode for you?

Was this episode helpful for you today? I’d love to know what quote or lesson touched your soul. Let me know in the comments below OR share the episode on Instagram, tag me your stories @elizabethdialto, or send me a DM!

About the Embodied Podcast with Elizabeth DiAlto

Since 2013 I’ve been developing a body of work that helps women embody self-love, healing, and wholeness. We do this by focusing on the four levels of consciousness – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

In practical terms, this looks like exploring tools and practices to help you tune into the deep wisdom of the body and the knowing of the heart, which I believe are gateways to our souls. Then we cultivate a new relationship with our minds that allows the mind to serve this wisdom and knowledge and soul connection, rather than override it, which is what many of us were taught.

If you’ve been doing self-help or spiritual development work for a while, these are the types of foundational things that often people overlook in pursuit of fancier concepts that often aren’t practical or sustainable. Here, we will focus on building these strong foundations so you can honestly and thoroughly embody self-love. If you’re feeling it, subscribe to the show, and leave us a review wherever you listen from. You can also keep up with show updates and community discussion on Instagram here.

Transcript for Episode 387 “Mysteries of the Rose with Rebecca Campbell“:

– What’s up, everybody. Welcome to episode number 387 of the Embodied Podcast. Today we have Rebecca Campbell with us. And Rebecca is one of these people who I don’t keep in touch with Rebecca the way I keep in touch with some of my closest friends but whenever we connect via WhatsApp, pop in on each other on so social media here and there and stuff like that, it just always feels like she is such a soul sister. Maybe we come from the same star seed, I don’t know, but this is such an enjoyable conversation. We’re talking about her new oracle deck, The Rose Oracle and roses have such deep meaning to me. I love this oracle deck. I love talking to her about her experience over a decade working with roses and flowers. And there are some pretty significant locations that we have both spent time in that forged both of our relationships with the flowers, which was also really fun to talk about, and it’s just a deep and sacred and enjoyable conversation celebrating the mysteries nature, connection to the divine mother, all of these things. So I hope you love this episode. The Show Notes will be at untameyourself.com/387. And if you find yourself drawn to the divine feminine, the sacred feminine, sacred mother, the divine mother, whatever words you used to describe these things or the rose, I highly recommend that you check out Rebecca’s Rose Oracle deck. So here we go. Let’s get into it. Hi, my friends.

– Hi everyone.

– I was trying to remember before we got on, when was the first time you were on the podcast? And honestly it was either 2015 or 2016.

– Oh my gosh. Was that before or after we met? I can’t remember.

– Actually. I don’t remember if it was before or after we met.

– I Think it might have been before.

– Oh, then it was definitely 2015 ’cause we met 2015. Wow, that’s sweaty day, oh my God. It was so hot. I actually, one of the things I remember, so everyone listening, this is Rebecca Campbell, you already heard her intro, but in 2015, I was just a year into my Wild Soul Movement, my embodiment work. And I got this random request from Dove UK to fly to London twice in that year and create, I think they called it like moisturization rituals, which just sounds so funny, for this like new product line that they were developing. And literally the first time I went, it was June, 2015. I literally, I think I got my period on the plane. So of all the days that you don’t wanna be in a skimpy little like kind of fitnessy outfit, like they literally bought me these Lululemon booty shorts to wear. I’m on day one, I am so bloody and uncomfortable and it was actually a record breaking. It was the hottest day in London since like-

– Oh my gosh, I remember that. Yeah, so we met and then we did the podcast and then we met in the states. But where we met was at dinner with Lisa and Rich. So what a day to be on day one. And I remember it was relenting.

– We were all melting. Did Rich come?

– Oh, did he not?

– I don’t think- I always feel Rich there.

– It’s amazing. And then I went out and then they took me to Glastonbury like two days later, which was-

– That’s right.

– Amazing. So that’s right. And then we met again, ’cause you were here in San Diego. We sat by the pool, you came to that random birthday party.

– Yeah, I was with Arian and then you were there. I didn’t know anyone except for you that, which was huge ’cause I thought I was just there as a plus one random Australian living in England, visiting the states.

– I didn’t know I was gonna bump to you again so amazing. literary the day before, so magical. Now the question I’ve been opening, it’s a couple questions I’ve been opening the show with this year, which I know I kind of know your answers, but the people listening may not is first of all, what is your current relationship to God and included in that question is what do you call God ar how do you refer to God?

– Mm, good question. The greatest mystery there is, right? So it is forever ever changing. I feel like I’ve always had some kind of conversation with whatever God is and growing up, I learned about God as this male God in the sky. And I did find comfort in that. I wasn’t like rebelling against it right back then, although I did feel something missing and I always felt connected to Mother Mary, which I know you have a connection to as well. But as time has gone on, and I live in Glastonbury, which is like the capital of the goddess of the entire world, and so my relationship with the goddess as opposed to God has been, I’d say more heavily focused, but I think it’s about bringing it into balance rather than it being all about the goddess. But what I’ve really been kind of leaning into the past, I think since becoming a mum myself is like I had this experience where I was like, oh shit, I didn’t re… Sorry, I didn’t know if I could swear then. So I like.

– My podcast.

– Clearly I can, I forgot who I’m with. Oh, shit. I realized it was around that period where it was almost like the transcendence and the imminence coming together. And so it’s like seeing God in everything or goddess everything or Sophia in everything or the pulse of life in everything. And so being not so much about this God that we pray to rather like perhaps God or the divine or the sacred is in the cells as well as the soul. And I think it is. And I think that the thing I’ve been grappling with myself for the past couple of years is I’m really realizing how, particularly early on in my, and obviously awakening never, ever, ever, ever ends. But I think that at the beginning it was like this whole new world opened up that I had been longing for. And at that same time I felt disconnected from the one I had known and lived in previously. So all of a sudden there were these two worlds. And I think particularly, it’s regardless of where we, I mean, there’s some places in the world where indigenous traditions do still exist, but in most corners there has been so much harm done that that wisdom hasn’t been passed on and if it has, it’s been like, it’s this, oh my gosh, sacred thing that we have to preserve rather than something we see in everything. And so I think that I’m, I’ve been observing how my relationship with God and spirituality. So it’s not like I’m gonna go be spiritual now or I’m gonna go get grounded now. It’s like, how can we like bring him together? And I think that’s God. But I don’t even know that’s the right word for it. I don’t know what to call it anymore.

– And this is one of the reasons why I ask is because I mean, essentially it’s a paradoxical question because we’re trying to like name and articulate the unnameable and the inarticulable, it’s not even a word, you know what I mean? But we do, those of us who really value having a relationship with it, need to find a way to talk about it. We need to have some language, we can all acknowledge that the language is never gonna be sufficient, but we can at least try to find some words. And you know what I love, I actually love hearing you kind of like externally process that ’cause I think it’s so important for anyone listening. Like this is what you do and you are sitting here like, well, and you’re still talking it out with yourself.

– The greatest mystery there is.

– It is the greatest mystery. And if we can just impart this little nugget to anyone listening, this reminder, that anyone, whoever sounds so sure of what it is and how it works, you might wanna question that. There’s like, here’s how it looks for me right now. Here’s how it looks for me. Like I don’t know how that works for other people, but anyone who’s ever trying to tell you that this is how it is and this is how it should be for you, that is a red flag.

– Right, right.

– So, okay. We did current relationship. And what do you call God? And then, I mean, I know this is one, I know you have so many ways, but you just published this beautiful, and I know you’ve been working on this thing forever, this beautiful new Rose Oracle. If anyone is watching, I’m gonna flash my deck. And this relates to-

– That sounds almost rude, if you were New Zealand.

– My deck, could be my rack. No that’s not happening. You all would owe me money. ‘Cause the next thing I love to ask people is how are you communing with God right now? What are you your practice? And I know your deck flowers are a big part of your practice and I know you have numerous practices, but what’s most significant for you right now?

– Definitely nature. I think sometimes the practices that are the most powerful I’m finding are the one where we kind of like might have done them naturally and then you learn about them you’re like, “Oh, that’s what I’ve been doing.” So I think my, my favorite practice and I don’t know what to call it, I’ve got so many different names for it, I used to call it intuitive nature walking, but I don’t like that name. And sometimes I’m calling it like let the land lead you. But essentially what it is is just being walked by nature and kind of like, as you’re walking kind of like recognizing that we are part of nature we’re ever changing and just like the seasons around us, we’re changing too. I’ve been doing a lot of research around my own indigenous ancestral roots, for example. And like many of our ancestors, my ancestors were nomadic and they walked everywhere and I’m noticing, so this is a practice that I’ve done since I was teenager, like on the beach in before going to school and then going to work. And then when I moved to different places like in London and yeah, I’d go to a big open space or a forest or whatever, and then just let my body move and I might go off the track or I might go a different way. And so it’s not that flashy, but I find that when I let myself do that, I’m able to kind of like shift into those all moments. And to me, those all moments are things like when you see the beauty of a rose or a cherry blossom and it’s like, ah, or you look up to the night sky and you’re like, whoa. And I think, again, it’s these noticing these moments that make you feel like transcendent and imminent together. So, it’s heaven and earth, as above, so below. And I think in those moments where you’re like, oh, whoa, what happens is the soul comes more fully in which is like so your work. Elizabeth it’s like your soul is more fully planted here and like poetry does that. So I’ve been starting to talk about like gateways to the soul. And I think food can do that. And so many things in on this amazing and difficult planet can do that as well. But yeah, nature walking is like a big, big part. And I also, ’cause I’ve been studying like different plant medicine and wild herbs and wild flowers, just like it’s my passion, and so like I’m always having like rose tea or nettle or whatever. And I’ll often do like a tea meditation. So I’ve been working with the plants a lot more than I have previously. That’s kind of like a bit of a what’s getting me going at the moment.

– All of that. At the end of 2020, October, 2020, I started to do some ancestral healing work and I was working with a woman. And one of the things we start with is the plants. So you look at like, who are your ancestors? Like what are the native plants on the land of your ancestor? I’m a person who’s mixed race multiethnic. And I’m like, well how much time you got, cause we have a lot of land to cover.

– Italian and Puerto Rican, am I right?

– I’m Italian, Puerto Rican. But then also my mom’s mom is German and Irish. And also anyone who’s Puerto Rican is gonna have, for the most part, unless someone has somehow their lineage has managed to stay fully indigenous or whatever, we’re all for the most part, a mix of Spain, Portugal, the slave trade pass through Puerto Rico. So when I do like my ancestry.com, I have Congolese, Nigerian. I have a couple of these things in there and then the indigenous Saino. So that in and of itself as a whole cocktail of the colonized and the colonizers and the enslaved, everything in just one. But one of the big ones, so rose came up and rosemary, I love Rosemary, because that hits many of my cultures, especially the European ones. But the plants and just having them around and having them in the house, the essential oils it’s so. I love to hear you saying that because that has been quite, quite connective for me as well. And I’m sure other people can relate and especially, for anyone listening who is a white person, I know a lot of bipog or, as my friend, Brandy, calls it, people of the global majority, which I love that term, talk about their ancestors a lot. And a lot of white folks also are out here reclaiming their ancestry. Like everyone has ancestors and everyone, I mean, at some point someone in your line was indigenous somewhere. And that’s so important for people to connect with in the land. So who were your nomadic people that were walking everywhere all the time?

– Is for very varied, but like lots of Celtic. So Irish, Scottish mainly, and then quite a lot of Nordic and Russian as well. So it kind of like kind of came all across there and it speckled and yeah. And then it kind of all kind of comes in, but mainly mainly European. It goes a little bit into Asia as well, but there’s quite a small amount. So yeah. But like many who, and I mean you have some European ancestry as well, like a big part of my healing has been in naming and looking at like what happened in the burning times here in Europe and where like herbal medicine, witches, which is just wise empowered women, midwives, all of them persecuted, not just women, of course. And so, yeah, and so I think I feel like part of why, ’cause I now for those who don’t know, I live in Glastonbury in the UK. When I grew up in Australia when I was 18, the moment I could get on a plane, I came over here and I look back now and when I give it us was like just getting wasted. And like I was, it’s not like I wasn’t doing the normal teen things or whatever, but I booked this trip and I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. But some part of me must have, ’cause I went to New Age, I went to all the stone circles, I went on this sacred pilgrimage, but I didn’t know what a pilgrimage was. And I would be the one at the end of the group, just there with the stones and just like, I just floored and not being able to contain the feelings that I was having or definitely not understand them. And so when I look back, I’m like, I feel like it’s that yearning for the connection to the wisdom of the ancestry, to the land of my ancestry that has brought me here. Now it was an easy enough switch to do in the sense of like the cultures aren’t that different. And yeah. So, yeah. But when I have been working with like the weeds and the wildflowers and the herbs and all of that, like nettle has been like a big plant that I have worked with. And my herbalism teacher said like, there’s some people who work with nettle for like five of years before they move on to any other plant. So it is an incredible plant. And so yeah, in my personal practice, I began working with that. But even the journey of just this one plant. I began ordering it online and shipping it in, having no idea where I was shipping it from, to then ordering it somewhere in Somerset, where I live, to ordering it from the shop up the road, like walking up there to then realizing one morning as I opened my door, it is a weed that grows abundantly if you let it. And it was literally on my doorstep, like growing through a crack.

– That’s funny.

– A crack. And so, yeah, that has very much been like the journey for me with the plants where it’s just like, they’re just there. And I think this relationship particularly with, and I’m not just talking about plants here, I’m talking about, and it is the case, particularly with sacred plants, but it’s with everything with spirituality, like we’re hungry for these tools for these practices. And we’re because this disconnection has been there and we are not aware of potential harm that we are doing, ’cause we don’t know it, and then we do, and then it’s this spiral, this spiral, this spiral where we are learning, learning better, understand opening our eyes to what is literally right in front of us.

– I love this. And thank you for sharing that experience. And again, especially for white folks listening, it’s just important to hear how someone has walked that path as a white person with reverence and respect and also humility. Because we have all messed up. We’re all gonna mess up. We’re all continuously learning and then just doing better, and I know a lot of people these days are like scared to mess up, afraid to do like the catchall thing of like do harm. But if we, anyone, I really believe, if anyone who incarnated in this lifetime, we knew we were coming and we were gonna up a lot of stuff on our way to figuring out a lot of stuff and we will all die still not having even scratched the surface on a lot of stuff.

– It’s so true. Oh God.

– Can you all hear? As soon as we got on some intent drilling started happening next door. Can you hear it or no?

– Can’t hear it.

– Oh great. So that means hopefully no one listening could hear it, but if you can, this is real life everybody. So there might be some drilling in the backgrounds. Thank you for sharing about the nettle and what’s so amazing, so I was reading, I love reading through the beginning of anyone’s oracle, anyone’s guidebook, if they are sharing stories or like the origin of where this comes from. And you mentioned that when you lived in London, was it Regent park?

– Yeah, near Regent Park.

– Rose Garden there?

– Yeah, Rose Garden.

– So when I was there in 20, not that was not 17, that was 19, I came in the summer and I stayed not too far away in like Nodding Hill-ish and I could walk, it was a long walk, but I could walk into that park and I stumbled into the Rose Garden and I was like, ah, I was literally talking to my buddy Uzo and I was like, I gotta go, I gotta go.

– They’re here.

– They’re here. I’m here. We’re here together. It was so, ’cause I don’t think I’d gotten my rose tattoo yet. I don’t remember when I got this.

– Oh, I haven’t seen that. Let’s see.

– I’ll old it up.

– Oh gorgeous.

– And even this actually I think I got it at the end of 2019. What was funny is I don’t have a high pain threshold for tattoos. All my other tattoos were like little or like anyone looking can see, I have these like little script ones on my bicep, like a little one on my foot. And so this one, I was nervous. I was like, I don’t even know if I’m be able to sit through this. So I set the appointment with the tattoo artist and I thought he was just gonna design it and he did his thing. He like doodled it on my arm and I was like, okay, cool. When should I come back to get the tattoo? ‘Cause normally I like bring someone with me to hold my hand. I like mentally prepare myself. And he’s like, “No, I drew this on you.” Like I can’t recreate this. We’re doing this right now.

– So where did you get that done?

– You’re gonna love this, in Venice Beach, ’cause I was living in Marina Delray at the time. I had a tattoo shop that I specifically picked ’cause it was called Devocean, but it was spelled D-E-V and then ocean like the ocean, a block off the beach.

– Wow.

– And I was like, “Oh, okay. I guess I’m gonna do this by myself. And I guess I’m gonna be okay.” ‘Cause it was also a coverup of my first original little tattoo. You can’t even really see it in there, which was a symbol that was like a heart and an infinity symbol to mean love is infinite. And it was the most meditative I just breathed and I was there and it was fine. I don’t know. It took like an hour, hour and a half. And then I now have my rose and everybody notices it and I love it. And he was like, “Do you want thorns on the stem?” I was like, “Yes, put the thorns.”

– Definitely, gotta protect the queen.

– And so what is the tattoo you represent for you?

– Well, so for me very much a connection to mother Mary, very much, but also just like the symbolism of the flower that blooms has numerous petals. And as it ages, I specifically wanted one that was pretty bloomed. And that’s only like the middle of the Rose’s life. But then the multi-facets of everything, the feminine, how like the center of arose kind of looks like Oyoni, like there’s just as many, the sacred geometry of it all. Like there’s just so much. Like you, why do you love them?

– It’s an impossible question to answer.

– Exactly, it’s like God. It’s like the God question.

– I mean, I think it’s the beauty that invites the soul to be here through the scent, through the ever unfolding, ever unfolding. I think that it’s impossible to look at a rose, like maybe not necessarily like a hot house, like Valentine’s day rose, but like a rose in its natural state, no matter what state it is. And I love roses in all the states. I keep them, this one is from last week. Not everyone will be able to say, but it’s like beginning to like brown and fall. And I think that roses are just as inspiring at that stage where it’s just like somehow they’re willing to kind of like release the very thing that captivated everyone to them in order to… But if they don’t do that, the fruit can’t follow and the second bloom, many roses have a second bloom, but if they don’t release the petals to the earth, to the void, the fertile void, then this is just not gonna happen. And so, yeah, I think that there is like never ending cyclic messages from the rose. So the rose for me came in 2010 when I was living in London, I was going through a difficult time and all of a sudden it just kind of like appeared through people, suggesting working with rose oil in my heart. I was going through a period of like a lot of grief, but then also just surrounding myself with beauty and nature. And then I found the Rose Garden and then began to go there each day and hear the whispers of the flowers, which I think is, to me, it’s like also just a reflection of the own inner voice. And I go there every single day and around the same time I’d been for many years, I’d been kind of getting the guidance to start my business really step into the work I’m doing now. But I couldn’t quite work out how to, I could see the end bit, but I couldn’t see the bits along the way and then write a book. Oh, how do you write a book, you write every day? So I went to the roses every day and that’s when I’d ride, like I was working full time and I just spend like 10 to 20 minutes there, just kind of like the Rose Garden, I’m just kind of like weaving in and out, sometimes sitting on the bench.

– It’s so amazing.

– And I remember this it’s one of those moments that I suspect when I die, if you do get the flashes, this will be one of the flashes, where I was sitting there under the canopy on the park bench with yeah. And I had my laptop and I’d just finished the last word of the last chapter of my first book. And I clicked file save and closed the laptop down and looked up and I was just surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of roses. And I just burst into tears because it was like, “They’d been there the whole time.” And so that’s why I love roses, but also after I began, so each time I would do a workshop or teach or whatever, I’d always find myself going there and just like gushing over flowers and I’d try so hard not to, but I’d just end up there. And I remember around like 2018, 2019, I was seeing my friend, Holly Holden, I was just like, “Oh my gosh, I’ve got all of these speaking gigs and I know my work is being called in a, not a polar different direction, but like there’s something dying and something being born and I don’t know what it is, but all I want to do and all I think I can do is either chat, sing or talk about the flowers. And then so I just let myself do it. Because when I tried not to, I’d just go there anyway. And then when I started sharing more about the roses, what I discovered was that, “oh my gosh, I wasn’t alone.” And there was something in the symbol of the roses in particular, I started calling it like the call of the rose and then like sisterhood of the rose and all of that. And it really wasn’t until I went deep on the research of this. It had popped up so many different places and I knew it was a mystical symbol and I knew it was a symbol of the goddess, particularly Mother Mary, but I had no idea how layered and how ancient it reaches back. Like even just the first rose, it is 35 million years old. It’s the Gallica. And it varies in petal numbers, but it’s generally seen as like the five petal. That’s the wild rose And that’s like the deep red as well as the white. And it’s found like in all corners of the world as well. And you can see it being like a symbol of like ISIS and Nana, Venus, like so many different goddesses. And so even as I go up the high street here in Glastonbury, there’s all these ancient sacred sites, particularly like Christian sites and Catholic sites that were actually places of worship of the feminine, the Mary, but they couldn’t say that. And so they have the rose as the symbol there and it just feels like it just is ever unfolding, ever unfolding. And again, I mean, I know I’m in good company here, when I say like the mysteries is my bag, and it’s frustrating ’cause you can’t possibly know and yet there is an inner knowing that there is like this thread.

– I just wanna cry forever. I need to like stop recording and cry for 20 minutes. So as you’re talking, I’m getting, it’s funny ’cause you mentioned like the flashes at the end of your life. I’m getting my flashes of the times in my life when the roses were there for me. So people who’ve been listening to the podcast forever, which I know there’s a lot of you, in 2014 to 2016, I was living with a partner and that ended up being like a pretty hard emotionally abusive relationship. And the last place we lived together was this house in north county, San Diego. And in the driveway, there were rose bushes. And I didn’t know that. I just like hadn’t noticed or maybe they weren’t in bloom when we first moved in. And so when they bloomed and I noticed it, I asked, I was talking to the landlord, who’s this amazing lady named Heidi, who she was like, “Yeah, clip on, take on like whatever you want.” And so literally like once a week or every other week or whatever, I would clip a couple roses and I had an alter in the living room. And then like you were saying all the stages of the roses. ‘Cause I love, even as they start to age, I also love how they change color. And if it’s like, especially the deeper, like the red or the pinks, how they just get like velvety and they’re just so sensual and magical and amazing. And then as the petals would fall off, I would just let them cover my altar. And so it was almost like that was my sanctuary in this house that it was so hard for me to live in, so hard for me to be in, so hard for me to be myself in and in a lot of ways, it wasn’t, I was also like the harder it was to be around and with and in the environment with that person, the more I was forging my capacity to be exactly who I am, but like that softness of like the roses, the rose petals, like that energy, that magic. And then I was writing them down blue sky drive. When I lived in Marina Delray in Los Angeles, I would walk through, I was like across the street from this incredibly fancy neighborhood that was like just landscaped and manicured to the nines. And there were so many different types of roses. And I would walk through, ’cause as you were talking a bout walking through Regent Park and being in the rose garden, I was like, oh, and I’m realizing I don’t have my rose like sanctuary, like my place to visit the roses in Miami yet. And I can get roses at the store. I will do that. But the thing, as I was looking at your Oracle deck the other day, and actually that I always love about all your imagery and the things that you share, you always have the light ones. You always have those light pink or the white ones. And I’m in a phase right now where I’m softening again. I feel like I’ve been softening for like the last 11 years it’s every year it’s like, how do you want me to soften this year, everybody, like realize another layer of like toughness or protection or some armor. And I’m like, damn, I really thought I was like really softened. And it’s like, no, babe, there’s more, there’s more. And so I was literally just feeling that yesterday when I was looking at your deck of like, I gotta find like a flower shop, ’cause I like how you said, you said this in the booklet of the deck of like walking to your flower shop and grabbing like five roses. I think you said that was your ritual. And I love that ’cause rather than going to like Trader Joe’s or whole foods and just grabbing whatever is available, I would like to go somewhere and have some options.

– And it can just be one rose.

– Totally.

– Just one and let that be you’re on your altar for the week. And it’s like, that’s the medicine. You can do like a plant meditation where you just ask it a question, breathe with it or. But yeah, it’s interesting. What I’m really hearing from you is you’re talking, what I’m hearing is like the softness of the rose, the invitation to soften. But also there is this kind of like depth, but it’s not so much the darkness and it’s not necessarily the hardness, but it’s the protection but also the fertile void of the soil, like the great mother, the seed that is within it all. I know we were talking about the cards that you pulled before, and I know two of them were the, it was fertile void and codes of the seeds, right, yeah. Which are just such earth earth in a winter cards. And it was interesting ’cause creating the deck, I really wanted to, I kept on saying to Katie, who’s beautiful and a dear friend now who’s the illustrate, Katie Louise, I kept on doing this thing of like bringing heaven and earth, like how do we like bring the light into the earth? Like it’s not just like celestial light. It’s like, how do we show the codes that are in everything? And I think this is like such a, it feels like a visual brief for also what I’m seeing most of us are going through right now, of how can we properly weave the sacred all the way back in? How can we see the codes within the seeds when we are deep in a winter of the fertile void of our lives when we want guidance but we maybe we’re not getting it or yeah.

– I wanna read ’cause I loved that card. The codes of the seeds. For anyone, and it’s I love your descriptions are short, and it says “The blueprint is within you take the next step” because I think you’re right. I think any anyone who’s, we’re we’re talking about this, anyone who’s listening is probably having an experience like this, at least in one area of your life. ‘Cause this is something that I talk about all the time. Healing is not like this whole cohesive thing. Like different areas of life at different times are in different places. So it’s like business and love might be going fantastic but what’s going on with your health or like your personal relationships are amazing, but your family relationships are shit. Like there’s just always the multifacetedness. So I’m sure this will resonate for anyone. “Seeds come in knowing exactly what to do. Within them, they hold the potential of entire forests and rose gardens. Seeds have of within them an intelligent timing that’s connected with the intelligence of the cosmos. We’re all seeds, future forest and gardens waiting to be born. We each hold the codes of a new humanity within us. Change is our natural state.” Now, before I go on, when you were saying again, like you sat in that rose garden were writing your book 10, 20 minutes a day, and then look, the book is like your forest. The book is like your garden. When I used to take my walks on the beach in Laguna Beach, when I couldn’t figure out how to make money yet in 2013, doing this kinda work. I didn’t know what the hell was gonna happen, but the seeds were there for all of this. For those of you listening, those of you that have made children, you literally had an embryo, an egg.

– You created.

– And now there’s a whole universe in a person. You just did it. That is amazing. Some of you create art, some of you literally have gardens, we’re gonna talk about, I gotta ask you about your garden, I was losing my mind with that story too, I’m like, oh, she lived the whole time that house was the rose garden house. I want people listening right now to feel that wonderment in awe that like, we really do all contain. So many different seeds. Whole universe is incredibly miraculous. I think I will read the rest of this, but let me let you interject anywhere. What do you wanna say?

– No, I just wanna hear you.

– No.

– I just love imagining you walking on Laguna Beach. I’m like, keep walking.

– Keep walking.

– Each new step. Keep planting a seed. Keep walking.

– It’s like everybody, I’m here interviewing my friend, Rebecca Campbell, but here’s how the interview’s gonna go. I’m gonna yell at her the whole time about how much I love this.

– I mean, not everyone could tell. I even wore my rose dress for you for.

– Yeah, anyone. Listen-

– I do have them on.

– Quick break in the show, everybody to direct your attention towards three new things that I have for you. The first is some free morning and evening sacred embodiment rituals. If you go to untameyourself.com/rituals, you can get your gorgeous hands on those rituals. It is a 33 page ebook with some prayers, some playlist recommendations, serpent meditation, an energetic attune it to the frequency of love using the imagery of a rose. It’s just really juicy. So you definitely wanna check that out. As well, you can now drop in and take an embodiment class with me every single week at the Serpent in Rose studio. If you wanna check out the schedule, go to untameyourself.com/studio for that. And if you live here in or around Miami, I am teaching twice a month locally in Miami to make sure you check the schedule for Miami classes. And then last but not least, if you are looking for a grown-up, grounded, sensual, supportive of inclusive container and community to do your healing and transformation and growth work in, make sure you check out the Wild Soul Sacred Body Community. That is my year long container for all of that. And you can visit that at untameyourself.com/wssb, as in Wild Soul Sacred Body. All that stuff can also be found at the Show Notes page or at the link in my bio, on my Instagram profile. So now everything we got going on. Back to the episode.

– For anyone watching Rebecca’s wearing a rose get up. It’s amazing. Okay. So here’s what she says.

– With some runners.

– “Seeds must be buried in the darkness before they can bloom into the light. Seeds can’t even begin to bloom without embracing the fertile void of the winter soil, they can’t flower without outgrowing the constraints of the bud.” How many of you right now are probably feeling constrained by some shit that you’re about to outgrow like that discomfort? You should be uncomfortable. You’re about to burst to your buds. “They can’t bear fruit without releasing their beauty to the earth and letting go of the very thing about them, that captivated others.” And to me, this is that like, we’re basically middle aged now. God willing we’re not no.

– But we’re fully up.

– You turned 40 Last year, right?

– I turned 40, yeah.

– I’m 38.

– They say like 36 to 42 portal is meant to be huge.

– Well, and we’re turning and I feel this turn. I feel this turn from like youth. I mean, we might all have inner youth, whatever, but I love getting older. And in this culture that is like you women needs to be afraid of this, need to get your anti-aging regimen going. Don’t let your neck skin sag like lifting everything.

– How old are you, Liz.

– I’m 38.

– 38.

– But I love this part too. They can’t bear fruit without releasing their beauty to the earth and letting go of the very thing about them that captivated others. So those of us that are middle aged plus or minus a little bit or already crossing into crone years, we get to release that the beauty of youth, ’cause I think there’s still so much beauty, so much different beauty to come. So this card delivers the message that within you, you have all you need to create what you’re distant to create, to move through everything that life delivers and to navigate your way through any terrain. And there’s more here about trusting, taking the next step, all the things. But I love this shit. I mean that card really got me. I was like, “Oh my God, we’re doing it. This is exactly what’s supposed to be happening.” The creation process is also something I wanted to ask you about because it’s so funny. I made an Oracle deck in 2017. I really have not, I self-published it. I didn’t really do much to sell it or promote it or whatever. I think we only printed like 500 of them, but it was all flowers. It was all images of flowers on black background. And I commune with those flower for like a whole week from going to get them there. And Allison, the person whose birthday we were at, where we met in the US, she was my photographer.

– No way

– Yes. Yes. ‘Cause I knew she was a photographer. And I remember I reached out to her, I was like, “By any chance, would you take pictures of flowers?” And she was like, “Flowers in my first love.” I was like, “Yes.” So she set up this whole little box on my kitchen table, put up the flowers, whatever. And then I had my first teacher training retreat right after that. And so I kept all the flowers and we did like all these different ceremonies with those flowers. So they were like, and I even have prints. I have prints on these flower of these flowers. I printed them from the deck. They hang in my home. I like remember these flowers as if they were my friends.

– Well, I think they are.

– They are, definitely are.

– I mean you have human friends too, but no, honestly I remember it was around this same time as 2010 when the rose came around the same time I started talking to the herbs too. But at first I was a little bit concerned because I was living on my own, my relationship had ended. And so I’m living in this studio apartment, like working hard, I was working, previous job, I was working as a creative director and just like really sorting it. And then I’d come home and I was just feeling depressed and just like, what is my life now kind of thing. And one weekend I knew I needed, it was when began having the flowers around, and I knew I wanted nature around but I was in an apartment, in the middle of London. And so one night I ordered all of these herbs, like baby, baby herbs, ’cause I knew I wanted them to grow. I ordered so many like probably about 50.

– Oh, my God.

– 50 pots. And I filled my kitchen. Like it was not a big kitchen, I just filled it. And I would walk in the door and I would feel them, I would feel their spirits. And I now know what was happening, but I caught myself a few times coming home and being like hello babies. And I could call them my babies out loud. And it was like, I have no judgment around that like if you wanna do that and I do do right now.

– People are listening, nodding their heads. Like what’s wrong with that?

– What’s wrong with that. But at the time I had no relationship with plants as beings. So I just began talking to them and I’m like, whoa, am I really lonely, ar am I picking up on something here?” And of course I went with the latter. And now that’s my life.

– Totally. One of the hardest things about my move to Miami was that I couldn’t take any of my plants with me. And those plants, I bought them all when I ended that relationship I mentioned earlier and I moved into my own place. That’s when I started having plants. And some of those plants were like my very first plants I bought in 2016 when I’d moved into my new place that I still had. And I had watched them through many seasons and cycles through four different apartments over the course of five years. So I sold and gave some of them to friends of mine so I could check in and be like, hi, how are my plants?

– You better be looking after them.

– You’ll see them sometimes.

– Oh, that’s so amazing.

– So creation process, that’s why I brought up my oracle deck earlier because that was such an intimate process. And so I’m so curious and I see you have like your artwork. Are these the cards? Are these the images in the background?

– Yeah, actually. So I’ve got to the left is actually all of them. Like I just turn my office into this cocoon of what I’m working with. These ones here were actually the first ones. A lot of them, I don’t think any of them actually ended up as final cards, but that was the first round of us just working together. So yeah, creative process. So I was driving to this Woodland that I often go to, my friend Tash lives on the earth there and I was visiting her. And as I pulled up in the car, I was like the rose deck. It like, it’s a thing. I emailed my publisher. I was meant to be working on a different project. And she, I expected her to be like, oh, I don’t know, like flowers really? She was like, “Yes, go do it.” And so then it was just this door open. Then it was about calling in the right artist, ’cause it’s such a intimate relationship and the way I as well, it’s energetic. And so it needs to be the right match. And so I met so many beautiful illustrators along the way who brought so much to the project as well through exploring what was right and like, so beautiful, beautiful, like three Kates actually. And then ended up being a KT who we went with in the end, but they were just part of the process as well. And so that went on for about six months to try and find artists. And actually Katie who ended up going with, she is still working as a flight attendant, so she does her business on the side and she hadn’t done any professional work before. And when I first started looking, her stuff wasn’t really even online. And so it was just this perfect timing. And then all of a sudden it opened and we connected and from there, it was just… And she’s like quite an emotional person like me and very much in the energy of it. And so we did a lot of personal healing through it. We were like properly with the rose. And let me tell you, the rose isn’t just all flowers and bloom. Like she shows you where to have boundaries. Like she’s got the thorn, she is also the dark mother who holds you in the depths. It wasn’t just all sweet rose, love, divine love of kind of process.

– One of my favorite people I love all of her decks is Alana Fairchild. Are you familiar with her?

– I am.

– In her roomy deck, I believe it’s card number two, it’s about the rose, I forget the name of the card, but I actually bought that print. The artist’s name is Rizuri, I think I’m saying that right. I bought that print, I dunno, maybe like 2017, 2018. And I have yet to frame it. My goal actually, I do wanna hang up behind me for those who are watching, who can see here. And that was also one of the things that inspired the tattoo. But a lot of that is about the relationship between the rose and the form. And like you we don’t get any of the beauty without the blood in airport, like without… And I love that so much ’cause you and I, and I know a lot of your stuff, I know like wasn’t the first book called “Light is the New Black”?

– Mm-hmm

– And I know we can not talk about light even though people get so mad when people talk about love and light now ’cause they get disused and abused. But I just love so much. I mean the rose is just inseparable from the integration of dark and light pleasure and pain. Like all of it.

– Well, I mean we know that is not actually possible to reach any kind of sustainable light without, it’s not even just the shadow, just the darkness, but also that the darkness actually is a resting place too. Like every experience I’ve had with the mother has been in the earth, in the waters. I mean it doesn’t have to always be darkness as in you can’t see anything, but it’s like it’s in the cocoon, like in the womb, it’s like it’s the void. But it can be lit from within still. And I think that is maybe a big big mystery here, but maybe that’s how we actually reach the light. ‘Cause if we are just looking towards an external light, like it’s not ours, not that we can own the light, but that lit from within, I think it can only be found in the darkness.

– There was something else I wanna just pivot a little bit, ’cause I really wanna ask you this before we have to go. How long have you been with your husband?

– Sorry, I should know that. We’ve been married five years, I think, maybe coming on eight.

– Coming on eight. And so I’m always so curious for people who are in long-term partnership, who just keep evolving and keep expanding, especially those who I regard as fellow mystics on this wild path that were on, how their relationships, evolve and unfold. Was he into this stuff when you met him? Did you have to like, for lack of a better term, like come out to him, like indoctrinate him. I don’t love the context of the word indoctrinate, but like, and as you evolved and, how did he feel about you talking to the herbs and the plants?

– So when we first met, I was, ’cause I I’d spent such a long time kind of fitting into the world and in a spiritual closet that I was just like, I’m not losing any part of myself to a relationship. And I was literally like, I’m not even gonna date someone unless I can see long-term here. And so I was very actually quite aggressive with showing who I was. And so I remember just like really, really I was trying to scare him off with my weirdness really, little did I know that when he was younger, he had “Sabrina The Teenage Witch” on his wall and “A Dream of Genie” and all that. So loved the mystical magical. So the more I tried to scare him, the more turned on he got. So that was really good. I think our relationship, he had a direct experience a couple of years into our relationship, which shifted things for him, where it was like, prior to that, he believed that there were many, many, many possible realities. So if you believe something that is the reality. He had his own experience. So he was like, oh, okay. And it was actually after that he ended up joining my company. We now he’s like a full on partner in the work that we do. We’re so different. He’s like accountant based and kind of like a cricketer, really sporty and all of that, very structural and all of that, but it really works. And we’ve had probably about 10 different marriages for sure and at the end of each of those marriages, it’s like been like right it up against it. Like we’re quite quite fiery and yeah. But we’re kind of committed to the conflict equals growth model as in like it’s breaking us through to the next thing. And it’s taken us probably for working together for about four years now to properly find our groove and now it’s working brilliantly and yeah we’re properly living it. Like it’s way more integrated at first it was more like me going out and doing it, him kind of part of it. But now we are creating our own rituals, our own thing where it’s that thing of like, not going to be spiritual, just it’s weaving its way through.

– I love that, and I also appreciate you saying we’ve had like 10 different marriages and sounds like all these different deaths and rebirths. Well that chapter’s over. Here’s the next one. And what popped into my mind, as you were saying that is to go back to that damn seed card is breaking outta the bud.

– Breaking out of the bud. Totally, totally.

– I love that.

– Totally.

– I haven’t even asked you about motherhood.

– Oh God.

– I mean, it’s kind of a unfair question to just toss in at the end.

– Will try. What’s the question.

– Oh, and I didn’t ask about the damn house. You’ll have to come back. Ah, right. Part two. We can do that.

– Listen, I want everyone to get the deck and just read the story about the house. But in the meantime, will you give us, the quick, you didn’t even know when you moved into this place that it was the old Rose House or something.

– Oh yeah. So I was in London, kept on like going where’s home, knowing I wanted nature, not sure where it’s gonna be, no guidance for about three years, like nothing. And one morning finally, I woke up and got Glastonbury.. So we drove here the next morning ’cause we had to move out like the next week, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It’s all written in there. But essentially we moved in and I look at the pictures then of the house that I like, I just was like, I know this is where we are gonna live and I saw so much potential, but it was like, it was gross. Like the garden was like, there was tarmac poured over it, but I just didn’t see that. I just knew we were meant to be there. So anyway, we began, I’d always wanted a rose garden and that was the vision I kept on getting of like a rose garden, like the David Austin roses and my favorite and that’s what’s at regions park rose garden. And I kept on seeing it, this soft grass and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I ended up finding this guy who was a local gardener, Philip, just so he could teach me about roses, ’cause I’m a bit impatient and so I wanted the proper coaching. So I would actually you doing.

– I do one on one instruction. I don’t wanna try to figure this out, I don’t wanna watch YouTube videos, someone just comes show me.

– Exactly, physically so I know it in my body. Exactly. So I did that and I found out that his job when he lived in London was Regents Park rose garden.

– Get out this.

– Like this guy, just in Glastonbury, around the corner. Anyway, we began planting roses and just also putting a lot of love into the garden. And then all these old wild roses started growing back, like all around the house. Like we didn’t even know they were there and it’s not that big a garden. It was just like literally they had been so cut back and hadn’t grown for years that we didn’t know. Anyway, started growing, started growing. And then these really old neighbors kept on passing and I didn’t know any of them, but they’d be like, “Oh, isn’t it great that you’re bringing back the garden?” I’m like, “Okay.” “Oh, isn’t it great you’re bringing back the rose cottage.” And I’m like, “What?” And then we had a friend of a friend come over and he’s like, “You do know that this used to be like dense with roses.” There was an old lady, like three owners ago, who lived here most of her life. And she used to every single spring or summer would go to London on the bus to go to Chelsea Flower Festival to get a new David Austin Rose and bring it back. And it was known as, and literally called the Old Rose Cottage. I was like, “What?” And that’s the house that I’ve been creating the deck in, and I’m like, “What?”

– Cannot make that, shut up.

– See the codes and the seeds, the codes-

– The codes and the seeds.

– The codes and the seeds, the codes and everything.

– Codes and everything. Follow your guidance and it’s okay to wait. Like, I love keeping that because we’re all so different. And you said it took three years. And what I love is in that three years, you didn’t jump the gun and go, “Well, screw it.” This is what I want so I’m just gonna go.. Like you waited

– I mean, I did try a little bit of that. I was looking at a lot of properties in London, but then in the end, I said to my husband, I’m like, “Look, I got nothing. I got this vision of lying on the grass, with the rose garden. I know it’s not Australia because I’m not afraid of snakes and spiders on the grass and it’s very soft. I wish it was, but it’s not, I don’t know where it is. You decide.

– That’s amazing. And then you went. Well, I can’t wait at some point, I’ll be able to come see this menu.

– That’d be amazing.

– So thank you so much. Again, I want everyone to get the deck. We’re gonna put all the links to everything in the Show Notes. Thank you so much for sharing all of that. Thank you for letting me share some of that.

– I wanna continue that sharing.

– I know we will.

– We just have a track tomorrow.

– Yeah, I’ll talk to you WhatsApp. But everyone listening, oh, let me tell you on the way out, when I posted, I think it was Saturday, I opened your beautiful box you sent this little, whole care package with the deck and I posted it on Instagram and I got a message from, I took a screenshot, I meant to send it to you, of a woman who was like, “Oh my goodness, I have been wanting a deck to do with,” I don’t remember if she said flowers or the rose specifically. I’m pretty sure she said the rose specifically. She’s like, “And here it is.” I was like, “Ooh.” I was like, “Enjoy, get it, let me know how you love it.” So it does feel like there is this rose sisterhood for sure. So if you know, you know, if you’re in the sisterhood-

– You know, you know, that’s a good.

– Let us know.

– I should have just put that on the back. If you know, you know.

– If you know, you know. Yeah, it’s the whole thing. All right, I love you. Thank you so much. This was amazing.

– I love you. Thank you. Thanks, everyone.

– Bye, everyone.

– Thank you.

– Lots of love.

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