Now Let Us Begin
green: on growth + expansion from a perfect state of rest
Welcome to our very first Wednesday Night Color Study! Thank you for subscribing and being a part of my little corner of this online world we call Substack. I am so grateful you are here. If you know me or have done a color session with me, you know that I nerd out on all things color. It is my absolute pleasure to be here, talking color with you. This evening’s email will be a little longer than usual, just so we can go over a few things before we begin.
A little housekeeping before we begin:
I grew up in the Deep South, where Bible studies and fellowship suppers were/are commonly held on Wednesday nights, and while I no longer practice the religion I was raised in, I still love the aspects of gathering, growing, and sharing that church instilled in me.
I want our Wednesday Night Color Study to be a place where we can gather, grow, and share together in the name of Color. Each week, I will send you a little tidbit on the color of the month to ponder at your leisure. It is my hope that we will create a conversation in the comments about how this color and its themes are showing up for us as we build awareness of it in our lives each week. If you’d like to share privately about how this color (or any other color) is unfolding in your life, please reply to this email, and I will respond.
While I call myself a color oracle (maven? I still haven’t decided!) and have devoted many years to the study of the metaphysical, living, spiritual, soulful force of color, I am not the authority on color. I am not the guru, YOU are. You already know why certain colors show up for you in your life. I am simply a guide to help you awaken to the potential message of each color in your life and how to work with it to reconnect with your higher self. I want to help you connect with the language of color that already exists in you. There are NO WRONG ANSWERS when it comes to color.
Lastly, I have been asked many times if I am trained in color theory. I am not trained in the color theory most people are familiar with. While the concepts may be present in my work, I work with light + color, and the duality of different color combinations and how they illuminate our lives. I believe color is a fascinating phenomenon we can explore to better understand ourselves on this human journey. I could go on and on explaining things here to help you better understand the spiritual wonder of color, but I ask that you trust what your intuition says about color and what that means for you. Color is an unfolding taking place in each of our lives, with subtle powers and gifts for each of us to unwrap and recognize at different times. While I will provide different ways to work with color, all that is really needed to embrace the offering of color is to look up and notice it at play in your life. Please trust you don’t have to know it all to understand. And trust that even when you know a lot, you will still be learning and seeking to understand. I am learning and seeking to understand right beside you.
Now, let us begin.
GREEN
Humans can see more shades of green than any other color. How cool is that!? While green holds the energy of growth and expansion, its effects are calming, centering, and balancing. Green is life in a perfect state of rest. This was a mind-bending idea to me when I first heard it in my studies to become a color practitioner. But if we consider the duality of color through the lens of Aura-Soma (the system of color I work with), as seen below, green is the opposite of red. Most people understand red is associated with energy. If red = energy, green = rest. The masculine and the feminine are always opposite one another on the color rose. Green is a feminine energy. The perfect state of rest sits opposite the most intense form of energy.
The more I sit with this concept, the more I feel like, “Duh, Jessica, of course green is feminine energy.” But I didn’t understand this at first; it has actually taken me a long time! I like to learn things the hard way, so this one took a lot of soul lessons to start sinking in. I think this was because I had been so busy DOING and FORCING my entire life and I hadn’t learned to just BE. It all really sunk in hiking in the Redwood National State Park. There, amongst these trees up to 1500 years old, my nervous system received the energy of green, and that perfect state of rest finally sank in.
I grew up in an area of the United States that turned brown in winter. Green arrived in the Spring. I never considered the hard work green has to go through in order to be. The cycle of something becoming green is long, arduous, and takes much energy— green exists in different states throughout the seasons and signifies the cycle of death and rebirth. But once green is born and bursts from a seed or a bud on the tree, the hard work is past, and green enters a state of being rather than doing. Green is now open to receive the light and nourishment it needs to continue its days until it is ready to die again to be reborn.
I want you to ponder what you feel in a perfect state of rest. Do you feel:
open
calm
balanced
centered
focused
like you have time and space for things you love
able to make decisions
a new or renewed outlook on life or a certain circumstance
This is the essence of green.
I think many of us are noticing or longing for green right now because winter is almost behind us. Like a leaf, we want to stand in the light that nourishes us, soaking it all up to revive us from all the inner work we did during winter. This is why I chose green. In Northern California, green is THE color of March; it’s everywhere. I always think of it as a sign to remember that I am better at all of the above when I pursue my growth from a place of rest.
Here are some questions to consider and journal on as we notice green this week. We will call this homework, I suppose:
Do I feel like I have the space to do what needs to be done in my life?
Do I feel like my time and space are being respected by others in my life?
Do I feel open to the light and nourishment that is here to help me continue on my path of growth and healing?
Am I forcing growth or allowing it to unfold naturally?
Am I able to look at aspects of my inner being that would otherwise be difficult to look at and take responsibility for?
Am I able to form a renewed perspective or outlook on the current circumstances of my life?
Am I struggling to make decisions? And if so, which decisions am I struggling with?
Remember, duality also exists within each color, not just its opposite friend on the color flower (I will use rose and flower interchangeably here. Rose has never stuck for me these 12+ years, and I keep calling it a flower. And so it is!). As you contemplate these questions this week, you may find yourself noticing green because you are in a state of green embrace. In contrast, you might feel these are areas of your life that could use more green.
Either way, here are a few tools to help you get into a state of green embrace:
Crystal Energies: Malachite, Jade, Opal, Moldavite, Tourmaline, and Emerald (I like to wear my crystals, and 99% of mine come from my beautiful friend Dawn at Elevate Adornment. She has the most beautiful Instagram displaying her wares @elevate.adornment )
Essential Oils: Rosemary and any pine. These are best used in a diffuser and mixed with a citrus oil. My favorite is orange.
Physical: wear your favorite shade of green, make a green bouquet, water your indoor plants, eat your greens, season with rosemary, take a nap, a good night’s sleep, and last but certainly not least, get outside & go hug a tree!
Creating a Color Conversation
I want to know how this lands with you! My hope is that we can create a weekly conversation around color that enhances our growth and energy as we navigate this crazy life together. Please use the comments section to share your homework, insights, intuitive pings about green, or ways you worked with or love to work with green. Remember, there are NO WRONG ANSWERS! YOU are the authority of color in your life!
If you want some extras on color, you can check my notes section here daily-ish for more thoughts and ways to work with the color of the month. If Instagram is your thing, tag me in all your things green @colorsoulrevival
I can’t wait to commune with you in green! I will be waiting for you in the comments!
In love + light,
Jess