Planet Waves FM: A Conversation with Elisa Novick

Elisa Novick, photo by Eric.

Greetings. We’re ready with a new edition of Planet Waves FM, this week featuring an interview with Elisa Novick. I would describe Elisa as a master healer — words I don’t use very often or speak lightly. The longer I know Elisa, and the more I work with her and learn from her, the better I understand what that means.

I spent an evening with her Monday at her home in Great Barrington, MA, speaking with her about what she does and how she does it. You will hear things in this discussion that are definitely out of the ordinary, but — as I prefer to keep all matters of a spiritual nature — eminently practical. She is someone who works on a planetary level but also serves groups and individuals. Anyone who aspires to this kind of work would benefit from hearing from her. I’m curious to hear your responses to both the material she presents and how you feel listening to her speak.

I give a brief overview of the week’s astrology at the top of the program, then I quickly move on to the conversation. The whole program is about one hour and 15 minutes, without a music break. If you would like to contact Elisa, you can reach her through her website, ThrivingPlanet.org. She mentions a Tree Play workshop, which will be held near Rhinebeck, NY on Saturday, Oct. 29, and this is open to anyone who is interested.

Here is your recording in the old player, as well as the zip file, with the complete archive of all of my podcasts. The old player will open in a new window.

15 thoughts on “Planet Waves FM: A Conversation with Elisa Novick”

  1. “Some people become aware and seem to have strength and others seem totally unable to escape their family-group programming. Some people even cannot seem to grow personally no matter who facilitates them or how good the help they get. I would love to find out why that is.”

    yes, hard to know the particulars of individuals, esp without some deep inquiry. i’d be curious to see if astrology holds a key — that it, maybe the individual charts show individual blocks and blind spots around these issues.

  2. Hey Eric. I had not been “able” to listen to this for a couple of days, then did so last night. In the meantime I had been writing notes to self fast and furiously; lots of learning was coming through the etherial pipeline.

    Within the first 10 minutes of listening to your conversation with Elisa I wrote easily a dozen pages worth of followup to those previous notes (must of taken me an hour to listen to those 10 minutes!)

    Then I was ‘done’ with the throughput and listened gently to the rest of the interview.

    Thank you. Some remarkable energy you have passed on to us with this.

    many xo’s

  3. Love the interview. The following is what I have learned/observed/experienced so please take with a grain of salt and YMMV:

    I think people abdicate their space or selves when in groups and it has to do with the genetic and socialized human knowledge from the past that survival depends on the herd or group and fitting into that group. When you speak of things from the ancestors this is one of them. We are all brought up in a group, the family group, and we are conditioned to stay within the family group’s mindset or we face consequences such as exile. Social exile feels like less love, less acceptance, and lowered ability to survive. After being conditioned for survival, we all go out into the world and seek to reconstruct our familial group dynamics (if we are not aware) or to create a group which fits our needs (if we are aware) or we live in some isolation and develop ways to cope with that.

    The lack of awareness in most people means their family group dynamics tend to propagate that lack of awareness; ignorance begets ignorance. It is therefore unusual for any member of a family group to rise above that ignorance; if they do they feel isolated until (or IF) they find a new group which fits them (or they create their own new family group). In their search, they tend to sublimate themselves to some degree for the acceptance they desperately need. Unaware people go from group to group, continually sublimating parts of themselves and never do realize what they are doing.

    It requires an inner compass or strength of purpose and self in aware people in order to remain isolated until a group which allows the self to BE the self without sublimating part of the self, is found or created.

    I also have found that the more aware a person is, the more they have had to individuate and survive alone. This causes them to be so independent (read: not needing a group to feel good or whole) that they have difficulty being in groups or attending group functions. Herding aware people (as a group starter or facilitator) is very difficult because they are not used to thinking in herd terms or operating in group ways.

    What is a mystery to me and many others is, how is it that some people seem better able to resist that group-think sublimation despite being raised in an ignorant family group? Some people become aware and seem to have strength and others seem totally unable to escape their family-group programming. Some people even cannot seem to grow personally no matter who facilitates them or how good the help they get. I would love to find out why that is.

    As for trees, I agree; they have a lot of energy and intelligence to pass on to us. I “feel” the trees around me all the time and this is why I have felt compelled to live where I do (Flagstaff) because there are a lot of trees; both pine and deciduous. They “speak” to my heart often though not in words; just feelings. They stand as sentinels of truth.

    Just my feeling about these things; your mileage may vary.

  4. Wow!!!! I don’t comment very often either but I agree completely with the consensus – best interview yet and thank you so much for sharing it with us. I was moved to tears and I’m not even sure why other than to acknowledge the deep resonance I felt with Elisa particularly when she shared her tree stories. Beautiful – thank you again so very much!

  5. A fantastic conversation. I’m a regular reader and listener, but rarely compelled to comment. The effortless quality of this discussion, full of such rich material, was simply a joy to absorb. I could listen to Elisa speak for hours.

    And the tree stories! Those were beautiful.

    If anyone wants to take a longer swim in the world of tree communication, I recommend this audio piece by Gregory Whitehead: [The Hidden Language of Trees](http://mediamogul.seas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Whitehead/Gregory_Whitehead-The_Hidden_Language_of_Trees_1998.mp3) An imagined interview between a journalist and a scientist. It’s about 14 mins long and so worth the listen.

  6. Interestingly, real synchronicity with this recording. I’ve been having many such experiences along the healing (and especially alternative healing) trajectories. I’m six months diagnosed celiac. My health has been all over the place while making adjustments. I’ve got Pluto (conjunct Uranus) opposing my Balsamic Pisces Moon (conjunct Vesta) along the Asc/Desc. That Moon/Pluto contact has stripped me bare of connectivity in the past 16 months – to compound the health/healing issues on a physiological level.

    I realised Saturday that Uranus is retrograding back onto my natal Chiron – a couple of days after I had started thinking about both receiving and practicing complementary therapies.

    I’ve acquired books in recent weeks on Runes plus Celtic, Greek & Norse mythology as well as Evolutionary Astrology and Native American (medicine, story, animal familiars, crystals and shilips [auras]) approaches). I’ve today bought some crystals and checking out some stuff at some workshops this coming Saturday. I’m about to order a tarot pack called the Wildwood Tarot (Shamanic, Celtic).

    I had a hawk visitation on Saturday (they are much more rare experiences in the UK than Stateside) and that was at the EXACT time that my Native American Medicine book was delivered.

    In recent weeks I have been communing with trees and plants and also insects. Next I plan to be communing with soil. Rituals are certainly in my sights and I aim to make hybrid of the many symbolic systems and practices I’m being exposed to. Many disparate strands for an integrated healing model have been coming to me without me even thinking about them. I’ve also taken up yoga and will be looking at Pilates and (possibly) Alexander Technique as well as Tai Chi.

    This list unpacks what I meant about the podcast being part of the recent myriad uncanny conformations that I personally am on the correct path!

    I’ve identified a 4 month diploma on energy work theory that I intend to enrol upon at the same time as submitting myself to a broad change of holistic approaches – in order to experience them viscerally. I’ve already identified higher level courses for August 2012 that will allow me to build toward practitioner status – this coming year will give me chance to soak in the energies before returning to my usual theorizing for a one year course.

    I am always wary of specific metaphysical frameworks that often frame healing perspectives. The one I choose is certainly more Gaia than God.

    At a time when what feeds us is an increasingly pressing question at all levels, this kind of emphasis is clearly crucial. It is refreshing to see the fruit of your collaborations down the years, Eric. Thanks to you both for an inspiring podcast!

    Namaste

    Alexander

  7. A quick note (this has been a very very Full Moon, feels like five packed into one):

    Fe, Madame Elise sounds like you – it must be both soothing and a little unnerving to hear yourself so near/there.

    Yes, Eric, that Yes/No issue did resound clearly, almost as if was switching in from another dimension. But ‘maybe’ is also a thing of beauty, leaving room for a way to synthesize so that inclusion can happen without exclusion.

    As for the group vs. masses question, entrainment happens you know? Whereby one is more than oneself howsoever briefly. It is simulated unity, as close as some can come and as such, something of a rehearsal. Not always bad, just not particularly useful for world-shifting.

    As for ‘individuality’ coming before union, weeeeellll, I wouldn’t put too much weight on that as a foundation for any communion. There’s too much maintenance that has to go into one’s pristine, inviolate selfness. Self is always a co-self, get used to it. That’s a particularly tough one for men, but Shiva in the forest, Abelard in the Sorbonne will tell you just about the only way to have that pristine selfhood is to chop off the parts that know better.

    I’m not advocating codependence, just saying that as a construct (a made-up, culturally-self-replicating idea), the blind spot is in the subtle repudiation upon which such Al’one-ness is founded. Very monotheistic, and it feels, well… irreal.

    Okay, enough noise from me. A real joy to hear that woman’s voice, the depth of her experience in the PW space. Many many thanks.

    ~~~

  8. Thank you so much for this interview. I was delighted to have my inkling about trees confirmed by Elisa. I can’t wait to see a few of my new friends again, and apologise for not listening more carefully : )

    Cheers from down under.

  9. Eric:

    I was very drawn to this interview and listened to it while at work.

    There is something about her voice where you can actually access the emotions and the sense of grace emanating from within. She is a remarkable channel of energy. In so many ways, she is a tree. No wonder why the two of you were giggling together towards the end!

  10. what a lovely kindred spirit!
    and simply shocking the estimated level of ancestral material- I mean we hardly have room to even be Us???!!!
    I guess I have this little chat box….

    it’s all about Love, Love.

  11. What a great interview – I used to live out in the Berkshires and am sad that I never knew Elisa was so close by. There are so many topics in this discussion that echo many things that I have been sorting out internally in the last few years. Some are so close to home that it’s a little eerie – I’m so thankful you posted this!

  12. carrie — the new player pauses & restarts at the same place, too. it’s just that the play/pause button collapses to look like it did before you started the podcast. just click the play button again if you’ve paused the podcast, and it expands again and restarts where you left off.

    the main difference i see is that the new player does not open in a new tab — so you would have to keep this page/tab open and where it is.

    that said, it does seem easier to me to rewind in the old player (easier to move backwards in small increments) — but it can be done in the new one, too.

  13. I wanted to say that I prefer the old player because if I have to stop the podcast, I can pause it at the exact place I was at and come back to it later or rewind it to hear something pertinent again whereas the new player doesn’t allow for that. If you were asking for recommendations, I would say please keep the old player always because I get interrupted a lot (with the kids around) so it is a lot better for people like me.

    Thanks for the podcast.

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