Do you gravitate toward certain colors in your life? Do you find yourself looking at the world through rose colored glasses (either literally or figuratively)? Well, it turns out that we’re all in relationship to the world of color, whether we’ve got a picture of our aura or not.
In this delightful conversation with aura photographer Selena Bakakis, she walks us through the rainbow – and what the colors in our field can reveal about our outlook and experiences in life.
Even if you haven’t had a chance to see your aura, this conversation offers food for thought about how color can impact us, the energy we bring into our lives, and how we can embrace those things that truly bring us joy no matter how offbeat or anticapitalist they might be.
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Find the episode wherever you listen to podcasts!
Connect with Selena
Visit her Website: YourCosmicCrown.com
Follow her on Instagram @YourCosmicCrown
If you’re in the Pacific Northwest and want to get your aura photographed, you can catch Selena at the following dates/locations:
- Saturday, June 21 at Seagrape Apothecary in Portland
- Friday, July 18 at the Shady Pines Music Festival in Sandy, OR
- Saturday, October 25 at EARTH SPIRIT in Kennewick, WA
Resources, References, and Links
Note: book recommendations include affiliate links. If you buy a copy, I’ll get a tiny commission, and that would be super cool.
Elizabeth Gilbert quote comes from Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (one of my absolute favorite books!)
Tarot cards. If you aren’t already familiar, here’s a great article from my favorite meditation app (Insight Timer)
Reiki. Japanese healing art that works on/with your energy.
Chakras. These are the energy centers of the body and are typically associated with specific colors. Selena references a few of them, but here is a rundown.
Transcript
Note: this transcript was generated by AI. Please forgive any malapropisms and misspellings. It’s the robot’s fault!
[00:00] Selena Bekakis: The magic of watching that photo develop and watching those colors come up, it’s never not awesome. It’s never not just, like, what the fuck is gonna happen? And I just love that so much. Like, there is just something so, like, marvelous and delightful and maybe even kind of playful in that. That recognition of, like, that’s you, that’s you. Like, you are walking around with all of that radiance and all of that color and all of that magic all, all the time.
[00:35] Cate Blouke: Welcome to Settling is Bullshit, a sweary podcast about claiming your joy. If you are craving healthier boundaries, a greater sense of purpose, or an increased capacity to feel at ease in your own skin, then you are in the right place, my friend. I’m your host, Cate Blouke, joy activist and life coach to smart and sensitive humans. I’m here to offer you practical tools and playful encouragement to step forward, forward and be your most awesome self. My hope is that each episode will leave you feeling a bit more empowered to make brave choices and claim your joy.
[transition music]
Hello, my Dear Happy Pride 2025. What better way to celebrate than to talk about the rainbow? Today’s guest is an aura photographer and also a burlesque dancer. And Selena also has a day job that we totally didn’t talk about because it’s not actually what’s relevant to this really fun conversation about, like, what colors can kind of mean and represent about our outlook on life, our disposition, our mood, all of it.
Now, you may be thinking, Cate, I don’t have a picture of my aura. How is this relevant to my life? And what I’ll say is that it’s a really interesting dive into thinking about, like, the colors that we gravitate towards and how those might kind of have a flavor of who we are as a person. And obviously, if you live in the Pacific Northwest and want to get a picture of your aura, I’ve included in the show notes some of Selina’s upcoming events where you can get a picture taken.
And if you’re just listening to this and not on my email list, well, first you should go sign up, go to settlingisbullshit.com and just give me your email address. And then you’ll get updates every time I post a new episode! But you’ll also be able to see the visuals of the pictures of my aura that she took way back on Halloween, which is how this all started. And also some pictures that she’s taken of herself, and that can just be a helpful thing to look at as you’re listening to her talk through some of these things.
And honestly, it’s a conversation about just the magic of being your fabulous self and embracing the things that are maybe a little bit offbeat or weird or kooky or woo. And saying, fuck, yeah, this brings me joy. I really enjoy Selena’s outlook on life around all of that, of just really embracing the things that make us happy. So it’s a fun listen. Highly recommend, as per usual.
And if you haven’t done this already, please recommend this podcast by leaving a review or a rating wherever you’re listening.
And I have a super exciting offer for you, my love. For this summer, all of it, I am offering $75 sample sessions. If you want to get a flavor of coaching with me, you can always go and book a free chemistry call. Um, we’ll hop on the phone for 30 minutes and just kind of talk about what it would be like to work together. Or now you can pay me $75 and we’ll spend an hour working on the topic, and you’ll get a sense of what it actually is like to coach with me. And I think that would be super fun. So planting that seed, putting it in your little brain as you dive into this gorgeous episode about color.
[transition music]
So. Oh, my gosh, I am so excited to be here with Selena today. I met you on Halloween or Samhain, when you were doing an aura photography event, and my aura photograph and gave me a reading, and it was so magical and on point, and I was like, I need you to have. I need to have. So we’re here to talk about auras and also about burlesque, because that is another facet of your magical magicalness. Yeah, but how. How would you introduce yourself to listeners who are you, Selena?
[04:47] Selena Bekakis: Yeah. Well, I feel like it’s fair to admit that we had a little bit of a dry run, I was gonna say, just a few minutes ago, because I was like, I don’t know what the fuck to say. And what I landed on was probably like, a little bit of an atypical introduction. Was that, like, how I feel about aura photography and the creative things that I do is aligned with that Liz Gilbert quote, which you have very kindly pushed here for me, so I don’t butcher it:
The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all and then stands back to see if we can find them. The hunt to discover those jewels, that’s creative living.
And I feel like aura photography is fully one of my strange jewels. And I feel just, like, so dynamite that I figured it out.
[05:35] Cate Blouke: Okay, well, I want to get into your backstory. But before you even go there, like, what even is an aura and how do you take a picture of it?
[05:42] Selena Bekakis: Great. Okay. So I think it is very, very important for me to sort of put a big umbrella qualifier on this. That, like, I being on this side of things as the person who sort of has positioned myself as some kind of knower or authority, I am very much still, like, in the caterpillar goo of learning about auras and learning about colors. And I often encourage people who I can tell or, because they ask, want a lot more to do as much reading as you can, because there are a lot of very sweet and nuanced variations depending on who you talk to and what their background is and, you know, what kind of, like, what their orientation is towards with these colors. And so how I like to talk about the colors that I see is from a pretty deeply intuitive place.
[06:39] Cate Blouke: So. Okay, but, like, backing up just even a little bit. What is an aura?
[06:44] Selena Bekakis: An aura is the electromagnetic field that is around every living being. So you, me, a mushroom, a blade of grass, any living being has this electromagnetic energetic output. And it has. Is. Has been come to acceptance that that energetic output has color associations. And then with those colors come meaning and nuance.
[07:08] Cate Blouke: Right.
[07:09] Selena Bekakis: So that is an aura. And it is, as I understand, I can’t see auras. Um, but I’ve read about people who can, and I’ve read about things you can do to sort of train yourself. I have not given that a whole lot of time or energy because I’m. I’m just very satisfied and settled with where I am at in the journey with the camera and with the photos that it produces. Um, but, yeah, it is. It is invisible to most people. Although I’ve. I’ve been told that some people can see auras. Many people who come to me afterwards will say that they have had someone who could see their colors and have told them what they were. And this is what’s interesting, too, is that we’re not static at all. Okay.
[07:48] Cate Blouke: Yeah, that was gonna be. My next question was like, does. Do we have kind of a core color that stays with us, or do we change all the time? Is it like a mood ring? Is our aura our, you know, electromagnetic mood ring?
[08:05] Selena Bekakis: Yeah, I think that’s a great way to put it. And I think my short answer is gonna be, yep. Okay, so. So what I’ve kind of come to embrace and see in the photos, largely through photographing myself kind of at nauseam, is that. So when we’re looking at an aura photo I. I lovingly call the colors that are, like, very close to the body and, like, very hugged in around you, the weather system.
[08:31] Cate Blouke: Okay.
[08:32] Selena Bekakis: And that. That will change. I could take a photo of you and then take a photo of you five hours later, and those colors may have shifted because we’re in a different mental space, or we’re thinking about something different, or our mood has changed, or we have a different thought or energy going. And what I’ve sort of observed is that the further afield you go through the layers of the aura, the more you get into what I refer to in the readings as, like, essence colors. The colors that tend to shift less or less drastically over short periods of time, but can change drastically with, like, a large emotional impact, or if you, like, are really in, like, a stress or an excitement or just over time. And I. Most of my photos, I know what my baseline is, and I can see where I’m not like, with my baseline. And I do lots of manipulation things with the camera. Like, I will really think about something, or I will focus on an emotion that’s associated with a color because I want to see if I can get myself to pull that color.
[09:32] Cate Blouke: How does that work?
[09:34] Selena Bekakis: I would say that I have, like, about a 70% success rate, which feels pretty statistical, given that this is all just, like, completely fucking invented. Like, come on. I mean, I’m not. I love this so much, but I’m not so far down the rabbit hole to say that, like, there’s probably a great deal of accuracy and intuition that assigns meaning to these colors, but it’s still humans that have done that assignment. It’s.
This was still invented somewhere along the way. The fact that. That so many people identify very closely with the readings that I give is the part that I’m like, oh, I don’t know how this. Cause I’m just reading the colors, and I am also reading the person sitting in front of me. Right. I don’t really take any responsibility for, you know, how people feel, but I just want them to be connected. Like, if I can establish that, then whatever emotions, they have that kind of inner tube, that connection with themselves and with the photo. That’s. That’s my goal. Yeah.
[10:35] Cate Blouke: So what does. So it’s cute. I have. I asked you. You started doing mine, and I was like, oh, my God, can I record this?
[10:43] Selena Bekakis: Yeah, yeah.
[10:44] Cate Blouke: And I have the recording, and I will probably tack it on to the end of our. Oh, cool. And because part of the reason that we’re here is because I was having that experience of just like, how do you know this?
[10:58] Selena Bekakis: Right?
[10:59] Cate Blouke: And I guess I’m just so curious, like, what is it that you are able to see in someone’s aura?
[11:10] Selena Bekakis: Speaking a bit more clinically, I would say that you can really see depending on what colors they pull, mood and disposition of that moment. You can also see those ways that people interpret the world or go about life or like, their general mindset towards things.
And there are things that I read in the photos that I know are very divergent than how other aura photographers read them. Because, you know, the, the aura cam, like, stripping it all the way back. The aura cam, the equipment that I use, you know, comes with a guide, like, and it tells me blue means this and green means this. And I was like, okay, well, this is. Feels very basic. So I, you know, I kind of dialed into the interwebs and, you know, tapped into a few people who, you know, talk about energy and auras, and then a few people who actually have been doing aura photography. Like, I kind of tried to take, like, a large sample group and, you know, it was very much.
I took what I liked and I left the rest because ultimately, like, I have to believe in what I’m delivering and I have to feel confident enough to field questions about it, should I get them. And so there were some things that, in my very Scorpio way, I was like, I don’t, I don’t like that. I don’t. I don’t like that. I don’t agree with that. I’m not, I’m not doing that. I don’t. I’m not going to say that.
[12:34] Cate Blouke: Deeply relatable, even though I’m not a Scorpio. But I think, you know, I just think about tarot readings, right? You know, we have this system, we have these 78 cards. They have archetypical meanings. But like any tarot reader you go to, you’re going to pull the same cards, you’re going to get a different reading, right? And I think that’s what is really lovely about the personal dynamic of all of this stuff, right?
It’s like I can go to a different aura photographer and they’re going to tell me something different. And that, you know, won’t make it untrue. It’s just like, oh, what’s the dynamic here that this person is going to help me to, to see? So what I would love to hear, like, your take on, like, the sort of broad color energies of a person’s disposition. So, like, if somebody’s like, like a yellow disposition what does that mean?
[13:31] Selena Bekakis: I’ve really come to embrace yellow as just very joyful. This is how. This is how I approach yellow. That of all the colors that can mean how you do life or how you look at the world or how you interpret things, which a lot of colors can give that yellow is just joy. Like, get the fuck out of a yellow’s way and let them shine their joy light. Like, that’s what they’re here to do. Like, let yellow just go be shiny and joyful and just, like, make a. Make a nice little, like, moat of space around them to just be joy.
So I love when yellow shows up because I’m like, what’s so happy right now? What’s exciting you? Like, what is your joy right now? And this is what I really love. When I see yellow, as I’m always like, tell me more. Right? Like. And I think that’s sort of you know, skipping around just a bit. Like, I. I think that that is something that I really appreciate about my approach is, like, not everyone that sits with me gets that, but some people do of where I’m just like, I see joy. And now I would love to know what you’ve got going on, because, like, I’m not. I’m not a psychic, I’m not a medium. Like, I don’t know, like, what else it is that you have going on, but this is what I see with this color. And, like, it looks really exciting and, like, can I know about it? And I think that that opens it up for more of a dialogue.
We can get really disconnected from ourselves, or we can be in environments that just don’t have us feeling our best or that slowly erode our good feelings about ourselves that we don’t realize. And this is the one thing that I really love about aura photography is that it is a. It is a piece of art of you. For you.
[15:11] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[15:11] Selena Bekakis: And that is the marvel, the. The magic of watching that photo develop and watching those colors come up. It’s never not awesome. It’s never not just like, what the fuck is gonna happen? And I just love that so much.
Like, there is just something so, like, marvelous and delightful and maybe even kind of playful in that of just like, what’s it gonna be?
And then that recognition of, like, that’s you, that’s you. Like, you are walking around with all of that radiance and all of that color and all of that magic all the time.
And it may not be the same colors, but, like, that is what’s happening, and that’s the thing I like to tell people, especially when we talk about the anatomy of the aura and, like, the further afield you get, you get more into those essence colors. And I tell people, like, everything that you encounter somebody honking their horn at you, somebody being, like, weird to you in a parking lot, like, in a grocery, wherever the fuck is that everything that comes at you passes literally through the filters of those colors, like, the outer edges of your aura and then in. And it just, like, it doesn’t matter what it is.
And I think reminding people of their own fortitude through that, right? Of, like, these colors are here and they’re part of you, but, like, you can also embrace those as a protection. There are certain colors that are very quiet, but they’re very powerful.
Like blue. Blue is one of them. Like, blue is a very quiet, powerful color. And I’m always like, do you know about yourself? Because oftentimes, right, like, we’re. We’re told. We’re told usually most of us, so many not good things, Maybe even since we were young, Right. You know, and even if it wasn’t from family members, if it was like, peers and kids are so fucking mean to each other.
[16:59] Cate Blouke: Kids are super mean, dude.
[17:00] Selena Bekakis: Just what the fuck? And so I feel like just like the. The process of becoming an adult also includes a lot of erosion. I think, of, like, that playful self and of that inquisitive self. And when we have moments as adults where we can feel that deficit even if we don’t name it. That, in my mind, is the thing that brings people to a curiosity, like aura photography. And you get to reacquaint with a part of yourself that maybe you don’t even remember, but now suddenly you feel, like, very invested in learning again, you know, That’s. That’s what I love. That’s what I love about it, is just, like, reacquainting people with parts of themselves that they either, like, really are hungry to be reminded of or needed it and didn’t know it or, like, are so grateful when that reminder arrives. Right?
[17:54] Cate Blouke: Yeah. Because something calls us to these practices. Right. Whether it’s aura photography or tarot or Reiki or psychic readings. There’s a part of us that’s like, I am curious to see what. What someone who doesn’t know me sees in me.
[18:12] Selena Bekakis: Yeah, Right.
[18:12] Cate Blouke: Or around me or on me or for me. And so there is some sort of call and. Yeah, I love that. So we talked about yellow.
[18:23] Selena Bekakis: Yeah.
[18:24] Cate Blouke: Talked a little bit about blue.
[18:25] Selena Bekakis: Yeah.
[18:26] Cate Blouke: Uh, what. What is purple? As someone who has purple Hair at the moment.
[18:32] Selena Bekakis: That’s right.
[18:33] Cate Blouke: Um, and that’s one of my brand colors and one of my favorite colors. So what does purple represent?
[18:38] Selena Bekakis: Purple is just. Purple is lovely for a lot of reasons. And purple is a very, like, wonderful, layered, complex color because there’s like, purple and then there’s violet, and then there’s kind of like that indigo-y purple into indigo kind of.
So they all kind of carry, like, slightly different meanings. But what I really love when I see purple show up. How I’ve come to read that is that it often really speaks to that person’s sort of intuition, empathy, and alignment with themselves. And how I usually like to tell people is that usually when that much purple shows up, it oftentimes is like some kind of spiritual or energetic alignment. It’s like sort of a demonstration of that.
I also tend to see is that people who carry a lot of purple tend to be folks who have found that thing in their life that really makes them feel joy and vitality. It’s rarely the thing that we do for money. It’s almost always something that’s small and on the side. And I’m gonna kind of go off on a small tangent because a really good friend of mine, who’s she and I talk a lot about how we as adults with these very busy lives and needing to feed ourselves and needing to pay bills and do all these things, how we stay connected to those things that really make us feel alive and vital. Right. Not living. Not the same.
[20:11] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[20:11] Selena Bekakis: And so what I love about purple is that it’s almost always someone who has found that thing. And the part two of that with my friend that we talk about is just like this really interesting broader recognition that’s showing up more in the vernacular of how much patriarchy has whittled away at like, craft and hobbies and how often the things that women like, traditionally, you know, women do, not to be on the gender binary, but just to be able to say it plainly, any kind of craft, sewing, embroidery repair, work on, clothing stitching, sewing, you know, those old. Those old world practices that used to be pretty essential to life are now considered, you know, accessory because there’s just so much machine, blah, blah, blah, blah. But we talk about that a lot about the denigration of, like, hobbies and craft.
And so I have found that, like my small, like, anti-patriarchy, anti-capitalist needle to thread when I’m doing this work is to uplift and validate the sweet, tender things that people primarily feminine presenting folks really love that brings them Joy that brings them that vitality that is often done with your hands, you know, craft. And I think about when I speaking to people about the presence of purple is. I’m just like, it can be walking in the woods and you like to collect rocks or sticks or little bits of moss. Yeah, I love. I’m like, oh, that’s a cool. That’s a cool clump of moss.
[21:55] Cate Blouke: Yeah. I looked, I look for heart shaped rocks.
[22:00] Selena Bekakis: Say, my mom loves heart shaped rocks. It’s been a thing since I was little. And so reminding people that, like, this purple is so clarified and beautiful because you have found a way to include that thing in your life that is really keeping you vital. And it’s rarely the thing that we do for money.
[22:18] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[22:18] Selena Bekakis: And when I say that, usually a big smile comes across people’s faces because they can be reminded that it is not just this thing to get, like, dismissed, which it often is by society at large and maybe even by family members and parents because they’re all just parroting the same fucking garbage rhetoric that was said to them when they were kids that dismissed their creative instincts. That is how we all end up so miserable as adults!
And so just reminding people of that of just like, is it baking? Is it knitting? Is it a book club? These are all creative expressions. And.
And what I love when I see purple show up is that it’s usually somebody who’s very sensitive. It’s usually somebody who’s very empathetic. So when I see that much purple occupying someone’s space, I’m always just like, how’s that feeling? Like, how is that feeling? It must be fucking awesome. And sometimes people don’t realize, but when you can affirm that, like, you know what, your baking hobby is essential and just like, fuck all the way off to anyone who tries to reduce that or minimize it or not celebrate it with you, the way that it lives so fully for you in your life and in your sphere.
[23:28] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[23:29] Selena Bekakis: Ugh.
[23:29] Cate Blouke: I mean, that just affirms my deep and abiding love of purple. Like, what?
[23:34] Selena Bekakis: So.
[23:34] Cate Blouke: So do you feel like there’s a correlation between kind of aura color and just how people, I don’t know, experience color, color in their lives and in their worlds or bringing that in.
[23:48] Selena Bekakis: You know, I think the more that I’m doing this, the. The more I’m gonna move from like an I don’t know to a yes, probably.
[23:56] Cate Blouke: Okay.
[23:57] Selena Bekakis: Um, so this happened with you, very dramatically happened with you, where people will show up and either be predominantly wearing a color or have a hair color that shows up as, like, a predominant color in their field. And you will recall that I was like, well, I’ll be goddamn. After your photo came all the way, you literally had the exact same colors in your aura as your logo. And you handed me one of your stickers, and I was like, sticker photo. I was like, this is insane.
[24:35] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[24:36] Selena Bekakis: Literally, your aura colors are your logo colors. And you like. You literally, like, exact. Like, pull up. Pull up the fucking pantone color chart right now, because. Tell me I’m wrong.
[24:48] Cate Blouke: Yeah, it was amazing, especially because I had just gotten those stickers. I had just recently gotten that logo overhaul, and it was just wonderful and magical. And I was wearing my unicorn onesie that kind of, like, went with the whole color palette.
[25:02] Selena Bekakis: It was perfect. It was just.
[25:03] Cate Blouke: It was pretty great.
[25:04] Selena Bekakis: It was so good. So this is what I love. I think that we generally know about ourselves. And I’ve definitely sat down with some people who. Who had some pretty. Who had some pretty grim auras. And what’s curious and what reminded me of that is that often one of the colors that will show up in those very distressed photos is purple. And so this is where we kind of get to, like, the shadow side and the light side of just, like, sometimes it’s about who you are, how you see the world, how you go about life, how you interpret things, and sometimes it’s about what you are in need of.
Purple is about empathy and intuition and softness and caring. That’s definitely part of it. Of just wanting to feel like I can, like, have some kind of messaging and not just, like, float through a reading and be like, oh, I don’t see you, because it’s going to be awkward and difficult to talk about something that’s kind of painful.
[26:00] Cate Blouke: That.
[26:01] Selena Bekakis: That part of it is a little bit tricky for purple because oftentimes if people are in a dark place and they pull purple, it is because they are in desperate need of the resources that purple offers. Empathy. Someone to be attuned to them, someone to offer kindness and softness and someone to just see them, usually someone to hold space.
Purples are usually folks who are excellent at holding space because they’ve been through some shit, they can see it. When other people are going through some shit, they can see it because they know. They. They. They know. They recognize it in themselves. And so that’s where purples are incredibly skilled.
And, like, an incredible. An incredible part of, like, this whole dynamic of, like, what each of the colors brings, because this is what I love is way, way, way Back in the day when I used to teach dance, on the first day of class, I would ask everyone to tell me, like, what was their name? What was their reason for being in class? And what is something that’s really fun that you would consider, like, your secret superpower? Like, no one in the room would guess that about you. And people always said, like, wonderfully grounded things, like, I’m excellent at gardening, or, like, I actually write, and I think I’m a really good storyteller. Like, I really loved making a space where people would want to brag on themselves. And you’d go around the room and you’d get done and be like, what a delightful village. We have someone who likes to cook. We have someone who’s good at tending the garden. We have someone who loves writing and is into playwriting. And so we have our entertainment. Like, look at this amazing village. And this is so interesting for myself as the practitioner, that’s the right word. You know, when I’m. When I’m doing this all day long and I’m. I’m looking at all these photos and looking at all this color, I’m just like, what an insane stitching together we are as the collective.
[27:49] Cate Blouke: Yeah. Like, you know, it’s really lovely to sort of watch that in your Instagram feed, right, because you’ll post pictures of. Of the auras, and they are. They’re like, all so different.
[28:02] Selena Bekakis: They’re so different.
[28:03] Cate Blouke: So, you know, interweaving a lot of the same shit. But it’s like this, you know, we’re all a part of the rainbow.
[28:10] Selena Bekakis: Like, really, we really, truly are. Yeah. Yeah. It’s so very cool.
[28:14] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[28:15] Selena Bekakis: Yeah.
[28:15] Cate Blouke: Okay, so let’s just keep working backwards. So blue. What. What’s going on when blue shows up?
[28:23] Selena Bekakis: Well, it depends on what shade. You know, there’s, like, lighter blue, like, kind of what you would think of as kind of more in that, like, sort of soft, like kind of baby blue, sort of like past, like, the lighter blue sky. Blue means something very different than indigo. But what I love about blue and indigo is that collectively, they do have some overlap. And it’s a lot about curiosity, philosophy, inquisitive.
What I always like to remind people of is, like, when we see that shade of blue, you know, what does it remind us of in real life? We have the ocean, we have rain, we have air over great distances that are all these incredible colors of blue, and they are very, very powerful, that they don’t need to announce themselves because they just are. And so when I sit down with somebody who’s got a lot of blue. That’s that whole. Do you know about yourself?
Because it’s very easy for us, especially right now, where the person who is, like, the most blustery and the most puffed up and dominating the most physical space is perceived to be the person with power. And it’s almost always the person who’s hugging the wall that doesn’t want to be in the spotlight. That is very authentically and genuinely powerful. But have managed oftentimes. Right. This is a big, sweeping blanket statement. But, like, oftentimes have managed to cross paths with, like, just the wrong kind of psycho enough times. Narcissists, bullies, whatever, that they. They are very diminished and they don’t know about themselves.
And so when I sit with people who are blue, I’m always like, have you. Have you learned about yourself yet? Like, do you know, Am I sitting with someone who already knows, or are you here to start learning about it? Right. Is it the beginning of your journey. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yep. So I love blue and indigo.
You know, indigo is much higher up on the chakra ladder. Like, indigo is at the very top, like, crown chakra, third eye. It’s sitting up there. So, you know, very high degree of, like, attunement, alignment, you know, curiosity, intuition. Right, all those things. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
[30:37] Cate Blouke: Green.
[30:38] Selena Bekakis: Green. I love green so much. So on the chakra ladder, you know, green sits at heart. I like to embrace green as, like, our mental color. It’s our thinking color. Green, as I’ve really come to embrace it, is very much the filter. So if we’re up here in, like, blue and purple land, in all of our, like, ideation and positing and concepting and thinking, we pass all of that through the filter of green, which makes it a tangible idea that we can bring to life.
So I often will give the example of, you know, making a dress or making a cake or doing a painting that you have this idea or this inspiration, but it’s very nebulous and unexact. And then you pass that through the filter of green. And then it’s suddenly like, I know exactly what kind of dress I want to make. I know what I want to pattern. I know what material I’m going to go buy, you know, or like, whatever that is. And I love green for that reason.
Green also has, like, a lot of definition and variety to it. You know, green has some abundance to it and some momentum. So I really love depending on where green shows up in the. It can be about what I just said, or it can really be about having some momentum behind you for something that you’d like to do.
Like think about plants and how they photosynthesize. Even the fact that money is green. At least in the U.S. it’s green, you know, so we, we think about, like, the color that we make our currency, that most of us deal with daily. And so there’s just a lot of momentum.
But how I like to tell people is that, like, green is a slow burn, very supportive color because photosynthesis is a long cyclical process. It always happens again, but it takes a while to complete one cycle.
So I like to remind people, like, if you’re thinking about something or whatever that thing is, and it can be big or small, I feel like oftentimes I can see, like, the wheels turning and people are trying to think of, like, this big, grand, like, marvelous thing that they, like, haven’t figured out what I’m talking about. And I’m like, no, no, no. It can be much more subtle. It can be something simple. Like, I’ve been wanting to paint a wall in my house for like two years and I’m finally going to do it this weekend, right. That green kicks in to support us. So I really love when green shows up over heart chakra because it can mean a lot about how you show love and care and affection and effort and attention. And I love green for that reason. Green is one of my favorites.
[33:03] Cate Blouke: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s interesting. I just recently moved offices and my former office was green and now I’ve got some personal purple walls, but I.
[33:12] Selena Bekakis: Feel like I love it.
[33:13] Cate Blouke: I like that photosynthesis, that, like, slow unfolding energy of, like, bringing something out into the world. Yeah, yeah, okay. We touched, we talked about yellow at the top. So orange.
[33:32] Selena Bekakis: I think I’ve come to have a very different embrace of orange than the majority of what I’ve consumed on orange. And I’ve really come to embrace orange as like a rebel color. Rebel. I. I think that oranges have a lot of, like, very interesting and curious rebel rebellion to them. And not like a rebel for rebel sake. Right? It’s not, it’s not just like, obnoxious and vibrato. I like orange because oranges tend to have an interest and an ability to plan and organize and be structured, but oranges are very unafraid to go, ooh, something shiny and completely go off the path, go away from the plan and pursue the thing that they think is curious or interesting.
And what I love to say about oranges is that they just carry this real, like, rebel audacity to them. So, like, oranges have that mindset to just be, like, they’re available generally for the happy accident. They’re generally available for life to happen and for them to be able to really make lemonade out of that.
And what I also love about oranges that is more part of, like, the common sort of embrace of that color is that I’ve heard. I. I’ve heard and I’ve read a fair bit about orange in community. Oranges tend to be very unintentionally keen at developing community around that because they want to be in league with other people who were like, oh, my God, I was rock climbing the other day, and I just tried this weird thing with my hand, and I think I invented a new hold. And, like, I can’t wait to show you. And, like, even though I still fell, like, while I was training, right? Like, that is what oranges have the ability to do. And I love that about them. Like. Like, yeah, I love that about them.
And orange and magenta kind of carry some of that. Like, I love to say that, like, orange is rebel in doing, and magenta is orange and spirit. So oranges are very much just like, I’m going on an adventure, and I would love for you to get in the boat and row, but if you don’t want to, that’s fine. But you don’t get to stand in my way. And are usually folks who are just your quintessential march to the beat of their own drum.
And I usually, like, I always tell people, I’m like, you probably already know this about yourself to some degree. Like, you probably have known about yourself for a long time that you think differently about things that, like, you think slightly adjacent to what is, quote unquote, normal. And you’ve probably known that, like, the way that you talked or thought about things when you were a kid would have been different from your peers, would have been slightly different than the way you heard adults explain it. Or, like, maybe as you went through school or life or early on in your jobs, right? When you’re still, like, learning and forming, but, like, you can still understand that. Like. Like, I think about that just a little bit differently, right? And so I love magentas for that also of, like, get in the boat and row, but you don’t get to be in my way. And this is also what I love about oranges, is that oranges tend to be pretty nimble because they often carry that mindset of just like, well, this is cool. This is cool, too. They don’t tend to get hung up for long if they end up in a situation where, you know, they are, like, in an environment where there’s some kind of, like, thwarting or some kind of blocking happening, whatever that is, however subtle, whether it’s just, like, small verbal digs or someone dissuading them from the thing they know they want to do. Oranges are pretty good at getting out of that. Like, oranges don’t stay boondoggled for long.
[37:09] Cate Blouke: Okay, and what about red, then?
[37:12] Selena Bekakis: Red. I always tell reds, if you have a red in the friend group, let them pack the car, let them plan the vacation. Reds are on task. Reds are the project managers and the accountants and the athletes of the world. That is who reds are. Reds are they love order and organization and structure. Red is also, you know, and I lovingly say it’s like that Venn diagram of, like, my athletes and my nerds, because those are people who generally really appreciate order and structure and a plan and organization. And reds are, I think, a lot of times they carry, like, a very strong, like, project manager vibe, like, however you really want to, like, call that or vocab that out through different types of existence. But this is what I love about reds. Red is also at the bottom of the chakra ladder. It’s right. It’s our root chakra. It’s our closest energetic node to the earth. So there’s something very grounded and very physical about red. But that’s where sort of red and orange diverge. Is that like a. Red is like. Like. No, we’re staying on task. We’re following the plan. We’re staying ordered and organized. And oranges are like, yes, until.
[38:22] Cate Blouke: Until there’s a shiny that I want to pursue.
[38:24] Selena Bekakis: Yes, until.
[38:26] Cate Blouke: Yeah, yeah.
[38:26] Selena Bekakis: And I feel like what’s really lovely is that we’ve kind of sort of started at, like, the deep spectrum end of the rainbow and sort of gone, you know, from, like, crown chakra all the way down to root chakra. But what’s wild is that, you know, it’s very much like tree branches. It’s like red is the this. And red then goes into orange, which is some of red, but then, like, its own divergence. And then as you get sort of higher up this, like, chakra ladder or like, the tree of energetic nodes, you end up really just kind of having, like, sweet little departures and from the previous color and evolution into the other color. It’s like the decade never ends on the. On the 00, right? The decade ends two or three years in. Right. When we think about fashion, and it’s like we talk about fashion of the late 90s, we also mean 2003. Right. Like, you know what I mean? Like, we also. And so I feel like that’s kind of what these colors do, is that they. They sort of iterate, and then they just gain something new as you sort of climb.
[39:27] Cate Blouke: Yeah. And what’s really cool at looking at the pictures. Right. Is like, nobody is just one thing.
[39:31] Selena Bekakis: Rarely. I mean, sometimes people are all like. Sometimes I feel like the colors that I’ve gotten that are singular, all purple, all blue, or all red, which is interesting. I’ve never, ever polled someone who was, like, all yellow, all orange, all green. It’s just been purple, blue, and red. Red tends to be pretty even and very saturated. Purple tends to have a lot of different tonality. Like, it will get very sort of pastel and very light, and then it will go deep, kind of into that indigo zone. And then the blue also tends to carry, like, that sort of soft sky blue into an indigo. Sometimes there’s a little bit of, like, teal in there, like turquoise. But. But yeah, it’s also very curious. And I’ve spent some time thinking about that, but I haven’t really formed many thoughts on that yet other than that. Some of the colors that I mentioned, they’re pretty intense. They’re either, like, a very intense vibration or a very, like, buoyant, busy vibration. That’s like. They’re both equally, like, challenging emotionally or energetically to stay in for too long or be in too much of. I think probably the only way to pull colors like that would be if somebody was, like, having an altered experience. I would guess that, like, I could probably, you know, guide someone in such a way if they were on some kind of substance, like, to think of a thing or, like, give just a few sort of, like, thought prompts or, like, think of a time when or what is a memory. That that’s what I do with myself without being altered. That’s what I do with the camera. Because I take a photo of myself at the beginning of every session to make sure that the camera’s calibrated and, like, all the things are working as I’m expecting them to. And so I. I often try to, like. I mean, I’m lovingly saying, trick the camera. I mean, I’m not tricking anybody, but it’s just like, can I get more yellow today than I normally do? And I will just. Just sit and I will smile. And I will often think about my love because she makes me very happy. And. And I have. I’ve gotten like an overwhelming amount of yellow before. And yellow, I usually get small swaths of it, but never like a dominance. And I’ve gotten that when I just really like tune in and pause and think. Which is also curious because like I’m literally getting ready to have a six hour event and like my first person is usually like already in the shop or around waiting and so there’s not like, like, oh yeah, like drop in and like. No, no, like at the end of the day, like I’m ultimately running a business, right. And I have to stay like present and up here. Like, I can’t be doing this like energetic dive. I’ve got to be the one who carries the room all day.
[42:20] Cate Blouke: Yeah. Well, and what I hear in that is just the way in which like our thoughts matter.
[42:27] Selena Bekakis: They matter.
[42:28] Cate Blouke: And, and like the things that we feed our little brains really do matter and really can have an impact.
[42:35] Selena Bekakis: Yeah, big time.
[42:36] Cate Blouke: Right. And then it just like actually visually shows up in aura photography is like super cool to me.
[42:41] Selena Bekakis: Like, that’s what I love because it’s a reminder. It’s like, see.
[42:46] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[42:46] Selena Bekakis: How you speak to yourself and all of those, like, you know, those like thought goblins sometimes that get ahold of us, like, all of that is like, like it means something and it matters. Yeah, yeah.
[42:59] Cate Blouke: It like impacts us on an electromagnetic energetic level. I would love to know how you found your way to aura photography as one of the gems deep within you.
[43:11] Selena Bekakis: Yes. I had a direct report at the job I was working at who later became a very good friend and we are still very close. And she was like, gonna go get an aura photo this weekend. And I was like, what the fuck is that? And this was probably eight years ago, nine years ago now. And I went and got an aura photo done and I was like, I’m sorry, what? When can I come back? And you know, the, the way that it was happening was that like the event was sold out, but there was like a small opportunity to like kind of do a drop in. And I just, like, I was there with my cash and I was ready to stand in line and I got in. And then a few years later I went and had another one. And ever since then, like, I’ve just loved it. Like I’ve loved it. So before I knew the process of procuring this camera equipment, you know, I was like, oh, always like googling, like aura photography X whatever city I was going to yeah. So Lindsay and I went up to B.C. for her birthday and. And I googled aura photography before I went and magically found someone. We had an aura photo. Lindsay had never had one. I introduced her to even the concept and what it was. And we went and we got one and we paid for one for me, one for her, and one for us together. And the ORA reader up there was so lovely. And I mean, she must have spent like damn near 45 minutes with us just on our three photos, which is really beautiful. And. And we got in the car and I was like, why am I not doing this? Like, I love this so much. Why am I not doing this? That thought quickly, within a few minutes, evolved into, I’m doing this. Let’s spend the drive home thinking of a business name. And we rolled around with a few things. None of them ended up being the winner. Your Cosmic Crown. Well, Cosmic Crown came to me, I think, like maybe a week or two later, because when my brain gets to needling on something I like, that is my creative brain. I’m in it, I’m with it, I’m on it.
[45:12] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[45:13] Selena Bekakis: And so that was how it started. And then I, you know, I literally just started searching about the camera equipment. I had no idea in hindsight now I just like, I feel like it’s very comical that I thought it was going to be. I had a figure in my head this far exceeded that figure. And I also just like had this. I mean, because I. I do have a bit of a photography background, so I really love photograph in high school and college and I had my own enlarger and I was developing my own film and my own photos in a makeshift bathroom slash darkroom. So I’ve always loved photography. And so I think I just had some thought it was instinct on what this camera equipment would be or like how it would be that I would procure it or make it or whatever. No fake news. Big fucking fake news. So I found a company that, you know, is probably not the only company in the world, but the only company in the world that Google would show me, I guess. Right. You know, And I looked through a couple different search engines just in case, but they’re located in California. It’s a. It’s not necessarily an interview process, but kind of. And so I, I got a camera from them and I was off to the races. And that is how I sort of ended up in this place. And it has just been completely awesome. It’s been completely awesome. I have, I just, I. I have so much Joy. Like, just such a wild, like, disbelieving gratitude. Every day that I do this and I come home, it’s somehow I’m so. I’m so just, like, wildly energized. Like, I mean, I wake up in the day and I’m like, okay, great. I’m excited to do this thing that I love. And I get home and I’m just, like, on fire. And I don’t even know how that’s possible, to be expending for six hours through, like, really wild emotional territory with people and feel so vital and feel so alive, but I do. Yeah.
[47:13] Cate Blouke: And that is very obvious in your sessions.
[47:16] Selena Bekakis: Oh, thank you. Thank you. It’s really great because, I mean, people come back, so I get that feedback, but it’s kind of not in an attention seeking way, but, like, it can be a little lonely because I’m like, did that land? Did that work? Are we feeling it? Are we not feeling it? I never get feedback. Right. And, you know, I mean, I guess the feedback I get is like, if people, like, you know, were to leave me, like a Google review, which I don’t really know that anybody would have that much energy over, you know, attendant appointment and a photo, I don’t know. But.
[47:48] Cate Blouke: Right.
[47:48] Selena Bekakis: It’s really, really great to hear. And I feel like oftentimes, like, the smiles and the exuberance of people when they leave is like, like enough feedback to know that I’m on the right path with how I sort of craft those 10 minutes with people. But it’s still really great to hear. So thank you. Absolutely.
[48:06] Cate Blouke: Thank you for taking the time to talk to us about all of this. How do people find you?
[48:14] Selena Bekakis: Yep. So my website is your Cosmic Crown, and that is also my Instagram handle at your Cosmic Crown.
[48:21] Cate Blouke: And both will be in the show notes, of course.
[48:23] Selena Bekakis: Yes. I really, really love my Instagram because it now is just this really wonderful album for me. Like, I get to look back and. And just see all of the, like, really lovely faces that have sat down with me, and that feels just so special.
[48:40] Cate Blouke: Well, we’ve certainly talked about a lot of the different things that bring you joy.
[48:43] Selena Bekakis: Yes.
[48:44] Cate Blouke: What is something that you haven’t yet told us about that brings you joy?
[48:48] Selena Bekakis: I mean, I. I think probably to bring it back to burlesque, you know, burlesque brings me a lot of joy. I love burlesque for a lot of the same reasons. I love aura photography, even though they’re so different from each other. But I just think that, like, very plainly said, I love attention And I love giving other people attention. Like when I’m around people who are like, no spotlight, I’m like, oh, fuck all that noise, let’s go. Like, I just, I really love to celebrate people. I, you know, I really enjoy giving compliments. Like, I am a very like, unabashed person. Like, if you see me on the street and you’re wearing a coat or a pair of shoes, or your hair is styled in a certain way, like, I’m certainly going to open my mouth and tell you. And so I really love giving people attention when they’re in those sessions with me. I love giving my audience members attention when I’m performing burlesque. And I love that attention back. And so I think that just being very, very squarely settled. Settled with something that like, at first glance probably sounds like, very vain. And I just don’t really care. Like, I just, I love doing burlesque, I perform. And I also emcee, which has provided this like, really whole fun other channel to be in burlesque and like engage with the audience. And I just really love both of these things. And I just feel a tremendous amount of like, luck that I’ve discovered them. You know, they’re both completely self propelled. If I decided to stop performing burlesque tomorrow, like, no one gives a shit. No producers are going to come knock on my door and be like, where are you? We know there’s fucking, there’s hundreds of people who are ready to go. And so it just, it’s one of those things where I just feel so fortunate that I have found Elaine with these things because I think that’s also a big part of my nature. Like, I’m a pretty self propelled person for some things and aura photography is no different. Like, yeah, I mean, I mean, yes, it’s a service people love and it’s, it’s a fun thing to do. But like, if I went away tomorrow, like, no one is harmed by that. No one is like ultimately missing out. This is a luxury adventure. Not necessary. Right? This isn’t an economy adventure. So that, that is very, that is very joyful to me. And I really hate that like the word gratitude has just gotten like so mucked up with like all this like white woman bullshit as a white woman. But I, I just like, it’s really impossible to not say gratitude because I will still wake up and be like, how the. Is this my life? I say this all the time. I, it’s so funny. I say it at the end of every burlesque. Burlesque session. Or event show. And I say it, you know, at the end of it, I just like, hi. I am so lucky that I just found these two things. Like, I mean, I thought I struck it. Struck it so hard when I found burlesque, and I was just like, this thing, and I’m like, I’m good at it, and people like how I do it, and it’s fun, and I get to craft, and I get to make all these insane costumes, and I get to make them sparkly. And, like, it’s wild to me that I have found this channel not with just burlesque. Like, the universe was like, we’re not done yet. And I’m like, oh, I love that.
[52:06] Cate Blouke: For anyone who’s listening who, like, hasn’t found it yet, right?
[52:10] Selena Bekakis: Yeah.
[52:10] Cate Blouke: Or has found one, there might be another one. Like the universe.
[52:14] Selena Bekakis: Yeah.
[52:14] Cate Blouke: Like, we’re not done yet.
[52:15] Selena Bekakis: No. And this is what I tell. This is what I tell people, you know, when I’m emceeing who, like, come to my burlesque shows. Is that like. Like, whatever it is that you do in your life, whatever it is that you. Like, whoever it is that you do it with, go find that thing. Go find that thing with those people that makes you feel alive. Like, and I say that all the time to my audience. Like, that is my wish for you, is that you get to leave this environment where you just had all this, like, dazzling excitement, but that you find something else that hits that. That same pitch that you are generating. Go do that. And that’s my hope for everyone. And I realized, like, that’s maybe not everybody’s jam, or that might be a lot of energy, and people just are looking for, like, little bits here and.
[53:00] Cate Blouke: There, but probably not listeners to this podcast even.
[53:03] Selena Bekakis: There we go. There we go. So even if it’s a more quiet and serene activity that you do, visiting the ocean, walking in nature, it doesn’t matter. Find that group of people. Because that is the thing that I haven’t really said, because aura photography is a little bit more of a lone wolf game. And even though most burlesque is performed individually, I lovingly joke that the real show is backstage. The real show is fucking backstage. And the friendships that I have formed from burlesque and the community that I have from burlesque and the lifelines that I have had through burlesque, it’s unlike anything else. And when I think about the fact that I just have this readily and in abundance, that’s what sort of gives me that, like, how lucky am I? And I and I desperately want. I want that for everyone. I want that for everyone.
[54:01] Cate Blouke: Me too. Amen.
[54:04] Selena Bekakis: A women.
[54:07] Cate Blouke: Indeed. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please help me grow the podcast by subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing it with anyone you think would benefit from hearing it too. Your support means the world to me. If you’d like to get updates about new episodes, posts and offerings, please visit settlingisbullshit.com to subscribe to my newsletter. You can also find information there about working with me one on one to build your most amazing learning life. Until next time, remember that I believe in you and that you are awesome.
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