Today we’d like to introduce you to Isha Lerner.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in the 1950s in a family that did not resemble the traditional white-picket-fence ideal. And yet, it was perfect for the life I was meant to live. I was raised within a household of strong and unique individuals; my mother, sister, grandfather, and aunt, each of whom played an enormous role in my life.
From an early age, I experienced out-of-body states and paranormal awareness that I did not understand, yet those experiences awakened a lifelong curiosity about mystery and the unseen. I sensed there was more to human consciousness than what we could perceive through the ordinary senses, and I felt compelled to search for meaning beyond the boundaries of conventional thought.
I discovered the writings of mystics, philosophers, psychologists, and explorers of consciousness. Robert Monroe’s book ‘Journeys Out of the Body’ was especially meaningful to me because, for the first time, I realized I was not alone in the experiences I had since childhood. The work of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell opened further doors into archetype, myth, symbol, dreams, and the deeper patterns of the human psyche. I began to understand that the experiences and questions I had carried since childhood would become the foundation of my life’s work.
A pivotal person in my early life was my aunt, who helped raise me. She was an independent and pioneering woman, always curious, unconventional, and a little ahead of her time. One day she gave me a Tarot deck she had found in a secondhand bookstore. There was something familiar about those first images, as though I already knew their language. That first glimpse into the rich world of symbol and archetype awakened what would become a lifelong passion.
My aunt’s life carried both great beauty and great challenges, and in my mid twenties I lost her to suicide. At the time, I was married and pregnant with my first daughter and living at the Findhorn Foundation, a spiritual community in northern Scotland. I found myself standing at an extraordinary threshold, holding the deep grief of losing someone who had helped shape my life while preparing to welcome a baby girl whom I would nurture and love.
Looking back, I can see that this passage contained many of the themes that would later become central to my work: loss and renewal, ancestry and the inner child, destiny, transformation, and the mystery of how one generation carries something forward into the next.
Those early experiences became the seeds of a lifelong journey and exploration into mysticism, spirituality, psychology, and the nature of human consciousness. Tarot naturally led me into the study of astrology and the profound interconnectedness of body, mind, spirit, and the cosmos. That same curiosity eventually drew me into a deep relationship with the natural world and the subtle healing qualities of plants and flowers. In the 1970s, I discovered the Bach Flower Remedies, beginning a lifelong study of flower essence healing that has remained a companion to my work in astrology, Tarot, and archetypal studies ever since.
Over the years, I have woven these passions into my profession, healing, and evolution.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In many ways, the path toward individuation, the journey to become who we truly are, is not always an easy one. Over time, I came to understand that what I once experienced as vulnerability was also one of my greatest gifts. The very sensitivity that can make life challenging can also become the source of intuition, creativity, compassion, and a unique way of seeing the world. I have learned that the obstacles we encounter are often part of the treasure that accompanies a deeper journey.
As much as our struggles may seem to arise from the outside world, the deepest work ultimately resides within. We are each invited to make peace with ourselves and to heal the wounds we carry. These are the core principles that guide my consultations, and over the years I have come to deeply appreciate the archetype of the Wounded Healer. When tended with awareness and compassion, our own emotional pain can become a wellspring of wisdom, empathy, and healing, not only for ourselves, but for others as well.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I feel deeply grateful for the opportunity to have co-authored the bestselling Inner Child Cards: A Fairy-Tale Tarot, along with The Triple Goddess Tarot, The Tarot of the Four Elements, and The Power of Flower Cards. Another meaningful chapter of my work has been founding the Power of Flower Healing Essence Company, creating flower remedies from the wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest. That work grew from decades of learning from flowers and plants, and from a deep appreciation for the co-creative relationship between humanity and the natural world.
This work has taken me throughout Asia, South America, Europe, and beyond, where I have had the privilege of teaching, consulting, and sharing what I love most with people from many cultures and walks of life. For more than thirty years, I have also been honored to be part of the vibrant holistic community in Eugene, Oregon, offering consultations, classes, and workshops in this beautiful corner of the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by forests, mountains, rivers, and an enduring connection to the natural world.
One of the approaches that has naturally evolved through my work over the years is a specialized consultation I call Power Mapping, an in-depth astrological process that explores the unique life code, or soul imprint, each person carries. I see the birth chart as a living map: a remarkable arrangement of planetary relationships captured at the moment of birth. Within this cosmic blueprint lie the stories of our ancestry, early experiences, innate gifts, challenges, karmic patterns, and the extraordinary potential that continues to unfold throughout our lives. By bringing these patterns into conscious awareness, we gain the insight to make more meaningful choices, deepen our understanding of ourselves, and participate more fully in our own evolution.
For me, astrology has never been about prediction. It is a language rather than a belief system, a remarkable navigational tool. The planets do not dictate who we must become; instead, they offer a living map through which we can better understand ourselves and the possibilities available to us.
I approach the Tarot in much the same way. It is not a tool for fortune-telling, but a profound symbolic tradition that has been studied for generations through the lenses of history, mythology, psychology, philosophy, and the Western mystery traditions. Across centuries, Tarot imagery has preserved a rich visual language of recurring symbols, archetypes, and stories that reflect the enduring patterns of human experience. In many ways, the Major Arcana illustrates the timeless journey of human development, from innocence and challenge to wisdom, transformation, and wholeness. The cards invite reflection rather than certainty, opening a conversation with the deeper self and the imagination. My role is never to tell someone who they are or what their future holds, but to illuminate the patterns already present within them, helping them awaken to their own wisdom, worth, and inner authority.
Many years after I had become a professional astrologer, I stumbled upon a remarkable piece of my own family history. After my mother passed away in the late 1980s, my family and I were sorting through boxes stored in her attic when I came across an old magazine from the early twentieth century. Inside was an article about Judge Freschi (my maiden name before marriage) and the celebrated astrologer Evangeline Adams.
At a time when astrology was widely viewed with suspicion and often dismissed as fortune-telling, Evangeline Adams was brought before the court to defend her work. According to the account, Judge Freschi presided over the case. Adams was given anonymous birth information and asked to interpret the horoscope. Her reading was said to be so accurate, insightful, and compassionate that it deeply impressed the judge. That encounter became an important moment in her successful defense of astrology and helped establish its legal recognition as a legitimate practice in New York.
Holding that article in my hands, I couldn’t help but wonder about the mysterious threads that weave through families and generations. Was it simply an extraordinary coincidence, or do we carry echoes of the questions, passions, and encounters of those who came before us? I often wonder whether something of that meeting between Judge Freschi and Evangeline Adams quietly found its way into my own life, inspiring a path I would one day follow without ever knowing why. Perhaps there is a form of memory that reaches beyond our conscious recollection, a quiet inheritance carried through story, symbol, biology, and the imagination. This question has always carried me forward, “How do we come to know ourselves and participate more consciously in our own evolution?”
Today, my interests continue to evolve. I find myself increasingly drawn to the meeting place between ancient wisdom and emerging discoveries in biology, epigenetics, and consciousness, exploring how ancestral stories, symbolic images, inherited patterns, and the living imagination may shape our lives, and how greater awareness can open new possibilities for healing, transformation, and human evolution.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I’ve been an avid baseball fan my whole life. As a child, there was almost no greater joy for me than going to Candlestick Park in San Francisco to watch the Giants play baseball. Willie Mays was my hero, and he remains one of the great icons of my life. His extraordinary talent, humility, and the effortless grace with which he played the game completely captivated me. I was especially delighted to discover that his birthday was just two days before mine, a fellow Taurus! I always loved that small connection.
Cooking has been a quiet but meaningful thread throughout my life. During my years at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, I worked as a cook and baker. A dear friend and I established the bakery at the Cluny Hill kitchen, where we baked thousands of loaves of bread for the many visitors who came from around the world. Looking back, I see that experience as another form of healing; the simple act of preparing food with care and offering nourishment to others.
Yet perhaps the greatest blessing of my life has been raising my three daughters, Gabriella, Katya, and Sophie. Motherhood has been my deepest teacher. Amid the books, travels, teaching, astrology, Tarot, and years of spiritual exploration, family life has kept me grounded in what is immediate, practical, imperfect, beautiful, and profoundly real. Today, my circle has widened to include six grandchildren, whose presence remind me that love, curiosity, and wonder are among life’s greatest gifts. The ancestral thread continues.
My life and my work have always been woven together. There is enchantment in the stars, just as there is profound beauty in life here on Earth. For me, the mystical and the ordinary have never been separate. I have come to believe that an enchanted life is not something we find, it is something we learn to recognize.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.powerfloweressences.com www.ishalernerastrology.com
- Instagram: ishalerner power_of_flowers_essences
- Facebook: Isha Lerner Power of Flowers
