E7: At Trenda's Altar - Lana Gendlin

Trenda shows up for a Mother Moon ceremony — only to find there is no ceremony. Pendulum artist and spiritual guide Lana Gendlin reminds us that there's no magic in any tool — the magic is inside of you. And Savana introduces us to the family mystic who may have started it all.

You can go Lana Gendlin's website at www.hcdivinecreations.com or email her at  [e-mail].  You can also find her on Instagram and Facebook @hcdinivecreations.  

What is At My Altar with Trenda Lee?

At My Altar with Dr. Trenda Lee is a podcast that explores the ways everyday people practice their spirituality. Join Trenda and her guests for honest conversations about their pathways to the divine and discover what that might look like for you. Someone else’s story might be your next spiritual practice.

 Do you want to feel more connected to the divine, however you define that? Maybe your old practices don't fit anymore, or maybe you've always felt spiritual but never built a practice around it. I'm Trenda Lee, and I'm talking with everyday people about their spiritual practices. I invite you to join me as we explore pathways to the divine at my altar.

Welcome back to At My Altar. I am delighted you're here. Yes. So I want you to think about the first time you heard about an ancient spiritual practice that intrigued you, like tarot cards, sound bowls, meditation. You get the idea One of the reasons I started this podcast was to demystify the mystical, to remind us that grandmas and aunties have been reading palms and teacups, and many other things, for centuries.

That beads on strings have helped us meditate and pray for just as long. But sometimes you hear about a tool or practice and feel like an outsider, not sure what it is, what it does, or how to access it, so you don't try it. Or maybe you pick it up on your own and it doesn't work, so you give up on it.

Either way, it could have been the exact tool you were really needing to connect with the divine. Sometimes what makes all the difference is having the right guide, someone who knows the practice and can walk alongside you as you learn it. I want to share a story about what happens when that guide isn't there.

When I was in college, I really wanted to study abroad, but traveling to another country was completely outside of my possibilities. I never dreamed I could even do that. What I did find was a semester program in Chicago, the Chicago Urban Studies Program. Students came from colleges all across the country.

We learned Chicago architecture, the gritty underbelly of city politics, poetry, and graffiti art, and visited the infamous Rainbow Coalition on Chicago's South Side. Now, it was the late 1980s, and when I arrived, there was a contingent of women from Colorado College. Back then, we called these women granolas, and I mean that with the deepest affection.

These women were damn cool, earthy, counterculture, early adopter vegetarians, complete with Birkenstocks, unshaved armpits, and a heavy dose of patchouli. They were wise, creative, and commanded every room in the most subtle, au naturel kind of way. I was in absolute awe. So a month or so into the semester, one of them announced it was a full moon that night, and they were gathering to celebrate Mother Moon with a ceremony.

I couldn't believe I got invited. Mother Moon? Ugh, the mystery of it all. Now remember, I've been a spiritual seeker my whole life, but I've always felt like an outsider, earnest in my pursuit of connecting with the divine. So a Mother Moon ceremony? Oh, hell yes. My eagerness was dialed way up. We agreed to meet at the top of a hill in a large park around 11:00 PM.

When we arrived, the granolas instructed us to hold hands and form a circle. A few minutes later, one of them told us to slowly begin walking hand-in-hand, looking up at Mother Moon. Then another began to sing a couple of simple lines, and we joined in, trying to feel all the feels. After about 10 minutes, we began to wonder, "What's next?

Is this it?" They said a Mother Moon ceremony, not just stargazing. The women organizing this thing began looking at each other, and it became clear they had no ceremony. This actually was it. They were completely winging it. They had no more understanding of how to honor the full moon than the rest of us, let alone how to guide us toward any kind of collective connection.

One by one, we peeled off and found our own way home. As I walked home in the dark with the city buzzing around me, I felt duped, tricked, and really alone. I went for connection to them, to myself, to the divine. I felt none of those things. I've walked into many spiritual spaces and tried many practices since that night, and what I've come to understand is that when it comes to learning a new practice or walking into a new sacred space, sometimes I need an experienced guide, someone who can honor my spiritual innocence and hold sacred the journey I'm on.

The sad part of this story, besides how let down I was, is that Mother Moon does exist. She's not just playful and fun. She's magical, and mystical, and universal, and healing. Today, my guest is Lana Genlin, a master in pendulum work, a pendulum artist, and a spiritual guide. One thing she's going to share with you is how you may use a pendulum in your spiritual practice.

The quick ABCs about pendulums. A pendulum is simply a chain with a weight at the end, often a crystal or metal pendant. It's used to help connect you with your intuition, your own inner wisdom. When you hold it steady and allow the pendant to hover freely, you ask yes or no questions. The pendant then moves in one of four directions: circling left, or circling right, or swinging back and forth, or swinging side to side.

Every person's pendulum responds differently, so you begin by calibrating it, asking obvious yes or no questions to see which direction it moves to correspond to one of four answers, either yes, no, maybe, or not now. All right. I'm really excited for you to meet Lana. In addition to talking about pendulums, she also opens up about her earliest memories of feeling spiritual and about feeling alone in that She also generously shares more of her personal practices.

May you find what's on offer for you in this episode. Here's Lana Gendlin

I'm super excited about my guest today and my friend, Lana Gendlin. She's a certified transformational life coach, an author, a spiritual guide, and the founder of Heart Centric Coaching and Divine Creations. She also teaches how to use pendulums and energy alignment tools for guidance and healing She actually hand crafts these pendulums to support these transformative journeys.

Welcome to my altar, Lana. Thank you so much, Trenda. It's wonderful to be here with you. You are such a spiritual person. You're a calming force. I remember first meeting you, I just felt warm and comforted- ... and like a hug was surrounding me, and you just have a very spiritual sense about you. Have you always felt spiritual?

Ah, that is such a wonderful thing to say, so thank you. Yes, I have. Since I was a little girl, I had situations, I'll call them, where I knew that there was something beyond just what I could see with my physical senses. However, I didn't grow up in a family that was really accepted, so I'd have these spiritual experiences.

I would see things that other people wouldn't, particularly when I was pretty young. So I knew that I was spiritual, but I didn't understand it in the same way that I do now. I definitely was of that generation, at least in my family, where I remember telling my mom at a pretty young age what was going on, and she said the classic, "Oh, that's just your imagination."

She totally dismissed it. Love my mom to pieces. It was different time, different place, and so I shut it down for a really long time. And then I had some experiences as an adult that catapulted me back into the divine and reconnecting with myself. And it isn't even about reconnecting. I think it's really, uh, more so about remembering, remembering who you are on a soul level.

So yes, I've always felt spiritual. Have I always listened to that side of myself and lived it the way that I do now? No. I really appreciate that answer because I always been so interested in demystifying the mystical. So I appreciate your truth and your honesty because sometimes culturally we're told it's just your imagination, and therefore dimming our way in which to connect to ourselves, or if you put it, remembering our souls and our connection to the divine.

So I really appreciate your vulnerability in sharing that. Absolutely. For me, it's such an integral part of my life. I remember when you were showcasing your pendulums and also teaching people how to use them. I was so moved by how quickly I could acclimate to a pendulum. I have one you made, and I love it so much.

That fills my heart. It is such a- I believe, invaluable tool that we can use to really connect with our own inner wisdom and our deepest parts of ourselves. It really fills my heart to know that You connected with your pendulum and that you use it and that it's there for you for your guidance. Thank you.

Let's talk a little bit about pendulums. So how did you get into the practice of using a pendulum and doing that? Yeah, it's a, it's a fun story. I actually... These are ancient tools that have been around for thousands of years. The art of pendulum work was born out of the art of dowsing and looking for underground resources, mainly water, but so many others.

So 10 or so years ago, I started working with the tool. It was a practice that I did on my own. I didn't even have a dedicated pendulum. I would use a necklace or just anything weighted on a string can actually be a pendulum. I was showing a friend how to make a decision with a pendulum, and at the time we were making bracelets out of beads for fun, and we started making pendulums as a creative outlet.

And then the whole thing just took off and showed me that this is really needed in our society right now, that people were craving an opportunity to go within and to seek their own answers from inside themselves. It's just a beautiful tool that you can use to access that innermost part of you. So give us the basics of starting with a pendulum.

When I met you, you put the pendulum in my hand- Mm-hmm ... and then you guided me and asked me questions to help- Mm ... calibrate my pendulum, if that's the right word. At a really basic level, the pendulum is a tool that works with your energy. Anything weighted on a string can be a pendulum, and you can certainly use a paper clip attached to a string.

And there is a science behind it as well to connect with your subconscious mind, which stores 95% of everything that you know, everything that you are watching on television or reading about, all of your feelings, all of your emotions. It gets buried in this repository that is our subconscious mind, and our conscious mind can be a really big bottleneck to all of that information.

Our conscious mind is that part of us that is always trying to rationalize and doubt ourselves and doesn't trust what we already know inside of us. And so this really is a tool that helps extract those questions from deep inside. So you do have to calibrate your pendulum. Everybody has a unique set of motions for yes for no, for maybe, and for not now.

And you need to understand how does the pendulum work for you to show you those motions. And once you know that, that's when you can begin asking questions in the form of yes or no questions. Some people think, "Oh, this pendulum, like it's magic," or, "It's witchy," or whatever. And my goal is to demystify this tool because it really is just that.

It's a tool that helps you access what's buried inside of you So great. The pendulum itself has a really beautiful decorative base that you hold in your hand, followed by a chain, and then at the end of the chain is a crystal. How does one decide what crystal goes at the bottom of that chain? Yeah.

Pendulums that I create are made of mainly different crystals and gemstones. Crystals harness so much healing and so much power. They're as old as the Earth itself. And when you're working with crystals or any energy work, it's really about your intention and what you put into it. So you can use any crystal, and if you hold the right intention, it's gonna do wonders for you.

However, there are certain crystals that contain different healing properties. For example, I think yours has a clear quartz at the bottom, and clear quartz is just a magnificent crystal to work with if you're looking for amplification in many different areas of your life. Whereas if you are seeking more love in your life, whether it's platonic love, romantic love, self-love, universal love, rose quartz is a great crystal for that.

It really just depends on what it is that you're trying to manifest. So it's really fun to have crystals as part of your pendulum because again, you're connecting to what we don't always see. It's energy, and so it's a great way to amplify your intentions. Thank you for that, because I remember you had many pendulums displayed, and I just remember being immediately pulled towards the one that I chose, and it does have that crystal quartz at the bottom.

I've had it for at least a year, and I started to feel like it became an extension of myself, and it gave me the opportunity to settle myself before I went into my spiritual work that I do at my altar. And so much of pendulum work is about your connection with it. You stated it beautifully. It is an extension of you and of your innermost thoughts.

So being connected with your pendulum is one of the fundamental basics of pendulum work. The reason that I make them with crystals and I want them to be beautiful, like a piece of jewelry or like an heirloom, is so that you feel that connection and that bond with it because the more you feel that, the more likely you're gonna be to use it Oftentimes your pendulum chooses you.

There's a reason why you were attracted to that particular pendulum. I always give them a blessing, and I trust that they're gonna find the right hands, and the right hands will find them. So great. I think it found me- Yeah ... for sure. So I just wanna say thank you because there are a lot of people that have some beautiful tools in which to- Mm-hmm

connect to the divine. So are there practices or rituals that you have in your daily, weekly life that you- Yeah ... use? I, I... So working with the pendulum, I clear my energy if I'm getting ready for the day. Or in the evening, you wanna clear stagnant energy from the day. I work with oracle cards in combination with the pendulum.

And then some other rituals and practices, especially during new moon, full moon, I do work with a little bit of astrology. I'm not trained in astrology, but that is something that I am deeply passionate about. And recently I've started channeling. That is new to me as well. But I think that channeling light language and working in that sphere, it's also a natural part of who we are.

We're just remembering these languages that are ancient to us and to our souls. So there are so many things that I do, but I- When you say you use oracle cards along with your pendulum- Yeah ... how does that work for you? So for me, oracle cards, there is something so magical about working with oracle cards.

If you put the intention out there and you trust that your angel team, your spirit team, whatever you call them, I call them my OST, my optimal spiritual team. That might include my angels, my spirit guides, any archangels that I wanna work with, any ancestors that wanna come through and help with guidance at the time, loved ones who have crossed over.

I work with my father a lot, and some relatives that are on the other side. I trust that the right message for what I need is going to come through, and sometimes it's really fun to work with your pendulum, to let your pendulum guide you to what that optimal message is for you in that moment that day.

There are so many ways to work with these tools, so it's just a matter of understanding how. I highly encourage your book as a way in which to get started with a pendulum, because you really break it down step by step, and realizing that it is just a tool. You are talking- to yourself, you are talking to however you define spirit I would say that the pendulum has been such an amazing tool because it's super accessible.

It's portable. I work with a lot of clients who are early in their waking up to their spirituality, and they have a hard time trusting their intuition. Building your intuition is like a muscle, and the more you use it, the stronger it gets. So it's a great tool when you're just getting started. It's a easy tool to pick up and start just messing around with.

There's a lot of information out there, maybe on social media or like TikTok where people are working with the pendulum. And what I want to help people understand is that there are certain things you should do and should not do, and there are certain times that you want to work with a pendulum and other times that you don't.

The reason we're using it is because we want accurate answers. We wanna get that answer from inside ourselves. But what I find ends up happening is that if people don't understand how to use it correctly, they confuse the tool, and the pendulum confuses them. And then it goes haywire, and they're like, "Oh, this thing doesn't work," and then it sits in a drawer.

So what I try to do is demystify this tool as something witchy and woo-woo because it is just a tool, and there's no magic in the tool itself. There's no magic in any tool. The magic is inside of you. So I just wanna help people understand that it's super easy to pick up and just let it start moving, and that's great, but there's ways that you want to work with it and ways that you don't.

You are the magic. I'm walking away with we are the magic. Right? Yes. Yes. I love it so much. One of the first things you did was help me clear out my chakras, and I didn't even know what they all were. And so that is another way I use it, is to find out where am I stuck and how do I need to open up? And a lot of times it's my heart chakra.

I'm living in my mind, and I just need the moment to open my heart, be open to what is on offer for me, and what I have on offer for the world. So thank you again. You've introduced this to me in a way that has been so meaningful to my own practice, and I hope that it is meaningful for others as well. Oh, thank you so much.

You are a gift. And I'm just grateful that you are putting this out into the world, and everything that you're doing as well with this beautiful podcast. So thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share more about the pendulum as an amazing tool, and it's just been a pleasure getting to know you too, Trenda.

Thank you, Lana.

Okay. How was that for you? I loved when Lana said, "There's no magic in any tool. The magic is inside of you." Yes. Ugh, I'm really curious what came up for Savana in this episode. You know what we're gonna do. Let's give her a call

Hello, my Savana Hello, my mother. How are you? Hi. I'm so good. How are you? I'm good. It's good to see you. It's so good to see you. I am really excited to talk to you about this episode and interview with Lana. I met her not too long ago and got one of her pendulums, and it took me a while to get used to it and use it, but now that I do, it is such a great tool for me to use when I just cannot get myself to quiet down and ready myself if I'm gonna draw a tarot card or do some spiritual work or talk to the old ancestors.

Mm-hmm. So it's been fun to give this a try, and the pendulum itself is just so beautiful. What did you get out of this? Oh my gosh. Okay, Mom, I- Yeah ... feel like I'm gonna cry. Oh, no. I hope you laugh. No, no. Mom, if you're listening, I am not laughing at your episode. I'm laughing because this whole episode reminded me of Aunt Paula, who for listeners, if you have not been introduced to Aunt Paula, I'm sure it'll come up at some point, because Aunt Paula's actually my great-aunt and my mother, Trenda's aunt, and we say this with endearment, but we also refer to her as Crazy Aunt Paula- Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah ... because she had a mystical, magical, fun, exuberant, vibrant, charming way about her that was unlike anyone else you'll ever meet in your life. When I listened to this episode, the whole time I was just thinking about the first time I ever saw a pendulum was from Crazy Aunt Paula, and I was maybe six years old, and w- we were at your parents' house, at my grandparents' house, and she was visiting and pulled out this pendulum necklace thing and started hovering over your chest, and it started to spin, and I thought it was the most amazing, magical thing I'd e- ever witnessed in my life, and she was just so into it.

And I remember some people, like, kinda laughing, like, "What the hell is this? What does she have up her sleeve now?" 'Cause it was the '90s. I'm sure in the '90s lots of people used pendulums, right? And so we were all a little bit mesmerized by it, but also a little, like, what the hell is going on? Because she just whipped it out, almost like a magician.

Like, she had her little suitcase, and she just would start pulling stuff out of her suitcase. Like, "I have this to bring, and let's try this, and let's..." Like, all these magic tricks. And that is my first exposure to a pendulum. And so hearing Lana talk about it, I think, was the first time I've heard someone talk about a pendulum since I was six years old.

So- Did you at all think about this, Mom, when you were interviewing her? No, I completely forgot about this. As a matter of fact, I thought Lana's pendulum was the first time I ever saw one, but you are bringing me so back. I remember exactly where we were. I remember lying down on the sofa when this was happening.

Yes. Yes. All of this. Oh my God, I'm so happy. Thank you, Crazy Aunt Paula. Oh. You know, she is my number one ancestor that I talk to. And I love her so much. She taught me so much. She took Uncle Trent and me under her wing in a way that absolutely in some regards saved my life because she taught me so much.

She was a renaissance woman. Mm-hmm. She could do everything. She plumbed a house all on her own. She farmed organically in the '70s before organic farming was even a thing. She got her master's degree in psychiatric nursing and was working with girls with eating disorders in the late '70s and early '80s before it really became wildly understood and researched and studied.

And she wrote poetry, and she was the smartest person I knew and super damn funny, but she also struggled with manic depression. Anyway, so I love her so much. I can feel her right now just laughing her royal ass off knowing- ... that she brought so much joy and light to our lives, and she still does to this day.

Yeah. So crazy Aunt Paula, that's her name. We love you so much. Yep. Thank you for that story. I- Oh, my gosh. I know ... just completely love it. I know. I will just add to tie this back into Lana's interview, I think that Lana talking about this as a tool, I view what I learned from Aunt Paula for as long as I knew her throughout my childhood when she'd come to visit and have all these ideas, she was so inventive, and that's how I view Aunt Paula with so much love and endearment.

She's actually so bright and had so much to share with the world that was beyond, I think, what the world could sometimes manage or handle. Yeah. And I just love that about her, and I will forever tie the pendulum tool with her. Ugh, I love it. A woman ahead of her time. Yes, very much. No question about it.

Just beautiful. I love that so much, Sophie. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. We love her. I love you so much, mama. Love you, too. Thank you for that memory. So great. Of course. Bye. All right. I'll talk to you later. Bye. Bye.

Hi, Savana. I love that she introduced you to crazy Aunt Paula. In the next episode, I'm going to properly introduce you to her, the inside story. You're not going to believe it. Stay tuned. Hey, something's been on my mind that I wanna share with you. I've been thinking a lot about appropriation, specifically about what it may mean to appropriate a spiritual practice from a culture different from my own.

I'm not thinking about tools that have crossed over so many cultures that they're really accessible to all, like tarot, for example, or even using a pendulum or prayer beads. I'm more thinking about other spiritual practices, and staying conscious that while I share spiritual practices of everyday people through interviews on my podcast with all of you, that we think about which ones work for us and which ones don't.

But also, that we think about which ones are outside of our own culture, and how we get permission to use it, or make sure we're using it correctly. I'm not sure what I mean by this completely, but I'd love to keep thinking about it as this podcast unfolds, and I'd really love to get your perspective.

Okay. Lana. If you want to reach her or buy one of her beautiful handmade pendulums, or even her book, you can go to www.hcdivinecreations.com or write to her at [e-mail]. I've included this information and her social media handles in the show notes. Thank you so much for joining me At My Altar.

You can go to my website at myaltar.love to find all my episodes and download a free spiritual practice guide. At My Altar is hosted by me, Trenda Lee, with producers Cecilia Stanton Adams, Charlie Mitchell, and me, Trenda Lee. Original music by Charlie Mitchell, and original website photos and logo design by Irena TePante at TePante Studios.

A special thanks to my beautiful daughter, Savana. If you've always felt spiritual and want to find more pathways to the divine, join me for another episode of At My Altar with Trenda Lee. Until then, I'll see you on the love grid.