29 Helen Ye Plehn: spiritual teacher, artist, author

Helen Ye Plehn is the founder of Helen Creates Beauty and the creator of The Aura Color Wheel: A System to Identify Your Soul’s Purpose through Your Soul Aura Color. 

Her book with Hay House Publishing, The Aura Color Wheel: What Your Soul Aura Reveals Your Inner Gifts, Wounds, and Lessons, will be published in July 2025.

Helen is the author of Flowing with My Rainbow Chakra Affirmation Deck.  Her signature Flowing with Your Rainbow Course, based on the system, has named her a Visionary Educator on MSN.com.
 
Helen is an aura intuitive, certified crystal healer, angel channeler, third-generation feng shui master, certified yoga and meditation instructor, intuitive painter, and spiritual teacher. She is also an Ayurveda practitioner, Vedic astrologer, Theta healer, and passionate Flamenco dancer.
 
She resides in Southern California with her husband and daughter. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology and social work, a master’s degree in interior architecture and design, and has published three academic peer-reviewed articles and four conference papers during her Ph.D. studies in tourism and hospitality management at Temple University in Philadelphia. Her doctoral area of research was human sensory experience design.

What is your soul aura color? Take the quiz.
https://helencreatesbeauty.typeform.com/soulauracolor

Connect with Helen:
www.helencreatesbeauty.com
www.auracolorwheel.com
https://www.youtube.com/@auracolorwheel
Instagram @helencreatesbeauty
Facebook @helencreatesbeauty
TikTok @helencreatesbeauty
Pinterest @helencreatesbeauty

Kathie’s note: I came across Helen in a Zoom chat, summer of 2023 when we were in a Hay House writing program. She had such a radiance, a fabulous vibe, I immediately jumped on her email list. She is a peach. Speaking of, I took her Soul Aura Color quiz after our interview and found out mine is peach! Do I have any article of clothing or item in my house in that color? No. Not yet, that is.

Writers Rotation intro/outro recorded at Dynamix Productions in Lexington, Kentucky.

Transcript

Helen [00:00:00]:
I'm Helen Ye Plehn. I'm an author, artist, and spiritual teacher. Words to me are channeling spirit.

INTRO [00:00:07]:
Hi. Welcome to the Writers Rotation podcast. I'm your host, Kathie Stamps. I love words and writing and people and talking. So I'm talking to people who write all kinds of things in different professions. It's a Writers Rotation. 

Kathie Stamps [00:00:25]:
Helen! How are you doing?

Helen Ye Plehn [00:00:26]:
Good. Thank you for inviting me.

Kathie [00:00:28]:
Of course. So how is everything in the world of auras and crystals? And do you remember which one came first in your life?

Helen [00:00:37]:
Oh, aura has been all throughout since I was a kid. It's funny that you asked this because my students call me the jack of all trades in spirituality.

Kathie [00:00:48]:
I love it. What is your career like these days? What are you concentrating on? Any particular modality?

Helen [00:00:54]:
I'm a certified crystal healer and third generation feng shui master. So both my grandma and my father does this, so it's like I grow up with it. Same with Chinese herbal medicine. It's not like some training that I go do because it's literally what I grow up with. Right?

Kathie [00:01:13]:
How you grew up with, yeah.

Helen [00:01:14]:
Yeah exactly, and the more you study in spirituality, no matter the different subjects, they are all pointing to the same thing. That's the most interesting thing about it. They are just using different language and saying the same thing.

Kathie [00:01:29]:
There you go.

Helen [00:01:30]:
This is my soul purpose, and it's healing your soul wound. The more you learn and dive into spirituality the more they are interconnected. There is no separation; that's what I love about it. So I'm at a point that, you know, you can keep certifying or keep you know getting all these modalities. I would say I'm a creative channel, so I channel spirit, you know, no matter if it's through my painting, my crystal grid creations, or in my course, even my book, you know, writing my book, it's all channeling.

Kathie [00:02:07]:
Oh, I love it. Let's talk about your book process. I'm assuming you've written many things before you tackled a book: blog posts, essays, articles, things like that.

Helen [00:02:20]:
I would say that I have written a lot of things in Chinese. So English is my second language or the third, I would say. So when I was a kid, I really like to read and I do like to write. Actually, I love poetry so, I'm more of a visual person and feeling/intuitive person. So for me, in terms of like longform reading I would say fantasy or, like, Greek mythology, that type of thing really gets my mind going.

Kathie [00:02:53]:
Okay.

Helen [00:02:54]:
I won't say that I'm a long-term writer to become an author. It's really spawned out from my spiritual study; if you study a subject for such a long time. I wasn't born a channeler. I didn't even believe in angels 10 years ago, to be honest! At the beginning when I get into spirituality, it's literally just to heal my anxiety and depression. So it was, 2011, I was in a really dark place. I wasn't doing what I what my soul is supposed to do. So that embarked the journey of spirituality. And then after all this study, I think about 7 years into my daily meditation, I begin to see aura and energy around people. And same thing with the spirit realm. And that's when I actually started to both paint vigorously because I paint from the visions of my third eye.

Helen [00:03:57]:
And I also started to write short messages, like channeled messages, you know that's wisdom. It's like, “Oh, that's so good, that's so sweet.” So those are the short forms. I would say I started to journal, but more about insights or the aha moments that I get in my life. So I keep doing that for a few years. It's more of a, like, a flowing process instead of, like, I'm intentionally want to write an essay or write a book. Now I do know that I want to write a book for a while, but at the time I thought it would be almost like a coffee table gift book. So like mainly paintings of mine and maybe a few poems or words of wisdom here and there. So that's what I had envisioned. But then about 3 or 4 years ago, I was teaching this course, "Flowing With Your Rainbow," it's my signature course. For a few years I really am seeing something that's in common because I'm getting deep into what's your soul's purpose and that's why I get started in spirituality also. It's who am I? Why am I here? And how I can be happy? I really want to answer these three questions.

Helen [00:05:21]:
And the system of the aura color wheel, which is a new book coming July 2025 with Hay House Publishing, is about using your soul aura color to really discover these three things. It's about 3 to 4 years ago that I have this complete vision of this system during my meditation. The bulk of the work, I would say within one week I've already written the system down, because I was completely in the flow state. So for me, I'm definitely not a conventional writer or author in that sense. I got a download. I was so inspired. I just like, you know, have minimum other activities; all I did was to just write the system down.

Helen [00:06:11]:
And once that was done, and then I got the book proposal to Hay House and won the contract, then the other work is basically about having some examples or stories to go around it, to illustrate how this system can be used, how this system can be of benefit for the readers to discover their soul's purpose using the aura color wheel.

Kathie [00:06:39]:
Love it. What's the name of your system again?

Helen [00:06:41]:
Yes. It's called the aura color wheel. I would say it's my art and my spirituality combined. So it's the creativity, you know, in place. It’s literally a color wheel of 36 colors representing 36 soul aura colors. So people can take a quiz on my website, identify what their soul aura color is and it tells them 3 very key information about their soul, what are their soul gifts, the soul gift archetype—what are you here for, who are you, that's why you're here. And then also, your soul wound, so they will identify where the soul wound locates. Is it from past life, karmic, ancestral, childhood trauma? And then, 3 soul lessons: what your soul is incarnated here to learn this lifetime so you can transcend.

Kathie [00:07:43]:
Now, can this change over your lifetime?

Helen [00:07:46]:
Yes. Because it's, what I love about this system is it's dynamic. So same with the aura color. You know, aura color is just your natural magnetic field around you, so it's all energy. And energy is just information that vibrates.

Kathie [00:08:03]:
In the moment. In that moment.

Helen [00:08:04]:
Exactly. In that moment. So why I call it soul aura instead of your mood aura that can change in any second, or your personality aura, which can change in an extended period of time during your growth. But your soul aura is the most permanent out of the three. It will change, but not as often as your mood aura can. Right? Because your soul aura is literally the energy that's embodied when you incarnated in your mother's womb. So, that's the energy you brought. The soul brought this energy into your mother's womb.

Helen [00:08:46]:
That's why it takes a little longer for the soul aura color to change. Now when it happens it's because you either heal a wound in your life, that your soul has a significant upgrade; or you learn a soul lesson that's designed for you to learn, then you learn it; or maybe you embody a different soul gift archetype. Because you know your soul's light is expanding so you are able to embody multiple soul gift archetypes instead of just one you're born with. You're typically born with one soul gift archetype but as your soul grows you can embody multiple soul gift archetypes at the same time. So those are the three possibilities when your soul aura color change, and that's why it's good—I always encourage my students and clients to go back, retake the Soul Aura Color quiz, if they think, “Oh you know I really think like I heal a significant wound in my life.” For example, if I have a hard time forgive and now I actually finally forgive, I have forgiven either myself or someone in the past, I think I'm a little, in terms of personal development, I'm at a less level, then it's a great time to check your aura color. Maybe it's changed. So that's the dynamic of the aura.

Kathie [00:10:17]:
I have two questions at the exact same time.

Helen [00:10:19]:
Okay.

Kathie [00:10:19]:
One is, can you see auras everywhere you go and do you turn it on and turn it off? And the other question is, can anyone see our own aura or does it have to be seen by someone else?

Helen [00:10:32]:
Okay. Great questions. Yes. Once actually your third eye is open, and I know a lot of aura readers they are the same, you can perceive aura anywhere but you can also intentionally or mentally shut it down So if you are in a moment and don't feel like, oh I don't want to perceive right now, you can do that. Literally it's intentional...

Kathie [00:10:57]:
You have to go to the grocery store and there's so many people.

Helen [00:11:00]:
Yeah I know, especially if you are sensitive so it's very—at the beginning, it was overwhelming when I just started to have this ability; however, as time progresses you learn to control it. You learn to kind of either tone it down or actually shut it down. Right now for me it's like a switch because I've been doing this for years, so it's like if I want to switch on or if I want to switch off, I'm able to do that, but in general if I don't intentionally say that oh you know I want to shut it down for now, it's like I see energies everywhere. But the vibrancy can vary, so sometimes it's very vivid and sometimes it's a little bit more weak. It depends also my personal energy. So at the time am I like super on or am I a little bit like my personal energy is low, so I will just turn inwards to recharge my auric field instead of having the energy going outward. So from, that said, then yes a person can perceive their own auric field or their own aura color. The easiest to perceive is actually your mood aura because although it's changing--but aura is a spectrum so, think about water reflection: It's not like one static solid color you color in and that's it. It's more like a shimmerish, moving type of color, so it can be a mix of a few colors. Sometimes it's 2 or 3, or different shades of the same color is possible.

Helen [00:12:45]:
In my course I actually ask my students to practice to see their aura, but first before your third eye’s open you can definitely sense it. If you put your palm one arm (arm’s width) away, with your palm facing in towards your head, and then you come in slowly, slowly, slowly, and then you will feel in the center of your palm some like heat or tingling or a sensation, that's like the outskirt of your auric field. And as you get closer and closer, it’s very tingling already when you get really close to your head, you can feel the buzzing sensation in the middle of your palm. That's your personal, that's the innermost layer of your aura. Your aura is like different layers, you know, like onion. So there are at least seven different layers of your aura. You can practice sensing your energy around you before you perceive it. If you want to practice seeing your aura, you actually can see it in the mirror; that's the best way. Having yourself in the mirror and kind of, have your gaze soft. It's almost like you are gazing at candlelight and you will perceive some form of color. And that's the beginning of the practice.

Kathie [00:14:11]:
Wow. What about choosing colors to wear? That's something that anybody can do whether you see auras or not: this color makes me feel better and this color does not make me feel better.

Helen [00:14:23]:
Exactly. That's exactly right. For example if you're a teacher, if you are in a blue, if your soul aura color is blue, wearing blue or wearing sapphire, blue turquoise, something in that jewelry, general will really amplify your soul gift archetype. You're like on fire. And then same thing when you feel you're working through, you're breaking through some lessons and incorporating your soul wounds, I would recommend you to wear that particular color or jewelry in order to help you to incorporate the soul essence in your life. For example, if your soul wound is in your yellow aura layer, that's the layer of manifesting, personal power, motivation, I would recommend you to wear a lot of yellow because that's where you get your confidence back, personal empowerment. All these it's powered by the solar plexus chakra so it's also related to your identity. You want to decorate your home with yellow, like sunflowers, for example. In terms of color to wear or decorating your home, things like that, I will recommend you, depending on what you're working on.

Helen [00:15:43]:
You will often see a combination of colors that I will recommend, so it's not just one. So one is your soul aura color, of course, so you'll be happy. People tend to love their soul aura color; most of the people when they take the quiz they will find that, “Oh, that's actually my favorite color” because that's naturally the energy they radiate. That's the wavelength you are in, right? However, you know, this is half/half split. Some people really hate their soul wound aura color because that’s—

Kathie [00:16:16]:
I was gonna ask that! Is there a meaning to the color that you don't like? It would be your soul wound?

Helen [00:16:23]:
It's almost a good medicine. It's hard to take, but it's good for you.

Kathie [00:16:27]:
Oh, okay. How did you find Hay House?

Helen [00:16:31]:
Hay House. Interesting. I just bought a lot of books, and I happen to find out that, oh, they have a common denominator is they all published by Hay House. You know, I read a lot of Rebecca Campbell, Kyle Gray, Kate Northrup, a lot of other authors, they are all from Hay House. Then I realized, “Oh my gosh, this must be a big house publishing all the spirituality books!” just like when I was in my art period I read a lot of books from Chronicle Books, so it's like those are the publishers. That's how it came into my life. And of course Louise Hay and (Wayne Dyer), one of those powerhouse, Gabby Bernstein, as my bookcase accumulated with different type of books then I realized, okay, all pointed towards Hay House. Now at the time when I channel this system, I know that I'm going to publish a book. Hay House is of course a potential but there were other houses also, like Sounds True and others that publish similar books, but spirit always have a way of telling me what to do. All of a sudden in my email box, I actually receive an email from the writers community or a writers club from Hay House, and then I say, “Oh, it might be a good time for me to check it out what it is.” So I join and then, I joined the writers club, and then later on it transitioning to the authorpreneurship membership. So it's the same thing.

Helen [00:18:03]:
It's just for writers who want to publish with Hay House. So you get a chance to submit your book proposal, and win the contract, which I did. Now not from an ego standpoint, but at that point when I submit the book proposal, I already know. It's a deep sense of inner knowing.

Kathie [00:18:20]:
Love it.

Helen [00:18:21]:
Almost your clear consciousness telling you that, yes, this book is going to be picked because it's going to serve well for people who really searching for their soul's purpose. So that's what happened. I won the competition, and got the contract from them.

Kathie [00:18:38]:
That's amazing. I know I was in that community, and you typed it in the chat, and I was like, oh, I'm going to follow Helen. Helencreatesbeauty.com.

Helen [00:18:48]:
Yes. Yes. Beauty, joy, wisdom, and balance are the four keywords that I really go by, in my life.

Kathie [00:18:56]:
Love it.

Helen [00:18:57]:
So I use them as kind of my guideline in general, whether it's something that I want to create, whether it's something I want to pursue. Right now, I have a really deep sense of soul purpose. That's a space that you really don't need to strive or push or, like, “Oh, I have to do this or I have to do that.” It's not have to. It's like when you're in that space, when you're deeply knowing your soul's purpose and just embodying it: right people, right opportunities, right things just happen. It's flow.

Kathie [00:19:32]:
Yeah.

Helen [00:19:32]:
That's why my signature course, I call it “Flowing With Your Rainbow.” Eventually, your soul's evolution just bring you back to that rainbow energy state. The seven colors of our seven layers of our chakras, so that's why I call it Flowing With Your Rainbow. You're literally in a state of flow. Life is much easier, your stress is much lower. At the beginning, I was literally just to just heal my anxiety and depression to begin my spirituality. I'm out of that anymore. This is a really beautiful state to be in. Writing or creating, no matter if it's art or words, from this state, people resonate because it's your energy speaking.

Helen [00:20:17]:
It's not your ego, “Oh I have to do this, I have to do that so I can get famous” or whatever. It's not that; it's from this deep state of inner knowing. It's really peaceful, to be honest. I find it extremely beautiful because when you're inspired, you're literally in spirit and words coming out from that place, from the deep seat of your soul, always resonate.

Kathie [00:20:43]:
That's just beautiful. Oh, I could sit and talk with you all day.

Helen [00:20:47]:
Same here. I love your joyful energy. You have a lot of joy in you.

Kathie [00:20:51]:
Thank you for that.

Helen [00:20:52]:
That's something that I would recommend people have: to embody joy. That's something that they need to have in their life.

Kathie [00:21:00]:
Yeah. This was fun!

Helen [00:21:02]:
Thank you for your invitation. See you. Bye. 


OUTRO [00:21:05]:
Thanks for listening to this episode of Writers Rotation. Like and subscribe for more. And remember, writing is a marketable skill; smiling is a remarkable skill!