Willow - Alchemical Session // ASHLAND, OREGON
“I feel as though I've held these words in my body since my very first photoshoot with Olivia. It was a maternity shoot by the river, with flower adornment and a lot of skin ;) I was in full bloom with my pregnancy and knew it was going to be my last baby, so I wanted someone to capture the special moment in time it was for me. The experience was beyond a photoshoot, and I made sure to tell her. There was something alchemical that took place for me around being so clearly, compassionately and lovingly seen. Olivia's sight and sensitivity is an enormous gift to the world, and I felt so lucky to receive her medicine by being in front of her lens.
Flash forward 5 years later to last year, when we both separately had the thought of doing a photoshoot around journeying on a healing path, empowerment experienced amidst adversity, and the sacred feminine. She called me one day and said she had this desire. I told her it was a desire of mine as well! What followed was a slow build up and weaving of these intentions, which ended up centering around my journey to the plant path as a sensitive human, a woman of color and someone who has struggled immensely with my own health since I was a kid.
Sometime in 2016 a health crisis hit me like a strike of lightning, igniting my body into extreme inflammation and autoimmunity. It took my body and spirit 6 years to fully move through it. The symptoms were excruciating - skin inflammation on my face, whole body pain, hormonal disregulation, mood swings. There was nowhere to run, no quick fix, and many many challenging lessons to be learned. There were times I felt chained, trapped, made to carry a heavy burden, wearing pain on my face for everyone to see, coming close to taking my own life many times.
Somehow, by attuning myself with the land, by learning to be with my experience instead of bypassing the hard stuff, and by digging deep into trust, I am now on the other side of it all- completely transformed.
As a healer, I have a solid sense of my own medicine and power that can only come through being initiated. As an intuitive, my field of perception feels grounded in body and earth wisdom. As an herbalist, I have an unshakable connection with the land. As a mother, my capacity to hold many things at once has expanded far beyond my own hopes. As a person living into their mission on this earth, I have a deep well of passion that comes from knowing the preciousness of life and living.
Olivia and I crafted scenes and images to illustrate this entire journey. We walked the land for 3 days, leaving offerings everywhere we created from. We wove grass together, sprinkled petals, bathed in the light of the moon, shed tears, and laughed our spirits to soaring.
Through it all, Olivia's medicine of clear sight was ever present and felt like a healing balm blessing this full circle moment. I healed even more by the illumination of sisterhood with her and Jessa Carter, the sweetest surprise video addition to the whole experience! I am honored beyond to have created and crafted an experience like this with Olivia, to ping into each other's awareness through life as soul sisters, to share time and space.” - Willow
Thank you, from the depths of me, Willow, for sharing your heart, artistry and story with us all. You can find out more about her by visiting and supporting her stunning apothecary Elder Apothecary, located in Ashland, Oregon. With all my love. -Olivia
