"Becoming: Releasing the Old & Birthing the New"
- J
J desired to undertake a photoshoot journey into aspects of her wild woman archetype and when we met for her vision call after she had worked with the meditation I provided her she knew exactly what she needed this journey to be. Sometimes clients have an outline of their journey throughout a photoshoot, J knew what she wished to release and where she wished to give strength and power. As J described her journey to me I could see the session unfolding in my minds eye, her vision was strong, and it was to begin in the safety of a nest built with her intentions.

“I absolutely love the nest; it is just divine. Every time I look at it, I can’t believe that that image was captured like that. It’s the image I had in my dream, in my mind’s eye and it’s even more beautiful than I imagined..."
- J

J opted not to have music and to move through her journey rather than 'dance', this trust in her own intuition and guidance led to the unfolding of her becoming, and in reflection when J realised that her movement took her through aspects of stillness, staccato, lyrical, and chaos she exclaimed to me
"So I did dance, I danced the whole way through in a different way. There’s a real journey there for me to see.”

“It feels like some kind of birthing…it feels like a moving forward… this journey is ongoing for me.”
- J

Shelter
[By J]
"Still, curled, dormant in a nest.
Safe and sheltering from birth,
awakening, when ready...
Sheltering from the world.
Feeling Secure
in a nest
Not ready to emerge yet.
to be brave and free.
Sanctuary in shelter.
Slowly a becoming
stirs within , mixing
shelter with emerging.
Life rivers through
awakening the dormant.
Stepping out now.
Fragile, pale, tender, sky.
Staying close to nature.
Taking refuge, touching the
ground
Being held.
Movement into sheltered limbs.
Vigilant, high alert
tree tops look
down.
Roots hold feet.
Connection to shelter
in nature.
Unfolding, with grace
hiding in the tree branches
not ready to be seen.
Only sheltered
in the green,
mingle with
mingle amongst.
Being held, safely
feeling bold blood flow slowly
stepping out.
Boundaries, fire within
getting ready
emerging
becoming.
Emerging from a long
sheltered dream
not wanting to be seen.
now
being seen
the light opening
eyes
opening soul
heart beating
to a new
drum, feet
dance simple
steps
moving out of shelter
into being free
Open forms emerge
growing confidence.
Becoming who the earth
birthed from sheltered womb
seeing purpose.
embodied soul. "
- J


























What J says
"I’ve just completed the most amazing archetypal journey photoshoot with Lela and it’s been incredible, I feel like I’ve waited all my life for this. I decided to make changes at the last minute and I was supported in that, I had no music. I desired to use my feelings of rebirthing into a new phase of my life. I did lots of preparation and had lots of support in that, I really enjoyed the meditations beforehand, I found them so useful in order to bring out ideas and insights, to help me clarify what I wanted for my journey. I felt like it was a miracle unfolding, it was otherworldly, the process of doing it was otherworldly, it was the most amazing experience. This art form, it means so much to me to have pictures to validate my journey, to see and physically witness myself going into a new phase through going through this journey and having it validated through photography. I just think this is an amazing form of artistry that I am so blessed to have been able to be given this opportunity to do it, its just been absolutely fantastic and its one of those life experiences that’s just so important for me to be left with all this unfolding and then an image that I want to put on the wall to inspire myself its just incredible. "
“Reflecting on my journey it felt like it went from stillness [in the nest] to staccato, staccato was the definite contact with the trees and nature, it was a stillness staccato, I was very grounded in what I was doing and taking solace from the trees and the foliage. I went from that grounded stillness connection with the tree trunk and my body against it grounding, into lyrical before the chaos. I see the lyrical as my engagement with the silk, and the scream is just wonderful, that’s my chaos... So I did dance, I danced the whole way through in a different way. There’s a real journey there for me to see”
“If they had been in a studio with a different photographer, trying to set that up would have been so contrived, my face wouldn’t have been so comfortable and natural, the way you worked I was able to be completely natural in myself because you just captured what was evolving. Because I wasn’t posing, people pleasing or trying to look good I think that’s why the images are so authentic and unpretentious, strong and in the moment, capturing what is, and there’s no inhibition, that’s what I love because I have been inhibited most of my life, there’s a vulnerability that I don’t mind sharing, but I didn’t feel inhibited”
“It was really lovely to see the whole journey, I’m still unravelling it really. It’s great to embed it in myself and see how the journey unfolded, because I did it in my psyche and in my body it’s just great to see it captured. That’s what’s wonderful, to see it captured. Obviously, you have the vision in your mind and we talked about it, I wrote about it, but to see it captured… that’s magic, that’s real alchemy, the transformation of those different stages of the journey unfolding.”