Card 16 · Femessence Series · 2022
Grace
Age 29 · Caucasian background · Vaginal birth: No
Her body said yes before her mind had finished thinking. A full body YES — immediate, certain, cellular. She had been waiting for this permission without knowing she was waiting. She came carrying years of physical tension held in her hips, her inner thighs, her pelvic floor — the body’s quiet record of shame. Opening up to Caris, physically and literally, was a celebration of how far she had come.
“I felt my body just thank me — thank me for such a special honouring, thank me for allowing my beauty to be witnessed and celebrated.”
The moment I saw that Caris was offering this beautiful experience I felt my body light up with a full body YES, knowing that I wanted to gift myself this opportunity as an honouring and celebration of my body. I went into our session with the intention of this being a very special and unique celebration of my body as a temple, my vulva as beautiful, my sexuality as sacred.
Growing up I definitely carried a lot of shame around my sexuality and around my vulva — her appearance, never knowing if she was right or not. I carried a lot of physical tension in my hips, my inner thighs and my pelvic floor because I spent years physically and energetically keeping my legs closed so tight out of shame. To be able to physically and literally open up to Caris felt like such a moment of celebration of how far I’ve come and how much I’ve come to love and adore this sacred part of me.
When I received the images I felt my body just thank me — thank me for such a special honouring, thank me for allowing my beauty to be witnessed and celebrated.
The healing and transformation continued after I received those images. It awakened even deeper levels of insights, reflections, ancestral healing that I was not expecting, but am so grateful for. Caris is such a wise, intuitive, gentle, safe, loving and empowering soul. She has such a love and devotion for the female form that is so deeply felt. She is here to celebrate you.
Grace is moving through difficulty with dignity. This woman did that. This portrait holds it.
This portrait is part of the Femessence Women’s Celebration Series — a body of work by artist and arts therapist Caris Pepper honouring the sacred feminine through vulva portrait art. Each portrait in this series is becoming a card in the Femessence Vulva Portrait Oracle deck, coming 2027.
