Card 17 · Femessence Series · 2023
Compassion
Age 39 · British background · Vaginal birth: No
Her relationship with her body had been traumatic for most of her life. She came to this process mid-healing — not at the beginning, not at the end, but in the tender middle of learning to love what she had been at war with. Her vulva had been nondescript to her. Not hated, not loved — simply unacknowledged. She wanted to change that. To deepen the connection. To remind herself daily of her own beauty.
“I feel more grateful and connected to my Yoni. More proud of her and how she looks and what she’s experienced.”
I came to this to continue deepening the connection to my Self, my body, my femininity and my sexuality. To be able to remind myself every day of the beauty of my Yoni.
My relationship with my vulva had been quite nondescript. I had been taking the time to deepen that relationship, but it just wasn’t a part of myself I’d really been fully aware of. My relationship with my body had been quite traumatic for most of my life, until recent years when I began healing and understanding and loving my body.
Definitely — I feel more grateful and connected to my Yoni. I feel more proud of her and how she looks and what she’s experienced and more open to express that part of myself through my relationships.
To her teenage self
Your body is your best friend. Nothing your mind has been programmed to believe about your body is true. If you do only one thing in this life, be sure to make it loving your body every single day. Everything you ever need and desire will be born through this connection.
Compassion begins with the self. This portrait is evidence of that.
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.
