Card 8  ·  Femessence Series  ·  2024

Shadow

Age 74  ·  Australian background  ·  Vaginal birth: Yes

Femessence — Shadow, Card 8Femessence — Shadow, Card 8Femessence — Shadow, Card 8

She was seventy-four when she sat with this process. A woman who has lived long enough to know every shade of herself — including the ones kept quietly in the dark. This portrait was made in the spirit of that looking. Of turning toward what had been carried for a long time, and letting it be seen.

“It is safe to look.”

This woman has chosen to keep her story private. Her courage in being seen is enough.

Shadow is the card for what we carry without naming it. What lives in us before we look. This portrait holds that territory with complete reverence.

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.