Fashion Week is essentially ego central. Here are 13 ways to channel your inner Unicorn, and transcend the tantrums and the auric trauma…Words and illustrations: Erin Petson
Meditate in the toilets, while the other bloggers and writers star gaze for the nearest wifi, plug socket or mobile phone signal. A moment of solace.
Channel your inner guru when you actually should be taking notes or making scathingly hilarious remarks about the lack of celebs on the front row with some secret speed journaling.
Guzzle vast amounts of the highest vibrational green juice you can get your hands on. When it’s being given out for free at the showcases, 10 bottles in your handbag is, like, totally fine.
Take time to ground yourself with your standing only ticket. You’ve got plenty of time before the show starts to grow those roots.
Snort the must potent hormonal balancing essential oil you can find whenever possible. With oestrogen bombs exploding all around, it’s time to take cover.
Practise the art of being a lighthouse, we don’t want any shipwrecks.
Step out for a quick ‘smoke’ between shows – my preference is sage, and never at a bus stop.
Practice looking fabulously nonchalant while secretly watching Doreen Virtue on youtube (and naughtily using up that precious phone juice).
Actual tree hugging is obviously a big no-no. However, gravitating towards the nearest potted plant for a wee pet, totally fine.
Drape yourself with as many crystals as humanly and stylishly possible.
Dress witchy enough to get a good 6ft auric field clearance.
Make vast amounts of protein rich chia seed pudding and keep it in a coffee cup, as not to draw to attention to your secret attempt at at super-food stop-gap.
…And when your five days on the tundra are up, gong it all out with the mother of all sound baths.
How will you keep your aura clean and serene during London Fashion Week? Share your tips with us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!
When she decided to shave half her head and dress only in black, it was an homage to the unyielding potential of the Death card, says Gaby Herstik. Photos: Alexandra Herstik
My passion for what lies beyond the life we see, for spirituality and the occult, began when I was 12. That passion is something that alienated me, but it also gave me what I needed to truly find myself at a young age. At 16 I shaved off half of my long, brown hair, and began the process of fully growing into myself and finding my own personal style.
I decided to attend the University of South Carolina to study fashion merchandising and print journalism, an unusual decision considering Columbia, USC’s home, doesn’t necessarily condone pitch black hair, bright red lips, half shaved heads and eccentric clothes; all the hallmarks of my look.
But I never even considered attempting to change myself to blend in to my surroundings in Columbia. Early on my freshman year, I made a conscious decision to pretend I was in New York City, and to dress how I wanted to dress no matter what. No matter the side eyes, the questioning glances or the open mouth gapes; I decided to wear whatever it was that made me feel powerful, beautiful and capable.
It wasn’t until I truly owned my inner strength that I was able to become a Death Queen. Personally, I feel the most like a goddess when I wear all black, preferably with some faux leather and some high, high heels, and I choose what I wear for no one else but me.
But being a Death Queen is about more than clothes. It means understanding that endings are an unavoidable part of life, and that the beginnings that come from these endings are infinitely and vastly more powerful. A true Death Queen sees the positive in everything. A Death Queen understands that she can tap into her inner power to create her ideal reality.
Which brings us to the Death card. Death is number 13 in the classic tarot deck, a number that brings to mind its own macabre imagery – namely black cats and cursed Fridays. But Death herself rules transformation in the biggest and most powerful sense of the word; to draw Death is to draw new opportunities and ventures. Death literally represents the opening one door and the closing of another, and, when life feels either too structured or unsettling, often an open door is all you need.
And perhaps that is what defines a Death Queen; tapping into the unyielding potential within yourself to understand the importance and power of change, namely through the properties of death. Being a Death Queen isn’t a morbid fate, and nor is it a stifling existence that leaves you constantly dancing on the edge of life.
At first, change can seem intimidating and scary, ominous and eerie. Death is a forlorn concept, and its card is tainted by society’s portrayal of what it represents, not what it actually is. Death represents big, commanding change. Yes, it most definitely represents the end of something, but the new beginning it ushers in overpowers that ending by eons. Death is an energetic worker who helps you start fresh and start powerfully; if you want control of new beginnings, tapping into the energies of Death and her card is the surest way to go.
In this sense, a Death Queen is a woman who dances between the realms and uses her own power to manifest the most beautiful and positive situations she can, even when times get tough. She remembers that sometimes our judgments cloud our reality, and that being open, aware and present are the best tools in dealing with a tough time.
It’s not always easy to understand the language of your soul, but owning your inner Death Queen means creating a reality that you’re proud of; it means understanding that every ending is a new beginning. In this way a true Death Queen is a woman who’s drawn to examine the darker reaches of the soul, but is innately light.
Being a Death Queen means no more than owning every dark crevice your being, and then using this to create the most beautiful reality you can, to serve you in this life and beyond.
Taylor EyeWalker is a scent alchemist who crafts moon and crystal-charged botanical perfumes from her magical lair in Topanga Canyon, California. With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, Madeline Giles shares her experience of receiving a custom-made Love Potion.
Driving up the desolate dirt road to Taylor EyeWalker’s mountain home on a warm California day, I have no idea what to expect. There’s no manual on how you’re supposed to feel prior to meeting a scent alchemist for a consultation for a personalized Love Potion – but weaving through the enchanted forests of Topanga Canyon, perhaps I am Cinderella (pre-Prince Charming) about to meet her fairy godmother for the first time.
Having come across her page on Facebook, I had contacted Taylor first and foremost because I wanted to create a loving experience for myself. The magical vibe of her site totally resonated with me, and, having just moved from Brooklyn to Venice Beach, I felt receiving a custom scent might help ground me. For the record yes, I am single – and while I’m comfortable with this right now, I’m definitely open to receiving all the help I can get. Especially when it involves Earth magic.
After parking on an uphill driveway, Taylor, who is tall, blonde and beautiful (this is LA after all, where even the witches look like movie stars), greets me warmly with her adorable French bulldog, Monkey. She then leads me upstairs onto a dreamlike outdoor terrace, where a Navajo-themed straw mat lies adorned with meditation cushions, a Buddha statue, incense, earthen bowls, and a teakettle. As we sit in comfortable silence, Taylor begins preparing a pre-consultation tea ritual.
The consultation “room”Making magic
“I like to serve tea first so we can authentically connect to the now,” she muses. I take a sip, and immediately feel pulled into a deeper part of myself. “Whoa,” I share. “What’s in this?” Taylor tells me we are drinking Living Tea, which comes from the high mountains and valleys of China and Taiwan from trees that are hundreds of years old. “The veins of a tealeaf resemble the veins of our bodies,” she says. “Connecting with the plant spirit allows us to more deeply connect with the energies of the earth.”
It only takes three cups of magic tea for me to feel completely at ease. When I arrived I was slightly anxious and unsure what would be expected of me, as I knew I was going to have to reveal deep aspects of myself. But thankfully, post-tea, my nervous monkey-mind is silenced. I feel entirely safe – and even eager – to share it ALL. Taylor asks if I’m ready to commence, so I take a deep breath and, pen and paper in hand, she begins.
Do you smoke? Have you ever smoked?
Is there a place in your life where you desire deeper love and connection?
Is there anything in your life you’d like to change?
What is your intention for this creation, this alchemy?
Are you ready for a relationship?
The list goes on, and I find myself sharing things I wasn’t consciously aware were even there. Like the fact that my deepest desire is to be in a soul-centered, romantic relationship, yet at this point in time I don’t feel ready for it. Question after question, I dive deeper into my heart. Before I know it, almost an hour has passed, and the consultation is over.
I ask Taylor to take me through what happens from here. “When you leave, I go into my realm and really create for you,” she explains. “Every alchemy is different, and generally I go up into the ninth plane of existence to be sure I’m not bringing any of my own projections in.”
Though Taylor has sustained an intuitive relationship with plants all her life (even as a child she crafted plant potions in a cauldron on her parents’ land in South Carolina), in recent years she further developed her abilities by studying plant medicine with indigenous tribes in South America.
“I still hold very true to the shamans of the Amazon,” she says. “I really appreciate what they can create – especially Pusangas, which are Amazonian Love Potions made specifically for individuals by connecting with plant spirits. The potion becomes a divination tool that you use in ceremony or ritual. It’s something that you keep sacred.”
A few days later, I receive my custom potion in a tiny glass bottle with a hand-written card that shares channeled messages Taylor received during the creation. I read the card first, and my eyes immediately well with tears. Several of the messages she shares are things I’ve intuitively been feeling for months. This is such a powerful, whimsical, feminine potion…it reminds me of Quan Yin, she writes. I went very, very deep in a cosmic wave, and I did many Theta downloads on this creation, ones you have requested in your life.
The downloads included things like dancing to eating more beets (who knew?), to wearing pearls on my body(as an incarnated mermaid, I deeply connect with them). I haven’t even smelled my Love Potion yet, and I already feel so seen, loved and understood. “This is really a self love potion,” Taylor had said during our consultation. “If we don’t have love within our hearts, if we don’t have love for ourselves, if we don’t feel whole, if our cup is not full, we will not attract the love we deserve.”
The authorMadeline’s Love Potion
Something I feel I’ve literally heard said a million times, yet coming from Taylor, I receive the message differently. I feel, for the first time ever, like I could literally hold the love of my own heart in the palm of my hand, thanks to this magical little bottle. Keeping this in mind, I carefully open my Love Potion and gently inhale. All I can say is…oh my God! Lavender, cedar, oak moss, rose, white lotus, jasmine, tiger’s eye, and many more familiar and unfamiliar scents rush to embrace every cell of my body. I feel like I am literally smelling my essence in liquid form, and this makes me smile. A lot.
I immediately decide I need to go for a walk and so I head out and hop in my building’s elevator. A man is waiting there. I’ve never seen him before, and yes he’s pretty cute. I’m smiling. He’s smiling. Then the elevator door opens, and as I walk outside I hear his pace quicken behind me. “Hey!” he says. “Are you wearing perfume?” I nod awkwardly – but then I remember I’m not, exactly. He looks into my eyes, brows raised, and grins; “It smells so good.”
Taylor Eyewalker also teaches kundalini yoga, offers theta healing, leads retreats, reads tarot and conducts rituals. Discover more at Eyewalkerelements.com
