ABOUT

MY STORY

It all started with a candle & a crystal.

From the beginning, I never felt like I belonged in this world, I felt like an outcast, an outsider. The highly sensitive child of 2 immigrant artists, I spent most of my life outdoors, hiking, exploring, dreaming, then coming home to delicious meals and creative outlets from music to writing & painting. My reality was different then most, and that made me feel like my magic was something to be hidden, so, in order to fit in, I did.

In a world that glorifies the hustle, I found myself on a fast track to burnout. Though I built a thriving career as a hairstylist, and was living the American Dream, I felt like there was something missing. My body was shutting down, I was in a seemingly endless state of panic, and I was experiencing constant dissociation from my body.

One day, friend of mine gave me a crystal necklace and told me it was called The Master Healer. When I put it on, I felt  a surge of energy, and I knew right then and there - that's what I had been missing all along. A connection to the natural world where I had always felt so at home. A connection to my heart.

When the pandemic happened, like for so many, it gave me an opportunity to explore who I was. I began meditating daily, taking herbalism classes, hiking, cooking, and, making candles.

What began as a craft project, transformed into a reclamation of my truth.

I remembered the nights I would sit by the fire with my late father, and how he would teach me to channel my intense emotions into art. How he taught me it didn't have to be pretty or perfect, it just had to be a safe place to let myself feel - something I shut off a long time ago. He taught me to sit with nature, to observe & listen, to trust the little whispers.

Each time I made a candle, a piece of my childlike self came back, and I began hunting in the forests for elements to use to decorate them with, gathering inspiration as I went, singing songs & hearing mantras as I went.

As I made these candles and shared the stories behind them, they would sell out before they were even finished. That's how I knew this was my path - not to be a candlemaker, but a steward of nature, a bridge between worlds. That through my art, I could touch the lives of others because of the energetic frequency it brought into their lives.

As my journey unfolded, I spent more and more time in nature, I began working with flowers, using their vibrational medicine to help me unlock more of my true self, to heal & feel deeper, in combination with somatic practices that supported my body's releasing of all those stored unfelt emotions. Through re-establishing a loving connection with my body, I found this was the key to living a truly magical life.

I found myself leaving behind everything I ever knew to follow the whispers in my Soul, that were now so clear, around the world, gathering information about who I was, who we are as a collective, and deeper meaning, with full trust that I'd be supported every step of the way.

I threw dynamite on my old life, old stories, old ways & watched them all burn.

I found myself connecting with Indigenous cultures & elemental spirits all over the world, remembering the connection I had with them and the land, I learned my Soul's true name - Luminaria - and from there the path opened up. The path to reclaim my fire.

This is my gift, bringing light to the places we have been conditioned to fear, setting fire to the truth that lives beneath it & feeding it with unconditional love so the torch stays lit for all eternity, guiding us every step of the way through the unknown.

Through my courage to walk those roads less traveled, I have become a living library of information that is bursting to be shared on behalf of all of nature, so we can all return to our child-like Soul selves. So we can live lives like the ones we believed we could have as children - open, expansive, boundless & limitless.

Like fire, we were created to be wild.

Like nature, we were created to be free.

Not free of this physical reality, rather fully anchored into it, able to enjoy the pleasures and magic of being a human, loving every perfectly imperfect minute of it!

So, if you have made it this far, I honor and applaud you for taking the time to read my story. I am elated to have you here, and to share my work with you, in whatever form resonates with you.

The Luminary Collective is my heart's work, in service to humanity and most of all to Luminaria, my Soul self who wants nothing more then to travel this world and empower all to be sovereign & free.

Thank you for being here, and thank you for being you, all of you.

With Love,

Ilona Luminaria