lifting the veil...

emerging from the underworld to celebrate one year of dreaming so darkly with 10 things you don’t know about me...

hello dark loves,

when i first created dreaming so darkly, it was never my intention to remain anonymous forever.

persephone was always a threshold—a mythic doorway that allowed me to descend into the underworld of eros, shadow, and the psyche in ways that felt safe enough to begin.

but now the equinox and the one year anniversary of dreaming so darkly is only a few days away, and it feels like it’s time to step more fully out of the darkness and be more visible here—just as my patron goddess is returning with spring flowers.

so for the first time, i’ve lifted the veil and shared my face.

and now that the woman behind the voice is a little more visible, it feels like the right moment to share a few things you might not know about me…

10 things you don’t know about me:

1. i was born in los angeles, but spent my school years in a small ski resort town where i stuck out like a sore thumb and was actively ostracised from the moment i arrived at five years old until i left at eighteen.

2. i’ve been obsessed with romance and fantasy novels since i was a pre-teen. stories of longing, magic, and other worlds were the first portals into my psyche.

3. for most of my childhood and into my twenties i believed my life would unfold in the performing arts. i trained as a ballerina and as a classical vocalist.

4. i studied art history and lived between new york and paris during my university years.

5. after graduating, i returned to los angeles to pursue acting, until a quarter-life crisis cracked everything open. after spending a summer in the inner circle of one of the most famous men in the world, i hit rock bottom, sold nearly everything i owned and travelled alone through india for six months where i met my love on a beach in goa. along the way i wrote an unpublished memoir about my time in india and my years in hollywood called sleeping my way to the bottom.

6. i had my first therapist at four years old, and over a dozen more since then. talk therapy has been supportive in many ways, but it was sacred sexuality, conscious kink, and working somatically that created the most profound shifts for me.

7. i live with cptsd from covert incest and narcissistic abuse and still navigate symptoms that impact my relationships and daily life.

8. i’ve trained as a tantra teacher with a world-respected tantrika who received a direct transmission from osho.

9. i’ve been developing an upmarket erotic romantic suspense trilogy for the last few years. i have a completed first draft of book one, titled dreaming in the dark, inspired by the dark nexus surrounding epstein. a modern-day reimagining of the eros & psyche myth, it follows a heroine named selene who survives years of abuse at the center of a shadowy cabal—and an enigmatic, morally grey hero named gabriel who’s far more than the privileged british aristocrat he appears to be.

10. i’m currently completing a year-long certification as a sex, love, and relationship coach with a strong grounding in somatics, neuroplasticity, tantra, and taoism.

i’m deeply grateful to every one of you who has joined me in the underworld so far, and who has been willing to walk through the dark with me.

this space has always been more than a place to publish stories. it’s a temple—a place where eros, myth, shadow, and healing can meet.

going forward i’ll be sharing deeper transmissions on healing, embodiment, and the underworld work of reclaiming the erotic self as well as more of my own journey.

over the coming months i’ll also be partially serialising my novel, dreaming in the dark_, as i begin the editing process. like everything else in this temple, the story is deeply encoded with the same underworld frequencies you’ve come to know me for—exploring the intersection of sacred sexuality, conscious kink, and trauma alchemy.

there is still so much waiting to be discovered in the dark.

xx persephone

p.s. if you’re not already subscribed, make sure you do so you don’t miss what’s coming—my next lunar transmission in the initiates’ chamber (the private subscriber chat) for wednesday’s pisces new moon is arriving soon…

in these transmissions i explore the archetypal energies moving through the collective, weaving together myth, astrology, and the deeper psychological and erotic themes they awaken. i also share reflections from my own life and underworld journey as a way of grounding those energies in lived experience.

they’re an invitation for you to contemplate how these currents might be moving through your own life as well—and within the initiates’ chamber, paid subscribers are welcome to share their experiences and receive guidance from me in the private chat and monthly q&a.

here at the temple gates, all writings remain open for now.

for those who feel called to step deeper inside, the initiates’ chamber is where this work becomes relational.

and for those who wish to work more closely with me, the inner sanctum offers private, in-depth oracular reflection on one question of your choosing.

now that i’ve shared a little more about my own story, i’d love to learn more about yours.

what part of your underworld journey helped shape the person you are today? if you feel called, please share in the comments below.