Meet Danielle Wooldridge

We were lucky to catch up with Danielle Wooldridge recently and have shared our conversation below.

Danielle , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

My resiliency comes from a place deep inside of my gut, inside of my womb. It’s something ancient in my DNA, gifted as a birth rite. My resiliency is wired into my code, watered and fed from my grandparents and their grandparents before them, because of the innate desire to survive.

I am also a mother, and for me, birthed simultaneously with my daughters were many tools. One of the most essential for our journey being resiliency. We all possess this within us, it is only an issue of trusting ourselves, and know we have the strength to pick it up and rise again. Failure is not an option when you are a mother, not when the love is unconditional. There are no circumstances that keep you from getting back up and dusting yourself off when the mission and the why is unconditional love itself. Life itself. The resiliency of my ancestors only makes my access to it one less doubtful.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

What’s alive for me right now is ceremony. A ceremony being a ritual act or repetitive procedures, ritual is what I offer. Ritual is what I am enriching in my own life, and what I hope to activate in the lives of my clients. Some may say that life is ceremony. Yes, I am a tattoo artist but not fully in the sense of what that has come to mean in the west. There is nothing frivolous or aggressive about my client sessions or artwork. The ceremony, or tattoo sessions, I curate for clients in an experience of opening a portal of sorts. This opening happens even before I meet my clients in person. Through the intake process, I invite my clients to sit with themselves in an essence of meditation. I ask that when there is some space for stillness, they tap into their present prayers and in a sense journal according the prompts I give them. When they have completed this part of the process, it’s as if a portal is unlocked with codes created by their prayers. They create the trajectory of the vision to be created. In that portal a sacred container then begins to be constructed where the art or vision is woven by their prayers. Regardless of what religion or spiritual practices a person may hold, the experience is powerful for most of my clients, many times integrating into their lives long after we have parted ways. Dots often connect to pieces of their story that weren’t spoken about during the design process.

The process of what I described is why what I offer is ceremonial. It involves written and verbal prayer, old symbols and new woven together in an artistic way to create what some might call a sigil, a talisman, or a totem. I create runes and glyphs and have these cataloged for use along side ancient symbols of many origins. There is a language I’m tattooing, and it can be read if you understand the codes. My client’s prayers can be unwoven by those who have the key. I often give a key of the symbols I have used in a client’s talisman after the close of our ceremony. My hope and intention is that when they look at or discuss their tattoos, they can be brought back into ceremony, repeating the prayers, remembering and reactivating the medicine over and over again. This is ceremony.

Another big part of my process is smudging. I burn resins, loose incense and dried plants to clean energy and ground in my clients to help them be as present as possible in the space before and during ceremony. Smoke can be potent medicine when there are big emotions that need settling or difficult circumstance like pain is present. It also helps to support conscious breathing.

Everyday I wake up and I am grateful to be able to do this work. Every day. It is an honor to be able to help people celebrate their journeys, activate their prayers, and honor their ancestors. I have worked with so many amazing and gifted people, co-creating art that is a sacred expression of who they are, where they came from and where they believe their gifts are to lead them. I work with all people from all walks of life, from yogis to Christians and Muslims, Taino ancestry to Nordic, and all genders, all skin tones, and all body types. Everyday I give thanks for this opportunity.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Listening to my heart. Too often we are told not to but it is the only thing that doesn’t lie, if you truly listen with honesty.

We spoke about resiliency. This is essential for the completion of anything worth completing. If it is to be great there will be mistakes along the way. If you haven’t fallen down or felt like you failed, then you never pushed your limits to the edge. Greatness requires knowing the edge, by testing it again and again. This can only be achieved with resiliency. When we are dangling off the edge in the hour of necessity, great things happen when we embrace the opportunity for discovery and understanding in that adversity. Only with resiliency we can arrive at mastery, having deep respect and knowing of our edges.

The 3rd quality would probably be forgiveness. Learning ease in letting go to what doesn’t serve you without resentment or animosity and giving grace in those spaces to whoever needs it. As you grow up,
unnecessary burdens and traumatic wounds begin to add up and can weigh you down to a state of complacency. This brews a poison to kill dreams. My advice for those early on their journey in pursuit of their purpose is forgiveness. Forgive yourself and forgive others. Offer grace at any opportunity. This will help keep your heart open and energy abundant for the tasks ahead.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

The Power of Now by Eckart Tolle. This was a pivotal moment in my life and therefore my offerings. Reading the Power of Now put to words the essence of ideas I was trying to piece together, but could not yet verbalize. It was like a layer of residue I didn’t realize was there was wiped away from my perception of the circumstance of ….existence. That sounds heavy I know, but he explains what IS, that being Now, that being all things as One. He connects his explanation to sacred texts of all dogma, supporting the context of non-dualism. Tolle enlightens the reader in such a powerful way on how everything is God.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Tweedandsoot

Image Credits

Kumari Visionz

IG | @KumariVisionz