Helena Willow

17/02/2026

I used to be the quietest girl in the room 💚

In school, I was awkward and shy.
I avoided speaking in front of others at all costs. If you had told me then that my life’s work would be leading circles and teaching hundreds of women, I wouldn’t have believed you. It was never the plan—but it became my calling.
(Actually, my big dream as a teeneager was to become a writer…)

How do you actually learn to hold sacred space? 🌙

These are questions I hear all the time:

"How can I hold others without giving away my power?"
"How do I stop taking on everyone else's energy?"

I’ll tell you a secret:

This is not something you learn in a weekend.
It took me five years of intense magical, ceremonial, and healing training before I felt ready to truly hold space for others.

My "deep end" moment was in 2008 at the Flow Festival here in Sweden (if you were there, you know...)
The gathering lasted three days, but the preparation (and the aftermath) lasted almost two years!

That experience kickstarted everything. Reiki training, Chakra workshops, creative circles... suddenly, I realized something that surprised me:
I truly love being a guide 🌿

But I didn’t just jump in the deep end.
For years, I was the one being held. I sat in strong group containers. I watched. I listened. I learned from my peers and my teachers.

Most importantly, I learned what it feels like to be truly safe.
To be seen.
To be in a space with no dogma, no hierarchy, and no "one truth fits all."

That feeling is what I’ve carried into every circle since 2008. My intention is always the same, whether I sit in a 1:1 session or the Willow Women Community:

To create a container where you are free to be exactly who you are.

In the 9 Willow Women Archetypes, we explore these many ways of being a guide.

We look at the shadows and the gifts. Whether you feel like a Seeress or you feel a bit "frightened" by the archetype of the Witch or the Priestess—I invite it all.

Think back to a circle, a workshop, or even a meeting. When did you feel truly safe and seen? And how do you hold space for yourself so you have enough left to give to others? 🔥🌳

15/02/2026

The Void is a place to be reborn 🌑✨

I remember October 2002. I had just returned from a year of total freedom in Australia—sunrises, wild landscapes, and ocean swims—only to land in a cold, rainy London. I was working in a call center, living on white bread and pasta, and feeling truly miserable.

At the time, I called it a "black hole of despair." Today, I know it was my first Dark Night of the Soul.

Since then, I’ve entered the "Void" many times.
I’ve faced burnout in my 30s and the deep shifts of perimenopause at 47. But over the last 30 years, my relationship with the darkness has changed. I’ve stopped trying to "busy" my way out of it, and I’ve started listening to it.

As a child I was scared of the dark, of the unseen. That my eyesight began to blur at the age of 7 didn't help...

Here are two things the Void has taught me:
📍 1. It’s a Compass
The feeling of being in a Dark Night is often the first signal that the path you’re on is leading somewhere you don’t want to be. You might not know where to go yet, but the darkness is there to tell you: “Take a breath. Be still. What needs to change?”

🔥 2. Community is the Medicine
While the void is a personal journey, we aren’t meant to stay there alone forever. My mission has always been to gather people—to create a "cosmic fire" where we can be seen and heard. Whether it’s online or in person, here in Sweden - belonging is what gives us the strength to follow our North Star.

From this latest period of stillness, my new chapter—Helena Willow—is being born. I am finally ready to open the doors to something new 🌿

If you feel like you’re in the dark right now, take a breath. There is a spark waiting for you in the stillness.

Have you ever experienced a "Dark Night of the Soul"? How did it change your direction? I’d love to hear your story 💚

14/02/2026

Something magical this way comes… 🕯️

The past few years have brought many changes.

I’ve been quiet here for a while, and if I’m honest, it’s because I’ve been in the "creative darkness."

We planned to launch this work in 2024… but life had other plans. It has been birthed slowly, over time, whilst juggling legal battles and navigating perimenopause.

My beloved and I found ourselves forced to leave our home, and finding ourselves rootless. My heart was aching for the stones and the trees of my old magical spots in the forest.

Now, I am writing to you from a small farm north of Uppsala (it's -20C today!)

I am slowly connecting to a new place, rooting into the land, and learning how to walk through this new landscape. Wide open skies. Deer walking past the house. Paw prints from a lynx in the snow behind the barn.

I left my physical clinic in Uppsala 3.5 years ago, hastily and unplanned.

It was a dead end I had been heading towards for a while. I had ignored the messages my body and heart were sending me. It was time for a reset—to put everything I had ever learnt and taught over 25 years to the test. To burn the old and plant new seeds in the ashes.

I was exhausted. I even wondered... perhaps it was time for me to retire?

But instead, I went into the Void. Back to the drawing board. Into the forest for hours and hours. And what emerged in that "Cauldron of Creation" is what I am finally ready to share…

But for now, I just wanted to say hello. I am still here. I am rooting deep.

I’m curious—have you ever had to burn your life down to find out who you really are?

11/11/2025

🪷 The Frog Path and the Faith That Follows - 2025-07-14

I stepped into the forest to escape the noise.
Builders were in the house, and the air inside was full of dust, hammering, and tension.
My nervous system needed space to stretch, to breathe, to find stillness.

So I walked.
Not far.
Just into the green.

It was damp and quiet, clouds heavy overhead, birds singing somewhere unseen.
I meant to walk quickly—burn some tension, find clarity in movement.

But the forest had another plan.

As soon as I stepped onto the path, I saw movement.
Tiny flickers at my feet.

At first, I thought they were giant ants.
But then I looked closer—really looked—and realized I was surrounded by baby frogs.

Hundreds.
Thousands.
Scattered across the forest floor, blending into the soil, so small they were nearly invisible unless they moved.

My first instinct was to walk faster.
To keep going.
To get out of there before I crushed one.

But that made no sense.

So I stopped.
I began to walk again—this time slowly.
Carefully.
With reverence.

One mindful step at a time.
A kind of frog-path meditation.

And then I sat.

I perched on a moss-covered rock and listened.
The ravens called from somewhere above.

The frogs—tiny and fearless—hopped around me, their bodies the colour of earth.
Just being alive.
Looking for food.
Hanging out with their friends.
Unaware of the danger my big human feet posed.

And I started to think.

Right now, in our lives—mine and Jacob’s—we’re in a place of deep uncertainty.

Our house is for sale.
And the bureaucrats say we can't sell...

Our dream is to buy a piece of land.
To live more in tune with the earth.
To create a gathering place.

But nothing is settled.
Nothing is secure.

And I’ll be honest with you:
I’m scared.

I’ve Googled divination more than once, desperate for a sign.
I’ve prayed harder than I ever have before.
I’ve said out loud, to Spirit, to the wind, “Please help us.”

I’ve wanted someone—anyone—to tell me it’s going to be okay.

But here’s what the frogs reminded me:

We can’t live our whole lives hiding under a rock, afraid of getting stepped on.
Because then—nothing happens.
No growth.
No connection.
No magic.

Sometimes we have to leap.

Even if it means we might get hurt.
Even if it means the path is unclear.
Even if it means we have to walk slower than we planned.

So I slowed down.
I let the mosquitoes bite.
I let the forest speak.
I let the fear be there.

And I remembered something a friend sent me—
a grainy black-and-white clip from an old film, where a voice says:

“If you wake up in the morning and say,
‘I truly believe something wonderful is going to happen today,’
and if you fall asleep saying,
‘I truly believe something wondrous will happen tomorrow,’
then it will.”

That’s the kind of faith I’m cultivating now.
The slow, earthy kind.

Because today, a training device we needed for Jacob arrived—for free.

Because builders showed up to help, even when we weren’t sure we could afford it.
Because we’re still alive.

I don’t know what will happen with the house, or the land, or the next chapter.
Maybe it’s not the land we thought.
Maybe it’s something else.

But I do know this:

One day, Jacob and I will sit in the sun—
with champagne or tea—
and look out over the place we’re meant to tend.

There will be trees.
Bees.
Boars.
Frogs.

There will be people.
There will be ceremony.
There will be healing.

And we’ll say, “We made it.”

Because we are here to do important work.
We’re not here to rush.
We’re here to listen.

To walk the slow path.
The frog path.

And now…
the frogs have cleared the way.
I know the path.
I know the way home.

🪷

05/05/2025

Have you ever felt like you’re holding the world… but no one is holding you?

Like you’re the one people turn to for guidance, healing, wisdom—
…but inside, there’s an ache.
A quiet emptiness.
A deep, old wound.

For years, I was the woman who could hold everyone else—
but not herself.

In my latest blog post, I share the story I’ve never fully told:
✨ The night I sat on a beach in Broome, WA under the moon and let myself finally fall apart.
✨ The spiral of healing that began when I stopped performing—and started listening.
✨ What the path of the Wounded Healer really looks like, from the inside out.

If you’re a woman who holds space for others but quietly wonders, “Who holds me?”
This is for you.

🌿 Read the full story here: https://helenawillow.com/woundedhealer/
Let me know if it speaks to you.

The Wounded Healer: My Journey Back to WholenessHelena's Journey / May 1, 2025 / Leave a Comment The Wounded Healer: My Journey Back to Wholeness When the Land Healed Me I want to speak to the part of you that feels tired of carrying the world. What does it mean to be a Wounded Healer? Not just some...

29/04/2025

PART 2: I Was Helping Others—but Losing Myself

By 2007, I was seeing clients regularly.
I had completed Reiki Level 2, studied aromatherapy, and was doing bodywork.
On the outside, I looked grounded.
But I hadn’t yet learned the most important lesson:

✨ You can’t hold others if you can’t hold yourself.

I remember giving Reiki to a woman and walking away with her stomach pain.
It wasn’t mine.
I took it on unconsciously—so she wouldn’t have to carry it.

That moment changed everything.

I started to understand what it meant to be a container, not a sponge.
To set loving boundaries.
To cleanse and to ground myself.
To show up fully, without dissolving into someone else’s energy.

Later, when I found my shamanic teachers, this wisdom deepened.
They taught me that boundaries aren’t protection.
They are presence.

This is one of the core teachings I now live and guide from.

28/04/2025

PART 1: I Didn’t Know I Was a Healer Yet

I didn’t grow up thinking I would be a healer.
But the signs were always there.

I felt everything.
I sensed everyone’s moods, unspoken emotions, and the tension in the room.
And I didn’t know how to navigate the overwhelm.
In my twenties, I was trying to manage it the only way I knew how—
often numbing myself just to function.
I didn’t know I was highly sensitive.
I just knew I was wide open.

Then one day, during massage training it happened.
My hands lit up.
Not just warm—alive.

That was the moment that changed everything.
The word Reiki kept finding me.
And when I followed the call, I began to return to myself.

This was the beginning.
Not of becoming a healer—
but of realizing I already was one.

Photo by Natasha Hurley, Hampstead Heath 2007

23/04/2025

🔥🌸 Beltane - En tid för livskraft, eld och samhörighet

Fysisk ceremoni i Uppsala-området 27 april · Online 29 april

Det närmar sig Beltane – portalen mellan vår och sommar.
En tid då elden vaknar i oss igen.
Kraften. Skaparglädjen. Transformationen.
Vi går från dröm till manifestering - och låter vår intention börja blomma.

Beltane är ett av Årshjulets eldfestivaler.
Då livskraften flödar allt starkare och the Spiritual Warrior kan visa oss vägen.
Tiden då slöjan mellan världarna blir tunn – och kontakten med naturen blir starkare.

Det här är för dig som:
🔥 Har känt dig trött men längtar efter att lysa igen
🔥 Vill tända din inre eld – inte för att prestera, utan för att leva
🔥 Känner att helerskans väg också är din – på ditt sätt

Vi gör detta tillsammans, i cirkeln med andra kvinnor, i ceremoni, i kraft.
Du behöver inte vara "redo" – du behöver bara en längtan efter att ta nästa steg.

Till Beltane bjuder jag in dig till två ceremonier:
🌀 En fysisk ceremoni – 27 april - Vi möts på en uråldrig och magisk plats strax utanför Uppsala
🌀 En onlineceremoni i Willow Women communityt – 29 april - vi ses i vårt magiska Zoom-rum

För att delta i våra Beltane ceremonier, välkommen in i Willow Women Community.

Just nu får du även min kurs Create Your Own Energy Connection.

→ 💫 Välkommen in i cirkeln, Willow Woman:
https://helenawillow.com/home/se/create-your-own-energy-connection-with-helena-willow/

15/04/2025

We are standing at the threshold of a great shift.

Some paths are not walked just for ourselves.

They’re walked for those who came before us—and for those still to come.

When I began shaping The Willow Women Path, I knew it had to be more than a "business."

It had to be a living, ethical, and regenerative space—rooted in care for the Earth, for women’s leadership, and for the sacred web of life.

A return to a way of being that honors

the wisdom of the earth,
the sovereignty of women,

and the balance between seen and unseen forces that shape our world.

My work is not just about personal transformation—

it is about remembering how to lead,
how to govern,
and how to weave the future for the next seven generations.

I guide women—visionaries, leaders, and seekers—
who feel the pull to something greater.

Those who know they are meant to hold space for something beyond themselves.

Together, we are restoring the sacred balance of leadership.

We are shaping new systems, councils, and movements that protect, nurture, and guide the world forward.

This is not just personal work.
It is planetary work.

The women I work with are the architects of the future.

They are healers, strategists, warriors, and wise women, standing in their full presence to guide
humanity into the next era.

This is not a business.
It is not a cause or activism.
It is a legacy of responsibility.

It is our ancestral heritage to honour.
And it is time to build it together.

11/04/2025

The Sacred Shift

Another 50-year cycle began yesterday.
A new story has emerged preparing me for this great opening.

For more than two decades, I guided women through healing, circles, rituals, and one-on-one transformation.

But something inside me began to shift.

When I returned to Sweden in 2011, after 12 years in England, I started over.

No community.
No structure.

Just a silent whisper when I asked the unseen for guidance:

“Build a circle. Build community.”

I was confused, but I showed up — with what I had:
massage skills, Reiki hands, my drum, incense, and hope.

I lit candles in empty rooms.
And slowly, the women came.

Once, only my sister showed up.
But I stayed with it.

From my parents’ living room to my own sacred venue.
From no income or stability to building a six-figure business
(though that was never the point).

The real cost?

Ten to twelve 1:1 sessions a week.
Weekend trainings.
Evening drum circles.
Late-night bookkeeping.

And all the invisible work that comes when you follow the heart’s call.

__________________________

I received so much while growing tired.
And I burned out.
__________________________

Because, sometimes when you hold space for others,
it’s easy to forget how to hold space for yourself.

Instead, you keep filling your cup -

with more trainings, more certifications,
creating another year-long program,
more doing, fixing, pleasing.

Lucky me, the unseen intervened.

My guides.
The Spirit of the Land.

I was forced to leave my venue.
Then the world shut down.

And in the quiet, The Void arrived.

She whispered:
“Slow down. Listen to the land.”

That’s when something new began to rise.
Not in the rush — but in the ashes.

And that’s where this new story begins.
Stay tuned.

With love,
Helena

07/11/2024

We are still in harvest season, yes? 😉🍁

What are you harvesting from this year?
What are you putting on the "mush pile"?
And now is a good time for us all to remember what we are grateful for💚

Autumn hugs! /Helena Willow

25/06/2024

🌞 Happy Midsummer! 🌞
Me and my love Jacob gathered with an amazing group of people at Home Tree. 🌳
Dancing, singing, drumming, breathing. Laughter, tears, deep conversations. Dear friends and new friends. My heart is full ❤
Thank you to those who joined my workshop where we raised a HUGE amount of energy! I’m still buzzing. ⚡🔥🌞

Photo of me by Trollsländan