I am moved by the existence of

three butterfly echoes in the body

a reverberating truth that

holds me in cosmological and somatic wonder

photo by Mason Rose

my name is Evie Vigil, I identify as a trans and genderqueer cultural worker and interdisciplinary artist. This photo of me was taken near the beloved Rio Grande river, in my hometown of Albuquerque NM where I am currently emerging my practices as a writer, ritualist, performer, facilitator, somatic sex educator and deep listening practitioner.

How did I arrive to 3 butterflies and these particular intersections?

My story began to take shape in college where for 5 years my educational focus was on environmental science and ecological conservation. Upon completion of my BS in Zoology from San Francisco State in 2013, I felt exhausted and disenchanted by my institutional discipline. What I desired was a relationship of curiosity and reciprocity with the natural world. What I received was a training in categorization with an emphasis on how well I could present grade-focused research. I decided after graduation to pause and develop my own sense of belonging to land and place. I realized years later that my gravitation towards intimacy, sexual healing work, and animist spirituality was fortified by this experience. Objectification, reductionism and a lack of reverence for the holy in nature permeated the scientific fields I was immersed within. I began to track the larger cultural symptoms of disconnection fueled by colonialism and supremacy culture. In doing historical and anthropological research during my institutional years, I began to understand how systemic patterns of consent violation towards land and people can be felt and mirrored in our bodies and reproduced within our culture on micro and macro levels.

Before my institutional pause I began to develop my practice as an artist and leaned into sex work as my primary source of income. Although precarious and stigmatized, navigating the work came natural to me. My experiences were vast and sometimes profound in their complexity. I learned more acutely about the ways cultural and sexual trauma affected people’s shame and desire on a somatic level. I learned about risk management, harm reduction and how to negotiate dynamic consent. I learned touch based bdsm skills and strategies for moving through many types of intimate containers with strangers. I was simultaneously amazed by the infinite amount of ways that pleasure can be expressed, sought out, and tended to.

Over a span of 13 years, I learned how to run my own business as an erotic laborer in many emanations. I continue feeling the overall resiliency and wisdom of emerging from a sex worker lineage and honor this lived experience as foundational to my somatics and creative practice. Outside of sex work, I spent over a decade initiating and participating in the creation of co-collaborative experimental events, including: immersive art installations, queer erotic film screenings, performance art gatherings, theatrical life drawing classes, drag shows, sound baths, poetry readings, deep listening circles and ongoing seasonal rituals. I have experience co-hosting multi-day skill share retreats, and facilitating online somatic support groups. Learn more about my visions and collaborative projects here.

I arrived to Somatic Sex Education with a longing to fortify my skills in touch based care work and to gain more insight into the ways the body holds and releases trauma. As a survivor myself, I’ve been particularly interested in learning how to guide others towards an authentic and embodied erotic expression with emphasis on pleasure, prayer, acceptance, and empowered choice and voice. I found an extension of home within SSE, where my values around trauma informed erotic liberation are shared and understood. Read more about my Somatic Sex Education offerings here.

Family and cultural context

I am a mixed descendant of Hispanic, Mexican, and Sephardic crypto-Jewish diaspora with centuries of lineages from New Mexico on my father’s line, and Polish, German, & Scottish with four generations from New Mexico on my mother’s line. I carry the complexities and stories of my people close to my heart and engage in deep scholarship and multi-faith spiritual practices passed down to me from my family, mentors, community, and dream transmissions. These include song, ceremony, folk medicine, praying rosary, Marian devotion, pilgrimage to holy sites, kabbalat shabbat, dance, candle making, writing, and working with the three cauldrons.

Other life projects that have my time and attention:

Earth building, woodworking, animal hide processing, deep listening & sonic meditation, ceramics, plant medicine, film-making, mythology, multi-cultural mysticism, learning water ways, growing corn and tending to gardens, solidarity building and organizing among other sex workers, trans people & working class + marginalized communities.

I feel overwhelming gratitude for the opportunity to animate and investigate these intersections and to guide others towards their fullest and most marvelous expressions of love and spirit.