PHOTOGRAPHY BY LILLIAN LIU
Model: @prisciliavanb
Designs: Syban Velardi-laufer @sybansyban
Makeup: Maya Lewis Makeup @mayalewismakeup
Lighting: Lumecube @lumecube
Model: Karie Holst @karieleighholst
Environment Artist: CSaros @eyeofsaros Dress: Firefly Path @fireflypath
Headdress: DreamscometrueUA @dreams_cometrueua
Necklace: Regal Rose @regalrose Nails: Lory Sun Artistry @lorysunartistry Lighting: Elinchrom @elinchrom_ltd, Nanlite @nanliteusa
On a long winter’s night, at an hour through which most mortals slumber like cozy hedgehogs, your mind roams the heavens. You soar past the rooftops and treetops and into the clouds; you drift among stars and planets, gazing tenderly down at the quiet world.
You are drawn, naturally, to the moon. She is your sister; her light is your light too.
So it’s natural that when you open your eyes in the darkness, she follows you to earth. In her shimmering gown and glowing moonstones, she finds you in the slumbering woods—among the remnants of a Gothic palace, let’s say—and dips her feet into the stream of time. Thus she connects herself to the tides, the stars, the planet, and the universe. We believe there’s no kinder protector possible.
“Assemble, ye huntresses and warriors,” she calls. “Gather to us, our sister spirits of the heavens’ untapped powers!”
You watch, rapt, as a pantheon of celestial figures manifest in different phases and moods. They’re luminous, regal, curious, playful, commanding, serene … Clad in gold dust and silver armor, bright silks in shades that drape like curtains made of twilight, and bold tiaras with dangerous tips, your divine companions marry strength to beauty and hold spirit above all. They don’t need to bow to the queen goddess, because the moon doesn’t require obeisance in order to shine; her power is her power is her power, and there’s no one who will deny it. Each one of you will have a turn to illuminate the land, the sea, the sky.
Yes, you are also an aspect of the moon. This is also your night to shine.
Photographer Lillian Liu, the brilliance behind our celestial photo feature, calls the silvery über-goddess on our cover “the soft whisper of night, the comforting glow that keeps the creeping darkness at bay.” As embodied by model Karie Holst, she’s also a creation of inspiration and innovation, just as you’d expect from an artist whose own fantasies always fuel her art.
The goddesses have bestowed multiple talents on Lillian. She’s not only a prolific photographer but also a model and a concert pianist who has performed everywhere from Vancouver (her current city) to Paris. She holds multiple degrees in music, including one in classical piano performance earned at London’s Royal College of Music, and is on the faculty of several
esteemed schools and conservatories. As a lover of antiquarian books, vintage art, animals, and (of course) fantastic costumes, she’s a creative contributor and member of the Paris-based humanitarian and environmentalist collective Free Spirit, which blends art and music with philanthropy.
With such a diverse background, where did she draw inspiration for these pictures?
“My moon goddess here isn’t derived from one culture specifically,” Lillian says, while noting that the water sign of Cancer, which is ruled by the moon, did inspire the stream in which she’s stepping and the jugs on the ground around her.
Lillian created the moon goddess character with Karie in mind. Karie is a “chameleon” who Lillian says beams yin energy—the quiet, feminine, dark type of power that finds its mate in the more aggressively garish yang.
The exquisite costume helped guide the shoot. “I build ideas from the costume up,” Lillian says. One of her first steps was to “source the dress that would convey the theme best.” She found it in the design studio of JoEllen Elam Conway, otherwise known as Firefly Path. “The gown was a perfect piece,” she says, “because of its simplicity and that fabric, which offers sleek shine with its liquid texture and an ethereal design, reminiscent of glowing moonlight radiating off the water. The floating pieces of the gown on her skin look like embedded sigils.”
She decided that Karie’s makeup would be “cool-toned and dewy as well to match the luminescent glow of the dress. And of course, we can’t forget the white wig!” Lillian and Karie did the makeup and styling themselves.
When I asked how Lillian found the perfect location for the cover shoot, she told me she created it—in her apartment.
That was where she took the photos. Once they were done, she started sketching an ideal environment for the character they’d just created. The Gothic arches made the perfect frame for Karie’s sinuous pose, and we think they’re all the palace a moon goddess will ever need—because of course she should have plants and flowing water and open sky wherever she goes.
Finally, Lillian says, “I approached my artist friend CSaros, and he brought this beautiful and mystical world to life” as a 3D rendering. “I then embedded the photograph of the model, painting in light and shadow, and began toning the whole piece,” shading the colors seamlessly.
So the Gothic arches, the stream, the silver-blue rays reaching through twisty tree branches like the timeless enchanted forest of our wishes—all of that was created from scratch and imagination, as if the goddess summoned it into being herself ?
Well, naturally. That’s what goddesses do: They create.
And, of course, they conjure. We imagine the goddesses of these inside pages represent the moon in all her attributes and phases. They were, Lillian says, “inspired by different stories and elements” and include “warriors that channel their power from the night” and the personifications of light and radiance itself, all tricked out in gold and silver … as well as a few figures of, say, speckled moonbeams on a staircase, and a sleeper who might be the dark moon at rest between waning and waxing.
You’ll recognize our perennial favorite Yinsey Wang, who embodies a mere sliver of luminous moon in glimmering blue sky, touching down at a stream in the Azores. Other phases evolve in new locations. Lillian pauses at the Château du Vivier in Fontenay-Trésigny, France, where Janis from Mars brings the blue-silver crescent of an armored new moon. Outside a church in Paris, Theresa Fractale reflects the golden glister of a bright harvest phase crowned with stars, hovering just above Earth in late summer and early fall.
In time, even the brightest heavenly body feels the need for rest. The moon goddess understands, and she promises to bestow upon you the gift of deep, peaceful repose. She guides you toward that oneiric realm in which all your dreams will be good ones.
“You’ll wake refreshed and serene,” she promises.
So go ahead—lie down below the windows of that Gothic palace grown up. Drape yourself over the stones like a knight in a Pre-Raphaelite painting. Sleep as long as you can—even after the sun rises and beams yang energy toward Earth. We know the moon is always with us.
I’m going to make a prophecy. All through the coming year, I predict, you will dream of the moon. You’ll embrace her spirit and take her luster for your own. While you sleep, let the shadows guard your secrets; this gathering of celestial beings will inspire you to create more. If cold, bitter sorrow strikes, you’ll continue to shine. You have the moon’s harmonious balance for inspiration.
That’s because the truth, my luminous sisters, is that we’re all goddesses of the moon. We have our phases and dreams, our powers and light. And this season, we shine together.
