In Conversation with Lua Maria

With the release of her latest single, Wild White Horses featuring Ayla Schafer and Reuben DK, Lua Maria continues her trajectory as one of the most loved voices in the medicine music genre. As sweet as it is soaring and as haunting as it is uplifting, Lua's voice has a unique way of capturing the listener from deep within, as she weaves stories and prayers together to create music all her own.

Passionate about reconnecting to the sacred ways and how we can bridge the seen and unseen worlds, Lua walks the path of medicine and music in full authentic immersion. Her songs are offered as a prayer to life’s great mystery and the beauty and infinite potential of human existence when we return to a harmonious state with the nature and humanity around us.

In Wild White Horses, a song written many years ago and reimagined now alongside her dear friends and long-time collaborators, Lua sings of unity, how we are stronger together, to trust that our dream of a peaceful world will become manifest and to accept that the ride of life may be wild, yet we can find beauty in all moments.

Read on to find out more about Lua's early connections with the medicine community and how this inspired her to begin this journey of spirituality and song.

Nixi: When was the first time you grew curious about or came into contact with the medicine world? Were there any key elders or teachers in the early days who impacted you most and do you recall any moments or stories that specifically brought about a shift within your own life? 

Lua: I had heard about the medicine from my teenage years as my mother brought me up in alternative worlds and through her friends it was already in my reality, though when I was 20 I first connected myself. I went to a women’s weekend where I met Ana Pomar and Charlotte Mabon. I was deeply touched by their music. That first experience with the medicine brought a big healing for me and my family. That same year I went to Portugal and met Miguel Abreu from Monte Mariposa. Miguel now has an inspirational land based project with his partner Ana Tippi in Monchique called Mae’d Agua. He introduced me to the medicine in a new way and really changed my life. However hard and arduous work it often was for me to sit in those spaces, I realised that it began to transform me on a profound level.

Nixi: When did you first begin to connect more deeply with medicine songs and to start writing your own? 

Lua: I then went to Mexico at 22 and immersed myself in a journey with Peyote. I came home to the uk afterward this intense period of initiations and began to take time each day alone in nature which is when i started to recieve alot of songs from the land. At that point I was not aware of ‘Medicine Music’ I simply felt I caught songs from the elemental beings and sang them back as gratitude for the beauty of the Earth. I would also recieve songs as guidance for myself that sometimes I wouldn't always comprehend until years later. I began to recieve a few songs in spanish although I could hardly speak it, somehow they arrived in that language which i felt a soul connection with. 

Nixi: How do you find expressing your feelings and experiences through song to be healing? Are there any simple ways or exercises you’d advise others so they could bring this expression into their own lives? 

Lua: Singing is a powerful healing tool for me, because I can get very stuck in my head. If I go alone into nature, I begin to feel better, but when I tune into gratitude for the beauty surrounding me and express it through my voice, I feel a big shift in my energy. What I can say is that our relationship with the Earth matters. Way more than we tend to give credit for. We underestimate our own healing capacity and hers. When we cultivate a relationship with her, she recieves as much as we do. This simbiotic offering and recieving strengthens our magnetic field and hers. If we all took time regularly to connect to the earth in gratitude, the world would be a very different place. If you want to open the creative flow for songwriting I advise to go alone into nature and open up to the beauty surrounding you and let it express through your voice without judgement of how it sounds. It is a powerful way of offering back to life. 

Nixi: Which other artists in this world do you listen to often when you’re wanting to unwind, dance or simple just enjoy? 

Lua: Some of my favourite artists are friends of mine including Gesine Leicht, Olivia Fern, Ana Tippi, Jeska Onderwater, Joaquin del Mojo, Jack Weaver & Pablo Rozas.

You can hear Lua Maria's beautiful new single, Wild White Horses featuring Ayla Schafer & Reuben DK, everywhere now. >> listen here <<

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