Céline Vidal

I was born near the Mediterranean sea in France, middle of five in a family of Catholic intellectuals. I began painting at five and acting at nine, but set aside my passion for the arts to study sciences, for which I also had a natural inclination. I studied chemistry (BSc., MSc.), geology and natural hazards (MSc.) and completed my PhD in volcanology in 2016. I am now a lecturer at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, UK.

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I first discovered Hatha yoga and meditation in 2011 at the School of Yoga and Meditation in the strict lineage of Swami Janakananda. Naturally inclined to teach, I later graduated as a Hatha yoga and meditation teacher with the Vasishta Yoga Research Foundation at Chinmaya Ashram, India. I have been teaching yoga and exploring non-duality spiritual philosophy (Advaita Vedanta) since 2016. My understanding of yoga radically transformed when I met my teacher  Eric Baret, a master of yoga in the tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivism.

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After over a decade without touching a brush, the desire to paint resurfaced in 2017, when the void of a new life to start from scratch in the UK created space for meditative explorations. But it was the experience of lockdown in Spring 2020 that fully reignited my oldest passion. I paint explorations of the nature of reality through meditative contemplations. Affected by strong near-sightedness since the age of four, without eye correction I perceive objects and spaces with poor definition. Beyond the apparent limits of matter, another world appears, with infinite possibilities of sizes, shapes, and light. This reality is also revealed from moment to moment in everyday objects, which I try to capture with my camera.

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I trained in energy therapy with my first teacher Suyin Lamour, with Patrice Gros, and graduated as Reiki Master in 2019. Although I have worked with all kinds of people and ailments since 2017, I have focused on helping women with painful periods, miscarriage, fertility and pregnancy challenges. All these experiences and encounters have progressively shaped a path of spiritual embodiment and feminine leadership with the practice of Menstrual Cycle Awareness as taught by Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo-Wurlitzer (RedSchool). I have been facilitating women’s circles since 2021 and graduated as a RedSchool Menstruality Mentor in 2023. I advocate for the integration of menstruality principles in academia and I hold the vision of a world reconnected to cyclical wisdom.