Hi and welcome ~*

My name is Dóri Varga and I’m an Hungarian interdisciplinary artist, writer and poet, curator, guide and mother, living in Southern California. 

After cultivating community on IG for the past decade+ I am now slowly migrating onto Substack. BLOOD OF AURORA have had many iterations since 2013; a print magazine, a 20k+ facebook group with additional 50+ subgroups connected to particular cities worldwide and a digital publishing company of written and visual media. Yet first and foremost, it is always a place where women are invited to reveal and reclaim their unique voice, their innate power. A raw, deeply personal take on emotional and physical transformation as it is lived through the female body, through sensuality, birth, death and creativity. BOA is forever a fire-starter, here to disrupt societal norms and unleash the taboo of womanhood.

So what can you expect from us…

I love the long form Substack offers. After years of being censored and banned from going live on IG, I’m excited to get back into the conversational seat. So on Substack you will find conversations with artists, writing exercises and occasional essays. I’m big on publishing audio; mainly because I do believe in the power of sound and using our voice, but also because personally (as a single mother and someone who’s got life going on multiple parallel lanes) I love to multitask while listening to stuff, so I assume the same for you. 

I believe in sharing our experiences with one another from a deep, lived place as women… I’m especially drawn to those people who are actively in touch with their creativity, offering insights to us around those existential and mundane questions we all tend to ponder on over and over and over — like artists, business owners, mothers… just to name a few… Because I also believe that all of us our creative. Especially women… Did you know we invented language, writing, fire, the use of a kiln and pottery? We invented and to this day invent so much that creates our culture and life as we live it. Back at the beginning, thousands of years ago when we lived in matrifocal societies, creativity and the creation process was the center of life and living. Without creative expression, we are cut off from the root of who we truly are and often feel numb and depressed. 

This brings me to my other strong belief; the power of writing as a means to reconnect with ourselves in the most private and approachable way. So through the stuff you can consume on Substack, you are invited to let new perspectives ignite in you through reading and listening to others, and then use the accompanying journal prompts to reflect on how they land in you. You are also invited to our writing sesh’s — we hold them online on saturdays. Writing is an accessible way to get in touch with creativity or become aware of your innate creative unfolding. It’s an especially useful tool while going through major thresholds like breakup/divorce, living alone for the first time or moving countries/continents, discovering a craft, getting married, coming out/naming queerness, pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage, birth of a child OR a business, menopause, illness, death of a family member, loss of home/friend/community, burnout and more. 

No matter who you are, if you are a writer, an aspiring writer or someone with dyslexia who is terrified of the writing life; writing is a tool for you to actively reflect and build a relationship with yourself at any stage of your life. There is so much you can explore in your relationship with yourself through the embodied act of writing… bringing back your attention to your own perspective (not the many voices of others circulating inside you) and unlocking dormant or hidden parts of you waiting to be felt again. Your body is your compass… the page and writing is your mirror. 

Writing just a page a day can create something super in your life. It’s not about how well you can write or if you know the proper grammar — it’s about having the courage to express yourself, the courage to REVEAL yourself to yourself. The stuff that swirls inside you every day has a place to be released that’s not your partner, your friend, the pilates instructor or your therapist. A lot of us are struggling these days feeling disconnected and lacking community… writing won’t replace that, but it will offer you an anchor. You can build a space that holds what you no longer need and/or which you are in need of mirroring back at you the messages you are seeking to uncover.

So this is my invitation to you to take out a pen and paper after reading this and just write. Don’t think, just feel, just say what you need to say. It doesn’t have to go anywhere. It doesn’t have to be anything. Nobody needs to see it. It’s your secret. Do it again tomorrow. And the day after. It might become a silent revolution. 

xxDori

Ps my personal work spans across writing, photo, video and sound. I like to document my ongoing process of becoming as well as work with women who are ready to reveal themselves to the outside. My practice centers the body, paying close attention to my own shifts and contradictions, always refining the clearest and most direct expression of myself. What I’m committed to is the process. At the core of my work is a commitment erotic presence, a keen listening to my raw desires and the freedom I find in speaking from that place. Hit me up to work with me any time. Send me an email dori@bloodofaurora.com