Ongoingness Meets
Esmeralda Tikao
Energy Worker
Ongoingness Meets
With her Pisces sun and rising guiding the way, and a Capricorn moon keeping her rooted, Esmeralda walks the path of a modern mystic: sensitive, soulful, and devoted to truth. In this conversation, she shares the winding, wonder-filled journey that led her to sound healing, spiritual service, and a life shaped by intuition, ritual, and radical authenticity.
My sun and rising sign are Pisces and my Moon is in Capricorn. I love learning about astrological transits and understanding unique birth charts, it's so empowering, providing valuable direction and insight to lifestyle and personal pursuits. I am such a water sign… sensitive, intuitive and have a very mystical side to my personality. I romanticize everything and am so drawn to spiritual wisdom and the unseen. I feel very otherworldly, like a fish out of water, at times. I seek enriching, meaningful connection, surface-level isn't really my vibe. My earth sign Capricorn moon is my saving grace keeping me grounded and rooted. Capricorn is really serious and likes structure and stability. My North Node in Gemini, representing my soul’s evolutionary path, involves communicating with vulnerability, depth and curiosity. It highlights a huge part of my soul mission creating safe and honest spaces to explore, teach and inspire.
I can attribute a lot of my growth and self-discovery to all the incredible beings I’ve met while in this industry, shaping me into the woman I am today. This becoming truly has unfolded in a series of serendipitous seemingly separate events, only to find everything and everyone I was discovering was connected, weaving the greater tapestry of my life now through these small threads of alignment.
My childhood years were telling of the career I would inevitably create for myself with my inclination toward crystals, strong empathy for animals, and a key relationship to nature and movement growing up. I lost core parts of myself in this chaotic modern world and the last few years have been hugely focused on realigning my nervous system, following what truly lights my soul up.
The experience of healing my own dysregulation led to me finding my passion for ritual, philosophy, astrology, tarot and natural medicines. These magic alternative practices brought into my life through challenges opened me up to my potential as a healer and space holder, eliciting a remembrance of lifetimes of these pursuits, provoking my innate spiritual gifts and finding my calling of Sound Therapy in this vast sea of holistic modalities.
I began a mentorship with Sophie Correia, an incredible Sound Healer, in 2023 while attending women's circles, cacao ceremonies and sound baths religiously throughout this time, connecting to the people holding the events and starting conversations with openness and curiosity. I later discovered my Aunty practices Taonga Pūoro (Māori Sound Healing) which has directed my path to indigenous wisdom and ways of healing, learning about my whakapapa and how they used to live.
Responding to the whispers of intuition that there is more than the mundane was never a choice, it was a destiny and liberation from the suffocation of conformity. The doorways to living in peace and aligned with authenticity are many, vibration and sound just happen to be mine.
I possess a resilient, pure and light-bringing life force.
I understand that my experiences have moulded my energy to have deep empathy, understanding and compassion… I choose to see through a lens of wholeness, acceptance and innocence, which allows me to use my gifts and strengths in my service of guiding people through their own unique healing journey. My life is a beacon of hope, a reminder that it's possible, if not essential, to create beauty from darkness.
I work at Hana, a luxury wellness space in Tāmaki with Infrared Sauna, Contrast Therapy and PBM treatment. The act of detoxing, relaxing and letting go has definitely become a favourite weekly ritual. I like the ice bath because it brings me deeper into my body when I experience anxiousness or dissociation and gives me a euphoric rush after with the endorphins. It’s definitely a challenge but I feel really brave and strong after, ready to face anything life brings. It’s so cool.
I am very multifaceted and always open to inspiration, following a few threads of curiosity at once is very normal for me. I am deeply fascinated by quantum physics, neuroscience and manifestation. The way you can put something into the void of consciousness with just a small action or thought and receive feedback from the universe never ceases to amaze me. Bypassing the layers of illusions and veils prevalent in normal society, in the quantum field, everything already exists. It's about becoming a vibrational match to what it is you desire, and that energy attracts that thing or experience to you. The infinite potential of possibility is endless, and waiting for you to co-create with it. I’m learning to embody equanimity, how to harness the art of detachment and practising presence. In te ao Māori, creation begins not with doing, but with being.
"You are not lost. You are here. Stop abandoning yourself. Stop repeating this myth about love and success that will land in your lap or evade you forever. Build a humble, flawed life from the rubble, and cherish that. There is nothing more glorious on the face of the earth than someone who refuses to give up, who refuses to give in to their most self-hating, discouraged, disillusioned self, and instead learns, slowly and painfully, how to relish the feeling of building a hut in the middle of the suffocating dust."
My friend Heather posted a photo with this text and it was the first thing I saw when I opened my phone after a potent New Moon event I hosted. It was so aligned to what I needed to hear in that very cracked open, tender time just after I turned 22. It’s an accepting framework of perception to hold, acknowledging the light and the shadows, and the constant expansion in capacity to integrate both parts. Refusing to give up, returning to the hands of love reaching out again and again. Sometimes joy is work, but it's always worth it. It's a continual cycle, and one to cherish in all its chaotically divine complexity. It's not about perfection, it's about how fully you show up, in deep reverence and devotion to this one precious life.
I wholeheartedly believe I am a mosaic of everyone I have ever known and loved and touched. We are constantly influencing and interacting with each other in deep and subtle layers, all mirrors, triggering, expanding and reflecting what lives unconsciously within one another. I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded by a community of inspiring friends and soul family, always there to love, guide, support me. I pinch myself sometimes at just how beautiful the people I attract are.
Someone through the ether of the online world has been a shining light for me and that’s Gabi Abrão known as Sigh Swoon on Instagram. I first discovered her in 2021 and her amazing reflections she shares through memes, story posts, her Tumblr and episodes on Patreon have undoubtedly contributed to how I exist and show up. Full of philosophical and relatable takes on literally anything and everything, I love how real she gets. I get the notification that a monthly forecast or Q&A episode is out and my day is instantly made. She also has episodes out on spotify for free under ‘clearpilled with sigh swoon’. She preaches not taking yourself too seriously, accepting the polarities of this intricate universe and being at peace with the way energy works. She seeks truth and clarity with ease and grace, navigating the world with an admirable sense of insatiable intrigue and whimsy that I just adore. It makes sense why I resonate with her content so deeply, she's also a Virgo, my “sister sign” (opposite Pisces on the wheel of the zodiac).
I am currently offering Sound Healing and Reiki, utilising clear quartz crystal singing bowls and energy channeling, I create intentional moments of presence, reconnection and rebalancing.
My sound baths are weekly at Sala and Basecamp in the city and I also co-host a community koha event at The Shed in Oratia where I live in West Auckland. I hold monthly events coinciding with Astrological phases which are sacred reclamations of remembrance and rest, opportunities to slow down and tune into the subtleties.
I share the details of my events on my personal Instagram, which I choose to dedicate my business things to so as not to create any separation between my work and me. You can see what I’m like and how I live through my online platforms, I want people who come to my events to feel safe enough to simply be themselves too. Although I am the facilitator, we are all one and hold infinite healing power. Each offering I create is a dedication to help others return to this truth.
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Profoundly impacted the way I view time and problems. Every discomfort is actually an invitation to soften more into presence, a reflection of where there may be imbalance in your relationship to what it is, asking you to stop creating resistance to our natural flow of wellbeing.
The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
Forever number one recommendation for anyone curious in spiritual development. A friend posted a copy to me and found the second one for me at an op shop. I will always be so grateful for the gesture.
My current fantasy obsession with dragons and an enemies to lovers trope… the best form of escapism.
Tarikura gives a voice to indigenous healers and wisdom keepers in Aotearoa so beautifully. Her award winning podcast is top of my Spotify wrapped for a reason.
Back from the Borderline by Mollie Adler
Specifically the episode titled “this episode isn't about UFOs - it's about YOU”. Reality altering, mind expanding stuff.
Such an angel in the digital realm. Her content comes from a rich place of depth in the heart and soul, sharing knowledge that is quintessential to living an authentic, joyful and whole life.
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