Imago Monarca

Watercolor and words for the inner landscape.
Trauma, childhood wounds, and finding your way back to yourself.

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@PatiChanchi Loved this one, Caspian! 🩵Everything seemed so calm and comforting… until it wasn't. Haha! Really liked the retro style too!👏😊👻

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@PatiChanchi This was so weird in the best way 😂 I love how completely normal everyone acts around that enormous baby. And that smile at the end 😂🩵✨️

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@PatiChanchi Thank you, Caspian! 🩵✨ I’m so glad you liked it. The koi were one of my favorite little details in this one.

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

Sometimes coming back to yourself starts in your eyes:
you look again, and this time you see yourself.

You stayed in front of the mirror a little longer.
Something moves beneath the surface.
Today, that's enough.

—
Small returns · 05

#imagomonarca #smallreturns #innerlandscapes #poeticillustration #innergaze

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@PatiChanchi Loved this one, Caspian. ✨️🩵Creepy, playful and nostalgic all at once. The whole vibe is so good.👻🍁

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

What Trauma Left in the Inner Landscape — Rationalization

When understanding felt safer than feeling

When what you were living through
was too confusing or painful,
and there was no one to help you
hold what you were feeling
or put it into words,
understanding became a way to protect yourself.

Rationalization
was the part of trauma
that searched for explanations
to bring some order inside
to what didn’t make sense:

finding the causes,
reconstructing what happened,
understanding the circumstances,
looking for a reason for everything.

Because understanding created some distance.
You could come closer to what you had lived through
without yet having to enter
what was happening inside you.

Its inner logic said:

“If I can find an explanation,
maybe all of this will make a little more sense.”

“If I can understand their reasons,
maybe what happened will be easier to accept.”

It wasn’t a lack of sensitivity.
Nor did it mean you had moved past it.
It was what you were able to hold
at that moment.

And for a long time, it worked.
But understanding everyone
can leave you out of your own story.
You know why they acted the way they did,
you know their wounds, where they came from,
and it can still be difficult to say:

that hurt me,
that wasn’t okay for me,
I was there too.

This image speaks to that part within:
the one that turned into questions
what was still difficult to feel,
and answered every one
except one.

And today, that part can begin to discover
that understanding doesn’t erase what you felt,
that you can understand someone
and recognize what they left in you.

That explanation
and emotion
can occupy the same space.

#imagomonarca #rationalization #childhoodwounds
#poeticillustration #innerlandscapes

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@niasruv This made me want to sit there for a while, Nia. 🍂🩵

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@PatiChanchi I really liked this one, Caspian.🩵✨️ There’s something beautiful about simply allowing yourself to want something. Sometimes wanting it is reason enough.👏

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@PatiChanchi Okay, but does the deluxe bucket come with real sound? That’s the dealbreaker.😂

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@PatiChanchi Thank you so much, Caspian😊. Yes, sometimes we can keep going even without having all the answers yet ✨🩵

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

Sometimes coming back to yourself starts with this:

not having the answer
and still being able to go on with your day.

Today, you didn’t know,
and you still went for a walk.

The question is still there.
So are you.

Today, that is enough.

—
Small Returns · 04

#imagomonarca #smallreturns #innerlandscape #poeticillustration #keepgoingwithyourday

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@PatiChanchi I really liked this one, Caspian✨️🩵! The music works so well with all the chaos happening in the background 😂 It has such a fun, strange energy.

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@PatiChanchi This is great, Caspian 🩵👏 It’s so grotesque and so everyday at the same time. Must be lovely living next door to someone like that 😂

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@PatiChanchi Caspian, I really liked the dancing and the music — there’s something almost hypnotic about them.✨️ And that presence appearing in the middle of it all stayed with me, like it belongs to a different time . I really loved the atmosphere you created.👏🩵

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

Sitting with the Pause

It feels contradictory.

One part of you feels the urge
to do, to take care of things, to solve.

Your feet keep moving,
your hands grow restless,
your heart speeds up,
your mind starts searching
for what is missing, what comes next.

And right there, in that same space,
another part of you says:

breathe, it’s okay.
Nothing is urgent.

You can slow down.
You can move gently.

In that moment, you realize
that both sensations can coexist:

the urge to move
and the desire to stay.

Sometimes you don’t have to get rid of one
in order to feel the other.

Just allow yourself to feel both
and, little by little,
stay there.

—
What I’m Learning · 01
Imago Monarca

#imagomonarca #poeticillustration #innerlandscapes #innerprocess #sittingwiththepause

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

Today I didn’t fix my mood.
I made room for it.

Today my clouds came to visit.

I felt them when I woke
and as I walked.

I felt their weight in me
and, even so,
I did not push them away.

Some were old.
A part of me
already knew them.

They were gray,
without shape.

Sometimes, when I touched them,
they soaked me.

Other times,
I felt them pressing down on me.

And today I only watched them.

I felt them.

Here they remain,
floating in my sky.

They did not want to leave.

They only wanted
to be allowed to stay.

—
Small Returns · 03

#imagomonarca #smallreturns #poeticillustration #innerlandscape #selfcompassion

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@PatiChanchi So true, Caspian 🤍 What once kept us safe doesn’t always have to follow us into the present.🩵✨️

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

What Trauma Left in the Inner Landscape — Control (Part III)

When letting go felt more dangerous than carrying everything

No one took care of you.
Of what you needed,
of what hurt,
of what you still didn’t know how to ask for.

So you started doing it yourself.

Taking care of everything
became that part of control
that made you take on, far too soon,
the task of holding yourself together
as a way to stay safe:

caring for yourself,
handling whatever came up,
carrying more than was ever yours to carry.

Because delegating didn’t feel like help.
It meant moving at someone else’s pace,
exposed to something
you could no longer control.

Its inner logic said:

“If I don’t do it, no one will.”

“If I depend on someone,
I may end up alone again.”

It wasn’t rigidity.
It wasn’t your personality.
It was a way of doing for yourself
what you had needed from someone else.

And over time, the body begins to wear down,
as if it can never fully let go,
and a quiet anger remains
from having to keep doing everything alone.

This image speaks to that part of the Guardian:
the one who left behind, far too soon,
the possibility of being small.

And who can now begin to discover, little by little,
that letting go does not mean being left alone,
that she can soften her shoulders
and return to the part of herself she left waiting:
the one who also needed help,
tenderness,
and someone to lean on.

#imagomonarca #hyperindependence #hyperresponsibility #childhoodwounds
#poeticillustration #innerlandscapes

[Imago Monarca @imagomonarca]

@PatiChanchi I loved this one, Caspian. It’s funny, strange, really clever, and somehow a little karmic 😅.