Dragon 🐉 Letter #80: Discover how rituals and your relationship with the planets can help transform wounds into healing and empower you to reclaim agency in your life. Plus a ritual for you to try.
Today is the 36th anniversary of my dad’s murder. Every year since then, the back-to-school theme of parents photographing their kids is always tinged with grief for me because my dad’s murder was the first day of school for the new year.
This year, the themes of gun violence and school collided with the senseless shooting at a Georgia high school on Wednesday. It fucking hurts, every damn time. And I’m so tired of it.
In my application for Ancestral Healing Practitioner training with Ancestral Medicine, founded by Daniel Foor (I was accepted!!!), I shared about the ritual work I did in community back in the early 90s. I discovered and joined a women’s liberation group called Born of Woman through a friend that was involved. We had fire ceremonies, and even fire walking. (Don’t judge! It was the early 90s).
And over the next few years, I helped organize and facilitate quarterly public rituals in the Santa Rosa Courthouse Square in California (as documented in At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst by Carol L. Flinders) to bear witness to acts of male violence against women and children. It was deeply healing work for me as I processed everything I experienced the first twenty years of my life.
These powerful ceremonies were designed to create a communal space for healing, acknowledgment, and resistance. This early experience in leading group rituals instilled in me a deep understanding of the transformative power of collective healing.
Today I was sharing about that ritual work with members of my childhood sexual assault (CSA) group. I hadn’t realized until I was reflecting back on that time in my life, just how much I missed participating in community rituals. Everything is so online now. Finding activities like this here in Chiapas is something that I long for again.
Our CSA group is part of a larger astrology circle, and I also shared my approach to healing through my astrology natal chart as taught to me over 10 years of exploration of my chart by my therapist, who was a master astrologer and I Ching researcher, and then later studying with Rick Tarnas at CIIS.
For many people, there’s a misconception that astrology is about being stuck with a fixed fate. But, of course, I see it differently. Learning to understand the experiences of my life through the patterns of my natal chart allowed me to see it not as a fatalistic imprint but as a living map that I can work with, actively shaping the energy and retelling the stories through my growth.
Another common misunderstanding of astrology is that the planets dictate everything that happens to us, like we’re passive recipients of astrological influences. In reality, we are co-creators in this cosmic dance. Through my astrological mentorship, I guide people to see that while planetary energies are present, how we choose to engage with them — how we move with these forces — defines our agency.
Sometimes, I see clients who believe their natal chart explains all their problems, almost as though they are boxed in by it. But the truth is, while the chart reveals challenges, it also shows potential. It’s a tool for growth, not a sentence. In my work, I help people tap into this potential, so they can navigate their chart with clarity and purpose.
Finally, there’s the idea that difficult placements in a chart guarantee a hard life. In my experience, the very energies that seem most challenging are often where our greatest opportunities for transformation lie. Rather than shying away from those aspects, I’ve found healing and strength in working through them. It’s part of how I’ve reclaimed agency in my life and how I help others do the same.
Astrology isn’t about boxing us in; it’s about opening up possibilities and helping us understand the patterns we can weave into our lives with intention. This is why I feel so passionately about the work I do in mentoring clients with their charts — it’s about empowering people to actively engage with their lives, not passively accept fate.
Many people view the planets as distant, impersonal forces that simply exert influence on our lives. But what if we shift our perspective to see the planets as living, conscious beings, each with their own wisdom and energy? In many Indigenous traditions, including Mayan geo-cosmovision, the cosmos is alive and relational.
This shift invites us into a decolonial approach to astrology — one where we step out of the extractive mindset of simply ‘using’ astrology for predictions and instead cultivate a deep, reciprocal relationship with the planets.
When we approach the planets as wise ancestors and allies, we can engage in meaningful dialogue with them, allowing us to navigate their energies with reverence and agency, rather than feeling at the mercy of fate. This relationship fosters healing and reclamation, both personally and collectively.
This is Decolonial and Relational Astrology.
Create Your Own Ritual
As I reflect on my own healing journey and the power of ritual — whether it was through the public ceremonies I led with Born of Woman or the quieter, more intimate spaces I’ve created within myself through astrology — I invite you to engage in a ritual of your own.
Perhaps there’s a story you’ve been carrying, a wound you’ve been holding, or an energy that feels stuck. I encourage you to gather in community — whether it’s with family, friends, or a trusted group — just as we did in the courthouse square all those years ago, and create a space for healing.
You don’t need anything elaborate. It can be as simple as sitting together and speaking aloud the things you’ve been holding in silence, lighting candles in remembrance, or even creating an altar to honor the energies you want to transform.
At the Courthouse Square we would gather in a circle, light candles and burn incense. Because it was advertised to welcome the public, we would have people come and share about an experience of violence (recent or long ago), and we would share from press clippings and speak out loud the names of the victims and hold them in our hearts.
When we speak our truths out loud, it draws powerful energy to us. Speaking out loud in collective ritual is such a profound experience of healing.
For those of you who feel more drawn to personal practice, I suggest a ritual that brings you into connection with your natal chart. Find a quiet space, and choose one aspect of your chart that you’ve felt resistance toward or confusion about. As you sit with that energy, bring in an object or image that represents it — perhaps a symbol of the planet or sign it relates to — and spend a few moments acknowledging what it has meant for you so far.
Then, consider how you might engage with it differently. Write down any insights that come to you, and keep the object as a reminder of your ongoing work with this energy.
The most important part of any ritual is intention. Whether alone or with others, creating a space to consciously engage with your inner and outer worlds is an act of agency. Through ritual, we become active participants in our own healing, just as we become active participants in how the planets’ energies move through our lives.
Creating Rituals for Liminal Spaces: Dancing Between Worlds
As I reflect on the healing power of ritual and the dynamic relationships we can have with the planets, I invite you to join us this month in Time Weavers, where we are exploring the theme of Liminal Spaces: Dancing Between Worlds. This September, we’ll dive into the thresholds we encounter in life—the moments when identities dissolve and reform, when we’re neither here nor there, and when transformation is both inevitable and uncertain.
Drawing inspiration from the Mayan underworld, Xib’alb’a, we will explore how these liminal spaces are not just places of fear or loss, but sites of profound change and potential. Just as the Hero Twins navigated the trials of Xib’alb’a, we too must face the shadowed aspects of our lives to emerge transformed.
We’ll also weave in the wisdom of thinkers like Bayo Akomolafe, who reminds us that “the times are urgent, but we must slow down” to fully embrace the complexity of these transitions. And, as Gloria Anzaldúa speaks of Nepantla—the liminal space where identities are fluid and new possibilities are born—we’ll explore how these in-between spaces allow for the deconstruction of societal conditioning, guiding us to more authentic, liberated versions of ourselves.
In Time Weavers, we don’t just explore these ideas—we practice them. Through daily creativity rituals, you’ll learn how to work with the energies of transformation and transition in your everyday life.
Whether you’re navigating personal shifts or the collective trials of climate chaos and societal chaos, these rituals will help you stay grounded, creative, and in flow. Together, we’ll engage the wisdom of the planets and our own inner landscapes to embrace these powerful liminal spaces with agency and grace.
Join us this month in Time Weavers, and let’s dance between worlds together.
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I was raised and bore children on the traditional, unceded, and stolen lands of the Coast and Central Valley Miwok (colonized as Petaluma, CA) and Nisenan (colonized as Sacramento and Fair Oaks, CA), past, present, and future. I also write, work, and live in the highland forest of the traditional, unceded and stolen lands of the Totonac, Nahua, and Mexicah, past, present, and future, in what is known as Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico.
P.P.S. I do not live or consent to the colonial impositions regarding the construct of Time. I also practice honoring rhythms of work, play, and rest so that I can serve you with embodied presence and with loving care. This means I may take several days to respond to your requests and questions. (h/t Eva Glamaris)
P.P.S. A mention is not necessarily an endorsement of someone. It’s an acknowledgment, a citation, of the origin of information in my process of understanding. (h/t Kelly Diels)
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Copyright © 2026, Cheyenne, WY, and Veracruz, Mexico, All rights reserved. Sharing your lineage of knowledge is decolonial. When iterating, please cite me. Not citing is epistemicide.
