Welcome to Dragon Letters, No. 7Capricorn Moon EditionAugust 19th, 2021

Hola my dear ,

In this Dragon Letter we’re exploring what we do unconsciously — even addictively — especially with technology and our love of dopamine and how this keeps us from supporting change and impact. (Warning! some truth-telling is coming….)

Please reply and let me know your favorite things from this Dragon Letter and your reflections. 

Nearly 150 lovely souls have registered for the Decolonizing Time workshop. If you are one of them, thank you for affirming this work! There’s still time to register…

I’d love you help in getting it out a bit farther into the world. If you have a platform where you can share the registration link today, please do!

The short link to share is:

 https://decolonizetime.com/workshop

(My dear mixed-Indigenous compañera Trevia Wood’s Authenticity Framework for Cultural Appreciation was the most popular resource I shared in the last Dragon Letter. If you missed the details, you’ll find those and many other great resources if you search your inbox and put me in your safe list. Star✨ me, add to Primary Inbox etc.

Walk in beauty. Live your magic. Go wild.

xo Ixchel

Book Recommendation

Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

As you may have learned from my posts over the years, I am in recovery from (or actively modulating in the case of caffeine and social media) a number of addictions. 

As I dismantle the habits of harmand replace them with daily rituals, I’ve often wondered who I am or how my identity has been defined by the more unconscious rituals. As we’ll discuss the workshop, repetition builds competency, but it also can create harmful ruts in our being. 

As we do ancestral work to re-member and reclaim our heritage, we also have to discern what traditions were harmful, albeit ways of coping and surviving, to leave these ways behind.

I had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with Dr. Andrew Huberman through my Flow coaching certification in his advisory role on neurobiology with The Flow Research Collective.

This week Huberman had Dr. Anne Lembke (from The Social Dilemma film) on his Podcast to discuss understanding and treating addiction. 

Because of his in-depth understanding of Flow, he asks some great questions that are related to Flow states. Dopamine is that essential driver of all things Flow, passion and purpose…

I really appreciated Dr. Lembke’s stigma reduction around addiction and how we can apply what we know to our daily rituals. I’m looking forward to her book release next week to dive deeper in to dopamine.

L.M. Sacasas on the Ezra Klein Show

As I explore the things that grab hold of my curiosity, this podcast’s first few questions (bolded below) concerning technology had me shouting “Yes, yes!”

Especially elucidating are the questions about how technology affects experience of Time and Place and our relationships and what we do with our Time. 

Tech Use Reflections

41 Questions Concerning Technology from L.M. Sacasas

1. What sort of person will the use of this technology make of me?
2. What habits will the use of this technology instill?
3. How will the use of this technology affect my experience of time?
4. How will the use of this technology affect my experience of place?
5. How will the use of this technology affect how I relate to other people?
6. How will the use of this technology affect how I relate to the world around me?
7. What practices will the use of this technology cultivate?
8. What practices will the use of this technology displace?
9. What will the use of this technology encourage me to notice?
10. What will the use of this technology encourage me to ignore?
11. What was required of other human beings so that I might be able to use this technology?
12. What was required of other creatures so that I might be able to use this technology?
13. What was required of the earth so that I might be able to use this technology?
14. Does the use of this technology bring me joy? [N.B. This was years before I even heard of Marie Kondo!]
15. Does the use of this technology arouse anxiety?
16. How does this technology empower me? At whose expense?
17. What feelings does the use of this technology generate in me toward others?
18. Can I imagine living without this technology? Why, or why not?
19. How does this technology encourage me to allocate my time?
20. Could the resources used to acquire and use this technology be better deployed?
21. Does this technology automate or outsource labor or responsibilities that are morally essential?
22. What desires does the use of this technology generate?
23. What desires does the use of this technology dissipate?
24. What possibilities for action does this technology present? Is it good that these actions are now possible?
25. What possibilities for action does this technology foreclose? Is it good that these actions are no longer possible?
26. How does the use of this technology shape my vision of a good life?
27. What limits does the use of this technology impose upon me?
28. What limits does my use of this technology impose upon others?
29. What does my use of this technology require of others who would (or must) interact with me?
30. What assumptions about the world does the use of this technology tacitly encourage?
31. What knowledge has the use of this technology disclosed to me about myself?
32. What knowledge has the use of this technology disclosed to me about others? Is it good to have this knowledge?
33. What are the potential harms to myself, others, or the world that might result from my use of this technology?
34. Upon what systems, technical or human, does my use of this technology depend? Are these systems just?
35. Does my use of this technology encourage me to view others as a means to an end?
36. Does using this technology require me to think more or less?
37. What would the world be like if everyone used this technology exactly as I use it?
38. What risks will my use of this technology entail for others? Have they consented?
39. Can the consequences of my use of this technology be undone? Can I live with those consequences?
40. Does my use of this technology make it easier to live as if I had no responsibilities toward my neighbor?
41. Can I be held responsible for the actions which this technology empowers? Would I feel better if I couldn’t?

An Invitation to the Collective

Based on some really problematic new algorithms on IG (shadowbanning and deplatforming BIPOC doing anti-racism and decolonizing work) I’m going to be on IG less and less. I’ve experienced having my content suppressed and removed as well.

And, as I’ve been cultivating relationships in various enriching spaces on Mighty Network, I just feel vastly better about how I’m relating to Time and tech as I navigate who I am in relation to what I’m trying to serve. And so, limiting my presence on Zuck’s platforms feels good.

Entonces, I wanted to invite you to a brave collective space we’ve created in Mighty Network.

Thank you so much for being curious. I look forward to meeting you and reflecting on this work in the Collective.

Archetypal and Holotropic Astrology

As you may know, at the turn of the century I studied Archetypal Astrology in grad school with Stan Groff and Rick Tarnas. A fellow student and now professional Astrologer, Renn Butler, has gone on to teach Archetypal Astrology and has a course coming up this fall. I highly recommend Holotropic breathwork. In two weekend retreats in grad school I was able to reduce my CPTSD responses significantly through Holotropic breathwork. Renn teaches how to make use of natal transits to help clients (our relationship with the orbit of planets in the solar system in which we are embedded). You can learn more here.