[You are receiving this Dragon Letter because you signed up between Letters. Enjoy until the next one arrives…]
Hola my dear friend,
As I finishing packing my last 2 of 10 duffel bags for my early morning journey to Oaxaca, I wanted to reach out and say thank you to everyone that has held space for us, cheered us on, and lent a hand in whatever ways you could. We go with one less animal, our dear tortie, Ysabella had an advanced tumor and has crossed over. She’ll stay with this land to give back into a place that has given us so much.
In this Dragon Letter we’re revisiting the five stages of decolonizing. When you learn them, reply and let me know where you’re at in your journey.
Scroll to see a few things I’m re-sharing for this Capricorn moon Dragon Letter… including the Radical Rest Retreat for a limited time.
Stay wild, love fiercely. Your presence is golden.
xo Ixchel
(keep scrolling or you’ll miss the good stuff….)
The 5 Stages of DecolonizingA few colleagues and I have discussed where our programs are positioned in relation to the stages of decolonizing. So when Amber McZeal shared the Five Stages of Decolonization by Poka Laenui in her Decolonizing Somatics course, it just clicked for me:
- The first stage is a call to rediscovery and recovery, where a colonized of previously colonized region actively rediscovers it roots in order to reclaim the value of its own culture, history and traditions of its own particular region. This stage, for example, has been observed in Hawaii beginning around the 1960’s, with new movements in Hawaiian music and literature.
- The second stage is labelled as the stage of grief and mourning, where people as a community, process and understand any trauma that the colonized may have experienced. This is often expressed in the form of anger, frustration, and protest.
- The third stage of decolonization, often labeled as the most crucial, is the process of building the future of the proposed new culture. This takes place most commonly through debate or consultation where discussions involve the future of the culture, the governing procedures and body and the reestablishment of culture.
- The fourth stage comes as a result of a successful third stage, where the fourth stage is about commitment to a single decided cause and direction for the culture. This stage is a collection of all of the people’s voices that are unified in a direction so clear cut that the culture can proceed to the final stage.
- The fifth and most commonly final stage of decolonization is the action towards said unified goal, which can express itself in a variety of ways, through reclaiming what was once theirs. The process of the previous four stages sometimes cannot be afforded to a culture if they are under serious threat, in which case the fifth stage tends to manifest itself faster. Although often unavoidable, this could lead to potential issues, such as a lack in unification of further future goal of the culture.
Decolonizing Time and liberating Flow are places for dreaming in collective to create new ways of being that are grounded in ancestral traditions, traditions that ensured our survival to be alive and awake in this Time.
When we lead from initiated places of postactivism we aren’t coming from unresolved anger or out of touch know-it-all that can be soaked in a righteous white saviorism that has tainted so much of the activism of this Time. The outcome of decolonial dreaming is a deep sense of commitment coupled with relationship to Place/Space/Time/Cosmos, re-membering your Wild Presence.
Stages 1 & 2 rediscovering/recovering cultural roots and grieving and mourning what was lost inform the dreaming and connect us back to our ancestors’ resilience to thrive. This is re-indigenizing to the land.
Having rituals and collective accountability ensures that the characteristics of white supremacy culture are kept in check in an essential daily practice, because those systems of oppression dominate how to be in this world. And when we are edgewalking new ways of being (fugitivity as Báyò Akómoláfé says), we must not walk that path alone. Literally, we cannot do decolonial work alone because it about repairing relationships. That is why all my programs have some form of collective work.
Borderland ViolenceI wanted to share this interview about the liminal space of borders. This is climate chaos, pandemic chaos, political chaos being lived out at the US/Mexica border. Please remember there are deep survival motivations in what’s happening at the boarder. And the citizens of the US are not outraged enough and must demand justice. So, this is a reminder of what complicity is, it is silence. Please take a moment from your day to write or call (202-456-1414) the White House.
Luis Alberto Urrea InterviewBorders are Liminal Spaces
The wonderful writer Luis Alberto Urrea says that a deep truth of our time is that “we miss each other.” He is singularly wise about the deep meaning and the problem of borders. The Mexican-American border, as he likes to say, ran straight through his parents’ Mexican-American marriage and divorce. His works of fiction and non-fiction confuse every dehumanizing caricature of Mexicans — and of U.S. border guards. The possibility of our time, as he lives and witnesses with his writing, is to evolve the old melting pot to the 21st-century richness of “us” — with all the mess and necessary humor required.
Luis Alberto Urrea is an English professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has published in nearly every genre, including nonfiction, memoir, short stories, historical novels, poetry, and even an award-winning mystery story, and has been called a “literary badass.” His many books include Into the Beautiful North, The Devil’s Highway, The Hummingbird’s Daughter, The Tijuana Book of the Dead and The House of Broken Angels.
This show originally aired in July 2018.
Bring All.The.Pillows to the Radical Rest Retreat
DIY Retreat:
❤️ create regular Radical Rest Retreats,
🧡 clear the way for ancestral meditation,
💛 restorative yoga practices for all bodies,
💚 ways to create safety in our nervous systems.
💙 All. of. This. to relate with Time as our friend.
Includes the 2-hour recording and the Radical Rest Retreat Handbook (86 pages) for $100 Enroll here.
How we can work together (including an updated structure and pricing for Wild Presence Collective (formerly Nepantla Collective):
Wild Presence Year-long 1+1 and Collective coaching programs alchemical, non-linear, agile process to bring you back to re-membering how to live with Wild Presence
Stellar Strategy 1+1 90-minute session + Rest Revolt Handbook (shorter choose-your-adventure coaching session)
Instagram
Linkedin
Pinterest
Website
🌒 Get your Moon Phase (free calculator) →
✍🏽 Meet OoSo Studio →
👩🏽🤝👩🏾 Ways to work with me…
🎙️ Book me for your Podcast, speaking event, or program…
Walk in beauty. Live your magic. Go wild.
Your Sanctuary to Cultivate Wild Presence for Thriving with a Planet in Transition
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)
Thanks for reading! If you loved it, tell your friends to subscribe.
We may include other affiliate links in our content. Thank you for supporting our work.
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.
