Hola! I’m Ixchel Lunar (they/them), an Indigenous time ecologist, ancestral medicine guide, and rhythm witch for creative rebels, decolonial dreamers, and neuroqueer visionaries. This Substack is dedicated to weaving business, body, and belonging into something no empire can replicate. Still punk as fuck. Still cozy in the chaos.
What’s Happening this Month:
☀️ The Canícula and Our Move to Veracruz, Mexico
🌿 Free Workshop: Rewilding Time & Decolonizing Hustle Culture
🕯 Joanna Macy: Reflection & Hospice Vigil
🎁 BOGO on Single Sessions
Beautiful Wildlings!
The Canícula came weeks early this year, again. And it’s lingering longer than usual, expected to stretch through late August. A harsh visitor, yes, but this time, also a strange blessing. The amount of moisture in the house has been unbearable, leading to mold. The casita, my office space, especially has a moisture problem.
(Here’s a longer Dragon Letter from July 2023 about the Canícula »»»)
We’ve been dealing with relentless leaks since we’ve been here, even the chiminea in my casita has poured water several times. Trees streatching over the roof, dropping constant debris that clogged the channels and made it impossible for the roof or walls to fully dry.
With my health worsening from mold and stress, we gave notice to break the lease two months early. That’s when everything I’d heard, posts to FB groups about the lack of renters’ rights in Chiapas, proved true.
It’s surprising how different the tenant protections are here compared to Mexico City, especially in a place shaped by the Zapatista movement, so close to the Guatemalan border, and home to a large Indigenous population. But as always, the power imbalance persists: property owners hold the rights, while poorer Indigenous renters remain unprotected.
The Canícula has given us several days of good sun to clean everything with white vinegar and get it dried in the warming sun. I’m moving slowly to clean and pack, resting my arms and back as needed, but feeling my capacity.
Given all the astrological weather of this period, it was a challenging time to be navigating a tumultuous situation. However, we were able to get things sorted and find drivers to help us move to Veracruz this coming week. Every day the punch list is getting shorter. Having an Operations Head and Project Manager as partner makes all of this possible.
Getting to lower elevation can’t come soon enough. And I’m sad to leave this beautiful land and people. Today I said goodbye to my dear housekeeper. She said she’ll miss my grande persona. 🥰 🤧
Xalapa (ha-la-pa), Coatpec, and Xico (hee-co) have been showing up in my TikTok feed a lot. We’ll be descending from 7,200 feet to around 4,000 — just outside Coatepec, Veracruz. This will help with the dysautonomia. It’s an area known for coffee and cacao, tropical with neblina (fog) cloud forests. It will feel much like the Matagalpa, Nicaragua, climate, if only they had perezosos (sloths).
Speaking of dysautonomia… There’s been growing research on what some now call Pentad Super Syndrome — a cluster of five interconnected conditions: hypermobility (especially hEDS), dysautonomia, mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), autoimmune conditions, and GI dysfunction.
It’s a pattern many of us Zebras (those living with these overlapping syndromes) have been naming for years, but it’s finally getting attention, especially on TikTok. New fascia and interstitium research is bringing hope: gentle, titrated myofascial release therapy may support interstitial flow and offer pathways to relief. We’re watching closely what emerges.
If you’ve been wondering how to live outside the clock, or are craving deeper rhythms aligned with the land and your own body, I’ll be guiding a workshop next week in Jess Reid’s women’s circle:
Rewilding Time & Decolonizing Hustle CultureFrom Jess:
I first heard of Ixchel from another friend and teacher Megan Leatherman of a Wild New Work, and as soon as I heard the words “decolonizing time” I ran to Ixchel’s website and bought two of their courses immediately!
I listened to a few of their teachings on podcasts and knew I couldn’t wait to have them come teach inside our women’s circle. I reached out and our coffee chat made me even more excited for our collaboration!
Ixchel Lunar is an Indigenous Time Ecologist known for their work in decolonizing Time.
They help people who are burned out, exhausted and tired of feeling like you never have enough time, like life is rapidly passing you by — to break free from the capitalist grind to realign your energy, reclaim your time and flow, and reconnect with your ancestors and land you call home.
What to expect
Our 90 minute session will be part interview, part teaching, and plenty of time for Q&A and soulful discussion.
We hold space for spirit-led spontaneity, but our planned topics include:
– What colonial time is and colonial time vs. spiral time
– What has colonial time cut us off from?
– The 5 types of colonial time: stolen time, divided + perfected time, commodified time, outsourced time, and foreclosed time
– Why women literally have less time than others through gendering and time tax
– The Hope: we are in a liminal space of moving back into spiral time and we will need people who are familiar with it
– Ways to rewild our time: like connection to Nature through the Wheel of the Year, connection to the senses (not just the 5 you’ve heard of but the “Sensorium’ of 20 senses!), feeling the energies of time with the Mayan calendar, and more
You’ll get the Zoom link + lifetime access to the replay when you sign up.
If you’re feeling time-starved, soul-weary, or yearning for a slower, truer rhythm — this is for you.
Can’t wait to re-wild with you,
Jess
“The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.”
— Joanna Macy
My beloved mentor, Joanna Macy, entered hospice several days ago. Every day, I’ve spent time lighting a candle, reading the postings on Caring Bridge, and saying my prayers for a smooth journey through this liminal space.
Her family and close friends are sharing updates on Caring Bridge. You must create an account and login to view the page.
From Peggy Macy: “Gentle Reminder: donations on this site go to Caring Bridge not my mom! If you feel moved to donate towards my mom’s care (e.g caregivers), you can use the ‘friends and family’ option with PayPal (joanna@joannamacy.net).”
Joanna was my mentor during my Master’s studies at CIIS from 1997 to 2002. When I was accepted into the PhD program, she had agreed to be my dissertation chair — a role of immense blessing for me. I only now realize she was already 73 then, and still so vibrantly present.
In 2003, when my abuelita entered end-stage liver failure and needed full-time care, I paused my academic work. I often wonder how that deeper time with Joanna might have shaped my path. But in truth, it already had, and still does.
It was my abuelita’s teachings that rerouted me, from dissertation to devotion, from the page to the people. I shifted towards politics and then Time and Ancestor work, even though I had promised her I would get that Doctorate.
Joanna’s influence remained, both in and out of classes, working on her first website with her, visiting at her home in Berkeley, in our shared love of the Earth, in her fierce reverence for the living world, in the rituals she taught us to hold the grief. I still feel her guiding me as I deepen into Ancestors, Animism, and Earth ritual now.
As we sit vigil for Joanna from all over the globe, I encourage you to enjoy these practices — a small honoring of her life’s work and the legacy she’s gifted us all.
From Joanna Macy’s book The Work that Reconnects, here is an adapted meditation and open sentence practices:
Meditation: Harvesting the Gifts of the Ancestors »»»
Open Sentences on Gratitude
(best done in a pair, utilizing deep listening)
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Some things I love about being alive in Earth are …
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A place that was magical (or wonderful) to me as a child was …
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A person who helped me believe in myself is or was …
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Some things I enjoy doing and making are …
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Some things I appreciate about myself are …
Open Sentences on Time
(best done in a pair, utilizing deep listening)
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When I am in a hurry, my body feels…
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When I am in a hurry, my mind is like…
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Nowadays, I don’t have time to…
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Lack of time affects my relationships in these ways…
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If I had all the time in the world, I would…
Yesterday, I awoke early, about 5:15am, and had a glimpse of a rare rosy-colored dawn at first light. That beauty felt like Joanna dissolving into the rosy light, part of the breath of dawn, part of all Time.
May this Canícula scorch away what no longer serves — and make space for your roots to breathe again.
Stay wild, love fiercely. Your presence is golden.Maltiox! xo Ixchel
P.S. August sessions are open for Stellar Human Design, Astrology, and Ancestral Inheritance. In honor of the Sun’s brief return during Canícula, I’m offering a BOGO, Buy One, Get One, on all single sessions — now through July 17th.
P.P.S. Maltiox pronounced mall-tee-osh means with gratitude in K’iche Mayan.
🧵 I’m on TikTok, Threads, and Bluesky (where I’m sharing my favorite TikToks, musings, and links there too)!
💬 Signal Private Chat (no war plans shared, promise) The Time Grove ⇢
👩🏽🤝👩🏾 Ways to work with me…
Ancestral Wayfinding Ritual Kit, a 4-part course, $77
Ancestral Inheritance Sessions, beginning at $111
Time Devotion Renewal Kit, a 3-part course of foundational practices, $37
🎙️ Book me for your Podcast, speaking event, or program…
🎁 Free HD Mini ReportIf you’re curious but not ready to dive in fully, start with this free report. It’s my gift to help you explore how your Human Design definition shapes your relationship with Time.
🌒 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)
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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.
