Latest / The Alighted Way / Dragons, Grounding, and the Wisdom of Play
Transcript
- Colleen 00:00 Colleen, welcome back to The Alighted Way. We're going to jump from the frying pan straight into the flames of a different fire in this next episode. As Colleen interviews Renee, you'll hear all about Renee, also known as Sagittarius Way, right from the beginning, her passion for all animals, including dragons, clearly shows in her work. This show is about pushing limits into the unknown, discovering who we really are, and celebrating the moments that make us feel alive. So, let's get into it. Hi everyone, and welcome back to The Alighted Way. Colleen here, and it is my pleasure to welcome Renee, also known as Sagittarius Way. Sagittarius Way is a guide for calming the nervous system through dragon presence, steady, protective, and deeply grounding, working with dragons as guardians and wise allies, she helps sensitive souls soften anxiety, settle the body, and come back into a felt sense of safety and belonging for both humans and animals. So that's how I know Renee too. I know her from our meditation classes together, and that's where I learned about her love of animals, and you can check out her meditations on Insight Timer under Sagittarius Way, and you'll see that her meditations are a bridge between the wild and the wise, rooted in ancient wisdom and lived intuitive connection. Dragons lead the way, earth dragons for anchoring, water dragons for soothing the emotional tide, fire dragons for gentle courage, and sky dragons for clarity and breath. Around them, the calm of animals, the grounding of trees, and the quiet strength of the natural world become a sanctuary you can return to with a poetic yet practical voice. Sagittarius way makes the mystical feel gentle and accessible, and each session is an invitation to slow down, breathe, and remember calm is learnable, and sometimes it arrives the moment you let yourself be held by something bigger, older, and kind, so welcome, Sagittarius Way. Renee 02:26 Thank you for having me. Colleen 02:28 Oh, I'm looking so forward to talking to you today about dragons. I have listened to a couple of your dragon meditations, and they're just lovely, so thanks for that. Thanks for that. My first question for you is, How did dragons appear in your life? How did this? How did they come to be? How did it all begin? Your origin story, if you will. It Renee 02:53 always puts a big smile on my face. That's it's for first sight. They arrived quite slowly. I remember doing a series about Celtic wisdom, and we were working through the Celtic zodiac calendar, so we went through all the months and everything, and we were talking about trees and certain animals that were connected, and the elements, and and they kind of started popping into my presentations, and they started to become more aware of, like, hey, we are in this world too, and they started explaining about the ley lines and how they go through other worlds, and so that became really slowly part of it. I think in 2024 when I started training for a shamanic practitioner, we were working with our power place, and we were connecting with our body protectors and gatekeepers and our guides, and I had this enormous, beautiful red dragon showing up, and his name is Igor, and he says hello, and he's been showing up for me in my journeys that I take, if I have questions, or if I journey for clients, or if I prepare for my talks, or for my meditations, and he helps me, pointing me into a certain direction, or a thought form, and he helps me then to digest what needs to come forth, so sometimes you know I'm writing these things down. I'm like, where do they come from? But it's like in a source, energetic source that's coming from them. It's really cool. I'm, I really enjoy it. Colleen 04:29 Oh, wow. Well, welcome to you and Igor. Renee 04:32 Yeah, Colleen 04:35 just tell me a little bit more about Igor. Like, what does he like? What does he.. doesn't like, I don't know if he has likes or dislikes, I don't know. See, like, I am new to the dragon world, so I don't know what a lot of this is. Renee 04:53 I think the experience with dragons is all about how we invite them into our space into our, into our world, in how we want to interact, because they will show up and want to connect with us in a way that we understand, and in a way, in a vibrational setting that is available to us as well. So I think that is really the beauty of dragons for me, because I sometimes find the world quite overwhelming. I was really looking for a way of maybe not having all the influence from outside to come into my day, into my body, and that I needed to respond and remember everything that I saw. And so his interaction with me is to keep me focused and stay and help me stay grounded, so he's connected to the earth, but he's also connected to fire, because sometimes we need a good amount of fire to, you know, get our point across, or make sure we do get the word no out of our mouth, instead of, you know, the pleasing gas, and that's where he comes and steps in and helps me to go, like, you know, it's important for you to have some quiet tonight, so no, or you know, thank you for sharing what you think the world should look like, and that helps me to stay grounded in how I am also allowed to see certain things in the world, so it just helps me grounded, and it also keeps me in a perspective that I can be seeing the best in everyone else around me as well, so unjudgmental of anyone, and it really broadens your world, because it then you can really hear what other people are saying without needing to lose your own sovereignty in the process of it, so yeah, Colleen 06:42 oh, that's beautiful. Yes, I find that my dragon helped me a lot with courage, with being able to do things that I wouldn't normally be doing, such as a podcast, but here we are. Oh, that's beautiful in a general sense, why do you think dragons are back or here? Why do you think that dragons are trying to help? Are they trying to, trying to help us? What do you think about that? Renee 07:16 Well, I think for, for all the energies that show up in anyone's life is to support and to help and to to make an impact, because I think every positive impact that we can make in our own day or in someone else's day has as an amazing ripple effect for people, and I think if we can start creating ripples, positive ripples that will have that will create a bigger wave at the end of it. They all come together. I believe that because they're so connected to the elements that we can kind of create like a medicine circle around us from all directions and work with the different elements that are there out there. I also really.. this is my experience. I definitely don't want to put words into anyone else's experience, but my experience is that it's always about creating a safe environment, and always from a point of view of growing and offering wisdom for anyone who would like to be connected with them. I'm not quite sure if they've disappeared ever, because we have had the ley lines for centuries, so they've always been around slowly. I guess the kindness and the groundedness and the healing is more acceptable and more available for people, instead of, you know, only the way that the writers would write about them, or movies will be made. All of a sudden, we are getting to this point where we connect with it in a way that is vibrational, available to ourselves. And, yeah, I think that's quite beautiful. Colleen 08:59 Oh, definitely. Oh, what a wonderful way to explain that, and I think you kind of touched on this already, just by the talking about the vibrations and stuff, but in many traditions dragons hold the balance between earth and sky. How do you experience that bridge in bridging energy between instinct, say animal in wisdom and higher insight in your own practice, Renee 09:26 it's quite a wide question. Sorry, I hope I'm gonna pick that up. I'm also translating from Dutch to English to it, so you know what I hear you say is, is how do I incorporate it into, in my day to day, and but also when I work with clients, right? Colleen 09:49 Yes, and just in that, how do you bridge that energy, yes, with yourself and your clients. Renee 09:55 For me, is that I see it as a play, as a joyful. Connection, so I like to go outside. I love watching the clouds, because in the clouds you can see the dragons quite easily. I really love watching that, and, and see different forms come, and you know, especially here within the sun, and there's all these colors coming away. I sense also there's a lot of beauty when the northern lights are up with the dragons, you can see all these movements in there, you can almost see the pictures coming forth, and the other thing is that it's such a calming energy for me, it's also not only connected to the ground or the sky, I can see the fire and the water and the air in there as well, so it connects to a lot of the emotional levels that we have. So that is why certain dragons would step forward. There, there is because the dragons are so earthbound. There's also a beautiful connection with angels, sometimes or other identities that, that we love, we all love working, and have become more a common way of talking in our conversations, right. It's, it's, it is something that gets, becomes valuable to us when we start talking about it, and when we breathe life into it, and are allowing it, and be part of our conversation, and sometimes you know, tricky, you know, when we talk to other people. Colleen 11:26 Yes, that's true. It's all right. Are you a safe person to talk to about this? Is what that comes down to. And I just love the idea of the joy, the bringing in the joy of it. That's really lovely. I see. see here a Sagittarius is the seeker, the arrow aimed toward meaning. How do dragons support your quest? Do they act more as guides, challengers, and guardians? But you've kind of covered a lot of that already, but is there one that you would say is more, more you than anything else. Renee 12:05 Well, as a Sagittarius, I'm very connected to the center, for sure. I think in the world of dragons, they, they walk equally together as mystical beings. For me, with the different elements, is that it helps you to step into situations where you don't feel alone and you feel supported. I think that is something that you know when I have to go and do something like podcast interview, I go like, okay, who wants to sit with me? And I sit in it, in that energy, and then I know, like, you know, I can lean into that, and, and know that the words will come, and that I gonna, I'm gonna trust that what wants to come up for my heart, that it will really resonate to the people who are going to hear what I have to say, and as you and I both know, you hear a completely different thing than someone else will be listening to it as well, because you know that is how teachings work as well. And that's for centuries we've been teaching each other orally instead of writing things down, we've been telling each other stories, and there's this folklore that comes up for it as well, and I, I think that's just the beauty of it, and that's why play and joy so much, because when you invite them, you can go play, and that is something where you tap into your own imagination, and you're going to have this beautiful conversation coming from and all, because it comes and goes. It's like making a painting on a new canvas, or it's, it's like playing music, you know, or creating a play. It's that's where the conversation starts, and that's where it is. It's that amber, that little spark that's there. Colleen 13:57 Oh, fantastic. Oh, I just love that, the play and the joyd I think having an imagination is a very key component, and we need to engage that a little bit more and trust it. Renee 14:16 Yes, I think so too. Colleen 14:19 Is there anything else you'd like to add about about dragons. Renee 14:24 Well, I think you know, for anyone who's, who's thinking like who's intrigued, and it's all new. The invitation for me, and yes, there, there are a lot of books out there, and everything, but to sit in meditation, that's why I love creating the meditations, but you don't even have to go to one of my meditations, but to sit in nature and to connect and go into a peaceful place, and just wait and feel for that connection to start, and in the beginning it feels, you know, it takes an hour to get a minute of something, but. That will grow, and you will really start to feel that there's relationships being built, and it goes one step at a time. It's they're very patient, it is a very patient way of communicating and about learning things, but it will become clearer and clearer, and all of a sudden you will get a name, or all of a sudden you'll get a color, and those kind of things. What I've noticed is, is that trusting that the truth that will come from the connection is your truth, and that is what you need to hear, because sometimes when we read books about from other people, which is also beautiful, but it's it's their truth, so we need to also connect with our own truth and what it is that we need to hear or where we need to speak this support or the story or something, and then when that starts to walk, all of a sudden you'll hear this podcast, there is this enormous billboard in the downtown center, which has a phrase on it to answer a question that you had, and you go, like, oh my god, that's what I'm going to do, you know. So then those things are going to happen, and when you start connecting with with dragon energy, it's, it's really beautiful, and it's, it is very, very kind, and it's, it's not rough or hard at all, it can be if you want to, but you know it's not from the nature. Their nature is not that way at all, and they really connect you to anything on the world, you know. They, they just, they can, you can travel with them while sitting under a tree, and they have happily take you anywhere you want to travel, and that's it's such an amazing way to journey. Yeah. Colleen 16:44 Oh, yes, that's something I'm learning about too. And just how much they like, just the kindness. I remember I was having.. I was very sick for a bit, and having my dragon just kind of curl up around me and hold me was just lovely, like very whole, like very healing, very healing. Renee 17:06 Yeah, Colleen 17:08 yeah, that's so wonderful. And talking about the name, did the name come to you quite easily? My name popped just right into my head, like the name access, and I was like, I've never even heard that word before. Okay, yeah. Is that it? Was that kind of like yours too? Renee 17:31 Yeah, it was very similar. And I love asking for names because it makes them individual instead of, you know, a fire dragon that's their group, but if you have a name, then it's really cool to start building that relation, their personal relationship. Yes, yeah. Colleen 17:50 Well, that's wonderful. Well, I want to say thank you so much, Sagittarius Way, for being here and for sharing your thoughts on dragons and helping us with our podcast, that's wonderful. Thank you. Renee 18:08 Yeah, my pleasure. Colleen 18:09 All right, there it is. There you have it. Thank you for sharing and brightening the path today. Join us next time as Jody shares her stories about being a dragon keeper and what that means to her, including the assessment and distribution of certain dragons to be paired with people who need them. This episode drops june 25 We will continue to share and explore more stories that may take you beyond the edges of your comfort zone. We encourage you to be open and come along for the wild ride. Safety first, though. So, buckle up if you are interested in learning more about dragons. Janelle has created an introductory dragon course that is now live. Go to the Alightedway.com that's the Alighted A L I G H T E D Way, all one word.com to register. Become part of our community, or brood in Dragon Speak, and the magic that lies within. New episodes drop twice monthly on Thursday, so don't miss an episode. Until then, keep the flame of curiosity burning, you.