Dragon Dreaming, 2024

Driving towards the Sherwood forest range, Koia says to me,

“Ashna! Have you heard of Dragon Dreaming? One of my absolute favorite artists, Merkaba, is going to be playing there this year.”

Having little to no idea about the festival or the artists themselves, I confidently pitch the festival to Abhay & Tomas, who readily say no given it was spaced only two weekends away from AGSC.

Standing in the smoker’s area of My Aeon, Felix says to me,

“Ashna! If you want to go to Dragon Dreaming, you can come with us. We’re headed there and have space for one more in the car.”

Here, began my Dragon adventure……….

Located in Wee Jasper Reserve, at the intersection of two states, it was a land with vast stretches of untouched nature. It seemed as if the lake, hills & the native animals, all came together to form a blanket over the experience of the festival, which occupied a small portion in between.

Nature blended into music…Music blended into people…. People blended into dance…..Dance blended into love……..

Amidst this magnetic interplay, I created some of my most treasured moments.

“What is the meaning of life?”

This is how Fabien & I began our Saturday night adventure when we decided to take a walk with words as our compass. As our feet rhythmically followed our words, our words began to tell a story of their own which began with the question, “What do you think is the meaning of life?”

“I think it’s ascension, it’s evolution of the collective.”

“What is the collective? How do you contribute as a tiny human being to this collective?”

“The collective is all of humanity.”

“Do you think that there is an inner knowing that resides within all of us which gets diminished if we try to shine light on it on the stage of conscious thought?”

“The feeling that you get within you which tells you whether something feels right or not is the way this inner knowing manifests.”

“Maybe we are just like the outermost layer of an onion. The identity of Fabien & Ashna wrapped around layers of who we truly are, with our essence or inner knowing sitting in a little cocoon beneath everything. Do you ever wonder who you are? What does it mean to be a Ashna & a Fabien?”

Our compass led us to a serene spot beneath the stars that covered every inch of the skies, almost heralding us to continue this conversation. We continued to follow the tide of our words until we were back to our camp and all of a sudden, exhausted. It felt like our intention had been served.

“Isabella!!!!!!”

I shouted, as I finally met one of my absolute favorite dancers. I saw Isabella at Tanglewood, where she danced like there was no tomorrow. There was something magnetic about her energy. I had a strong urge to get to know her, her wild spirit that hinted from her wolf-like attire & the way she danced. Isabella represented all the bold, courageous & beautiful women I had ever laid eyes on the dancefloor. They had shaped me in so many ways that I can’t even fathom. Whenever I saw a woman dance in her own energy, I was involuntarily drawn to her. There is so much they continue to teach me, about me, through simply being themselves.

If the metaphor of a wild woman residing in all of us is true, then these were the wild women who kindled my wild woman.

“OMG! This actually feels so good!”

Said Koia after begrudgingly agreeing to take a dip with me in the lake.

Koia also belongs to the tribe of women I talk about above. As she held my hand to begin walking in the depths of the lake, she earnestly began her countdown to 30. The sun was shining on us, and the water was just cool enough for us to relish this moment. As soon as we came out of the lake, we both felt so fresh, revived for the rest of the day.

Going to the lake every morning was undoubtedly one of my favorite things to do at the festival. The serenity & calm I felt after the dip was a feeling unmatched. After drying myself, I would usually pretend to read before getting lost in the beauty of the landscape & giving up on the pretense.

All of life, you will experience the fight between a lower self & a higher self

This is the intuition I had when I lost myself to Mora’s set. There is one thing to derive knowledge from the pages of the book and yet another when the same knowledge reveals itself to you internally at just the right time. I saw how all of life was just a fight between a lower self and a higher self, both demanded things out of you. You can see it play out in so many decisions you make. However, if you simply observed their fight & intentionally chose the self you wanted to strengthen, then that self would steadily mesh into your identity. This fight happens so quick that you can almost miss it if you don’t remember to intentionally dilate the internal time to see both of them in play.

“You can sometimes have tunnel vision on the ideas you hold close”

Said Roudi to me in the car ride home, as we played this card game, “We’re not strangers”.

This led me to reflect on this and realize, this in fact, is very true. Despite all the constant reminders to myself about embracing diverse worldviews, I can still get so caught up in my own worldview that I begin to reject all others. This is usually something I experience when I’m riding high on judgement towards someone else’s opinion or worldview. While there is a basic template of humanity that all humans come preinstalled with (ie. a moral compass, an intuition, emotions we have in common), what we choose to mold out of the life we subjectively experience is entirely on our discretion. It’s like we’re all enrolled in the school of life with each one of us having a completely different curriculum than the other. Whenever we connect, it’s an opportunity for us to share what our curriculum looks like and how we’re performing, instead of imposing our curriculum on someone else. Hmmm… Something I have to try & remember when riding on the high horse of judgement next time!

“Everything’s gonna beeee alrightt yaaayyyayyaya!”

Walking back from a long day of dancing, I put on some Justin Bieber on the way back to my camp which took a good 15–20 minutes and began to sing loud to “Be alrighttttt”.

Whenever I walk, I’m always hurrying to the destination but this walk felt different. This walk was dedicated to simply being present and walking for the pleasure of walking which is why I took my own sweet time getting back to camp. Once I reached the camp, I lay down underneath the stars and put on all the songs which speak to my soul — Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Parra for Cuva….

I felt so present. It was a little magical at how good being present felt. Like a big cloud had lifted.

Thank you to Dragon Dreaming & all the beautiful people (Felix, Jake, Conor, Jesse, Koia, Jane, Christina, Elodie, Paddy, Tori, Isabella, Fabien, Roudi, Rahul, Laura, Mel, Petros, Natalia) who shared this festival with me!

Until next time :)