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We explore stories of mystical adventure, inner transformation, and a little bit of fire – sometimes literally.
This show is about pushing limits into the unknown, discovering who we really are in the process, and celebrating the moments of connection that make us feel more alive.
Intro 00:00
Welcome back to The Alighted Way we are going to jump from the frying pan straight into the flames of a different fire in this next episode. This is Janelle, and today I am having a conversation with Joyce about her dragon experiences on our website, the all lighted way.com that's with an A there is a picture of a powerful art piece of one of Joyce's dragons that hangs on the wall of her home. So make sure you check that out. 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.
Janelle 00:55
Thank you for offering to talk about dragons, and I thought we would start with, what do you think it's important for people to know about dragons that they may not know?
Joyce 01:09
For me personally, it's always been about protection. It's always been about grace with them, and also a bit of a sense of humor, I think, is what it's not Hollywood with any of the with whether it's any sort of mediumship or if it's any sort of connection to the other side, everybody always thinks like, well, that's not how they do it on paraNormals or ass or whatever it's for everybody. It's different. And I've never come across anybody that has, that has addressed it like they do on in Hollywood.
Janelle 01:40
Do you want to talk a little bit about how dragons sort of came in to your world?
Joyce 01:46
Okay, well, so my family is Indonesian, so I have a sister that was born in Papua, New Guinea. My parents are born, you know, all the islands. So I've always said that the culture is a little bit different down there when you're when you're more connected to the earth and the and the universe, you think different, and you understand different only because you're not, I think, told how to think or told what to believe. So it's a different totally different lifestyle, totally different connection.
Janelle 02:19
Would you say that there's more of an openness?
Joyce 02:22
100% we are not 20 generations down five generations. That is, my father used to hunt crocodiles for a living for their skin, and he lived on the islands where they still have Headhunters, where they still have cannibalism, where they still had the old leafs was just wearing in your bones. And also, Komodo dragons are the animal of or the God, if you choose, of those islands. So they were always part of our lives. They were always part of our makeup. And you just knew what you knew or you saw what you saw. It's a totally different energy. Totally different energy.
Janelle 02:59
So then from that into how you may have had more of a personal contact or relationship. How did that evolve?
Joyce 03:11
So I was born in an old house in Holland, so my family is so superstitious, and they were ghosts. There was always ghosts. There was always something. So we never called them. We didn't have the language that if I'm on the very sad side of 60. So we never called them spirits, and we never called them. These are our spirit guides. They were ghosts. They were just plain old ghosts. And that's how it was. And that's the same with the dragons. They were always, they were just always, always there.
Janelle 03:38
So being from that culture, so you were saying more of a protective feel to it.
Joyce 03:45
Absolutely companionship, protection, almost like a dog, if you will. That's the only way that I can describe. They were all they were just always there. They were always with you, always no.
Janelle 03:56
That's a perfect description based on my own experience as well. Okay, yeah. So then do you find yourself that you talk with them about issues you're having, or that it's more of a protection of what? Is it a protection?
Joyce 04:12
So for me personally, it's always been the protection from the other side, from other energies, from other entities. So because it's always been a part of my like, you know, scared of the dark, I can't sleep without a light on. I don't sleep good in strange places, they were always there for me to call on, so that when I was completely at rest or completely vulnerable, that they were always there to make sure that there were no psychic attacks or that I wasn't having nightmares or that I wasn't having something. So they were always, always there, always and it was every night. So when other kids were saying their prayers before bed, we were saying, okay, tonight, I need to have the gold jargon. I need you to come, I need to circle, and I need you to lay on my bed and. And make sure that I can have a good night sleep. Make sure that I can be at peace.
Janelle 05:05
So then do you send it out to
Joyce 05:08
others to protect others, typically my own little my own little circle. So you know what? We have children and we have grandchildren, and I got this husband who also he was, he wasn't also very Catholic. He's very his family was very Catholic. His father was in the seminary for seven years. They were very Catholic. My husband is God. Love him. We just celebrated 40th our 40th anniversary. He was always the one who said, okay, he he talks to him himself. He doesn't know if he believes it or not. He doesn't know who he's asking, but he's always said, Okay, well, I'm sending you the white dragons just to make sure you're back and forth safe. He always sends the dragons out for me when I don't always think about it, because it's just commonplace for me. Yeah.
Janelle 05:52
So do you find that it's more than just protection, though, as a guide as well, or is it
Joyce 05:59
I do think they are. I use them as the guides. They're just my regular folks, people that I talk to, the regular spirits that I talk to. So do I use them for everything I want to I'm gonna say, Yeah, I do. It is for me. Just when I when I call on them, it's usually because it's like, Listen, I'm having nightmares, or I get psychic attacks or something. It's like, hey, yeah, hey guys, can you just so I can sleep? And they've always like, I don't know up until this moment that I've ever really thought in depth about it, because they've just always been my entire life. They've always been a part of it, this part, you know, not always the part that you share with everybody, the part that's just like my eyes are brown and I, you know, I've got siblings, and it's just regular for me.
Janelle 06:50
I know, in with another interview that I did, one of the ladies that shared was talking about how she gets older and she might get senile, that she feels very comforted to know that she can call on them, or that they're there.
Joyce 07:08
They're there, yeah, absolutely, you know, absolutely.
Janelle 07:12
It’s very reassuring.
Joyce 07:13
Well and I said they're like your dog. It's like you you know you're never alone. You can always hear them. Well. For me, I know I can hear their breath, or I can feel their presence. So even when I'm alone in a it's like, I'm never alone. I always know they're like, right here. So there's more than one for me, always there's always been, literally, like a family. They're all all the colors of the rainbow, and they come in different sizes, and they soothe for different things. If I'm feeling anxious, it's usually the bigger dragons, or if I'm feeling just annoyed and just need something, it's usually the little ones. So it they all just like family. They come in different sizes, different shapes and different colors and with different personalities.
Janelle 07:56
And so what do you know about them?
Joyce 08:00
I do know that they are family. I do know that they have been part of my own family and my own ancestral minds, that they've been with me and before me. They were with my father. My father was in a concentration camp as a child. There was a war between Indonesia and Japan. So I know that they helped him survive. I know that before them, they were always been part of the family. They just have always been. They were like, you know, favorite aunt, or they're just, you know, you you know they're there, yeah, you know that they've always been there, yeah.
Janelle 08:35
Okay, so then, when they're not with you, where do you think they are,
Joyce 08:41
They are never known. So there's never, never. They love the things and then come back. No, they're never, they're always, they're always, there's always something swirling around, always they just, I've never, I've never without for me, because my ability to connect to the other side. It doesn't get shut off. Sure, some days I'm a little colder than others, just to keep a wall, like when I'm at superstore or Costco, this has never shut off. It has always been a part of who I am, and that's why they have always been. I never had a quiet moment. I never, you know, some people say, Well, we I went through a I went through a trying time, or when it it has never been, and it has never been, I've been fortunate in my family. It has never been questioned, because in my family, I'm not special. Everybody in my family has the ability to do something, and we will talk much like with the dragons that everybody has the gift, everybody has the ability, but not everybody touches it. Not everybody has the not everybody, yeah, 100% Yeah, 100% and for me, I think I I never had a choice. I was born in what they called in the hell, which is, you know, my mom's placenta didn't break, came out like that, born in the house. And for when I was born, a woman came to the door and asked my dad, or the percent of my dad panics, because that's how he rolls. So what you would have done is burn it, but he didn't. He buried it in the backyard, easy enough to dig up. And here we are. It's always been. I have aunts, I have cousins. I have my grandchildren. I have a niece who sees family that passed. I have a nephew who sees, who can see other people who passed, and can do he travels the planes like for me, that's almost too much. You know, we all have, we all have something. And we raised in this family and raised in this culture, it was all like, it's no different than, Oh, she can play the piano and she can, you know, he has a gift for art, yes, and everybody has different skills.
Janelle 10:39
Some may have more of a stronger vision, yeah, vision.
Joyce 10:45
And some have stronger intuition, right?
Janelle 10:49
Yeah, absolutely. So in the bigger picture, overall, dragons have never really left, never, but it's interesting how Eastern versus Western perspectives sort of see them 100% and so in the bigger overall picture, do you think they're here to help humanity?
Joyce 11:09
I think they are. And it's not a chosen few. It's not, I feel like they've always been here, part of the wind, part of the Earth, part of that, the evolution they have always been here, and they are not going anywhere. I think they belong to everybody, but I feel like there's been like when I say with Hollywood, they don't the dragons that I know. They don't hoard gold, they don't hoard shiny things. They're not mean, they're not eating any virgins, nothing like that. They're just hanging out, doing their thing, attaching to who calls when you're ready to well, much like again, like the dogs. They're not for everybody. If you, if you need them, they come to you. They like some more than they like others. It is, I think that's just how, that's always how it's been. For me, it's, you know, some of them don't like me as much as some of the other ones do. Are, you know, they're not as affectionate, or they're not as they're like, we're here for one thing. We're here just to patrol the your bedroom so that. Let's not talk, let's not have a conversation. Let's not, don't pet me. Don't touch me. Don't, you know, don't show me any affection. I'm just here to do a job. When others are they're cuddly and they're they want more affection and they want more interaction.
Janelle 12:31
So when you're talking to them, is it that you talk to them, or is it a more of a conversation that happens in like, on a different level, like, from your mind?
Joyce 12:42
Sometimes on the day, kind of the day that I'm having every you know, it's like I said, it's no different than saying your prayers at night. It's like, you know, sometimes you say about love, and sometimes you say them quietly. It's but it's every single night. So it, I can't say it's one, one way, because it isn't, it is however, you know, however, that the mood, whatever I need at that time. It's like, sometimes I have to say it a little bit louder, or, you know, be a little more fierce. And some days it's just like, hey, you guys, you guys here, like, somebody here to watch me. Like, it's that,
Janelle 13:18
Yeah, it's interesting. In other experiences I've had, I've sort of connected sort of femaleness with dragons, sort of like matriarchy Mother Earth, definitely like a guardian or something for Mother Earth, right? And I remember reading a post that I had seen where the lady said that she saw a very large Dragon, ancient looking emerging from the earth, right?
Joyce 13:48
So Indonesian that the where we're from, it is the Pacific Rim. It is all about volcanoes. It's all about fire. It's all about heat. And so for us, that's how we were taught. They slept quietly under the big volcano. I mean, the volcanoes are going off to out there all the time that when they were ignored, because it in Indonesia, one of the it's one that I still do myself. But one of the traditions is you every morning, you ask for thanks, you ask for intention, and you ask for a little protection, like guard the house, or, you know, can you make sure that everybody's cool under this roof? Or whatever is that hasn't changed in all these years. I still do it. I'm sure the neighbors think I'm insane, but I don't worry about those things. So absolutely, it is absolutely from the earth. And you, when you give thanks or when you give recognition, it's always good, whether it's flowers or whether it's water, or whether it's the smoke from the incense, it's that's what you get back. They're not looking now looking for your treasures and for trinkets and things that that are man made. They're not.
Janelle
Yeah, I think that's definitely like a myth, and that they're greedy, absolutely.
Joyce
Not, yeah, absolutely not, yeah. But they are fire breathing. That is true. But again, because we were taught they come from volcanoes, they come from the earth,
Janelle 15:09
Yeah, it's interesting, because I've been writing about Bhutan and, like, it's called, you know, Bhutan is actually the thunder dragon, yeah? And the fire breathing is the lightning part, and it's, you know, how that that comes together. Of trying to describe events like natural events that happen, right? Just the dragon's presence with it 100% is an interesting way to do it.
Joyce 15:33
And it starts to make a little bit of sense when you actually look at it, or if you're actually without many of the hippy dippy and the moon rising and any of that stuff. But if you just read the words and listen to the old stories or the old cultures or the old that, there is a thread that makes absolute sense.
Janelle 15:54
Yeah, I really love reading mythologies and different stories about dragons
Joyce 16:01
Mythology is based on somebody's truth, right?
Janelle 16:05
A fragment of truth at some point, absolutely so. I wondered if the dragons that are around you have any messages that they want to share.
Joyce 16:16
They are curious, for sure. Like, what the hell are you doing now? Like, my dragons are, you know, well, like I said they, are they the dragons? Or is Am I crazy? So I don't know, but it's how they talk. Is how we've always communicated. Yeah, they've always said, like, when I'm not being true to who I am, when I start to second guess myself, or when I start to be human and be like, Oh my God, I wish I had a fancier car. I wish I was 10 pounds lighter. I wish I was taller and blonde, and they say to me, what are you doing? Like, what are you doing? You are being ridiculous and get back in your life. So I feel like the message always has been, for me, has always been, be true to who you are. Be true. Don't be something that you're not. And I feel like that is, I can't say that they speak for humanity, because their messages have only ever been for me when I'm getting a little bit out of hand, when I'm getting a little bit, you know, like, wasn't teenage years were weird, but they have always been there to weigh me in. Do you know? Yeah, I feel like it's just like, Listen, sister, you're getting a little bit crazy. Pull it. Get yours. Get yourself together, you know, without judgment and without control. Without control. Yes, loving, yes, hurting. What? Hurting? That's That's absolutely right. That's exactly right. It's when I that is exactly what it is. So it's like, get you your veer off the path. You crazy, get back for this is where you're supposed to go, and this is the messages that you're supposed to give. And do I have a message for everybody? Well, not really, but for those of that I do, I feel like those are the ones that cross my path, and I feel like I'm not supposed to change. And they are the same. They're not supposed to change the whole world. That's not our job, just our little corner in it, you know. And when I do my little part, and this one does their part and this one does their part, the whole world lights up.
Janelle 18:14
It's like a little island of coherence.
Joyce 18:17
100% we're not we are not all seeing and all knowing, and I know it's good for everybody, and I know what, what makes this world, and I know I don't know shit I know you. This little corner is what I know, and that's what they help me keep my little corner safe so that others can either build off it, if they want to, or not.
Janelle
Yeah, I kind of see it as a lighthouse
Joyce
100% in your little this is because you're only, you can only do these rocks over here. Like, I know what's going on over here, but this is the shore that I keep safe. Oh, God, it makes sense too, yeah? Because when you say, try and explain this, I can. I don't know if it makes sense to those that don't see or don't hear, don't
Janelle 18:59
I mean, not that they can't develop their gifts or their they just haven't.
Joyce 19:05
And it's like a muscle. I've always said that it's a muscle. If you got to use it every day or use it all the minute you let it go,
Janelle
Then it's use it or lose it.
Joyce
Use it or lose it. That's my mom always said, use it or lose it. Yeah, that's true. That's the thing. And not everybody. And last, you know, not everybody believes and not everybody understand. It doesn't affect me one way or the other.
Janelle 19:26
Because what you know is true for you 100% and you're living that truth.
Joyce 19:31
Am I living it easily? Now I have this husband. He's a tiger, but in the in the grand scheme of things, and it's funny, because in our family, in our little family, we have twin daughters, and my daughters and my husband are tigers, my son and I are dragons. So it's always like, in this house, it is. It's a fiery household, it is, but it's the energies that connect.
Janelle 19:53
It's interesting in Feng Shui, because you have like, left and right sides, yeah, of the house, yes, and one's a masculine. Item one is a feminine side, and they're represented by tigers and dragons.
Joyce 20:02
Yes, so this house is always chaos, always chaos. But those are that like the not that they understand it better. But I think Eastern culture is just more grounded, like they're not trying to change the world. They're not trying to to make everybody fall in line under one religion or one belief system or one there's only one way or the highway. They're like, Okay, well, I don't always get this, but because if you have ever traveled through the east, or if you know anybody in any of those Eastern cultures, it is so ingrained in their bones and in their soul and in their culture that there is something you don't have to call them Jesus or Buddha or there is a presence, and maybe it's the dragons.
Janelle 20:57
Yeah, it's interesting how you know you were talking about it earlier, how they've been misrepresented or misconstrued?
Joyce 21:03
Yeah, well, it's cooler to be mean and hoarding treasure and you only eating virgins.
Janelle 21:11
A fearsome beast 100% because there's been a lot of different dragon slaying. Yes, and what I find interesting is like most of them have been subdued or defeated but not killed. Yes, which is just an interesting take on it, you know, like so in the mythology and stuff, you know, people have done different things to them, to contain them.
Joyce 21:35
Yeah, different power, the power. Yeah, wanting to take their power, wanting to take their understanding, wanting to take their wisdom, life their wisdom, their life blood, because thinking that it is going to give them the power. And that's not me. It's what they give willingly. And if you've got to take it or wrestle them, it's not yours to begin with. The dragons that the family that assists me, they don't, if they don't want to tell me, I can't just say, Okay, listen, I need the lottery numbers, or I need this, right? And they're gonna tell me, like, Sorry, sister, it's not for you. But if, if they want to share it with me, I have to be open to what I don't. Always have to understand it. I always think, what the hell am I saying now? But they've never steered me wrong. They never steer me wrong.
Janelle 22:23
So I sort of see them as not that they're part of me, but like higher wisdom to share things for sure,
Joyce 22:31
And some of the things that they share with you are not for me to know. Are not for yes, that's exactly right for the neighbors. No, not for everyone. I think that too is a myth that, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take their power, I'm gonna take their magic and make it my own. It's not how it works. They don't want to share it with you. They won't, or if they don't think you're ready.
Janelle 22:50
So do you think they're from a different plane or a different level of existence versus on Earth, or do you think they're deeply rooted in earth?
Joyce 23:01
I don't know that I have ever, even ever thought of it. They just, it's like the air, it's like, it's for me, it's, they've always been there. I've never thought the question, Where the heck you guys from?
Janelle 23:12
Well, I mean, it's interesting, just because, yeah, you know, lots of dinosaur bones have been found, yeah, on earth, but not dragon bones.
Joyce 23:20
Depends on what kind of Dragon, because Komodo dragon, right? It, like I said, that's the dragon from and of course, in that their skin can kill you absolutely, like they're not safe. But, you know, I think their part, their energy, is just has you can't kill energy. So they have always been. They have just always been. So maybe it's a combination of, because is our earth is just pieces of outer space. So did they come from somewhere else, probably, and did they just nest here, or did they make this their egg? And maybe, you know, I honestly, I can't tell you.
Janelle 23:59
I mean, a lot of the cosmologies have dragons coming out of the primordial waters, yeah, and that they have an egg. No, not sure if they, you know, burst the egg or but they surround the egg, yeah, and help it crack open.
Joyce 24:17
That is a very good question. So they show what I see right now, what they show they circle my head. They show the stars. It's a big they they have been here for always. It has always been so my dragons have been here since the beginning of time. They have always existed. Did they come from here? No, they came. They show the stars. They come from the stars, or that's what they say come from the stars. So what that means exactly? I don't know. It shows, it shows the galaxies. It shows that they have always existed. So whether they are in energy, whether there's, you know, I believe, a lot of weird things. Anyway, did they come from? A different galaxy? Did they come from a different because, you know, we're not alone. It is just parts they have always existed that we have always we've just always existed.
Janelle 25:13
Yeah, I did an interview with another lady, and she was talking about that there's a tribe on Sirius in the yet bigger system, and she and her dragons are sort of linked to there.
Joyce 25:27
They have always been. I just never thought to question because, like I said, they've always the you know, my hair is straight or my eyes are it's just always been. And I don't know why. I mean, I'm not that smart. I just know they've always been.
Janelle 25:44
And so is there anything else that you feel is important for people to know, or anything else that comes to mind around your experience with dragons?
Joyce 25:56
There's so much that we don't know. Yeah, there is so much that we can't explain. I feel that as the world's biggest skeptic, and this is my life, you got to trust, you got to trust and you got to be open to the possibilities of more, and they are more.
Janelle 26:17
I get that. There's a book by Oprah, I think, and it's like, what do you know for sure? And I think people really know very little for sure,
Joyce 26:27
For sure. For sure. I know that my husband comes through the door, he's gonna be hungry and he's going in. What do I know that for sure? I suspect it. That's it's a good that's a good way of looking at things, because everybody, well, not everybody, but a lot of people, in my experience, have been are very definite. There's like, this is black and this is white, and this is what I mean for sure. And I always think I don't know Sure. I don't know anything about anything, yeah. You know,
Janelle 26:57
It's interesting with I can have my truth and you can have your truth, and it can look completely different of what's true for each of us, right?
Joyce 27:06
It's based on experience, based on culture, based on, I don't even know what, just based on life.
Janelle 27:16
Well, I think I'm complete in what I need to ask you if there's anything else for you to feel complete, or if you're feeling
Joyce 27:25
No I, you know, up until this moment, I really, I never questioned their existence. Or I never, I was, it was, like I said, just always something that has always been a part of my life, you know, like I said, I never questioned, I never questioned, why me?
Janelle 27:41
So you've always had that, that knowing, always, yeah, always, which makes it easier. I think in some ways, if you have it from the beginning, yes, it doesn't seem weird.
Joyce 27:53
No, yeah, or and I feel like a lot of the fact that, well, sometimes I feel weird, like I have, like I said, it's always been a part of who I am, and it's I does that make me special? I don't think so. It just they said, this is like playing the piano or anything else. It's just something that you know, and it's you working within that in your life, right?
Janelle 28:09
You working with what you're gifted, or with what well.
Joyce 28:19
And you know, I was taught by my aunt, who also was, she was 100 years old when she came to Canada for a road trip, and we sat, and I was 14. I'll never forget we drove down to the states, and she explained, because my parents really didn't explain it. They just said, you know, okay, we're Canadian now, so don't go outside and start talking to don't be telling the neighbor that their grandfather's sitting on the step and wants to know, why don't do that? Okay, at home, it was completely fine, but don't do it. We're trying to fit in. And she came and she explained that it is not a gift. It's a responsibility to have a responsibility to share with those that need to hear it. Not everybody wants to hear it, so you keep your mouth shut when, when you have to, but if they come to you, it is a responsibility to tell the truth as you know it, or as you understand it.
Janelle 29:19
I know it's interesting with my grand master in Feng Shui, because he would talk about, if people come to you wanting help, that if they knock softly, you answer softly, yes. And if you you know, if they knock loudly, you respond accordingly.
Joyce 29:33
Right? Yeah, makes sense. That makes absolutely sense. Yeah, I know what I know.
Janelle 29:38
Okay. Well, thank you so much for you wisdom.
Joyce 29:44
Hope that you can use it, or it helps you, or it brings a little bit of an understanding of things that I don't know. You know.
Janelle
I always say you don't know what you don't until you know it.
Joyce 29:57
That's true. That's exactly true.
Outro
There it is, and there you have it. Thank you for sharing and brightening the path today. Join us next time to hear Marilyn's story of Dragon breathing during Reiki and her dragon tattoo. This episode drops March 26 we will continue to share and explore more stories that may take you beyond the edge of your boundaries. 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 created an introductory dragon course, which kicks off in February of 2026 you can go to the alighted way.com that's with an A to the website and register become part of our community or brood in Dragon's beat and the magic that lies within New Episodes drop twice monthly on Thursdays, so don't miss an Episode until then. Keep the flame of curiosity burning you.