Happy Equinox & First Quarter Moon
Today is both the First Quarter Moon and the Summer Solstice.
First Quarter Moons invite us to shed light on our projects, dreams, and ideas—to take the first visible steps toward something we've been quietly nurturing.
So here I am, following the moon's calling.
My name is Jen Kasten Dotson, founder of Travel Alchemy and creator of the Ix Chel Journey.
Five years ago, after a very sudden awakening, I began exploring spirituality in search of healing, meaning, and a deeper understanding of myself. What started as curiosity became a path of study, personal transformation, moon work, ceremony, meditation, and intentional living.
At times, this path felt overwhelming. Much of the spiritual world can feel unapproachable—filled with unrealistic expectations, confusing information, and no clear roadmap for someone simply seeking to grow, heal, and reconnect with themselves.
What I longed for was a practical approach to spirituality: one that could be integrated into everyday life through small, intentional actions. A path that honored both intuition and action. A path where spiritual growth wasn't about escaping reality, but learning how to engage with it more consciously.
Just as importantly, I wished for a local community of like-minded people with whom I could learn, share experiences, ask questions, and grow together.
That desire eventually became the inspiration for the Ix Chel Journey.
The Ix Chel Journey is built around a simple but powerful idea:
Every New Moon begins a six-month lunar cycle. Six months later, that same intention reaches its energetic culmination beneath a Full Moon in the same astrological sign.
What if we intentionally worked with that cycle?
What if we held a dream, healing journey, personal goal, spiritual practice, or business vision for six months, giving it our attention, energy, accountability, and action before witnessing what unfolds?
The result is a six-month container that begins in September 2026 and concludes beneath the powerful Full Moon Eclipse of February 2027, when we will gather in Mexico.
The journey currently includes:
• Six monthly intention-setting gatherings
• Moon teachings and practices
• Learning to work with crystals and crystal grids
• Community support and accountability
• Actionable personal and spiritual development
• A culminating retreat in the Yucatán jungle of Mexico
A very special thank you to Anita, whose teachings on lunar cycles helped inspire the timing and structure of this project. Her encouragement, generosity, and support have been instrumental in bringing this vision to life.
If any of this resonates with you, Anita and I would love to better understand what the community is seeking. Please take a few moments to complete the survey below.
I am so grateful you're here.
With love,
Jen Kasten Dotson
Ix Chel Journey
When I reached out to Anita a few days ago, I was met with exactly what I expected from her: encouragement, generosity, and wholehearted support.
As you can see throughout this website, the Ix Chel Journey was originally designed as a six-month spiritual container leading to our retreat in Mexico in February 2027.
What I shared with Anita, however, was a growing desire to make parts of this journey available locally for those who may be seeking community, personal growth, spiritual exploration, or simply a place to connect with like-minded people closer to home.
One idea we discussed was offering the same six-month journey in an in-person format, gathering monthly to explore moon work, crystals, intention setting, accountability, personal growth, and practical spiritual tools.
We also discussed creating opportunities for members of the community to showcase their own gifts, businesses, modalities, passions, or areas of expertise. While I will be guiding the overall journey and curriculum, there may be opportunities for participants to share something meaningful with the group if they feel called to do so.
If you are interested, we want to hear from you!
Why Ix Chel?
This journey was not originally called The Ix Chel Journey.
It began with the moon.
As I worked with lunar cycles in my own life, I experienced firsthand the power of setting intentions beneath a New Moon, taking aligned action, allowing the Full Moon to illuminate what was hidden, and using the waning moon to reflect, release, and refine.
In many ways, this retreat was born through that process.
The original vision was planted like a seed. Over the months that followed, the moon revealed what was aligned, what was not, what needed to grow, and what needed to be released. With each cycle, the retreat became clearer.
Then, during a period of energetic clearing and reflection, I began encountering the story of Ix Chel—the ancient Maya goddess of the moon, water, fertility, medicine, and transformation, revered throughout the Yucatán Peninsula.
At first, I was simply curious. But as I explored her story, one detail stopped me in my tracks.
In one telling of her journey, Ix Chel enters a period of death and renewal before being restored to life after 183 days.
One hundred and eighty-three days. Almost exactly six months, a 6 Month Lunar Cycle. The same length of time between the New Moon that begins this journey and the Full Moon Eclipse beneath which we gather in Mexico. The same length of time we spend nurturing an intention, allowing it to grow, transform, and eventually emerge into the light.
The synchronicity felt impossible to ignore.
As a Mexican woman who has spent nearly two decades living and working in the Riviera Maya, this connection carried an even deeper meaning for me. While many visitors experience this region as a beautiful destination, I have come to know it as home—a place where the land, the sea, the jungle, and the stories of those who came before us are woven into everyday life.
This retreat is, in many ways, an homage to that connection.
An homage to the land that has shaped my career, to Gaia, to my Mexican heritage, and to the roots that continue to call me home.
I understand that not everyone will feel an immediate connection to Ix Chel or to Maya cosmology. For many of my guests, especially those coming from the United States, these stories may feel unfamiliar. But for me, they are part of the cultural landscape that has surrounded me for years. They are reminders that long before resorts, airports, and modern maps, people looked to the moon, the waters, and the rhythms of nature for guidance, healing, and meaning.
What moved me was not simply the mythology itself, but the universal truth within it: that transformation happens in cycles, that growth requires surrender, and that renewal often emerges from periods of uncertainty.
In meditation and reverence, I asked Ix Chel for her blessing to share her story and to weave her wisdom into this experience. The answer I received was not one of hesitation, but of excitement.
And so this journey became more than a retreat.
It became an invitation to walk alongside the cycles of the moon, the wisdom of the land, and the timeless story of death, renewal, and rebirth that Ix Chel has carried for generations.