Part V

Chapter 27: Tides of the Flesh

Block C — Medical/Legal Caution
Poetic map for somatic tracking; not a diagnostic tool. Does not replace individualized medical care. Sudden shifts in mood, energy, or cycle require a qualified clinician. Let these insights help you advocate for yourself, but never let a metaphor override a medical reality.

The body is not a static machine, but a dynamic ecosystem—a landscape of shifting weather, rising tides, and turning seasons.

Central to this dynamism is the endocrine system, the network of glands that orchestrates the symphony of our mood, energy, and desire. In the scientific world, we speak of hormones. On the Path of the Dragon, we speak of Tides across the Five Energetic Bodies.

Beneath these metaphors, stress hormones such as cortisol are coordinated by the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis—a conversation between brain and glands that mobilizes you when your system perceives threat.

When that axis is jolted repeatedly without enough recovery, the cortisol/adrenaline furnace can stay stoked.

To walk this path is to stop fighting the weather.

It is to learn the art of sailing. It is to recognize that consistency is a myth of the machine age, and that fluctuation is the heartbeat of the biological world.

As we explore these currents, remember the Dragon’s core teaching: Your body’s truth is the authority.

No app, no chart, and no book knows the terrain better than the one who lives inside it.

The Elemental Currents: Listening to the Body’s Weather

Rather than memorizing lab values, we attune to the signature each hormone carries in the lived experience.

These Tides are metaphors laid over real endocrine cascades—the biology stays primary; the image is the translation.

The Heat of Action (Cortisol & Adrenaline)
The sympathetic system surges adrenaline for rapid mobilization; cortisol sustains readiness when threat is perceived. This is the sudden blaze. It can wake you, sharpen your focus, and brace your jaw.

• When balanced: It is the fire of the Warrior. It fuels courage and decisive movement.
• When smoldering: It becomes the “wired and tired” hum of burnout. Sleep thins, digestion clenches, and compassion feels like a distant memory.

The Golden Loom (Oxytocin, Serotonin, Dopamine)
These neuromodulators regulate bonding, mood, and reward learning. This is the weave of connection and well-being.

• When strong: The world may feel held together. You may trust, create, and feel more synced with your community.
• When frayed: The colors of the world go dull. Meaning leaks out of the day.

It is not a moral failing; it is a chemistry that needs tending through touch, art, or rest.

The Inner Flame (Thyroid Hormones)
Thyroid hormones set metabolic tempo—heat, pace, and cellular energy. This is the pilot light of the system. It dictates the tempo of your existence.

• When dim: A fog settles. Limbs feel heavy; thought feels like wading through mud.
• When roaring: The mind races, the heart skips, and anxiety vibrates in the chest.

The Midnight Veil (Melatonin)
Melatonin rises with darkness to cue sleep and repair. This can be the descending hush that signals a return toward stillness.

• The practice: To honor the Veil is to darken the cave. Screens, hypervigilance, and grief can tear the veil; ritual and breath can mend it.

The Inner Seasons (Sex Hormones)
Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone (and their orchestration with the HPA axis) shape libido, mood, and energy across cycles. These tides sculpt receptivity, drive, sensuality, and armor.

They do not just control reproduction; they color the lens through which we see reality. They often influence whether we feel like the Hermit or the Lover, the Builder or the Dreamer.

Cycles of Influence: Embracing Radical Variance

The world tries to force us into a linear 24-hour productivity loop. The body, however, moves in spirals.

The Daylight Pulse (Circadian Rhythm)

Every 24 hours, the sun dictates a rhythm. The day’s action-heat crests, and the Midnight Veil descends.

• Alignment: Do not force the Dragon to fly at noon if its wings are heavy.

  Track when your senses truly wake. Notice when the “afternoon haze” arrives—not as a failure of will, but as a biological invitation to pause.

The Long Seasons (Infradian Rhythms)

Rhythms longer than a day—menstrual tides, creative arcs, grief waves—move like seasons.

Popular wellness culture frequently presents egregiously simplistic descriptions of phases, rigidly linking them to specific moods. These models are not only gross oversimplifications but are actively invalidating. Attempting to force your unique experience into such a rigid template is profoundly disempowering.

We embrace Radical Variance.

The images below are invitations, not prescriptions. If they don’t match your lived experience, discard or rename them.

• Internal Winter: For some, bleeding time or deep depletion feels like a dark moon of energy—a pull toward the Void.
• The Fog: On certain days, progesterone, fatigue, or grief can create emotional thickness—a call to tend the Form Body.
• The Heat: At other times, ovulation, surges of testosterone, or creative spikes can bring ideation and boldness—the Eros Body awake.
• The Clarity: There are also lucid, sharp-edged days where the Sage sits on the throne, regardless of any calendar.

Your Rhythm is the Only Valid Rhythm.

Your cycle may be shaped by trauma, by medication, by gender-affirming care, by menopause, or by chronic illness.

• If you do not bleed, you may still notice longer-than-daily tides—month-length rhythms or longer “seasons” that shape energy and sensitivity.
• If your cycle is irregular, it is still your weather.
• If you are medicated, your landscape is co-authored by those medications. That does not make it less sacred; it makes it unique.

The Tyranny of the Template

In the age of data, we are tempted to outsource our body-literacy to algorithms. We let an app tell us how we feel.

The Dragon rejects this.

Cycle apps and archetypal charts are tools, not oracles. If the app says “High Energy” but your body says “Rest,” the app is wrong.

Forcing your experience into a “Follicular Phase” template when you are actually in a trauma-response freeze is a form of self-betrayal.

It breeds shame. It disconnects you from the Insula—the Inner Sensor sometimes mythically named the Oracle’s Chamber.

The Practice of Sovereign Tracking:

1. Disable Predictions: Turn off the notifications that tell you what to expect.

2. Raw Data: Keep a simple journal.

   Note the sensation (Heavy, Light, Sharp, Dull). Note the capacity (Can I hold space for others today? Yes/No).

3. Pattern Recognition: Over months, look for your own motifs. Maybe your “Winter” comes when the moon is full.

   Maybe your “Summer” is only three days long. This is your personal map.

Interactions: When the Map Changes

Your tides are not isolated. They interact with the Entangled Firmament of your life.

• Trauma: Unresolved trauma can keep cortisol high, often suppressing the subtler tides of the Inner Seasons.

  As you work with the trauma-physiology and somatic memory practices earlier in this part, your cycle may shift.

  Some shifts may also accompany reduced chronic stress and increased regulation—but never treat metaphor as diagnosis.

• Neurotype: For ADHD or autism, hormonal shifts can significantly affect sensory sensitivity and executive function.

  The “Fog” may feel denser; the “Heat” may feel more chaotic.

  Compassion is the steadier way through.

• Spiritual Practice: Intense breathwork or fasting can shift the tides. If you pull too hard on the Eros Body, the Form Body may respond with conservation—changes in sleep, appetite, or cycle.

  Listen to this feedback.

Conclusion: Navigating Your Inner Weather

Hormones are not an inconvenience to be managed. They are the music of your incarnation.

By listening to these rhythms—through embodied tracking and compassionate awareness—we shift from being tossed by unseen waves to surfing them.

• If the tide is out, do not try to sail. Rest on the shore.
• If the wind is high, raise the sails. Ride the Dragon.

There is no “normal.” There is only what is.

Decisively reject maps that do not reflect your territory.

Your body’s unique rhythm is your guide; your self-trust is your power.