|
Dragons
Aug 6, 2007 19:55:53 GMT -5
Post by Mysti on Aug 6, 2007 19:55:53 GMT -5
So how does one go about finding dragons? And how do you use their power? Should you do co-magick with dragons, or should you avoid the partnership?
A good magician is neither white nor black. A good effective magician is gray, one who understands completely the consequences of actions and is willing to do what is necessary, particularly in the area of protection. An effective magician knows her/himself like no one else does; she/he has to be brutally honest about real intents and purposes for using any type of magick in the first place, but especially so when practicing dragon magick.
In dragon magick, the magician cannot afford any lingering doubts as to her/his right to ask help from these powerful entities. Like many other beings, physical and nonphysical, dragons will take advantage of anyone who vacillates in her/his commitment or who is unclear about their intent of a ritual.
Does this mean that unless you are perfect in all levels of your being that you cannot attract, contact, and learn from dragons? Of course not. But if you desire a continued companionship with them, you must strive to better yourself, balance the ebbs and tides of energies within you, and make this effort an on-going project. Every magician and spiritual seeker should be aware that there is no such thing as complete perfection within the human body and mind 100 % of the time. If you could become that perfect, you would no longer inhabit a physical body. The laws of the universe do not allow anything to remain static, non-moving, or non-growing. Perfection is static in whatever form it currently has; therefore, in order to confirm to the laws of the universe, that perfect form must evolve into something else, some form of being that can continue to evolve to the next higher stage of life. Change is on of the few constants of universal law.
So how does one go about finding dragons? You begin by learning as much about dragons and their magickal habits as possible. Then you look at your reasons for wishing to practice dragon magick with an objective and critical eye. When you feel comfortable with these steps, and only then, you begin building an atmosphere that will attract dragons. You perform certain actions that arouse heir curiosity and will draw them to your vicinity. You beam a mental welcome, setting aside time and place to communicate with them on the astral level through mental visualization and speech. And you have to believe they exist, even if you cannot see them with your physical eyes or prove their existence to someone else.
You have to cast aside social taboos on “seeing” things and know with your heart that dragons do exist, if you wish to attract dragons. Mentally invite the dragons to make their presence known by thought or deed. Be sensitive and extra aware of what is occurring around you. Most dragons tend to be subtle in their first contacts with humans. They may choose to make an appearance in dreams or as flashes of movement seen in the peripheral vision. They may even forego these types of appearance to simply touch your psychic “feelings.”
Guardian dragons, the easiest to contact, often appear as little voices or faces and forms in the mind. Dragons may show up unannounced at any time, but especially during meditation or magickal rituals, either singly or several at a time. They love the power flow of ritual and will make an appearance just to bathe in the energy. They may well have been there all the time; you just did not notice them. Since dragons are masters at concealment this isn’t surprising.
You have to be willing to practice a great deal of patience, self-discipline, learning to work within a specific set of magickal laws in order to consistently attract and elicit the help of dragons. As with all magickal procedures, nothing is cast in concrete, but there are certain aspects of these procedures which cannot be eliminated or changed to any great extent without disturbing the flow of magickal power.
Not all dragons are of positive magick. Negative power is just as important to the existence of life as is positive power. Negative energies have nothing to do with evil, unless you have evil thoughts and intentions within yourself. It is easy for people to understand what positive energy is and does. But negative energy has received a lot of bad press. Both positive and negative aspects of many things besides energy aer needed to create, indeed for the universe to stay in existence.
|
|
|
Dragons
Aug 6, 2007 19:56:26 GMT -5
Post by Mysti on Aug 6, 2007 19:56:26 GMT -5
Oriental dragons did not figure in Chinese creation myths.
Only rarely, and then only by accident, did they come in conflict with the gods or heroes.
They tended to mind their own business and keep a beneficial attitude toward humans.
Oriental dragons had specific duties such as controlling the weather and keeping the land and animals fertile, as well as assignments to help humans learn certain civilized arts.
Although dragon parts were widely esteemed in Oriental medicine, these magickal creatures were not hunted down as were Western dragons.
In the <st1:place>Mideast</st1:place>, there seems to have been a meeting ground for dragons, some being like Chinese dragons, others more like Western dragons.
Phrygian history tells of dragons that reached then paces in length, lived in caverns near the River Rhyndacus, and moved with part of their bodies on the gound, the rest erect.
Islam gives hits of Muhammad’s magick horse rising to heaven with the aid of dragon’s breath.
An illustration from a Turkish manuscript now in the Bibliotheque Nationale in <st1:City><st1:place>Paris</st1:place></st1:City> shows this scene.
The Egyptian Apep was descrived as a huge serpent-dragon that lived in the Underworld.
The Canaanite god Ba’al is said to have killed the dragon Lotan and made the world from its body’ the Hitties had a similar legend about the dragon Illuyankas.
The Mesopotamian god Marduk killed the she-dragon Tiamat and created the world from her body.
Ancient heroes of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Persia</st1:place></st1:country-region> battled with dragons.
In the Classics, the Greeks told of their hero Herakles slaying the seven-headed hydra, a form of dragon.
While still in his cradle, he slew two giant serpents sent by Hera.
Later the hero saved Hesione who was chained as a sacrifice to a sea dragon.
Perseus did the same for Andromeda.
As a baby, Apollo also killed a serpent (dragon) sent against his mother by Hera.
Jason killed a hydra (many-headed dragon) to get the Golden Fleece; scenes of this story can still be seen on Greek dishes from about 480-490 BCE, showing a definite dragon creature.
Both the Greek Meda and the Roman Ceres were said to ride in chariots pulled by dragons.
Ancient <st1:country-region><st1:place>Greece</st1:place></st1:country-region> and <st1:City><st1:place>Rome</st1:place></st1:City> considered the dragon both beneficent and evil, depending upon the activities of the creature.
The Purple Dragon became the emblem of the Byzantine emperors.
There is a wall painting of a dragon still existing in the ruined Roman city of <st1:City><st1:place>Pompeii</st1:place></st1:City>.
In legends from <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region> there was ordinarily no conflict between the gods and the Nagas, or serpent-dragons, as shown by the stories of <st1:place>Krishna</st1:place> and Vishnu.
Both of these gods had a fine working relationship with Ananta, king of the serpent-dragons, and the Nagas.
The greatly revered Indian god Vishnu was on good terms with Ananta, the Endless One, a giant serpent with eleven heads.
Vishnu slept on Ananta while the serpent guarded him.
Ananta is considered by the Hindus to be the symbol of cosmic energy which is vital for creation.
The one exception to this friendship between the Nagas and the gods was the slaying of Vritra, a great serpent who coiled around the navel of the Earth, holding back the waters.
Indra killed him to create the world-mountains.
The Nagas were known for their great magickal powers and the pearls of great price that they carried in their foreheads.
The Nagas, also patrons of lakes, river, rain, and clouds, lived in wonderful palaces, often visited by the gods.
But as with all dragons in whatever form, the Nagas were capable of killing people and causing problems when annoyed.
There are stories of their creating drought, pestilence, and great suffering when humans broke their rules.
Sometimes the Nagas were pictured with serpent heads and human bodies.
They were said to live at the top of <st1:place><st1:PlaceType>Mount</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName>Meru</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>, where they had a golden palace full of music, gems that fulfilled wishes, wonderful flowers, and beautiful companions.
In the center of this garden, which once belonged to Varuna, stood a dragon-guarded tree of life and reincarnation.
In <st1:place>Africa</st1:place>, the country of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Ethiopia</st1:place></st1:country-region> was said to be heavily populated with dragons at one time.
The Roman poet Lucan and other Classical authors wrote that African dragons could fly, that their brilliantly colored scales shone brightly, and that some of them were so huge that they could be mistake for hills when they lay asleep.
Generally speaking, Western dragons were different in physical structure from Eastern dragons.
Most of them had two strong hind legs, two shorter forelegs, a thick body and a long tail.
Their wings were membranes, like those of bats, and had long ribs or bones.
Their wedge-shaped heads were carried on long sinuous necks.
Western dragons were fully armed with long claws and sharp teeth, besides their fiery breath.
They talked with humans by means of telepathy and were extremely cunning and wily.
The ancient Celts had traditions of dragons, considering them wily but wise.
Unfortunately, so much of Celtic lore was lost to deliberate destruction that we have only remnants of tales and fragments of dragon lore left today from that culture.
The Celtic ram-snake, or dragon, is connected with Cernunnos, the antlered Earth god.
This Celtic ram-dragon is also connected with the number eight, this being the number of spokes on the solar wheel; the solar wheel is set in motion by the ram-headed dragon.
What few carvings we have of the god Cernunnos picture him with a bag of gold at his feet and a double-headed ram-snake belt about his waist.
This belt with its two ram-dragon heads symbolizes the spiritual bridge between various planes of existence.
The Celtic shaman-magician-priest knew that in order to travel this bridge, she/he must go inward to meet the dragon guarding that bridge.
A lack of self-discipline and self-knowledge would prevent any seeker from being able to pass the dragon and enter the realms of the Otherworlds.
Conchobar of Ireland was said to have had both divine and a human father.
He was born at the Winter Solstice with what the story calls a water-warm in each hand.
From the description these water-worms were probably baby dragons.
The Irish hero Finn MacCumhaill also killed dragons.
Some magickal systems would look at Finn’s activities as not physical, but as battling his own destructive inner thoughts.
The dragon has been depicted on the Welsh banner since at least the departure of the Roman legions.
And in <st1:country-region><st1:place>England</st1:place></st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region><st1:place>Scotland</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and <st1:country-region><st1:place>Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region> the dragon has been drawn with four legs and the wyvern with two since the 16th century.
On the European continent, however, the two-legged wyvern is still called a dragon, the same name given to the four-legged variety.
Even today, the dragon, along or with other designs, is part of the heraldic heritage of some two hundred English families and some three hundred from <st1:place>Europe</st1:place>.
In Scandinavian legend, the hero Sigurd (called Siegfried in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region>) killed the dragon Fafnir.
This story clearly details the benefits from a dragon’s blood.
Sigurd accidentally swallowed a drop of it and immediately could understand the language of birds.
This saved his life from the dragon’s treacherous brother who was plotting to kill him for the treasure.
Sigurd also was bathed with the blood when he struck Fafnir from a pit.
This made him invulnerable to weapons, except where a leaf covered a tiny spot.
The god Thorr once caught the World-Serpent while fishing.
Considering the power and negativity of the great serpent-dragon, Thorr was fortunate that his companion cut the line.
The god did not feel that way about it though, and clouted his friend alongside the head for letting his big “fish” get away.
If one reads the very best of translations of the story of Beowulf, it is quickly seen that he fought three dragons.
Although the first he killed was described as a young two-legged male monster who was raiding for food among the houses at night, it could have been a wyvern (who has two legs) or a four-legged dragon who walked upon its hind legs or a dragon in human disguise.
The second creature was a mature female, finally killed in her spawning gound, who definitely took on a human form.
The third dragon came later in his life, ad was specifically listed as a dragon.
This one was a mature flying male with a poisonous bite.
Well into middle age at the time, Beowulf used himself as bait to draw the last dragon out of its lair so it could be killed.
Probably the greatest of Northern dragons was Nidhogg (Dread Biter) who lived in Niflheim and was constantly gnawing at the World Tree.
Nidhogg would be classified as a chaos dragon, one who destroys in order to re-create.
This idea of destruction-resurrection extended to the Norse belief that Nidhogg stripped all corpses of their flesh.
In the Morthern regions, dragons were said to live in cold seas or misty lakes, storms, and fogs.
When these were not available, dragons lurked in deep underground caverns, coming out when hungry or when there was a thunderstorm.
Even after conversion to Christianity, the Scandinavians, especially the Norwegians, placed carved dragon heads on the gables of their churches to guard against the elements, as for years they had guarded their ships with dragon-headed prows.
|
|
|
Dragons
Aug 6, 2007 19:56:56 GMT -5
Post by Mysti on Aug 6, 2007 19:56:56 GMT -5
Dragons in mythology and legend
The world’s mythologies are full of tales about dragons.
Sometimes they are portrayed as huge serpents, sometimes as the type of dragon known to the Western world, sometimes in the shape known to those in the Orient.
But dragons have always played a part in the shaping of this world and its many diverse cultures.
They have also had an important part in cultural perception of spiritual ideas.
Dragons have been portrayed in many forms and variations of these forms.
Ancient teachings say dragons can have two or four legs or none at all, a pair of wings or be wingless, breathe fire and smoke, and have scales on their bodies.
Their blood is extremely poisonous and corrosive, but also very magickal.
Blood, or the life force, is a symbol of the intensity of their elemental-type energies.
Depending upon the reception they received from humans in the area where they lived, dragons could be either beneficial or violent.
One thing is for certain: dragons were regarded with awe by all cultures affected by their presence and interaction with humans.
Although one can speak of dragons as a separate species of being, there are numerous subspecies and families within the dragon community, as one can deduce from reading ancient histories and stories.
The subspecies and families may have greater or lesser differences in appearance but still retain the basic traits that are common to all dragons wherever they are.
One family of dragons, with very similar characteristics, lived in <st1:place>Europe</st1:place>, especially northern <st1:country-region><st1:place>Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region>, <st1:place>Scandinavia</st1:place>, and island of the <st1:place>North Atlantic</st1:place>.
A second family was recognized in <st1:country-region><st1:place>France</st1:place></st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region><st1:place>Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and <st1:country-region><st1:place>Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
A third family dwelt in the <st1:place>British Isles</st1:place>, including <st1:country-region><st1:place>Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region>; these dragons, commonly called Firedrakes, included the subspecies of Wyverns (dragons with two legs) and the winged but legless Worm.
A fourth family was found in the Mediterranean area, especially <st1:country-region><st1:place>Greece</st1:place></st1:country-region>, <st1:place>Asia Minor</st1:place>, southern <st1:country-region><st1:place>Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and northern <st1:place>Africa</st1:place>; the dragon with many heads was common in this region.
A fifth dragon family, and the largest in number, was the Oriental dragon of <st1:country-region><st1:place>China</st1:place></st1:country-region>, <st1:place>Asia</st1:place>, and <st1:country-region><st1:place>Indonesia</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
The sixth family, of very limited size and number, was found in the <st1:country-region><st1:place>Americas</st1:place></st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
In the Eastern world, dragons seldom breathe fire and are more benevolent, although hot-tempered and destructive when provoked.
They are sometimes pictured as wingless, but can propel themselves through the air if they wish.
The dragons of the Orient, <st1:country-region><st1:place>Mexico</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the <st1:country-region><st1:place>Americas</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> propelled themselves through the skies by balancing between the Earth’s magnetic field and the winds.
In <st1:country-region><st1:place>China</st1:place></st1:country-region>, for instance, dragons are portrayed with four legs, a long sinuous serpentine body and a snake-like tail; they ranged in size from a few feet long up to the Great Chien-Tang who was over a thousand feet in length.
They could speak, were able to alter their forms and sizes, and had a varying number of claws.
Chinese emperors adopted the five-clawed dragon as a sacred ancestor, symbol of their power.
Only Imperial dragons were said to have the special five claws on each foot.
All other Oriental dragons had only three or four claws.
It became a law that only the Emperor could have a five-clawed dragon embroidered on his robes or painted on anything.
According to tradition, <st1:country-region><st1:place>China</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s history dates back to 3000 BCE, although modern historians only go back to 1600 BCE.
A clay vessel from about 2000 BCE is decorated with a dragon picture.
The dragon symbol and figure still exist in modern-day Chinese art and celebrations.
The Chinese divided their dragons into groups or classes, each with different characteristics.
There were four major Lung Wang dragons, or Dragon-Kings.
The names of these brothers were Ao Kuang, Ao Jun, Ao Shun, and Ao Ch’in.
They also had specific duties: the t’ien lung supported the mansion of the gods the shen lung brought rain, the ti lung controlled the rivers; and the fu-ts’an lung guarded hidden treasures and deposits of precious metals.
The Lung Wang, or Dragon Kings, resembled the Indian Nagas, or sacred serpents.
They were the patron deities of rivers, lakes, seas, and rain.
They had valuable pearls in their throats and lived in magnificent underwater palaces.
Further divisions produced the kiao-lung, or scaled dragons; ying-lung with wings; k’iu-lung with horns; ch’i-lung which was hornless; the p’an-lung which was earth-bound.
The ch’i0lung dragon was red white and green, the k’iu-lung blue.
Chinese dragons were also entirely black, white, red, or yellow, with yellow considered superior.
When it came to using dragons for decoration, there were nine distinct categories: the p;u lao was carved on gongs;
the ch’iu niu and pi his on fiddles and literature tablets; the pa hsia at the base of stone monuments; the chao feng on the eaves of temples;
the ch’ih on beams of bridges; the suan ni only on the throne of the Buddha; the yai tzu on the hilts of swords; and the pi han on prison gates.
Chinese experts were said to be able to tell the age of Oriental dragons and their origins by their colors.
Yellow dragons were believed to be born from yellow gold a thousand years old; blue dragons from blue gold eight hundred years old; red, white and black from gold of the same color a thousand years old.
To the Chinese, dragons could be either male or female.
They laid eggs, some of which did not hatch for a thousand years.
When a hatching did occur, it was known because of great meteor showers, violent thunderstorms, and great showers of hail.
The number of scales on a dragon was also of importance.
Some ancient dragon experts in <st1:country-region><st1:place>China</st1:place></st1:country-region> maintained that a true dragon has exactly 81 scales, while others stated that the number was 117.
They were never said to be covered with anything except scales.
This is a characteristic of dragons worldwide.
Chinese dragons were said to have the head of a camel, horns of a stag, eyes of a demon, neck of a snake, scales of a carp, claws of an eagle, feet of a tiger, and ears of a cow.
Although, as one can see from ancient pictures, all Oriental dragons did not fit conveniently into this description, they all were said to have a lump on the top of the head.
This lump enabled them to fly without wings.
Although this flying-lump was considered an essential part of Oriental dragons, it is rare to see it portrayed in pictures.
Oriental dragons could change their forms by intense concentration or when extremely angry.
All dragons are said to have the ability to take on human form.
All dragons are said to have the ability to take on human form.
One can see reasons behind a draconic being passing as a human; dragons are intensely curious about all things and may wish to directly experience human life from time to time.
It is a possibility that, while in such a form, a dragon could contact a human and establish a line of communication that could be continued after the dragon resumed its own form.
The Chinese even had methods of protecting themselves from annoying dragons.
It was said that they could be frightened away or controlled by the leaves of the wang plant (or Pride of India), five-colored silk thread, wax, iron, or centipedes.
It is difficult to imagine a dragon being deterred by wax or centipedes.
Perhaps this idea grew from a single dragon who reacted in fear to these objects, just as some humans fear crawling things, heights, or mice.
After all, dragons have very distinct and individual personalities, just as we do.
In Chinese medicine, the skin, bones, teeth, and saliva were considered very valuable.
Powered dragon bone was a magickal cure-all.
Old medical textbooks are quick to point out that dragons periodically shed their skin and bones, like snakes do.
Since the skins glowed in the dark, presumably they were easy to locate.
Some of the bones were listed as slightly poisonous and could only be prepared in non-iron utensils.
How “bones” could be shed is a mystery unless it is not really bone, but something that looks like it.
The shedding and regrowth of teeth is known to occur among certain animals, reptiles, and amphibians.
Dragon saliva was said to be found as frothy foam on the ground or floating on the water.
It was usually deposited during mating or fighting.
One Chinese story tells of a great battle just off the coast near a fishing village.
The people watched the great dragons rolling in the black clouds and leaping waves for a day and a night.
Their echoing roars were clearly heard by all the villagers.
The next morning these people set out in all their fishing boats to the place of the battle.
They scooped up whole boatloads of dragon saliva that they found floating in huge piles on the ocean.
The blood of Oriental dragons was sometimes red, other times black.
Dragon experts said it changed into amber when it soaked into the ground.
Wherever dragon blood fell, the ground became incapable of supporting any vegetation.
Although the blood was considered dangerous, sometimes deadly, in Oriental myths, European heroes bathed in it to create invulnerability or drank it to become wise.
This transformation of the blood into amber could well be an alchemical expression of the manifestation of magickal power and elemental energies into a desired physical result.
|
|