Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Dragon Symbology - Dragon Lore

"The dragon and the snake have a rich symbolic history in the mythology of mankind. In general, animals were seen to have certain attributes that were often observed in their natural behaviors. It was these attributes that people wanted to take on for themselves and it was thought that aligning ones self, or by extension, ones nation, or tribe with the animal it would assist in this process. This practice still exist to some extent in military banners and national emblems, note the Eagle in the Marine Corps banner as well as that of the national emblem, or the the double headed eagle of Greece or the eagle in the egyptian flag, or the dragon in the flag of Wales.



•The Dragon is often the protector of treasure with the TREASURE representing YOU. It can represent fears that have to be overcome before recognizing the true self. Often it can be the guardian of the spirit. For some it is their 'Spirit Guide.' But what is it that the Dragon protects? Get some insight by jumping to this page

•It is a primal force of nature (see Aborigine reference below).

•It may also represent an emotional pattern in that it may symbolize you being controlled by your passions or it could be linked to a fiery, hot temper, or being angry. It may also say something about your sexual drive.

•In order to defeat the beast within one needs to show the selfless courage of a hero/heroine such as St. George the dragon slayer, or St Joan d'Arc whose guide and protector in her dreams was the dragon slayer St. Michael.

•The St George and the Dragon motif shows up in many cultures. There is an earlier pre-christian Hitite myth about the battle between the Storm God, Tarhun and the Dragon, Illuyankus. There are Babylonian, Indo-European (Vedic), Norse, and Greek myths representing similar themes. All suggest the conquest of good over evil. Some suggest that this epic struggle is actually an attempt by the psyche to integrate the opposites and that the conquest is when one has successfully done so.



                                                                 

In paintings such as the one done by Jacopo Tintoretto (1560) there is also a Christ-like figure recently slain by the dragon suggesting a power play for the soul.



 Click to enlarge

The symbol of conquering evil can be read in the 5th century epic poem, "Beowolf." Where the hero of that name defeats a ferocious dragon by the name of Grendel. Note that this tale is post Christian, therefor the dragon symbol takes on the "evil" characteristic.





But as you will see throughout this monograph dragons are not always seen as evil. Frequently dragons have combined characteristics such as with the four elements, earth, air, fire , and water. It often symbolizes the opposites; light and dark, masculine and feminine. In the Christian tradition anything that is opposite what it determines to be good is automatically evil. As you will see both on this website and in the book The Dragon's Treasure this narrow definition makes it difficult for one to reconcile their inner opposites and then to integrate them into being a fully actualized human being( see the Individuation Process on this site). It is the unity beneath these opposites that is the realm of the dragon.

Just as man and beast figures like the Harpy (part female and part vulture) and the Minotaur (a bull's head and a man's body) represents mankind's animal nature, stories of the mastery of this nature are rife within mythology. For example there is the story of St. Gerome who removes a thorn from the paw of a lion and the lion renounces his ferocity and lies down at the foot of the saint or the earlier story of Androcles in the Aesops fable. These stories symbolize mastery, or the taming of one's animal nature not the conquering, or destruction of it. This mastery is in a way the essence of individuation.

Ancient cartographers would sometimes depict a drago, with the phrase "Here there be dragons" (hic sunt dracones) where there was no knowledge of what existed. This would be a warning to sailors that this is dangerous unexplored territories, or to be map shorthand for "Here Be Other Stuff We Don't Quite Know About." At this time the Lenox Globe seems to be the only only map where this is found.



                                                           

The phrase "Here Be Dragons" (or hic sunt dracones) appears on maps such as the Lenox Globe (from early 1500s) and is now considered to be a warning of unknown dangers, rather than a claim to have seen a fire-breathing monster.



 

•Fighting a dragon (or any monster) may be about your inner search or quest or wanting to tame the beast within. From a Jungian perspective this may be about the ego's struggle to lift oneself from unconsciousness and to  establish some control over it. He saw it as part of the Individuation process, the integration of ego and soul. The dragon can also represent The Great Mother archetype—the overbearing aspect (Freud suggested that it is the devouring aspect of the mother); fighting it would be an attempt to break away and to become independent from parental authority (e.g. political, economical, philosophical, societal, theological, or personal) controls.



In several paintings of archetypal heroes battling dragons there is a damsel who is to be saved. Often she represents the anima, the feminine energy in a man that needs to be protected in order to balance the overarching masculinity of the hero—too much of the masculine is not a good thing, just as is too much of the feminine. (See the anima/animus in the Archetype section under the Dream Dictionary.


Often the hero needs to confront his shadow, the darkness of the inside of the monster (as in Jonah and the whale) in order to be at one with it and assimilate its balancing power in order to have the necessary energy to defeat the monster. Sometimes the hero in a dream needs to die to what he has been in order to be reborn into what he can be. Some battles with the dragon can represent this through defeat and the death of the hero.




                                 




The wizard can be the Wise Old Man Archetype who represents rational wisdom while the dragon could represent our basal selves—the lower-brain self—the primitive versus the enlightened. It represents the eternal battle between man's animal and intellectual self—between his body and soul.

•Being attacked by a Dragon (or snake) may mean you are being assaulted by your own basal impulses, or the fear of tapping into your unconscious e.g. the unknown, or what you fear is there.





(see the following DreamDragon Blog entry for 11-26-2010. Note that there is a link in the story to another article, click on that as well for further insight into Dragon/snake meaning)



•The fearsomeness of the Dragon could represent the fear felt regarding the unconscious.


•Dragon totems in some Native American traditions represent messengers of balance. They are also seen as the masters of all the elements: earth, wind, fire, and water. They are seen as powerful guardians and guides and embody the primordial power.


"A Dragon totem is one of the most powerful totems, representing a huge range of qualities, emotions, and traits. When Dragons come to us, it could mean many things.

The most common message a Dragon totem [may] carry to us is a need for strength, courage, and fortitude. Dragons are also messengers of balance, and magic - encouraging us to tap into our psychic nature and see the world through the eyes of mystery and wonder.

More specifically, Dragons are the embodiment of primordial power - the ultimate ruler of all the elements. This is because the Dragon is the master of all the elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind.

As a totem, the Dragon serves as a powerful guardian and guide. Encourage communication with your Dragon, and acknowledge your Dragon's presence as often as possible."

                   Excerpted from:http://www.whats-your-sign.com/dragon-totem.html



With the Native Americans of the North and Southwest there were a number of Dragon and serpent legends. Most of these Dragons and serpents stole children and were associated with water. Some stories may have been used to scare children away from water and thus the serpent became a type of bogey.

Examples: Amhuluk (Oregon); Ancient Serpent (Piute); Angont (Huron); Kolowisi (Zuni); Msi-Kinepeikwa (Shawnee); Palulukon (Hopi weather Dragon-similar to Chinese version); Stvkwvnaya (Seminole Dragon with a magic horn on its head).



•The Australian Aborigine speaks of the Dreaming where two Serpents Yingara and Ngalyod (mother and father deities) are revered as the Rainbow Serpent creators of the world.

•From the Wiccan perspective it represents a person of power and if in the dream you are riding on it, then it may be about spiritual insight.

•A winged Dragon may also mean some kind of transcendence, a passing from a "lower" to "higher" level of maturity.



•A Hydra is a many headed dragon. Legend has it that Hercules kept cutting off the heads, but they grew back. To dream of a hydra might suggest that you are having a recurring issue in your life i.e. something that keeps coming back and never seems to get handled. Some sources (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snap-dragon_%28game%29) suggest that after Hercules killed the dragon he made of it a flaming meat and named it "Snapdragon." A game of this name was played by children in some english speaking countries from the 16th through the late 19th centuries on both Christmas eve and All Hallows eve. In a bowl of blue flaming brandy were placed raisins that the children would try to pluck out without getting burned and then eat, all the while chanting,

 "With his blue and lapping tongue,

                           many of you will be stung

                           Snip, snap, dragon."

The symbolism of conquering danger in both the legend of Hercules and the dragon and in the playing of the game, "Snapdragon" is inescapeable. We humans are always telling the story of conquering evil, of being the heroes of our own stories. Thus continues the ongoing reconciliation between the opposites good and evil.



•As with some other animal symbols the Dragon and/or snake may also represent your sexuality, especially if your sexuality scares you. Does it threaten to rule your life?




•Chinese mythology saw the dragon as a symbol of wisdom.

Interestingly enough the root word for Dragon in ancient Greek was Drakon that means "to see clearly" or "that which sees." This might be interpreted as wisdom.

Confucious compared Lao Tzu (the writer of the Tao Te Ching) to a Dragon.

A good luck and wisdom symbol. Many pictures show the dragon handing the "Pearl of Wisdom", or the "Pearl of Potentiality"to a shaman. Good, life-giving energy (chi) is channeled along "Dragon-lines" that in China were said to follow underground water or magnetic fields.To dream of a dragon is considered by some Chinese to be very auspicious.

The Lung dragon was the most powerful of the three species of Chinese Dragon and was considered a divine animal. The Cha-yü dragon only showed up when a ruling sovereign showed a lack of virtue. This dragon was known for eating men (symbolic of an leader who consumed the virtue and life force of others).

In Chinese mythology the Dragon of Hidden Treasures is a symbol of vigilance and the guardian of their fortune.

The Chinese New Years Dragon represents benevolence , but also power, representing the forces of nature. It is a rain bringer and dragon of fertility that brings only benefit to the people.





The Chinese frequently paired the dragon with the image of a phoenix bird (Fenghuang, or the August Rooster). Since Neolithic China these two were considered two of the four Supernatural Spirits symbolizing both the four directions and the four seasons (which seem to have been added to over the millennia e.g. The dragon, phoenix (or the Feng bird for short), unicorn (or deer), tortoise and tiger). They were often thought of as the "Gentleman and the Sage" and given that the Emperors of China often thought of themselves as descended from the Dragon, the Phoenix was often seen as his mate. Thus this pairing has been likened to the union of the Yin and Yang. An old saying in China goes, "When the Dragon soars and the Phoenix dances, the people will enjoy happiness for years..."
     


For the ancient Chinese culture dragons were primarily symbolic, but the idea of the actual existence of Dragons surfaced Millennia ago as the philosopher Chang Qu found gigantic bones of a dinosaur and mistook them for that of a dragon.

In Chinese myth, dragons originated as rain deities. Folk legends say that the dragon lives under water half of the year, rising into the sky during the spring when the constellation of  Draco, the dragon, is at its highest. In China, dragons are symbols of authority, fertility, goodness and strength, and the benevolent giver of wealth and good fortune.

They were generally portrayed as protectors, guarding treasure, temples, or even Heaven itself, keeping watch over sky and  waterways. This image of beneficent power was appreciated by China's rulers, who used the dragon as an imperial symbol. The emperor occupied the Dragon Throne, wore dragon robes and even slept in the dragon bed. Chinese people sometimes referred to themselves as children of the dragon.

  The Dragon Throne, The Forbidden City, Bejing.

In Chinese culture, the season of the Dragon is mid-spring, its direction is east by southeast, and its fixed element is wood.

The myth of the Dragon and the Fairy is the creation myth of Vietnam where the son of a dragon and the daughter of a fairy were married and she produced a hundred eggs that became the first 100 Vietnamese. In this story the Dragon represents the Yang, or male, energy, while the fairy represents the Yin, or feminine energy and it is that union that brings life. Thus the Vietnamese are "Con Rồng, cháu Tiên" (the children of the dragon, the grandchildren of god).

The Vietnamese creation story "The Dragon and the Fairy

A typical Vietnamese dipiction of the dragon is shaped like the country of Vietnam with the head in the north and the tail in the south.

In Vietnam, Korea, and China the dragon is related to water, rain and agriculture.

In Bhutan the dragon is the Druk. The country is the land of the Druk.



Flag of Bhutan (the Druk flag)

The flag of Bhutan (The Druk flag)



•Draco (the dragon) is the Latin name for a constellation in the Northern hemisphere. Some legends have it that because this constellation never sets (it's circumpolar like the Big Dipper) it is therefore ever vigilant and was considered  a fiercely protective Goddess. There are many legends concerning Draco, but the one I like is the Greek legend where the dragon guarded the Golden Fleece, but alas, Jason slew him in order to possess the fleece and fulfill his quest. Draco also figured prominently in the 12 labors of Hercules where he slew the dragon with a poison arrow dipped in the blood of a hydra (see above) so that he could have access to one of the Golden Apples. Gold has always been a symbol for something very precious (see Colors on the Dream Dictionary page).





                                                                                                                 
                                       
                                              The constellation Draco as depicted in Urania's Mirror (1825)
                                                                     
In Homer's Odyssey Jason searched for the Golden Fleece that was protected by the dragon that never sleeps (Drakon Kholkikos– a water serpent of huge size) . The fleece itself may have represented something of great value such as the King himself. The dragon was the beast that protected the source of power. In one version of this story the dragon swallows Jason, but later disgorges him (symbolizing the vomiting of inappropriate ideas and getting rid of them and thus releasing the Royal power of the gold back to the king). The idea of the fleece may have originated from the ancient Greek practice of using a lambs skin draped across a sluice box which would filter the gold in a river into the fleece and leaving behind a sheepskin full of gold.

     

The dragon symbol shows up as one of the three beasts of the unholy trinity (the beast of the sea, the dragon, and the false prophet) of the Book of Revelations in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Some modern day theorists see the dragon as a symbol for the military which protects the interest of the beast with no soul, or human values (it that rose up from the sea) i.e. the International Corporation (it's treated as a person legally, but isn't one in reality).
The third beast of this trinity is the false prophet that some liken to the priests of old who acted as though they were the messengers of God, but did only their earthly masters bidding. Some have even gone so far as to liken the Republican party of the U.S. to this 3rd member of the trinity.
Alexander the Great spoke of a 100 foot long dragon in his memoirs. His soldiers had seen the beast while campaigning in India sometime around 326 BCE.


There were also Dragoons who were both horsemen and infantry and named after the wide-mouthed musket they used that spat fire from its muzzle. The musket was named a Dragon gun. These were also carried by "Musketeers" during the 17th and 18th century.
Musketeers with Dragon gun on single pole stand
In Persia (modern day Iran) the word for Dragon is Aždarha– for this reason fossils of a pterosaur, an ancient flying animal with a wingspan stretching 30-40 feet and living near major lakes and rivers has been called AZHDARCHIDAN. It was believed that the baby of a dragon would be the same color as the mothers eyes. Most Persian dragons were malevolent in nature.

Dragons are to this day still being seen, for example on Feb 9, 2012 the following picture was taken in the skies over Fuzhao, China where observers swore they saw dragons flying overhead for several minutes.







Herbal concoctions



Dragon's blood is a resin taken from a number of plants. It is also a poisonous resin from mercury sulfide, Cinnabar, that has been carved into boxes in both Japan and China.








Many herbal concoctions having the name of the Dragon have been used for medicinal purposes, such as Dragon's Blood (a vitamin supplement) and dried Dragon Root (Green Dragon) that has been used for asthma and as a paste for sores and ringworm.


See July 22, 2011 Dream Dragon blog for further exploration of the symbolic Dragon.



       Two examples of a dragon dream image and interpretations:


#1 The Dream:

Name:
Email:
Comments: I was laying in bed trying to meditate and relax and when I woke I remebered seeing a shadowy shape slithering like a snake would, then later a I was sitting atop a red dragon asking myself "why is there a dragon here" ...... I felt compelled to get out of bed and write it down after I did so I felt a strange energy in my body and looked in the mirror and I swear I saw my skin moving like a wave of pulsating energy. when I woke up the next day I had no idea how to comprehend my experience. I hope you will be able to help me understand the meaning to it. Thank you

Interpretation:

The dragon within is a type of Yang, or masculine, energy. Often the dragon represents ones animal nature, the unconscious part. It can also symbolize aggression and other irrational forces of the unconscious. In this case it may be the dragon energy of passion and may lead you into trouble.

The dream might suggest that you need to moderate, or exercise some control over, your passions, your unconscious forces. You need to bring them to consciousness (get out of bed and ride them) before you can deal with them adequately. To keep them hidden allows them to control you instead of the other way around. In eastern cultures the dragon can be a protector and a spiritual symbol.


#2 The Dream:

Name:
Email:
Comments: I dreamt that I was in village with a family of my girl friend (she is only in the dream I don't know her) and there was always meals being served, but there was a mother and baby dragon flying around. They never seemed to harm anyone. The mother dragon was in valley and I went down to her, and climbed on her back and she flew up with me, I was hugging her with love and had no fear. It was very lucid and I have many flying dreams. That was just one part of it, there was a parked car that rolled into a wall and smashed and my girlfriend carried the car back ??? and I dreamt of a famous football player coming to visit with the possibility of playing for the local team, the village family head are very wealthy. (the footballer was Ronaldo in real Madrid uniform) . I live in South Africa.
Interpretation:

Dragons are often reflections of Yang energy, masculine energy, but yours is a female, with a nurturing energy. This might imply a need to balance the two energies within you, the yang and yin–the passion power of the masculine with the nurturing/protective power of the feminine. Climbing on her back may be about your needing to take greater control of your personal energies and of your life.

Food being served is also a nurturing symbol and a symbol for feeding something in ourselves i.e. nourishing the soul or spiritual side of ourselves.

Flying is most often a symbol of independence–a flying free of lifes limitations, or the limits imposed by yourself, or the need to be free of something.

Sometimes cars crashing can represent our own crashing of our lives sometimes deliberate so as to avoid some great stress, or some impending failure. You may actually be "hitting a wall" with your job, relationship, your life. It may be the hidden feminine part again that will help "pick up" the pieces so you can move past it.

The footballer may represent an aspect that you admire and want to incorporate into yourself. There may some wisdom in this (as symbolized by the village head).



Here's a link to another dragon dream interpretation: http://www.thedreamdragon.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-little-dragon-story.html





“Always remember, it’s simply not an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons.”

― Sarah Ban Breathnach

Women’s writer/author


                For more info on the interpretive process see www.thedreamdragon.blogspot.com


Symbolic meaning of Serpents


•The Mayan, Azteca and other Mesoamerican cultures saw the "Feathered Serpent", or in some cases named Quetzacoatl, as both a god of knowledge, the embodiment of the sky, and the communicator with the underworld.


You can see the serpents visage at the bottom of the stairs at the Pyramid at Chichén Itzá, guarding this temple of the Mayan.



                                                                                                                                                                              (Click here to enlarge)



•The Snake is very much akin to the Dragon. The name dragon was once defined as a great snake by the Greeks. In Old English the dragon was a Wyrm, meaning snake or serpent. To the European Celts and Australian Aborigine the snake was a creator being.The Greeks and Romans saw the snake as a being of healing, note that the Caduceus, the magic wand of Hermes, is the current symbol for the art and science of medicine. A snake biting its own tail is the Ouroboros, the symbol of the reconciliation of opposites in the vernacular of the Alchemists (lead into gold; something basal into something precious? Integrating Conscious (the world above) and unconscious (the world below), Yin and Yang, body and spirit) where we are constantly recreating ourselves. It is also the symbol for the cyclical nature of life—birth, death and rebirth. The notion of the dragon, or snake, eating its tail can be dated back to 1600 BCE in Egypt.

Ouroborus is also the symbol of time and the continuity of life—eternal unity. The symbol has shown up in the Mesolithic culture, the Gnostic text Pistis Sophia, The mystical text The Chrysopeia of Kleopatra, and in early Egyptian paintings. Carl Jung called it the Mandala of Alchemy in that it symbolizes the integration and assimilation of opposites as in our shadow. It also represents self-reflexivity and the eternal return and self-recreation (note the similarity with the Phoenix). It is the guardian of the mystical treasure symbolizing the sun. In Alchemy one needs to destroy the guardian (dragon) in order to know its treasure and to move on to another step in the process.

Note the Yin/Yang symbol and how it too could be related to this tail devouring dragon. As with the Hydra symbol (see above), Ouroboros could also represent something reoccurring, or revisiting and coming back, over and over again.

According to Erich Neumann, a student of Carl Jung, the first state of psychological development is called the uroboric stage, derived from Ouroboros, the tail-eating serpent. At this stage is the initial totality and self-containment that occurs prior to the birth of consciousness. Here the ego exists only as a latent potentiality in a state of primary identity with the Self or the objective psyche. This state is presumed to exist within the prenatal period and into early infancy.

In the 2nd state the creation of the world for the individual psyche is formed. Here, the ego is born from the unconscious. As with all creation stories the basic theme is about separation i.e. that something separate comes out of the undifferentiated wholeness and becomes a separate being—ego (Note Adam and Eve, for example).

The Ouroboros was the most often used symbol in the work of the ancient alchemists. To them it represented the world-creating spirit that resides within matter. Many alchemists used it to represent Mercurius, or quicksilver, the prima materia of the alchemists work. It stands for the beginning and the end of the work i.e. the One that leads back to the One– the symbol of the union of opposites thus creating the whole. It can be imagined to represent the cold and fiery, matter and spirit, metallic and liquid, poison and healing drought.

He is also the Hermaphrodite of the Tarot, the coiniunctio of all opposites that makes up the world and the psyche of humankind. It appears as a symbol of the stone in the philosopher’s stone. It has been said that the work of the Alchemists was more than the experiments in chemistry ostensibly to discover both immortality and the process for making gold from lead but also a depiction of human psychology in all its mystery.


    Similar symbols that suggest the same qualities would be the Zen symbol for unity  and the symbol for yin and yang .



                 Other meanings for the symbol of Ouroboros: 

                •What goes around, comes around (be careful what you put out in the world in that it can

                   come back and bite you.

                •Revisiting something

                •To find your self, look no further than yourself

                •Look at something from another perspective

                •Completion of something

                •Completing the self by connecting mind and body, or head (thoughts) and body (feelings).

It would not be a stretch to see in the above the reconnection of the separate soul and ego as described by Jung in what he called the Individuation process, and the Native American vision of the dragon being a force of balancing as all suggesting the same healing of the separate parts, or the balancing of these parts. What caused the separation—the imbalance? What caused it, indeed.  (this link will take you to the Spirit/Body page that explores the phenomena of separation.)

                                   
• The Seraphim were described in the Hebrew bible by Enoch, grandfather of Noah, as Drakones, or flying serpents. Their job was to maintain the divinity in perfect order. Seraphim means "The Burning Ones". Later Christians morphed the Seraphim into human-like angels with six wings and relegated the serpent to a more basal position of deceit and the Dragon to symbolize Satan as a means of discrediting Pagan religions so as to reinforce the new religious world view.

•The Nága are guardian serpents in the East. They were represented as hooded snakes and guarded the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia (Kampuchea). As with many symbols they have their positive and negative aspects in that the Nága can be both protective and destructive.

•Often snakes found underground and in the water (rivers, lakes and oceans) represent hidden emotions in dreams. In China people used to hide their money (treasure) underground so that it would be protected by the snakes. A snake in the water can be a strong emotion attacking you when you look too deeply into your unconscious.

•The people of the Zambezie Valley in Zimbabwe, Africa were protected by a river snake, Nayaminyami. It was the ruler of the sacred water and his symbol is still worn to protect against the forces of darkness and attracting the forces of good fortune.

• In ancient Thebes Drakon Ismenios was a gigantic serpent which guarded the sacred spring of Ismenos.

•In Greek mythology the Medussa, (see Carvaggio painting at right) the prettiest of three Gorgon sisters who's hair was made of writhing snakes and who's eyes could turn you to stone if you looked at them has a number of symbolic meanings. To be turned to stone might indicate becoming incapacitated or rigid in thinking, deed or response.

Another interpretation might see this visage as a

dangerous seductive force in your life (look to see what it might be referring to in the dream), or a controlling, subversive femine power. Ellen Reeder in her book Pandora:Women in Classical Greece (1996) suggested that it could represent the male fear of devouring female sexuality.
Drakon was the Greek name for serpent and figured as the Overlord of the many horned animals of the Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible.

The snake is the "Mother of all Gods" in Greek mythology.



The ancient Greek god Asklepios, originally a mortal healer, would appear to the practitioners of his medical arts as a snake. The healer-god Amphiaraos would become a snake who would lick and suck the poison from the bodies of those who came to the dream clinic to be healed. For this reason snakes were allowed to run freely through the dream incubation centers called the Asklepion. (See the History of Dreams for more on these centers)

•In Alchemy the, quadricornutus serpens (four horned serpent) was a symbol for the liquid metal Mercury.

                                                               

•In Hindu mythology the serpent Karkotaka denotes eternal wisdom. Snakes are considered to be long-lived, or even immortal) because they continuously renew themselves by shedding their skins. In Hindu belief, Vishnu used a snake to churn the ocean. Nag is the king of snakes in the hindu tradition. It is a female deity in India and called "the Mother of all that moves."

In both Hinduism and Buddhism Tantric sages consider the her (the snake) the inner power of the Kundalini and what they try to awaken through their meditations.

•There's another Hindu myth regarding the young god Krishna who one day is walking through the forest with some sheep herders and is swallowed by a giant serpent demon named Ugrasura. Krishna grows to such a height that he burst opens the snake and all are freed. Because all human myths reflect some part of the psyche of human beings I cannot help but think that this encounter symbolizes the great danger of unrecognized subconcious material (often symbolized by dark forests and demon snakes) that threatens to consume all human beings until they become big enough to confront and deal with it (see St George and the Dragon above).







                                   Ugrasura (Krishna on the right)
           

   (See the DreamDragon blog entry for March 20, 2010)





•Even though in some Judeo-Christian societies the snake is seen as a negative and decietful influence, it was also depicted in a more favorable light. Moses transformed his staff with God's help into a snake in order to persuade Pharoah to let the Israelite go free and in Mathew 10:16 Jesus was reported to have said "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Once again one needs to use the symbolism that resonates with them personally.





                                                                    Jung's drawing of a dream dragon from his Red Book: Liber Novus. Ed. By Sonu Shamdasani, 2009



Other dragon-like creatures include:

• The Griffin (a guardian creature as well)

• A Basilisk (its gaze can be fatal as can the serpent haired Gorgon, Medussa)

• A Persian Simurgh (associated with magical healing and the union of heaven and earth)

•As a dream creature the snake can represent temptor, or healer. It can also represent someone lowly and if it bites, it can represent criticism either from without, or from within (as in self-criticism).





Caveat

Though I have spent a great deal of time listing and exploring in depth the meaning of the Dragon in dreams and myth, I have only scratched the surface of what this image has to offer the dreamer.

As with all creatures and objects in a dream they have an imaginal life of their own. To treat them as two-dimensional symbols so as to do forensics on them may mean that you miss out on most of what they have to offer.

In a dream work technique called Dream Tending, offered by Dr. Stephen Aizenstat of the Pacific Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, Ca, these images can be animated by the dreamer and worked in depth within the present time. The idea, in general, is to keep the image alive and to let it continue to provide real time information to the dreamer. In this way the Dragon image when it visits a dream, or even if it visits during the waking work with a dream, can continue to inform way beyond the initial analysis of the dream's symbolic imagery."

Source and Lot's More
http://thedreamingwizard.com/-dragon-symbol_236.html

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Change by Choice


by Reverend Crystal Cox

Change by Choice


Timely, Undoubtedly you Know
Change must happen and that
Change must be NOW and
Change by Choice.


Change is a must
No matter who you Think you Trust.


Time for Change, though
You know Life will never be the Same
and Part of you Rejoices in this Knowledge
while other parts of you fear the Knowing,
Fears the Choice of Change.


All you Thought to be Your Life
Though know of the illusion,
Time has come to change,
Change it All by Choice


You know this Clearly without
the hint of doubt.


Change by Choice
may leave you with times alone.
Trust this, as you are truly your own best friend,
and knowing thyself is the highest Knowledge.


Children may turn against you, Trust this.
Let go with 100% Faith.


Choose Change by Choice.


Keep Walking.
Fear Not.


The overwhelming clarity of change
is upon you. Choose Change Fearlessly.


Change by Choice
can be as painful as change without a choice, still be Proud
in your Choice of Change.


Even as Bridges May Collapse in front of you,
and Bridges may burn brightly behind you.


People may walk away from your life
Others may be attracted.


Many may be left to end their days without you.
Don’t mourn this. They chose, you choose.
Don’t take their Death personal, it is not your
choice to Choose.


Stand Strong in Change by Choice,
listening to the strength of the
Guiding Voice within you and
NOT of those without you.


Gardens May be Unattended.
the proverbial “things”
may be left undone.


Grown children left to attend
to their self and the life of their
own creation.


Still move into change with 100% Faith.


You may be made fun of, boycotted, abandoned
by what you knew to be your life is not your path
NOW.
Choose Change.


You may lose a job, your home,
your lover and all you knew to be your life,
still move to the
Choice of Change.


Change is your Guiding Light.

This is your chance at choice,
higher learning and deeper knowing awaits,
Beckons.


The chaos, the fear, the needs of others for you
to be who and what they need you to be
for them to be more comfortable with you.


All of this, is NOT yours.


It is time to be authentically YOU.
The you that you know in your
own mind, heart, soul
to be your real True YOU.


Listen to CHANGE.


Change is your Beacon;
your Lighthouse to your next
safe and higher frequency harbor.


Allow Change Fearlessly.


And Let go of the shore of Past Perception and the illusion of a Secure Future.


Folks, we DIE. Our bodies, our human vehicles are temporary. There is NO security
in a dying vessel. Keep Moving, CHANGE by Choice and LIVE your LIGHT.


You are the Holy Spirit.
You are Creator.


Trust God / Goddess within YOU.
Leap into the Stream of
Change by Choice.



Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Bolivia passes "Law of Mother Earth" which gives rights to our planet as a living system

"The Law of Mother Earth ("Ley de Derechos de La Madre Tierra") holds the land as sacred and holds it as a living system with rights to be protected from exploitation, and creates distinguished rights for the environment. It was passed by Bolivia's Plurinational Legislative Assembly.

This article law is derived from the first part of a longer draft bill, drafted and released by the Pact of Unity by November 2010. Can we please spread this law? There has to be a way for the free market to interoperate with reverence for this planet. Period.

In accordance with the philosophy of Pachamama, it states, "She is sacred, fertile and the source of life that feeds and cares for all living beings in her womb. She is in permanent balance, harmony and communication with the cosmos. She is comprised of all ecosystems and living beings, and their self-organisation."

"It makes world history. Earth is the mother of all," said Vice-President Alvaro García Linera. "It establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration."

The law enumerates seven specific rights to which Mother Earth and her constituent life systems, including human communities, are entitled to:

To life: It is the right to the maintenance of the integrity of life systems and natural processes which sustain them, as well as the capacities and conditions for their renewal

To the Diversity of Life: It is the right to the preservation of the differentiation and variety of the beings that comprise Mother Earth, without being genetically altered, nor artificially modified in their structure, in such a manner that threatens their existence, functioning and future potential

To water: It is the right of the preservation of the quality and composition of water to sustain life systems and their protection with regards to contamination, for renewal of the life of Mother Earth and all its components

To clean air: It is the right of the preservation of the quality and composition of air to sustain life systems and their protection with regards to contamination, for renewal of the life of Mother Earth and all its components

To equilibrium: It is the right to maintenance or restoration of the inter-relation, interdependence, ability to complement and functionality of the components of Mother Earth, in a balanced manner for the continuation of its cycles and the renewal of its vital processes

To restoration: It is the right to the effective and opportune restoration of life systems affected by direct or indirect human activities

To live free of contamination: It is the right for preservation of Mother Earth and any of its components with regards to toxic and radioactive waste generated by human activities"

Source and More
https://www.minds.com/blog/view/370619333145006080

More


Paul Foster Case - Occult Studies, Tarot Deep Study, the Rosicrucian and more

"Paul Foster Case was an American occultist of the early 20th century and author of numerous books on occult tarot and Qabalah."

"Paul Foster Case (October 3, 1884 – March 2, 1954) was an American occultist of the early 20th century and author of numerous books on occult tarot and Qabalah. Perhaps his greatest contributions to the field of occultism were the lessons he wrote for associate members of Builders of the Adytum. The knowledge lectures given to initiated members of the chapters of the B.O.T.A. were equally profound, although the limited distribution has made them less well known."

"A modern scholar of the occult tarot and Qabalah, Paul Foster Case was born at 5:28 p.m.,[citation needed] October 3, 1884 in Fairport, New York.

His father was the town librarian and a deacon at the local Congregational church. When he was five years old, his mother began teaching him to play the piano and organ, and later in his youth, Case performed as organist in his family's church. A talented musician, he embarked on a successful career as a violinist, and orchestra conductor. He had an honorary doctorate in music awarded to him.

Case was early on attracted to the occult. While still a child he reported experiences that today are called lucid dreaming. He corresponded about these experiences with Rudyard Kipling who encouraged him as to the validity of his paranormal pursuits.

In the year 1900, Case met the occultist Claude Bragdon while both were performing at a charity performance. Bragdon asked Case what he thought the origin of playing cards was. After pursuing the question in his father's library, Case discovered a link to tarot, called 'The Game of Man'. Thus began what would become Case's lifelong study of the tarot, and leading to the creation of the B.O.T.A. tarot deck, which Case called a "corrected" version of the Rider-Waite cards.

Between 1905 and 1908 (aged 20–24), Case began practicing yoga, and in particular pranayama, from what published sources were available. His early experiences appear to have caused him some mental and emotional difficulties and left him with a lifelong concern that so called "occult" practice be done with proper guidance and training.

In the summer of 1907, Case read The Secret of Mental Magic, by William W. Atkinson (aka Ramacharaka) which led him to correspond with the then popular new thought author. Many people have speculated that Case and Atkinson were two of the three anonymous authors of The Kybalion, an influential philosophical text, although the introduction to an edition of The Kybalion released in 2011 has presented considerable evidence for Atkinson as the book's lone author"

"Case reported a meeting on the streets of Chicago, in 1909 or 1910, that was to change the course of his life. A "Dr. Fludd," a prominent Chicago physician approached the young Case and greeting him by name, claimed to have a message from a "master of wisdom" who, the doctor said, "is my teacher as well as yours."

The stranger said that Case was being offered a choice. He could continue with his successful musical career and live comfortably, or he could dedicate himself to "serve humanity" and thereby play a role in the coming age. From that time on, Case began to study and formulate the lessons that served as the core curricula of the "Builders of the Adytum", the school of tarot study and Qabalah that Case founded and that continues today.

In 1916 Case published a groundbreaking series of articles on the Tarot Keys, titled The Secret Doctrine of the Tarot, in the popular occult magazine The Word. The articles attracted wide notice in the occult community for organizing and clarifying what had previously been confusing and scattered occult doctrines about the meaning of the tarot cards."

"In 1918, Case met Michael James Whitty (died December 27, 1920 in Los Angeles, California), who was the editor of Azoth magazine and would become a close friend.

Whitty was serving as the 'cancellarius' (treasurer / office manager) for the Thoth-Hermes Lodge in Chicago, which was one of the lodges of the Alpha et Omega. Alpha et Omega was S. L. MacGregor Mathers' group that formed in 1906 after the demise of the original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1903. 

Whitty invited Case to join Thoth-Hermes, which was the direct American lodge under the A.O. mother lodge in Paris. Case joined, and quickly moved up initiations in the Rosicrucian grades (True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order).

 Case's aspiration name in A.'.O.'. was Perseverantia (which means 'perseverance').

Whitty republished Case's attribution of the Tarot keys (with corrections) in Azoth magazine. That same year, Case became the 'sub-praemonstrator' (assistant chief instructor) at the Thoth-Hermes Lodge.

Also during that year he finished a set of articles on the Mystical Rosicrucian Origins of Faust and published by Whitty. The following year, he began to correspond with Dr. John William Brodie-Innes (Fr. Sub Spe).

Between 1919 and 1920, Case and Michael Whitty collaborated in the development of the text which would later be published as The Book of Tokens. This book was written as a received text, whether through meditation, automatic writing, or some other means. It later surfaced that Master R. was the source. On May 16, 1920 Case was initiated into Alpha et Omega's Second Order.

Three weeks later, according to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's bio-page on Case, he was named Third Adept.

In December 1920, Michael Whitty died. Case believed Whitty's health problems were attributable to the dangers that arise or may arise in the practice of Enochian magic. He later corresponded with Israel Regardie about those concerns."

Source and More
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Foster_Case

Paul Foster Case Timeline
http://kcbventures.com/pfc/documents/timeline.pdf


An Introduction to Tarot
http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/intro.pdf


The Tarot by Paul Case
http://www.pdfarchive.info/pdf/C/Ca/Case_Paul_Foster_-_The_Tarot_A_key_to_the_Wisdom_of_the_Ages.pdf


 The Builders of the Adytum

http://www.bota.org/

"The Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A) is a school of the Western mystery tradition based in Los Angeles which is registered as a non-profit tax-exempt religious organization.

It was founded by Paul Foster Case and has its roots in both the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Masonic blue lodge system.

It was later extended by Ann Davies.

The B.O.T.A. teaches by correspondence, covering esoteric psychology, occult tarot, Hermetic Qabalah, astrology, and meditation techniques. It also holds a variety of ritual services and study groups, some open to the public"

Source and More
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Builders_of_the_Adytum


Podcast 42 – The Life and Work of Dr. Paul Foster Case
http://occultofpersonality.net/podcast-42-the-life-and-work-of-dr-paul-foster-case/


"“IN whatsoever object thou perceivest,
Know me as the Essence,
As the Idea,
And as the Interior Nature.
Because of this the wise come easily to me
By many paths,
Yet in truth these different roads
Are but a single Way.
“If thou canst penetrate in the nature
Of the simplest thing,
There thou shalt find me.
This is the key to the mystery of the sacred letters.
Fix thy mind on the object set before thee by any letter,
And hold thy thought to meditate thereon.
Then shall the inner nature of that object
Be made known to thee,
And by this means shalt thou draw nigh
To some aspect of my being.
– from “The Meditation on HEH” in The Book of Tokens"

Writings of Case and his contemporaries