HIDDEN MEANINGS OF DRAGONS

 

         ARE DRAGONS REAL?  Yes, dragons are real, and that can be proven.  If you hit your thumb with a hammer, it hurts, doesn't it?  That is very real.  Also, if you say something about yourself in the presence of some friends and they ridicule you, that hurts too!  And that is very real, too.  That is the realm where dragons fly and do their painful, and real, mischief, from the beginning of time even to now. 

   

 

            HOW DRAGONS FLY

     Dragon-like creatures: Behemoth, the land dragon, and Leviathan, the sea monster, are described in detail in Job 40:15 and Job 41.  The dragon is mentioned in the Bible numerous times to represent the works of evil.  Ephesians 9 describes the Roman soldier with his armour and weapons; which, in modern times is often illustrated by the warrior or warrior-princess.  The sword is "the sword of truth" that cuts through the dragon's lies, that defeats "the wiles of the devil."  In modern versions, the truth that sets you free is also symbolized by an arrow, a lance, laser sword, or light wand.    

    In order to fly, a dragon must be nearly weightless (actually made up of flimsy rumours, heresay, sensational news, not too heavy with facts).  Bones, though they look big and strong, are really thin and hollow, filled with gases (scanty support, and mostly deceptive reasonings, gossipy hot air).  This is what keeps him alive and  aids him in taking flight easily...that, more than the wings.  This is all to fly around with his frightful presentation, from town to town.

     Dragon wings are huge, to carry them far and wide with infections of suspicion and fear.  Wings represent the way superstition, fear, and slander are spread far and wide from town to town, nation to nation. Dragons on the wing have caused more wars to heat up into action than all the war ships and jet fighter planes in the world.

   The power of flight and the fiery breath are because of the chemical reaction within the belly of the dragon where there are several elements that are interactive when digested together. Beside the elements of oxygen (needs) and hydrogen (fears) there must be abundance of calcium (weak support, not at all like rock).  The ribs are also too much of calcium (weak, pourous ribs  of warped half-truths.)  The dragon is constantly digging up and hoarding limerock to mix and activate his fires.    

     The Dragon's body is a chemical factory of many chambers. But the chemicals do not ignite until there is contact with the outside, upon encounter with a human victim, a village, or warrior seeking a fight.  The chemicals then agitate and spiral up to be shot out the barrel-like structures of the nostrils and mouth.  Hydrochloric acid reacts with calcium to produce hydrogen with calcium chloride in aqueous solution as a by-product.

 

     When the warrior strikes the dragon with his sword, he dodges the head with it's teeth and flame and goes to him from beneath, (gets to the bottom of things). Two things can happen.

 (1) The dragon's  flamethrower breath is severed, or

 (2)the hot chemicals drain out and splash onto the warrior. This happens when a daring but unseasoned warrior dashes into the dragon, determined to "put an end to the nonsense right now," and "get it over with, and get on with life!'  He has not the wisdom yet to know that huge old dragons, surviving almost since time began, must be approached with much prayer and strategy, or there will be consequences.  (This means that facing and opening up a  deep emotional problem can overflow unexpectedly with searing frightful self-discovery, and floods of dark memories, with a psychotic episode, or breakdown resulting.)      The warrior may be temporarily stricken down, need the help of "wise men" (counsellors) and "midwife" (understanding friends).  

 

     THE WARRIOR'S HORSE is often knocked over senseless: rammed, clawed, or burned, and lies on the ground as if dead. ( This means the warrior's spirit is crushed, his energy paralyzed).  But if a few slices of orange can be given his horse, he can revive.  (Oranges represent sunshine, light, encouragement, knowledge,  so he can regain the spirit to get up and fight again).   

     Some strong warriors can recover quickly by commanding themselves to get with it. By sheer force of ego they force back their fears.  They push down their problems and slam a lid over them.  But no victory has been won.   The dragon gets to slink away and hide back in a cave somewhere, to lick his wounds and recover. They will have to  fight another day;and sometimes not a bad deal when the warrior really could use more maturity and training to face that particular dragon. But cowardice may be abundant in there, too. The wily dragon counts on that!

     THE DRAGON'S EYES:   Dragons have binocular vision to effect the hypnotic stare. The eyes are large, deep, and golden, with rainbow flashes showing through.  They captivate and seduce, and surprisingly answer a question with the mew of a kitten. They never convey what they really mean. He is a creature of terrible, ferocious visage; yet in his gaze you hope you can believe he will make you an exception. But what you imagine is not what is really there.  The eyes are about EMOTION.  They  convey to the victim a terrifying self-awareness in many facets, one quickly upon another.   The answer to the many-faceted eyes is to see them as parts of  oneself, to reconcile the incompatible self parts.

    The warrior must tear himself away from the dragon's gaze.  The warrior holds before him a shield with a mirror on the back of it; for what he needs, to conquer his fear, is to see  that it is within himself that the huge problem stirs.  Then, turning from the dragon's stare, his next move is to attack the dragon underneath to the gut level.  A personal problem in life, a hatred, resentment, guilt, or contention, is just the first reaction, the issue on the surface.  Beneath that is the real reason, but in the deeper unconscious. Digging into the gut level, peeling the onion,  exposes the real reason for emotional pain, mental sickness, or compulsions.  A truth leads to another deeper truth.

     Feral dragons are different from evil dragons. Wild dragons are tamed by the light wand and transformed.  As for example, sexual instinct is modified  with social responsibility and love.  Another example is the need for power, but is modified by learning respect for other people's needs. These are tamed dragons but must be watched closely.  They may be kept behind fences, but you can't just forget them. 

     Some dragons, however, are truly evil and without remorse, have resisted taming for thousands of years.   The warrior makes a thorough job of slaying that dragon, asking God for help. God will deal with that dragon's final end. Slaying a dragon is the pictorial, allegorical way of saying that someone has gotten up the courage to face a great personal problem or sin, and has gained the victory.

    "Slaying the dragon" is also the deflation experience of seeing how a magician does his trick behind the curtains.  Never again can that particular trick have a glowing fascination, or the power to evoke awe in the soul. From that victory a diamond is received by the warrior, wrested from the dragon's treasure hoard. After conquering the greatest dragons, that individual will walk through the world with power, not swayed hither and yon by anything that comes along. His vision sees above and beyond superstitious throngs held in bondage by dragons. He does not fear other people, but regards himself as equal. He knows that God has built a strong foundation within him that keeps him steady and grounded.

DRAGON MATING:                             

             "The male cries above and the female cries below. Like a pair of eagles, they climb higher and higher into the air, turning around each other, enormous wings flapping strongly.  Then they spiral down like a tornado of two giants, entertwining, wings weaving with powerful intricacy, like a great ship's rope  being woven together.  At the base of their fall, they seem to blur as a dark dense cloud. And then they transform.  They separate again, but are changed, each one, yet something new and worse.  They fly away as a bonded pair, one with parts of the other...multiple heads, double wings, flashing colors, flames all about them as their new passions spoke. The two go as one, the mutations of them, to attack a larger village, as never before. (This visualizes how two great errors will combine and become a new, worse one, to assault unsuspecting people. For example, the theory of evolution combined with Arian supremacy to cause the Nazi destruction of millions in Germany.  Another example on a personal level is how one can unite an initial fear of people with the psychotic need to kill them, to gain a sense of power.  Dragon mating also represents the psychiatric process where one defense adds to another in the troubled mind, to create a complex of obsession, compulsion, or phobia, an entanglement Satan hopes the patient will never be able to unravel.

    But the female dragon may not go with the male indefinately, but will feel the urge to find a place to lay her eggs.  She instinctively knows now that her babies will grow to be dragons larger and fiercer, more favorably mutated, than any dragons that have ever existed before.  She may prefer to find  a dark, still pool of water in the jungle, and lie there quietly,  imagining her children-to-be.  She lifts her dark head only to look around the pond to see if an enemy is coming.  She lays two or three eggs and covers them in warm, thick peatmoss.  The eggs incubate slowly, according to air pressure and heating or cooling of the waters.  (A dragon laying eggs illustrates how someone can brood over some hurt and keep it incubating in the back of the mind. A dragon egg represents latent fears or resentments residing in the subconscious, awaiting just the right place and time to hatch into a contention, rivalry, dread, etc.)

         BABY DRAGONS represent little faults and sins that may seem too cute and harmless to discipline. Baby dragons can play around people for an incredibly long time before anybody realizes they are getting too big, ugly, and demanding to tolerate.  Then, rather than engaging them themselves, people will hire someone to take care of it for them. Those would-be heroes usually disappear, never to be seen again!

     Dragons can go without food a long time.  (a problem can lie dorment in the subconscious, not needing much attention, not hurting too much.  Someone decides just to squelch some problem which should be addressed.)

     Dragons hate to be disturbed, really, and can lie way back in their dens, dozing, for long periods of time.  They may huff and puff, groan occasionally, blow a little smoke, wasting away decades of time. (where someone is always whining, griping, moaning about some issue but never gets up the gumption to really deal with it until a great calamity flies upon him.)

     Dragons don't really want to fight, they just want to have their way, let everybody walk around them and go to extra trouble to detour them, or even pay out some tribute or sacrifices.      Really bad dragons are offered young maidens to eat, to keep them quiet.  Young maidens and virgins represent sacrifices, compromises, a person or village can make to not face a serious problem. This came out of the Medieval legend that if a young maiden was offered to a dragon, he might consider having her for lunch rather than destroy the whole village. (This is like the bone you throw at a dog to keep him occupied when you have to walk past his house. They are the lies, or "white lies" you offer someone, or your own self, to keep from having to deal with the trouble that will result from telling the truth. Also, appeasing someone with favors to avoid a big confrontation.  Another would be letting someone else take the rap for something you did...throw someone under the bus, as they say.)     Pure maidens are symbolic of innocence.  A person needs to stop proclaiming he is innocent and face it that he is responsible, and needs to face his personal problems instead of blaming everything else.

DRAGON TALK

    Once free of the dragon's mind-splitting gaze, one finds the dragon no match in intelligence or speed.  He is a dimwitted creature after all, easily outsmarted, easily slain, when you know how...nothing but air.  Dragons are not intelligent in the left-brain sense of higher reason and logic.  Yes, they are tricky themselves, magical, and emotionally entangling in a clever sense. They always work indirectly.  They always present a knot to be untied.  The image seen in the hypnotic eye rivets one in a stillness beyond terror, a sense of being asked a question whose answer is both obvious yet impossible to find in time to stave off his wrath.      

     Dragons always speak in riddles. The dragon in the Garden of Eden told Eve that if she ate the apple, she would become wise like the gods, knowing good from evil.  What he left out was that she would come to know evil as well as good, but in a way that brought pain, grief, and death on herself and all she loved.  Arguing with a dragon will draw one in to a labyrinth of confusion.  When Christ was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Christ answered with the simple truth of "It is written," from the scriptures given to man by God. He refused to argue with the devil, He let the devil argue with God.

     Dragons don't like windy days or nights (don't like people talking, or busy asking questions, or  inquiring  about things, especially about God.)  But, on windless nights (when people are alone, lonely, or sad) they spread their wings and fly out, full of vague longings and frustrations, even when they've just eaten (just been appeased with partying, drugs, sex, etc.).  Many dragons will be sleeping, assured of their conquests,  but some are ever restless and forlorn.

     They try to avoid angry people, as those are apt to see through them and find out how to stand up to them.  A  windstorm of anger will send a dragon off balance,  tumbling like a leaf.  A show of anger can hold one at bay until strategies can be found to fight.  Dragons love the taste of timidity, but anger scalds them and holds them off until one can find the way to God's help and see how to use his weapons. The merest human can beat off the meanest dragon with fervent, hot anger.  Breathe fire back into fire!  Many a dragon has slunk away from the snarling glare of a lionness.  (Red-faced, hot anger at one's own cowardice can temporarily rescue the day.  But it takes a lot more than anger to fully conquer a dragon.)

   Dragon blood corrodes and chars.  Contact with it means horror and extreme pain.  Tasting, or accidently falling into dragon blood, is steeping in dark matters to the point of psychosis, possession, nightmare, slavery to evil spirits.

     Dragons and elephants are traditionally at enmity. Elephants are heavy, grounded, and solid like a house on a rock. Compare that to the light, porous limestone and calcium making up a dragon's skeleton, which can be chipped away and dissolved with the right chemicals. Elephants are intelligent, level-headed,  sharped tusked, highly evolved. Not so the dragon. Even the dragon's horns, no matter how many or deadly looking, are really quite brittle.

     The dragon usually makes his lair in a place that's not of interest to the landowner.  Though occasionally they find hollows right under the noses of city dwellers, they mainly prefer the wilderness places where there are many caves. (This means that superstition and error reigns in people who do not read and study).  Many people have numerous unconscious areas (caves) in their minds, do not bother to reflect, pray or confess, or care much about social requirements. They deny their own destructive behaviors that are hurtful to other people.  Their feelings are primitive (in the wilderness) instead of civil (in towns) where people have studied and learned from life experiences.

     Don't try to slay a dragon by hitting it on the head, for it isn't possible to defeat him that way.  Turn away from the head.  It is made of thick, cork-like substance, like wood, that merely glances off a spear and resists the sharpest sword. (The thick head represents one's initial feelings or reaction. The tendency is to react and fight back before thinking.  Find the deeper reason to get relief.)   Get to the flank or the gut as soon as possible. (In regard to serious emotional problems, where will power fails, the warrior needs to dig deeper into the matter.  Sometimes, Will power can be as ineffective as trying to swim against the rapids of a fast river.  The will is very important, but there has to be knowledge upon that).

   A dragon will entrench himself into a deep, narrow cave in the side of a cliff,  and woe to the knight who tries to pry him out.  He must be flushed out (picked on)  so you can work underneath and all around him.  Send out some dogs to bark, and harrass him (challenging, taunting, acting brave) and setting little fires (facing some feelings) will bring the dragon out, but not too fast. (It's better for people to face a psychosis a step at a time than be overwhelmed by debilitating pain. The fighter needs to think, and invoke God's help whose hand can be over theirs on the sword).  Many novices  have been defeated by conceit and ego that they can plunge forth at first sight of the dragon. 

 THE DRAGON'S TAIL AND ITS STINGER:   A most awesome feature of the dragon, and certainly not to be forgotten in the battle,  the dragon's tail can be very long, coiled so much and far that it nearly disappears into the distance (of time).  Yet the stinger is worse than that of a scorpion and full of potent venom.  If the dragon can't scorch a person with his breath or scratch him to death with his talons, because he fights too well, he may have his way with the sudden stab from behind. 

"I was stung" is a common saying.  Shutting down feelings and denying that one has any feelings are results of dragon poison.   The tail and its stinger also represent how a person can go to the opposite extreme of an issue.  He over-compensates. For example, someone may have called him a coward when he was little, and he spends the rest of his life being a dare-devil.  Someone who's a bully is usually deeply insecure underneath the facade.  But it's very difficult to awaken from a dragons venom. .   And it is deeply unconscious.  The individual may be filled with utter horror to discover he is really different from what he claims to be,  and often has  serious, disabling panic upon self discovery.  They must have reassurance that God, who knew about it all along, still cares about them and will work with their weakness.  Friends often knew all along, and should be supporting instead of judgmental. This dragon is most cunning, and knows just how and when, like the crocodile and alligator, to use his tail for maximum effect.       Omnipotent denial and hybris are psychiatric terms to describe someone who overcompensates.   There are many, many kinds of defenses the mind employs to protect itself from "the hard truth."

     Some people conclude, "if I can't do anything right, I'll do nothing at all" and waste their lives away.  Many people say they don't care about something, when they really do care about it very much but just can't face how terrible and helpless they feel if they stir it up.  So, the years go by, and the dragon guards the entrance carefully.

      When someone has his fears put to sleep by dragon lies, this is the poison in the stinger. "I am not that kind of person",  "I would never do that." "See if I care!" are potions to keep from rousing the dragon.  The dragon stands over him smug in his conquest.  Only some earthquake, tidal wave, or ferocious lion  will wake up this one who is so paralyzed by his denials.

    Another way the dragon drugs and paralyzes is to convince his human victim, with his hypnotic eyes, that he (the dragon) isn't really so bad... just consider his side of the story...don't just think of yourself...God doesn't like someone to be a judgmental person. The dragon whispers, "Just consider how I was abused in the past by others."  He throws you this riddle.  While you hesitate, wondering what's the right thing to do about your hurt, his tail reaches forth with tranquizer in it's stinger.  You have let your true self be put to sleep. You're not allowed to feel what you really feel. You no longer know what you knew before.

 

 

SPECIES OF DRAGONS

THE VANITY DRAGON  All golden and royal red, he represents how people are deluded that money and possessions, keeping up with the Jones's, are what make them secure in life.  Money, a fine house, a nice car, are actually the center of the soul.  Life is unbearable with mediocre stuff. 

THE PRIDE DRAGON, black and shiney...so shiney you can't see into him.  Some people would literally rather die than admit they are wrong.  They must win the argument, be right about everything, or unbreakably strong, or they are a nothing, a nobody, as average as one blade of grass in a vast  field of identical grasses.  They cannot see that it is God's seeing them who makes them special. Only God can preserve them for eternity and resolve their fear of non-existence.

 

THE DRAGON OF LUST  When the unconverted person is honest with himself, he often discovers that, when all is considered, it is sex that is most important to life.  Life is worth nothing if one cannot have sex as needed. In the carnal man it is sex that is the center of the soul, not God.  That was the deal Satan made with man. When man became separated from God, it was sex that Satan offered to take His place to be the wellsprings of man's drive and purpose in life. Only conversion and the Holy Spirit can make a transformation back to feeling God in the center!

THE JEALOUSY DRAGON: Green, of course. Everyone already knows about him. Or her.

PETTY DRAGONS:   don't seem so big and fierce.  Sometimes they look more like little song birds hidden in the foliage of common trees. But damaging they are, nontheless, and have ruined many people who don't even realize they have been taken over by this dragon of many camouflaged hues.

There is even a "black cat dragon."  This one delivers true horror to those who have grown up really believing black cats can bring evil and death. People of some cultures see a black cat as an occult being with far-reaching supernatural powers. That cat is neither cute nor fun to those people.    Horror and revulsion are felt about a black cat, with suspicion about all cats.  But if that person can study science (God's science) into how cats are really made, and also grasp the truth about the Bible in regard to evil spirits, there can be a wonderful day of relief.     Faced with the light of truth, the horrid dragon fades and shrinks to the size of a harmless little kitty sunning herself in the garden.  "The jig is up."

    There are as many kinds of dragons as there are fears, faults, and neuroses in the human race.  It often helps to get a handle on a problem, construct a fence around it, by picturing how evil works through the image of the dragon in its various forms.  A picture, or a story, forms a bridge between the spiritual and physical.  The Bible says that Jesus only spoke to the people in parables and object lessons.  He knew how the mind needs illustrations in order to understand a spiritual lesson.

 

         THE TREASURE:  

 

      So, why bother with the dragon?  Maybe is better to just leave him alone?  It's the treasure that is the whole reason for fighting.  It is for the treasure he guards so fiercely.  Dragons hoard gold, gems, and diamonds, which they keep in their lairs, and lay over jealously.  Warriors become powerful and rich only by approaching many dragons and wresting their treasure from them.  It does not belong to the dragon anyway.      God's treasures originally belonged to the people He created,  but the dragon scammed it out of them.  Now humans must fight the dragon. The treasure is spoken of in the Bible in many places.  Gold is refined character and there are pearls of wisdom.  Diamonds are of great value and represent acquired intelligence and invulnerability, among other qualities.  There are also emeralds, rubies, and semi-precious stones that represent freedoms and personal power gained by conquest over fears, faults, and weaknesses.  It is surely worth the effort to face one's inner dragons, to become fearless and  strong to deal with all of  life's challenges.                                    

 

     WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

    In this treatise, dragons are explained according to their Biblical role, as representing evil in the spiritual dimension.  Artists through the ages have tried to take the descriptions in  the Bible and come up with an adequate visual image to illustrate printed material. Gradually, the dragon would be featured in art for its own sake, especially at the inception of fantasy art around the 1960's.   

 

     Paintings of  awesome, wonderous dragons by really good artists were made for shows and publications from that time to now.  Such depictions for their own sake have awakened controversy about the "evil" of such a marvelous, passionate creature.  The dragons came to have their staunch defenders.  And wherever anything at all is seen as "bad," there will be those who are ready to challenge the traditional concept.  And there will be those who sympathize with the plight, and offer reasonable reasons, for why the animal or man, real or make-believe, got to his fierce state of mind, or question even his apparent fierceness. And there are some who are not a bit philosophical, don't know, don't care,  just enjoy a good picture of a dragon.

     So, now there are nice dragons, friendly dragons, cartoon dragons, cute and pet dragons.  There are many web sites that feature the adoption of a cute cartoon dragon as a personal pet.

    Everyone has the freedom to see something from his, or her, own point of view.

But, bear in mind, that when a nation has peace and safety for many years, people tend to lose the primal fears, the raw survival concerns... and their choice of entertainment alters as well.  They lose their connection, their understanding, of the traditional rituals and images designed especially to keep memory alive.  So true is the saying, "Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it." People who are really shot at, fear for their lives daily, lose family and friends for real in a real war, are not looking to be "entertained" by topics of violence and death.  That is not humming alluringly way back in the debths of the subconscious, it is on the surface in all its horror.  It's only when the dark side resides latently in the individual and collective memory that normal people feel a numinous attraction for evil.  The brain finds it exciting to be strummed a little by dark emotion and drama.  But when the feelings become too real, those subjects become dreaded instead of  fascinating. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you see it, this regression has happened with the dragon image.       In light of that, the  pages abpve depict the dragon in the way of antiquity.  The dragon is interpreted in the traditional, original  purpose behind the effort to put words into pictures.

Reference is mainly from Carl Jung's works, THE SYMBOLS'S OF MAN , and Joseph Campbell's "THE POWER OF MYTH",  and  "PSYCHIC ENERGY" by Jung's student, Esther Harding.