About Dragons

• The Jung/Freud Approach
  
  Dragon
  (1) Is the dragon guarding a treasure, or a cave which might contain treasure?
  If so, the cave probably represents your unconscious, the treasure represents yourself,
  the dragon that stands between you and your true self represents the fearsomeness of the unconscious,
  for one who is still afraid of what may be lurking there. This is a repression of the unconscious contents
  
  (2) For Jung, the first stage of the individuation process is the conscious ego's heroic
  struggle {the hero/heroine journey of mythology} to lift itself out of the orginal all-encompassing unconsciousness
  and to establish control of unconscious forces.
  This finds symbolic representation in the legendary dragon-slayer, St George (St George = the ego; the dragon = the unconscious).
  
  (3) The dragon may represent the devouring aspect of (your relationship with) your mother.
  'Slaying the dragon' may therefore mean putting an end to whatever in your attachment to
  your mother is detrimental to the process of finding your own psychic individuality.
  Once the individual has achieved liberation from the 'dragon',
  the feminine side of the man's psyche and the masculine side of the woman's psyche will no longer appear in threatening form,
  but as an indispensable companion and guide in further stages of self-development.
  
  (4) A dragon may represent the generative power of (Mother) Nature; the unconscious,
  felt as womb pregnant with new possibilities of life.
  
  (5) A winged dragon may symbolize some kind of transcendence,
  some passing from 'lower' to 'higher' level of personal maturity.
  
  (6) A dragon may be a symbol for your sexuality, particularily if it - your sexuality - frightens you.
  Is your fear irrationsal; or does sexuality threaten to rule your life? In either case, don't kill the 'dragon'; if necessary tame it.
  (In China, 'chi' is good, life-giving energy and the channels it runs along are called 'dragon-lines',
  which are said to follow underground water and underground magnetic fields).
  ~~~
  .... qabout Dragons and Dragon-killers :
  
  The power or energy of the lung-mei, or dragon current , has been represented visually by the image of the dragon. The dragon is a familiar image in China, and also figures prominently in one form or another in the legends of many cultures around the world. Frequently, these legends tell of the killing of the dragon, which is a vital part of a cycle of birth and death and the re-animation and fertilization of the earth.
  
  Several local festivals of ancient origin in Britain continue to re-enact the killing of the dragon. Dragon-killers, often well-known members of local families, were celebrated. Some these dragon-killers, at an early date, were 'Christianised' and made into saints, the best known being St. Michael, St. George, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret. All over England there are hills and spots remembered locally where the dragon was killed. Dragon Hill, near Uffington, is one example where St. George, the patron saint of England, is believed to have killed the dragon, its spilled blood falling where grass has never since grown.
  
  Raphael, St. George killing the Dragon, 1505
  
  Places associated with the dragon legend are often also sites of ancient sanctity. And, because of this sanctity, many of them were 'Christianised', which sometimes included building a church on that spot. The site is often on top of a mound or flat-topped hill, and the church is usually dedicated either to St. Michael or to St. George.
  
  Martin Schongauer (c. 1450-91), St. Michael killing the Dragon
  
  Churches and chapels dedicated to St. Michael are often found on the summits of high points in the landscape. A line of such hill-top shrines dedicated to St. Michael, or to other dragon-killing saints, such as St. George and St. Margaret, runs across southern England from the north-east to St. Michael's Mount near Land's End in Cornwall.
  ~~~
  red wing dragon
  
  "The dragon is a complex and universal symbol. In the East, dragons are always seen as beneficial, positive forces holding strength, wisdom, supernatural power and knowledge and in the West, they are viewed as basically negative, destructive and of evil intent. Dragon is another connector of sky and earth planes. Dragons are sometimes seen as the darkness that heroes must conquer or as guardians of treasure or hidden knowledge. Struggling with the dragon can symbolize the struggle to gain consciousness and inner knowledge of self. Archaically, dragons were feminine symbols of power. Christianity, however, equated this old feminine power symbol into woman, serpent, sin and the Devil. The dragon is usually seen as a winged serpent; and as such it contains the combined aspects of spirit and matter (bird and serpent). The Chinese Taoist revered the dragon as the spirit of "the way," which brings eternal change and enlightenment. The wingless dragon is of the Earth, the winged dragon is of fire and air. White dragons are associated with the moon. Red dragon is equated with the Welsh God Dewi. "
  ~~~
  Dragon Poem
  
  scales shimmering
  in all colors bright as fire
  song soars above our dreams
  our souls become one
  higher ever higher we fly
  in the delights of our ecstasies
  to heights of unknown joys
  brightest laughter our swaying
  and everything fire in us.
  join to post
  ~~~
  #
  Chinese zodiac Dragon
  
  The Chinese dragon is a symbol for luck and wisdom. One of the most beautiful descriptions of these dragons known to me is found in The Neverending Story by Michael Ende: "On the other hand, luck dragons are creatures of air and warmth, creatures of boundless joy, and light as a summer cloud in spite of their immense size. That's why they don't need any wings to fly. They swim on the breezes of the sky like fish in water. Oriental Dragon Seen from the ground they look like slow-moving lightning flashes. The most wonderful thing about them is their song. Their voice sounds like the golden booming of a great bell, and when they speak softly, it is as though one were hearing this bell from far off. Whoever has been permitted to hear such a song never forgets it again his whole life long and even tells his grandchildren about it."
  
  Naturally there are all possible kinds of Asian dragons, too, but Ende was describing just the sky dragon.
  ~~~
  druk or sotang (kir.), meens Dragon
  
  Of course you can meet dragons in the Himalaya mountainrange, too. They have similar if not equal meaning to the people there as in China. Strawling through Tibet you can find dragons everywhere. Tibet and the Himalaya are both part of the region where the chinese dragon can be met. However in the southern ranges of the Himalaya the myths of the dragon and of the nagas of india are mixing. Both were being mixed in the tibetan mythologic carpet under the term Klu. All different religious schools and traditions of ancient Zhangzhung and later Tibet know dragons and included them in their corpus. One highly important scripture of the Bon is named the scripture of hundred thousand dragons (Klu). It is divided into three parts: the colorful dragons, the black dragons and the white dragons. The tibetan dragon is also named Druk ('brug), Drug or Zhug as variant spellings of the same. Bhutan, the kingdom at the southern border of the Himalaya is being called Druk Yul - the land of the peaceful dragon (or: the thunderdragon land). The population consists of the Drukpa. Bhutan is the souternmost region where the tibetan buddhist sect of the Drukpa Kagyudpa ('brug pa bka' brgyud pa) can be found. Naturally the temples of this sect are being called dragontemples.
  
  The Drukpa Lineage is one of the eight minor Dagpo Kagyu Traditions (Dvags-po bKa-brgyud brgyud-chung brgyad) deriving from disciples of Pagmodrupa (Phag-mo gru-pa rDo-rje rgyal-po) The history of the name of this Lineage goes back to the first Gyalwang Drukpa Tsangpa Gyare. After his yidam,Chakrasamvara and guru Lingchen Repa (gLing Ras-pa Pad-ma rdo-rje) gave him the order to establish a second monastic seminary he went to the holy site, where he was up to build this gompa in 1206. As he arrived nine dragons roared up in the sky with a loud clap of thunder and white flowers rained down. To signify this auspicious sign he named the monastery drukpa gompa and the Lineage was also named after this incident: drukpa - The Line of the Dragon. The previously unknown site became known under the name Namdruk Sewa Jangchub Ling genannt: where the Dragons flew up the sky. During the lifetime of the fourth Gyalwang Drukpa Kunkhyen Pema Karpo the main seat of the Drukpa Lineage was moved to Druk Sangag Choeling (gSang-sngags chos-gling dGon-pa) in the Jar Province of Tibet. After the invasion of the PRC Namdruk was totally destroyed. Today only a few monks are living there under difficult circumstances. Today the Drukpa Lineage is very active in the Internet, too. You can visit them at the Gyalwang Drukpa - authorized by the twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa.
  
  Archaeological evidences date the dragon in the himalayan regions back at least to the Tang Dynasty in China. Li Yuanding travelled during the reign of the Tang to the ancient kingdom in Himalaya and wrote and account that he saw dragon images in the tent of the king. The stone plates at the grave of Chido Songtsan shows dragons, too. Also in the old kingdom of Guge there can be found dragon images. In Lhasa, a city in the territory of ancient Zhangzhung is the monastery Jo'khang or Tsuglagk'ang where the image of Shakyamuni Buddha can be found. In front of it there are two pillars with dragons. During the Tang Tibet came in touch with the chinese feng shui and some traces of it can still be found. So at Lhasa there is the green dragon in the South. Within the Gesa Epos the dragon is also located in the South. Of course you can find dragons in this heroic epos. They symbolize heroic attributes like nobility, strength, fortitude. "In the blue sky there is a jade dragon. He lives in Purple Cloud City. He roars to show his might, and he throws a thunderbolt like an arrowhead. In one blow he destroys the eagle's nest, and in another he smashes the Red Rock Peak." reads one line from it. It reminds on the heavenly palace of chinese dragons.
  
  Some samples of draconic geography in the Himalaya: In the province Sichuan a river has its fountain within a mountain cave, whethin it there are two white stones which look like two white dragons. This river is being called Zhugqu - Dragonriver in Gansu. The chinese name of it is bailong which is White Dragon (River) in english. In the county Lintan of the same province there are two lakes named after dragons: the Ama Zhugco - lake of the mother dragon and Zhugmoco - the dragon's daughters lake. At these locations there still are rituals being held to honor Zhug which is a female one there.
  
  You can find Druk in one corner of tibetan Prayer Flags to represent the element wood along with the horse (in the middle), the snow lion, the tiger and the khyung (Garuda). In tibetan these flags are named rLung rta - translated wind-horse or simply luck. Raising them on auspicious days increase the rLung rta of the person. The term rLung however is obviously akin to the chinese lung which translates as dragon among other meanings. Another very important meaning of this word is vital-force.
  
  Druks are living in the clouds and were later associated with gZa. The Druk is different to the Nagas of India and is being called for protection against enemies. It always has five claws. The crocodile is much more brought into play when the Druks are being displayed. Although there still is being a clear difference between the crocodile and the dragon. The Druk is the vehicle of some protective deities and Guardians of the Teachings in Tibet. The first of the Thang-yig (or brtan ma bcu gnyis: Tenma Chu-nyi) Dhag-nyi Chenmo Dorje Kundragma (bdag nyid chen mo rdo rje kun grags ma) for example. She was born in Tsangtoe (gtsang stod) and it is said that she would reside in Gungthang, Namtso (gnam mtsho), Chugma (phyug mo) and so on. She is of dark blue complexion and holds in her right hand a crocodile banner (chu srin gyi rgyal mtshan) and a small mirror (me long). Another female guardian deity of the scriptures and teachings of the kagyu is Tekar Drosangma (gtad dkar ´theng po). Among other things she gives material wealth. The Guardian Deity of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Rinpoche is dPal ldan lha mo. She is one of the most powerful Guardians of Tibet and she notes the sins of mankind on wood. She is accompanied by some horrible goddesses which ride on a khyung and a dragon.
  
  One of the older deities of Bon is Za (gZa) who is manifesting himself in hailstorms, lightnings and energy. He has 18 faces and six arms - many deities of Tibet share this feature of multiface and multilimbs. He rides a dragon and he causes numbness, epilepsy and madness when he is offended by blockades of normal flows of energy. Za patronizes magicians and his thanka can be seen in many monasteries. The shamans of the Tamang in Nepal have the dragon as an important ally: with the dragon they can actually travel to the lower world and the upper worlds (akash). The dragon helps them to extract illness, too. Rätsch in his book "Schamanismus und Tantra in Nepal" shows a nice thangka on page 82 which illustrates profoundly the shamanic journey.
  
  Another kind of tibetan spirits are the Klu which are more feared then the Druk. The myths of the Klu have mixed with the cult of the Naga in India and it is quite difficult to sort them out. The Klu are the tibetan version of the chinese water dragons and they live in fountains, rivers and seas. You can encounter them on certain special locations, too. The Klu hetched from six eggs at the dawn of creation. The king of them - Klu chen rgyal po - lives in an under water palace just like the dragonkings in china. It is to be noticed that he is being called in the more darker kind of rites to end up the lifes of the enemies quick. The female form of the Klu is Klu mo and the queen is named Yum klu mo yak. She is not one of the nice and peaceful breed and her garment are snakes. When she rides out she has a bag full of diseases with her. Another much more friendly Klu mo wears a garment of cloudy silk and feathers and she patronizes jung girls and women. The legendary kings of ancient Tibet before To ri long bstan had daughters of the gods and the Klu as wives. So the wive of king Gesar is named Sengjam Zhugmo, the daughter of the dragon. It is said that she was born in the thunder of a dragon. Today many women in Tibet bear the name Zhugmo. To angry one Klu can have the consequences of really bad weathers like hailstorms. Klu are regularly held responsible for illness and disease. There are certain rites to react on these more sinister deeds of them and the famous crosses of ropes play an importand part in these rites.
  ~~~
  Korean Dragons with long beards ...
  
  Whereas most dragons in Western mythology are generally related to the elements of fire and destruction, dragons in Korean mythology are mostly viewed as benevolent beings related to water and agriculture, often considered bringers of rain and clouds. Hence, many Korean dragons are said to have resided in rivers, lakes, oceans or even deep ponds within mountains.
  
  The symbol of the dragon has been used extensively, both in Korean mythology and ancient Korean art. Politically, the dragon represents the Emperor, who himself was associated with rain and agriculture. Hence, those who used the title of King (Wang) were forbidden from wearing dragon adornments; the Fenghuang is the creature traditionally associated with a king.
  
  Ancient texts sometimes mention sentient speaking dragons, capable of understanding such complex emotions such as devotion, kindness, and gratitude. One particular Korean legend speaks of the great King Munmu, who on his deathbed wished to become a "Dragon of the East Sea in order to protect Korea."
  
  The Korean dragon was said to have certain specific traits: no wings, for example, in addition to a long beard.
  
  Very occasionally a dragon may be depicted as carrying a dragon orb known as the Yeo-ui-ju (여의주) in one or more of its claws. It was said that whoever could wield the Yeo-ui-ju was blessed with the abilities of omnipotence and creation at will, and that only four-toed dragons (those which had thumbs to hold the orbs) were both wise and powerful enough to wield these orbs (as opposed to the lesser, three-toed dragons).
  
  As with Chinese dragons, the number nine is significant with Korean dragons and they are said to have 81 (9x9) scales on their backs.
  ~~~
  Dragons and the Tuva Shamanism
  
  In the shamanism of Tuva there is a sky ritual that is performed by shamans on mountain peaks in the spring. The ritual addresses how the connection between sky and earth comes about. The dragon can tread the connection lines between the (black) sky and the earth, and it works together with the shaman. The ritual may be carried out only by old, experienced shamans: only male shamans who have completed their 61st year and female shamans who have completed their 49th year are considered strong enough to perform this ritual. The dragon has a large tail, and if it is happy it wags its tail and the planets and stars come into being. If it is in a bad mood it shrieks loudly and there is thunder. If disturbances arise in the flow of communication between sky and earth, the dragon strikes the troublemaker with lightning and kills him. The spirit of the sky placed nine balls into the mouth of the dragon so that it wouldn't roar too loudly. In the winter the dragon sleeps until it awakens again in the spring. Serpents are very important helping spirits for the shaman in Tuvan shamanism, and they are therefore displayed on the headdress and the shamanic costume.
  ~~~
  A Dragon is a Dragon is a Dragon.