SLAYING THE DRAGON?FOR TRANSFORMATION

It is discovered like a sleeping dragon, when all the venom and toxin created from the pus of the minds septic splinters are let out into the ether from the caverns of your shadow self, and are energetically released, a wondrous thing happens, you transform yourself!”

There is a story of old about St George, the Dragon Slayer. A man on a white horse rearing its front legs, underneath whom is a green dragon, looking ferocious and poised to strike. In some ways the dragon psychologically represents all those issues and problems we face in our lives. Our shadows perhaps. We then will also do well to understand how we find the St George in us. The courageous conqueror who rises up to the occasion and is willing to put his very life on the line to save another soul.?

According to legend, towns would offer up gifts like livestock, treasures and novelties to a dragon to avoid things like conflict and death, but when those things eventually ran low in supply the villagers turned to human sacrifices to appease the dragons. Oddly enough it didn't seem to bother people all too much until a princess was chosen to be the dragon's next gift. Both history and the state of our world until now shows us that this is how we appease the dragons and ourselves, by sacrificing the other, and calling it a selfless act that leaves us feeling blameless.?

TO SLAY OR NOT TO SLAY??

For centuries in the east and the west we have been told numerous stories about this courageous and strong side of us who is prepared to go out and tame or slay the Dragon, ultimately conquering it and becoming its master. Either way you look at it, firstly to slay the dragon is to be powerful and bold enough to risk losing everything that you have, your life included in a battle to the death.

We risk much to possibly possess the priceless treasures dragons defend. Secondly, to tame a dragon is also to conquer the monster but rather by building a relationship that makes the dragon freely willing to share its knowledge, treasure and power with you. If dragons are part of us and in some ways they certainly are indeed, then we would be slaying parts of ourselves and the dragons wouldn’t be able to share their wisdom or their golden treasure with us.?

The choice to slay or tame is before us each and every day. The chooser is the archetype of who we are today. Choice is really everywhere and at every turn we make. When we awaken to who we really are we recognise these choices that we make so often, most without thinking. When we recognise this fact we make more conscious choices and our lives miraculously change. Choices we made in fear become consequences we reap in love. We see before us life and death at every turn and we begin to choose life. This is how we find our way back home. Every road we choose in love, leads us back home.?

So do we slay or tame the dragon within? Taming our personal dragons also allows us to embrace our full selves. When we try to slay a part of ourselves, we may be denying or cutting off, a valuable aspect of our personality or identity. Taming our personal dragons, on the other hand, allows us to acknowledge and integrate all aspects of ourselves, even the ones we may not like. Some call it “shadow work” while others call it a spiritual awakening. We remove the masks and personalities we wore to war and take our dragon for a walk in the countryside.?

What the story of the knight and the dragon represents so well here is that we are both characters in the story wanting pretty much the same things. We’re the beast and the courageous night on sacred quests. We’re the mask and the face behind the mask. We start out fighting for survival from our first breath, until the time to let go and surrender arrives. That’s the mystery of how we win the battle hidden from us all along until we’re ready to face the truth of who we really are. You see, once upon a time we all needed the dragon to navigate life which end up as the hardened and fearful parts of our personalities. We sacrificed parts of ourselves, our values and highest virtues to appease our dragon nature. Many of us try to slay the dragon of personality with addictions, multiple masks and dis-ordered selves. We cause self harm because hurting personalities hurt personal realities. When we start to talk patiently and with reverence for life self love instead of self deprecation arises. Love emerges were fear once rained supreme and we become one integrated part of our true nature. Our dualistic nature dissolves and transforms us into being with a universal nature where everything is included rather than hidden, hated or tossed to the side. This divine union is the birth of our Sacred Selves.?

WAKING UP THE BEAST?

Through life we eventually realise that we need the dark and sometimes hidden parts of psyche that are primordial and animalistic. This nature of the beast that is trained to fight, hide or take flight keeps us alive when we’re too ill equipped physically, emotionally and mentally to do so ourselves. We lack the power, the courage and the insight to stay alive until we’ve got to a point where the dragons within can face the knight in shining armour and vice versa. This dragon mask we metaphorically wear to ward off the potential of all evil threats helps us navigate a fallen world and completes its task of survival of the fittest through dark nights and deep waters.?

Through problems, trials and tribulations we accept that we may not have been able to face these issues of life without the dragons might, characteristics and capabilities. Dragons are of course also seen as wise & powerful allies in a magical and mystical, yet uncertain, world. As children even we believe that we can ride upon their backs high in the heavens and the clouds. This is the story of how we put the mask on and how we forget through the passage of time and testing by fire that it is even there. Ignorance of the beast is bliss. For a while.?

You are the jewel in the lotus. One cannot exist without the other. You are the beauty and the beast. The knight and the dragon. We are spiritual beings having a human experience and vice versa. We’re love and fear wrapped into one. We’re the jin and the jang the night and day and the life and death.