THE DRAGON
Essay by Kathleen Granville Damiani, Ph.D.

Mother of the gods, father of the gods, the old god
Spread out on the navel of the earth
Within the circle of turquoise—
He who dwells in the waters the colour of the bluebird,
He who dwells in the clouds -
The old god, he who inhabits the shadows of the land of the dead,
The lord of fire and time

Some famous dragons & the heroes that killed them:

Typhon (Zeus)
Tiamat (Marduk)
Humbaba (Gilgamesh)
Bel (Daniel)
Britra (Indra)
Hydra (Hercules)
Python (Apollo), guardian of the oracle of Delphi
The dragons of St. George and Siegfried
Satan (Revelations 12 & 13): a dragon with 7 heads & 10 horns chasing the woman clothed with the sun

Dragons & their qualities:

> Mercurius
> Lord of Fire and Time (the Celestial Iguana, South America, Mayans)
> Image of the Tao (China)
>Genius of the natural world/animating spirit in every form
> Ouroboros, symbol of all cyclic processes and of time in particular
> The dragonic belt of images around the earth: the sublunary sphere
> Astrology: north/south nodes
> "Spirit of gravity" (Nietzsche)
> Residue
> Tropes; habit energy
> In China, the real form of a dragon can be a goddess
> Emblem of royalty (China)
> Dragon has a compound nature of fire and water
> Dragon symbolizes cyclical processes, turns on itself, related to Telos, the "toils of fate", the struggle
& completion of things by marriage, initiation, death: the circular bond is Time
> JEWELS

Tentative meanings:

Symbol of Thought Form/Elemental
Symbol ofMeme
Dragon holds the jewel of the vital
Presence of the Past/the "remainder"
Group thought form: "The senators are good men; the senate is a beast" (Roman proverb)