Today is Skeptics Day! When better to stop beating around the bush and just come out and ask: Do you believe in Dragons? And, if so, how and why?
Speaking for myself, I believe in Dragons.
Many Dragons by Jackie Morris
And I don’t mean as some sinister cousin of Jurassic carnivores or as yet undiscovered pteradon
Nor do I believe they are an subconscious amalgam of the everyday dangers confronting our prehistoric ancestors: winged eagle, scaled serpent, and ferocious feline.
Both are tempting explanations, but oh so mundane….
I also don’t relegate Dragons to the realm of myth and fantasy – holding them as mere creatures of our fertile imaginations. That way lies a dismissal of our majestic friends and their impact on our world.
Don’t get me wrong. I am a great booster of the imagination. As Mark Twain said, “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” But let us heed Twain and use the imagination as a means to see not only what the majority of people believe to be real and true and right in front of their noses, but also what is rare and shy, just waiting to be found. Again.
I believe in Dragons. In flesh and blood Dragons, larger than life and twice as natural (thank you Dean Dodgson). I do not care that the traditional scientific community has found no evidence of their existence; to those doubting Thomases I would iterate the words of the poet Ralph Hodgson: “Some things have to be believed to be seen.”
I believe in Dragons because they make sense to me, surely as much sense as the platypus or the Amazon hoatzin. I believe they are ancient beings, magnificent and wise, who inspire us to look at our world with wonder, to question rather than destroy that which is different or misunderstood.
I believe in Dragons because part of ‘my soul is in the sky’ (Shakespeare) and airplanes just don’t cut it.
I believe in Dragons because at the end of the day, I want to say, as Ged of Earthsea did, “though I came to forget or regret all I have ever done, yet would I remember that once I saw the dragons aloft on the wind at sunset above the western isles; and I would be content.” (Ursula K. LeGuin)
Most of all, to skeptics I would say I believe in Dragons because I refuse to live in a world without magic, without the possibility of such wildness and breathtaking beauty.
I believe, though I have never seen one in the flesh and blood. And I agree with what Hodgson said – you have to believe to see. I will keep my eyes to the heavens. And darn if you don’t have an amazing collection of Dragon art.
Thanks. Time to band against the skeptics, that’s what I say.
I neither believe, nor disbelieve. I have never experienced one. But if I were to look for convincing, I would look to you. Your passion is believable. Your belief is believable.
Thanks, Niamh–I think that’s half the battle, when it comes to belief.
Oh all right! You drag-goned it out of me. Yes I believe in dragons. But not the way most people believe. I believe there are many alternative realities. I believe time is non-linear. I believe the Universe is much more complex than any puny human can imagine…sometimes we get bogged down thinking this reality is all there is. But it isn’t. There are others and in some dragons dwell. But it takes a wise and keen mind to go in search of them and to find them.
David, I am so very glad I did drag-gon it out of you. Love it. Thanks you.
Yes. And quite possibly that is why some of us see, some don’t and why Dragons – as complex as the Universe(s) they inhabit – are able to come and go as need be; why they were able to vanish during the Dark Times and then return when the ‘visible’ world became more hospitable to their kind.
I have to say I really can relate to your post,and I am surprised too!! because from your previous posting I really thought you had talked yourself out of them!
Ah, don’t make a decision until I finish the article…two more parts to go. I do believe in dragons, I do believe in dragons, I do I do!!!! (to paraphrase the cowardly lion…)
I definitely believe. I’m right there with you Shawn.
Yes!!!!
I do believe in Dragons!
And I know that they also believe in me…
Yeah! And, yes, mutual belief is very mportant, though I think, for Dragons, not essential. They are what they are, after all.
As you said: “I would say I believe in Dragons because I refuse to live in a world without magic, without the possibility of such wildness and breathtaking beauty.” There is magic and there is the mystical. As for the other multiverses and multiple infinities, we are limited as human beings to not believe in the expanse of parallel universes and time shifting and open energy fields where we can slip into other realities. And if we are able to do that then the magic of dragons would certainly have the ability and power to go wherever they wanted to travel. So yes I believe in Dragons and Magic and Dreams as possibly being the real world and the real world being our dreams and nightmares. This is a brilliant page and the message you invoke is a wonderful way to think, feel and be.
J.K. the secret keeper.
Thank you, JK;–feeling all Dragon-humble.
Reblogged this on the secret keeper and commented:
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As you said: “I would say I believe in Dragons because I refuse to live in a world without magic, without the possibility of such wildness and breathtaking beauty.”
J.K. the secret keeper
I seek to feel their power deeper than muscle-deep and innately born wisdom beyond age and the ages – the reason for researching a global perspective – Dragons are real. – http://www.dragonfightsforgood.blogspot.com -
Beautifully put, Maria!
Yes…dragons are real, not of this plane (or whatever), and i think one in particular believed in me more than i believed in him.
It only take one.