Dragon Art – Sunday Edition…

Tags

Art, Dragon Art, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Dragons, Hurricane Relief, Month of the Dragon, WAFDE

Happy Sunday.

Dragon Art Weekend continues through morning frost and clear autumn skies. So when you need a break from the Sunday Crossword, pour yourself another cup of coffee and enjoy….

“One White Soul” by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

Driftwood Dragon – James Doran

Bronze Dragon – Yoshida City, Japan

Hunting Party – Artur Mosca

Mojave Desert Sand Dragon

Far In The Direction – East Monkey

Green Dragons – Norsk Wood Works

Fire Inside – Yoggurt

 

Green Dragon – A Miscellany of Magical Beasts by Simon Holland

And for all those who are still looking for ways to help the people devastated by hurricane Maria, here’s a place to start.

 

 

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Weekend Dragon Art –

Tags

Dragon Art, Dragons, Dragons for Beginners, Month of the Dragon, WAFDE

Leaf season is fading fast and I hope everyone is getting out and enjoying these crisp October days. Since I hope to be doing just that myself – along with tackling fall garden clean-up – I thought it would be fun to devote this weekend’s posts to some of the wild and woolly new Dragon art I have come across since last year’s MotD.

Enjoy.

Medieval Dragon

Chinese Dragon – Vincent Coviello

Diwali Lights – Dragon Flights

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Asian Dragons, Diwali, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Dragons, fesitvals, Festival of Lights, fire, Himalayas, Month of the Dragon

This year, Diwali – the Lunar festival of Lights – and Month of the Dragon happen to coincide and the Dragons of the Himalayan Quad couldn’t be happier. They are doing aerial somersaults from the Western Ghats to the shores of Lop Nur.

Diwali is a moveable feast, celebrated by Hindu, Jain, Sikh, and Buddhist across the globe. When it falls during MotD, it serves as a brilliant reminder that, though we may be more familiar with Western Dragons, we must never forget their wise, often-reclusive, Asian kin.

Fire Dragon – Vasylina

Occurring sometime between mid-October and mid-November, Diwali is a festival of joy, wishes, fireworks, and sweets – all thing Dragons embrace! It is also a time when intricate rice/flour paintings or rangoli are created on floors and in courtyards as sacred greetings for the gods. A bit of common sense advice: ask your Dragons to stay clear of the paintings, as they are fragile and can be dispersed with the slightest whoosh of Dragon wings.

Diwali is also the time to celebrate

light winning out over darkness,
good over evil,
knowledge over ignorance,
hope over despair.

Sky Dragon – Jackie Morris

In a year of increased fears and doubts about tomorrow, of lies exhaled as easily as breath by those who should be ashamed to do so, Diwali seems to carry a special significance.

Today we light a flame to honor the Inner Cosmic Light, the underlying Reality of All Things.

Including Dragons!

 

Dance Into Flight…

Tags

Autumn, BrunuhVille, Dancing Dragons, Dragon Dance, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Flying, Mating Season, Month of the Dragon, WAFDE

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.    

….Friedrich Nietzsche

We had our first frost of autumn yesterday. The nasturtiums wilted fiercely, the woolly-bears came out in force, and Draconic must fills the air. Dragons have taken to the skies over the Green Mountains in joyful, romantic dance. Few beings have as innate an understanding of dance as Dragons, especially during mating season. They positively ripple with the rhythms of the elements, rising and falling on cool autumn breezes, tapping their talons on leaf-littered glens.

They understand the core of Agnes de Mille’s words,

To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.

In the East, we humans look to Dragons for festive inspiration, especially around the New Year. The fluid ins and outs of the ritual Dragon Dance exemplify draconic strength and flow of the season.

And so, today, honor the dancing Dragons. Embrace their wild abandon and wing-flapping two-steps. 

 

To paraphrase William Butler Yeats – he was writing of Fairies at the time, though might just as well have been speaking of our scaly friends:

Come…take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame.

So, go forth with joy and dance with Dragons.

 

 

For the Dragon Who Has Everything: A Bibble, A Bauble, A Day at the Fair…

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Dragon gifts, Dragons, Gaudy Bauble Day, Month of the Dragon, St. Audrey, WAFDE

Baubles And Beads – 12of8

Back in darkly superstitious – and Dragon-rich – 7^th-century England,

there lived a very devout princess named Etheldreda. She was, by all accounts, a beautiful woman, and learned, to boot. In her younger years, she was fond of necklaces and beads, beautiful baubles of every description. While such finery was befitting a young royal expected to play a role in the political chess-game of the day, it was less apt for the saintly abbess she became once she’d extricated herself from not one but two unconsummated marriages and was party to numerous miracles. (Some say getting out of her connubial relationships a virgin was her greatest miracle of all!)

Etheldreda, aka Audrey, died in 679 in her early 40s (39-45, exact dates of birth were sketchy back then), young by modern standards. In the end, she succumbed to a great growth on her neck, which she attributed to divine judgment on her frivolous, necklace-loving youth. In recognition of this – and St Audrey’s pious legacy – St Audrey’s Fairs have become an annual tradition. Morris Dancers kick up their heels and colorful stalls are festooned with baubles and beads of less than stellar quality – downright tawdry, in fact – the word itself a bastardization of St Audrey.

 

As every Dracophile knows, Dragons have a warm place in their fiery hearts for baubles, tawdry or not. It is only fitting that, during the Month of the Dragon, we tip our hats to St Audrey and her deliciously tacky fairs. Thus, on October 16^th, we celebrate Gaudy Bauble Day, a time to go to a tag sale or flea market or five-and-dime, and find a charming sparkly for your Dragon (or yourself). Remember, Dragons understand that their keeping is expensive, and so value the giving more than the cost. Gaudy Bauble Day is a celebration of the cheap and flashy – and a good time to do some early Yule shopping, too.

Time for Chipping In: All Paws On Deck!

Tags

Chipping In, Disaster Relief, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Month of the Dragon, WAFDE

Month of the Dragon usually sets aside a weekend to get together with our scaly cohorts and tackle that autumn Dragon-do list we’ve all been trying to ignore. Cleaning gutters, blowing leaves (no burning, please), pruning trees, sweeping chimneys, and putting the storms on those upstairs windows. It is the draconic way of giving back and paying forward.

This year, in this as in so many things, is different. Fires, floods, and winds, disaster relief is under way around the world – and now Ophelia bearing down on Ireland. It all makes a few leaves in the gutter seem unimportant. With this in mind, the consensus among the Weyrs is to extend Chipping-In Day through the entire month of October and beyond as needs be. 

Even among non-believers, Dragons are there, watching out for the displaced and endangered. They lift the weary and make frightened children laugh. And when possible, they even find lost pets and keep them safe until they can be reunited with their humans.

It is a messy, troubled world out there, and just knowing that Dragons are around, lending a paw, somehow inspires the better angels of our own species and makes it all a little more bearable. Even if only in our imaginations.

 

 

 

Do You Believe In Dragons?

Tags

Dragons, Month of the Dragon, WAFDE, Game of Thrones, Skeptics Day, Belief

Chances are, if you’re visiting the Nest, the answer is a resounding “Yes!!”

But today is Skeptics Day. And skeptics abound even in the company of Dragons. I am constantly surprised by just how may people, despite all the evidence to the contrary, still think Dragons – large and small – are just elaborate figments of our imagination. Silly humans.

Of course, as any Dragon will tell you, “If they don’t believe, you can’t make them.” Some people will simply not see what right in front of their eyes.

For thse of you who still languish in doubt, I off a bit of film from Game of Thrones that always makes me smile. Not only does it feature the brilliant Peter Dinklage, but it offers the evidence to the rankest skeptic. And, as David Hume said, “A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.” Plus, I too, when a child, always wanted a Dragon of my very own.

In the face of so much wonder, skepticism simply dries up and blows away.

 

Where’s Falkor When We Need Him?

Tags

Cosmology, Dragons, Falkor, Japan, Luck Dragons, Month of the Dragon, Nuclear Weapons, Peace, WAFDE

Since this time last year the world has been rocked, rolled, and tumbled, careening this way and that towards the edge of utter chaos. From the Himalayan Quad to the Weyrs of Tierra del Fuego, Dragons who should be delighting in the change of season and attendant mating rituals are on existential alert. For all of us.

And so it is with an added sense of urgency that we raise an orison to Luck Dragons around the world, and wish one and all a Felicitous Falkor Festival.

[Note: Falkor’s Festival coincides with the feast of Felicitas, Pagan tutelary of good fortune. All is connected in the world of Dragons.]

Falkor, for those of you new to the way of Dragons, is the Luck Dragon in Michael Ende’s Neverending Story. A pluch, sinuous, floppy-eared Dragon who comes to the aid of Atreyu in his quest to keep the vile Nothing at bay. Named after the Japanese Dragon of good fortune, he exemplifies the positive attributes of Asian Dragons from the Arals to the Pacific Rim.

Though not particularly magical himself, Falkor has a way of bringing luck to those who persevere.

At a time when nuclear tensions are increasing around the globe, there is another Lucky Dragon worth remembering today. In March, 1954, the Japanese tuna boat, Daigo Fukuryū Maru – Lucky Dragon No. 5 – and her crew were irradiated by fallout from the U.S.’s massive Castle Bravo thermonuclear test in the Bikini Atoll.

Castle Bravo Nuclear Test – 1954

On a draconic level, The Lucky Dragon incident gave rise to Godzilla lore. More importantly, the ship and her crew joined Hiroshima and Nagasaki as vital symbols of Japan’s anti-nuclear movement. At a time when certain moronic world leaders are wondering why we have such abominable weapons if we’re not going to use them, it is more important than ever to remind them – every day if we must – exactly why we never can. 

In short, today we need the wisdom and benevolence of all the Luck Dragons in the world. We also need to persevere in the quest for global sanity and peace.

Find your own personal Falkor, rub him/her between the ears, and hold tight.

May their good fortune bless us all.

 

Fire Dragons In a Tinderbox

Tags

California wildfires, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Dragons, fire, Fire Prevention, Month of the Dragon, Relief, WAFDE

Autumn in one of my favorite seasons. The air cools, the woolly bears come out, and the landscape turns positively polychromatic. It’s also time for Dragon courtship, but that’s a tale for another day.

As the leaves color, dry, and fall, the October wilderness becomes a tinderbox. And, despite the increasing number and strength of hurricanes and monsoons pounding coastlines this year, the sea surges and floods, climate change has been making the potential for conflagrations much worse.

Now Dragons have a spectacular relationship with fire. In the realm of pop culture, one has only to think of the oohs and aahhs elicited by the magnificent Dragons in Game of Thrones’ “Spoils of War” episode to get a properly draconic tingle up one’s spine. Special effects can be breathtaking!

But it is important to remember that, in the real world, Dragons are remarkably careful with their flames. Aside from hatching time, Dragonfire is used in defense – usually last defense – and usually with a keen awareness of ones fragile surroundings. After all, Dragons rely on the woodlands for food and shelter and are inclined to act in their own self-interest.

Of course, young Dragons just entering their fire-breathing years are not always as careful as they should be. Between the exuberance of discovery and the impishness of youth, accidents can happen. It is incumbent upon their parents/guardians and Dragonkeepers to teach them proper fire safety and etiquette. When better to start than during Fire Prevention Week.

Right now, our hearts go out to the denizens of California. North to south, the state is ablaze and our fur, skin, feather and fin friends are all threatened. While Dragons were not responsible for this spate of wildfires, as creatures in the wild, they are nonetheless impacted by the devastation.

Keep safe. Quench embers and errant sparks and don’t let your Dragons flame near the woods.

Fire Breathing Dragon – Jezebel

Indigenous Dragon Day

Tags

Amazon, Climate Change, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Dragons, Feathered Dragons, Indigenous Dragons, Month of the Dragon, Native American Dragon lore, Quetzalcoatl, WAFDE

Before exploring the indigenous Dragons of the West, we here at the Nest urge anyone and everyone wishing to mark Columbus’s journeys to do so by contributing to the rescue/relief efforts in Puerto Rico. 

Today in the States is a federal holiday. Schools, banks, government and postal offices are closed in recognition of a cruel, misguided European sailor, Christopher Columbus. This year, the 9th of October also happens to be Leif Erikson Day, in recognition of the Norseman’s crossing the Atlantic almost 500 years before Columbus.

During Month of the Dragon, we view the day differently. Of course.

We prefer to set it aside to honor the  Dragons of the Western Hemisphere and the indigenous people whit whom they shared the land.

Some, like the Canadian Snow Dragons are quite familiar. Indeed, the Euopean Dragons who headed west during the Trans-Atlantic Transmigration felt quite at home among their Arctic kindred. [Note: When it comes to Europeans in the Western Hemisphere, the Dragons fleeing the Dark Times not only had Columbus beat by centuries, but Leif Erikson, too. The sight of them soaring over Vinland soars must have made the Vikings, in their Dragon-prowed long boats, feel right at home.]

And further to the south, the colorful descendents of the great Plumed Serpents Quetzalcoatl, Gucumatz, Kukulkan, and Campacti lit up the Meso-american canopies.

Quetzalcoatl – Oreloki

Feathered Dragon – Sweetdrawingwind

They are gems of the skies, bobbing and weaving through the mist round Venezuela’s tablelands, bathing in the Iguazu Falls. They are also increasingly endangered as their habitat is targeted and climate change takes its toll.

But the indigenous Dragons of the Western Hemisphere include a slew of lesser knowns as well. Many of these creatures are linked to the lakes and rivers of the land and tend to be less than genial. Though their places in Native American lore are often marked by tales of death and danger, they deserve our notice and respect.

In the southeast woodlands of what are now the Carolinas, the Cherokee crossed paths with Uktena, a horned serpent/water dragon, native to the regions rivers and marshes.

Uktena – Cherokee Horned Water Dragon

Further west, he is known among the Lakota as the Unktehi, a lake dragon with a formidable reputation.

Unktehi – Lakota Lake Dragon

The Illini of the Mississippi Valley told tales of the frightening Piasa dragon, aka the “bird who devours people.” He was imortalized in lithographs on the river cliffsides.

Piasa Dragon – Illini. 1932 Restoration. Mississippi River Valley

And the people of the Pacific Northwest, the Tlingit and Haida, Salish and Chinook, shared their lives with the great sea and forest Dragons of the region.

[The playful Dragons of Washington’s Willapa Hills were delighted when the recent remake of Pete’s Dragon was relocated in their neck of the woods. Though some took exception to the Dragon’s furriness, they did consider it recognition long overdue.]

These are just a handful of the Dragons native to the Western Hemisphere. Though urban sprawl and climate change – especially in the United States – are pushing many to remote regions, they are still here. As long as we honor them, they will remain so.