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MacKENZIE's Dragon's Nest

Tag Archives: Dancing Dragons

Dance Into Flight…

18 Wednesday Oct 2017

Posted by Shawn MacKENZIE in Autumn, Dancing Dragons, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Month of the Dragon, WAFDE

≈ 3 Comments

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.

 

 

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Tripping the Dragon Fantastic.

15 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by Shawn MacKENZIE in 2015, Dancing Dragons, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Dragons, Month of the Dragon, WAFDE

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Dancing Dragons, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Dragons, Month of the Dragon, WAFDE

It’s Dancing Dragon Day!

On the eve of Take Your Dragon to Work Day, when our friends try so hard to be on their best behaviour, there is no better time to cut loose with talon-tapping, wing-flapping abandon.

It’s time to remember that – according to the Enchantments – it was the rumbling of terpsichorean Dragons that inspired Modest Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” and Edvard Grieg’s “Hall of the Mountain King.

So, if the earth moves beneath your feet with a wildly synchopated beat, there are surely dancing Dragons near. Kick up your heels and join them. dragon_dance__sfm__by_argodaemon-d7fhhec

“Dance when you’re broken open.
Dance if you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of fighting.
Dance in your blood. 
Dance when you’re perfectly free.”

…Rumi

And any WAFDE member in need of their certificate of membership, feel free to message me. I will get your digital credentials to you asap.

 

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Dancing Dragon Day….

16 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by Shawn MacKENZIE in Book Giveaway, Dancing Dragons, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Dragon-watching, Month of the Dragon, WAFDE

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Book Giveaway, Dance, Dancing Dragons, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Dragons, Month of the Dragon, WAFDE

From whisker to tail spade, Dragons understand the essential joy of dance. They embrace the rhythm of Earth and season, the ebb and flow of life, tapping talons and flapping wings in exuberant glee.

Weyrs in autumn are particularly suited to terpsichorean fun. Late August to the Autumnal Equinox is the time for courtship and mating. Bonds are made and celebrated in anticipation of hatchlings to come. By October, paired Dragons are settling in. They spend their time hunting (mom is eating for between 2 and 7), building nests, and lighting up the night sky with expectant fandangos.

Dancing Dragons - Linda Cole

Dancing Dragons – Linda Cole

With wonder and abandon, they are the truth at the heart of Rumi’s words:

When Lovers of Life get ready to Dance,
the Earth shakes and the Sky trembles.


**In the tradition of Month of the Dragon, everyone who leaves a comment here at Dragon’s Nest has their name go into a hat. At the end of the month, a name will be drawn and the winner will receive signed copies of my books, The Dragon Keeper’s Handbook and Dragons for Beginners (both from Llewellyn Worldwide). Hope everyone is feeling lucky!

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Dragon Shopping at St Audrey’s Fair

15 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by Shawn MacKENZIE in Baubles, Book Giveaway, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Month of the Dragon, Myth and Lore, St Audrey Fair, WAFDE

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

baubles, Book Giveaway, Dancing Dragons, Dragons, fesitvals, St Audrey Fair, WAFDE

It’s time again for St Audrey’s Fair – October 15 – 17. This year the festivities overlap Dancing Dragon Day and end on Gaudy Bauble Day.

Sparklies - Pantherwitch

Sparklies – Pantherwitch

In short, draconic fun abounds!
For today, a look back at MotD’s past with a repost from Dragon’s Nest MotD, 2012.

Enjoy.

Hearken back to the grit and grimy days of England in the 7th century. Towns were few and far between and wolves and Dragons still ruled the wilds with fang and claw. Fun Anglo-Saxon times.

Detail from Vortigern, Merlin & the Dragons. St.Alban’s Chronicle

This was the age of deep superstition and early conflict between the budding Christian church and old-time Paganism. Of strict class structure and more rights for cattle than women. It was into this world that Princess Æthelthryth (Etheldreda to those more Roman and Anglo-Saxon) was born of a most saintly lineage – according to the Venerable Bede, she, her brother, and three sisters were all canonized. She was a comely aristocrat with a fondness for beads and trinkets and more interest in heaven than earth. In the way of Medieval women, she was also a pawn in politics and religion for much of her short life (636-679 CE). Still, she was blessed to be a woman of wealth and property and so had leverage most women lacked.

After numerous exploits including two marriages (tricky propositions when one vows to remain a virgin), minor miracles, Æthelthryth founded an abbey in 673 at the Isle of Ely, an historic district in Fenlands she’d received as a dower gift from her first husband, King Tondbercht. She remained there as Abbess until her death from an unsightly tumor on her neck she attributed to divine judgement on her youthful liking of necklaces, gewgaws, and baubles. 

What can this possibly have to do with Dragons, you ask? Was she personally familiar with our fierce friends? The strong anti-Dragon stance of the church would have made this highly unlikely. No, the connection comes posthumously, when, in honour of the saintly Æthelthryth – Audrey to those who knew her well – the people of Ely got together to celebrate her life with an annual fair. St. Audrey’s Fair. At these gatherings, in remembrance of Audrey’s jewelry obsession, simple, inexpensive trinkets were bought and sold. (The word ‘tawdry’ even comes from a bastardization of Audrey’s name.) Where better to pick up a little something for one’s Dragon without incurring a mountain of debt or the suspicions of the local constabulary?

 

St. Audrey Fairs are still held around the UK, and there is a growing effort among certain Dragon aficionados to spread the festivities to other corners of the world. Dates vary, from June 23 (Audrey’s Saints Day) to the more MotD-friendly time, October 16-17, Gaudy Bauble Day. Those who don’t have a proper St. Audrey’s Fair near by often substitute the experience with an afternoon of October tag-saling.

Hectic personal lives not to mention the advent of e-bay and other on-line vending venues have made actual ‘fairing’ more than a casual undertaking. Still, it’s autumn! The foliage is gorgeous and the air spiced with apples and woolly-bears. When better to go out with your Dragon and mingle with others of our kind among bins of dazzlers and sparklies.

It’s a great time to get a leg-up on your draconic Yule shopping ,too.

Monster-Medieval-Dragon-2

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Kick Up Dragon Heels

17 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by Shawn MacKENZIE in Asian Dragons, Dancing Dragons, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Dragon Keepers, Dragons, Dragons for Beginners, Magic, Month of the Dragon, Music, Mysticism, Myth and Lore, Rhythm, WAFDE

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Tags

Asian Dragons, Dancing Dragons, Dragon festivals, Dragon Keeper's Handbook, Dragons, Dragons for Beginners, Flying, Month of the Dragon, Myth and Legends, WAFDE

Dancing Dragon Day.

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.
…Rabindranath Tagore

Dancing Dragons - Wayne Anderson 2009

Dancing Dragons – Wayne Anderson 2009

Dragons, being wise as the Universe is old, love to dance. They feel the rhythms of life rippling through their scales and tickling their whiskers. Dancing with Dragons, sharing their enthusiasm and joy, is a one of the true delights of keeping their company.

VIETNAM-CHINA-HISTORY-ANNIVERSARY

In the East, the pleasure of Dragon dancing is a riotous display of public art with festive cloth and bamboo Dragons coursing through the streets. In a tradition dating back to the Han Dynasty, the Dragon Dance is a form of sympathetic magic for the whole community. Traditionally, the dance honors the great Lung, cosmic guardian of the Chinese people, the Children of the Dragon.

10000904378

A team of dancers brings the Dragon to life, mimicking his serpentine grace and power. With every sinuous twist and turn the mystical nature of the Dragon is invoked, his luck, wisdom, fertility, and dignity. Thus, the Dragon is exalted and her favor entreated for fine harvests and prosperity.

In the West, Dragon dancing is more a family affair yet no less festive. Autumn being mating season, Westies are ever tripping the light fantastic in courtship and amore. It is, of course, unwise to interrupt wooing Dragons, yet you will surely find a plenitude of occasions to take up pipe and tabor – or pump up the volume on your CD player – and frolic with Dragons from dusk to dawn. Western and Feathered Dragons also caper on the wing in aerial balletics that would humble Nijinsky – and the Red Baron.

dancing dragons

 Standing on the sidelines or tapping toe to talon, Dancing Dragon Day is fun for all. Dragons know that, as Agnes deMille said, “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.”

Minimalist_Dancing_Dragons_by_sidneyeileen

A quick reminder: Tomorrow is Take a Dragon to Work Day. If you plan on an office sojourn, don’t let your Dragon stay up too late tonight cutting a proverbial rug. Weary Dragons tend to be surly Dragons; when around people they do not know, a rested temperament and good manners are essential.

 

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