Some things about dragons17:49 Jan 03 2008
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Here is a quote from Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary,1999 by G de Purucker
Draco [from Greek drakon dragon]
The dragon; a northern circumpolar constellation, within which is
the pole of the ecliptic. But the name seems to have had different applications at different times and
places; we hear it spoken of as a vast constellation extending through seven signs of the zodiac; also as
the seven-headed Draco, each of whose heads is a star of Uras Minor; and again as the pole star. Draco
was a symbol of the good serpent, the Messiah of the Naaseni. See also DRAGON
Dracontia Temples dedicated to the Dragon, emblem of the sun, of life, wisdom, and cycles. Once they
covered the globe; all that remains are those colossal upreared monoliths, or combinations of monoliths,
seen at Stonehenge, Carnac, and other places. The Serpent Mounds, such as those in Ohio, symbolize the
same thing. Besides being mute historic witnesses of a knowledge of the mysteries of the cosmic or
mundane serpent, these temples were used as means of divination by the priests who understood their
secrets.
Dragon
[from Greek drakon, serpent, the watchful] Known to scholarship as a mythical monster, a huge
lizard, winged, scaly, fire-breathing, doubtless originating in the memory of an actual prehistoric animal.
Dragon is often synonymous with serpent. The dragon and serpent, whether high or low, are types of
various events in cosmic or world history, or of various terrestrial or human qualities, for either one can
at different times signify spiritual immortality, wisdom, reimbodiment, or regeneration. In the triad of
sun, moon, and serpent or cross, it denotes the manifested Logos, and hence is often said to be sevenheaded.
As such it is in conflict with the sun, and sometimes with the moon; but this conflict is merely
the duality of contrary forces essential to cosmic stability. The dragon itself is often dual, and it may be
paired with the serpent, as with Agathodaimon and Kakodaimon, the good and evil serpents, seen in the
caduceus. Again the dragon is two-poled as having a head and a tail, Rahu and Ketu in India, commonly
described as being the moon's north and south nodes, the moon thus being a triple symbol in which a
unity conflicts with a duality.
A universal myth is that of the sun god fighting the dragon and eventually worsting it, which represents
the descent of spirit into matter and the eventual sublimation of matter by spirit in the ascending arc of
evolution. There are Bel (and later Merodach) and the dragon Tiamat in Babylonia and with the
Hebrews; Fafnir in Scandinavia; Chozzar with the Peratae Gnostics; among the Greeks Python
conquered by Apollo and the two serpents killed by Hercules at his birth; the fight between Ahti and the
evil serpent in the Kalevala; and many other such stories. In the Christian Apocalypse the dragon plays a
great part, but it has been often misinterpreted as evil just as Satan or the Devil has been imagined as the
foe of divinity and humanity. Cosmologically, all dragons and serpents slain by their adversaries are the
unregulated or chaotic cosmic principles bought to order by the spiritual sun gods or formative cosmic
powers. The dragon is the demiurge, the establisher or former of our planet and of all that pertains to it --
neither good nor bad, but its differentiated aspects in nature make it assume one or the other character.
The dragon symbol, then, is both cosmic and human in its applications: it may stand for powers of
nature, which first overcome man, but which he must eventually overcome, as well as the monad atmabuddhi,
which through the manasic principle seeks imbodiment, but needs the help of the still lower
principles in order to effect a union with the principles of earth. Cosmologically analogies are drawn
between the north polar constellation Draco and one or the other of the great floods, and the word
dragon is sometimes used to denote such a flood; for the position of this constellation relative to that of
the earth's axis of rotation is intimately connected with cataclysms. The dragon in its higher or superior
sense means among other things divine wisdom, especially where the serpent is used for terrestrial
wisdom; and adepts or initiates were frequently called dragons. The dragon may be the symbol of a
cycle; and the sevenfold dragon may mean the seven minor cycles in a great cycle.
Dragon of Wisdom
Commonly an adept, one of the wise; also popularly a skilled magician -- whether
of the right or left path. Referring to the earliest stages of cosmogony, dragon is a term often used for the
sun in its various cosmologic functions, also for the One or Logos. An important significance of the
phrase is that the real initiator of humanity, or of the individual neophyte, is the person's own higher ego.
In Chinese Buddhism the term is used for the genii of the four quarters, called in China the Black
Warrior, the White Tiger, the Vermilion Bird, and the Azure Dragon -- the Four Hidden Dragons of
Wisdom. In her rendering of the Stanzas of Dzyan, Blavatsky uses Dragon of Wisdom as an equivalent
of Oeaohoo the Younger -- the germ and overseer of all things to the end of the life cycle.
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