Harnessing the Power of the Dragon
"Among their earliest forms, dragons were associated with the Great Mother, the water god and the warrior sun god. In these capacities they had the power to be both beneficent and destructive and were all-powerful creatures in the universe. Because of these qualities, dragons assumed the roles taken by Osiris and Set in Egyptian mythology." Read More: http://dragons.monstrous.com/powers_of_dragons.htm#ixzz3xcDH57P6
I come from a long line of Dragon Mothers on both sides of my family. Women who have been Great powerful Mothers with warrior hearts. As the definition goes, we all have the power to be both beneficent and destructive. One of the keys to understanding ourselves better so that we can be more aware of the Universe around us and how we fit in is to recognize, embrace and make peace with all the parts we discover inside of us both good and bad. We who have dragon hearts have always known this raging power within us, the fire has always been there.
Some of us were lucky to have had a "cute" little roar in our early years that most adults would find cute. Others of us never had a cute roar. I was somewhere in-between having grown a soft curly crown of white blonde curls by the time I was two with big brown eyes and plump little arms and legs which meant a lot of the time my little dragon roars would be dismissed as cute and filed under "hissy fits". Those little dragon roars expanded into heartier roars with physical actions combined that, if I'd been a real dragon might have been celebrated as "finding my wings" but as a human, threatened my parents, teachers and friends in my world. Pretty much by the time I was five years old, I stymied most of the adults in my life starting with being kicked out of kindergarten when I disobeyed my teacher defiantly swinging on the coat rack for our school which couldn't bear my weight thereby crashing coats and all into the plate glass window. The window didn't break but my teacher's patience with me sure did! On the other hand I could be very cuddly and oh so loving, especially when it came to animals and nature swimming for hours in pools or oceans until the skin on my fingers and toes wrinkled up.
As the power of the dragon grew within me, I continued to attract all kinds of people by my flame but repel many with my next breath. Being inside me was like being inside of a whirling tornado of feelings, hormones and impressions. As I grew older and my dragon tornado grew I would suck in beliefs, thoughts, understandings, misunderstandings, destructive behaviors and anything that caught my attention. I knew there was something different about me compared to my peers, but I didn't understand what it was. This power got darker and darker so that all I wanted to do was stamp it out to make it stop hurting me so that I could stop hurting others. I had watched the mothers in my life with their own dragons and had experienced those times when their roaring flames would spread out covering everyone and everything in their path but for many years. I wasn't able to see that I had this same power too much less understand that it was destructive yet when harnessed could be an amazing power that could be used for good. Like the Christmas of my 21st year when visiting my Dad and stepmother in Brussels, Belgium. Within 24 hours of my arrival, complications from a life-threatening car accident that prior summer sent me to the emergency room in the wee hours of the morning in the middle of a doctors' strike. My tiny step-mother expanded all 5'4" inches of herself, roared in French to people to get snapping, demanded help from the Surgeon General of the hospital and his team which ended up with me receiving major life saving internal surgery very quickly and by the best doctors they had.
Poor me, poor you as dragons hatching out into a nest surrounded by ducklings. From the beginning when we opened our mouths to let out happy roars with flames we created fried chicken! No wonder we clamped down when we smelled smoke, laying thick layers over our undiscovered magic. Instead of feeling confident and proud of my gifts, I fed the fire of guilt and shame. I'm in awe that I survived in spite of myself until I stumbled into therapy in my early twenties and begin the long road to discovery and recovery. Through introspection, understanding, meditation, medication, addiction recovery, and various expansion of various spiritual beliefs I am only now able to see the dragon within me and harness its power. The image that comes to mind is that of a soul surfer on a big flaming wave. Though I feel the power, I now believe I'm at choice as to how and when to use it instead of the power using me. The harness for my dragon powers now allow me to feel their movement and reactions to real or perceived injustice but enable me to choose how to respond appropriately. My heart's desire is to create peace in the world so I'm grateful to be able to create a warm fire for people to gather around rather than blast them away into the outer shores of consciousness.
Don't get me wrong, there are still those times when I am enticed by the powerful dragon within and can think of nothing more satisfying than to scorch the earth and all who are on my war path but today I choose to fly up into the sky and expel my flames into infinity until the answers come echoing back.
Harness the dragon within while polishing its scales.