Our Free Will Is To Choose Which Side
There is a light within a man of light, and it gives light to the whole world. If it does not give light, there is darkness. (The Gospel of Thomas)
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As a ship is tossed by the tempest, so the reason is carried away by the mind when preyed upon by the straying senses. (Bhagavad Gita)
Carl Jung said: “He who looks in the mirror of the water, first sees his own image. He who looks at himself, risks to meet himself. The mirror does not flatter, it shows accurately what is reflected in it, namely that face that we never show the world because we hide it by the persona, the mask of the actor.”
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The Dragon
While common man looks to blame other people and blame fate, noble man looks for the fault within himself. - I Ching
In alchemy, the dragon corresponds closely with what Carl Jung called the Shadow. The Shadow is the name for a collection of characteristics and impulses which could be conscious, but which are denied. At the same time, we recognize and see them in other people.
Some examples of the Shadow are: egotism, laziness, intrigues, unreal fantasies, indifference, or being obsessed by money and possessions.
The Shadow is the inferior being in us, desiring what we do not allow, ourselves, because it is uncivilized, because it is incompatible with society’s rules and with the image of our ideal personality. It is all that what we are ashamed of.
The dragon always resides in caves, and thus in the earth, the underworld, and the subconscious. When the dragon leaves his cave, he devours virgins.
It is our inner emotional dragon destroying our virgin consciousness, as when he appears in the consciousness, expressing negativity like envy, jealousy, hatred, and so forth.
The dragon is never satisfied. He ever wants more treasures, more virgins. This is the seat of desire, and one must wrestle with the angel to overcome.
Is this not a true image of common man? Consciousness and alertness are enchanted by the dragon. The mythological dragon has the power to enchant, to hypnotize with his voice the brave knight who dared to challenge him. The dragon can also impose riddles in which the knight gets lost.
If we want to save the pureness of consciousness (the virgin), then the dragon has to be killed and chained in the bottomless pit of his/her own solar plexus center.
Actually this expression is not quite right. In a few tales where the dragon is conquered and made tame, he is penetrated by a lance with an iron point. Iron is always regarded a special metal, as it is found in meteorites.
As the metal associated with Mars, iron has an active, destructive force. The lance, as a phallic symbol, is the alchemical ‘secret [sacred] fire’. The penetration of ‘the body’ (here the dragon) with a lance is the penetration of physical matter with the alchemical fire.
In the same manner, the Greek god of the Sun, Apollo, penetrated the Python of Delphi, with arrows, and let the Python rot away next to the temple. Since then this place is called Pytho (putrefaction). Putrefaction is the first phase of the great Work.
The dead dragon undergoes a transmutation.
The dead dragon is not an end, but the beginning of the Great Work.
From the dead dragon, vapors and volatile substances arise, often seen in alchemical images. In other terms, the Earth is partly being transformed into Water, it ascends as vapor.
Some sources say, that in the head of the dragon is a stone, a clear reference to the rough stone, or ‘prima mater’ (first matter).
Killing the dragon also refers to a cosmic and personal happening. It is the penetration of the ‘prima mater’, as primal ocean, or primal chaos, the green life-spirit (human shadow), by the secret fire or the divine spirit.
The fiery serpent emanates fire and light into the primal waters. When the dragon (or serpent, as the cat of Ra, the Sun God, cut off the head of the serpent Apophis), is killed, the original chaos ceased and the process of cosmic evolution started.
When this happens the colour of the life-spirit changes to blue, signifying it has been lifted an octave out of the pit of the earth element and across the rainbow bridge (royal arch), into the feminine mysteries of the air element.
In Greek mythology, the hydra of Lerna was also a kind of dragon, with similar symbolism. Hercules killed the hydra in the second of his twelve works.
The hydra of Lerna lived in a swamp, the residence of primal instincts, passions, lusts and desires. This is the meaning of the Exodus story in the bible, to part the sea of reeds within one’s own swampy lower nature.
Anyone who gets involved with these emotions gets into a swamp in which he drowns. Therefore, Hercules shot fiery arrows (the alchemical fire), to get her out of her hiding place. First he cut off the hydra’s heads, but they grew back; an energetic approach is not the right way.
Then, his nephew Joales comes to rescue. He starts to singe the cuts with flaming tree trunks, so new heads cannot be formed. It is this systematic, patient, reflective and profound attitude that is required.
On the mythological level, nigredo signifies the difficulties man has to overcome on his journey through the underworld. Nigredo is sometimes called ‘blacker than the blackest black’. Hercules had to accomplish twelve, almost impossible, tasks.
The pilgrim traditionally encounters shadows, monsters and demons. In the ancient mysteries, the candidates had to undergo difficult, sometimes painful and even dangerous initiation tests. In alchemy, one of the symbols of nigredo is the ‘decapitation’, the ‘raven’s head’ (caput corvi).
These symbols refer to the dying of the common man, the dying of his inner chaos and doubt, because he is unable to find the truth in himself. In one of his works, Hercules cleanses the Augias stables. It is the cleansing of all the impurities in oneself.
(Excerpts from The House of Sun & The Hidden Lighthouse)
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Thoughts on what the Island was… is. I dare say my first thought was Soul. It still makes sense in my head, in a metaphoric slant. Yet again, it’s as real as all of this. Or what you consider to be real.
I humbly admit to being wrong even though, as I said, still like the meaning I also gave the Island. I give heartfelt credence to those who actually managed to discover the four letter word before it was confirmed by Jacob.
