A wreath of crackling electricity. A horde of jewels and gold and the polished bones of those who tried to steal it. Breath of fire. Scaly folded wings, defying physics to carry its vastness into the upper airs. A soul like ours, but more patient, more reclusive, more wise.
The dragon perhaps the most fully realized creature in all mythology, and, despite no fossil evidence of it ever being something real, appears again and again in stories from cultures across the world.
Nowhere is it more prominent than in the astrological traditions of China, where the Dragon is one of the 12 zodiacal signs, taking the place of Aries in the western reckoning. Chinese astrology melds these twelve signs with its five element cosmology (earth, wood, metal, fire, and water) to describe a 60-year cycle of energies. And today is the start of the new chapter: with this dark moon, we are entering the year of the Wood Dragon.
Dragon is associated with authority, abundance, and evolution, with Wood adding in a style of flexibility, creativity, and a tenor of ambivalence that contrasts nicely with the dragon’s intense cardinality. Think back to 2012, and the intensity of the changes it wrought on personal, communal, and societal levels. This is the type of portal we are entering today, as the lunar new year commences.
In the western zodiac, lunar new year, almost always coincides with the dark moon of Aquarius. And this week, the stars are tilting decidedly in that direction. After the sun and Pluto ingress into the sign of the water bearer, in late January, this week they are being joined by Mercury, Mars, and soon enough Venus as well. Aquarius is the sign of novelty and innovation, and we can feel that rippling with news from the technosphere like Apple’s VR goggles and Musk’s Brain Computer Interface.
Aquarius is also a sign of community, and in both at this time and in the year (and era) now beginning, we can benefit greatly by coming together with our neighbors, our peers, our friends, and accessing that oldest and still most profound technology of communion. Fire, music, dance. Sacraments, spoken, and imbibed.
Essential to the inner and outer transformation necessary for us to successfully cross the chasm and leap into this new era is the willingness to let go and evolve out of restrictive, domineering styles of relating. This goes from our intimate partnerships and our communities of practice all the way out to our workplaces, townships, and nations.
Great thinkers are approaching this from a wide array of different angles, from Tyson Yunkaporta’s indigenous wisdom awakenings to Balaji’s Network State to Sophie Strand’s reinvigoration of mythic traditions that bring us closer to ourselves.
Access this true technology in your own way, in ritual, research, and contemplation. Fill yourself with sacred water and sacred fire. Become the dragon. Live the myth.
With magic
Samu