Saving the Dragon

Saving the Dragon “…My senses discover’d the infinite in everything, and as I was then perswaded, & remain confirm’d, that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for the consequences but wrote.” (Blake 1911, p. 60) “I was in a Printing house in Hell & saw the method in which knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation. In the first chamber was Dragon-Man, clearing away rubbish from a cave’s mouth; within, a number of Dragons were hollowing the cave.” (Blake 1911, p. 63) “The brave men didn’t kill dragons, they rode them.” (Game of Thrones 2011) “…if the Empire discovered the dragon, he and his family would be put to death unless he joined the king. No one could—or would—help them. The simplest solution was just to kill the dragon, but the idea was repugnant, and he rejected it.” (Paolini 2003) “…It is not very often that the philosopher attains such a consciousness of his effort that the rational constructions in which his thought was projected finally show him their connection with his inmost self, so that the secret motivations of which he himself was not yet conscious when he projected his system lie revealed. This revelation marks a rupture of plane in the course of his inner life and meditations. The doctrines that he has elaborated scientifically prove to be a setting for his most personal adventure. The lofty constructions of conscious thought become blurred in the rays not of a twilight but rather of a dawn, from which figures always foreboded, awaited, and loved rise into view.” (Corbin 1960) This essay has been a long time coming. As a child my imagination was particularly captivated by stories of dragons. I developed an especially intimate relationship with two dragons, Smaug (Tolkien 1937) and Saphira (Paolini 2003), who respectively embody conceptions of Dragons that rise from the Artificial and Natural Worldviews. Smaug—an emissary of the Morgoth who sleeps atop a mountain of gold he acquired through attempted genocide, is prone to anger and meets his demise in a bout of vengeful rage—is a perfect embodiment of passions like greed, anger, vengefulness, malice, etc. with which Dragons (and emotion more generally) are associated in the Artificial Worldview. Bilbo Baggins, who overcomes the dragon by tricking the dragon into conflict with Bard the Bowman (King of the Lake Men) who shoots the dragon through the heart with a Black Arrow (this surely rings of the story of St. George slaying the dragon with a spear associated with the penetrating power of Spirit referenced by Nasr [1996] below if not presenting a slightly different perspective in the arrow being black), is only able to fulfill his quest and regain the Arkenstone once the dragon is slain. (Tolkien 1937) Saphira embodies a very different understanding of Dragons. (Paolini 2003) To be sure her personality is typified by passion and in that sense she embodies the same basic form, but where Smaug is an enemy that must be slain Saphira becomes bonded to her ‘rider’ Eragon (which among other things allows them to communicate telepathically) and renders him into an immortal state of being that abounds with magical potential. Rather than slaying the dragon, Paolini’s myth frames reciprocal, harmonic unity with the dragon as the rout to fulfilling the quest of human existence. There was a time in Paolini’s world where Elves and Dragons became locked in a titanic battle that pushed both races to the brink of destruction, but in the end they were saved when a young elf named Eragon became bonded to a white dragon named Bid'Daum (deliverance, in short, was attained through the attainment of reciprocal, harmonic unity rather than conquest, colonization, assimilation and genocide of the other). “…‘the elves were a proud race then, and strong in magic. At first they regarded dragons as mere animals. From that belief rose a deadly mistake. A brash elves youth hunted down a dragon, as he would a stag, and killed it. Outraged, the dragons ambushed and slaughtered the elf. Unfortunately, the bloodletting did not stop there. The dragons massed together and attacked the entire elven nation. Dismayed by the terrible misunderstanding, the elves tried to end the hostilities, but couldn’t find a way to communicate with the dragons. ‘Thus, to greatly abbreviate a complicated series of occurrences, there was a very long and very bloody war, which both sides later regretted. At the beginning the elves fought only to defend themselves, for they were reluctant to escalate the fighting, but the dragons’ ferocity eventually forced them to attack for their own survival. This lasted for five years and would have continued for much longer if an elf called Eragon hadn’t found a dragon egg.’” (Paolini 2003) This wording still implies some taint of the anthropocentric worldview—‘mere animals’— but that being said we can surely parse some important wisdom in the notion that it was this anthropocentric hubris, denigration and denial of (desire to flee from) our own animal nature that brought about the Artificial Worldview’s conflict with the dragons (the passions, the heart, emotion, etc.)… What is more, the antagonist of Paulini’s story (Galbatorix) fell into madness after the death of his dragon: “‘So it was that soon after his training was finished, Galbatorix took a reckless trip with two friends. Far north they flew, night and day, and passed into the Urgals’ remaining territory, foolishly thinking their new powers would protect them. There on a thick sheet of ice, unmelted even in summer, they were ambushed in their sleep. Though his friends and their dragons were butchered and he suffered great wounds, Galbatorix slew his attackers. Tragially, during the fight a stray arrow pierced his dragon’s heart. Without the arts to save her, she died in his arms. Then were the seeds of madness planted.” (Paolini 2003) The seeds of madness come in the death of the heart! Galbatorix, after being denied a new dragon, steals a young black dragon with whom he forcibly bonds himself: “He and his new disciple hid themselves in an evil place where the Riders dared not venture. There Morzan entered into a dark apprenticeship, learning secrets and forbidden magic that should never have been revealed. When his instruction was finished and Galbatorix’s black dragon, Shruikan, was fully grown, Galbatorix revealed himself to the world, with Morzan at his side…” (Paolini 2003) As we discover later in the myth, Galbatorix’s immense power is derived from having stolen and dominated the Eldunarí (‘heart of hearts’) of a great number of dragons. Eldunarí are a gemlike organ in dragons—dragons can store their consciousness in Eldunarí, and can disgorge their Eldunarí so as to live on after their bodies die. Again, the power of dragons is associated with the heart (the ‘heart of hearts’), and the power of the ‘evil’ forces is rooted in theft and manipulation of this power (see Kanye and Trump’s ‘dragon energy’…). Rome’s Mars (Ares in the Greek 1 ) seems to be a symbolic embodiment of this stolen and manipulated power of the heart (passion)… “‘And the dragons?’ he asked. ‘What of them? Surely they weren’t all killed.’ Brom answered sorrowfully, ‘That is the greatest mystery in Alagaësia nowadays: How many dragons survived Galbatorix’s murderous slaughter? He spared those who agreed to serve him, but only the twisted dragons of the Forsworn would assist his madness. If any dragons aside from Shruikan are still alive, they have hidden themselves so they will never be found by the Empire.” (Paolini 2003) Paolini’s dragons hold a deep and telling association with Nature: “Dragons have no beginning, unless it lies with the creation of Alagaësia itself. And if they have an end, it will be when this world perishes, for they suffer as the land does.” (Paolini 2003) The conclusion of Paolini’s myth is more than worthy of note—Galbatorix’s power, derived from manipulating the copiousness in the stolen ‘heart of hearts’, is too immense to overcome through force and he is defeated not by strength but by a memory of an old dragon and an unspoken, intuitive, emotive spell that brings Galbatorix into a state of remorse for what he has done (his heart is reborn): “Then Valdr showed them a nest of sleeping starlings, and Eragon could feel their dreams flickering in their minds, fast as the blink of an eye. At first Valdr’s emotion was one of contempt—the starlings’ dreams seemed tiny, petty, and inconsequential—but then his mood changed and became warm and sympathetic, and even the smallest of the starlings’ concerns grew in importance until it seemed equal to the worries of kings. Valdr lingered over the vision, as if to make sure that Eragon and Saphira would remember it amid all the other memories. Yet neither of them was certain what the dragon was trying to say, and Valdr refused to explain himself further.” (Paolini 2011) “‘Submit,’ whispered the king, and his grip tightened. More than anything, it was the injustice of the situation that Eragon hated. It seemed wrong on a fundamental level that so many had suffered and died in pursuit of a hopeless goal. It seemed wrong that Galbatorix alone should be the cause of so much misery. And it seemed wrong that he should escape punishment for his misdeeds. 1 See the myth of Camdus and the Ismenian Dragon (who guarded the sacred spring of Ares). “THE DRAKON ISMENIOS (Ismenian dragon) was a giant serpent which guarded the sacred spring of Ares near Thebes. When the hero Kadmos (Cadmus) arrived seeking to found the city, he slew the monster with a heavy stone. The goddess Athena then instructed him to sow the dragon's teeth, producing a crop of fully-grown, armed warriors called Spartoi (Sparti), five of which became the ancestral lords of Thebes. Ares later avenged his draconic son by transforming Kadmos and his wife into serpents. ISMENIAN DRAGON. Cadmus built Thebes, with the acropolis, Cadmea. As he intended to sacrifice the cow here to Athena, he sent some persons to the neighbouring well of Ares to fetch water. This well was guarded by a dragon, a son of Ares, who killed the men sent by Cadmus. Hereupon, Cadmus slew the dragon, and, on the advice of Athena, sowed the teeth of the monster, out of which armed men grew up, who slew each other, with the exception of five, Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelor, who, according to the Theban legend, were the ancestors of the Thebans. Cadmus was punished for having slain the dragon by being obliged to serve for a certain period of time, some say one year, others eight years. After this Athena assigned to him the government of Thebes, and Zeus gave him Harmonia for his wife. This is the account given by Apollodorus” (Atsma 2017) Why? Eragon asked himself. He remembered, then, the vision the oldest of the Eldunarí, Valdr, had shown him and Saphira, where the dreams of starlings were equal to the concerns of kings. ‘Submit!’ shouted Galbatorix, and his mind bore down on Eragon with even greater force as splinters of ice and fire lanced through him from every direction. Eragon cried out, and in his desperation he reached for Saphira and the Eldunarí—their minds besieged by the crazed dragons of Galbatorix’s command—and without intending to, he drew from their stores of energy. And with that energy, he cast a spell. It was a spell without words, for Galbatorix’s magic would not allow otherwise, and no words could have described what Eragon wanted, nor what he felt. A library of books would have been insufficient to the task. His was a spell of instinct and emotion; language could not contain it. What he wanted was both simple and complex: he wanted Galbatorix to understand … to understand the wrongness of his actions. The spell was not an attack; it was an attempt to communicate. If Eragon was going to spend the rest of his life as a slave to the king, then he wanted Galbatorix to comprehend what he had done, fully and completely. As the magic took effect, Eragon felt Umaroth and the Eldunarí turn their attention to his spell, fighting to ignore Galbatorix’s dragons. A hundred years of inconsolable grief and anger welled up within the Eldunarí, like a roaring wave, and the dragons melded their minds with Eragon’s and began to alter the spell, deepening it, widening it, and building upon it until it encompassed far more than he originally intended. Not only would the spell show Galbatorix the wrongness of his actions; now it would also compel him to experience all the feelings, both good and bad, that he had aroused in others since the day he had been born. The spell was beyond any Eragon could have invented on his own, for it contained more than a single person, or a single dragon, could conceive of. Each Eldunarí contributed to the enchantment, and the sum of their contributions was a spell that extended not only across the whole of Alagaësia but also back through every moment in time between then and Galbatorix’s birth. It was, Eragon thought, the greatest piece of magic the dragons had ever wrought, and he was their instrument; he was their weapon. The power of the Eldunarí rushed through him, like a river as wide as an ocean, and he felt a hollow and fragile vessel, as if his skin might tear with the force of the torrent he channeled. If not for Saphira and the other dragons, he would have died in an instant, drained of all strength by the voracious demands of the magic. Around them, the light of the lanterns dimmed, and in his mind, Eragon seemed to hear the echo of thousands of voices: an unbearable cacophony of pains and joys innumerable, echoing forth from both the present and the past…. The king grunted, and then he stepped back, pulling himself off Eragon’s blade. He touched the wound with his free hand and stared at the blood on the tips of his fingers. Then he looked back at Eragon and said, ‘The voices … the voices are terrible. I can’t bear it. …’ He closed his eyes, and fresh tears streamed down his cheeks. ‘Pain … so much pain. So much grief. … Make it stop! Make it stop!’…. Galbatorix’s eyes snapped open—round and rimmed with an unnatural amount of white—and he stared into the distance, as if Eragon and those before him no longer existed. He shook and trembled and his jaw worked, but no sound came from his throat. Two things happened at once, then. Elva let out a shriek and fainted, and Galbatorix shouted, “Waíse néiat!” Be not…. …Galbatorix vanished in a flash of light brighter than the sun. Then all went black and silent as Eragon’s protective spell took effect.” (Paolini 2011) As Meng Zi (2A2) argues, it is our inability to bear the suffering of others that forms the sprout of our inherent goodness (our virtue). Visions of The Dragon I’m surely pushing my luck by broaching this topic within an academic context (I can hear the dismissive pejoratives already—‘crackpot’ (Herman 2008), ‘cult member’, ‘mentally ill’, etc.), but the centrality of the dragon myth in my own life has been in no small part brought on by a vision I had while living in Ontario. Two heads (one red, one blue) with a body formed by pearly white clouds. Something is of course lost in my less than detailed attempt to draw what I saw (particularly in the fact that I couldn't draw white clouds with red and blue pens…), but here it is anyway: I should provide more context concerning this vision. I was living with my partner Nicole in Ontario and she had recently become pregnant. I was having very hard time coping with the white Christian madness of rural Ontario. The first three days of the week in question I felt like I was dying (body, mind, heart and soul). On the fourth day a number of things happened. First, I got out of the shower and looked in the mirror—as I breathed in my face became white, as I breathed out it became black, on my forehead there was a pulsating point of light, around me was an aura, violet near the body, a deep ocean blue surrounding the violet. I closed my eyes. First I saw the Dragon of Destruction (the dragon twins depicted above). Next I saw the ocean, with the sun beginning to set in the distance. As the sun set its light poured into my vessel. I returned to this world with a heightened state of consciousness; bliss, remarkable and marvelous after the previous three days of emptiness, an expanded sense of self, something as new to my experience in this life as it was old beyond time. For the rest of the week I remained in this heightened vibrational state (alas that I have my mission in this world and do not live in a remote monastery where I might have tended these sprouts of spring with more care, especially given that they were germinated in no small part by the traumatic force of life in rural Ontario during the rise of Donald Trump2). Today, though I am in the midst of ‘comprehensive examinations’ and had planned to read one of the books on my list (The Golden Day by Lewis Mumford), I felt compelled to pick up a book called Transmission of Light (translated by Thomas Cleary [1990]) and head into the woods, to ‘The Grove’ (which sits under the banner of the dragon), to read. As I read of the dead tree, the marvelous spring and the Dragon’s howl (the dragon has been dogging my steps since I started writing this piece in the Spring of 2018) I was struck by a sense of intimacy. My being was moved. That ‘other state’ that comes on at times flowed in—silence—focus—intensity. “…Transmission of Light illustrates quintessential techniques for realization of satori, showing how this experience transcends time, history, culture, race, gender, personality, and social status. Zen writings commonly refer to satori as realization of the ‘original mind’ as it is in itself, the universal ground of consciousness, concealed beneath the temporal conditioning that forces people to experience life through outlooks arbitrarily limited by their cultural, social, and personal histories. This realization is considered the essential initiatory experience of Zen in that it allows the individual access to a range of mental potential beyond the limitations of outlook defined by ordinary processes of acculturation, socialization, and education. In classical Taoism, the Chinese forerunner of Zen, this is known as ‘the use of the unused.’ Satori is therefore said to be the key to inner freedom and independence, the door to higher knowledge, realized by all enlightened people. …satori… as radical liberation from needless constraints of inculcated worldviews.” (Cleary 1990, p. vii-viii) Beautiful, I thought to myself. ‘Social Justice Zen’. The key to social justice, which is dependent upon worldview justice (i.e. cosmological and ontological justice) (Barnesmoore 2018), is to be found in humanity attaining at least some reflection of the form of this liberation from the Artificial Worldview through satori (Jacobs 2001 puts 2 I don't purport to enlightenment. I am not claiming that I have attained Statori. I am just finding that my experience seems to have been some expression of this form if not the ultimate expression that is referred to in the following paragraphs—these metaphors simply help me to understand my own path, wherever it has lead. We don’t need to find the ultimate Satori to bring its reflections to bear in our lives in a fruitful manner, and for those of us inhabiting the concrete jungle (and those who are otherwise under the disciplinary thumb of the Artificial Worldview) it is worth accepting that the path may be more difficult than it was in nature and the natural monastery. “The level ground is littered with skulls; the experts are those who pass through the forest of thorns.” (Cleary 1990, p. ix) Any way, my experience seems to have been a reflection of the same form—manifestation is a fractal, there are many levels at which form manifests, and the difference and irregularity (the order of difference and irregularity) that rises therein is natural and good. All we need is the reflection that works for where we are and the courage not to mistake a reflection with the ultimate experience (Cleary’s introduction to Transmission of Light provides a useful conversation concerning the dangers of such mistakes). forward a similar argument). Were people to attain some expression of satori’s form, they would learn to see from both the nothing-infinite and the finite perspective without either interfering with the other (Cleary 1999), they would find the true ‘centralized power’ that provides the authority which allows for an anarchist model of decentralized governance to function appropriately, which allows everyone to assert their own order of things (in the city and beyond [Barnesmoore 2018a; Barnesmoore 2018b]) without intractable interference. “If people attain real satori, sectarian cultism is not their worry and distinguishing myth from reality is not their problem.” (Cleary 1990, p. xv) “[Transmission of Light] …openly attacks monastic elitism, sectarianism, formalism, and sexism, showing how none of these tendencies is in keeping with the essence and spirit of Buddhism.” (Cleary 1990, p. xv) The question, of course, is how to bring this about, and while the answer will be different for everyone I would say approaches like Indigenous Land Based Pedagogies (Four Arrows et. al. 2010; Wildcat et. al. 2014; Simpson 2014; Young 2015) and the Daoist-Zen praxis Cleary has so eloquently brought into the English Language’s form—approaches that draw people into loving intimacy with the natural order—are a good place to inquire. Cleary’s (1990) description of attaining satori and the necessity of a return are worth quoting in length: “Many of the metaphors traditionally used for satori revolve around images of death, for it frees the individual from identification of personality with self… ‘Die completely and then come back to life…’” (Cleary 1990, p. viii) “[Changlu Lin said:] Being apart from conscious thought and perception, in classifying myriad species no difference is seen; transcending time, nothing anywhere afflicts you anymore. Immediately not transgressing, ultimately not depending, awakening is before the appearance of signs, function is where training doesn’t reach. In daily life one shouldn’t hesitate—in the interval of hesitation one loses contact.” (Cleary 1990, p. x) “Similar instructions were given by Fawei… ‘The spiritual body has no characteristics—it cannot be sought through sound. The marvelous path has no words—it cannot be understood through writings…. …A withered tree on a frigid cliff, without any moisture left, a phantom, a wooden horse, all emotional consciousness empty—only then can you enter the marketplace with open hands… …Don't linger in the land of detachment; come back to the misty bank and lie on the cold sand.’ Zen lore abounds with allusions to the transcendental nature of satori, but this also means transcending the inner silence used as a means of access to satori and consummating the experience by ‘return’ to the ordinary world…. [Touzi said:] ‘Where you don't fall into vacant stillness, the way back is more marvelous.’ ….Hongzhi said: When you are open and clean, undefiled, ‘the clear sky is cloudless, there is no breeze on the autumn waters.’” (Cleary 1990, pp. x-xi) “‘You should stop the intellectual practice of pursuing words, and learn the stepping back of ‘turning the light around and looking inward’. Mind and body will naturally drop off, and the ‘original face’ will appear.’….” (Cleary 1990, p. xii) “Even though one roams freely within the bounds of initiatory experience, one may lack the living road of manifestation in being.” (Cleary 1990, p. xii) “The critical point in the Zen mental revolution is illustrated elegantly in Dogen’s essay ‘The Dragon Howl,’ which is based on an ancient meditation story. A student asks the Zen master, ‘Is there a dragon howl in a dead tree?’ The master said, ‘I say there is a lion roar in a skull.’ Here the ‘dead tree’ and the ‘skull’ represent the ‘great death’ of Zen, and the liberation of mind from the mesmeric grip of its creations, the opening of satori; where as the ‘dragon howl’ and the ‘lion roar’ stand for the ‘great function’, the expanded access of potential that the Zen ‘death’ makes possible. In this essay, Dogen takes great pains to distinguish the ‘great death’ from hypnosis-induced apathy, suppression, quietism, or attachment to detachment: ‘Talk about the dead tree and dead ashes is originally a deviant teaching, but the dead tree spoken of by deviants and the dead tree spoken of by the enlightened are very different. Although deviants talk about the dead tree, they do not know the dead tree, much less hear the dragon howl. Deviants think the dead tree is dead wood, and practice as if there is no more spring for it.” (Cleary 1990, pp. xiii-xiv) ‘The Dead Tree’ (first three days of the week), the Transmission of Light (the sunlight across the ocean), the ‘Dragon’s Howl’ (my function, the dragon of destruction). I share some shard of Dogen’s story. I know it to be a Real story, a True story. Mumford (1926) said of Emerson that: “His very coldness seems familiar to academic minds; and for too long they appropriated him, as one of them: they forgot that his coldness is not that of an impotence, but of an inner intensity: it burns! ….This sweet man carried a lash, a lash that would not merely drive the money-changers from the temple but the priests.” (Mumford 1926, p. 94) “Everyone already has the lamp of mind, but it is necessary to light it so that it shines; then this is immortality…. Cognition is a function of mind, empty silence is the substance of mind…. Radiant light is the function of mind, empty silence is the substance of mind. If there is empty silence without radiant light, the silence is not true silence, the emptiness is not true emptiness-it is just a ghost cave.” (Cleary 1991, p. 66) As Mumford describes him, then, it seems that Emerson had attained some reflection of the form of Satori (or at least that Mumford’s engagement with the esoteric doctrines of the east [see for example Novak 1995 pp. 191-192, 193-194, 286] had colored his reading of Emerson). Any way, reflection on this vision, on the dragon of fire, ice3 and air (the cloud formed by the explosive union of ice and fire), lead me to the name ‘Dragon of Shiva’ (the dragon of destruction, the destroyer of worlds) who announces the coming of the Queen of Owls. Thus were the words that I had to try and verbalize my intuition at the time… “…Fallen Dagon, the massive idol of the heathen…” (Mumford 1970, p. 11) “…It is not very often that the philosopher attains such a consciousness of his effort that the rational constructions in which his thought was projected finally show him their connection with his inmost self, so that the secret motivations of which he himself was not yet conscious when he projected his system lie revealed. This revelation marks a rupture of plane in the course of his inner life and meditations. The doctrines that he has elaborated scientifically prove to be a setting for his most personal adventure. The lofty constructions of conscious thought become blurred in the rays not of a twilight but rather of a dawn, from which figures always foreboded, awaited, and loved rise into view.” (Corbin 1960) 3 “Many are the dragons that Melko has loosed upon the world and some are more mighty than others. Now the least mighty - yet were they very great beside the men of those days - are cold as is the nature of snakes and serpents, and of them a many having wings go with the uttermost noise and speed; but the mightier are hot and very heavy and slow-going, and some belch flame, and fire flickereth beneath their scales, and the lust and greed and cunning evil of these is the greatest of all creatures…” (Tolkien 1984) Little did I know (at least in the materially rational phase of mind) the ancient (and in the Artificial Worldview as expressed in the Abrahamic Tradition pejorative) history of association between the Dragon and the Owl: “29 I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.” (Job 30:29, KJV) “21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.” (Isaiah 13:21, KJV) “1 In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.” (Isaiah 27:1, KJV) “34 Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. 2 For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. 3 Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. 4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. 5 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. 6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. 7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. 8 For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion. 9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. 10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. 11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. 12 They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. 13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. 14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. 15 There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. 16 Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them. 17 And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.” (Isaiah 34, KJV)4 “35 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. 4 What a fucking creep! This angry old white dude needs to stop with the whole genocide thing… 2 It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. 3 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. 4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. 7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. 9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: 10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 35, KJV) “20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.” (Isaiah 43:20, KJV) “11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.” (Jeremiah 9:11, KJV)5 “22 Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.” (Jeremiah 10:22, KJV) “3 Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. 4 But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales. 5 And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.” (Ezekiel 29:3-5, KJV) “8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.” (Micah 1:8, KJV) “2 I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, 3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” (Malachi 1:2-3, KJV) “12 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. 3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 5 Who would ever associate ‘9:11’ with ‘making Jerusalem heaps’ and ‘a den of dragons’ or with ‘making the cities of Judea desolate, without an inhabitant’? … … … At the very least this is very strange… “22 Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.” (Jeremiah 10:22, KJV) 4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. 7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. 13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. 14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. 15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Revelations 12, KJV) “13 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 9 If any man have an ear, let him hear. 10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. 11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. 15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. 16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” (Revelations 13, KJV) “20 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” (Revelations 20:1-3, KJV) There is a whole lot to unpack in the above, but we might begin with Micah 1:8 and the association of Owls with mourning and Dragons with wailing. The Dragon, like the Owl, seems clearly to be associated with passion (the heart) as implied by Nasr (1996) below. Indeed, it seems that the association of the Dragon and the Owl rises from their shared association with the darkness, emotion, heart, silence, the night, etc. The Owl has long been associated with mystery (particularly the mystery of death). As the mystery can be felt but not known in the darkness within, so the own can be heard but not seen in the night. The owl sits upon Athena’s shoulder (facing her ‘blind side’) so that she can understand the unseen truth (in this sense the Owl is associated with intuitive wisdom). The Owl is often associated with the moon and the feminine (both of which are also associated with emotion, intuitive wisdom, darkness, the mysteries, etc.). If the Owl is to be associated with the contemplative, intuitive, unseen wisdom of Athena, the Dragon is surely to be associated with the active, passionate side of emotion associated with Ares. Dragons are often, in the Artificial Worldview, depicted as holding a princess captive. The princess, like the Owl, is to be associated with the high intuition by which we come to feel the truth of the unseen (by which we come to interstand6 the mysteries). The active, oft explosive passions of Ares are seen as imprisoning the high intuition by which we come to feel the truth of the mystery. “Each valid scheme should and must embody the full utilization of its local and regional conditions, and be the expression of local and of regional personality. ‘Local character’ is thus no mere accidental old-world quaintness, as its mimics think and say. It is attained only in course of adequate grasp and treatment of the whole environment, and in active sympathy with the essential and characteristic life of the place concerned. 6 Understand, like the oft-used overstand, implies separation where as interstand implies that we feel the mysteries through the aspect of self that is the mystery. We know the mystery from within (indeed the mystery can only be known from within), for each of us contains an aspect that is the Nothing-Infinite Eternal (the Great Mystery) and the mystery cannot be seen. Each place has a true personality; and with this shows some unique elements—a personality too much asleep it may be, but which it is the task of the planner, as master-artist, to awaken. And only he can do this who is in love and at home with his subject—truly in love and fully at home—the love in which high intuition supplements knowledge, and arouses his own fullest intensity of expression, to call forth the latent but not less vital possibilities before him.” (Geddes 1915, p. 396-397, emphasis added) As Geddes argues this ‘true love in which high intuition supplements knowledge, and arouses the fullest intensity of expression’ is essential for town and city planning, this nomadic exploration argues that educators must hold this ‘true love in which high intuition supplements knowledge’ for our students. We must speak to the ‘local and regional personalities’ of our students, which requires that we understand ‘the whole environment’ (as best as is possible from our dimensionally limited human perspective) and hold ‘active sympathy with the essential and characteristic life’ of the students concerned. ‘Each person has a true personality’ (which rises from the aspect of self that lives many lives), and it is our task as educators to create an environment (1. of purifying waters to wash away the artificial resins formed by the intentionally obfuscating myths of the Artificial Worldview, especially in its Colonial Modernist incarnation and 2. of spiritual fire to wash away the natural resin formed by the at times 4th dimensionally limited nature of human experience) in which this true personality (the individual nature) can be known and expressed by students. And only he can do this who is in love and at home with his subject—truly in love and fully at home—the love in which high intuition supplements knowledge, and arouses his own fullest intensity of expression, to call forth the latent but not less vital possibilities before him.” (Geddes 1915, p. 396-397, emphasis added) In slightly less enigmatic terms (which do not capture the way that love and high intuition allow us to feel this essence of an individual), we should say that love for our students is also essential because it activates our potential for moral responsibility to our students. (Marris 1974; Marris 1996; Sandercock 1998; Sandercock 2003a; Sandercock 2003b; Sandercock and Attili 2014; Porter et. al. 2012; Erfan 2013; Rallis 2018) Of particular interest in Geddes conception of the relationship between love and high intuition and in Marris, Sandercock, Erfan and Rallis’s discussions of the relationship between loving attachment and moral responsibility is the way that the Dragon (active passion, practical wisdom) and the Owl (contemplative passion, intuitive wisdom) form a necessary pair. We cannot attain the high intuition of the Owl without the active passion of the Dragon’s love, for it is this active love that draws us into the intimacy in which high intuition supplements knowledge. Instead of viewing the Dragon’s passion as a barrier to expression of the Owl’s high intuition, the Dragon’s passion is viewed as essential for attaining the loving intimacy upon which the Owl’s high intuition is dependent. The Dragon announces the coming of the Owl. It may be that these two ways of understanding the Dragon (the active passions)— as the barrier to high intuition or as essential for attaining high intuition—comes in how we understand the passions. Are passions like greed and hate to be understood as rooted in being or as rooted in the privation of being. Does greed form a dualistic relationship with generosity, or ought greed to be understood as the privation of generosity as evil is understood as the privation of good. Accepting greed as the yin to the yang of generosity, like accepting evil as the yin to the yang of goodness, leads us into the Artificial Worldview and its understanding of the Dragon as an enemy to be slain. Accepting greed as the privation of generosity leads us to the opposite view—it is the death of the Dragon that leads to the privation of the natural order of passion in which greed is possible, and overcoming privations thus requires that we care for (rather than kill) the Dragon. When we are filled with generosity there is no place for greed (which is made possible by privation of our generous nature). When we are filled with love there is no place for hate (which is made possible by privation of our loving nature). Goodness is not to be found in hierarchical domination and destruction of the natural order but in healing and caring for the natural order. We must save the dragon rather than slaying it if we are to fulfill the quest of expressing our goodly nature and fulfilling our role in the natural order. I had a dream the night I finished the last paper of my comprehensive examinations. It was the last in a series of dreams that I had been having for the past month. The dreams involved learning about growing plants and making medicines—I remember seeing a special medicine woman who I know in the waking world. In the final dream I was driving through a town with a middle-aged man—we were in the kitchens cooking food for an event—the man was leading the ceremony—I step before him— a woman who is assisting with the ceremony holds out a green dragon figurine in between us—he emits a deep dragon’s growl—after a moment I respond in kind—some sort of headpiece was placed upon my head with a square panel on the front. A week before having this dream a special grandmother from the mountains sent me this image: Nine minutes later my wife, unaware of the other image, sent me this: I decided that I needed to go visit this special grandmother in the mountains. As I was driving I received a text that another elder would be staying with us. When I arrived I discovered that this elder was a very special medicine woman, and as we spoke that night she shared some very important information with me about my story—keep following the spiritual path. As I lay in bed that night I had visions that were more vivid than usual as I closed my eyes and began transitioning towards sleep. First a cloud of black and purple dragons flying towards me, past me, engulfing me. At some point I realized their might be some taint among their ranks and focused my energies into a protective shield. The black and purple dragons kept flying by. Next I saw a black orb. Then a purple orb. A pattern of black and purple energy with the boundaries between the colors moving in smooth watery patterns—red splotches entered the pattern. Black and Purple—magic and destruction, beautiful and sacred in nature, the height of danger when perverted/rendered artificial and turned towards cruelty and dominion. The scene shifted. I was in the clouds. I could see the blue sky behind them. As the clouds shifted I began to see the body of a green and orange dragon very akin to the dragon in the television series Dragon Ball Z. As the clouds shifted a small hole appeared and through it the dragon peered at me—all I could see was the eye/brow. The scene shifted again. A massive purple and black dragon that looked very akin to the rendition of Smaug in the Hollywood version of the Hobbit and some of the older drawings I have seen. The dragon of destruction. That night I dreamed. Tina and I were walking together. Twin bear cubs walked around the corner in front of us. They were golden with long snouts. I pushed Tina behind me to keep her safe, and then turned towards the bears… That is all I remember… Dragons in the Artificial Worldview Nasr’s (1996) discussion of ‘slaying the dragon’ perfectly captures the discourse surrounding Dragons (and thus surrounding emotion, passion, the heart) that rises from the Artificial Worldview: “The modern world needs nothing more than that so-called world-denying mysticism that is nothing other than its ascetic aspect that seeks to control the passions and to slay the dragon within, without which the greed that drives the current destruction of nature cannot be controlled.” (Nasr 1996, p. 217) “Many people point to the practical and ethical issues involved in the environmental crisis—such as the unbridled greed of present-day society—that have increased by a thousandfold the destruction of the environment, and they have sought solutions only on the practical level. Even if we limit ourselves to the realms of praxis, however, one must question what power save external brute force can bring about control over the passionate elements within the souls of human beings so that they will not demand so much materially from the world of nature. There might be a few philosophers for whom such a power might be reason, but for the vast majority of human beings it cannot but be [hierarchical domination by...] religion. The passions within us are like a dragon now unleashed by modern psychological perspectives for which evil has no meaning. Only the lance of a St. George, the lance symbolizing the [penetrating…] power of the Spirit, can slay the dragon. How tragic is the world in which the dragon has slain St. George. The passions thus let loose cannot but destroy the world.” (Nasr 1996, p. 272) (Uccello c. 1435) (Uccello c. 1470) “I want to hide the truth I want to shelter you But with the beast inside There’s nowhere we can hide No matter what we breed We still are made of greed This is my kingdom come This is my kingdom come When you feel my heat Look into my eyes It’s where my demons hide It’s where my demons hide Don’t get too close It’s dark inside It’s where my demons hide It’s where my demons hide” (Imagine Dragons 2012) The beast (i.e. the Dragon) is conceptualized, like Smaug, in terms of greed (the deprived ‘passions’). Demons are associated with heat (the fire of passion) and darkness (emotion, the world that can be felt rather than seen), which recall the fire, darkness and shadow of Tolkien’s Balrogs.7 How fitting that this song comes from a band named Imagine Dragons— Imagine Dragons (in the Artificial Worldview)… Luke R. Barnesmoore UBC Urban Studies Lab Department of Geography University of British Columbia [email protected] Bibliography: Atsma 2017, “DRAKON ISMENIOS”, Theoi.com. http://www.theoi.com/Ther/DrakonIsmenios.html Barnesmoore 2018, “Editorial: The Right to Assert the Order of Things in the City”, CITY 22(2). Cleary 1990, Transmission of Light, San Francisco: North Point Press. Cleary 1991, The Secret of the Golden Flower, San Francisco: Harper One. Corbin 1960, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, Willard Trask (trans.), New York: Pantheon. 7 “Now those drakes and worms are the evillest creatures that Melko has made, and the most uncouth, yet of all are they the most powerful, save it be the Balrogs only. A great cunning and wisdom have they, so that it has been long said amongst Men that whosoever might taste the heart of a dragon would know all tongues of Gods or Men, of birds or beasts, and his ears would catch whispers of the Valar or of Melko such as never had he heard before. Few have there been that ever achieved a deed of such prowess as the slaying of a drake, nor might any even of such doughty ones taste their blood and live, for it is as a poison of fires that slays all save the most godlike in strength. Howso that may be, even as their lord these foul beasts love lies and lust after gold and precious things with a great fierceness of desire, albeit they may not use nor enjoy them.” (Tolkien 1984) Balrogs (sic. fallen angels) are imagined as flying upon the backs of Dragons during the storming of the elven city of Gondolin. (Tolkien 1984) Erfan 2013, An Experiment in Therapeutic Planning: Learning with Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw First Nations, PhD Thesis, The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies: UBC, School of Community and Regional Planning. Four Arrows, Jessica London Jacobs and Sage Ryan 2010, “Anthropocentrism’s Antidote: Reclaiming Our Indigenous Orientation to Non-human Teachers”, Critical Education 1(3), pp. 1-20. 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Sandercock 1998, Making the Invisible Visible: A Multicultural Planning History. Berkeley: University of California Press. Sandercock 2003a, “Out of the Closet: The Importance of Stories and Storytelling in Planning Practice”, Planning Theory & Practice, 4 (1), pp.11-28. Sandercock 2003b, Cosmopolis II: Mongrel Cities of the 21st Century. New York: Continuum. Sandercock and Attili 2014, “Changing the Lens: Film as Action Research and Therapeutic Planning Practice”, Journal of Planning Education and Research, 34(1), pp.19-29. Simpson, L. 2014. Land as pedagogy: Nishnaabeg intelligence and rebellious transformation. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3(3): 1–25. The Bible, King James Version (KJV). Tolkien 1937, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, George Allen & Unwin. Tolkien 1984, The Book of Lost Tales 2, George Allen & Unwin. Uccello c. 1435, Saint Georges and the Dragon, Paris: Musée Jacquemart-André. Uccello c. 1470, St. George and the Dragon, London: National Gallery. Wildcat, M., M. McDonald, S. Irlbacher-Fox, and G. Coulthard. 2014, “Learning from the land: I indigenous land based pedagogy and decolonization”, Decolonization, Education & Society 3(3): 1–15. Young 2015, Indigenous elders' pedagogy for land-based health education programs : Gee-zhee-kan'dug Cedar pedagogical pathways, PhD Dissertation, University of British Columbia.