Latest / The Alighted Way / Creation, Chaos, and the Eastern Dragon
Transcript
- Intro 00:00 Welcome back to The Alighted Way we are about to jump from the frying pan straight into the flames of a different fire. In this episode, Janelle And I will explore the Eastern perspective on the reverence of dragons and the wisdom they are said to impart, seen as allies, guardians and guides, rather than just mythical creatures. The show is about pushing the limits into the unknown, discovering who we truly are, and celebrating the moments that make us feel alive. So let's get into it. Janelle 00:36 The jury is split in two. There is a division of how dragons are seen. In the last episode, the western perspective was portrayed that they were evil, even the devil himself, greedy and treasure hoarders who terrorize humans with their fire breathing and sheep stealing tactics. On the other hand, the Eastern perspective sees them as benevolent allies who guard wisdom and there is a power associated with them. They are protectors and can symbolize prosperity. They are often associated with water and fire. So we are delving deeper into creation myths, or cosmology involving serpents, dragons and the mother concept. So 01:24 Cosmology is the origin story of the unborn universe, the great unknown from which all things are created. The entire concept is of oneness or wholeness, which then becomes duality or two. This includes all polarities and opposites after the first duality happens. Other dualities follow, such as light and dark, Heaven and Earth, male and female, order and chaos, the sun and the moon, good and evil, love and hate. I want to reference the Bible at this point, the book of Genesis. In the beginning, the heavens and the earth were created. The Earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep while a wind swept over the face of the waters. Then there was light, which was separated from the darkness. So what existed is a formless void or pure nothingness, water darkness or night and wind. So those are all the things mentioned above, but they're also common elements used in creation myths of the cosmos and universe, the waters have been described as primordial or primeval, maternal, dark water, churning, swirling in a formless mass of chaos. Pre creation of all potential is held within this chaos. Unmanifest life and form are waiting to become the cosmos. Non being becomes existent, a void or nothingness is female in nature that then becomes somethingness, which is male in nature, there is somethingness created with the union of chaos, darkness and wind. The formless created into incoherent parts of forms to be born. And then matter condensed and becomes an egg. An example to help with this idea is the caterpillar soup, a process by which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly in the cocoon, the caterpillar dissolves into a pile of goo. Then, bit by bit, this goo, which is actually highly organized, builds itself into a whole new creature, a butterfly, which then emerges from the cocoon, completely transformed. There's one more piece to add to this picture, celestial, great mother, serpent of heaven, the original Water Dragon. Mother is the most ancient, primal force of creation. This cosmic queen of primordial chaos is adrift in a vast ocean of nothingness. She burst and held a cosmic egg in her coils. This mother is envisioned as a dragon, sometimes many headed or a giant Cobra, or in a few traditions, is a Python. Either way, she is eternal, infinite, and has always been and has existed even before time and space. Some define her as rainbow in nature. Others describe her as a wind, serpent of the water. 03:40 This is where the symbol of Dragon, or snake eating its own tail, comes from, I would say we would explore it more in the future episodes and this is it. This is a symbol of regeneration, a serpent holding its tail and making an eternal circle, or a zero, which is an immortality symbol. This cosmic serpent expands and. And contracts, uncoiling as she creates and recoiling as she obliterates the universe. When she uncoils, time moves forward. Creation takes place, then it is sustained and preserved for a period of time. When she coils back, the universe is destroyed and ceases to exist. She remains, even after the end of the world, when the whole universe is destroyed, there is a period of time between rebirth, recreation of the world or universe. During this point of the cycle, she curls up in the dark to sleep. In the book Mary Magdalene mysteries, on page 50 by Saren and Azra Bertrand, the dragons of creation are linked at a cosmological level to the invisible flows of dark matter and dark energy that make up 94% of the known universe. So remember, in Episode Five, I shared the story of Thor during Ragnarok, which is the destruction of the world. He fought a big snake, and when the snake took its tail out of its mouth, that was the end of the world. The Dragon Queen births a great, universal cosmic egg. The cosmic snake encircles the luminous egg until it hatches by the force of its own light. It is the symbol of wholeness, and swims out from the creative waters unaided. The first major split when it cracks open of its own accord, is an act of creation. Duality begins with the creation of sky or heaven and earth, male and female, respectively. 06:30 So why an egg? An egg represents life in its various stages of development, encompassing the mystery and magic of creation. So it's a natural symbol of creation. It contains the seed of all life. Stands for unity of heaven and earth, embodying and symbolizing the concepts of birth and rebirth, fertility, new, life, long life, even immortality. To represent duality, the egg is separated into two parts, the white and the yolk, or within the human realm, one fertilized egg divides into two to create life in the womb of the human mother, the primeval Water Dragon lineage begins. We are unsure of what her first children looked like, but new serpent dragon beings were created, and further down the ancient lineage, there were mermen and mermaids who have the body of men and women. However, the bottom half is a scaly tail. In many depictions, the mermaid's tail is split in two, and they lived upon swampy Earth. Other dragon children included a divine, or semi divine race of Nagas, which are just serpents, which then evolved into a hybridized half human, half serpent, beings that evolved on the land the Chinese believe that emperors and they themselves are descendants of the dragon, or at least divinely connected to these ancestors humans have lived with and beside other powerful beings, including giants, gods, goddesses and half animal, half human forms for time immemorial, in the myths. 08:40 The first time I came across the Nagas or divine serpent or dragon kings, was in India in 2009. I was on a spiritual adventure. We traveled to several sacred sites, like where Buddha first became enlightened. The Naga Cobra King protected and supported Buddha with his seven heads. So it would combine to make a big hood to protect Buddha. The Naga King also sheltered Buddha by winding his coils seven times around Buddha's body as he reached enlightenment, the numbers five, seven or 10 headed serpents are commonly depicted protecting people. Buddha faced challenges when the heavens darkened for seven days of storm and he meditated for seven weeks where Buddha gave his first teachings at the nearest temple, I saw panels of this event where these Naga kings are present to listen to Buddha's sermon. I found that fascinating. Then our group went across to Deer Park, where the sermon actually happened. The Naga Kings also protected Buddhist teachings, the ultimate wisdom texts that humans were not ready for. The Nagas were called upon to protect the scriptures until they were revealed to humans. According to Buddhist door.net a Naga King was present when relics of Buddha were distributed after cremation of his body, the Nagas contributed relics in their possession. Some of my favorite depictions in Hinduism are the three male deities, Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the preserver, and Shiva is the destroyer. In one story, a cosmic, celestial Cobra, serpent forms the bed for Vishnu as he rests in its coils on the cosmic ocean, the ocean of milk before the creation of the next universe. In Nepal, we visited a statue of this and the priests every morning would cleanse with milk, then feed, bathe, dress, adorn Vishnu and make offerings to them both, and at night, would undress and cleanse him. Vishnu, like Buddha, is also depicted as having seven Cobra heads above him. The seven Cobra heads belong to the Serpent King. One Cobra snake is seen wrapped around the neck of Shiva as a constant companion. In Egypt, a cobra Goddess is pictured in hieroglyphics. It is the sign for the word Goddess, and Isis is pictured as a serpent goddess. In addition to protecting Buddha and others. Dragons were given magical objects of divine power, such as immortality, like golden apples, to protect and guard. They also were to act as eternal sentinels over gateways to other realms and to protect other entire kingdoms. They guarded water places, especially springs, as well as oracles like Delphi in Greece. In Greece, there are interesting stories about half human, half serpent beings. Athena, the goddess of wisdom and the patron of warriors, was born from the head of Zeus, springing forth from his forehead in full armor, shouting her war cry. During a time when the goddesses and Gods decided to take possession of cities, there was a contest of who would be the patron of Athens. Poseidon, the sea god, used his trident to produce a salt spring, which was called the Sea of Erechtheus, the husband of Aphrodite, wanted sex with Athena, which did not happen, so he ejaculated, and sperm fell to the ground. Erechtheus was born from this interaction where his mother was Earth, which was represented by his lower half being the body of a serpent, and the upper half of his body being human looking. So he was known as of the earth. Athena took responsibility for him. Erechtheus was the founder of Athens and its earliest King. So back to the competition. Athena went second, but called on a different half man, half serpent named King Cecrops, who judged and witnessed her planting an olive tree, which is actually still there when I was in Greece. So Athena won due to Cecrop’s testimony. And Cecrops is often named as the first king and founder too. So I think that they the two half serpent half humans may have been related, and one may have succeeded the other in the kingship succession. 12:53 So snake worship is apparent in nearly every religion and country around the world, Snake cults appear to be one of the oldest and most prevalent forms of worship on the planet. In 1995 during a field trip to Tsodillo hills of Northwest Botswana, a team led by Sheila Coulson, an associate professor from the University of Oslo, found evidence of certain serpent ritual activity, suggesting that humanity's ability to think abstractly and hold rituals dates back some 70,000 years. If this is true, it implies that humanity's veneration of the serpent significantly predates all other recorded mythology the San people who live there are direct descendants of the earliest known humans on Earth. They speak of their ancestors and all of humanity as having descended from a great Python. What makes serpents unique is their regenerative power of skin shedding in one large intact piece at regular intervals, coming full circle, literally and symbolically. In episode three, I referenced that phallus worship also predates and pre exists all major religions. So just to refresh your memory, most historians agree that in fertility rites, the phallus was intact. Integral to all rituals. Within the shamanic traditions and in many mythologies, the image of a dragon wrapped around or encircling the phallus is a common sight in various cultures, not just Bhutan. One example is in Hinduism, shiva's penis is worshiped and a serpent, or serpents surround it. So according to my shamanic guide in Nepal, a symbol associated to Shiva and his penis is the lingam, which, in and of itself is an erect, smooth, cylindrical and rounded at the top stone. It is often placed in a base that looks like a womb called a Yoni together, they symbolize the union of the male and female principles, also the eternal circular flow of form and formlessness, much like Buddha, it is surrounded by a five or seven headed Cobra, or just a large single Cobra. Wholeness is represented by masculine and the feminine and the serpent. Serpents and penises serve similar purposes of protection, fertility, prosperity, creation, and they're both life generating as above so below the Cobra could be the queen of heavenly chaos on a cosmic creation level, and as below on Earth would be regarded as the protector of life generation here too. Colleen 16:34 Just for our listeners, we are not at 100% today, so it's going to be short and sweet, and we are going to be discussing episode six. And in Episode Six, we looked at the eastern side of dragons. I personally found this one to be fascinating. And it's like, yeah, I get it. Like, I really resonated with me this episode, so, but I do have some questions for you, Janelle, but they're not, they're they're more, a little bit more self reflective for you, okay, in a sense, so be prepared. I'm excited. All right, so in this episode, moves through a lot of creation myths, dragons, serpents and the idea of chaos as a generative force rather than something to fear, which I'm like, yeah, right on when you hear these stories, what personally resonates for you right now, especially around creation endings or transformation in your own Life. Janelle 17:39 The egg really resonates with me. I have in Feng Shui every year for New Year's, like Chinese New Year's, we would do an egg ceremony, where you release the old and welcome in the the new year. So the gist of it is, you peel an egg. It's there's special things to do with the egg, but you peel the egg, so the layer around the egg, the hard, you know, shell layer, equates out to your year, and then you actually embrace the new egg underneath. Colleen 18:16 Oh, okay, so is there something with the hard egg in the way it peels off. Does it give you any information? Oh, okay, so tell me a little bit more about that. Janelle 18:28 Yeah, absolutely. I've been doing it for years, and no two are the same. So sometimes, if you've had a hard year, it will come off in little, little, little pieces all over the place. And then sometimes you have where, like you have one little piece come off, and then it all comes off in one go, like it varies. And I find it fascinating how it does reflect sort of the year that you've had. Colleen 18:56 Interesting. Okay, something for our listeners to know. Janelle and I have known each other for years, decades, even, and I'm constantly learning new things about her. This is one of them. Fascinating. Janelle 19:12 Chinese New Year is coming up. Yeah, May 17, yeah. Colleen 19:17 Give that a try. Awesome. Well, thank you. We'll try that. So it's the egg that's great. Yeah. So the episode also reframes chaos, darkness and the void as fertile, maternal and necessary for creation. How does this perspective challenge or soften the way we've been taught to think about chaos, the dark or not knowing, especially in modern life, where we're encouraged to control everything, Janelle 19:48 it opens things up to allow for more messiness in your life. You can't attain perfection indefinitely. One. You might reach a peak of perfection, it will then start to move in the other direction of the chaos. So it's this balance between the two, but it definitely opens up for more messiness in life and your world, because it's a dynamic force, not a static force. Colleen 20:24 And I think the dragons kind of help embody that in a way, and in the different types of dragons, and in the different types of stories about dragons. So yeah, bringing that forward. Janelle 20:36 But there's a there's definitely like an order piece, like the complementary part of chaos is order, but it's to find that balance between between the two in your own life. Colleen 20:49 Yes, the balance. Yeah, that was something I noticed. A lot about this particular episode was a lot about balance, especially the dualities and such. So yeah. So I'm curious if there was a moment where you had to live this truth, live this abilities to be balanced and not and not just exploring it through myth, like just so, how is this? How is this coming up for you? Janelle 21:16 I mean, what I find funny is I'm definitely like a productive piler. And so I have piles all over my desk, and that's how I roll. And if you were to ask me if I know where such and such a paper is, I know exactly where it is in the pile. But to attain perfection in any sort of way looks very different for everyone in their day to day lives, you know? So there is a perfection in my messy piles. Colleen 21:50 I love it. And then there's perfection in my I guess, like, I like to have my desktop clean, like it's got to be, everything's got to be cleaned off of it at the end of the day, and everything's got to be put into its spotlight. Colleen 22:12 So, yeah, that's it. Is interesting how we can take that chaos. Like, I mean, when I'm when I'm creating something, it's a big pile of stuff. Like, when I'm making my say, my bracelets or something, everything's on the table, and it's everything's everywhere. And then I'm creating, and then I create my bracelet, and it's beautiful. And then it's like, something came of that messiness. So, yeah, yes. Janelle 22:36 And there's like, reasons and seasons for having messiness. And then order comes back in and through where it needs to be re established. Colleen 22:46 Yes, considering it's my main table, order definitely has to be re established there. So on to the next one. So dragons and serpents appear again and again as protectors wisdom, keepers and guardians of thresholds. If we strip away the mythology for a moment, what do you think these symbols are still trying to teach humans today, emotionally, spiritually or even psychologically, not in a big abstract way, but in like, say, everyday moments that we can catch, where people can catch these, Janelle 23:24 I think, in life, people look to a variety of things to help and support them. And you know, one of the things that people do is, you know, call on angels when they need protection. You know, like Archangel Michael is a busy guy and gets called on a lot to protect. Colleen 23:46 And so how does he do it? Janelle 23:50 He's like a Superman. But I find it interesting that with dragons, it's similar, or with serpents in that they've been revered for so long because there's a regenerative force within them that helps people you know when you need to start over in a certain area of your life, or when you need to find strength within yourself. A lot of people use a lot of different things. Like some people have medallions, some people have other motifs with things that provide that support for them. Colleen 24:30 Yeah, the shedding that also speaks to me a lot like the transformation of how people can transform. You got to get rid of the old sometime to bring in the new which has seemed to be a common theme tonight in our chit chat, Janelle 24:45 I find that people when parts of themselves no longer serve them, they're definitely shed so that you're continually evolving and renewing yourself into sort of the best being that you can be Colleen 25:01 That's right. Well, that's great. Well, I think that's it that I have for right now. But if you out there have any questions for us, or if you want to send us a note or something like that, please, do we have all that information in our show notes? And we would love to hear from you. Thank you very much, and have a great day night. Wherever you are, Outro 25:27 there it is there. You have it. Thank you for sharing and brightening the path today. Join us next time, as I Janelle will have a conversation with Joyce about her dragon experiences. Dragons have always surrounded her and protected her family. Her father was in a concentration camp as a child, and credits his survival to the dragons. We will continue to share and explore more stories that may take you beyond the edge of your boundaries, we encourage you to be open and come along for the wild ride. Safety first, though, so buckle up if you're interested in learning more about dragons, Janelle created an introductory dragon course, which kicks off in February of 2026 so you can go to the alighted way.com and on the website and register become part of our community, or brood in Dragon speak and the magic that lies within by subscribing or giving us a rating and review. Thank you. In advance, new episodes drop every two weeks on Thursdays, so don't miss an Episode until then. Keep the flame of curiosity burning You. You.