The first step in any new Tradition is to define the focus. Who are you going to worship most of the time anyhow? This very important piece of information defines a great deal of everything else you do - from holidays to colors to attitudes. Well, I always tell people “Google is your friend.” so… I googled “Dragon gods”. Interesting results including one of the best pieces of art I have ever seen. Gorgeous. But for gods themselves, the data was thin as apparently worshipping Dragons isn’t something people have really done much of in history.As a fan of Dungeons and Dragons, of course some of my first interest was in Bahamut and Tiamat. The writers of the Monster Manual must have had very active imaginations for while they do exist, neither one was historically a dragon. Bahamut was a very large fish who supported the world and Tiamat was the ocean, among other things, but not a dragon. This is not what I’m looking for at all.
I decided to go back to the drawing board and simplify my thoughts a bit, and entered “dragon” into Wikipedia. This turned out to be an excellent idea. Almost immediately, I have results I can use and went to take a closer look at Quetzalcoatl. He has a long, varied history due to cultural changes in the regions where his followers lived. Most importantly to me right now is this, “He was known as the inventor of books and the calendar, the giver of maize (corn) to mankind, and sometimes as a symbol of death and resurrection.” Given my love of education, the inventor of books is an excellent focus and since, up to this point at any rate, my main deity of choice was Anubis, his being a symbol of resurrection works out well, too. Shortcomings? I wouldn’t be interested in doing this halfway so I’d have to look more into learning about the Mayan calendar, symbology, culture, etc. Having already done this once for Egyptian mythology, I’m not sure yet if I’m up to that kind of time investment - something to seriously consider.
As for female dragon figures, there don’t seem to have ever been many of those at all. Almost all dragons in any cultural mythology around the world were apparently male. Well, given I literally went years before discovering Neith in Egypt, this could take awhile.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, March 23, 2008
at Sunday, March 23, 2008
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dragon,
Gods,
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Quetzalcoatl,
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