I’ve always liked dragons. Towering over the skies, breathing fire, stealing princesses, hoarding gold- I always felt that they were living their best life. Of course, literature in general didn’t seem to be of the same opinion, always coming up with self-righteous knights to go dragon slaying. Even the Bible didn’t portray dragons in a good light, so much so that there’s a large chunk at the end describing with painstaking detail how a big bad dragon would get chopped up into roast lizard.
As I grew older, and read more on esoteric symbology, I came to realize that the dragon embodied the rawest, most primal masculine energy in the universe. You think deep enough you’ll realize the correlation between the serpent and hem, certain manly appendages. They embodied it to extremes, greed, lust, arrogance, pride and yet, dragons also represented power, magnificence and transcended wisdom. In China, the emperor was honored as the heavenly dragon and his heir the dragon seeds.
The act of slaying the dragon tended to depict a man’s emancipation from these primal urges and finally gaining his reward purity, ergo the knight finally getting to marry the princess. (Yes, women where the symbol of purity back then, hard to believe in the “Nairobi” era I know.) They would then be masters, Kings perse of themselves and enjoy joy and happiness, but then came 2020.
Being a man in this day and age has become incredibly tedious, when one wants to preserve their inner peace and outward chivalry like the proverbial knight, it becomes an issue. Politeness is becoming overrated, restraint is interpreted as “Being a bitch” and whenever you show interest in someone of the fairer sex, you get fed with “I Like you, but you’re too nice’’. It seems that keeping your raging, reckless dragon chained keeps you immobile in this day and age So I say, release the dragon!
As a man (one of many I’m sure) I’m finding it increasingly unnecessary to keep my mouth restrained, more than once I’ve contemplated letting it run free in all its poisonous glory. When a dragon is chained and gagged, it’s taken as a large lizard that anyone can poke and prod. But a dragon with smoldering ruins in its wake would not be bothered even if it slept and snored in the middle of a street. The nature of restraint in this day and age is such that It is taken as remasculinization, you are in essence reduced to nothing but a meek little sheep.
Now before I get labeled a chauvinistic prick you have to realize that a dragon hardly ever breaths fire unprovoked. In all those fairy tales you read, where’s it that you’ll find, the magicians power? From the dragon, the King’s peaceful reign? From the dragon. Its all abut perspective and releasing restraint when necessary. But then again, I might change my view over the next cauldron of Ginger tea, this dragon is capricious like that, come slay me.
~Tamei
Manenoz 