Here Be Dragons that Devour Explorers

Diane Elliott, Intern Minister First Parish of Cambridge

“From the shadows of an oak grove on a distant ridge, it watched the humans move from chore to chore - feeding animals, hoeing a small garden, pulling stumps from a rocky field. A faint curl of smoke rose from the chimney of the tidy thatched cottage. A child laughed behind the barn playing with a new kitten, and window-box flowers nodded in the gentle spring breeze.
Groaning like a furnace, it hoisted its reptilian body from the ground, labored into the air on stunted wings, and rolled, belching sulphurous smoke, like a churning thundercloud toward the small farm. Its hideous roar shattered the morning calm, announcing the presence of the most terrible of creatures. The humans ran for their lives.”
The Dragon is a universal symbol and has been called “the oldest, the first, and the most basic monster.” This symbol has also been called “the most [revered] symbol used in ornamental art and the favorite and most highly decorated motif in artistic design…the inspiration of much, if not most, of the world’s great literature in every age, and the nucleus around which a wealth of ethical symbolism has accumulated through out the ages.” (2)
Although the dragons existence has never been proven their images have been found on walls of caves, in frescos, on vases and seen as sculptures. What is it about the dragon that has so captured people’s imaginations and become such a widely respected and honored creature?
I believe it is because we have all at one time or another experienced a dragon in our life.
Recently I stumbled upon a book called Love Meets the Dragons: a field manual for ministers by Tom Owen Towle. Tom addresses the issues that many ministers face and the dragons that they may encounter. Tom asks, “How do we learn to navigate the frightening depths of the humongous ocean trying to elude the dragons that are lurking there. Dragons are the symbolic beasts that can challenge our lives and address the universal fears and anxieties that are alive in all of us. When we meet the dragon we make a choice as to whether we want to explore the areas where they are protecting or turn and run from them. Tom claims, “We are better off not to slay or sidestep them, but rather to shake their hands and in the end, perhaps, learn to love them.”
There is a story of the map makers who designed mariner’s charts during the 16th century. Their maps showed crude outlines of the European and African shoreline. In the unexplored areas on the map were the words, “Here be dragons that devour explorers.” I imagine that for some people these words kept them safe at home, but for others these words may have aroused their curiosity to go and explore the unknown.
I also imagine that within this sanctuary there are people who sit on the side of the explorer who have desires to go in search of what is out there in the search of truth and meaning. The fourth principle of our Unitarian Universalist Principles works well for those of us who are explorers. As UUs we affirm and promote A free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We may have to encounter some dragons in order to discover that truth and meaning as we travel on our spiritual paths. Now let’s keep in mind that the principle does not state The free and responsible search for Truth and meaning, but A free and responsible search. This implies that for each of us we are free to search in our own way seeking our own truth. We all have our own dragons. Who the dragons are depends on our perspectives and how we approach them when they arrive.
In the Chinese world the dragon is a symbol of transformation. It helps and encourages us to seize opportunities and engage in the dynamics of living. The dragon may be a guide for further exploration with the result being liberation.
In Buddhism dragons are symbols of wisdom that work to help us destroy our illusions. They encourage us to understand basic goodness. They awaken us to the sound of compassion as they call us to take time to listen.
In the western world dragons have been portrayed as destructive beasts that kill and destroy. This image encourages us to kill and destroy them as we meet on the road.
What are the dragons in your life? What fears or challenges do they represent for you? Is it greed, a fear of non-acceptance, a fear of betrayal, identity, self-confidence? Where do your dragons rest and what do you do when you meet them?
One of the ironic dragons in my life is my struggle with the fear of public speaking. When I attended Colorado State University, one of the graduation requirements was that I had to take a public speaking course. The thought of this class terrified me. I looked at the requirements at another college, and realized that if I went there I would not have to take public speaking. So I applied to the other college and moved to attend the University of Texas. Once I got there and signed up for my classes I realized I was going to have to take chemistry, another dragon I feared. I confronted that dragon and got through the chemistry. By the end of the semester lives circumstances called me back to Colorado which meant going back to confront my public speaking dragon. The very last class I took for my under grad degree was public speaking. I remember standing in front of the class giving my last speech and feeling like I was going to die. There were construction workers banging and sawing in the background and I felt with each bang and with the whirring of the saw that I was being devoured. I looked out at my professor and said, “I am dieing up here.” With the wisdom of a professor and the compassion of a saint he looked at me and said, “You are doing great, just keep going.” The class ended and I ran all the way home. I was 24 years old and I ran home from school shouting yes, down into the depths of my soul. I was free. I had completed the requirements and never, ever again would I stand in front of people and speak.
As Rilke stated, “I’m sure that somewhere perhaps all the dragons of our lives are [princes or] princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.”
Dragons can represent for us what is most alien and difficult. They represent the potential that lies deep within the hidden caves, slumbering away until the time comes when they are awakened and roar in anticipation of the new battle that will begin to arouse them, to come out and be tamed. How do we turn these devouring dragons into the princes or princesses who are waiting to see us as the beautiful and brave individuals that we are and what can we hope to gain from them? As they stand in our path we need to learn to trust ourselves to face that dragon and move forward to encounter them.
Rilke said, “We have no reason to mistrust our world, from all that surrounds us. It has it terrors, they are our terrors; it has it abysses, those abysses belong to us; dangers are at hand and we must try to love them.”
I grew up in a family where a prejudice was taught to me by my father in regard to Catholics. He was never able to say the word Catholic without using an expletive in front of it. It took me years to get over this teaching. When I was interviewed for my first job as a religious education director I sat through the interview and answered all their questions. Now there was one woman on the committee who asked me what I thought about Jesus and was I willing to talk to the children about him. I nodded and said, “Oh yes”, but inside I was thinking, “no way.”
This was the first sign that the dragon of intolerance was stirring inside of me. I began organizing the Sunday School and the challenges of teaching about Jesus kept coming up. Here I was a cradle UU and I could not for the life of me understand why we needed to talk about Jesus. The woman kept pushing me and we argued and soon we stopped speaking and I went to great lengths to avoid her.
In our search for truth and meaning congregations can be the best places to explore the unknown and to meet with the dragons that are dwelling there. For some of you there may be dragons lurking within this sanctuary at this very moment.
The years passed and I continued my quiet struggle. I eventually left the congregation, but before I left I called this woman on the phone and thanked her for challenging me and helping me to see that this was an area I needed to explore. I did not slay the dragon, but I did side-step it.
Time passed and I was offered the chance to attend the Christmas Revels at Sanders Theater. I was sitting there enjoying the performance when a brown skinned man with long black hair, tight leather pants, knee high boots and a white billowing shirt burst onto the stage. I leaned into my friend and asked, “Is that Jesus?” she nodded, “That would be Jesus.” It was at that moment that I discovered the Rebel Jesus. This Jesus image I could let in and love. I have been able to hold and love this image of the Rebel Jesus and I have discovered that this is the energy I can bring into the world through my ministry; with a sense of passion and a willingness to be with the people. That night in Sanders Theater was another one of those moments when I felt as though I had been set free.
We are the explorers of our lives; we are free to search for what is true and right and for what gives us meaning. We all have dragons that come to us in various disguises. The questions are, “What do we do with them? Do we run from them, do we try to avoid them until they find us, do we try to control them before they control us or do we shake hands with them.
Rumi said, “Our greatest fears are like dragons guarding our greatest treasures.” If this is true than I think the best way to meet the dragon is to love the dragon with all our hearts knowing that the treasure will be discovered and we will move on until the next dragon sounds its warning.

Benediction
The art of exploration is within each of us.
May you go forth seeking your truth
Finding your meaning
And discovering your hidden treasures.

Blessed Be and Amen

Adapted
Fear of the Inexplicable by Rainer Maria Rilke

If we think of this existence of the individual as a larger or smaller room, it appears evident that most people learn to know only a corner of their room, a place by the window, a strip of floor on which they walk up and down. Thus they have a certain security. And yet that dangerous insecurity is so much more human which drives [them]. . . to feel out the shapes of their . . . dungeons and [to] not be strangers to the unspeakable terror of their abode.
We . . . are not prisoners. No traps or snares are set about us, and there is nothing which should intimidate or worry us. We are set down in life as in the element to which we best correspond, and over and above this we have through thousands of years of accommodation become so like this life, that when we hold still we are. . . scarcely to be distinguished from all that surrounds us. We have no reason to mistrust our world, for it is not against us. [It] Has it terrors, they are our terrors; [it] has it abysses, those abysses belong to us; are dangers at hand, we must try to love them.
And if only we arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us that we must always hold to the difficult, then that which now still seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust and find most faithful. How should we be able to forget those ancient myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses [or princes]; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are [princes or] princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.
1) David E. Jones. 2000. An Instinct For Dragons. Routledge New York London.
2) David E. Jones. 2000. An Instinct For Dragons. Routledge New York London.
3) Tom Owen-Towle. 1997. Love Meets the Dragons: A Field Manual For Ministers. SunInk Publications.
4)Edward A. Frost. ed. 1998. With Purpose and Principle Essays about The Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism. Skinner House Books.
5)Rainer Maria Rilke. Fear of the Inexplicable. Adapted.
6)Rainer Maria Rilke. 1875 – 1926. Fear of the Inexplicable. Adapted.