As we sit at the dawn of a new cycle, we gather in community to make sacred the path of our lives, to honour the cycles of time that govern our lands, and to attune to the frequencies that are present in the marker of this day, the day of the Wood Dragon.
Wood is an element in Chinese medicine seen as the mother of fire. As a mother, her qualities are nourishment, nurturing, boundaries, resourced energy, unconditional love, consistency, and tending in service.
Wood is about a grounded and connected, considered and balanced approach. This is not a year of a fire dragon, which we can often associate with Dragon Energy. So, we are asked to build on the energies of last year, which was a yin year, the year of the rabbit. This was a year focused on introspection, stillness, and cultivating hopes and dreams in a more internal way.
As we cross into this year, we enter a yang year, and the foundations of last year ask us to work with our power in a more grounded and deep way.
This is an invitation to take time on these pivotal days to contemplate our relationship with the energies that are present.
Perhaps sit with a cup of cacao or a herbal tea as you contemplate these questions.
How do you relate to this mythical creature, the Dragon? Has it been a feature, an ally, or a teacher for you so far in this lifetime?
Dragons are one of the most renowned mythical creatures in the world. They are found in almost every tradition.
Cast your mind back. All the way to early childhood, when you first learned of dragons, and remember what your first reaction to these beings was, before your mind had developed analysis and reason to diminish them.
Take a few moments to call these memories back in, and from your earliest initial imprint, begin to look at the journey the dragon has shown up for you in your life. If you struggle to remember or pinpoint actual memories of the dragon, consider this: Working with dragon energy is working with your power.
What is your journey with your power?
Bring to your memory one or two pivotal teaching experiences you have had around reclaiming, rediscovering, or reframing your personal power.
Take time to bring these memories to your forefront. Know that they are always encoded in your being to access at any time.
Their archetypal energy is that of adapting and transforming energy. They work with the energy of great power and ask us to cleanse, release and purge the programs of distorted power that live within each of us.
Our society at present is mainly formed from the misuse of power, narcissism, greed and control. Dragon energy asks us to look at our shadows of misused anger, drama and intensity, inflexibility, stubbornness, burnout, abuse of power and impulsivity.
As we step across the threshold into working with these strong, bold and fierce energies, we will be asked to heal and release patterns of shadow frequencies. For, in every cycle, we work with the energies of duality.
We cannot know light without dark
To work consciously in awareness with the supportive energies available to us, we are asked to master our internal relationship with opposing forces within the realm of power that would bring us into a state of harmony.
To not do the work on our shadows is to create states of division, distortion and separation within, which we see mirrored in the external world. To work with dragon energies is to balance your masculine and feminine energies. To do this, we need awareness, contemplation and action to change.
Take a moment to contemplate your individual shadow aspects of dragon energy. If you want to work with your power, you will be asked to heal these.
Take a moment to identify your main shadows and sit with them. See how they play out in your life. Then, imagine that this time next year, you have gone on a journey, faced the darkness, felt the pain, unlocked the fears and brought light to this aspect of yourself.
Notice what exists in the polarity of these shadow states. As an example, if you were to heal your anger, what would exist?
To help yourself, you can ask yourself the question: Who am I without the shadow of power ruling my life, consciously or unconsciously?
Rest and Restore
Just as the dragon spends time in caves, you will need to give yourself time to rest, restore, and sit with your soul to conserve your energy and harness it for full potency. Being rooted in our power can bring forgiveness and an openness to a higher source of guidance.
The greater the power in a being, the greater their sensitivity becomes. It’s about protection and space to recharge, build healthy boundaries, and cultivate the resistance needed to be in this world with clean power.
We need to be in the earth. This starts with the body.
Questions for contemplation:
- How do you self-care?
- How do you do your daily practice?
- Can you set an intention to work, to cultivate space for your sensitivity, to have space to grow while still being in the world in action?
- How can you live more intentionally, allowing your intention to become your living prayer, a practice and an honouring of yourself?
Working with the unseen realms
As a dragon is the only mythical creature in the Chinese zodiac, this becomes a year of working with the unseen realms. It has been my experience that to work with power, you have to be cultivating a deeper connection to your higher self and the multi-dimensional reality of existence.
So call it in, intend it and sit with it.
I know that my real healing only began as I started to resource and connect to a field of intelligence so much greater than myself. When I experienced and realised that there is a force of energy with so much power and love available to me, I became motivated and energised to face all the shadows that disconnect me from this source.
As my faith increased, working with the powers available to me, I understood that to be truly in my power meant handing my life over to a power greater than myself. I came to see that I was truly limited in my egoic survival patterns, and that to undergo a transformation or a mutation from lower, survival-based tendencies to a higher, interconnected source of intelligence was my journey, my path and my destiny.
I have found myself to be a guide in my expression for this process. I have learned a thing or two about the process of transformation, working with death and rebirth and developing tools and support on how to navigate this intense soul initiation.
Initiation into the sacred
Working with the dragon, in the highest sense, is about initiation. Initiation will ask us to change, adapt, develop, be flexible and find acceptance, trust and inner peace in the process. It’s about the new.
The dragon is often associated with the egg that it guards: the cosmic egg. In this egg are the codes of the new era, the yet unmanifest, and have access to the visions and intuitive powers of the dragon. The dragon protects all that is sacred.
We are asked to protect all that is sacred, to live sacredly and to be a truly authentic expression of ourselves, which is a divine being having an earthly experience. Take a moment to look at your faith and your relationship with the unknown.
Questions to Contemplate
- Do you believe you are supported and connected to a power greater than yourself?
- What is your definition of sacred?
- What are you being called to protect, nurture and offer in service to the world that is in the name of sacred?
The dragon is associated with the ley lines or energy lines of our planet. They are like meridian lines in acupuncture and allow energy to flow in harmony around our planet. Many of these energy lines have been disturbed, mainly because of wars and interference.
As we clear the channels of energy within, we begin to heal the energy of our planet. Rather than focusing on saving the world, focus on saving yourself and then you’ll be guided to whatever service is in the highest good for all.
We are all different, and for some, our spiritual journey may be internal and quiet. They say that just by meditating, the monks of the world are rebalancing the harsher energies of the world. Everything is energy.
Turning inwards to remember
It’s not so much about what you do, but about the energy that you do it from. Anything created from clean power, be it meditation or setting up a business, will carry in it the seeds of great change in our world.
The ways of the old are dying. We have been asked to drop ways of manipulating, competing and overly strategizing our success, turning instead towards working with more feminine energies of intuition, insight and cyclical living.
To bring balance into the world, we need to turn inwards. These times are about increasing power in the ways of the feminine – and I don’t mean women. I mean the aspect of ourselves that has been suppressed and shut down, reflected in the patriarchal dominance.
As we rise in our remembering of our power as beings, we will activate a deep remembering in our DNA that has access through our ancestral realms back to times when we lived in a state of harmony and balance. May our prayers be to the ancestors who live within us, to teach us the ways of these ancient times.
Part of the work on planet earth in these times is to awaken to our true power that has been hidden.
In this process of awakening, deep rage can surface, along with shame and many buried states of consciousness. Our job is to be a forger of transformation, to bring healing and forgiveness to all that has been, to make space to purge, feel and release in non-destructive ways.
And then to go about being a powerful creative being, bringing change to our own lives, shifting the onward passing of trauma from one generation to the next and instead being the gardener of future generations.
Sending our prayers forward to our children’s children and beyond, holding them in a reality of harmony, love and connection. Working with the Dragon is about legacy, creating a starting codon, a new seed that will bring light to future generations.
As we gather in these times of great change, it is important to hold a vision for our future generations, to send prayers to all those beings yet to come, because we are the living prayers of our ancestors.
Vision, intention and prayer
We have forgotten the power of prayer, the power of our intentions and the power that is available to us when we ask. The church in established religions did such a good job of cutting this tool off for so many of us.
We are spiritual beings, and prayers are called to the Dragon for help in times of great change. Help give me the courage to speak my truth, to have the gift of foresight, to be in my flow, knowing how to stay unstuck and how to take each next step.
And I call on the mindset that existed in harmonious times to be our guiding light. Take a moment to sit in all the reflections of the dragon. This year of the dragon asked you to set an intention to work with this year, to hold it and live it.
Create an intention that feels in alignment with you and then stay with this intention for the whole year, remembering that an intention will take you on a journey.
What are you ready to experience in this amazing year of the dragon?
Don’t be too vague. The sharper the intention, the clearer the path. Our intention will take us through the whole process of dark and light to all the parts of us that are not in alignment with our intention that we are setting.
So stay sober in your choice of intention.
What are you ready to clear, to heal, to move past?
The more you work with your intention and prayer, the more the dragon can protect, guide and serve you. Set this from your solar plexus, the energy of divine will.
May the force be with you.
Blessings on this powerful year
Annabelle x