YEAR OF THE DRAGON - 2012

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

The year 2012 is given to Damballah-Aida Wedo the male/female Grand Serpent of Creation. It is the Spirit of revolution, of going full circle, or transformation and renewal or transcendence into another level, another reality. So however we overstand the Mayan end of the Long Count, there will be a new beginning, a going full circle and starting over again and how/where we will emerge, individually and collectively as a specie is of course up to us within the reality of our personal and again collective karma and will be in accordance with the will of Heaven. In the Dragon Mysteries, the Water Dragon which is lives in the darkest depth of water will nourish himself with a pearl and then at the ordained moment will break through the surface of the great waters to rise into the sky becoming the Sky Dragon. So meditate on the following: What is the nature of the Pearl that shall be fed to the Water Dragon by us, individually and collectively? So that it can rise and break through the surface and fly into the light of the sun to the skies above? What shock and/or catastrophe will befall us as the Dragon awakens and emerges from its secret abode of the depths and stretches out and springs into flight like a bursting of a thousand stars or will it be a continuous roar and trembling of the whole earth or will it come in a succession of frightening steps around the globe pounding all to dust and debris? Will the very fabric of the atmosphere and the veils of the skies be rent in one swoop as the cry of the Dragon pierces all the senses as white hot arrows and all life is consumed in its tongues of fire? Or will the great rising of the Dragon open the skies so that unending yet cleansing rains fall upon the earth in a great ablution of renewal and rebirth? Find the Pearl you are meant to nourish the Dragon with! That which you must offer from the heart to him that he may accept it and his very heart be nourished from it and be stirred into life from his long long slumber. For the Dragon must awaken! It is time. What is your Pearl - that which you will offer? What is that constant irritant to your very being which day by day you are oh so weary of and then coating with your iridescent grace and beauty and which you now will generously release for the future to unfold as it must. To give to the Dragon and engender the age of transformation. Hail the Water Dragon to rise into the Sky Dragon! May the Serpents Damballah-Aida Wedo encircle this world into their entwined divine bodies and thus engender the healing transformation we seek.

2012 - YEAR OF THE WATER DRAGON According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2012 is the Year of the Water Dragon. The Water Dragon will rise on January 23, 2012 to complete its ascendance the following year, on February 9, 2013. The Dragon is of course a mythical creature and yet.. In ancient China, the celestial Dragon was sacred to the Emperor and represented the Imperial Power. A Dragon was often featured on the Emperor's brocaded coats. The celestial Dragon is considered a source of great luck, happiness and good fortune. And yet... The Water Dragon's nourishment consists of pearls which give it its supernatural power - the power to rise out of the waters and into Heaven. With great claps of thunder and torrential rains, the storm becomes the vehicle and the veil for the Dragon to rise out of its watery realms. The moment at which the Dragon takes flight is as unpredictable as the lightning that tears the sky towards the Earth! The Dragon appears in most of the myths and folklores of the Ancients the world over: We find Dragons in ancient Babylon, Egypt, Rome, England, Gaule, Scandinavia, as well as the East, India, Tibet, China and Japan. Here is a poem from ancient Rome relating to the Dragon and most particularly relating both its transformative powers and its appearance in conjunction with constellations: Far off, unknown, beyond the range of thought, scarce reached by gods, the years' rough haggard mother, stands a primeval Cave in whose vast breast, is Time's cradle and womb. A Serpent encloses, the Cave, consuming all things with slow power, and green scales always glinting. Its mouth devours, the backbent tail as with mute motion it traces, its beginning. At the entrance Nature sits, the threshold-guardian, aged and yet lovely, and round her gather and flit on every side Spirits. A Venerable Man writes down immutable laws. He fixes the number of stars in every constellation, makes some of them move and others hang at rest. So all things live or die by predetermined laws... When the Sun rested on the cave's wide threshold, Nature ran in her might to meet him; the Old Man bent grey hairs to the proud rays. Claudius (c. 370-408) The Dragon maybe described as a snake for the snake is also a symbol of transformation and a particularly big snake may have been described as a dragon in ancient texts. The two names were often interchanged in the Bible and other ancient texts as well as in folktales and ancient magical spells. "Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth." (Revelation 12:7) There are great revelations concerning divine serpents (nagas) in Tibet and India as well. Similarly the image of Ourosboros as the Serpent who eats his/her own tail clearly is a symbol of transformation, death and rebirth. This motif of death and rebirth through a snake in a circle is present in ancient Greece, among the Aztecs, the Maya and the Native American tribes of North America. The Great Serpent eating its own tail represents the great cycle of the cosmos as we know it, the end of a cycle bringing universal destruction so that healing, rebirth and renewal can take place again. Chaos must preceed disaster on a grand scale and the Dragon indeed crates great earthly catastrophes as it stirs then rises from the depth of water but its rising will permit the fire of thunder to spread and heal all, then as it rises through the air it will engender a period of rebirth then fertility and great good fortune. So what can we expect for the year 2012? In elemental magic, water nourishes wood, so the Water Dragon is a precursor to great fertility. Fertility means abundance. Once the initial chaos and attending dangers are passed, we should expect great abundance to prevail if we have sown the proper seeds and respected the necessity for the environment to heal and replenish itself through the waters. And yet??... Can this all take place in a single year, or are we more likely speaking of the beginning of a cycle that will span many many years? Also for proper transformation and ascendance the Dragon must feed on pearls. Are we nourishing our Dragons (inner and outer) with pearls? Or are we continuing to rape the earth for its resources and feeding ourselves with nonsense and illusions? In Voodoo we should view the recurring cycle of transformation as Damballah-Aida Wedo, the male-female Spirits of creation, revolution and rebirth. For practical healing we can also appeal and make offerings to the Simbi Spirits who appear as Snakes of the four elements, water, earth, air and fire. Indeed this will be a good year to appeal for healing through the power of the Simbi in that specific order; first water (baths will be best at this time) followed by Earth (use of plants and grounding ourselves and our dwellings), then fire (thunder through which the Dragon rises) and Air (sky - peace). Again Chaos must begin the rise of the Dragon - but how this chaos spreads or is contained, how it becomes a tool of destruction or a tool of cleansing and healing is up to us. To our collective will and determination and wisdom. In Feng- Shui the Dragon governs east/southeast, wealth accumulation & the hours of 7 a.m. - 9 a.m. Associated with thunder, lightning and energy. the Water Dragon personifies change, ascendance, creativity, fertility, sexuality and abundance. The Year of the Water Dragon will begin (technically) on January 23rd and its zenith will be reached on the Moon of the Dragon between May 20 to June 18. This of course will coincide closely with the Feast of St John's Eve which will take place during the new Moon of the Snake and at that time we can only pray for the transformation and revelations to come as they must, with blessings of future abundance. THE SEASON OF CHANGE - UPRISING The season of great change has begun - we are here. I know it is customary to celebrate the New year on the 1st of January, to think of a new beginning and new resolutions on that arbitrary date, but the cycle which is coming to an end and the beginning of the new cycle of time and the awesome changes which are likely to come upon us have already begun! I most particularly felt the Great Beginning to augur just about the time of the autumnal Equinox. This strong feeling was reinforced not only by many of my friends who had similar intuitions but also by outside events all over the planet. Uprisings in many different countries which may or may not have been fomented by outside agents (read the west to access rich oil fields more easily), the uprising of young people all over the world to confront the powers and the super rich, as well as continued volcanic and earthquake activities as if the Earth itself was staging a global uprising. At that time, I also had a very important dream, a dream of warning yet also a dream of possibilities. DREAM OF THE TWO-HEADED SNAKE "I dream of a viper. It is a viper, I know it. It is green and slender and deadly and I have caught it and am holding it carefully, behind the head, showing it to my family and friends, just a few people who have assembled around, telling them it is alright, that I have control over the viper now. Then a second head, which I had not seen, that no one had noticed - how could they??- raises up, turns towards me and bites me on the side of the hand. However it is only a scratch, I notice it and immediately know that although it bleeds a bit I have not been envenomated. I will be safe and so I say to those around me. I now have secured the two-headed snake in a container. I wake up." I immediately knew this dream to be a caution for the changes that are coming towards us. For the following months and the year 2012 which is both the Year of the Dragon and the end of the great Mayan calendar cycle. 2012 will be - as the snake powerfully shows us- a year of changes, and a year of transformations. Only we can make it positive or negative, but we will need to exercise the utmost caution as we will be dealing with great poisonous (deadly) forces around. Just like the family and friends gathered around me, each one of us will have to think not only of ourselves but of all those we wish to protect. Those who can, who have the know-how and strength and courage may have to step forward and take the risks onto themselves. But there will be unseen dangers, even greater than those we are presently facing. So even with the best of our abilities, we certainly will not be able to foresee every danger. Some will seen totally improbable or impossible, yet they will strike! Transformation is always a difficult time, a time of great vulnerability. Just like the snake who is most vulnerable when it is ready to shed, we are at great risk. There will be a lot of poison about, deadly forces around us, some we will feel in control of and some we will not be able to see or predict. Yet we must exert the utmost vigilance and not flag in our resolve and courage. For those unseen deadly forces only our good fortune or good karma will help us avoid the worst. Our willingness to risk of ourselves for our loved ones will also afford a degree or protection, of blessings from God and His good Spirits. From now on- as I believe that the great changes have already begun - we should place ourselves entirely under the protection of our personal Deity (Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Allah) as well as our Guardian Angel and the Good Spirits who manifest Themselves here on Earth, in the most abundant Nature around us and who are so easy to reach out to if we care to listen and offer of ourselves. Only then we can hope to wrestle the changes without harm and escape the poisonous dangers that will threaten us and thereby move through the complete transformation towards renewal. This dream and revelation came at the time of the full moon in September while I was in the midst of offerings to the Divine Sisters Yemaya and Oshun. My mind was very active and energized and I had difficulty sleeping although I was not tired in the least. I knew from the dream that the next "year" had already begun, that the transformation - renewal will only come to those of us who can enter into their other deeper selves and let the Spirits guide us to a place of safety. While we are trying to hold fast onto the head of what we perceive as venomous and dangerous, we are likely to get also bitten by unseen elements but we can still survive this dangerous ordeal. There will be no telling and no predicting as to what comes for us to beware of, to handle, release and be stung by. The degree of the poison released in us will be however a matter or personal karma. Metamorphosis is always traumatic, seldom predicted in its true form and often brings grave danger in its wake. May God and His Good Spirits bless and protect us all. In Voodoo we should view the recurring cycle of transformation as Damballah-Aida Wedo, the male-female Spirits of creation, revolution and rebirth. For practical healing we can also appeal and make offerings to the Simbi Spirits who appear as Snakes of the four elements, water, earth, air and fire. Indeed this will be a good year to appeal for healing through the power of the Simbi in that specific order; first water (baths will be best at this time) followed by Earth (use of plants and grounding ourselves and our dwellings), then fire (thunder through which the Dragon rises) and Air (sky - peace). Again Chaos must begin the rise of the Dragon - but how this chaos spreads or is contained, how it becomes a tool of destruction or a tool of cleansing and healing is up to us. To our collective will and determination and wisdom. In Feng- Shui the Dragon governs east/southeast, wealth accumulation & the hours of 7 a.m. - 9 a.m. Associated with thunder, lightning and energy. the Water Dragon personifies change, ascendance, creativity, fertility, sexuality and abundance. The Year of the Water Dragon will begin (technically) on January 23rd and its zenith will be reached on the Moon of the Dragon between May 20 to June 18. This of course will coincide closely with the Feast of St John's Eve which will take place during the new Moon of the Snake and at that time we can only pray for the transformation and revelations to come as they must, with blessings of future abundance.

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