The Dragon’s Rede
 · 
I recognize nature as sacred and magickal; · 
I am a part of nature, not master over it; · 
I regard the divine as both feminine and masculine;
 · 
I respect my natural magickal abilities; · 
I strive to avoid causing harm for others; · 
I accept responsibility for my actions. 14 - 
A New Walk Down an Old Path Dragon Tradition Wicca - 
15 Dragon Tradition Explained
 The doctrine of Dragon Tradition serves as a standardized
 expression of our beliefs. It is not written to change you to
 fit our beliefs. It is written so you can understand our beliefs
 and determine if they fit you.
 This book is Dragon Tradition’s Book of Shadows. It is quite
 unlike most because the emphasis is not on laws and ritual
 formalities. The emphasis is on understanding the process
 of eclectic Wiccan belief as well as magickal theory and the
 relationship between magick and Wiccan practice.
 The doctrine of Dragon Tradition includes four books:
 Foundations, Beliefs, Ethics, and Worship. Each of the
 books, as the names imply, is based on a central topic. In the
 next several chapters, the beliefs specific to Dragon Tradition
 are explained.
 We realize that many people coming to Dragon Tradition are
 already practicing Wicca. Please do not take insult from the
 book covering topics with which you are already familiar.
 There will be many seeing this material for the first time.
 16 - 
A New Walk Down an Old Path Dragon Tradition Wicca - 
17 Religions, Gods and Goddesses
 If science could provide proven explanations for everything,
 then there would be no need for religion. We would know
 how life was created. We would fully understand what our
 role is in the Universe. There would be no questions left
 unanswered.
 Frankly, we humans are a long way off from that level of
 understanding and there are still many things not explained
 by science. This leaves our world in terrible order. Our egos
 cannot cope with the lack of explanations. We need
 explanations.
 What do we do when we need an explanation for something
 that science cannot explain? We guess!
 People attach unproven explanations to things that cannot
 otherwise be explained. We call these unproven
 explanations our beliefs.
 Not all that long ago, people did not understand why the
 sun would rise in the morning, travel across the sky, and set
 in the evening. So why did the sun rise? It was magickal!
 Magick is the realm of religion.
 Foundations Chapter I
 I. Beliefs
 a. People have a basic need to understand
 the world around them.
 b. People fit unproven explanations to
 things that cannot otherwise be explained.
 c. People call these unproven explanations
 their beliefs.
 d. People call their collection of beliefs
 their religion.
 18 - 
A New Walk Down an Old Path The last line is very significant! Take a look. People call
 their collection of beliefs their religion. Gods do not create
 religions. People create religions.
 It is true that most people do not write their own religions.
 Most adopt the religion of their family and do a little
 personal modification to the beliefs, but in general, it is the
 same religion. Still the religion had to start somewhere.
 In some cases it starts as a mix of stories and legends added
 to over generations that builds into a religion. In some cases,
 a person is inspired to create a new religion or to modify an
 existing religion to a new form.
 What about the Gods and Goddesses?
 Many beliefs are based on people crediting magickal things
 to magickal beings called Gods and Goddesses. Gods and
 Goddesses are very useful in explaining things.
 A religion cannot explain something happening unless it
 provides a magickal being who makes things happen. In the
 Greek religion, the sun chariot did not just fly across the sky
 on its own; it was driven by Apollo. The magickal beings of
 religions are called Gods and Goddesses.
 How does the sun rise? A God does it.
 Why do crops grow? A Goddess wants them to.
 I am sure you get the idea.
 Then comes the question of what does a God look like and
 where do they exist. Without knowing the nature of
 existence of the Gods, visualization of them is difficult.
 To satisfy our need to relate with Gods on a personal level,
 people personify Gods as humanlike, animal-like or a mix of
 human and animal.
 Dragon Tradition Wicca - 
19 Foundations Chapter II
 II. Gods and Goddesses
 a. People credit unexplainable events to
 magickal beings called Gods and
 Goddesses.
 b. People personify Gods and Goddesses
 as human or animal because it makes them
 easier to relate to.
 Okay, I bet you are thinking that I am wasting my time
 explaining this in such a way that even a second grader
 could grasp it... right? I wish that were true.
 Yes, it is all common sense. Yes, it would be obvious to a
 second grader. However, to this day many people are so
 misled by their religious teachers that they cannot see that
 which you and I see as being completely obvious.
 One thing that comes up all the time is somebody who
 insists they have found the "one true God". An eclectic with
 a clue knows not to believe it.
 To explain this better, we will use two made-up religions,
 the Beebees and the Booboos. The Beebees believe in a God
 that they consider as the one true God and that all other
 Gods are false. The Booboos also believe in a God that they
 too consider as the one true God and that all other Gods are
 false. The Beebee God and the Booboo God are completely
 different. Each religion has a full set of doctrine that
 contradicts the other in many areas.
 Can they both be correct? No. Based on logic alone, at the
 most one is correct and the other one is not.
 From the perspective of Dragon Tradition, both have faulty
 logic in that there is no such thing as a true God that
 excludes all others. Gods are based on belief. Beliefs are by
 definition unproven. Until such a time that science can
 20 - 
A New Walk Down an Old Path prove the existence of a God, then all Gods are based on
 belief alone.
 Foundations Chapter III
 III. Your Gods and Goddesses
 a. Religious truth is a contradiction. A
 religion is a collection of beliefs. Beliefs
 by definition are unproven and are not
 truths.
 b. Religious truth is personal. What a
 person believes is true to him or her.
 c. The Gods a person chooses to believe in
 are his or her Gods. They are true to that
 person and no less true than any others.
 Dragon Tradition doctrine respects that people develop their
 own understandings and relationships with their Gods. Our
 doctrine regarding Gods is flexible, allowing plenty of room
 for eclectic personalization.
 In Wicca, the two primary deities are The Goddess and The
 God; therefore, the minimum in Dragon Tradition is the
 acknowledgement of The Goddess and The God.
 A common minimal understanding of The Goddess and The
 God is the personifications of the collectives of life (The
 Goddess), and the Universe (The God). In this
 understanding, it is The Goddess who brings and nurtures
 life and is the connection between all things alive. It is The
 God who is the provider for and protector of life.
 It is understood that the minimal definition will not be a
 good fit for many people because they feel a more personal
 relationship with The Goddess and The God. Placing more
 emphasis and personality on The Goddess and God is
 equally acceptable.
 Dragon Tradition does not stop at the belief of the unnamed
 Gods. Unlike other Wiccan traditions, we do not teach the
 Dragon Tradition Wicca - 
21 concept of "all Gods are aspects of one God" because we feel
 it contradicts the ancient Pagan beliefs in multiple Gods.
 Dragon Tradition doctrine encourages everyone to find their
 own personal relationship with the Gods and Goddesses
 that they relate to.
 Foundations Chapter IV
 IV. Other Gods
 a. The existence of The Goddess and The
 God does not exclude other Gods.
 b. The Gods a person believes in are true to
 them.
 Sharing ritual with people who relate with different Gods
 may take some getting used to. Keep in mind there is
 common ground. If you happen to relate with Dana and
 Daghda, you may find yourself hand in hand with someone
 who relates to Hathor and Ra. Life is still life; Nature is still
 nature.
 Summary
 A religion is a collection of beliefs about things that have no
 proven explanations.
 Beliefs are created because we need explanations and no
 proven explanations exist.
 A God is a magickal being credited with magickal actions.
 The Gods a person chooses to believe in are true to that
 person and no less true than any others.
 The minimum in Dragon Tradition is an acknowledgement
 of The Goddess and The God.
 You are not limited to the minimum level. What you believe
 about The Goddess and The God and how you relate with
 them is your choice and is perfectly acceptable.
 22 - 
A New Walk Down an Old Path Dragon Tradition does not teach that "all Gods are aspects of
 one God" because it contradicts the ancient Pagan beliefs in
 multiple Gods.
 Dragon Tradition Wicca - 
23 Being Part of Nature
 Wiccan theology at its deepest level is very much tied to
 nature. In general, Wiccans do not see nature as a result of
 divine creation but rather as a real world manifestation of
 the living magickal divinity itself. Wiccans see themselves
 as part of nature, and hence part of the magickal divinity.
 Dragon Tradition teaches that through an understanding of
 nature, we develop a better understanding of ourselves and
 our role in the Universe. To learn about nature is to learn
 about ourselves because we are a part of nature.
 While Dragon Tradition does not teach any theory on
 creation, there are patterns that indicate a created or
 developed design in nature. These patterns are nature’s way
 of doing things, they are nature’s design. It appears that the
 objective of nature’s design is to have nature sustain itself
 indefinitely.
 Beliefs Chapter VI
 VI. Nature
 a. Nature has its own design needed to
 sustain itself.
 b. One of nature’s designs is the cycle of
 life, which sustains the existence of life.
 c. Mankind’s role is to function as a part of
 nature and to not imbalance it so that
 nature can be sustained.
 Nature’s Cycles
 Nature is an endless blend of cycles. If there were to be one
 symbol representing nature it would be the circle. Being in
 touch with the cycles of nature provides a better
 understanding of nature, and hence ourselves.
 24 - 
A New Walk Down an Old Path Life is a cycle. The cycle of life is a perpetual process where
 each new generation unfolds, grows, learns and eventually
 yields to the young who continue the cycle.
 In Wicca, the cycle of The Goddess is described in terms of
 the moon, the symbol of The Goddess. The new moon is
 death and the time before life. The waxing moon is the
 maiden, a time of play, growth, and learning. The full moon
 is the mother, a time of adulthood during which one brings
 and nurtures children. The waning moon is the crone, a
 time of wisdom and reflection eventually leading to death.
 The Wiccan wheel of the year is also symbolic of the same
 cycle and usually applied in terms of The God. The
 changing cycle of the seasons represents birth, life, death,
 and rebirth.
 The Role of Humans in Nature
 To sustain themselves animals function as a part of nature
 and avoid imbalancing it. As a student of nature, we see
 that mankind’s role is no different than any other animal, to
 sustain our own existence without imbalancing nature.
 Nature and Food
 All things alive need to eat. It is natural. Nature supplies
 food to animals in the form of the physical bodies of other
 life. There is a limit to how much food is available naturally
 in a given area. When an animal’s population outgrows its
 food supply, it either leaves the area looking for more
 natural food or the population is reduced by starvation.
 Humans and Food
 Humans have learned to work the land making it ripe for
 plants. We have learned to enslave plants for food by
 growing them in worked land. We have learned to enslave
 animals and kill them for food. With an artificially increased
 food supply mankind is able to increase population without
 starvation or the need for migration.
 Dragon Tradition Wicca - 
25 Humans are the only animals to artificially increase the food
 supply. I am not suggesting that everyone should drop
 modern agriculture and go back to being the hunter-gatherer
 of old. What I am suggesting is that you be aware that
 Wicca is a religion of nature, and how we treat nature is of
 huge significance to the religion.
 Ask yourself how you feel about the following:
 · 
By artificially increasing the food supply man is imbalancing nature.
 · 
The increased population of humans is displacing and destroying nature, and it is dangerous to imbalance or
 destroy something on which one is so completely
 dependent for continued existence.
 · 
It took the first 1800 years of the Common Era for human population to grow from 250 million to 1 billion.
 · 
Human population grew from 5 billion to 6 billion in only 13 years.
 · 
Human population grew more between 1987 and 2000, than it did from 1 to 1800.
 Summary
 Wiccan theology at its deepest level is very much tied to
 nature.
 Nature is an endless blend of cycles. The cycle of The
 Goddess is described in terms of the moon. The cycle of The
 God is described in terms of the sun.
 Dragon Tradition teaches that through an understanding of
 nature, we develop a better understanding of ourselves and
 our role in the Universe.
 The role of mankind is to sustain our own existence without
 imbalancing nature.
 Mankind is imbalancing nature, and it is dangerous to
 imbalance or destroy something on which one is so
 completely dependent for continued existence.
 26 - 
A New Walk Down an Old Path Dragon Tradition Wicca - 
27 Life Spirits and Magickal Abilities
 Wiccan traditions are divided regarding the theories behind
 magickal practice. Some place heavy importance on calling
 on The Goddess and/or The God to make the magick work.
 Others see the practitioner as the source of the magick.
 Dragon Tradition’s integration of magick is a combination of
 both of these theories.
 The very center of Dragon Tradition’s belief on Magick is the
 life spirit. Everything alive has one. We see them as a gift
 from, or a part of, The Goddess. They are the spiritual part
 of all of us, our little piece of the giant spirit of nature.
 Beliefs Chapter I
 I. Life Spirits
 a. Everything of life has an individual
 spirit.
 b. Spirits are magickal and interconnected.
 c. Spirits have wisdom and skills of the
 physical world and the magickal world of
 nature.
 Life spirits are definitely magickal in that they are far
 beyond human comprehension and scientific understanding.
 The best explanation from science is that we are simply
 organic machines with no spirit whatsoever. "So much for
 science having all the answers; I am more than a machine."
 The belief that life spirits are interconnected is based on the
 observation that things that are alive have the ability to
 communicate with each other on a spiritual level. People
 who are empathic, telepathic, or psychic have learned to tap
 into this communication.
 Other animals also appear to have this ability. Watch a flock
 of birds flying in tight formation moving as if there was one
 mind controlling the group and you will see an example.