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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.