Nine Dragons

East is East and West is West…but One World spans it All.

Kipling’s words were right for his time – but times…as the old song goes...are a’ Changin’.

Nine is a magic number – for both cultures East and West and as for the dragon…well, the dragon is the vital link that binds.

It all began when Atlantic tribes freed from their Ice Age caves spread both East and West. The West seekers used skin boats to hug the ice sheet and arrive in North America perhaps 15000 years ago. The Eastern bound nomads took longer, often stopping along the way, but eventually reaching the borders of Western China about 5000 years ago.

It was then that contact was made between the proto-Han and other Chinese tribes and the proto-Celtic tribes of Europe.

Thus the cult of the dragon was born even as the progenitors separated and the Celts moved back to the far Western Isles. In later times Chinese Emperors claimed dragon patrimony and Merlin’s dragons ruled the ancient British psyche so sure of the marvellous Spirituality of Nature.

King Arthur of Britain was son of Pendragon (Head of the Dragon) and the first Chinese Emperor Chin was son of the Divine Dragon of Heaven.

Such things are more than mere co-incidence. The time has come to understand our common roots and let the dragon breathe the fire of unity.

TODR July 14