The Dragon and the Princess

“We hit rock bottom so we can see and feel that there is a bottom...to kick off it, stronger, into the brighter, warmer waters above.”

The next day he woke to singing. It was the most alluring singing he had ever heard and the sound reminded him of a life before. He looked up from behind the rock he had been sleeping against and peered over the edge. In front of him, some way away, was a girl washing her hands and feet in a ritualised way. She was singing as she did this, a slow melodic tune. The dragon watched as, after washing, she knelt down with her head on the ground and sat there for quite some time. She got up with her hands outstretched and mumbled words under her breath. The dragon thought that it was a beautiful scene. He watched her for some time, as she continued with the bowing and kneeling and he resolved to speak with her if she looked over at him in his hiding place. Sure enough, no sooner than she had clearly finished, getting up from her prostrations, she looked over right at the dragon. “Hello!” said the dragon, sheepishly. “Peace be upon you,” she replied. The dragon got up and went over to where she was. “What were you doing, if you don’t mind me asking?” he enquired. “Honouring The Creator,” she said proudly. “But I honour The Creator, every day and in every way, but I do not bow like you did.” “Haha, then you are not really honouring Him,” she replied strongly, “our leader has met with Him and this is what he said you must do, not for His benefit, but for yours!” “It is all written in our book, for all to see, but not many hear the call,” she added.

The dragon thought about the many books on The Creator that he had read in his past and on his great study of these things all his life, in fact, the dragon thought he was quite the expert on the subject. Indeed, he had spent time with ‘Those Who Reject’ in the high mountains, the monks of the Sun God, in the eastern mountains; ‘Those In Union’ of the low lands, the tribes of the deserts and many others. In all his times with these good, holy and wise people, he had noticed above all, that if you didn’t focus on the detail, they were all saying exactly the same thing. All believed in love, and helping others, in perfecting yourself and knowing the law of the harvest (that what you sowed, you would reap, sooner or later). He knew all these things were true and real, he had seen them for himself and with his own dragon eyes. They were also all talking about The Creator, although they were sure that their “Creator” was different to everyone else’s. There was much more, but fundamentally, unbeknownst to them, they were all saying the same things in different ways, with different details and with different “loops of the mind” so that they could not see it, trapped in the details of their “loops” and in their egos.

And yet he had never thought about there being “a way” to honour He Who Created All That Is. The previous holy people had all allowed for great flexibility in their worship and honour. The dragon therefore, just followed the way of love and thought about The Creator often, feeling as though he spoke to Him sometimes, in his innermost being; he thought that this was enough. “I follow the Way of Peace,” the young girl elaborated, “and I am one of ‘Those Who Submit,’ there are few of us, but we are special and glorified in The Creator’s eyes, and are above the ordinaries, here in our mountain kingdom. We wait for the end of creation, when all we have done will be rewarded, and the ordinaries and non-believers will perish, when a better place will come, and we will live in bliss! We see the truth, that all holy people are saying the same things but they have got some things wrong, our way is the only true way!”

This chimed with the dragon and he thought that this sounded sensible (except for the perishing bit) and in his separation and despair, thought that perhaps this was what he needed; perhaps there was ‘a way’ to honour The Creator and that ‘Those Who Submit’ were right. He remembered the daemons words and felt that all this made sense to him right now and he was willing to give it a go. He asked the girl to teach him her ways, and she happily agreed. She was slight, and pretty, although she covered her head so that he could not see her clearly, and her name was Bilaal. “First you must put away your wings, and extinguish your fire, leave your past and your friends behind and learn the ways and words of my leader. You must submit and give your all to this endeavour; do you agree to do this?” she asked. “I agree.” said the dragon. “So it is done,” she said smilingly.

For many months the dragon stayed with her, learning the ritual washing, and the holy words her leader had taught her people and embracing their way with vigour and without question and he quickly became a trusted and respected member of their community. He would wake up before dawn, wash and prostrate himself and spend much of the time reading the books her leader had dictated. He would wash and prostrate throughout the day, as was their custom, and at other times, help those in her village who needed help, and teach the children of her people the ways of their leader. “When can I meet the leader?” he asked, “You cannot, as he was taken up long ago, but he will return at the end and defend us in The Judgement. Then you will meet him.” “But if you have never met him,” asked the dragon, “how do you know that this is what he wanted?” Shocked, the girl reproached him sternly, “never doubt what has been passed down to us, it can never be corrupted, we follow the true way!” The dragon had heard many of the others say that their way was the true way, the monks in the eastern mountains, for example, were sure of this too. “You have not completely extinguished your fire!” said the girl, “you must wash yourself more, and extinguish it, or you will be one of those who are damned! Soon will be fasting time and this will extinguish it completely, I am sure.” It was true, the dragon had not completely put out his fire, for in truth, he was not sure that he could. He tried to keep it hidden, but with every washing and prostration, the dragon could feel it burn inside of him. “I am not sure about this,” he thought to himself.

As though Bilaal could hear him she said, “Thoughts of doubt and bad thoughts come from the dark one, do you know that, dragon? The dark one is out to make us fail and to make us join with his people, the ordinaries, do not heed his call! You must hop on one leg and turn around first anticlockwise and then clockwise three times, so that he cannot touch you, then you must spit over your right shoulder whilst saying some of the holy words I taught you.” The dragon, again, was pretty sure this was wrong, he knew that bad thoughts and doubt came from himself and no one else, we all have light and dark within us, it is those who listen to the dark that are the dark ones, but we are all able to listen to the light if we but choose; to put it all onto some other entity, is to lose this self-responsibility and to confuse the matter. It was the same with all the rules ‘Those Who Submit’ had to follow; so much was forbidden. The dragon was starting to see that to only follow rules is wrong and gives up control of our lives, and when we stop controlling ourselves, then it is easy for others to control us.

That night the dragon dreamt, he saw a man stand over him and water was dripping from his head and his hair and his body, and this water poured over the dragon and down his throat. He awoke in a sweat and had trouble sleeping again. When dawn came, he caught Bilaal walking to the lake for her dawn prostrations and he told her of the dream. “Do not tell anyone of this! This is a dream that is written in our books, the man is our leader, and the water is the truth, it means you have been chosen to deliver the truth. But swear to me you will tell no one, as others will not understand!” “I swear,” said the dragon, though he thought this strange, that if he should tell the truth, why should he keep silent? The dragon was starting to think that Bilaal was stuck in a loop of the mind and was not all he had thought she was.

One day, not long after, the dragon saw some of his friends nearby and started to rush over to greet them, “DRAGON!” the girl shouted in rage, “do not speak with the unbelievers and sinners, they are unclean and will surely lead you astray; it is forbidden to you!” “You may take them our book, so that they may hear the words of our leader, but do not converse with them, I and The Creator are watching you!” The dragon did not want to take the book to them, he was unsure of all of this, but he had been learning to submit and out of love for The Creator and Bilaal, he did as he was told. As he got closer he could hear his friends were playing music from a flute and as he went over to them the dragon had realised that he had not heard music in a very long time. The sound affected him deep inside and he felt his fire burn hotter than ever. He sheepishly gave his friends the book, not saying a word. “Dragon! Where have you been? The wizard has been unhappy without you! He heard that you were here but we did not believe it ourselves until now.” The dragon walked away, knowing Bilaal and The Creator were watching him.

He was angry that the wizard had not come to visit if he knew he was here, for perhaps, the dragon wished to be turned away from this path. He had great feelings for Bilaal and her people, but he felt that there was something not quite right, yet again. He was convinced of the need to let go, as a leaf is carried by the turbulent river and yet comes to no harm, he knew that this was right and that he had not let go enough in his life, and was sometimes more like the heavy log that is smashed on the rocks by the white water. But ‘Those Who Submit’ spoke often of anger and hate, under the guise of love and peace, and he knew that this was wrong. How can The Creator hate or be angry? If you were all powerful, then you would surely be able to leave these negative things behind. To say that even The Creator had these things, was to limit Him, which the dragon also knew was not possible or right; for surely He was limitless.

One day, not long after this, as he sat in the place where he taught the children of ‘Those Who Submit,’ (which he often did as his service to the community) and as the dragon still felt the music swirl inside of him, a man walked up to him and sat down. “Greetings!” he said warmly, “Or should I say, ’Peace be upon you?’” The man was dressed like a knight, with a white garment over his armour and with many strange and beautiful charms and trinkets round his neck and on his wrists, he looked like a mix of the races of men and the dragon could not place from which realm he came from. He also wasn’t sure he was a man at all, as he had some feminine features too. The man reached out a hand for the golden dragon to shake and as the dragon responded in kind, the man put one finger on his dragon wrist and shook his hand warmly. “This is how we tell if you are human or not....you are definitely human...” said the man. The dragon was taken aback by this but said nothing, ‘What a strange thing to say,’ he thought. “Tell me about the way of peace,” said the man as he sat down. So the golden dragon explained to him what he knew about the way of peace, although he did not say what he truly thought, only what he thought he should say, as the dragon, foolishly often did. “Interesting!” said the man as he stood up to leave.

“See you tomorrow in the special prostrations, oh, golden dragon?” he said with a knowing and questioning look in his eye. “Yes, of course,” said the dragon, whereupon the man smiled as though he had a great secret he was keeping and turned around and left. As he watched the man leave, he thought to himself, ’but how does he know about the special prostrations tomorrow (that happened every week on the last day of the week), I did not mention it, and the man gave me the impression he knew nothing of the way of ‘Those Who Submit,’ the way of peace...!′ The dragon got up to ask the man how he knew of this but he had disappeared! Right into thin air, almost before his eyes! ‘How strange!’ thought the dragon. As he pondered what had just happened, the dragon realised that perhaps this was not a man at all…

That night, just before his last prostrations of the day, the dragon felt himself wake up, as though from a dream. “This is all nonsense! I know that now, the daemon has tricked me, I see now that as soon as you have lost any love in your heart, you have strayed from the true path!” And without saying a further word or saying goodbye to Bilaal and the others he unfurled his wings, allowed his fire to become great again, and let out a roar that was mixed with the great flames of his belly, which exploded in a great torrent of fire. He flapped his wonderful golden wings and flew off gloriously into the night, resolved to find the wizard and the princess and all his old friends, and beginning the long flight home. As he flew over the lake, he caught his reflection again, and this time, the golden dragon saw that he was as magnificent as ever before.