For an example of what I felt was missing from the book, and needed to be in there for it to feel complete and new: in “Dancing with Dragons,” I would have liked to see more personal anecdotes about Conway’s experiences with dragon spirits, which she really just glossed over. Perhaps that was just out of respect for their (or her own) privacy, which is reasonable and likely. However, personal anecdotes of that kind are what make non-fiction books on telepathic animal communication (such as “Straight from the horse’s mouth,” which is a comedian’s take on it) so interesting and enlightening to read, even if the reader is skeptical about whether the communications are wholly real.

I didn’t like the system of sorting dragons by element rather than culture, either. That didn’t seem intuitive or logical at all, after reading Allen’s “The Book of the Dragon.” Then again, as they said in that book, any attempts to categorize dragons tend not to work well. In the practice of dragon magic, a person might be better off just learning about each dragon they meet as an individual because classification is so likely to fail.

Silvaerin’a,
the dragon chewing the roots of the world-tree Yggdrasil is named Niddhoggr, not Fafnir. That’s a different dragon. Fafnir is a wicked dragon from Norse mythology, yes, and not someone who you would want to call on as an ally, yes. The mythology is retold in Wagner’s opera “Ring of the Nibelung,” and Fafnir started out as a giant (or dwarf, in the original legend) but when he acquired some enchanted treasure by killing his own brother, he used its magic to transform himself into a dragon so that he could better defend his hoard. He was eventually slain by the hero Sigurd. In either case, he’s not someone who you would want to call on as an ally! I’ve heard people speculate that the Fafnir mentioned in “Dancing with Dragons” must be a different dragon who happens to have the same name, but it’s still more than we know about the other three dragons of the cardinal directions that Conway mentioned, since their names appear in her book alone and nowhere else that I’ve found. Those four cardinal-direction dragons are doubtless from Conway’s Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG) as Lupa calls it.

Angelforlorn: Heh–in that case, the hard part’s over But seriously, at this point I think your best bet is just to meditate with him more and talk to him. Some beings like to talk in riddles as a way to teach us things (or because they have a weird sense of humor!). I’d guess there’s probably something more to the “you already know my name” thing than a simple term. So I’d say keep talking to the dragon and see what else he has to say. It may be an exercise in frustration, but I bet you’ll learn something by the end.

Yes, I guess there would be also be the risk of rationalising these as great visualisations/parts of the self (and geared toward the ritualist as a a result) rather than actual beings. (I used to hold this view with gods when I started out, and am being progressively swayed to be the other side with regard to this.) Having read other Conway books years ago, I could very much imagine it would be quite nurturing toward such a stance. Would I be correct?

Of course, there’s always virtue in treating customer services representatives like actual people, also.

Sincerely,
Natalie.

Hopefully I read that correctly!Thanks again for answering.
Sincerely,
Natalie.

Angelforlorn: My advice at this point would be to research dragons in general (The Book of the Dragon that I linked to in the review above is a good start). Do some research on invocation and evocation techniques; I work with a nix of neopaganism and Chaos magic, but that’s what works for me. If you haven’t done much with invocation and evocation, I suggest practicing with beings you’re familiar with before leaping into dragon territory.

As for contacting an individual dragon, I’d suggest finding the culture that most resonates with you, as well as make yourself familiar with the view of dragons that culture had. Most of them don’t have rituals to deliberately attract dragons (that I know of, anyway), but if you want to work within that cultural context a bit, it might help give the ritual a more welcoming flavor. If there are offerings that are traditionally given to dragons in tha tculture (within reasonable limits–no human virgins!) you might try bringing and offering into the ritual. Then use the ritual to put out a call for an interested dragon. If you don’t get a response right away, don’t worry–just give it time.

Once you’ve gotten in contact with a dragon, talk to hir about ways to work together. I find that when working with any sort of spiritual being, it’s best to figure out a system that’s unique to the two of you rather than sticking to a script.

That’s what I would do, anyway.

Dragons are essentially people, just like us. They have different cultural motivations, different goals, but they have the same basic desires that we do, they want what they want.

Courtesy to any being, no matter what form, simple politness is key. You go into the lair of a Dragon, you don’t start telling them what is wrong with their home, you don’t tell them how they are screwed up, you don’t stick your nose into their politics without invitation and you don’t start telling them how to run their life.

Most dragons I know feel that humanity is little better than lice, and the only value we have is that there are so many of us.

So for her to summon dragons for a wiccan ritual, then to arrogantly say that this dragon is what she says they are instead of what they believe they are, well, that tends to piss dragons off. And a pissed off dragon can really mess with someone baddly.