{"id":237,"date":"2011-11-11T07:48:50","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T12:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betzking.com\/blog\/?p=237"},"modified":"2024-11-29T17:07:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T22:07:31","slug":"dragons-in-the-almost-21st-century-previously-published-1998","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betzking.com\/blog\/dragons-in-the-almost-21st-century-previously-published-1998\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragons in the almost-21st Century (previously published 1998)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Clothed in a simple robe I sit, next to a pond filled with moonlight.\u00a0 Reflected on the surface are images\u2026 the High King and Queen of the land\u2026 the wise benevolent Merlin\u2026. a fire breathing dragon.\u00a0 The fate of a nation is shrouded in mist; it clouds the surface of the pond.\u00a0 I stand and invoke the Great Goddess, Mother of all things.\u00a0 She fills me with her power.\u00a0 Suddenly, the phone rings.\u00a0 I snap back into my body.<\/p>\n

Astral travel?\u00a0 No, I am simply reading\u00a0 Mists of Avalon<\/span> for the 7th<\/sup> time.\u00a0 I can finish the last page and go right back to the first. It is the story of King Arthur and his knights, told from the perspective of the Priestesses of the magical land of Avalon.\u00a0 These powerful women used their magic to put Arthur on the throne, so that he would defend the Old Religion, where God and Goddess were equal.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I use the story as an escape, hiding in it.\u00a0 I identify with the main character, Morgaine of the Fairies.\u00a0 She is a powerful priestess of Avalon, and sister to King Arthur.\u00a0 As a priestess,\u00a0 Morgaine\u2019s life is just so much more interesting<\/em> than mine.\u00a0 Spending an hour or two in her company makes it difficult to return to my<\/em> life, here in the almost 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

Morgaine makes herbs into medicines and charms, she spins, weaves and dyes her own robes.\u00a0 I buy my herbs on sale at the health food store, and my clothes from Value Village.\u00a0 Morgaine is so <\/em>in touch with her intuition.\u00a0 She calls it the \u201cSight,\u201d and can access it at will in vision quests.\u00a0 It rarely fails her.\u00a0 Although I am an ordained minister of energetic\u00a0healing, my college internship requires that I work in inpatient psychiatry.\u00a0 There, people who hear voices or see visions are considered\u00a0 potentially dangerous.\u00a0 As for my <\/em>intuition, well\u2026I\u2019m certain it\u2019d be easier to access near a moonlit pond than in a traffic jam, which is another point Morgaine doesn\u2019t contend with.\u00a0 She rides a horse through beautiful forests, with plenty of time to contemplate her destination and connection to the earth.\u00a0 I, in my trusty Honda with 220,000 miles, am propelled through time and space at 55 miles per hour.\u00a0 I am frequently late.\u00a0 Contemplate my destination?\u00a0 Feel the earth?\u00a0 This is the Motor City, not Avalon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Morgaine fasts frequently and eats sparingly of animal foods.\u00a0 She drinks only the water of the sacred well of Avalon.\u00a0\u00a0 While primarily a vegetarian, I have developed a bizarre fondness for Gatorade <\/em>of all things, not to mention chocolate!<\/p>\n

Morgaine has a blue crescent tattoo on her forehead, the \u201ckiss of the Goddess,\u201d\u00a0 and is deeply respected as a result.\u00a0 I have a pentacle on my left arm, symbol of the element of earth and the protection of the Goddess.\u00a0 Yet I have been called everything from a witch to a devil worshipper because of it.<\/p>\n

And what about religious worship?\u00a0 Morgaine has the forest, the sacred well, and the moon in all its phases.\u00a0 I have a small alter in the spare bedroom, optimistically called my \u201ctemple\u201d.<\/p>\n

So I retreat, time and again, to the pages\u2026to the mists\u2026 of Avalon.\u00a0 And I sulk.\u00a0 Why am I <\/em>not afforded the opportunity to slay a dragon, or assist in the birth of a baby?\u00a0 Why can\u2019t I feel the tides of the moon in my <\/em>blood?\u00a0 I want to be a priestess,<\/em> not a \u201cminister of divine healing\u201d disguised as a \u201cgraduate student of psychology.\u201d\u00a0 Where are my<\/em> vision quests?<\/p>\n

In The Mists of Avalon<\/span>, Morgaine warns the High Queen Gwenhwfar to be careful what she wishes for, as she just might get it.\u00a0 And so it happened recently, visualizing all that longing for the days of old, that I got exactly what I<\/em> asked <\/em>for.\u00a0 Dragons and everything.<\/p>\n

I tried to buy a house.\u00a0 A noble ambition.\u00a0 I rode into the unknown land of mortgages, building inspections and purchase agreements with simply my faith to protect me.\u00a0\u00a0 When I left that forest, a short month later, it was as one re-born.\u00a0 I had found the Priestess Within.<\/p>\n

In 1997, dragons live disguised.\u00a0 My dragons were disguised as Legally Binding Contracts. The mortgage verification process triggered a strange chain of events with my human resource department at work.\u00a0 Suddenly, my seemingly safe and secure position became \u201ctemporary and at will.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Next, the sellers tried to roof the house with an unlicensed roofing company to save money, and threatened to sue me if I did not agree. The irony was not lost on me.\u00a0 In my search for the safety and security that home-owning represented to me, I now stood to lose both job and<\/em> life savings!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, back in my \u201ctemple,\u201d a candle burned.\u00a0 Underneath it was all pertinent paperwork, and it was surrounded by symbols of the four elements.\u00a0 It was not invested in any particular outcome, but simply invoked the Greatest Good For All Involved.\u00a0 Sort of a \u201cNot my will, but Thine\u201d kind of a thing.\u00a0 During my crash course in Litigation, Arbitration and Legally Binding Contracts,\u00a0 I would pause and look at that candle.\u00a0 Surrounded by the clutter of my life, it would comfort me.<\/p>\n

As for intuition or vision quests, I soon realized I had little time for much else<\/em>. Things moved so rapidly, I quickly found my gut to be my best indication of which way toproceed.\u00a0 I dreamt one night of running barefoot through the deep rich dirt of my childhood home.\u00a0 The next morning the lawsuit was canceled and my offer accepted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I brushed off my rusty herb lore.\u00a0 Valerian, skullcap and hops calmed my anxieties.\u00a0 When I couldn\u2019t feel<\/em> confident,\u00a0 I dressed in colors and styles representative of the image I wished to convey, acting \u201cas if\u201d it were true.\u00a0 Driving became a pleasure as it was the only place I could not be reached by phone with the latest threat or red tape.\u00a0 I played Van Morrison tapes and breathed deeply at each red light.\u00a0 On the scariest day, I went to the zoo and connected with animal energies and the beautiful landscaping.\u00a0 I breathed some more.<\/p>\n

The entire process took less than a month.\u00a0 As I lived it, I did not think \u201cnow I am behaving as Morgaine would.\u201d\u00a0 These realizations have come to me only in retrospect.\u00a0 Yet, I was<\/em> behaving as Morgaine would have.\u00a0 I was accessing my God and Goddess.\u00a0 I was using intuition, herb lore, breathwork, earth energies and ritual.<\/p>\n

Whether a horse or a car, a forest or Woodward Avenue, vision quests still<\/em> present themselves, and magic is still<\/em> a viable response.\u00a0 In buying a house, negotiating my job and facing a lawsuit, I have been given a great gift:\u00a0 the ability to recognize the ancient tests of faith.\u00a0 They are simply disguised in attire of the almost 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

I am now a very proud, first-time home owner.\u00a0 It is still strangely possible that I may lose my job as a result.\u00a0 I will defeat that dragon if it comes.\u00a0 Upon close inspection, dragons have not changed so much.\u00a0 They still wear the face of fear.\u00a0 Many are the philosophies that teach of the choice<\/em> between fear and love.\u00a0 They are teaching how to avoid\u00a0 dragons altogether.<\/p>\n

The first 6 times I read Mists of Avalon<\/span> I grieved that I could not live that life.\u00a0 This last time through may really be my last<\/em> time through.\u00a0 No longer must I envy Morgaine of the Fairies,\u00a0 or the life she lives in Avalon.\u00a0 For I am not so different than she, nor is Royal Oak so different than Avalon.\u00a0 And all women wear the face of the Goddess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clothed in a simple robe I sit, next to a pond filled with moonlight.\u00a0 Reflected on the surface are images\u2026 the High King and Queen of the land\u2026 the wise benevolent Merlin\u2026. a fire breathing dragon.\u00a0 The fate of a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[57,56],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mists-of-avalon","tag-rites-of-passage"],"yoast_head":"\nDragons in the almost-21st Century (previously published 1998) - Betz-Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/betzking.com\/blog\/dragons-in-the-almost-21st-century-previously-published-1998\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dragons in the almost-21st Century (previously published 1998) - 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