Riding the Dragon and Workout of the Week #35

Update 7/18/19:  My club still uses the flag but we’re now called Cabal Fang Temple, and we’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational charity.  Visit our website or purchase our 12-week personal growth program at Smashwords, Amazon, B&N, or wherever fine e-books are sold.

————————–

Original post:

The logo of the Order of Seven Hills, the founding order of Cabal Fang martial arts

When we founded the Order of Seven Hills back in 2009, we chose a black dragon as our logo (on the right) and that’s what we put on our flag.  We did that because the dragon symbol is so very important.

The dragon is chaos.  It is the serpent, the snake of snakes, and it’s symbolically connected to darkness and the underworld.  In old English we called it a wyrm — a worm — which explains why dragons live in caves.  They hoard gold and keep women captive, which means they symbolize the fundamental drives of the subconscious.

When the hero  — the knight, St. George, Sigurd, Beowulf —  overcomes the dragon to save the village, he is taming chaos and subjugating his fundamental drives in the service of something greater than himself.  And what does the get as a reward?  Well he gets status and success, which means power, money and women throw themselves at his feet.  And so the dragon is reborn, which explains why knights are always having to go fight another dragon somewhere.

We do love our dragons, so much so that we particularly like the idea of taming them.  The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McAffrey is one of the most popular fantasy book series of all time, as are the Game of Thrones books by George R. R. Martin.  Females, like the characters Lessa and Daenerys Targaryen from these two examples, seem more likely to tame them than slaughter them over and over, which may be a smarter way to go about it.  This line of thinking sort of begs a comparison with Eve in the Garden of Eden, or maybe Mary standing on a serpent — but that’s for another article!

At any rate, dragons have wings and they can fly!  So when you learn to accept, tame and harness your drives for power, money and sex  you rise above them.  When you tame the dragon and make peace with it you reach a higher state of awareness.   You make the dragon tow the line, and when you want to unleash it’s power you can.  It doesn’t eat the villagers any more because you feed it a little and then let it sleep.

And isn’t that what the ultimate martial artkist does?  Not only does she defend herself and others, she leaves peace and greater awareness in her wake.

Cabal Fang Workout of the Week #35

• As many 10-Count Bodybuilders as you can in 20 minutes (aim for 100)
• A Dragon Meditation.  Set a timer for 10 minutes and assume your chosen meditative posture.  Close your eyes and regulate your breathing.  Then imagine that you are creeping into a dark cave to confront a dragon.  Visualize the scene fully in your mind’s eye.  Immerse yourself in this exercise fully.  Imagine all of the sights, sounds and smells and allow yourself to participate with the mental image and allow it to unfold.  Do you fight the dragon or tame the dragon?  Record the results of your meditation in your training log or journal.  Then take the time to review your life story as a mythological tale.  Have you been spending your life in endless contention with the dragon, or have you been trying to tame it?