An Internal Monologue

One of the most annoying things I find with today's "neo-pagan" culture is its obsession with Dragons. Dragon statues, shirts, jewellery, tarot decks, and tattoos are ubiquitous at virtually every event I've attended in the past 5 years with a pagan flair.

The crux of my problem is that it's not even the use and prevalence of dragons that irks me so much as the way people so often use and overuse them. In my mind, dragons are great, ancient, virtually all-powerful and omniscient in comparison to humans. They are hardly cuddly, often unfriendly, massive forces of nature.

When I see groups of people invoke the "purple dragon of fulfillment" (I've seen it happen), I die a little inside. I want it to appear and belch flame, or eat them. I want them to stop fluffing up a stoic image of power and wisdom. When I hear people introduce them by names with "dragon" in them, I want to ask them if it helps their ego to presume such power and prestige. I wonder how fragile or immature these people are that they have to "cute-up" such an intimidating force instead of respect it properly.

When did earth-based paganism stop being about worshipping the earth and start being a thinly-veiled cover for having a fairy-tale fetish? When did people decide to stop deferring to the earth, and to turn religion into a fucking theme party?

Then again, maybe LeGuin and Tolkien just had a little too much of an effect on me. Maybe I'm a pretentious elitist that would rather respect things then make them laughable, and should go join the OTO or Golden Dawn.

Yeah, maybe. Meanwhile, I'll be the one bussing, buying organic, and refusing to buy sweatshop-made clothes, while the dragon-worshippers drive around in their Hummers pretending they're good for the earth.