Dragon Magick: Call on the Clans to Help Your Practice Soar

By D.J. Conway

Connect with the Boundless Energy and Life-Changing Magick of Dragons

Discover how to work magick with the mighty dragon clans in this powerful book from bestselling author and dragon expert D. J. Conway. Perfect for beginners and experienced dragon handlers alike, this impressive guide first covers the basics of dragons and magick, and then provides comprehensive information about the thirty-three clans.

Explore each dragon's personality, coloring, eye traits, and claw, wing, and scale shape. Learn about the clans' different communication styles and how they approach honor, respect, and more. Build a personal connection with your guardian dragon through meditations and spells. This marvelous book opens the door to the world of dragons and allows you to soar with them to new heights of magick.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
• Release date: Aug 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9780738760742

D.J. Conway

A native of the Pacific Northwest, D.J. Conway (1939 - 2019) studied the occult fields for over 35 years. Her quest for knowledge covered Paganism, Wicca, New Age, and Eastern philosophies as well as history, the magical arts, mythology, and folklore. Conway wrote more than 20 nonfiction books, including Celtic Magic (Llewellyn), Dancing with Dragons (Llewellyn), Mystical Dragon Magic (Llewellyn), The Ancient Art of Faery Magick (10 Speed Press), and The Little Book of Candle Magic (10 Speed Press).

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About the Author

A native of the Pacific Northwest, D.J. Conway (1939 - 2019) studied the occult fields for over 35 years. Her quest for knowledge covered every aspect of Paganism and Wicca to New Age and Eastern philosophies; plus history, the magical arts, philosophy, customs, mythologies and folklore. In 1998, she was voted Best Wiccan and New Age author by Silver Chalice, a Pagan magazine.

Conway wrote more than 20 nonfiction books, including Celtic Magic (Llewellyn), Dancing with Dragons (Llewellyn), Mystical Dragon Magic (Llewellyn), The Ancient Art of Faery Magick (10 Speed Press), and The Little Book of Candle Magic (10 Speed Press).

She lived a rather quiet life, with most of her time spent researching and writing.

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Dragon Magick: Call on the Clans to Help Your Practice Soar © 2019 by D.J. Conway.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

As the purchaser of this e-book, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. The text may not be otherwise reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or recorded on any other storage device in any form or by any means.

Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the author’s copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

First e-book edition © 2019

E-book ISBN: 9780738760742

Book design by Samantha Penn

Cover design by Shira Atakpu

Cover illustration by John Blumen

Editing by Laura Kurtz

Interior illustrations by Ty Derk

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Pending)

ISBN: 978-0-7387-5953-1

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publisher’s website for links to current author websites.

Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

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Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

To Cyndi Lou and John for encouragement, and to all other dragon lovers.

Contents

Chapter 1

Dragons in Mythology and Legend

Chapter 2

Seeking and Working with Dragons

Chapter 3

Dragon Power in Magick

Chapter 4

Dragon Lives: Facts and Fallacies

Chapter 5

Bonding and Communicating

Chapter 6

Magick and the Psychic

Chapter 7

Preparation for Dragon Magick

Chapter 8

Basic Rituals

Chapter 9

The First Clans to Return to This Plane

Chapter 10

The New Dragon Clans

Conclusion

the Great Journey Continues

Appendix

Books of Interest

Dragons in Mythology

and Legend

The world’s mythologies are full of tales about dragons. Sometimes they are portrayed as huge serpents, sometimes as the type of dragon known to the Western world, sometimes in the shape know to those in East Asia. However, dragons have always played a part in the shaping of this world and its many diverse cultures. They also have had an important role in cultural perception of spiritual ideas.

Dragons have been portrayed in many forms and variations of these forms. Ancient teachings say dragons can have two or four legs or none at all, a pair of wings or be wingless, breathe fire and smoke, and have scales on their bodies. Their blood is extremely poisonous and corrosive but also very magickal. Blood, or the life force, is a symbol of the intensity of their elemental-type energies. Depending upon the reception they received from humans in the area where they lived, dragons could be either beneficial or violent. One thing is for certain: dragons were regarded with awe by all cultures affected by their presence and interaction with humans.

Although one can speak of dragons as a separate species of being, there are numerous subspecies and families within the dragon community, as one can deduce from reading ancient histories and stories. The subspecies and families may have greater or lesser differences in appearance but still retain the basic traits that are common to all dragons wherever they are. One family of dragons with very similar characteristics lived in Europe, specifically in northern Germany, Scandinavia, and islands of the North Atlantic. A second family was recognized in France, Italy, and Spain. A third family dwelt in the British Isles, including Ireland: these dragons, commonly called Firedrakes, included the winged but legless Worm. A fourth family, winged but legless, was found in the Mediterranean area, in Greece, Asia Minor, southern Russia, and northern Africa. A fifth family—the largest in number—was the dragons of China, Pacific Asia, and Indonesia. The sixth family, of very limited size and number, was found in the Americas and Australia.

In the Eastern world, dragons seldom breathe fire and are more benevolent, although hot-tempered and destructive when provoked. They are sometimes pictured as wingless but can propel themselves through the air if they wish. The dragons of Asia, Mexico, the Americas, and Australia propelled themselves through the skies by balancing between the Earth’s magnetic field and the winds.

In China, for example, dragons are portrayed with four legs, a long sinuous serpentine body, and a snake-like tail; they range in size from a few feet long up to the Great Chien Tang, who was over a thousand feet in length. They could speak, were able to alter their forms and sizes, and had a varying number of claws.

Chinese emperors adopted the five-clawed dragon as a sacred ancestor and symbol of their power. Only Imperial dragons were said to have the special five claws on each foot. All other Asian dragons had only three or four claws. It became a law that only the Emperor could have a five-clawed dragon embroidered on his robes or painted on anything.

According to tradition, China’s history dated back to 3000 BCE, although modern historians only go back to 1600 BCE. A clay vessel from about 2000 BCE is decorated with a dragon picture. The dragon symbol and figure still exist in modern Chinese art and celebrations.

The Chinese divided their dragons into groups or classes, each with different characteristics. There were four major Lung Wang dragons, or Dragon-Kings. The names of these brothers were Ao Kuang, Ao Jun, Ao Shun, and Ao Ch’in. They also had specific duties: the t’ien lung supported the mansion of the gods; the shen lung brought rain; the ti lung controlled the rivers; and the fu-ts’an lung guarded hidden treasures and deposits of precious metals. The Lung Wang, or Dragon Kings, resembled the Indian Nagas, or sacred serpents. They were the patron deities of rivers, lakes, seas, and rain. They had valuable pearls in their throats and lived in magnificent underwater palaces.

Further divisions produced the kiao-lung, or scaled dragon: ying-lung with wings, k’iu-lung with horns, ch’i-lung which was hornless, and the p’an-lung which was earth-bound. The ch’i lung dragon was red, white, and green; the k’iu- lung was green. Chinese dragons were also entirely black, white, red, or yellow, with yellow considered superior.

When it came to using dragons for decoration, there were nine distinct categories: the p’u lao was carved on gongs; the ch’iu niu and pi his on fiddles and literature tablets; the pa hsia at the base of stone monuments; the chao feng on the eaves of temples; the chi’ih on beams of bridges; the suan ni only on the throne of the Buddha; the yai tzu on the hilts of swords; and the pi han on prison gates.

Chinese experts were said to be able to tell the age of Eastern dragons and their origins by their colors. Yellow dragons were believed to be born from yellow gold a thousand years old; blue dragons from blue gold eight hundred years old; and red, white, and black dragons from gold of the same color a thousand years old.

To the Chinese, a dragon could be either male or female. They laid eggs, some of which did not hatch for a thousand years. When a hatching did occur, it was known because of great meteor showers, violent thunderstorms, and great showers of hail.

The number of scales on a dragon was also of importance. Some ancient dragon experts in China maintained that a true dragon has exactly eighty-one scales, while others state that the number was one hundred and seventeen. They were never said to be covered with anything except scales. This is a characteristic of dragons worldwide. However, Western dragons have a varying number of scales and claws. Eastern dragons were also said to be able to fly despite not having wings thanks to the lump on the top of their heads. All dragons have very distinct and individual personalities, just as humans do.

In Chinese medicine, the skin, bones, teeth, and saliva of dragons were considered very valuable. Powdered dragon bone was a magickal cure-all. Old medical textbooks are quick to point out that dragons periodically shed their skin and bones like snakes do. Since the shed skins glowed in the dark, presumably they were easy to locate. Some of the bones were listed as slightly poisonous and could only be prepared in non-iron instruments. The shedding and regrowth of teeth is known to occur among certain mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.

Dragon saliva was said to be found as a frothy foam on the ground or floating on the water. It was usually deposited during mating or fighting. One Chinese story tells of a great battle just off the coast near a fishing village. The villagers watched the great dragons rolling in the black clouds and leaping in the waves for a day and a night. Their echoing roars could be clearly heard. The next morning these people set out in all their fishing boats to the place of the battle. They scooped up whole boatloads of dragon saliva they found floating in huge piles on the ocean’s surface.

The blood of Eastern dragons was sometimes red, other times black. Dragon experts said it changed into amber when it soaked into the ground. Wherever dragon blood fell, the ground became incapable of supporting any vegetation. Although the blood was considered dangerous and sometimes deadly in myths of various cultures of Asia, European heroes bathed in it to create invulnerability or drank it to become wise. This transformation of the blood into amber could well be an alchemical expression of the manifestation of magickal power and elemental energies into a desired physical result.

Asian/Eastern dragons did not figure in Chinese creation myths. Only rarely, and then only by accident, did they come in conflict with gods or heroes. These dragons tended to mind their own business and keep a beneficial attitude toward humans.