The first mentions of dragons are found in handwritten texts relating to the most ancient Sumerian culture. In ancient legends, they are described as amazing creatures, not like any animals and at the same time having similarities with many of them. According to ancient Akkadian sources, the dragon had the legs of a dog, the head of a lion and the wings of a bird. His image appears in almost all myths about the creation of the world. The sacred hymns of many peoples identify it with the primordial power of the earth, the primordial Chaos, which comes into conflict with the Creator.
In these cosmic battles, as a rule, the forces or gods who personify order and maintain balance in the universe win, and from the monster the firmament and the heavenly world are created: “And he cut her inside, and pierced her heart … and created from one half the firmament of heaven, and from the other - the firmament of the earth. " In every country, poets sang this titanic battle. The Babylonian legend "Enuma Elish" tells about the struggle of the god Marduk with Tiamat, the goddess of the primitive cosmic ocean. One of the gods of the Vedic pantheon, Indra, defeats the dragon Vritra, and the Semitic god Baal defeats the god Yama, the lord of the primordial ocean. The biblical story about the monster Leviathan, once defeated by the Creator, is also widely known.
The dragon symbol is the emblem of the warriors on the Parthian and Roman standards, the national emblem of Wales, the symbolic guardian depicted on the ships of the ancient Vikings. The Romans had a dragon as a cohort badge, hence the modern word for dragoons. The sign of the dragon is a symbol of the highest power among the Celts and the designation of the Chinese emperor: his face was called the Face of the Dragon, and the throne was called the Throne of the Dragon. On the shield of Agamemnon (Canto 11 of the Iliad) a blue three-headed dragon was depicted.
Buddhist legends abound in references to dragons, and Taoist legends tell of their deeds. In the mythology of different peoples, these are winged monsters, in the images of which animals were combined, embodying two worlds - heaven and earth, upper (birds) and lower (snakes). These fantastic creatures in Chinese mythology personified the masculine principle - the primary element of yang, together with the phoenix, which embodies the feminine principle - the primary element of yin. The image of the dragon served as a symbol of the emperor, and the phoenix - the empress.
In medieval alchemy, primal matter (otherwise the world substance) was designated by the most ancient alchemical symbol - a dragon-snake biting its own tail and called the ouroboros ("tail eater"). The image of the uroboros was accompanied by the caption: "All in One or One in all." Creation itself was called a circular or wheel. In the Middle Ages, when depicting a dragon, different parts of the body were borrowed from different animals, and, like the sphinx, it was a symbol of the unity of the four elements.
One of the most common mythological plots is the battle with the dragon: the hero, thanks to his courage, defeats the monster, takes possession of its treasures, or frees the captive princess. Such a plot reminds of the duality of human nature, of the inner conflict between light and darkness, of the forces of the unconscious, which can be used to achieve both constructive and destructive goals.
The battle with the dragon symbolizes the difficulties that a person needs to overcome in order to master the treasures of inner knowledge, to defeat his base, dark nature and achieve self-control. The exploits of Hercules, the liberation of Andromeda by Perseus, the battle of Jason with the dragon in the legend of the Argonauts, the legend of the Scandinavian hero Sigurda and his victory over the dragon Fafnir, the battle of St. George with the serpent are just some of the confirmation of this. Each of them gives their advice on how to fight their own darkness. And although the dragon, like the Egyptian Seth, causes severe pain, it helps a person to know himself.
Dragons were symbols of powerful gods that give life: Quetzalcoatl - the god of the morning star, Atum - the god of eternity, Serapis - the god of wisdom. This symbol is endless, like the eternally evolving world, guarded by the ring of the uroboros …
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Of course, all that has been said is partly mythology, partly ancient culture, partly symbolism and even philosophy. If we come closer to reality, then mystical stories and almost documentary evidence already come into their own here. To begin with, a small excerpt from a famous work of art:
“The night was moonless, but the stars thinned out the darkness that hung over the plain. And suddenly from this darkness, from this darkness of the night, with a whistle resembling the whistle of an airplane, a creature rushed to the fire from above. The webbed wings covered us for a moment, as if it were a canopy, and I managed to make out a long, like a snake's neck, fierce eyes that gleamed with a reddish light, and an open beak, seated, to my great amazement, with small dazzling white teeth. A second - and this creature swept away along with our dinner …"
This is how Conan Doyle describes in his science fiction novel The Lost World, a meeting of researchers with a pterodactyl. It is believed that these flying lizards became extinct more than 70 million years ago. But the writer suggested that a small population of prehistoric animals could survive in a remote corner of the Earth.
As is often the case with talented people, the invention over time began to be filled with an almost prophetic meaning. At least, so it may seem when reading some messages, as if copied from the "Lost World". Only this time, their authors insist that their every word is the true truth. And although it is difficult to believe in the reality of such stories, the names and scientific authority of some of the participants in the described events force us to treat these facts more carefully.
For example, what an adventure the famous zoologist and British Museum employee Ivan Sanderson had when in 1932 he led a research expedition that visited the interior of African Cameroon. Scientists have set up camp in the Assumbo mountains on the banks of a small river. This is where it all happened. Sanderson writes in his diary: “Someone shouted to me: 'Beware!' I raised my head and saw that a black creature the size of an eagle was flying right at me above the water. I did not see it properly, but I remember it well open mouth and a semicircle of sharp white teeth. I threw myself into the water, and when I emerged, the animal had already disappeared."
Zoologists, amazed by the appearance of a strange "pterodactyl", decided to watch him. And he did appear over the camp. An unknown creature swooped in so fast that no one had time to recover. A black winged monster, similar to a small dragon, snapping its teeth, hit one of the expedition members with its entire body and knocked him down. The monster made several low circles over the defeated man, but did not dare to attack any more. Gliding over the very ground, it disappeared into the swamp thickets.
When Sanderson described the creature he had seen to the expedition guides and asked what it might be, they were horrified. The negroes began to beg the scientist to leave the area. It turned out that among the local tribes, the mysterious visitor is notorious as the "ghost of death." According to the legend prevailing in those parts, a person who sees such a winged and toothy creature can die in the very near future.
Whom did Sanderson see? An unknown bird? But birds, as you know, do not have teeth. Maybe it was a giant bat? But then a famous zoologist would certainly have identified her. However, this was something beyond the understanding of the scientist. Who knows, perhaps it really was a prehistoric flying lizard, preserved in the uninhabited regions of equatorial Africa.
It is noteworthy that reports of mysterious winged monsters from time to time come from various parts of our planet. Here are just a few of the eyewitness accounts reported by the world press. In Mexico, on August 30, 1967, night watchman José Padrin guarded a construction site near Mexico Route 57. At midnight, he suddenly heard a suspicious grinding sound outside, as if someone were trying to scratch the nearest fuel tank. Jose grabbed a rifle and rushed to catch the night thief.
Visibility was good - the moon and stars were shining clearly. To his horror, the watchman discovered that a winged monster was approaching right at him - so, in any case, the eyewitness himself described him. The creature's wingspan was like that of a small plane, and the gnashing sound that alarmed the watchman was made by huge claws that scratched the metal beams lying on the ground. The watchman did not dare to shoot; instead, he quickly turned around and ran away. Directly behind him, there were heavy paws on the ground and the sound of opening wings - this nightmare visitor was rising into the air.
In the morning, after hearing the story of the terrified watchman to death, engineer Enrique Rueda examined the scene and indeed found several claw prints. The footprints were photographed and measured. Their length left a little more than 30 cm, and their depth - 11 cm. As calculations showed, in order to leave such traces, the creature must weigh more than 300 kilograms!
The next day, several people decided to guard the construction site at once. And the winged monster appeared again, and not even one, but with a partner. In the false light of the moon, it seemed to the watchmen that the heads of these creatures were not birds' heads, but animal or human heads - without beaks, with mouths full of teeth. Naturally, the watchmen could not prove this later. The only confirmation of the reliability of such a fantastic story was the traces of clawed paws that remained on the ground.
Here it is quite appropriate to recall the sensational science fiction film "Jurassic Park", where scientists allegedly managed to "revive" the lizards that dominated the Earth for several million years. But are there really no more such creatures? Not so long ago, an eyewitness Nikolai Buchko sent to the editorial office of one of the Ukrainian newspapers a photograph and a description of the meeting with the "flying crocodile".
In August, Nikolai went into the forest to pick mushrooms, taking his camera with him. Noticing a strange bird flying between the trees, he photographed it. When the pictures were printed, Buchko began to examine the creature through a magnifying glass and was surprised to find that it clearly looked like a "crocodile with wings and a rat's tail." In a letter that he sent to the editor together with the photo, Nikolai asks the scientific observer: “Do we really have a Jurassic park here? Where did the pterodactyl come from?"
Flying lizards are found not only in the forests of Ukraine. There are three regions whose residents are not surprised by such extraordinary meetings. These are Primorye, Alaska and the American state of Texas. During a forest fire in 2003 in the Khabarovsk Territory, the fire approached a military facility. A military helicopter was called in to help. The sappers who landed, using their usual shovels, began to dig a trench in the path of the spread of fire. In the midst of the work from the direction of the burning forest, something appeared flying over the tops of the trees. Flapping heavily with wings of unprecedented size, the creature flew right over the heads of the soldiers and disappeared into the taiga, not yet touched by the fire. What it was, no one had time to determine. Eyewitnesses claim that its wingspan was from 2.5 to 6 m. For several years, this was the second observation of an unknown flying creature in the Far East. Moreover, both meetings took place during forest fires. What are these creatures?
Stories about flying monsters have long been circulating among the inhabitants of Primorye. Many, if not seen them, then heard terrible screams in the night, reminiscent of the screams of frightened women. Hunting dogs, not afraid to grapple with the bear, hearing these cries, tucked their tails and whined pitifully.
Some witnesses claim that flying monsters have hypnotic powers. So, the hunter A. Kurentsov woke up at night from the unpleasant sensation that someone was looking at his back. With peripheral vision, he saw something huge and black planning over the fire. Leaning back to meet the enemy face to face, Kurentsov noticed that a creature with webbed wings similar to the wings of bats swept past him …
A surge of interest in encounters with "dragons" arose back in 1956, when the pilot Nikolai Gribovsky and his partner were transporting a party of Priamur geologists. Due to low clouds, An-2 was flying at an altitude of 600 m, when the pilot suddenly noticed something like a huge bird ahead. It was twilight, he could not make out the mysterious creature, so he decided to catch up with him. But suddenly the flying monster rushed to the plane, then a strong blow followed. As a result, the lower plane was punched, the pilot barely reached the landing site. On the ground, he found chunks of meat and scraps of dark, bare skin stuck in the skin.
And yet most of all, the winged creatures annoyed the inhabitants of the southern American states. In 1976, people living in the Texas Rio Grande Valley were afraid to leave their homes. A certain monster attacked animals and people. Early in the morning in early January, Joe Suarez found several goats torn to pieces in the pen. There were no tracks around, and the police could not understand how it all happened.
One day, a local resident, Armando Grimaldo, sat smoking a cigarette in the backyard of a house on the north side of Raymondville. Suddenly, some "hellish creature" glided from the sky directly at him. She had black and brown skin, a beak with long teeth, red eyes, and a wingspan of about 10 feet (3.5 m). The creature grabbed onto Grimaldo, trying to lift him into the air. The noise of the struggle forced the people in the house to run out, who saw an eerie creature soaring into the night sky. The seriously injured Armando was taken to a local hospital. During the first two months of 1976, the flying pirate was seen several more times. The flight was witnessed by a biology teacher from the Sant'Antonia School. She claimed to have recognized the monster bird as a pteradon. Residents of the villages of Togiake and Manokotak stated that they saw a huge pterodactyl. Texas monsters even swooped down on cars.
The International Society of Cryptozoologists claims that ancient flying dinosaurs settled in the highlands of the Sierra Madre Oriental. This Mexican territory is one of the least explored in North America. In ancient times, flying lizards lived there, as evidenced by the bones of a huge pterodactyl extracted from a rock in Big Bend National Park in 1972. According to cryptozoologists, the monsters may well have survived in today's climate.
Some researchers put forward an even more exotic hypothesis. Creatures that resemble Jurassic pterodactyls do exist. But they are inhabitants of a planet in a different dimension. They periodically appear in our space, and then return home.
Occultists and adherents of esoteric knowledge offer their own version. According to their teachings, the Sacred Dragon is a benevolent and fully conscious being. And dragons do exist, as they did on the planet long before humanity. Moreover, they have the highest divine intelligence and are extremely developed. They are also the protectors of humanity and the planet and play a large role in the Cosmic Initiation. Dragons are masters of what is called the "Kundalini of the Earth," and thus they participate in the technical aspects, aptly named path lines, which are the arteries of life force on Earth.
Now they play a very important role, as they participate in the formation of new energy lines within the crystal-electromagnetic wave of the "Cosmic Initiation", or crystal expansion. These creatures have lived on Earth from the very beginning. Just don't confuse them with the mythical evil dragons who kidnapped princesses, or with the sensational theories about evil reptiles taking over the planet.
Some of the dragons, according to occultists, measure up to 50 meters in length, emit golden light and live mainly in the higher parallel dimensions, and can also be physically located in our material world. These are beings of golden light, taking an active part in the energy of the planet. They really have divine intelligence - both etheric and physical - and therefore are a kind of "guardians" of the passage between dimensions. How can you not believe in noble dragons after that?
Pernatiev Yuri Sergeevich. Brownies, mermaids and other mysterious creatures