W orking with dragons in magick is different in many ways from other magickal procedures, but not so different that you can disregard certain rules. You need to know how to practice visualization, meditation, and self-discipline; have a good sense of ethics and absolute truthfulness with yourself; and maintain a sense of consistency in practice. All of these values and skills are important components of any magickal system, but they are a must when working with dragons. Remember that there must be an exchange of energies in your workings together.
Visualization begins with unlearning many of the so-called value systems heaped on us by other people, the most common of which is that use of the imagination and day-dreaming are unproductive and bad. True, overuse of the imagination and frequent daydreaming are negative if they occupy most of your life and time; if you daydream about what you want to happen instead of planning and taking action, then you are avoiding responsibility. However, for any type of magick to become truly effective, you must learn how to vividly picture in your mind the event or result that you wish for. Once you firmly have the outcome in your mind, you perform your rituals and then release the mental energy for manifestation.
Self-discipline and ethics go together. A magician should not, for their own good, dabble in controlling other people or indulge in questionable personal behavior. Jealousy, envy, lust, greed, and anger should not control what a magician does during ritual. In fact, these undesirable emotions should not control any part of a magician’s life. These intense emotions tend to cloud judgment and either bring emotional backlash on the magician or cause deliberate harm to others, which in itself brings eventual backlash or retribution upon the magician—it is not worth the misery, either way.
A magician must sincerely desire whatever they are asking for in rituals. If the wish is half-hearted with little emotional intensity behind it, the dragons (or any other entities for that matter) will simply not be interested in helping. And do not think you can pull one over on spiritual or astral plane entities—they can see right to the truth … and the truth is never hidden from dragons.
One of the worst things a magician can do is to take something away from another person by means of magick: this includes health, property, life, or freedom. Loss of freedom is acceptable only for criminals. Very often I find that beginning magicians want to control another’s decisions and life on the subject of love. Forget it! The price for doing this kind of manipulative magick is too high. If the person was meant to love you, they would already show interest. Any magician considering such a use of magick had better take a long, truthful look at their true motives.
The second part of the use of magick is that the magician must release the emotions and desire after the ritual is finished. To constantly think about what you want accomplished binds the energies to you such that they cannot manifest. To constantly talk about your desires or to talk about the rituals you are performing to get them will surely keep them from manifestation. To want something so much you can taste it and yet not care if you get it is a very difficult mood to cultivate. Getting as close to this attitude as possible is what is important.
There must be an exchange of energies between the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual planes for any spellwork to result in a manifestation. Playing at ritual magick, particularly dragon magick, will not get you anywhere. Without mental concentration, physical working, emotional involvement, and intensity of purpose, in other words, dragons will not be interested in adding their vast energies to yours. Dragons are attracted by the energies you raise during ritual, a kind of astral pay-off since they “feed” on this energy.
Belief in powers beyond yourself is important in any kind of magick. There is an old saying: “Whether you believe you can or you believe you can’t, you are right.” We may not understand how these powers and energies work; we may not be able to describe them to anyone. But we magicians know they exist. A magician believes in them because they see the results of their use.
Every magician who wishes to be effective in ritual and manifestation, who desires to grow and expand in knowledge, sooner or later comes to the conclusion that magick is a very serious practice. They learn to set aside time for study and self-improvement through meditation. They practice what are commonly called the psychic arts: tarot, runes, the pendulum, crystal reading, dream analysis, and so on. They cultivate the senses, especially observation, which includes what is in both the physical and astral realms. They learn to read their own intuitive feelings and the vibrations of others.
Not all dragons are the same, no more than humans are. They each have their own specific individuality and personality. Different dragon clans have different interests. There are very general descriptions of dragon interests and abilities, as draconic abilities overlap in many areas. It is best to work with a balance of types of dragons, with one particular dragon aspect predominating according to the intent of the ritual. Above all, a magician must know themselves—all habits good and bad—and face them squarely. There cannot be any self-delusion if ritual is to be effective and positive in nature.
The next logical step in the process for being balanced is to seek spiritual enlightenment. After all, when the very foundation of magick and ritual is finally uncovered, the magician finds that all ritual and spellwork is meant to be a means for spiritual growth and development. We are each responsible for the choices we make in life, even down to being here in the first place. We have no right to place any blame on others for what is going wrong in our lives. If you make a wrong decision, change it and learn from the experience. Working with dragons can make this life path a little easier and a lot more interesting.