and vour true self represents the fearsomeness of the unconscious for one who is still afraid of what may be lurking there, (For self)
(2) For Jung, the first stage of the individuation process is the conscious ego’s heroic struggle to lift itself out of the original all-encompassing unconsciousness and to establish its control of unconscious forces. This finds symbolic representation in the legendary dragon-slayer, St George (St George = the ego; the dragon = the unconscious).
(3) The dragon may represent the devouring aspect of (your relationship with) vour mother. ‘Slaving the dragon’ may therefore mean putting an end to whatever in your attachment to your mother is detrimental to the process of finding your own psychic individuality. Once the individual has achieved liberation from the ‘dragon’, the feminine side of the man’s psyche and the masculine side of the woman’s psyche will no longer appear in threatening form, but as an indispensable companion and guide in the further stages of self- discovery.
(In some male initiation rites in which boys are given adult status, the boys withdraw from the communin’ and live in huts shaped like a dragon or crocodile. This may be seen as a symbol of a young person’s victorious struggle with the devouring mother or all-encompassing unconsciousness: descending into the unconscious realm, acknow’- ledging its powers, and transforming any negative functioning of those pow ers into positive ones.)
(4) A dragon may represent the generative pow er of (Mother) Nature; the unconscious, felt as a wromb pregnant with new possibilities of life.
(5) A winged dragon may symbolize some kind of transcendence, some passing from a ‘lower to a ‘higher’ level of personal maturin’. The fact that it is a dragon that does the flying suggests that the energy for further personal development must be looked for in your unconscious, perhaps in something you have been hitherto afraid even to look at. A winged creature may symbolize spirituality. But a winged dragon is a symbolic reminder that spiritual heights mav not be attained bv abandoning our ‘low’er’ natum, but by letting it serve us as a vehicle. For example, sexuality can be bogged down in fantasizing lust and unedifying topdog / underdog games; it can also be something that releases and activates the power of love within us, a form of self- expression in which sensuous pleasure fuses with the joy of worship; indeed, it can be an experience of the mystical oneness of all things.
(6) A dragon may be a symbol of your sexuality, particularly if it - your sexuality - frightens you. Is your fear irrational; or docs sexuality threaten to rule your life? In either case, don’t kill the ‘dragon’; if necessary, tame it.
(In China ‘chi’ is good, life-giving energy and the channels it runs along are called ‘dragon-lines’, which are said to follow the flow of underground water and underground magnetic fields.)