Shawn MacKenzie - The Dragon Keepers Handbook: Including the Myth & Mystery, Care & Feeding, Life & Lore of These Fiercely Splendid Creatures

It is as large as life and twice as natural.

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass

introduction

Dragon Gestalt

Thank the gods there are Dragons, or wed surely have to invent them. And what a tall order that would be, to fashion out of whole cloth such fiercely splendid creatures! Such wild guardians and sage counselors, champions of sky, earth, and sea!

Granted, today some people are less familiar with Dragons than others, less at one with the reality of the Dragon, if you will. There are even people who see no relevance for Dragons in modern life and could-not/would-not see them if they were standing square in the warm umbra of a Dragons breath. To these most disbelieving amongst us, I ask: If there are no such things as Dragons, how is it that our disparate, barely erect ancestors, struggling across the still-drifting continents, imagined beings so universally similar in aspect and purpose? How did they manage to keep this myth alive through millennia? And how, even today, does everyoneskeptics includedknow exactly what Dragons look like? Who among us would not recognize a Dragon crossing the boulevard or rabbiting at the country club?

Mere coincidence, some might insist. Stories spun around long-ago dinosaur discoveries. The genetic memory of all that awed our primordial kinserpent, raptor, and ravening felinewrapped into one so seemingly improbable being.

Improbable being the operative word.

When discussing Dragons, we are well served to remember the maxim of Sherlock Holmes: When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. In the case of Dragons, it is their very existence which, though improbable to some, remains a truth embraced by millions from pole to pole.

That the undeniable logic of this does not convince everyone is simply the way of the world. There will always be neat, modern people who want neat, modern explanations for the strange and unusual. People who honestly believe Homo sapiens are separate from and even superior to all other creatures. Who pride themselves on their cities and conquests, their strip malls and strip mines. People who put fear before wonder and, in the process, dissolve the ties that hold nature and spirit together. Such attitudes have pushed Dragons to the brink of extinction and necessitated radical conservation efforts around the world. We brought the black-footed ferret back from the abyss; surely we can do the same for Dragons.

To succeed in this endeavor, we must understand these wild and mystical beings from first breath to last, know their habits and habitats, their needs and dangers; what they once were, what they are today; what they want from us and what we need from them. The awe-inspiring and the ordinary, the harrowing and the gentle, the blithe and the heart-rending. We need to know it all.

In short, the sum of all Dragons.

We must remember their history so we can safeguard their future. We must know how to share this world with them to the benefit of all.

With each bit of information we arm ourselves against the non-believerseven win over a few convertsand bring Dragons more intimately into our lives.

It shouldnt be that difficult, right? Since prehistoric times we have lived with Dragons. Weve summoned them from the mists with our longing and banished them twice as quickly with our fear. But what do we all actually know about Dragons?

Dragons are, according to established orthodoxy and a battery of lexicons, largesome might say mountainousscaly creatures with leathern wings, cavernous maws, and incendiary breath. Western legends have them hoarding treasure and adopting a gourmands appreciation for virgins in distress and the errant knights who might hazard their rescue. Simply put, they are monstrous.

As with most appraisals of the mystical, this one is cursory at best, stereotypically prejudiced and erroneous at worst.