What's A Dragon? 🐲

LIFE ON URTH - Episode 104

Ouroboros Review

Last week, I wrote about the dragon tattoo on my arm as a version of the ancient Ouroboros: the self-devouring snake, the circle, the horizon of consciousness.

The core idea was that our experience is always shaped by the tension between the known and the unknown. We live inside a small illuminated sphere of perception, surrounded by something larger, darker, and more mysterious.

Culture, language, concepts, and habits give us stability inside the circle. But at its boundary, transformation happens.

There, parts of the old self are absorbed back into the world, while new contents enter consciousness and become part of who we are.

The Ouroboros is a reminder that life is not a fixed structure, but a process of constant renewal. The task is not to eliminate the unknown, but to meet it with the right attitude: courage, curiosity, truthfulness.

But one question remains: Why is it a dragon?

My Favorite Animal

I’ve been fascinated by dragons ever since I was a child. Playmobil dragons, books about dragons, shirts with dragons - you name it, I had it.

Then the nihilistic cynicism that’s promoted during adolescence quickly drained the magic from my life, and with it my excitement for dragons. It became restricted to the fantasy worlds of games and books I indulged in.

Engaging with science during the first semesters of med school only hardened this worldview:

We’re floating through an endless void on a tiny pebble. Our individual existence and even humanity as a whole are negligible dots on the cosmic timeline, and there won’t be a trace left of anything I’ve ever done when the sun expands to swallow the remnants of our planet.

Modern materialism basically suggests that meaning is an illusion. In “My Spiritual Teachers” I wrote about some important steps that helped me transcend this cold, almost hellish worldview.

Along with this process went the rediscovery of magic in my life - and even of dragons!

I learned that I had it the wrong way around. The fantastic elements I longed for weren’t restricted to games and books. The opposite is true: Those stories are only a distillation of actual life, which constantly provides me with epic adventures, magic, and even dragons.

What’s A Dragon?

Dragons appear across many cultures because they give shape to a universal human problem: the encounter with dangerous unknown forces.

Their appearance isn’t random. Dragons are like meta-predators, a mix of all the greatest dangers our far ancestors were facing: snakes, crocodiles, big cats, predatory birds, fire.

But dragons are not just dangers to be avoided, they also guard treasure! This isn’t random storytelling, it’s a beautiful example of how wisdom is encoded in symbolic form.

Dragons stand for threats lurking in the unknown, for danger - whatever makes you feel anxious. But the thing you most want is often hidden behind the thing you most avoid.

Confidence is behind exposure. Freedom is behind fear. Renewal is behind the collapse of an old identity.

Since I understood this, I look at my experience differently: emotional alarms are simply dragons I haven’t yet confronted, guarding treasure I haven’t yet claimed. The bigger the dragon, the bigger the reward. It motivates me to seek out emotional challenges rather than avoiding them.

It’s Not An Alternative To Science

Seeing the world through this lens transforms pain into adventure and infuses my experience with a magic I thought lost. There is no need to adopt any metaphysical stance, to believe in something without evidence, or to renounce the truths of science!

It requires just this observation: the world we inhabit is not only a place of objective (“dead”) things, but a realm of meaning, emotion and significance. That realm is where our relationships live, and it matters to us at least as much as things do.

Because the realm of meaning can’t be captured scientifically (in fact, science is all about stripping away the subjective), we have concluded that it’s less real than objective things. We have even pitted these two aspects of the world against each other, which is completely unnecessary and potentially dangerous.

My dragon reminds me that as far as my own experience goes, it’s all one bright and mysterious circumstance. Things and meaning appear simultaneously, woven together, and in the same space: my consciousness.

Some areas of that space feel threatening, and I view them as dragons. Areas aren’t necessarily geographical - they can be people, situations, or even just my own thoughts and fantasies. Either way, there’s always a treasure to be won if only I manage to meet them with enough courage and curiosity!

✒️ Quote of the Week: “True security lies in the unrestrained embrace of insecurity - in the recognition that we never really stand on solid ground, and never can.” -Oliver Burkeman

🍿 Video of the week: Our Minds Are Weirder than You Think

🎧 Song of the Week: Moritz Hofbauer, Johannes Frick - Swallow Some Joy

Now I’d love to hear from you!

Did something in my writing catch your attention?
Was there an idea you found particularly intriguing?
Or is there a question that’s been on your mind related to these topics?

Just reply to this email or write to me at mail@urth.blog 👈

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All the best,

Adrian / Urth

Can’t wait until next week’s edition? Check out my essays.