Transformation of Anger: The Fiery Dragon

Anger, as the offspring of one of the primordial forces — the principle of repulsion — is a highly active force affecting the formation and functioning of the psychocosm.
Indeed, in order to define its individuality, to define the ‘I’, the mind must first expel everything it considers “not-I”, and thus, in effect, employ the power of anger.
It is clear that this original anger has nothing to do with ordinary ire or aggression, being their primordial source. In this “original” manifestation anger is merely an impulse to “repel” a factor or object which the mind regards as “alien” to itself, whereas, when it degenerates into ire, this force strives to destroy, to annihilate that “undesirable” factor, and, when it becomes aggression, it becomes a naked desire for destruction, with little discrimination as to whether the system being destroyed is “suitable” or “unsuitable” for the mind seized by aggression.

Thus, by isolating within itself the original force of repulsion, the mind gains the capacity to transform its destructive tendencies for its benefit, removing destructive impulses and leaving only the “essential core”. This fiery force, acting as a kind of purifier of the mind from everything alien and inessential to its nature, as we have said, is traditionally called the Dragon of the mind.

Many magical approaches and rituals aim to awaken, shape, tame, and “ride” the dragon, such as, for example, Kolo Semargla.
In the course of these rituals the mind discovers in itself its “true”, pure foundation, symbolized by the “Dragon’s Pearl“, its “passive” hypostasis, to protect which a powerful and expansive aspect of the same force — the Dragon — arises.

Searching for one’s “pearl“, determining one’s “essential value system”, is in general one of the cornerstones of the Magus’s development. For the Magus it is crucial to discern which values are truly his, and which have been imposed by upbringing or by destructive forces, demons, and parasites. Clearly, this search is not confined to a single Ritual and is a principal task throughout the Magus’s Way.
Once that “pearl” has been found, even at certain subsequent levels, the Magus’s task becomes the “awakening of the Dragon“. It must be remembered that, just as the Great Dragon is the fiery hypostasis of Mother Earth, the Dragon of the mind appears as the primal, deep seething of primordial anger, the force that creates the mind as an autonomous entity. Awakening a force of such magnitude necessarily exposes the Magus to great dangers and risks causing him to reject life itself, yet, with a correct and measured approach, the result is a power capable of “rejecting” everything that is alien to the mind.

The essence of the transformation that must be performed is precisely the “purification” of anger, the removal from it of all destructive and ruinous content, and its conversion into “pure repulsion”. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the Dragon which emerges from this process lacks destructive force, and its fiery (that is, incisive) nature points to a significant potential for “cleansing” activity.
The search for and “reworking” of those sources of repulsion that can be transformed into the Dragon is another of the major tasks confronting the Magus’s mind — he must determine which of the “hindering” elements should be expelled from it first, which are especially destructive and most alien.
At the same time, it is precisely the discovery of the gap between one’s own and foreign components of the mind that is transformed into the force of repulsion, and thus provides the potential for development.
This transformation, like other “alchemical” transmutations of the mind, is a powerful instrument for harmonizing the psychocosm and shifting it from a state of destruction and dissipation of energy to a creative and productive level.