I am currently writing a fantasy novel, entitled The Hidden People, which is a reference to the Huldufolk, the hidden people of Iceland and the Keltoi, the Celts of France. In the novel the hidden people come to the aid of a Parisian policeman, who specializes in solving serial killings. We learn quickly that the murderer is a young dragon rather than a human.

Dragons often appear in dreams and that is the genesis of my dragon. On August 22, 2003, I had the following dream.

“I am in a castle, perched on the side of a mountain, facing east. Flying dragons besiege the castle. A female companion and I move throughout the castle checking the defenses. We discover that a ventilation opening has been breached and we fear sabotage. Blood is everywhere so we follow the spore and, eventually, we find a dead dragon. Someone has torn the dragon to pieces. We decide to check our escape routes to make sure they are safe. The escape tunnels are locked and we need a code to open the hatches. We open the hatch and descend into a large storage room. There are additional hatches in the floor of the storage room. Another dragon enters the storage area and we escape through the floor into yet another chamber.”

Since that dream the dragons have stayed with me.

As I was researching Hermes, I discovered that the dragon is also an alchemical figure.

At the beginning of the alchemical process the alchemist must obtain two seeds that are used to create the philosopher’s stone.

Nicholas Flamel, the alchemist made famous in Harry Potter, wrote “Looke well upon these two dragons, for they are the true principles or beginnings of this Phylosophy. . .The first is called Sulphur, or heat and driness, and the later Argent-vive, or cold, and moisture. These are the Sunne and Moone of the mercurial source.”

The two dragons must die to create the dragon’s blood, which is necessary for the philosopher’s stone. The entities that kill the dragons are anima (soul) and spiritus.

Once they are dead the dragon seeds must be joined and the one to do that is our friend Hermes in the guise of Mercurius. As Flamel writes, “the two separated seeds must be united by means of Mercurius. . . .”

The dragons appear at the beginning of change, during the negrido, or in Jungian terms, at the beginning of individuation.

In my dream the female companion is the anima, the feminine aspect of my psyche. The anima here is acting as a companion and a guide pushing me downward into the earth, into the shadowy caves. In 2003, I was running from the dragon. Now I am chasing it. Running away into the darkness is not a solution. The dragon must be confronted and a question asked: why are you here and what do you want?