Stage One: Courting

In this stage you make your appreciation and your will to know dragons apparent to the universe. Be deciding you will know dragons, you are beginning to create a thoughtform and thus enacting change as a result of your will. This is magic. In this phase you will consciously manifest your will by learning about dragons. Sit in contemplation concerning things draconic. Search for knowledge on dragons. Look for books, and websites, and ask questions. Manifest within yourself a living interest which will be outwardly perceivable. The alteration you create in the pattern by making this microcosmic change in yourself will be something which dragons will become aware of. This will bring them to notice you. Along with directly manifesting your will "to know dragons," you should indirectly do this by honoring them, and thus letting them know directly that you want a relationship with them. Draw images of dragons, wear clothing which depicts dragons. Purchase dragon figures and statues. This will effect your mind by constantly bringing you to conscious awareness of your will to know dragons. It will also set your unconscious to work in attempting to help you manifest this goal because it is constantly bombarded with Dragon stimulus. Now that you have so many dragon icons, create a small dragon shrine. It should be like any ancestor shrine, or shrine to a toutal deity. Have images of dragons. Have candles, and stones. Offer insence, I tend to use dragons blood. This will begin to actively invite dragons to you by raising a place of power with a specifically draconic vibration.

Stage Two: Seeking

When you have successfully begun courting you will begin to feel that it is time to more actively work towards your goal of knowing Dragons. You should already have a proper discipline of meditation. Having a solid practice of astral projection is also a good primer. For this though you will be projecting above the astral into aethyric or spiritual levels of existence. If dragons are astral entities, why project to the aethyr? Because Dragons are aethyric entities, not astral. Dragons are spiritual based beings, thusly they live in the realm of spiritual manifestation, the Aethyr. The astral is the realm of mental manifestation, between the Aethyr and the Physical. The astral being the realm of the mind is not really a place for autonomous living creatures. It is the place where creatures which were born from the minds of gods and men exist. Servitors, Egregores, Thought-forms, personal demons, artificial elementals, all such creatures are astral in nature and exist on astral levels. Dragons; Gods; Angels, these beings are Aethyric in nature because they are primarily spiritual. To imply that dragons are astral would be to imply that they lack autonomous reality, and their existence is dependent upon our minds. So that aside, we must seek dragons in aethyric levels of reality rather than astral ones. This is accomplished through meditation. In the first sense we can enter an altered state in which we look into, and converse with the aethyric levels, this is similar to divinatory scrying. We don't actually separate our spirits, or parts of our consciousness from our bodies. In this case though we don't actually have direct interaction with Dragons. It's sort of like calling them on a phone rather than going to see them. If you want to actually interact with dragons the best way to do so is to project your consciousness into aethyric reality and work with them in their level of existence. This will have the greatest spiritual impact. To accomplish this begin by astral projecting, once you've gone astral, separate from your astral self and go into the higher aethyric realms. A good study of shamanic techniques of ecstasy would aid in facilitating this. When you have entered aethyric reality, focus your awareness on dragons. Start with dragons who are rather general and unspecialized in order to get a fundamental familiarity with dragons. Become aware that you are in an aethyric place where dragons exist, and when you acknowledge this you will find yourself in a place where you can easily contact dragons. The aethyr has no time and space. So shifting awareness of place and moment facilitates movement. When you are in contact with the dragon, get to know it. Learn all it can teach you about what it is. See if it will let you ride it. After you have successfully ridden it, ask if you can temporarily join with it, and thus understand first hand what it is that dragons are. You will find an important side effect in dragon riding when it's successfully completed (riding hear implies that you have ridden as the dragon rather than simply on the dragon.) You will begin to manifest "dragon fire." There is little specific to what this means. All it really is is that you now have an increased amount of potent magical energy stored in you because you retained it from interaction with the dragon. It's not a particularly special sort of energy. It's just a large amount of energy which is more potent than some magical energy which you might try to absorb. It will leave you with a sort of energy buzz, and if you learn to utilize it you will have a temporary manifestation of more potent magic. After you have successfully ridden more generic dragons, attempt to contact dragons which have aligned themselves with particular occult forces, or magical elements, and gain a new perspective on the awareness of these forces and elements based on that which the dragon knows about them. Accomplish this through a rapport with the dragons and through riding them. You will find that by temporary melding your soul with these dragons you're causing alterations in yourself which are possibly steps towards spiritual evolution. Dragons are powerful forces and because of your direct exposure to them, effects can be quick and potent. You will manifest generic changes as well as changes related to the elements, and the specific forces the dragon may be aligned with. Or perhaps the dragon may see something which needs to be made manifest in you and then instigate its occurrence. Either way, as with any magical system be careful of this. Accelerated spiritual evolution can be a great thing, or it can lead to madness, self destruction, megalomania, or complete acceptance of fantasy because you feel your life is empty, so you fill it with a delusion based on that which triggered your new awareness. So be careful of delusion and fantasy. And be aware of what changes are occurring in you.

Stage Three: Calling

This is the final stage which I will take you through. In this stage you begin to work magic and ritual with dragons without leaving your body or ritual space. One common form of this which people discuss is the dragon familiar. I don't know that I believe most instances of this, but I do know some occur. The way this works can be one of two possibilities. The first is having a dragon who you connect well with. He is a guardian or friend and you have a symbiosis. Often this dragon is there to help manifest your awareness while protecting you. And as a result of this he ensures serendipitous results for you when they're applicable. He is your friend. The much rarer case is when you become a guardian for a younger dragon. This occurs when you have a relationship with an older dragon who has a ward which needs to learn to work with humans. The dragon becomes your wards temporarily and functions as a familiar. It is your responsibility to care for it and ensure it's development. This is the more uncommon occurrence though so it is probably best to not expect it's occurrence. You can also work with dragons magically through ritual. Some people think this involves petitioning the dragon to grant you a request in exchange for an offering. This is prayer and supplication, not magic. In magical ritual involving dragons, you call upon dragons to contribute dragonfire to the ritual. They either add it to the energy raised or channel it through you, similar to an invocation. In either case, they contribute energy which you wield so that you may fulfill, your will. This is magic and is quite the opposite of prayer, in which you contribute energy, so that a higher being might wield it, and so that through it's will it might fulfill your desire.