There Be Dragons!

HERE THERE BE DRAGONS...

Mystics are the map-makers of the landscape of God's Mystery. Never popular when alive, nor acknowledged by the conclaves of the religious establishments, Mystics wander alone… toward the map-less boarders of Inner Reality.

It used to be when cartographers developed maps of the ancient world they would leave the edges of the known world as a mysterious place of vagueness and danger. “THERE BE DRAGONS HERE", was the phrase left at the edges these maps, the edges of the known world, warning ships brave enough to voyage beyond the boundaries of reality that there could be danger. Wayfarers would be crossing the POINT OF NO RETURN.

Whenever we venture out beyond the maps of conformity: whether they be religious maps, theological, social, educational, conventional, etc., we head full on into the unknown. This unknown, far from frightening off the mystic, is where we prefer to tread. Mystics find their comfort in the ineffable Mystery of Reality, because their goal is not to try and conform this Mystery to conventional parameters, but to let it be Free and untamed.

Mystics don't run from dragons; they learn to ride them.

Out beyond the boundaries of orthodoxy and religion, you find, on whatever religious or philosophical “map" you are using, a clear end to what is knowable by the words, rites and rituals of religions. It’s at the edge of these knowable boundaries, written on virtually every religious map, ”There be Mystics here".

Mystics are the outcasts of religion. They play with dragons, frolic in the Mystery of God and come and go in and out of sight from the safe shores of orthodoxy. No one plays with Mystics. They are used as live bait for casting into deep oceans of being. Religionists wait to see if they return from the lands of dragons and mist covered mountains.

Some Mystics return with amazing stories of other worlds and indescribable sights. Their language changes to match the ineffable they have seen. Their appearance altars: a far off look in their eyes, their hearts on fire with the oblation of distant worlds and the songs of the Tathagata. Other Mystics never return, having befallen the lure of the boundless ecstasy of Divine Bliss.

The thing is, either way, religion needs the Mystic. Mystics are the offerings churches throw to the dragons to appease their gods of orthodoxy, not knowing that these offerings actually merit the entrance into Mystery. Truth needs the unorthodox journeys of those who climb to dragons lairs, map the cloud covered landscape of God's hidden Face and brave the journey across the Tintagel sea.

Mystics change the maps of the religious world. They rewrite the boundaries of Mystery to tell us: “Here there be Boundlessness", “Here there be Vast and Infinite Love”, “Here there be Radiant Emptiness", “Here there be Endless Bliss", “Here there be the Face of God".

And whatever words can be grasped of their ineffable mutterings, the esoteric maps of reality begin to be rewritten by the fire of living, breathing dragons.

For 56 years I have looked for my place among the religious landscape and finally know where I was meant to play:

Out here…

At the edge of the known…

Within the Mystery...

Where the boundaries of knowledge end and scriptures grow silent..

Out here…

Where there be dragons….

By~rOn Wright