Margarete Petersen Study -Son of Feathers - the power of dragon's blood

Translation:

• 
  My mother gave me a sharp sword to slice through unholy snares.
  My father gave me a compass and taught me about the east-, south, west-, and north winds.
  My sister gave me courage for the leap into the unknown.
  
  My room is painted immaculate snow-white. Meditating in the lotus position, I bring myself from beta to alpha rhythm. I course through history, gradually slowing my pace. I see the Old Warrior. Bathing in dragon's blood, he made himself invulnerable, and yet died by his shadow's spear while he drank from the spring.
  
  By seeing, the hero was robbed of his importance.
  
  By perceiving, I saw the idea (Vorstellung) behind the representation (vorgestellten).
  
  By breathing, I perceive things the way they are.
  
  My Ego, condensed to one point, is everything with equal significance. (available to be anything?)
  
  Having slipped through the fine meshwork of perceptions, it dances free in the room.

Link to image: Sohn der Federn

A few of the last lines of this text have me stumped. I could think of a few different interpretations. This is how I've thought to decipher the German

"Sehend wurde der Heros seiner Wichtigkeit beraubt." Seeing, the hero was robbed of his importance, or it was the faculty of sight which robbed him -- it was the hero's own vision of himself which betrayed him in the water. Looking into the well, he saw his Shadow -- reflection, and his own spear killed him. The possible implication being that one can be betrayed by outward seeing --by the illusion of reality -- Siegfried should have closed his eyes, and followed only his own inner truth.

"Erkennend sah ich die Vorstellung hinter dem Vorgestellten." = " perceiving, I saw the meaning behind the words - or the truth behind the representation, or what was meant behind the way it was said -- Remember, in the Niebelungenlied, after Siegfried drank of the dragon Fafner's blood, he gained the magic ability to hear the only the truth even when lies were told. Mime the dwarf tried to manipulate him with lies, but Siegfried heard the truth.

"Mein zu einem Punkt kondensiertem Ich ist alles von gleicher Gültigkeit". -- I think what she means here, is when I reduce my ego to one tiny point, it can be as large as everything, or as tiny as nothing....





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I think the "Hero" and "Old Warrior" who made himself invulnerable by bathing in dragon's blood, is a reference to Siegfried in the Ring of the Niebelungs.

Here is a site where you can read the Betrayal of Siegfried -- the story of how he was killed at the spring where he stopped to drink. But it was not his own "shadow" or "reflection" which killed him, but his enemy Hagen -- perhaps MP sees the enemy, Hagen, as Siegfried's shadow.

What is dragon's blood?

It occurs to me now, that Dragon's Blood is yet another name for the red tincture, the Philosopher's Stone.

invisible ego

See how the image of the prince is almost invisible, he blends in with the feather and the dragon. He becomes the feather and the dragon. I have looked at this card dozens and dozens of times, and only now have noticed the prince sitting there in his lotus position. To perceive the prince at all, I had to stop seeing the feather, I had to give up my assumption that this was a picture of a feather... COOL.

firemaiden: The first thing I noticed was the prince. Then the feather, and it took me a while to notice the Dragon.

Nice card.

(you didn't know that I was following this Study Group, did you? )

My goodness, no I did not! Well, that is extraordinary, you saw the prince first! Perhaps I have inverted perception? Are you right-eyed or left-eyed?

Now listen, we have to find out how to make dragon's blood. I want some. I think the thing is you have to kill the dragon first. So if the dragon represents the horrible shadow ego, or the id, does it mean that we have to conquer our fears and murderous thoughts first, before we can gain the faculty of accurate perception?

I don't know, firemaiden.

When I first saw the picture of the card (before I read the text), it made me think of Andromeda..... but I realise I was wrong.

You could never be wrong Diana. Everything is right. Tell me more about Andromeda.

Queen Cassiopeia had a daughter called Andromeda. She was always going on about how Andromeda was more beautiful than the sea nymphs. This made the sea nymphs pretty angry so they went off to Poseidon to complain.

Poseiden got angry too, so he decided to send a big scary monster to destroy Queen Cassiopea's land. The monster's name was Cetus. Poseiden told the Queen and the King that the only thing that could save them was if they sacrificed their daughter, Andromeda.

So poor pretty Andromeda got chained to a cliff to be eaten by Cetus. BUT!!! Just as he was going to bite her head off, down came Perseus from the sky and he rescued her. He turned Cetus into a stone.

Andromeda now lives in the sky. She is a constellation.

Wasn't it Perseus who rode Pegasus through the sky? That's a wonderful image for the prince of swords!

Looking at the image, I'm beginning to see it, Diana. We have the sea below, or so it looks, a levitating prince who looks like he is riding a feather, a monster who looks like he is rising from the sea!