In the Cave of the Green Dragon

Around the turn of the Millennium, Jean-Pascal Ruggiu (GH Frater Lux Aurora, Imperator of Ahathoor Temple No. 7 in Paris) and I visited the HOGD/AO temple in Mallorca, Spain. While in Mallorca, we stayed with our friend Tony, who practices a rather interesting form of Shamanism.

All week long, Tony showed Jean-Pascal and I places of unusual spiritual interest around the island. I was rather surprised, having previously considered Mallorca little more than a tourist island. All week long, Tony stirred the cauldron of a prank he was secretly planning to play on us. There was one place he was saving for last, for Saturday, the night of the Full Moon, following the Golden Dawn initiations that day.

And so it was that on Saturday night, tired though we were from a full day of initiations, Jean-Pascal and I were herded into the back seat of Tony's Surburban. Together, we drove off into the humid darkness in search of "The Cave of The Green Dragon."

We drove through an impenetrable darkness for what seemed like hours, shaken up like martinis on a road more bumpy than smooth. On the way, Tony filled our ears with stories told over Centuries by villagers living near the cave. According to legend, the cave was used not only for ritual by the Knight's Templar, but also as a place to hide treasure. The island itself served as a useful stop for the Templars along the route to the Holy Land.

Among the myriad magical lineages Jean-Pascal and I have collected over the years, we each also have been initiated into lineages of the Knights Templar. We therefore listened to these stories with particular interest and fascination.

When we finally arrived, the only entrance to the area was barred by a large and forbidding lock on a massive iron gate. Tony assured us that this forbidding lock was only there to scare away nosy tourists, which he proved by easily opening the apparently locked gate with a gentle nudge.

We entered ...

... And the hair stood straight up on the back of my neck!

Having cultivated my energetic bodies through decades of magical and alchemical practice, I have become quite sensitive to the energies of places of power. After only a few dark steps down the winding staircase, I knew in my body that this was indeed a place of extraordinary power. Specifically, this place was loaded with a powerful magical current of telluric energy.

At the bottom of the stairs, we found ourselves at the entrance to what once had been The Cave of the Green Dragon. Over the Centuries, there had clearly been a collapse, and where once solid rick had been above, the Moon and the Stars now shined down with particular brilliance.

Near the center of the cave was an ancient altar, embossed with the paten cross of the Knight's Templar. Above the altar on the wall was an ancient fresco, carved in relief into the wall, depicting two knights riding on a solitary horse, together holding a single spear, piercing the heart of a rather ominous looking dragon.

Jean-Pascal and I were both elated, each of us having fully understood everything independently of one another. We indeed found ourselves in a place of extraordinary power, a place of enormous telluric current, that had been used by magicians of the Order of the Knight's Templar for their own magical ends Centuries ago.

The name of the cave, and all of the stories about this place, even the Green Dragon - all of this - were ways for the profane to describe the enormous telluric current present in this place. Tony interjected that stories among local shamans describe an enormous non-organic entity inhabiting the cave.

Jean-Pascal explained to Tony that this "entity" is actually the cave itself. I interjected that the fresco with the Knights and the Dragon was showing how Knight Templar magicians had correctly understood how to harness the energy of this place for their own purposes.

I dispatched two Neophytes from the local Temple to fetch my sword together with Jean-Pascal's from the suburban. Luckily, we had them along as we had been in Temple all day. There was no way that I would let such an enormous magical opportunity slip through my fingers. Telluric energy like this, such a powerful material force, could be used to materialize just about anything.

There we were - in Tony's trap - set up for the prank he had been planning to play on us all week, but that had taken an unexpected twist since Jean-Pascal and I so intimately understood the magical implications of this place.

With a straight face and a sly grin, Tony led us deeper into the cave, indicating to us a place to sit and meditate, where a tiny opening led to the bowels of the cave. Here Tony's hidden agenda became apparent ...

There were BATS!!!!!!!

Hundreds of bats - bats flying in and out of the mouth of that deeper cave - bats whizzing past our heads - at exactly the place Tony had indicated us to sit.

Tony's deeper game was now out in the open. All along, Tony had intended to frighten us with stories about The Cave of the Green Dragon leading up to the bats at the mouth of the cave.

But this plan had backfired. Jean-Pascal and I simply ignored Tony's hidden agenda as well as the bats. Bats were irrelevant, except to show us where was the most powerful focal point of the telluric energies of the cave. I spent nearly an hour on that spot, in deep, magical meditation, soaking up the potent telluric energies.

Once we finished our meditation, Jean-Pascal and I decided to perform a ritual, placing our Templar swords on the altar in magical pact with The Green Dragon, to use the telluric energies to materialize a whole variety of magical intentions.

We invited Tony to pact with the dragon together with us, and to add his Shaman's staff together with our swords, Tony grew visibly afraid, terrified of ANY sort of magical pact, and warned us that The Green Dragon could be extremely dangerous.

"Hogwash," Jean-Pascal replied, "we Templars have safely pacted with this dragon for Centuries. That is the whole meaning of this place".

Jean-Pascal and I, with great satisfaction, finished our ritual at the altar, whereas Tony found an excuse to take the Neophytes back to the car, leaving us alone with The Green Dragon.

We left the cave energized, refreshed, and deeply grateful to The Green Dragon, who had not only granted the materialization of all our desires...

...but even turned the tables on Tony, the cunning Shaman that - like so many others - had underestimated the Magistri Templi of the Golden Dawn!

- David Griffin