Michaelmas: Embracing the Dragon

St. Michael | Watercolor | By River DeJong

Michaelmas is celebrated on September 29 and is the Christian feast day of the archangel Michael. Within the wisdom of this festival are themes of harvest and community, threat and injustice, and courageous bravery. It was common practice for the Christian church to “baptize” pre-Christian nature-based celebrations into the liturgical calendar with Christo-centric themes. Michaelmas is no different. This seasonal celebration sits squarely within the turning of seasons from Summer to Autumn, and resonates with the themes of light touring towards darkness, fear of the elements, and strength in community. What I truly appreciate about this particular feast day is not its place within Christendom, but rather the invitation into a mythopoetic imagination that invites some really good inner work that is seasonally based.

This traditional Celtic holiday associated with the Autumn Equinox. As long, sun-filled days, turned to slanting shadows, the legends of St Michael--principal of angelic warriors, protector against night's darkness, and the Archangel who fought against Satan and his evil angels--were told around the bounty of harvest as a way of distilling the fear associated with the coming cold winter months. It was believed that negative forces were stronger in darkness and so families would require stronger defences during the later months of the year. The epic heavenly battle against Lucifer and his dominions would be retold with light-filled swords slaying ghastly dragons, similar motifs as found in the tales of St. George and the Dragon. This story and celebration would encourage the "looking-to" for protection (the looking-to a good harvest, strong community, and faith in a Sacred Presence), the "looking-for" collective and individual strengths and the "looking-back" with thanksgiving and praise.

While this festival has agrarian and pre-Christian roots, I greatly appreciate the challenge that it still holds for us today. I have been reaping the benefit of bounty a plenty this summer: berries, plums, tomatoes and herbs have piled themselves on our sun-drenched kitchen counter these warm months. But as my family and I enjoy this harvest, I am mindful of the lack that is present in the lives of so many today around the world. We all know and feel the tension that exists between our reaping while another is weeping and herein lies the proverbial dragon that makes this story of Michael a needed one, even in our one-stop-shop lives.

The mythic elements of this storied festival is also showing up in our mythic times and as social upheaval and climate chaos breath the fiery demands for systemic change. A foundational truth within a mythological world view is this: when we exile the beast, it does not go away. It grows and grows until it is a force which demands confrontation. This is the moment when we must contend with our past and courageously forge a new way forward. We are being called to courageously confront the dragon of our times: the beast that has grown out of the West’s illusion of separation. We can no longer ignore the fierce form that has emerged from the large scale exile that has occurred.

Dragons do exist and they lie in wait everywhere in all forms of injustice. This is environmental and climate chaos—forest fires, tropical storms, warming sea temperatures. The loss of life—both human and more-than-human alike—as a result of these human-caused natural disasters is absolutely a horrific injustice. This is the chronic and systemic injustice that continues to perpetuate oppression of our BIPOC brothers and sisters. This is governmental control that would seek to reduce freedom and democracy. This also looks like lurking overwhelm and preying despair, making victims of those without a voice to be heard. In our bounty, in our blessing, we are called to wield our swords of light on behalf of those who desperately need advocacy and speak for those who may not be able to even scream as the beast aims to gobble them up. We summon courage, we look-to the source of Love and Light and demand that our sword be as bright and bold as Michael's so that we can vanquish the dragons of this world, living forward with the possibilities of peace and justice, the possibilities of bounty, for all.

The traditions around the Michaelmas festival all come with delicious community sharing, this being the acknowledgement and celebration of the cyclical nature of the gifts of the Sacred Living Earth. So, while we traditionally gather to celebrate the harvest of the summer season and come together in strength of numbers to combat the darkness of the coming season, this year we must creatively create ways to enter into this mythological story—creating communion within our families in our local homescapes, and offering thanksgiving for a battle already won, the dragon already defeated.

Reflections 

As you move into the darker, quieter months of Autumn and Winter, what interior light invigorates and inspires you?  

Where do you draw strength for the courage to fight the dragons of your life? 

There is injustice that surrounds us in all our elements-from the earth, to the water, to our air, to all the creatures that live and breath here. For whom can you advocate in your community during these approaching seasons? 

Often our greatest fears and challenges are related to a part of ourselves who has been exiled. Like the dragon in many stories, this is a part of you who has been banished from community, from the Castle, from the Village. What would it look like to lovingly and carefully begin to court your dragon back into yourself, back into your “castle?” Can you befriend your dragon instead of besting it? And maybe, just maybe, that is the actual way to “beat” the dragon in the first place.

It is important to look back on our journeys and offer thanksgiving for the battles already won!  Can you share a "dragon-vanquished" story with someone in your community?

Our Favorite Dragon Books (or books that feature dragons)

Our family has been slowly collecting books about dragons for years. These books come out en masse in September in a specific basket and these are our go-to reads during the day. They spur conversations around what are the current dragons in our life, and how we understand ourselves in the context of community. The best of the books have the common thread of befriending the dragon, which is an integral part of our developmental journey. My children inherently resonate with the process of reconnecting to an exiled dragon and the courageous process of wooing it back into a relationship that is profound in its creativity and collaboration. The best stories are about how the dragon energy becomes in service to the whole community! Here is a list of our favorite current dragon books:

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
The Dragon Stoorworm by Theresa Breslin
Oscar and the Very Hungry Dragon by Ute Krause
Tolkien’s World by Gareth Harrahan and Peter McKinstry
The Voyage of the Dawn Trader by C.S. Lewis
Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton
A Gold Star for Zog by Julia Donaldson
Sir Kevin of Devon by Adelaide Holl
The Land of Long Ago by Elsa Beskow
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin
Saint George and the Dragon retold by Margaret Hodges
Waking Dragons by Jane Yolen
The Sunflower Sword by Mark Sperring

Dragon Bread & Soup

We are fortunate to celebrate the Michaelmas Festival with our Waldorf school community. Pre-COVID would have seen our eighth graders carrying large platters of homemade bread shaped in dragon forms, and our families gathered together to enjoy a potluck of soups. Top favorites for this seasonal celebration are Three Sisters Stew and French Lentil and Potato Stew. Enjoy these much loved recipes from our home to yours. Any bread recipe will work to create your own ferocious and delicious dragon bread! Create a festive meal to nourish you and fortify your courage for the months to come. Goodness knows we are in times where our courage is most needed!

Michaelmas Mandala

Go outside and co-create a nature mandala as a way to ground into your emplacement and call in the courage needed for these times. Much of what is occurring globally is the chaos that follows a prolonged exile. In many ways, this is the hard work of returning home: home to one another, ourselves, and our planet in ways that honor the interrelationship of all life. The practice of mandala making is a beautiful and mindful way to create this connection, and intentionally focus on the courage with which we must cloak ourselves in these times. As you create your circular form, imagine this as its own kind of nature-based Caim Prayer, or encircling prayer. Place the elements in a way that corresponds to the cardinal directions and call in courage from the North, South, East, and West. Imagine yourself at the center and that the plant world is showing up as sacred protectors offering you courage, besetting you with bravery, and reminding you that your strength is from communion.

Celtic Michaelmas Prayer

O Michael Militant,
Thou king of the angels,
Shield thy people
With the power of the thy sword,
Shield thy people
With the power of thy sword.

Spread thy wing over sea and land, East and west,
And shield us from the foe, from East and west,
And shield us from the foe.

Brighten thy feast From heaven above;
Be with us in the pilgrimage
And in the twistings of the fight;
Be with us in the pilgrimage
And in the twistings of the fight.

Thou chief of chiefs,
Thou chief of the needy,
Be with us in the journey
And in the gleam of the river;
Be with us in the journey
And in the gleam of the river.

Thou chief of chiefs,
Thou chief of angels
Spread thy wing
Over sea and land,
For thine is their fullness,
Thine is their fullness,
Thine own is their fullness,
Thine own is their fullness. 
Amen

-Celtic Prayer