Meeting the dragon opened up my world in ways I had never imagined. As you would expect, practitioners from all over our region had heard of her. She was loosely connected with a number of groups. Her role as a seer, an exorcist, and a psychic had made her an advisor, of sorts, to most groups that had heard of her. In time, I too met people from these groups. I ran for a while with one of the most prominent Ghost Hunting groups in the area. I met a group of college kids who were deeply connected to their elements. But the group I came to call family was an eclectic bunch. Between the lot of us we had several potent empaths (bat-shit crazy as you would expect for someone being constantly pummeled by everyone else\’s emotions), one of us was an expert in magickal herbs and oils, another of stones and crystals. I was a talented exorcist and healer, and then we had the dragon. There were others among us, less specialized, but part of us none the less. We spent our days going to work, or to school, living our daily lives. But by night we perfected our crafts, we sought out dark corners and said hello. Some people needed help and we obliged. Others were curious, and we would bring them along as well, making believers by the end of the night. Fueled by cigarettes and coffee, we spent countless sleepless nights shaking the night\’s trees to see what would come out. There was even a club in the near by metro that was just for people like us. It was an exhilarating life style, and some of the best memories of my life. But nothing lasts forever…
The next lesson the dragon taught me was simple, maybe more so than the first rule of \”know Thyself\”. The next lesson was \”Learn to Read\”. I had always had a sensitive sixth sense about things. I could tell when spirits were around me, or when I was in the presence of another powerful witch, but I was nonetheless bewildered and intrigued by the dragon ability to see right through people and into their soul, as if reading a bio page. She could even look into the near future to some extent. I always asked how she could do that, and her response was usually something profound and incredibly unhelpful, like \”I just look\”. When it came to the second lesson, she told me the key to her predictions was to read. She went on to explain that there are always signs all around us. Whether it was an oddly relevant billboard, or a commercial on the radio that fits into what you\’re thinking about, there are signs all over if you know how to read them… So learn to read.
As time went on, she proved to be right about this lesson as well. It is amazing how much accurate foretelling is out there all around us if we only learn to separate it from the noise. Luckily, I had already become a master at sensing even the slightest bit of magickal energy, thanks to lesson one. This made it much easier to tell the signs from the rest of the daily minutia.
To this day, I can\’t with any certainty how the signs are there. It could be hints placed there by our guides to aid us. Maybe some deity associated with fate just likes to leave the threads visible out in the open. Or maybe the whole thing is a simulation, the dream of an elder god, and these signs are just glitches in the matrix. However they got there, the signs are real, and they\’re almost always right. With a little practice, I had too learned how to see as the dragon did. I was growing, evolving, becoming closer to who I was meant to be. At that point in my life, I would often look back on my younger self, calling out to invoke ancient spirits, drawing energy off of thunderstorms, and holding conversations with ghosts. In those moments I was so grateful. Grateful that I had been given the ability to see beyond the veil. That I had been given the courage and drive to dive in head first and keep after it. Many people go through life never knowing who they are or what makes them feel whole. I knew my place from early childhood. With all the work I had put in on my own, and now with the help of the dragon and our group, I was more than just a hedge wizard, I had become a magickal force. A beacon where once there was but a dim torch. But again, nothing lasts forever… The signs soon became omens. Not the usual indicators of negative spirits that needed banishing, or of a bad storm coming. These new omens were clear. This life we had built was ending. This family was ending. This world…well it wasn\’t ending but shit was about to get real real bad.