DC Photojournal 93

This is a preserved Coelacanth (pronounced see-la-kanth) at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It's on loan from the South African Institute of Aquatic Biology.

Until the 1930's - and a catch off the Kenyan coast - Coelacanths were found only in the fossil record; - they were thought to have disappeared with the dinosaurs. Today they are known to exist off the east coast of Africa and in the waters around Indonesia. At the top right is a preserved Coelacanth pup.

I call this digital photo, taken in April 2010:

"Coelacanth."

The Internet has video of live Coelacanths. In 1987 the Jago Dive Team led by Hans Fricke of the Max Plancke Institute (Germany) shot Coelacanth video from a submersible off the Comoros Islands.

The generally accepted first sighting of a Coelacanth is 1938 in South Africa. However, my memory tells me there was an earlier find in the 1930's in Kenya. (And it's almost certain that anonymous fishermen have been hauling them up from the depths of the Indian ocean for thousands of years.)

•••

This is the mysterious world of the dragon again. One of the major influences on this web site is a book called "The Art of Michael Whelan" (1993). He does book covers for science-fiction novels - but his work also has a strong resonance with the "dreamscape": i.e. the mysterious inner world of the unconscious psyche. A recurring motif in this book is people encountering or even riding dragons.

What the West calls the "unconscious psyche" is the world of the dragon in China; and it has both negative and positive aspects.

(May 14, 2010) But it's more than China - England and Wales have rich dragon traditions. For example, from the Christian middle ages Ethiopia, Armenia, Georgia and England have the legend of St. George and the dragon. ... (Both the flags of England and Georgia use the red-on-white St. George's cross. St. George is the patron saint of Ethiopia.) St. George kills the dragon and rescues a maiden; in Wales on the other hand, the dragon has positive connotations: its' incorporated onto the Welsh flag.

Also, currently showing at the Sackler museum of Asian Art is an exhibit of medieval Tibetan Buddhist paintings "Lama, Patron, Artist: The Great Situ Panchen"; - they are full of positive dragon iconography: i.e. the dragons are associated with benign and helpful acts (you have to look closely however - the dragons are faintly drawn background motifs.) Dragons are mercurial - they mean different things to different people.

Hoarding treasure would be one of the negative aspects of dragons, - enhancing the libido would be one of the positive aspects. In India, one could compare the dragon to Kundalini and the Chakras. From head chakra (intellect) down to the sex chakra (libido) - all governed by the serpent of Kundalini making its way up the spine. There are carvings of a similar nature in Olmec art - the serpent Quetzalcoatl making its way up and down the spine.

Full screen version

This is a preserved Coelacanth (pronounced see-la-kanth) at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It's on loan from the South African Institute of Aquatic Biology.

Until the 1930's - and a catch off the Kenyan coast - Coelacanths were found only in the fossil record; - they were thought to have disappeared with the dinosaurs. Today they are known to exist off the east coast of Africa and in the waters around Indonesia. At the top right is a preserved Coelacanth pup.

The Internet has video of live Coelacanths. In 1987 the Jago Dive Team led by Hans Fricke of the Max Plancke Institute (Germany) shot Coelacanth video from a submersible off the Comoros Islands.

The generally accepted first sighting of a Coelacanth is 1938 in South Africa. However, my memory tells me there was an earlier find in the 1930's in Kenya. (And it's almost certain that anonymous fishermen have been hauling them up from the depths of the Indian ocean for thousands of years.)

This is the mysterious world of the dragon again. One of the major influences on this web site is a book called "The Art of Michael Whelan" (1993). He does book covers for science-fiction novels - but his work also has a strong resonance with the "dreamscape": i.e. the mysterious inner world of the unconscious psyche. A recurring motif in this book is people encountering or even riding dragons.

What the West calls the "unconscious psyche" is the world of the dragon in China; and it has both negative and positive aspects.

(May 14, 2010) But it's more than China - England and Wales have rich dragon traditions. For example, from the Christian middle ages Ethiopia, Armenia, Georgia and England have the legend of St. George and the dragon. ... (Both the flags of England and Georgia use the red-on-white St. George's cross. St. George is the patron saint of Ethiopia.) St. George kills the dragon and rescues a maiden; in Wales on the other hand, the dragon has positive connotations: its' incorporated onto the Welsh flag.

Also, currently showing at the Sackler museum of Asian Art is an exhibit of medieval Tibetan Buddhist paintings "Lama, Patron, Artist: The Great Situ Panchen"; - they are full of positive dragon iconography: i.e. the dragons are associated with benign and helpful acts (you have to look closely however - the dragons are faintly drawn background motifs.) Dragons are mercurial - they mean different things to different people.

Hoarding treasure would be one of the negative aspects of dragons, - enhancing the libido would be one of the positive aspects. In India, one could compare the dragon to Kundalini and the Chakras. From head chakra (intellect) down to the sex chakra (libido) - all governed by the serpent of Kundalini making its way up the spine. There are carvings of a similar nature in Olmec art - the serpent Quetzalcoatl making its way up and down the spine.