{"id":162,"date":"2026-01-11T14:03:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T14:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/?p=162"},"modified":"2026-02-01T20:25:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:25:01","slug":"the-dragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/2026\/01\/11\/the-dragon\/","title":{"rendered":"The dragon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I call the third major stage in the emergence of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/2025\/02\/17\/cultural-morphology\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"97\">high cultures<\/a> the Iron Age. The symbolic meaning of iron is just as well known and clear as those of gold or silver. Iron is, above all, extremely hard and strong. It is thanks to these properties that man, ever since he learned how to work it, has been fond of making various tools and implements from it. The weapons used in battle deserve mention in the first place, but our kitchen dishes, plowshares and, of course, modern machines also often contain iron. At the same time, this metal \u2013 unlike gold and silver \u2013 is dull, dark and brittle. I am not only referring to its appearance, but also to the inevitable fact that iron will deteriorate. It rusts, wears out, breaks. Iron is a symbol of the ephemeral material world. It is raw, soulless matter itself. This is probably where the old superstitions come from, according to which horseshoes and nails stop and scare away spirits: even they are unable to possess and control these iron objects. Despite all the clever tricks and techniques, the same is ultimately true of the human spirit. Tools are only worth something if they have a purpose, and they can only be made durable if iron is alloyed with something else and made into steel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_88 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-transparent ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/2026\/01\/11\/the-dragon\/#Thought_as_a_tool\" >Thought as a tool<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/2026\/01\/11\/the-dragon\/#The_rule_of_matter\" >The rule of matter<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/2026\/01\/11\/the-dragon\/#Memories_and_treasures\" >Memories and treasures<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Thought_as_a_tool\"><\/span>Thought as a tool<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It has already been said that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/2025\/04\/19\/the-heritage-of-giambattista-vico\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"128\">in the Iron Age, reflection is the primary, dominant mode of thinking<\/a>. It takes over this role from the abstraction that prevailed in the Silver Age. At first glance, this may seem contradictory to the previous paragraph, since what could be further from the bitterness of the material world than thinking about thinking, reflection that consciously selects between ideas? This contradiction is easy to resolve if we examine a little more closely how reflection differs from the previous two modes of thought. The figuration of the Golden Age meant the essentially unconscious perception and reception of poetic symbols, while the abstraction of the Silver Age was the conscious and methodical exploration and understanding of these same symbols. Man pursues these activities for their own sake, the symbols under examination being at the same time motivation, reward and punishment. In contrast, reflection takes place in the interests of a conscious goal. It applies all the intricacies of previously developed mental abilities, but in the meantime the basic nature of thinking slowly changes. It becomes instrumental, it itself becomes a tool. It is no longer a secret what the purpose of sorting through ideas, proposals and theories is: to find out which of them best fits everyday, practical problems in the material world. The great symbols wither and disappear, and thought, applied to ephemeral matter, transformed into a weapon or a tool, becomes as perishable and fragile as any rusty dagger or chipped spade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGive me a fixed point and I will move the world!\u201d Archimedes, the great Iron Age mind, knew his own abilities well, but apparently also knew the limits of those abilities. In this age, there is no fixed point anymore, and because of this, all actions and all results are relative. The earlier deep, ideological conflicts are concluded, but with an outcome that no one can be truly satisfied with People lose any inspiration, and start to search for the meaning of life in the material world. They chase pleasures, success, and momentary satisfaction. In the meantime, however, the ultimate dissatisfaction with existence, even despair, rears its head. Worldly joys are not available to everyone, and even the lucky ones only have them occasionally and for a finite time. And what surrounds them is raw suffering, increasingly devoid of meaning. And since people are left to their own devices, they can only blame each other and themselves for all this. Destructive violence continues without deep ideological foundations, and even intensifies, as once clearly conceived political goaals are replaced by increasingly vague, apocalyptic visions. Iron Age man&#8217;s war ultimately speaks against the hopelessness of existence. He sees this in his enemies, and in everything he destroys in general. That is why he commits terrible cruelties, with which he himself plays the role of Evil in the eyes of peopl on the opposite side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_rule_of_matter\"><\/span>The rule of matter<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following the earlier metaphors, it is not difficult to visualize what happens at this point. The woodcutters destroy the last grove of the unicorn&#8217;s forest. They build houses, plow the land, and burn the remaining wood in the winter. However, in doing so, they forever lose and drive away <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/2025\/10\/10\/the-unicorn\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"139\">the sacred unicorn, revered and loved by their ancestors<\/a>. The phoenix arrives from Arabia for the last time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/2025\/11\/25\/the-phoenix\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"145\">shows itself, and builds its nest<\/a><strong><u>,<\/u><\/strong> but this time it does not let it catch fire. Guarding the wonderful home, it itself becomes incapable of renewal and grows old like other birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The turn to the material world occurs on an individual level with the final abandonment of ancient religious myths, but it also occurs on a social level. Among the small cities of the Silver Age, a few world cities (metropolises) arise, next to which all other regions and settlements fade into the insignificant provincial background. With the emergence of metropolitan dominance, a new type of person emerges who has no connection with the culture itself. Neither direct nor indirect. They cannot recognize the land, the landscape, the original religious experience in the multitude of houses, roofs and canals, and they are unable to learn the knowledge that is passed on orally. These people form the milieu of world cities and manifest themselves in a characteristic way, absorbed in a crowd. The crowd, like the man of the Golden Age, lives on the border between consciousness and the unconscious, but the direction of the experiences is reversed. The Golden Age emerged from obscurity at key moments (with the help of poetry), while the Iron Age is immersed in it at key moments. Instinctive emotions, biological reflexes and needs emerge from the soul of the crowd man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">B\u00e9la Hamvas writes about the crowd and the unconscious psyche in his essay \u201cAquarius\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe crowd\u2019s place is below, just as the unconscious\u2019s place is below. It belongs here by its destiny. The ox, when it pulls the cart and plows, is a sacred animal. When it goes up, it turns into a dragon. It no longer pulls the plow, instead throws off the yoke, goes wild and breathes fire. (\u2026) If the intestines began to think and weave life plans, these would be intestinal thoughts. Just as the very first sign of the crowd\u2019s rise to power was the dominance of intestinal thinking: everything that is nutrition, economy, stomach, earthly goods, food came to the fore. The dragon\u2019s whole existence is to gobble and snore. And if it cannot get enough, it goes on a robbery spree, and strikes down whoever gets in its way. It needs raw materials; the watchword of the crowd\u2019s era: raw materials.\u201d<sup data-fn=\"ed76cc77-8c23-438f-8399-3208851cf5a5\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#ed76cc77-8c23-438f-8399-3208851cf5a5\" id=\"ed76cc77-8c23-438f-8399-3208851cf5a5-link\">1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, in the Iron Age, alongside the permanently disappeared unicorn and the aging phoenix, we must also add the symbol of the dragon. This image is the most defining.<sup data-fn=\"28bb4647-0206-48fc-a459-588d5589593e\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#28bb4647-0206-48fc-a459-588d5589593e\" id=\"28bb4647-0206-48fc-a459-588d5589593e-link\">2<\/a><\/sup> The dragon is, of course, a creature of immense power with terrifying abilities. It does pretty much whatever it wants in and with the world. The only limit to its rule is that its goals are shallow and easy to recognize . It wants nothing more than to accumulate the available material and sensual goods and laze around with the treasure. It is not interested in anything else. However, when it succeeds, it becomes vulnerable, and only a little courage and curiosity are needed to destroy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Memories_and_treasures\"><\/span>Memories and treasures<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimately, the very process of reflection in the mind is not possible without this kind of hoarding. Thoughts, ideas and theories are stored and boxed up by the Iron Age. Figurative images lose their meaning beyond themselves, and the abstract categories created from them become completely arbitrary. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/2025\/01\/12\/source-criticism-and-nihilism\/#Postmodern_source_criticism\">I have already quoted Attila J\u00f3zsef in this regard<\/a>, but another Hungarian poet, Endre Ady, also cries the same thing into the wilderness. \u201cEvery Whole is broken.\u201d Now and only now is it possible to select thoughts based on everyday, practical aspects. The Golden Age was dominated by the senses, the Silver Age by reason, now memory becomes the most important. Everything that culture has ever created, everything it has ever encountered, the man of the Iron Age uses, exploits, and turns into cash (often literally). Some may protest that once sacred things have become market commodities, but this can only happen because their sacred symbolic quality is no longer experienced by anyone. Most often, not even the protesters themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The idea of \u200b\u200bthe aging of Western civilization is so common that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8ifthBQ4zns\">a rock music hit has been written in Hungary on the phrase \u201cold Europe\u201d<\/a> as early as the 1980s. However, when someone associates this old age with crisis phenomena, they often encounter impassioned opposition. What kind of crisis is it if the West is richer than ever, if people live longer, their lives are more predictable and organized, and technology is capable of much more than before? The achievements in the material world are usually cited as a refutation of decline. The allegory of the dragon shows that material well-being can also be understood as a symptom of decline. The direction of this decline is towards permanence, immutability, and rigidity. Towards the end of development, towards fulfillment. We are content to take stock of our accumulated artifacts, technical knowledge, and everyday comfort. Exactly the way the fairy-tale dragon counts his treasures. Meanwhile, we don&#8217;t think about what awaits the dragon when it has to protect itself, not its treasure.<\/p>\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-footnotes\"><li id=\"ed76cc77-8c23-438f-8399-3208851cf5a5\">The political rise of the metropolitan masses and the related crisis phenomena were the subject of numerous analyses in the first half of the twentieth century. Giulio Evola, Jos\u00e9 Ortega y Gasset and Oswald Spengler are just a few of the many authors. B\u00e9la Hamvas prepared a summary study on the subject in 1937 entitled \u201cThe World Crisis\u201d, and a few years later \u201cAquarius\u201d was also published. Although Hamvas did not hold the theory of historical morphology in high regard, the description quoted here clearly refers to the same phenomenon as Spengler\u2019s writings about metropolitan civilization. <a href=\"#ed76cc77-8c23-438f-8399-3208851cf5a5-link\" aria-label=\"Jump to footnote reference 1\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"28bb4647-0206-48fc-a459-588d5589593e\">The symbol of the dragon also appears in John Michael Greer&#8217;s blog post (used as a source herein) independently of B\u00e9la Hamvas&#8217;s line of thought: https:\/\/www.ecosophia.net\/blogs-and-essays\/the-well-of-galabes\/the-unicorn-the-phoenix-and-the-dragon\/ (accessed: 25 Nov 2025) <a href=\"#28bb4647-0206-48fc-a459-588d5589593e-link\" aria-label=\"Jump to footnote reference 2\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I call the third major stage in the emergence of high cultures the Iron Age. The symbolic meaning of iron is just as well known and clear as those of gold or silver. Iron is, above all, extremely hard and strong. It is thanks to these properties that man, ever since he learned how to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"The political rise of the metropolitan masses and the related crisis phenomena were the subject of numerous analyses in the first half of the twentieth century. Giulio Evola, Jos\u00e9 Ortega y Gasset and Oswald Spengler are just a few of the many authors. B\u00e9la Hamvas prepared a summary study on the subject in 1937 entitled \u201cThe World Crisis\u201d, and a few years later \u201cAquarius\u201d was also published. Although Hamvas did not hold the theory of historical morphology in high regard, the description quoted here clearly refers to the same phenomenon as Spengler\u2019s writings about metropolitan civilization.\",\"id\":\"ed76cc77-8c23-438f-8399-3208851cf5a5\"},{\"content\":\"The symbol of the dragon also appears in John Michael Greer's blog post (used as a source herein) independently of B\u00e9la Hamvas's line of thought: https:\/\/www.ecosophia.net\/blogs-and-essays\/the-well-of-galabes\/the-unicorn-the-phoenix-and-the-dragon\/ (accessed: 25 Nov 2025)\",\"id\":\"28bb4647-0206-48fc-a459-588d5589593e\"}]"},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aurum-argentum-ferrum.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}