PERSONALITY
The most foolish of the fools, the wisest of the wise, the mad
priest in a mad dance. He is changeable, mutable, never twice the same.
Each morning, he creates himself anew, never loosing the wonder of the
young, ever attaining the wisdom of the old. Tradition, duty, honor, he
doesn't see these as concepts, they are his core and he lives by them
almost unaware.
        Humor and rich voice his weapons, he prefers persuasion to open
conflict, and discussion to argument. Peaceful at heart, change to him is a
beautiful thing, "We are not human beings, we are human becomings" - Egypt
IVth Dynasty (about 3000 BC), this is him, this becoming, this work in
progress.
        For all his curiosity and wonder at life, from this he never wavers
an instant, staying on the path for the duration, taking things as they
come, accepting them, and incorporating them into his self.
        He has a decidely odd sense of humor that erupts at the most random
of times, sometimes at just the right moment... and sometimes at just the
worst possible moment. He can be serious, but the longer he is serious, the
more likely it becomes that this humor will bounce out.
        He has a naive trust in the world that may or may not be betrayed.
He assumes that life will always be pleasant, that reality will always
cooperate, and that all he has to do to achieve his desires is try harder.
His ego is thus: he is himself, and no one else. No one else is /him/, and
never can be. He is aware of the uniqueness of his being, and of the
uniqueness of others. His spirit may burn brighter, but that does not mean
he's better than the rest. He knows this at a deep, deep level, but may not
always admit to it.

PHYSICAL
Large and strong, he's the eagle among the lesser birds of prey,
gliding his pattern eternally, or so it seems. Speed is not his forte,
endurance is. But he maintains surprising agility for a dragon his size,
capabale of turns that most people would assume only a blue or green could
manage.
        Lusty he is, as happy to chase a green as a queen, and he's liable
to drag you to every flight he hears about... at /both/ Weyrs. And his
agility does give him an advantage in these flights, he can pull manouvers
that other bronzes can only dream about.
        He enjoys a good swim as much as the next dragon, but he knows he's
not a duck, getting him back out of the water shouldn't be a problem,
oiling is his pastime of choice. He is aware of his appearance in the most
abstract of ways, he knows that he is himself. Not vain, by any means, his
ego is that of the soul.

MIND VOICE
Baritone, rich and full, with the quality of a born orator, deepening to
the deepest bass, lightening to the sweetest tenor, the musky scent of
ancient incense lightened by the verdancy of green, growing grass.

HATCHING MESSAGE
Flames seem to flicker across the shell, the rocking swelling into almost a
vibration. Suddenly, the Impulsive Blaze of Aries Egg erupts into a violent
rain of pyroclastic egg-shards, leaving the young dragonet in the calmer
eye of the storm... Or is he the storm?

IMPRESSION POSE
The Perfecting Hierophant Bronze Dragonet croons lovingly up at Caz happily.

IMPRESSION MESSAGE
The Perfecting Heirophant Bronze Hatchling looks into your heart and mind,
reading the tale of your life with all the weight of history and tradition
behind him. Satasfied with what he finds, he adds you to his own becoming,
the musky scents of incense and the verdancy of grass fill you mind as a
rich baritone speaks:

                      <<My name is Asarith! >>
 

HATCHLING NAME/DESC
The Perfecting Heirophant Bronze Hatchling
        Deep polished tones of bronze, smooth and mirror bright ripple with
waves of amber and reflective highlights of white hot fire. His large frame
seems but a crude vessel for the vibrant spirit within, blazing out through
jeweled eyes. Nearly perfect in proportion, from chiseled muzzle through
powerful chest and hindquarters to his lightly lashing tail. Set over all,
his broad clock-like wings are veined in precious metals: silver-lined gold
and coppery bronze.

EGG NAME/DESC
Impuslive Blaze of Aries Egg
        The pink blush of dawn seems to dust over the hard facets of
diamond hatchery, reflecting into rainbow brilliance. Piercing white,
flowing through the entire color spectrum, asserts itself over and through
the mettle of newborn earth. Below this crystalline hell, rising up out of
the crust, the blood red fire of the lava-field erupts forth in an
explosively fiery display of power and strength. In the heart of the
flames, the torrent of yellows and oranges seem to capture the charge of a
ram, head down to batter everything and anything in it's way.
 

CLUTCH THEME:  Elements of the Zodiac/Tarot, Major Arcana

Credits:
Egg Desc:            A'razi, Elisa
Egg Name:           Elisa
Hatchling Desc:    A'razi, Rowena
Desc Tweaks:      Elisa, Sabria
Hatchling name:   A'razi, Rowena, Elisa
Dragon Name:      A'razi, Rowena
Inspiration:            A'razi, Rowena
Puppeted by:        Rowena

Hatching was on November 8, 1997
 

BACKGROUND:  (I. Heirophant  II. Osiris  III. Fool  IV. Temu)
        I. The Heirophant
        The Heirophant is the teacher, the keeper of the old lore, the old
ways, the learner and teacher of the new.  He blends past and future in
one, keeping tradition alive and passing on the history and knowledge of
his people.  He knows all the ceremonies, all the rites of passage and if
at times he is too bound to them, he ensures they are not lost for future
generations.  He has taken an oath of loyalty and he stands ever steadfast
guarding tradition, knowledge and faith against the darkness.  He weilds
power, but always for the good of all, even to his own detriment.  He is
the custodian of all knowledge, he who preserves the past, yet melts it to
the future.  He balances body, mind and spirit and remains ever true, ever
steadfast.  He is compassionate, and inspires those he teaches, he follows
always the inner voice.  He always gives good advice to those who heeds his
words.

 II. Osiris
        The best way to understand Osiris is by studying the Egyptian Book
of the Dead. The Book of the Dead is a misnomer applied by historians to a
text that the Egyptians referred to as the Book of Coming Forth By Day. No
definitive version of the Book of the Dead exists, rather it is a
compilation of funerary texts and religious hymns written by priests and
copied by scribes during a period spanning approximately 3000 BC to 300 AD.
Most of the text, however, is vitally concerned with showing a person how
to reach the afterlife safely. Often this is done by equating the person
with Osiris, souls traveling would say, "I too, am Osiris." aligning
themselves with the god of rebirth.
        In the Christian religion, life after death is assured, either
eternal torment or eternal bliss, but the soul is assumed to live on. Not
so in ancient Egypt. The journey to the netherworld was perilous, one wrong
step, and your soul would be destroyed. If you did survive the journey, you
joined the gods for eternity. I happen to like this version better: the
immorality of one's soul was earned.

An excerpt: Papyrus Ani, Chapter I (Coming Forth By Day)

        I am a thought that came to pass. Long believed, I live forever. I
am words repeated often. I am a happy man. I am a blessed man. I am a
perfecting man. I am love and shall endure forever. I am a thankful man, a
man of peace, poetry, dream. I am a well-fed man. I am a dancing man
beloved of gods. I am an old man who has lived long. I am heading home.
        I am an old tree by the Nile banks. A thousand birds nested in my
branches and beneath, women cooled themselves from the sun. Year passed. I
grew slowly and with grace. This earth I love, the water, the sky. Tomorrow
I fall and, at last, women with baskets on their heads shall make a passage
across the river. They will speak for the first time in years to the women
on the opposite bank. They will clasp hands and hold their voices to
whispers. They shall marvel at each other's faces. And that will be as good
a death as any for me, with women weeping, lotus blooming, and cool breezes
blowing. That will be a victory. And so on, through the ages, I have been
useful and loved.
        I come forth by day, I go out burning. To the end, I burn white
with heat. On the day of unwrapping the mummy cloths, on the day of opening
the storehouse, on the day of washing the body, on the day of speaking
secrets, I am with you as gods are. I stand beside you at the lotus pool
watching that pink bud ready to flower. It is I, Osiris. I am joyful as a
stone. It is not the joy of men I feel; it is the joy of matter. I am a
presence. I am of the world. I am magic. I went the circuitous path of the
unseen, from nothing but thought into becoming. I am anointed in oil. The
power shivers from my heart down into my arms. Self-sacrifice is only
learning to make one's self holy, to be the sum of a man, more than his
parts. These breaths I release to he wind, make me one with the wind. This
blood flows back to the river like water. This flesh dries, it cracks and
scatters, dust again. When the light in my eyes flickers out, the spark
flies back to the flaming heart of gods. It is only flesh and breath, bones
and hair. I come and go out of the fire unchanged.
        I am air and flame, water and dust. I am a wick burning in a blue
bowl of oil, a fiery sun rising in a tranquil sky. I am the phoenix. I am
light. I come froth by day. I am heat burning up mist. I am power, an
ancient river overflowing. I am love and memory and sorrow that drift away.
        My time is a reflection on the surface of water. A leaf falls and
the dream shatters, breaks to pieces; the leaf drifts off. Slowly the
waters calm and draw themselves back together. And the leaf's life, like a
thought, passes from me on the ripple of its own vibration. It enters the
world. I am a holy man, not because I am so wise, but because I am a temple
of god. I am a priest of the heart. I know what is mine to feel. I let the
rain from heaven fill me. I give love away as easily as water.
        A hummingbird's wings beat so fast he seems to fly standing still.
Lions roar in h temple and the earth trembles. It is only yesterday and
tomorrow keeping watch over today. The solid earth like a baby is lifted up
to be kissed, to be blessed and set down again. I see things other men
don't see. Secret words repeated in mirrors, bits of legend fallen from the
lips of slave girls. I gather the greater seed as they thresh their wheat.
I am an old priest dancing the mad dance, whirling, whirling, whirling.
        For I have made a reckoning of myself, of the things I have done
and said and of my intentions; ad I long for nothing but to live as light
within, to enter god's heart singing a song so stirring that even slaves at
the mill and asses in the field might raise their heads and answer.

                Osiris goes right to the heart of egyptian philosophy, and he is
very, very complex. This gives your dragon great depth to his personality,
as well as great strength of spirit. Osiris was a fertility god, a
vegetation god, and the god and judge of the dead. A god of renewal, if you
prefer, the seed waiting to grow. The excerpt above is one of the best
definitions you'll find on what Osiris is/was/whatever. For more in depth
study, try E.A. Wallis Budge's two volume set _Osiris & The Egyptian
Ressurection_, it's very dense reading, however, each book being about 400
pages of translation, discussion and interpretation. (Not for the faint of
heart. I have trouble with this set, and I've studied Egyptology for years)
        Osiris married Isis, his sister, just as his brother Set married
their sister Nepthys. Osiris was given lower Egypt (Delta region) by the
gods, Set upper Egypt. Osiris and Isis took care of their land, introducing
agriculture, beer-making, wine-making, and all sorts of nice things like
that. Set, in contrast, spent his time hunting the wild animals until his
land was nearly barren. Then he turned jealous eyes upon his brother's
land. He had a chest constructed, a lovely chest of precious metals and
stones, beautiful to behold. He took this chest to his brother, Orisis, and
told him that the chest was his if it fit Osiris. Osiris, being the
trusting sort, laid down in the chest. It fit, of course. Set closed and
bound this chest and threw it into the Nile.
        Isis found the chest containing her husband quite some time later,
in a stand of papyrus along th bank of the Nile. She took his body and
secreted it in a cave, cast some spells, and managed to impregnate herself
by his body. (Well, he /is/ a fertility god.) She went into hiding to bear
this child, and Set found the body. 14 pieces he hacked Osiris into,
tossing body parts all over Egypt but one, that one (and you can guess
which) he fed to the crocodile. Isis bore her child and named him Horus.
When young Horus was old enough, he went up to his uncle, Set, and started
one hell of a fight. Osiris, in the meantime, was busy gathering the parts
of his soul back together, forming himself in the void between life and
death. Thoth, god of truth, finally parted the combatants, setting a truce
between them. To Osiris was given the stewardship of the dead, the final
judge of life and death, he had burst forth into renewal.
        Osiris is at once strong and weak, whole and unwhole. He is
contrast, he is change. Those that have lived truth pass by him into
immortal life, those who have lived lies are destroyed by him. He is trust
and trust betrayed. Darkness and light. Basically, he is everything within
the human soul and everything outside of it.
 
 

        III. The Fool
        The Fool is the seeker, light of heart he is comparable in Norse
Mythology to the pleasanter aspects of Loki.  He sets out on the road of
life, blind to all but his own travels.  He laughs he sings, live is all
joy and fun. In his own way he teaches that a light heart is good for the
soul's journey and that a joke can contain real wisdom.  Here is the
questioner, he who seeks knowledge and experience, free to juxtapose
whatever ideas come his way.  The Seeker learns in his travels, learns to
balance, to heal what is broken, balance what is imbalanced, and align what
is out of alighnment.  To gain his way to the spirtual path he must travel
the physical world spreading his own measure of learned wisdom hidden in
his smile, his light heart.
 
 

        IV. Temu
        Also known as Atmu, Tem, Nu, occasionally Ra, this is the primevil
creation god. In the beginning there was nothing, until Temu uttered the
word that was his name, and Temu came into being. He was the will to live,
out of nothing he created himself. He opened his mouth, and light burst
forth, and only then did he see that he was god. This is the one god that
all other gods are aspects of. By whatever name, he is in a way,
everything. He created himself, then the Universe.
        Other than this, not much is known about the one god, he was too
big to be seen as a whole.

        I am he who came into being, being what I created -
        (Nuk pu kheper em Khepera)
        the creator of the creations...
        (kheper-na kheper kheperu)
        After I created my own becoming,
        (kheper kheperu)
        I created many things
        (neb em-khet kheper-a asht kheperu)
        that came forth from my mouth.
        (em per em re-a)

In tarot, his card is the Fool, which is the only reason I've included him.