“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (1929)

In his Letters to a Young Poet, the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke transforms our traditional idea that dragons are dreadful creatures that need to be eliminated.

In almost every mythology, the dragon is the symbol of fear and tyranny. In Greek mythology, it’s Python, destroyed by Apollo.

However, the dragon doesn’t always need to be killed in order to be defeated. It can be tamed.

In Shrek, the green-eyed red dragon turned into one of the best protagonists.

What frightens us is not something that needs to be eliminated, but simply tamed. The dark also contains vitality, fear can also be a source of courage. 

The only way to overcome our fears is to face the dragon and look for the princess behind the mask. This, indeed, takes a lot of courage.

Once the dragon turns into a princess, all your wounds are healed, your pain becomes your cure and your fears turn into opportunities. 

Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.

Jim Morrison

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