Why does the dragon have St. Margaret's cloak in his mouth?

I noticed a detail in several pictures of Saint Margaret of Antioch.  I lost count, but there are lots of pictures of her dragon with St. Margaret's cloak in his mouth.

Most pictures show her wearing a blue cloak, with one or two showing a red cloak.  Suppose St. Margaret's cloak represents the sky?  I have this sense that we could figure out the old meaning of dragons if we kept on with theses guesses.  Dragon as simargyl?  Medieval dragons often seem to have tails that end in a flourish of leaves and flowers, possibly representing abundance.

But there are also lots of wicked dragons.  I remember one called "the laidly worm..." -that means ugly worm...  I keep on wondering if the dragon is somehow related to old fortune telling beliefs.  Sometimes the sky bring you plenty, other time only destruction.

I'm picturing an ancient tradition of women shamen, who may have used dangerous plants like the poppy.  Well, this is not a scholarly blog.  I'm just making notes about some ideas that branch out from the book, The Dancing Goddesses, by E. W. Barber.  Her book is about folk dance, but it hints at a completely new understanding of pagans.

Papaver

Papaver is the Latin name for poppy.  What if the name means 'father's worm'?  Papa, father + ver! worm...  I really don't know anything about this.  Here I just write down my day-dreams.

What if the opium poppy was called 'father's worm' or maybe 'mother's worm' long ago?  What if the dragon (also called worm) represents the ill effects of opium.  That gives you Saint Margaret as a shamanic healer using opium.  And that would also give you a new interpretation of Saint George and the dragon.

Saint George is linked to Jarilo, Slavic God of wine, similar to Dionysius.  What if the picture of St. George and the dragon is a picture of alcohol defeating opium?  Hmm...  I keep wondering why Saint Margaret does get angry when George kills her pet reptile.  Silly me.

But in the Slavic mythology, I think Jarilo is the son of Mokosh.  Suppose Margaret is a Christian version of Mokosh.  Then you have her son killing the animal she rode to get around to the three worlds.

I am no expert on dragons.  I just wondered why the dragon needs wings.  So, the dragon has 3 ways to travel: slithering, walking, and flying.  My guess is that it's for visiting the underworld, the land of the living, and the heavens.

I would appreciate comments on this mess of ideas.  If you have something useful to add about dragons, please leave a comment.

Little house on chicken legs

I figured out why Baba Yaga's house has chicken legs.  Ok, I'm guessing.  I sure wish I could find someone who speaks Russian.  There must be somebody who studies folklore who would know the answers on this.

I was skimming a book about household spirits that I found in the library.  It says that there was a Russian tradition that a black rooster must be laid under the entrance when a bath house is built.  Well, that idea seemed to shout at me.  Wow, oh wow, I think there is a message in the story of Baba Yaga, and the messag would have been fairly obvious long ago.

The bath house is where the women gather to spin linen.  They make linen thread in a damp room.  The spinning is associated with magic, and the place where the women wash their hair may be associated with fertility.  Anyway, the bath house is the center of the women's community, and together the women can make decisions the men don't like.

In one fairy tale, the prince rides up to the bath house (Baba Yaga's house) and he commands the house to turn around saying,
     "Little house, why do you face the forest?  Turn and stand as of old.  Turn and face me."

Of course, the prince was on his horse in the road.  So, the bath house can either face the road or the forest.  Hmm.  The road to the outside world -or- the forest of our own land, our inner world??

But the main thing I wanted to say is that the chicken legs on Baba Yaga's house are about apotropaic magic.  The rooster sacrificed during the construction of the bath house keeps everyone in the village safe.  And in the old days, the fact that Baba Yaga's house has chicken legs suggests to me the separate lives of men and women.  Maybe the women decided that the bath house shall face the forest.  And the men decided that it should face the road.  I think the story says that the women sometimes had decision making power in the village.  I'm seeing a portrait of an old agricultural way of life that was not all about patriarchy, and not even all about hierarchy.  Just what I wanted to see.  I hope that I can find supporting evidence!  Hope I am not making it up.