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excerpt from The Bible Interpreted in Dream Symbols
Book of Realization
The Revelation of John
by Dr. Barbara Condron
Chapter Twelve
The Woman and the Dragon. A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
Because the full intention is now focused upon Self revelation the destiny becomes clearer. The seeker realizes his destiny (great sign) lies in the fulfillment of the seed idea of a fully matured Self; the Superconscious plan for Self (appearing in the sky) to become compatible to its maker. This destiny is awareness in the Conscious, waking mind (woman) of its origin in the Superconscious mind (clothed with the sun). The Conscious mind exists only because there is a Superconscious mind. In other words, the Conscious mind would not exist were it not for the innermost Superconscious mind which is the divine spark from its Creator. When the Conscious mind is aware of its origin, it is also aware of the manifestations of consciousness which we have spoken of many times in our interpretations of Revelation as the levels of Subconscious mind and the physical. The Conscious mind symbolized by the woman represents the seeker who is aware of the subconscious (moon) spiritual foundation (feet) and who has gained control (crown)of creation in the physical (twelve stars).
Because she was with child, she wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.
As in Genesis when the Lord God told the woman she would bring forth children with pain, so the woman in Revelation labors to bear a child. In the Universal Language of Mind the woman symbolizes the Conscious, waking mind and her offspring are new ideas. Every idea conceived and imaged by the Conscious mind is a seed idea that is planted in the substance of the Subconscious mind. There the idea grows in and through subconsciousness until the seed is matured and ready for manifestation in your physical life. Here the Conscious mind is preparing to receive such an idea manifested from the inner levels of Self’s consciousness.
Then another sign appeared in the sky: it was a huge dragon, flaming red, with seven heads and ten horns; on his heads were seven diadems.
To understand this new idea another part of the destiny (great sign) is revealed. This destiny is the role the ego (huge dragon), or sense of identity, will play in the quest for Enlightenment. It is revealed the ego expresses through the e-motion (flaming red), through all levels of consciousness (the seven heads), and uses all forms of energy or chakras (ten horns). Most revealing is the crowns on the seven heads indicating an understanding and control of identity in each level of consciousness. The aspirant now has some command of who he is beyond the present, beyond the physical identity, and this will cause a great transformation in how he sees himself.
His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, ready to devour her child when it should be born. She gave birth to a son -- a boy destined to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and to his throne.
The duty of the ego is to motivate (his tail swept...), to stimulate the mind into action. This has been true since the moment of creation as Light, the point of origin of awareness. Outwardly, the ego’s action is easily recognizable as tempting the Conscious mind to fulfill its duty; reasoning. This is demonstrated earlier in the Bible when the ego (serpent) stimulates the Conscious mind (woman) to remember (Did God tell you not to eat of any of the fruit in the garden?”) and to imagine (“God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be as god”). In Revelation, the individual’s desire “to be like” -- the expression of the ego -- remains strong as Enlightenment draws closer thus the dragon stands ready to devour the woman’s child. The new idea produced is aggressive or intent upon motion (boy) and specifically the motion is in alignment with the destiny of the Self (caught up to God). This idea is the destiny of every individual: To aggressively direct all parts of Self (nation) to function in harmony with the laws of creation (iron rod).
The woman herself fled into the desert, where a special place had been prepared for her by God, there she was taken care of for twelve hundred and sixty days.
Once this idea of governing the Self according to Universal Law is produced in the Conscious mind, the consciousness is expanded (woman fleeing to the desert) to embrace all of creation (place prepared by God). It requires an understanding (twelve) of this expanded consciousness and an exercising of this consciousness through service (sixty) to others for it to become a permanent part of the awareness.
Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. Although the dragon and his angels fought back, they were overpowered and lost their place in heaven.
When the new awareness is attained the Superconscious mind is experienced as never before. You are closer to God than ever before. Your ego is transformed as signified by the conflict between Michael and his angels (the true expression of Ego often referred to as I AM) and the dragon (the habitual expression of ego used to identify the self until this time). In Hindu teachings this war and the battle are described in many sacred passages as the pairs of opposites. Learning how to “be in the world but not of it” as Jesus taught is the essence of learning to bear the pairs of opposites with equanimity, acknowledging light and dark, pleasure and pain, hot and cold, without attachment to any of them. Such awareness brings understanding of the Law of Duality which is one part of Enlightenment.
The huge dragon, the ancient serpent known as the devil or Satan, the seducer of the whole world, was driven out; he was hurled down to earth and his minions with him.
In the Universal Language of Mind, this verse links the beginning of the Bible in Genesis to the end of the Bible in Revelation. The journey of one Self, one entity, one part of Creation, is described in great detail in the Bible beginning with Genesis which means “origin”. Throughout the Old Testament, man’s development from his creation as light through the evolution of Animal Man bodies -- such as what is currently known as Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens -- with the brain capacity for reasoning is revealed in symbolic language. The New Testament reveals how to live as a reasoning being to produce intuition and ultimately Enlightenment. This is told through the very early and very late years of the life of the Master Jesus who became known as the Christ. In this verse in Revelation we learn that the dragon of Revelation is the same as the ancient serpent who first appeared in the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis. Both symbolize the urge for individual identity and independence characteristic of the ego. The word ego comes from the Latin meaning “I am.” This urge toward self-expression has motivated all parts of Self (the whole world) throughout evolution for evolution. And this continues to be true as long as there is a need for the Conscious and Subconscious parts of mind (the earth).
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have salvation and power come, the reign of our God and the authority of his Anointed One. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who night and day accused them before our God. They defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death. So rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, earth and sea, for the devil has come down upon you! His fury knows no limits, for he knows his time is short.
The individual never loses his ego. His ego dies many times in a figurative sense, changing with each stage of maturity like an adolescent who leaves childhood behind to embrace adulthood. However at this point the individual has achieved a major transformation in his understanding of his identity signified by the Anointed One. No longer is the aspirant dependent upon the ego for the motivation to reason and progress (the accuser..). Rather now the seeker is desire motivated which means he reasons at will and is therefore in control of the rate of his evolution (he knows his time is short).
When the dragon saw that he had been cast down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the boy. But the woman was given the wings of a gigantic eagle so that she could fly off to her place in the desert, where, far from the serpent she could be taken care of for a year and for two and a half years more.
Now the ego (dragon) will provide the momentum for the Conscious mind (pursuing the woman) who has given rise to the new idea (the boy): to aggressively direct all parts of Self to function in harmony with the laws of creation. The consciousness has been expanded to embrace all of creation so the Conscious mind now has a freedom of movement (given wings). This awareness of creation and your place in it is the quality that enables you to relinquish ego motivation and bring forth desire motivation that will lead to wisdom (three and a half years).
The serpent, however, spewed a torrent of water out of his mouth to search out the woman and sweep her away. The earth then came to the woman’s rescue by opening its mouth and swallowing the flood which the dragon spewed out of his mouth. Enraged at her escape, the dragon went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep God’s commandments and give witness to Jesus. He took up his position by the shore of the sea.
The results of many ego-motivated, physical experiences (torrent of water) have been stored as part of the Subconscious mind substance or soul (the earth opening up). The ego has fulfilled its duty of ensuring soul progression until sufficient understanding brings about a Conscious mind that is willing to reason from desire rather than habit. From now forward, the Conscious mind -- being desire motivated -- will direct the ego. The ego will continue to provide motivation (make war) for the fulfillment of ideals (her offspring). The identity of the Self at last transcends the physicalness of men. It is now firmly seated in the spirit as an offspring of a Creator (keep God’s commandments) who is to become a creator (give witness to Jesus). From this time forward the sense of ego serves the whole Self (taking his position) and we are prepared -- as is revealed in Chapter Thirteen -- to use the Conscious mind in ways never before realized.
Chapter Thirteen
Verses one through ten: The First Beast. Then I saw a wild beast come out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads;
Here the imagery of Revelation truly comes alive. To transform the motivating power of the ego from physical satisfaction to spiritual fulfillment, we must understand how the ego manifests in our consciousness. The vivid descriptions in this chapter reveal the secrets of mind and consciousness, spirit and matter, evolution and creation. This beast comes out of the sea. As in a dream, this beast is an animal and in the Universal Language of Mind symbolizes a habit, a compulsion that is repeated with little or no thought. The origin of this habit is physical experience, symbolized by the sea. This first beast signifies the soul’s attachment to the physical world. It is the habit of incarnation into matter. At last this compulsion is seen for what it is -- a choice of the soul, a choice made on purpose and with purpose.
...on its horns were ten diadems and on its heads blasphemous names.
The beast is described as having ten horns which symbolize the ten energy transformers, or chakras, available to man each time he incarns. Through repeated incarnation some control of energy and creation has been gained as symbolized by the diadems on the horns. The beast has seven heads signifying that the awareness of existence is in seven levels of consciousness at this point. The blasphemous name is identifying the Self with that which is temporal, that which is impermanent, that which is of the physical. As long as the physical ego is entrapped in what is transient the entire consciousness, including the soul and spirit, is engrossed. For the unaware, this identification happens every lifetime. From the time of incarnation, awareness and knowledge of the Real Self, the soul, fades until only things of the physical world are important. The habit of incarnation overshadows the soul and spirit thus the blaspheming, the denying of who you are, occurs again. And another lifetime comes and goes.
The beast I saw was like a leopard, but it had paws like a bear and the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave it his own power and throne, together with great authority. I noticed that one of the beast’s heads seemed to have been mortally wounded, but this mortal wound was healed. In wonderment, the whole world followed after the beast.
The attachment to the physical world creates the soul who is entrapped in a physical animal-body. In mobility (leopard), purpose or instinct (paws like a bear), and expression (mouth of lion), the soul experiences the limitations inherent in the animal body. Man has a body that is similar to that of other animals. The relationships within the animal kingdom, the animal bodies as they reveal progressive development, are the essence of scientific evolution. Too many theologians fight these scientific insights because they believe they contradict scriptural accounts of creation. Hopefully you will now see that science and religion are not at odds but are compatible means for understanding man’s origin and destiny. This Truth is revealed as we interpret the meaning of the two beasts of Revelation in the language of mind.
The consciousness of man uses the animal-body for a lifetime. Consciousness uses the body as a person uses a car, as a vehicle to transport the Self from one place to another. The outermost expression of consciousness, that which we refer to as the Conscious mind, forms the identity during a lifetime as symbolized by the dragon giving its power and throne to the beast. Each lifetime we begin anew, the conscious ego is built by our reaction to experience in the present time. As long as our awareness is determined by how our body reacts -- does the experience bring pleasure? I want it again; does the experience bring pain? I want to avoid it -- the soul, the ego of the Real Self, remains entrapped in the cycle of birth and rebirth. The outer, Conscious mind (the head that was mortally wounded) is compulsive, functioning from instinct only. No longer capable of learning through observation (the whole world followed after the beast), the mind must experience pleasure and pain in order to gain understanding (mortal wound was healed).
Men worshiped the dragon for giving his authority to the beast; they also worshipped the beast and said, Who can compare with the beast, or come forward to fight against it? The beast was given a mouth for uttering proud boasts and blasphemies, but the authority it received was to last only forty-two months.
As long as you believe (men worship) the physical is all there is, you are a slave to those limitations. Your ego (dragon) is defined by things of the physical: how you look, who you know, where you live, what you invest your time in. You fear death, for you do not know life. You give people, money, position the power to define who you are and to build or destroy your sense of Self worth. Whatever learning is gained by such a person transpires by hindsight, after the experience. This is a widely accepted concept today. “Life is for learning. Every experience brings a lesson. The important thing is to learn from everyone and everything.” These are true, but they reflect the habitual thinking symbolized by the first beast. Something must happen physically, in your life, in order for you to react. You must experience something in order to learn anything. This thinking is compulsive and animalistic. Being ruled by consciously-formed habit keeps the soul entrapped.
It began to hurl blasphemies against God, reviling him and the members of his heavenly household as well. The beast was allowed to wage war against God’s people and conquer them. It was likewise granted authority over every race and people, language and nation. The beast will be worshiped by all those inhabitants of earth who did not have their names written at the world’s beginning in the book of the living, which belongs to the Lamb who was slain.
As long as you believe the physical is all there is, you deny your true origin as spirit (blasphemies against God...) and condemn your soul, for you bind it to what is not lasting. Many people believe there was a mistake made that condemned us all to the physical life we experience. For the Christian and Jew it is the “Fall of Man” and the concept of original sin, for the Hindu it is the bond of karma, for the Greek it was the opening of Pandora’s jar. Yes, there was a point of origin for the soul’s entrapment in the physical plane, but this entrapment is either perpetuated or resolved every moment. Since then each of us has continued to identify as a physical being thus the beast has waged its war and had its authority, time and time again. When we become aware of what is beyond the physical, we realize the relationship of soul and body, spirit and matter, permanent and transient.
While experiencing life we are not paying for something we did thousands of years ago, we are experiencing the effects of our own thought. Here, now. Today. Intention causes karma and understanding relieves it. Here, now. The understanding that we are souls temporarily experiencing through a physical body is the essence of the book of the living. Those spirits who have never become engrossed in the physical, souls who have never been entrapped, are those whose names are in the book of the living. These spirits learn through observing the physical world rather than being a participant in it. It is our immediate destiny as mankind to evolve beyond the need for physical learning and ascend once again to “the heights from which we have fallen.”
Let him who has ears heed these words! If one is destined for captivity, into captivity he goes! If one is destined to be slain by the sword, by the sword he will be slain! Such is the faithful endurance that distinguishes God’s holy people.
Destined for captivity is entrapment into the physical. Destined to be slain by the sword means to intentionally produce understandings. For those of us who experience incarnation, our destiny is to use the physical world as a schoolroom for learning the lessons brought to us by Universal Law and our individual karmic indentures. We will continue (faithful endurance) incarning to learn until all debts are paid and all understandings become a part of our soul’s awareness (distinguishes God’s holy people).
The Second Beast. Then I saw another wild beast come up out of the earth; it had two horns like a ram and it spoke like a dragon. It used the authority of the first beast to promote its interests by making the world and all its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed.
The secret of how to accelerate soul progression is now revealed with the second beast. Unlike the first beast, this beast comes up from the earth signifying its origin as subconscious mind substance, the matter of the soul. The first beast is the compulsive ability to learn in the physical world. The second beast is the ability to cause that learning. This is achieved in three ways. 1] The development of the pituitary gland and pineal gland in the physical body of man (the two horns). These glands enable the man’s brain to function in ways that set him apart from all other animals. 2] The physical expression of the permanent understandings held within the soul (spoke like a dragon). This enables man to call upon subconscious capabilities, displaying intuitive skill or the genius borne from understandings. 3] The full respect and utilization of the physical body and brain (authority of the first beast) for spiritual evolution (to promote its interests).
It performed great prodigies; it could even make fire come down from heaven to earth as men looked on. Because of the prodigies it was allowed to perform by authority of the first beast, it led astray the earth’s inhabitants, telling them to make an idol in honor of the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet lived.
Here we learn what causes entrapment. The desire “to be like God” first stimulated in the woman in the Garden of Eden spoken of in Genesis or in the Greek myth of Pandora causes action which brings immediate expansion and overwhelming responsibility (make fire come down from heaven to earth ). The imagery of fire coming down from heaven conveys man’s capability of manifesting his thoughts. When you think something and it happens, it is awesome, it is a wonder, it is often a miracle. To the uninitiated or unenlightened such an ability is a source of great speculation, and many times fear. We look for natural reasons to explain that which is super-natural, physical causes for the metaphysical. We make an idol in honor of the beast. In this way all aspects of self (the earth’s inhabitants) are distracted from thought as cause (led astray). The best example of this in today’s world is the common belief that the brain and the mind, or seat of consciousness, are one and the same therefore when the brain no longer exists nor does the individual.
The second wild beast was then permitted to give life to the beast’s image, so that the image had the power of speech and of putting to death anyone who refused to worship it. It forced all men, small and great, rich and poor, slave and free, to accept a stamped image on their right hand or their forehead. Moreover, it did not allow a man to buy or sell anything unless he was first marked with the name of the beast or with the number that stood for its name.
The second beast is the ability to cause learning. Learning is initiated in the Conscious mind and is the product of reasoning which is the power of the Conscious mind. When you image a desire, your Subconscious mind seeks to recreate that image (give life to the beast’s image) so the desire manifests in your life. Your Subconscious mind will bring to you the people, places, and things you need to fulfill that desire. It is the power of imagination in the Conscious mind which causes the creation of thought. The Conscious and Subconscious minds working together enable the expression of thought (power of speech) and the responsibility for what that thought causes (putting to death anyone who refused to worship it).
In order for these two minds to work together, there must be a sufficient vehicle for the consciousness to use. The vehicle is the upright body of human man in combination with the juxta-position ability of the fingers and thumb. This sets the body of man apart from all other animals. Look at the palm of your hand. You can hold a pencil. There’s not another beast that can touch each of the fingers with the thumb, or form a fist, or grasp a tool. Even the primates use the first four fingers, they only use the thumb for suspending from a tree. The mark of the beast is the ability to make a fist or bring the fingers to the palm of the hand.
The mark on the forehead is the developed pituitary gland, the master gland of the body. Physically, this gland serves as the control center for the endocrine system. Mentally, it serves as the interpreter of the energies received through the five senses, what you see or hear or feel or taste or smell, and those coming from the inner levels of consciousness such as your nighttime dreams. The presence of this gland also sets man apart from all other animals because it enables him to rise above compulsion by using the power of reasoning.
All men, every human body, demonstrate both of these physical characteristics. The developed pituitary and the flexible, grasping hands give the soul inhabiting that body the ability to wield reasoning and the capability of using tools. These two physical abilities (marked with the name of the beast) are present only in the animal-man body and this body does identify its inhabitant as an advanced soul. These physical and mental abilities (the number that stood for its name) are necessary in order to give and receive (buy or sell anything) any thought and action. To create thought you must be able to reason, to rise above compulsion by adding imagination to memory. To respond to what you create with your thoughts you must be able to fashion and use the physical in ways far advanced from those of animals.
A certain wisdom is needed here; with a little ingenuity anyone can calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number that stands for a certain man. The man’s number is six hundred sixty-six.
The certain man is not a singular person, nor is it male. The certain man is an evolved state of consciousness and also a time period. It is what students of metaphysics describe as Reasoning Man, Genesis’ fifth day of creation, the current stage of evolution experienced by human beings. The number which represents this stage is 666. Numerologically, the six symbolizes the universal truth “as above, so below”, mind into matter, thought and manifestation. The number six represents the fulfillment of duty described so well in this chapter; the duty of the Conscious mind and the duty of the Subconscious mind one to the other in order to cause the learning and understanding that will bring about evolutionary soul growth. When the three sixes are added together they total 18 which digits to a nine, the number of completion. The Real Self, the soul and spirit that exist whether there is a physical body or not, meets his destiny through service to the highest Self until fulfillment is achieved.•
excerpted from the newly released book The Bible Interpreted in Dream Symbols
© 2000, School of Metaphysics