In preparation for our service on the 19th of June, I have been reflecting again on the great Red Dragon shown to us in the Book of Revelation and what it means for our spiritual life.  I was recently given a different perspective on the Dragon than I have considered previously in a 1996 New Church Life Editorial (slightly edited), was moved to consider its application to some recent circumstances in my life, and share it here in the hopes that it might inspire you to do the same!

Love and Peace,

Ethan

In the book of Revelation we read of a woman clothed with the sun and of a great red dragon who threatened her. The account ends with reference to the anger of that dragon against the woman. We are taught here of anger against a new Christianity [of the heart], and also about pride and the way it leads to anger against those who believe differently from oneself.

One should beware of the red dragon as it exists outside of us and threatens us, and also as it exists in us and threatens others. "Every evil conceals in itself anger against good, since it wills to extinguish the good and even to kill one in whom good is, if not as to the body, still they do as to the soul, and this certainly comes from anger and is accompanied by anger" (Swedenborg, Revelation Explained 693). 

The Writings affirm the warning in the Sermon on the Mount about anger against a brother [or sister] "without a cause" or "rashly" (Swedenborg, Life 73). One of the insights we are given about this anger is...that it applies when we think ill of our neighbor.

When we think well and intend well we will not be in touch with the influx of the wrong kind of anger. We may be zealous for good causes and zealous in the protection of something precious. Zeal is a good thing, even when it looks very much like anger.

Here is one last thought as we close...

The prophet Jonah insisted on justifying his anger. If we want to justify our anger, we might be inclined simply to change the label and call it zeal! But we are taught that zeal and anger are not just two labels for the same thing. They are as different from each other as heaven is from hell. For those who do not believe in hell or influx therefrom, this may mean very little.

The wrong kind of feeling is not only rough on the outside. Inwardly it is "anger, rage and cruelty," whereas good zeal is inwardly "charity, grace and mercy."