Shown at left is William Blake's The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun (also sometimes called "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in the Rays of the Sun").[a] This is the painting that Manhunter's Francis Dollarhyde seems to think he identifies with, even though, as we will see later, he shows a different Blake painting to Freddy Lounds. The painting shown at left depicts the events of Revelation 12 verses 1-4, which are quoted below. [Image from the Wikipedia 'The Great Red Dragon Paintings' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
In this post we go over material from Swedenborg's Apocalypse Explained (with Swedenborg's parenthetical references to various sections omitted for clarity):
APOCALYPSE. CHAPTER 12 1. And a great sign was seen in heaven; a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. 2. And being with child she cried out, travailing, and pained to bring forth. 3. And there was seen another sign in heaven; and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them unto the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bring forth, that when she brought forth he might devour her offspring. (--from A.E. n. 704.)
Verses 3 and 4 above depict the first downfall of Satan.
A woman arrayed with the sun, signifies the church with those who are in love to the Lord, and thence in love towards the neighbor. This is evident from the signification of "woman," as being the spiritual affection of truth, from which the church is a church, consequently also the church in respect to that affection; it follows that this means the New Church to be established by the Lord after the end of the present church, which is in the Christian world. (--from A.E. n. 707.)
And the moon under her feet, signifies faith with those who are natural and who are in charity. This is evident from the signification of "moon" as being faith in which there is charity; and from the signification of "feet," as being things natural; here, therefore, those who are natural, because this is said of the "woman," by whom the church is signified, and the "sun" with which she was arrayed, signifies love to the Lord from the Lord and love to the neighbor (as shown in the preceding article); therefore "the woman arrayed with the sun" signifies the church with those who are celestial and thence spiritual, and "the moon under her feet" signifies the church with those who are natural and sensual, and at the same time in the faith of charity; for the goods and the truths therefrom of heaven and the church succeed in order, like the head, the body, and the feet with man. In the head of the Greatest Man, which is heaven, are those who are in love to the Lord from the Lord, and these are called celestial; but in the body, from the breast even to the loins of that Greatest Man, which is heaven, are those who are in love towards the neighbor, and these are called spiritual; but in the feet of the Greatest Man, which is heaven, are those who are obscurely in the faith of charity, and these are called natural. (--from A.E. n. 708.)
And behold a great red dragon, signifies all who are merely natural and sensual from the love of self and of the world, and yet have more or less knowledge from the Word, from doctrine therefrom or from preaching, and think to be saved by knowledge alone apart from life. This is evident from the signification of "dragon," as being a man who is merely natural and sensual, and yet has a knowledge of things in themselves spiritual, whether from the Word or from preaching or from religion...also from the signification of "great red," as meaning to be in the love of self and in its evils; for "great" is predicated in the Word of good, and in the contrary sense of evil, as "many" is predicated of truths, and in the contrary sense of falsities, and "red" is predicated of love in both senses, namely, of celestial love, which is love to the Lord, and in the contrary sense of diabolical love, which is the love of self. (--from A.E.. n. 714.)
Top left: In his killing of the Leeds family, Dollarhyde placed mirror shards in the eye sockets of Mrs. Leeds' dead body, and then, as described by Will Graham, he arranged her body and those of the other members of the Leeds family such that they were looking at him. This indicates that he suffers from the love of self referred to by Swedenborg in the above. Top right: Francis looks in a bathroom mirror for a few moments, while holding Reba captive in another room in his house. Above left: He then punches the mirror with his bare fist to break it. Above right: He next prepares to use a large shard of the mirror glass, held in his right hand, to kill Reba.
Continuing with Apocalpyse Explained,
In general ["the dragon"] signifies those who are more or less natural, and yet are in a knowledge of spiritual things from the Word. But in particular it signifies those who have confirmed themselves by doctrine and life in a faith separated from charity. These constitute the head of the dragon. But those who from self-intelligence hatch out for themselves dogmas from the Word constitute its body, while those who study the Word without doctrine constitute its external parts. All these also falsify and adulterate the Word, since they are in the love of self, and thence in the pride of self-intelligence, from which they become merely natural, yea, even sensual, and the sensual man is unable to see the genuine truths of the Word because of fallacies, obscurity of perception, and the evils of the body residing therein; for the sensual clings to the body, from which such things come...
The sensual who are meant by "the dragon" are those who do not see anything from the light of heaven, but only from the light of the world, and who from that light alone, when excited by the fire of the love of self and pride therefrom are able to talk about Divine things, and to reason keenly and readily about them; but yet they are unable to see whether these things be truths or not, calling that truth which they have imbibed from childhood from a master or preacher, and then from doctrine, and which they have afterwards confirmed by some passages of the Word not interiorly understood. Because they see nothing from the light of heaven they do not see truths, but in place of them falsities, which they call truths; for truths themselves can be seen only in the light of heaven, and not in the light of the world unless that light is illuminated by the light of heaven. These being such love no other than a bodily and worldly life; and as the pleasures and lusts of that life have their seat in the natural man the interiors of such are filthy and crowded with evils of every kind, which close up every way for the influx of the light and heat of heaven; consequently they are inwardly devils and satans, however much they may appear to be spiritual and to be Christians by their talk and simulated gestures. Such are merely sensual, for while they are able to talk outwardly about the holy things of the church, inwardly they believe nothing; and those who think they believe have only a historical and thence a persuasive belief derived from some teacher or from self-intelligence, which in itself is false, but which they believe for the sake of fame, honor, or gain. Such are meant in general by "dragons." (--from A.E. n. 714.)
a. This painting is cataloged in the Brooklyn Museum (in New York) as The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun. It is not to be confused with the painting cataloged in the National Gallery of Art (in Washington, D.C.) called The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun: "the Devil is come down." (We will see the latter painting a little later in this analysis).
To skip over the remainder of the Swedenborgian analysis of the Hannibal Lecter movies, click here.
The works of Emanuel Swedenborg from the Internet Sacred Texts Archive
Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911], at sacred-texts.com. Web. 5 Jun. 2010.
