The Seven-Headed Dragon: Revelation, the Beast of Babylon and the Naga of Mu

A dragon with seven heads shows up in the Bible and in books on Mu, the Maya and India. The number is the same everywhere. The meaning changes a great deal.

The red dragon of Revelation

Revelation 12 opens with a woman about to give birth. Then comes the second sign:

The dragon’s tail sweeps a third of the stars out of heaven and throws them to earth. It waits in front of the woman to devour her child. Later in the chapter the dragon is hurled down to earth and chases the woman, and the page calls him the Adversary.

The “Whore of Babylon” a symbolic figure described in the Book of Revelation has a related beast, the scarlet one that the woman rides in Revelation 17. It has seven heads and ten horns. The angel in the vision explains the heads as seven mountains or kings.

The Dragon, snake or serpent – Symbol of the Sirian Lineage prints the Revelation 12 passage next to a claim that the serpent and the dragon are symbols of a Sirian lineage of wisdom teachings. The page credits that claim to a source called The Golden lake, and I read it as one writer’s claim.

The Seven-headed Serpent of Mu

James Churchward turns the same number into a creator. In The Lost Continent of Mu (1926) the Creator is the Seven-headed Serpent, who moves in the abyss of darkness. The Serpent’s seven intellects give seven commands (p. 12).

The Sacred Symbols of Mu (1932) names the seven-headed cobra Naga as one of the working symbols. Churchward says the Nagas took their name from it, and that the Naga belonged to the lower western half of Mu.

Revelation and Churchward share a number and little else. In Revelation the seven-headed dragon is the enemy. In Churchward the seven-headed serpent is the Creator. I do not read them as the same figure.

A serpent on both sides of the Atlantic

Augustus Le Plongeon says the Maya used the seven-headed serpent as a totem. In Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quiches, 11,500 Years Ago (1886) the Ah-ac-chapat is the totem of the seven primitive rulers (p. 67). He sets it beside the seven-headed serpent on which Vishnu rests and the seven serpents in the crown of Siva.

Researches into the Lost Histories of America (1884) goes further. Blacket says Sesha, the serpent of Vishnu, is the seven-headed serpent of Central America and Mexico. In his argument the sage Garga went to America and brought the Mexican zodiac home (p. 26).

Brasseur de Bourbourg reads the dragon as geology. In Quatre Lettres sur le Mexique (1868) the seven-headed dragon is the symbol of the submarine hearth of the Caribbean and of the seven volcanoes of the Crescent. He also names it as the Hydra of Lerna.

Andrew Tomas gives the Basque serpent as Erensuge, seven-headed. Atlantis: From Legend to Discovery (1972) places that name with the Basque memory of a destruction by fire and water. The Basque side is on The Basques: Mari, the Lamiak and a Homeland in the Pyrenees.

Related pages

• Revelation 12
• The “Whore of Babylon” a symbolic figure described in the Book of Revelation
• The Dragon, snake or serpent – Symbol of the Sirian Lineage
• The Lost Continent of Mu (1926)
• The Sacred Symbols of Mu (1932)
• Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quiches, 11,500 Years Ago (1886)
• Researches into the Lost Histories of America (1884)
• Quatre Lettres sur le Mexique (1868)
• Atlantis: From Legend to Discovery (1972)

For every page I tagged with Seven Heads, see the Seven Heads tag archive.