Tag Archives: Apocalypse

Dragons, Dragons Everywhere

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Every culture has dragon folktales and these dragons share the same characteristics. David Jones reaches fascinating conclusions about our fear and fascination with these creatures, including that we are essentially “hardwired” to believe in them. Get a copy here.

Dragons are not just fairy tale creatures who like to eat an occasional princess or fight a knight or two. Dragons are mythic-poetic creatures used in tales or sermons to make sophisticated points. Perhaps rooted in early human experience of three major predators–lions, eagles, and large serpents–dragons both warn of danger and show how to escape that danger.

Although we think of dragons as fire-breathing serpents with legs and wings, the oldest stories report that dragons had a foul, poisonous breath, the stench of which could kill anything that inhaled it. Dragons are Chaos. Dragons are spiritual and emotional energy that is out of control. Unfocused. Wild. They are in stories or texts what horses with loose, untied tails are in icons.

In the New Testament (Revelation 12:3) we read about a vision of a Great Red Dragon with seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns, and a massive tail, an image which is clearly inspired by the vision of the four beasts from the sea in the Book of Daniel and the Leviathan described in various Old Testament passages. This dragon is the enemy of the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of 12 stars upon her head: the Church. The dragon attacks the Church at the End of Days and slays the martyrs as Judgement Day approaches. In the lives of the saints–such as SS. Margaret or George–a dragon is the enemy of the saint or of specific persons now, during history.

In the story of St. Margaret, she is swallowed alive by a dragon in her jail cell but she makes the sign of the Cross and the dragon’s stomach explodes… allowing her to step out, unharmed. (Not unlike Red Riding Hood and her grandmother stepping unharmed from the wolf’s stomach.) In the story of St. George (whose horse’s tail is always tied in a knot), the dragon is attacking a town and is about to devour a princess as its most recent victim but George is able to kill it; in some versions, he wounds it so that it becomes a tame beast and he can lead it into the town with a leash made of the princess’ belt.

St. Margaret is clearly attacked by the enemies of God but is able to overcome them by her faith in Christ, crucified and risen. The princess (soul) is attacked by the passions–anger, jealousy, greed, etc.–but is able to either overcome them by the help of the saints and the Cross of Christ (the wooden spear of St. George). In the versions where the dragon is wounded, it means the soul is able to redirect its energy away from destructive desires into constructive desires, such as righteous anger on behalf of the oppressed, desire to care for the needy, or peace-making between enemies.

Dragons are the great enemy both at the End of Time and now, as history plays itself out. They are the spiritual energy that we can channel to come close to God or that we can let it create chaos in our lives to destroy us. We can embrace the dragon within or we can tame it. The choice is ours.

Good King Wenceslaus and the Apocalypse

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The casket containing the relics of St. Wenceslaus in the chapel of the Prague cathedral. (photo by S. Morris)

Looking across the St. Wenceslaus chapel in the Prague cathedral; note the wooden door taken from the church where St. Wenceslaus was murdered . (photo by S. Morris)

Looking into the chapel of St. Wenceslaus in the Prague Cathedral. (Photo by S. Morris)

The chapel of “Good King Wenceslaus” in the Prague cathedral is a dazzling display of both royal and apocalyptic glory! The good king–perhaps best known for his Christmas carol was actually the duke of Bohemia but he was the functional equivalent of a king–was murdered by his pagan brother Boleslav in AD 935. Wenceslaus (in Czech, his name is “Vaclav”) was murdered by hired killers as he was arriving at a country church for the baptism of his nephew, Boleslav’s son; Boleslav had invited Wenceslaus to be the boy’s godfather as a pretext to get Wenceslaus out into the country so that he could be more easily murdered. Boleslav seized the throne and was a cruel, hedonistic ruler. He died in AD 967, after ruling for more than 30 years. But he was forced by popular opinion to have his brother Wenceslaus’ body brought back to Prague in AD 938 and buried in a small church near the castle. Wenceslaus was acclaimed as a saint.

The famous emperor Charles IV–who built the great Charles Bridge as well as many of the beautiful buildings that we still see in Prague–had a chapel built for the relics of St. Wenceslaus in the new cathedral of St. Vitus that was being built in the 1300s.

The design of the chapel is based on the description of the heavenly Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, commonly known as the Book of Revelation. The chapel is square, just as the heavenly city was described, rather than rectangular. The walls of the chapel are studded with the precious jewels the walls of the heavenly city were said to be built with. There is a small door in one corner which leads to a stairway which leads to a small room in which the crown jewels are kept; this door has seven locks and the seven keys–held by various important officials in the government and cathedral staff–are needed to open it. These seven locks and keys are based on the locks and keys held by seven archangels in the Book of Revelation. The windows of the chapel fill the square room with light just as the Heavenly Jerusalem was said to be filled with light. The massive doors to the chapel are the same doors of the country church that Wenceslaus was entering as he was murdered by his brother.

The chapel of St. Wenceslaus reproduces the splendor of the heavenly Jerusalem because the saints are thought to be the first citizens of the New Jerusalem. The first saints said to inhabit the heavenly city are the martyrs–those killed for their faith–and St. Wenceslaus is the first martyr of the Czech region. He was also thought to be the perfect model of a good king who cares for his people more than for himself and the living image of Christ the King who gives up his life so that his people might live. When I was in Prague in early April, I was struck again by the stunning beauty of the entire cathedral and of the chapel of St. Wenceslaus in particular.

Chapel 1

Chapel 2

Chapel 3

Chapel 4

Chapel 5