538. Having seven heads, signifies insanity from the truths of the Word falsified and profaned. By "the head" is signified wisdom and intelligence, and, in the opposite sense, insanity; but by "seven heads" here, because they were the dragon's, is properly signified insanity from the truths of the Word falsified and profaned; for "seven" is predicated of things holy, and, in the opposite sense, of things profane (n. 10); therefore it follows that on his heads were seen "seven diadems," and by "diadems" are signified the truths of the Word, here falsified and profaned. That by "the head" is signified wisdom and intelligence, is plain from these passages:
I will give you men wise, and intelligent, and make them your heads (Deut. 1:13). Jehovah hath closed your eyes, the prophets, and your heads, the seers, hath he covered (Isa. 29:10). By the head of Nebuchadnezzar's image of pure gold (Dan. 2:32), nothing else is signified but the wisdom of the first age, which was with the men of the Most Ancient Church. By "the head" in the opposite sense is signified insanity and folly; in David:
God shall wound the head of the enemies, the hairy crown of him who goeth on in his guilt (Ps. 68:21). Nor is anything else signified by "the head of the serpent," which was to be trodden down (Gen. 3:15); and by "smiting the head over many countries" (Ps. 110:6, 7); also by "putting dust on the head;" and by "inducing baldness," and by "putting the hand on the head," when they were ashamed, or grieved at having acted insanely against wisdom (Isa. 7:20; 15:2; Ezek. 7:18; 27:30; Jer. 2:37; 14:3, 4; Lam. 2:10; 2 Sam. 13:19). But by "seven heads" is also signified insanity from truths falsified and profaned in what follows in Revelation (13:1, 3; 17:3, 7, 9).