Revelation 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
"Horns, on the other hand, are the symbol of might, strength, and power. The beast carrying the harlot has seven heads of authority and ten horns of power! Seven and ten are both complete numbers. Seven is a sacred number in this respect, that it generally is used of the perfection of spiritual realities and the completeness of God’s purposes and kingdom. It denotes fullness in the things of God. In our text, however, it is used with a negative application, signifying the fullness of that authority which purports to be, claims to be, pretends to be the authority of Christ, but is in reality the fullness of the carnal mind usurping the place of Christ’s authority in the church!"
Much more in the link:
"From the mists of the long ago Eden we read, “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Gen. 3:1). The word “serpent” in our language comes from the Latin serpo meaning “to creep,” but the Hebrew term has no relation to the form or motion of any external attribute of a serpent. The word used here for serpent is the Hebrew word nachash which is a primitive root meaning “to hiss or whisper.” It, furthermore, means “to search or scrutinize closely, to find out by experiment, to practice divination, augury, incantation, or enchantment.” According to Webster incantation means “the chanting of special words or a formula in magic spells or rites.” Incantation may speak in addition to hypnotism. The serpent, then, is a HISSER, a WHISPERER, a DIVINER, an EXPERIMENTOR, an ENCHANTER, a MAGICIAN, and a HYPNOTIST! And all this activity takes place from within! Now we understand how it was so easy for mother Eve to be deceived! The “inner voice,” the “carnal reasonings,” the “soulical suggestions” of the natural mind, yea, the religious mind, sounded so plausible, so logical, so spiritual, so divine — it just had to be the word of God and the way of the Lord! It had to be the very highest truth! As she listened to this voice Eve was enchanted, hypnotized, mesmerized — by this high revelation!"
"Yet — purple is a mixed color — it is compounded of blue and red. And what a revelation that is! In its spiritual significance it represents the mixture or confusion of the heavenly blue with the earthly red of Edom. And at this time all the church systems of man unite the earthly and the heavenly, joining flesh with spirit, mingling the anointing with carnal efforts and methods, mixing truth with error. False doctrine is for the most part a corruption of divine truth — error overlaid with a thin layer of truth, like base metal gilded. That very mixture yields a royal purple which is so awe-inspiring, powerful, and captivating to the souls of men! Gold, precious stones, and pearls are emblematic of spiritual truths and of the wondrous revelations of the riches in Christ Jesus. And who can deny that all the believers in all the churches have truly received from the Lord gifts of grace, truth, and salvation! Oh, yes, God Himself has enriched them with multiplied blessings according to their faith. The problem is, however, that even these are now employed by this woman, along with her other attire of the harlot, to attract people to her lewdness, thus prostituting even those beautiful truths and graces she has received and proclaims!"