2.3.
2 – The Number of the Beast impression in the minds of early Christians, and
The idea of reconciliation between
reciprocal forces in our being is also encrypted in
Christian texts, and it is found in a most
interesting manner that is worth revealing here.
The ideas and common notions of Christ and
Antichrist have a very different perspective once
the initiate is aware that the path is one of
reconciliation of opposites instead of one where
we should build an intolerant attitude to human
deficiency and sin, either within or in the other.
In the Book of Revelations 9:11 we
encounter a "Destroyer" figure with the name of
Apollyon (Ἀπολλύων).1 It is described as an "angel
of the Abyss" in this case, who is said to be the
"king" of the terrible locusts which plague the
world once the 5th trumpet is made to sound. The
common idea behind the mysterious descriptions
in the Apocalypse of John or Book of Revelations
is that it is describing future events of this world
where two opposite forces clash in battle: one
commanded by the Christ, and another by the
Antichrist or Beast of the apocalypse. The idea is
also found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, especially in
the War Scroll and the account of the War of the
Messiah.
The Christian Gnostics who wrote the
New Testament and the apocryphal literature of
Nag Hammadi were very well aware that the path
of enlightenment is one of reconciliation between
what is divine and animal in our human
composite, but as all mysteries, they are
concealed in images and symbols, and the last
book of the Bible is a great example of how
wisdom is concealed in symbols which are often
misinterpreted by those who do not read them in
the Holy Spirit.
Once the 5th trumpet of the apocalypse is
made to sound,2 we hear about "a star fall from
heaven unto the earth" to which it is given the
keys of the Abyss. It is quite clear that by this
time, the Enochian literature had already made its
1
The similarity between Apollo and apollyon
(destroyer) are commented by Socrates in Plato,
Cratylus 404e – 405b where he says: “… as I say, many
people are afraid because of the name of the god,
thinking that it has some terrible meaning. Have you
not noticed that? (…)But really the name is admirably
appropriate to the power of the god. (…)But this is the
god who purifies and washes away (apolouon) and
delivers (apolyo) from such evils, is he not?”
2 4
Revelations 9:1.
we do not say this in reference to the author of
the biblical apocalypse, but rather because of the
way in which he uses the symbols in his days
where Enochian literature had already had the
effect of imposing the mythological notion of
Satan as “a fallen angel”.
Most Christians adherent to the orthodox
dogma believe in their hearts that "the devil" or
"Satan" is the Beast of the Apocalypse and
consider this figure to be the "antichrist" in the
sense of it being a metaphysical being who defied
God and was punished, but somehow (and quite
inexplicably) has power over humans without the
approval of God’s Will. It is expected in this vulgar
interpretation of scripture that some time in the
near future, our sensorial world will express the
symbolic occurrences of John’s Apocalypse quite
literally… Such ideas always come from among
those who do not possess the Key of Wisdom
which unlocks the mystery revealed in the Book of
Revelations when it speaks of the Beast. The key
to unlocking the mystery is found in the fact that
John speaks of a Number of the Beast, a number
that must be permutated for letters according to
the Kabbalah of Gematria in order to arrive at a
name which will reveal its true significance.
It is commonly thought that the Number
of the Beast is 666, but it is not. The author of the
Book of Revelations does not say the number is
666 but rather leaves a riddle to be solved by "he
who hath understanding". The text reads as
follows:
This calls for wisdom: let the one
who has understanding calculate the
number of the beast, for it is the number
of a man, and his number is 666.3
Now, it has been somewhat obvious for
the many readers of this passage over the last
2000 years that this riddle is based on a play in
the old manner of ascribing numbers to letters in
the Greek alphabet. This technique of
permutation between numbers and letters is
called gematria,4 and it is based on the fact that in
Greek –as in Latin and Hebrew– there are no
specific symbols for numbers in themselves as we
encounter in English or most modern languages.
Rather, in these ancient languages each letter of
the alphabet was given a numerical value, and
3
Revelations 13:18.
In Greek it is known as Ipsopsephy.
1
numbers would be written with according letters.
An easy example we know in the west is the
Roman Numeral system which uses the I, the V,
the X, the C, M, etc., to represent numerical
values.
The New Testament is written in Koine
5
Greek, and it still bears the code of gematria of
more ancient times recorded in its words.
Now, John does not give away the
number of the Beast, and to take the usual
mistaken path of trying to ascribe this number to
a Pope is only a delusion brought forth by the
demonization of Catholic authority. This is a
deviation from the original message John
intended to communicate a revelation about the
Beast of the apocalypse.
What John says is that one who has
wisdom must count this number, and if the
number were already given as 666, there would
be no reason to count anything ,for it would
already be given. Most “solutions” were
mistakenly trying to make a match between the
value 666 and the name of a man, because it is
John who says we should find the name of a man,
but he never says the number is 666. What he
says is that we need to compute or count the
Number of the Beast. But how so?
The Number of the Beast must be counted
using gematria upon the words of the author in
that phrase, but not only on the value of 666. The
actual value that must be counted is in the entire
phrase "and his number is 666". The phrase in the
original Greek is:
καὶ ὁ ἀριθμὸς αὐτοῦ ἑξακόσιοι
ἑξήκοντα.
Now, since the two last words in the
phrase signify the numerical value of 666, they
need not be translated by gematria, but this value
5
Koine Greek is the “international” Greek
which develops after Alexander’s conquests of the Old
World around 300 BC.
needs to be included in the total figure of the
phrase. It is the first four terms in this phrase (καὶ
ὁ ἀριθμὸς αὐτοῦ) which need to be computed
and then added to the numerical value of 666
(ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα). 6
The gematria provides the sum by
numerical notation as 31+70+430+1171 + 666
which equals 2368: a most significant number to
anyone acquainted with the gematria of the New
Testament, as it is the number for the name Jesus
Christ (Ιηςους Χριςτος).
So the name of the Beast is “Jesus
Christ”?! How is that? It is, indeed, somethingthat
requires wisdom, because that which comes as a
shock for those that do not have wisdom is that
the Number of the Beast encoded in gematria is
actually the same as the number for the name
‘Jesus Christ’, yet when we look at the context of
the passage we may become more familiar with
the actual wisdom behind this dilemma of fusing
the notions of Christ and Antichrist. This is a
teaching intended to aid Man in a spiritual
evolution, not to invoke a fantastic delusion about
the end of the material world in the near future at
the hands of a particular tyrant incarnating the
power of “the antichrist”.
Although we might accord in seeing this
aspect of our human nature in a dictator like
Hitler, we will not accord so easily in seeing this
aspect within oneself. The projection of the
shadow on an external figure is a dangerous
fantasy that is quite departed from the original
meaning of apocalypse as a religious revelation.
Here we are speaking of discovering the inner
shadow in Man, our own antichrist as Christians.
Chapter 13 of Revelations is concerned
with the Beast and the False Prophet: the former
of which persuades mankind to make an image
(idol) in honor of the Beast:
... and by the signs that it is
allowed to work in the presence of the
beast it deceives those who dwell on
earth, telling them to make an image
for the beast that was wounded by the
6
The gematria of the whole phrase: καὶ ὁ
ἀριθμὸς αὐτοῦ ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα, when it is taken as
letter for number without using 666, but instead
making the gematria of ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα, gives the
figure of 2622 and relates only to the word χωριζετω
found in Matthew 19:6. This reference expands on the
idea presented ahead about "dividing what God has
united" mentioned in the verses of Matthew 19:6.
2
 sword and yet lived. And it was allowed
to give breath to the image of the beast,
so that the image of the beast might
even speak and might cause those who
would not worship the image of the
beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both
small and great, both rich and poor,
both free and slave, to be marked on
the right hand or the forehead, so that
no one can buy or sell unless he has the
mark, that is, the name of the beast or
the number of its name.7
This text has a high significance because it
is speaking about a very common form of idolatry
among humans: namely, the worship of an image
or idol: that is, a love for a particular image of
God, instead of God as the Supreme Unity in all
beings. In this case, the rejection of John for
idolatry is obviously linked to the statue of the
dead Jesus Christ on the cross (the material-
historical-body) which early Christians were
already adoring as soon as the cult for the
historical Messiah (the human Jesus) became
popular and widespread in the Mediterranean
world. There always has been, however, an occult
or apocryphal story of the Christ or Messiah, a
mystic science about Man discovering himself.8
The text of the apocalypse says that the
beast performs "signs" (σημεῖα): the exact same
word that John uses in his gospel in reference to
the miracles performed by Jesus Christ.9 This is
another reference to Jesus’ own teachings which
criticize those who need signs or miracles in order
to believe in God. It is a message repeated to the
multitude or mass which is curious about religion
and God from a merely “superstitious” or agnostic
point of view that does not go beyond the
possibility of gaining personal favor through
7
Revelations 13:14-17.
8
This issue of the true identity of Jesus is in
itself is enough to write a whole book. Here we are
suggesting to the reader that Jesus as a Christian
concept cannot be encased in the figure of a historical
individual because the living Jesus which is the Logos or
Word transcends space and time. “Jesus” is something
much greater and universal than a historical individual,
because Paul and in Jewish Kabbalah it is understood
as a power of YHWH. This is the fundamental problem
of the apocalypse of John concerning the question of
false prophecy in chapter 13.
9
See, for example, The Gospel of John 2:11;
2:23; 3:2; 4:48; 6:2; 6:26; 7:31; 9:16; 11:47; 12:37;
20:30.
access to mysterious psychic powers.10 These
“psychic” Christians are saved by their faith in
Jesus Christ, but surely because of a lack of gnosis,
they become fresh prey to the evil spirits
entangling the soul with the love of the temporal
and mortal world. This is clearly not the Christian
Way that reaches the contemplation of treasures
in the Kingdom of Heaven.
John says that an image is made of the
beast which was wounded by the sword and yet
lived. This may be a reference to the false belief
among Christians about the resurrection: namely,
that it is taken as a historical occurrence, of a man
having been made to find Eternal Life in carnal
flesh: as a beast: that is, as a mortal being. It is a
misconception which naturally comes from
externalizing the concept of Christ (and of course
antichrist). The psychological and spiritual
purpose of the
The vulgar reading of Christian mythology
takes scripture literally as if the Gospels were
historical documents. They are not. They are
religious texts which conceal the mystery of
building a relation with the Personality of God as a
disciple with his Master. Christian mythology is
highly symbolic and can only be understood
when the Living Jesus is known as a
manifestation of God within Man. It is only by
the Spirit of God and the Logos itself that Man
knows (and lives) the interpretation of the Gospel
of Christ. This is the message of Iohannine
Christianity, and its revelation.
When the religious aspect is taken from
the Gospel of Christ, there is inevitably a gross
misinterpretation of the Good Message. There is
the idea, for example, of a religion based on a
mortal-historical existence of Jesus Christ when
this is the only the popular and vulgar experience
of Christianity, in every sense, the “petrian”
Christianity.
There is the reality of a misinterpretation
of the Gospel which leads to the idolatry or
worship for the historical figure “Jesus” as God.
Instead of a direct relationship between Man and
God (i.e. the original religion), there is another
thing which is adoration for a historical figure: an
10
This deformity of the original religion is
observable in Mircea Eliade’s work on Shamanism as
well. The deformation of shamanism as an ecstatic
communion with the Supreme God into a form of
sorcery-medicine and witchcraft is quite compliant
with the attitude of expecting earthly “powers” or
“favors” from religion. It is an archaic issue.
3
adoration of the dead Man on the cross. Clearly But there is a Gnostic teaching about the
there is missing the first and most important necessity for fusion between reciprocals in order
commandment which is to love God (the Father) to experience the Unity of God in Christ, and this
with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength; and knowledge is that of the Tree of Life.
second there is the deficiency of not
understanding that scripture is speaking to Man
about himself: his own psyche and spirit in
relation to God.
The author of Revelations warns about
this idolatry for the historical Jesus and notices
that it leads to a form of sin which is symbolized
by the Mark of the Beast on the right hand and
the forehead. This symbolism is quite obvious: it is
a mark which is imposed upon action and
thought under this very limited view of the figure
of Jesus and what “Christ” means in the religion
that goes by that name.
Although the intention of the popular cult
to the historical Christ is good because it comes
from a desire to reverence God through a
historical manifestation, and besides the most
important fact that even this leads to salvation,
the externalization of Christ also implies an
Gothic Painting of Christ Pantokrator from
externalization of the “antichrist”: the archetype
St. Catherine's Monastery, Egypt.
of evil. The consequences of this psychological
effect of projecting the shadow is real, and in fact
Christian mythology clearly exposes this problem
in the passio or suffering itself to which the
illumined one is exposed.
Now, the number of gematria 2368 which
belongs to the man "Jesus Christ" is different than
that of 3168 which belongs to the Lord Jesus
Christ (Κυριος Ιηςους Χριςτος). It is not only a
difference in terminology and number, but a most
significant conceptual difference about Lord Jesus
Christ as the description of the true Messiah: the
eternal "mediator between God and men”.11 This
“living Jesus” knows no historical moment but is
the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the
end: the Logos that transcends all cultural barriers
and historical epochs because it is God
communicating with Man in the form of a Master
and His disciples: Lord Jesus Christ.
A rearrangement of the image showing the
The revelation of the Number of the Beast
symmetrical opposites of the faces of Christ.
does not concern a form of idolatry alone, but
ultimately addresses the question of the duality of
mind by which mankind will perceive and
experience God in a dualistic state of
consciousness. This is the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil.

11
1 Timothy 2:5. καὶ μεσίτης Θεοῦ καὶ
ἀνθρώπων (mediator between God and man), also
with a gematria value of 3168.
4