In celebration of my facebook group hitting 666 members, i’v decided my first blog post to be on the subject on the history and truth behind the infamous digit of 666. So is 666, the “number of the beast” as we all know of today’s modern folklore and pop culture so devilish? The first biblical mention of 666 comes from Revelations 13:18:
“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six Hundred and sixty Six.”
Here you see in this verse, which I may add is ironically numerically placed in the verse 18 since 6×3 is 18, the number of beast is devoted to be a man or men (humanity) which “beast” refered here is meant: a savage, ruthless or wild, and is no way perceived in demonic contex. One possible reason for 666 being the number of the beast, is the Hebrew word AChIHA (“The Beast”—the usual spelling is ChIVA) having the value of 666 when spelled “in full,” i.e. ALP-ChITh-YVD-HH-ALP. Same being with Greek word for “beast”, Therion having the value of 666 also!
Preterist theologians suggest that the verse 13:18 was a code to imply but not directly point towards, the Emperor Nero and his harsh rulership i.e major taxation of many countries. Nero Caesar, when written in Aramaic, can be valued at 666, using the Hebrew numerology of gematria, same as “NRON QSR” (Nero Caesar) in Hebrew which when used as numbers represents: 50 200 6 50 100 60 200, add to the total of=666.
The second time this numerical figure is mentioned in the bible, that refers directly to taxes, is in Exegeis-1 Kings 10:14:
“The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents.”
In this verse shows the taxes king Solomon received annually from different countries. Again we see the only two passages from the bible where 666 or the “Mark of the beast” is mentioned and yet no referral of the devil, the antichrist or demonic reference, and in fact until modern concepts, the number six has always been viewed with a godly assccosiation. To name afew, the sixth day being the completion of creation, excluding the seventh; being god’s rest day, and 6 being the number connected to the perfect human, except 7 being divine beings and 777 specially connected to the Angels.
So where does the occult influence around 666 come from? Although biblically we can say is not it’s origin, but what about before Christianity and recent folklore! Maybe we are too wrapped up focusing on the subject below ground when the answer may well be above our heads,….the Sun?
According to western Occultism, 666 numerically represents the sun and solar influences, most renowned, having Babylonian, Greco-Roman and Jewish origins; is the magic Sqaure of the sun. A sqaure having numerals 1 to 36, divided into six columns each adding to the sum of 111, with the sum of all sex columns (111×6) adding to 666, and had mathamatical significance to the sun. The sqaure first made its appearance on amulets called “Sigilla Solis,” or the sun seal worn by priests to protect them from the gods themselves, two examples of these Amulets can be seen from drawings which the artifacts was once held at the Berlin Museum.
The Amulets shown above, is imprinted on the inside a hexagon the Numeric Square on one side and on the other, figures representing either a pagan sun god or the constellation of Leo which roughly occurs on August 19th. The Square of the sun is mentioned in Agrippa’s, The Three Books of Occult Philosophy-page 340-1:
“The fourth table is of the Sun, and is made of a square of six, and contains thirty six numbers, whereof six in every side, and Di|ameter, produce III. and the sum of all is 666. There are over it divine names with an Intelligency to what is good, and spi|rit to what is evil, and out of it are drawn Characters of the Sun, and of the spirits thereof. This being engraven on a Golden plate with the Sun being fortunate, renders him that wears it to be renowned, amiable, acceptable, potent in all his works, and equals a man to Kings, and Princes, elevating him to high fortunes, inabling to do whatsoever he plea|seth: but with an unfortunate Sun, it makes a tyrant, and a man to be proud, ambitious, unsatisfiable, and to have an ill ending.”
Here the “Intelligency” of the sun is asscciated to a divine being named; Nachiel and the “unfortunate Sun” Agrippa is refering to, is the spirit of the sun; sorath. Sorath has its assiccations with the number 666, not just by the sigil which Agrippa gives example of, but also its corresponding Hebrew letters to the Hebrew numerals which comprise 666 (read as 6-6-6). The figure in which Agrippa titles; “of the spirit of the sun”, is in connection with the sqaure of the sun, where the figure mirrors the horizonal line having digits 6, 16 & 26 and emphasizing numbers containing 666, as shown in the diagram below.
So there we have it! The possible origins of number 666 in early modern Occultism, where has the connections with the satan and the Antichrist come from?
A rock band called; Aphrodite’s child was the first to release an album termed: 666 (The Apocalypse of John 13/18) in 1972, which ostensibly an adaptation of biblical passages from The Book of Revelations. The major influances on todays pop culture and fear of the number 666 was from David Seltzer film; The Omen, which the character Damien Thorn is a born a antichrist child with a birth mark resembling 666 and was relieased on 06/06/1976, and the same with the remake in 06/06/2006. Since then other horror films have played on 666 notion in connection with satan and the antichrist in reacting to peoples fear, which in fact Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (the fear of the number 666) has been the recent definition for this. Other than today’s conspiracists, Anton laVey, the founder of the church of Satan and the Author on modern satanist theology, incorpates the belief of 666 in conntection with satan.
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