What's your take on Revelation?

Jim Eshelman

"You know if the author had used imagery like gates or something I might have figured they related to the chakras, but scrolls and churches?"

A "church" is literally a "gathering place for the Lord" (kurion) - not a bad reference to a sacred energy center. (In fact, "sacred energy center" isn't a bad name for what some people call churches!) - And it isn't the scroll, it's the seals on the scroll.

The 7 churches are not of Asia but of Assiah - they are first accessed through their manifestation in the field of the senses. And the seals are on a parchment, i.e., a skin, and open up its back. (Rev. 5:1: "And I saw... a scroll written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals." The chakras are within and on the backside.)

Edward Mason

93,

With more enthusiasm than understanding, some years ago I tried to follow through on JAE's idea on my blog skepticaltheurgist.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/7/28/1084515.html.

I don't wholly stand by this writing four years later, but some of it might be thought-provoking, if only in the sense of providing something with which to disagree. If you type "John" in the Search bar, the posts come up.

I ended up abandoning the analysis, feeling I lacked the insight to pull it all together, but I did go through several chapters.

93 93/93,

EM

the atlas itch

The recurring symbolism of seven in Revelations > the symbolism of seven in Babalon > Gurdjieff's seven levels of man > the seven ages of man > the seven planets > the seven chakras = mankind raised to full stature

PatchworkSerpent

I have always taken Revelation and the 'Second Coming' to be an imperfect premonition of the arrival of the New Æon. Similarly, this can correspond to the Hebraic notion of Olam Haba and the coming of the Messiah = Christ = Horus. That these visions would be at least partially flawed is expected, as one Æon cannot hope to fully comprehend the next. But the ideas of the 'the Beast whose number is 666', 'the Whore of Babylon' and of the world's consumption by fire all seem to point to the coming of the Child in 1904; and especially the third chapter of Liber Legis.

@Jim Eshelman said

"I don't know that the vision anticipated Aeonic changes. Rather, it talked about things that we only started to understand in a different way thousands of years later."

Jim - I will read Revelation completely following your interpretation, but if you consider the words of St. John to be indicative of a spiritual system present in his time rather than in one to come (as you seem to be), how do you interpret the Beast 666 and the Whore of Babylon? As the same archetypes that he invokes even in that antiquity, or something else?

modernPrimitive

@PatchworkSerpen said

"Jim - I will read Revelation completely following your interpretation, but if you consider the words of St. John to be indicative of a spiritual system present in his time rather than in one to come (as you seem to be), how do you interpret the Beast 666 and the Whore of Babylon? As the same archetypes that he invokes even in that antiquity, or something else?"

I did a little research last night after Jim inspired me. (thanks Jim) and found the following supposedly based on Greek gematria:

" 999 - Epistemon, intuitively wise, the initiated, integrated Higher Self
888 - Iesous (Jesus), the Higher Mind/Ethical Triad, the upper three sephiroth in the realm of the Soul; symbolized by beast #1 the Lamb; and
777 - Stauros the cross of matter on which Divinity is crucified, symbolized by the cross on the Tree connecting the ego and Soul, whose center is Tipareth.
666 - He Phren, the lower mind, the upper two sephiroth in the Lower Triad, realm of the ego; symbolized by beast #2 called 'the Beast';
555 - Epithumia, the desire nature, Yesod, the lowest sephira in the ego realm, symbolized by beast #3 the Red Dragon;
444 - Speirema, the serpent coil or kundalini force which powers the journey up the Tree.
333 - Akrasia, the body, Malkuth, the lowest sephira on the Tree, symbolized by beast #4, the False Prophet."

So accordingly 666 is the "he Phren" or "lower mind". Personally this makes quite a lot of sense assuming that it's accurate in terms of ancient Greek Gematria. Does it apply to Crowley....well I'm not sure. Perhaps from the point of view that the lower mind applies to a man, and in one sense Crowley was a "man" but then there's the whole Solar association with 666 as well whereas they assocaite Tipheret with 777 (perhaps they're counting Daat and in Crowleys system he's not?). So either there's an "mystery" in all of it or it's just two different systems of Gematria - one applicable then and one applicable now, one counting Daat and the other one not? I'm also not too clued up on the source's accuracy in terms of Greek Gematria and whether it's accurate historically. 666 does seem to be "lower and negative" in Revelation than being associated as the Logos...it's rather something that must be overcome. Did they even have a Tree in those days?

Source:
www.halexandria.org/dward907.htm

EDIT:
I tried to make "He Phren" add up to 666 using Isopsephy but am not getting the results, so I'm not sure how the author of the above link deduces this. It may be again a "modern interpretation" based on Kaballah that had a different form in those times. And then, just to throw a little spanner in the works:

"The early Church father Irenaeus knew several occurrences of the 616-variant but regarded them as a scribal error and affirmed that the number 666 stood "in all the most approved and ancient copies" and is attested by "those men who saw John face to face".[14]
Red arrow points to χιϛʹ (616) in P115 deciphered in May 2005.

In May 2005, it was reported that scholars at Oxford University using advanced imaging techniques[15] had been able to read previously illegible portions of the earliest known record of the Book of Revelation(a 1,700 year old papyrus), from the Oxyrhynchus site, Papyrus 115 or P115, dating one century after Irenaeus. The fragment gives the Number of the Beast as 616 (chi, iota, stigma), rather than the majority text 666 (chi, xi, stigma).[1] The other early witness Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C) has it written in full: hexakosiai deka hex (lit. six hundred sixteen).[16]

Significantly, P115 aligns with Codex Alexandrinus (A) and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C) which are generally regarded as providing the best testimony to Revelation. Thus, P115 has superior testimony to that of P47 which aligns with Codex Sinaiticus and together form the second-best witness to the Book of Revelation. This has led some scholars to conclude that 616 is the original number of the beast.[17][18]

Dr. Paul Lewes in his book, A Key to Christian Origins (1932) wrote:

"The figure 616 is given in one of the two best manuscripts, C (Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, Paris), by the Latin version of Tyconius (DCXVI, ed. Souter in the Journal of Theology, SE, April 1913), and by an ancient Armenian version (ed. Conybaere, 1907). Irenaeus knew about it [the 616 reading], but did not adopt it (Haer. v.30,3), Jerome adopted it (De Monogramm., ed. Dom G Morin in the Rev. Benedictine, 1903). It is probably original. The number 666 has been substituted for 616 either by analogy with 888, the [Greek] number of Jesus (Deissmann), or because it is a triangular number, the sum of the first 36 numbers (1+2+3+4+5+6...+36 = 666)".[19]

Professor David C. Parker, Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism and Paleography at the University of Birmingham, thinks that 616, although less memorable than 666, is the original.[20] Dr. Ellen Aitken said: “Scholars have argued for a long time over this, and it now seems that 616 was the original number of the beast. It's probably about 100 years before any other version."[21]"

From wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Bea

Anonymous

"...as one Æon cannot hope to fully comprehend the next."

Nor the previous, in my opinion.

__THE_HERMIT__

@Frater_AVV said

"
"...as one Æon cannot hope to fully comprehend the next."

Nor the previous, in my opinion."

Very True. I agree. Most times the Æon cannot even fully comprehend itself let alone another.

Jim Eshelman

@modernPrimitive said

"I did a little research last night after Jim inspired me. (thanks Jim) and found the following supposedly based on Greek gematria:

" 999 - Epistemon, intuitively wise, the initiated, integrated Higher Self
888 - Iesous (Jesus), the Higher Mind/Ethical Triad, the upper three sephiroth in the realm of the Soul; symbolized by beast #1 the Lamb; and
777 - Stauros the cross of matter on which Divinity is crucified, symbolized by the cross on the Tree connecting the ego and Soul, whose center is Tipareth.
666 - He Phren, the lower mind, the upper two sephiroth in the Lower Triad, realm of the ego; symbolized by beast #2 called 'the Beast';
555 - Epithumia, the desire nature, Yesod, the lowest sephira in the ego realm, symbolized by beast #3 the Red Dragon;
444 - Speirema, the serpent coil or kundalini force which powers the journey up the Tree.
333 - Akrasia, the body, Malkuth, the lowest sephira on the Tree, symbolized by beast #4, the False Prophet."

So accordingly 666 is the "he Phren" or "lower mind". Personally this makes quite a lot of sense assuming that it's accurate in terms of ancient Greek Gematria. Does it apply to Crowley....well I'm not sure. Perhaps from the point of view that the lower mind applies to a man, and in one sense Crowley was a "man" but then there's the whole Solar association with 666 as well whereas they assocaite Tipheret with 777 (perhaps they're counting Daat and in Crowleys system he's not?). So either there's an "mystery" in all of it or it's just two different systems of Gematria - one applicable then and one applicable now, one counting Daat and the other one not? I'm also not too clued up on the source's accuracy in terms of Greek Gematria and whether it's accurate historically. 666 does seem to be "lower and negative" in Revelation than being associated as the Logos...it's rather something that must be overcome. Did they even have a Tree in those days?"

Yes, that's one of the singularly important contributions Pyrse made to the study. It's stunning. - Probably it's most significant implication, though, is that this work was constructed (or experienced - it probably really was a vision) within the context of a mystical training based on a formalized Greek model.

"I tried to make "He Phren" add up to 666 using Isopsephy but am not getting the results, so I'm not sure how the author of the above link deduces this. It may be again a "modern interpretation" based on Kaballah that had a different form in those times. "

Greek has its own gematria system, on which all of these are based. The letters Heh Phi Rho Heh Nu have the values 8 + 500 + 100 + 8 + 50 = 666.

BTW, the 616 matter is a well known and exceedingly minor scribal error - a typo! - that I think deserves no attention at all.

For the most part, the analysis of Revelations can be based on the standard translations. There are some places, though, that you miss key points unless you read the Greek original. That's what slowed me (and temporarily shelved the project a few years ago): I'm not entirely retranslating the Greek original, but I'm attentively reading the Greek all the way through and assessing where it's worth noting something. And, while I can move through ancient Greek passably well with references at hand, it's not the same for me as reading English - not something to do to kill time on the bus, let's say (since I'd have a couple of books splayed out and a stack of papers I'm hand annotating) - so it got limited to when I can set aside large blocks of time and spread a lot of stuff out. Anyway, a few small changes sometimes make a huge difference, and you reminded me of the most popular of these:

Rev. 13:18:
ODE H SOPhIA ESTIN. O EChON NOYN PsEPhISATATO TON 'ARIThMON TOY ThHRIOY. 'ARIThMOS GAR 'ANThROPOY 'ESTI. ChAI O 'ARIThMOS 666.
Hode he sophia estin. Ho echon noun psephisato ton arithmon tou theriou. Arithmos gar anthropou esti. Chai ho arithmos 666.
Usually translated (KJV): "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 threescore and six."

The Greek word therion means some variety of beast. The solution to this 666 puzzle is the phrase to mega therion, "the great beast." What is the great beast? The answer is stated outright. To understand it, though, you have to know that Greek (like many other languages) doesn't have an indefinite article. That is, "cat" and "a cat" are written exactly the same. (You add a or an in translation when it is contextually convenient.) Also (as in Latin and some other languages, but not so reliably in English), there are different words for a male human (vir, "man" = human adult male) and the human species (homo, "man" = "the human race").

The phrase usually translated "it is the number of a man" has a gratuitous article in translation; and it has been misunderstood, due to translation, that anthropos means "the human species," not "a human adult male.") The phrase therefore should be translated: "It is the number of MAN." That is: "It is the number of HUMANITY."

And this resolves the other mystery. Whereas therion means any beast - essentially any member of the animal kingdom except the human - the Great Beast is anthropos, humanity itselfl

Here is wisdom! Read Revelations with this solution in mind, and pretty much everything superficially stated about that particular beast becomes transparent.

There is more, though. As your outline above shows, out of the whole stream of multiple beasts in Revelations, this particular one is that where marking the full awakening of the heart chakra. In developmental context, it is the prophesy of humanity's collective awakening into a highly evolved Ruach (which was still rather juvenile to adolescent in the 1st Century), and the evolutionary impact of that on the world. It is humanity as the emerging Sun, differentiating itself to the point of isolation from the Nephesh layer marked the "un-great" beasts normally meant by therion.

Read; and let them that have eyes, see.

the atlas itch

"That these visions would be at least partially flawed is expected, as one Æon cannot hope to fully comprehend the next."

It takes an aeon for each principle (Isis, Osiris, Horus) to birth, develop and come into being. If so, it is only when an aeon *is finished *and a new one arises that the former aeon is completed and finally makes sense. Horus will take an aeon to develop before we understand its full implications but, if so, that means Osiris should make more sense than ever now. That would mean prior to 1904, the meaning of Osiris was still a mystery and an apparent absurdity.

@Jim Eshelman said

"And this resolves the other mystery. Whereas therion means any beast - essentially any member of the animal kingdom except the human - the Great Beast is anthropos, humanity itselfl

Here is wisdom! Read Revelations with this solution in mind, and pretty much everything superficially stated about that particular beast becomes transparent.

There is more, though. As your outline above shows, out of the whole stream of multiple beasts in Revelations, this particular one is that where marking the full awakening of the heart chakra. In developmental context, it is the prophesy of humanity's collective awakening into a highly evolved Ruach (which was still rather juvenile to adolescent in the 1st Century), and the evolutionary impact of that on the world. It is humanity as the emerging Sun, differentiating itself to the point of isolation from the Nephesh layer marked the "un-great" beasts normally meant by therion.

Read; and let them that have eyes, see."

Thanks Jim for that great explanation. One of the aspects of this awakening via opening of the chakras will be individual consciousness plugged into planetary consciousness.

__THE_HERMIT__

@he atlas itch said

"
"That these visions would be at least partially flawed is expected, as one Æon cannot hope to fully comprehend the next."

It takes an aeon for each principle (Isis, Osiris, Horus) to birth, develop and come into being. If so, it is only when an aeon *is finished *and a new one arises that the former aeon is completed and finally makes sense. Horus will take an aeon to develop before we understand its full implications but, if so, that means Osiris should make more sense than ever now. That would mean prior to 1904, the meaning of Osiris was still a mystery and an apparent absurdity.
"

I accept this perspective also, but what you have is actually hindsight, or a general overview, not real empathy. The old Aeon is simply a concept which pertains to our present state of mind, The Linear Past is not "Real" in an independent objective sense, and hence cannot be experienced{ since at whatever point it is experienced, it then becomes present tense} There is only "Now" from a classical perspective, whereby the present may be understood as the cumulative effects of the past, hence the more remote, the less felt(impact) as a real experience. On another note, everyone but those in the most extreme denial could deny that this present age is being defined by the new level of processing power and realities afforded by computers, case in point...This Forum.

modernPrimitive

Thanks Jim.

Some brilliant insights there. It's strange because I was "intuiting" a similar idea, that being that 666 is the number of a man (any man) as opposed to say an angel or a god. The original Greek solves it completely. What I don't understand are the other Kabalistic associations such as 888 for Christ etc as I would put Christ at Tipheret as well. Anyway, that's for future study....I guess I should be focusing on other studies with more fervour! I suppose I am squeezing the remnants of a Christian upbringing out of my system!

93 93/93

JNV33

@modernPrimitive said

"Thanks Jim.

Some brilliant insights there. It's strange because I was "intuiting" a similar idea, that being that 666 is the number of a man (any man) as opposed to say an angel or a god. The original Greek solves it completely. What I don't understand are the other Kabalistic associations such as 888 for Christ etc as I would put Christ at Tipheret as well. Anyway, that's for future study....I guess I should be focusing on other studies with more fervour! I suppose I am squeezing the remnants of a Christian upbringing out of my system!

93 93/93"

6x3=18=9
8x3=24=6

Jim Eshelman

@modernPrimitive said

"What I don't understand are the other Kabalistic associations such as 888 for Christ etc as I would put Christ at Tipheret as well.quote]
The Greek name "Jesus" - IHSOYS, Iesous - enumerates to 888. It's straight gematria like the rest of the list: 10 + 8 + 200 + 70 + 400 + 200.

For a couple of thousand years, 8 has been called "the Dominical Number," i.e., "the Number of the Lord," probably in relation to that. There remain places where this characterization is enormously important, e.g., 8 = Cheth, which spelled in full is 418 etc.

But this addresses your point more directly: For at least a thousand years, Tiphereth itself - or, at least, all of the ideas we associate with Tiphereth - has been attributed to 8 in esoteric circles. The best place to study this in depth is in the system of Aurum Solis, where the Ogdoad, or Mystic 8, is the foundation of their system and literally refers to Tiphereth.

One Tree of Life cue: Tiphereth has 8 paths connected to it (8 Sephiroth connected to it): Every one of them except Malkuth.

Don't forget that Christ is foremost the LOGOS, the Word - an expression of 8 as we normally understand it.

In the context of Revelations, this 888 corresponds to Ajna and is the last step before the Crown.

__THE_HERMIT__

@Jim Eshelman said

"
Greek has its own gematria system, on which all of these are based. The letters Heh Phi Rho Heh Nu have the values 8 + 500 + 100 + 8 + 50 = 666.......
Rev. 13:18:
ODE H SOPhIA ESTIN. O EChON NOYN PsEPhISATATO TON 'ARIThMON TOY ThHRIOY. 'ARIThMOS GAR 'ANThROPOY 'ESTI. ChAI O 'ARIThMOS 666.
Hode he sophia estin. Ho echon noun psephisato ton arithmon tou theriou. Arithmos gar anthropou esti. Chai ho arithmos 666.
Usually translated (KJV): "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 threescore and six."

The Greek word therion means some variety of beast. The solution to this 666 puzzle is the phrase to mega therion, "the great beast." What is the great beast? The answer is stated outright. To understand it, though, you have to know that Greek (like many other languages) doesn't have an indefinite article. That is, "cat" and "a cat" are written exactly the same. (You add a or an in translation when it is contextually convenient.) Also (as in Latin and some other languages, but not so reliably in English), there are different words for a male human (vir, "man" = human adult male) and the human species (homo, "man" = "the human race").

The phrase usually translated "it is the number of a man" has a gratuitous article in translation; and it has been misunderstood, due to translation, that anthropos means "the human species," not "a human adult male.") The phrase therefore should be translated: "It is the number of MAN." That is: "It is the number of HUMANITY."

"

That seems to make sense within context I suppose; However i cannot get my mind around the association of 666, and the vulgar fraction 2/3 expressed as a recurring decimal at 0.666666666666666' approximated at 0.67, also X^6 is one end of the loop of an infinitely repetitive cycle, in single digit terms. Once I can figure out how to relate this to Gematria, I would really be on to something!

Uni_Verse

[quote="scapegoat"
That seems to make sense within context I suppose; However i cannot get my mind around the association of 666, and the vulgar fraction 2/3 expressed as a recurring decimal at 0.666666666666666' approximated at 0.67
"

I usually estimate 2/3 as .666

Interestingly enough, the fraction 2/3 was held in high regard by the Egyptians. It had its own symbol, and most often they attempted to express other fractions as derivatives of 2/3 (do not ask me about that last part, not entirely sure how that works).

the atlas itch

@Scapegoa said

"I accept this perspective also, but what you have is actually hindsight, or a general overview, not real empathy. The old Aeon is simply a concept which pertains to our present state of mind, The Linear Past is not "Real" in an independent objective sense, and hence cannot be experienced{ since at whatever point it is experienced, it then becomes present tense} There is only "Now" from a classical perspective, whereby the present may be understood as the cumulative effects of the past, hence the more remote, the less felt(impact) as a real experience."

Its a little more than that. The aeon orients our sense of reality. The belief that birth lies in the past and death awaits in the future is part and parcel of the Osirian context. The Aeon of Osiris was characterized by the belief in the Dying God/Saviour/Green Fool archetype who dies on behalf of humanity, descends into the Netherworld/Night, becomes vindicated and resurrects again, thus opening the way for others to follow in his steps and become vindicated and resurrected.

The Old Aeon is based on sacrificial logic. After Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge, their eyes were opened, they became self-conscious and clothed their nakedness in fig leaves. Curiously *the Elohim *then sacrifice an animal and clothe the couple in the skin of the dead animal (Genesis 3:21). The animal was killed as a substitute for their disobedience (probably the first recorded death in the Garden of Eden, symbolically linking Adam and Eve to its fate and foreshadowing the Elohim's promise that if they ate of the Tree of Knowledge they would surely die). From an anthropological perspective it would be interesting to know the name of this first animal sacrificed in the Garden, on whom the Dying God/Saviour/Green Fool archetype was based. Adam and Eve's sense of shame is signified by the fact they "clothe/veil/hide" themselves in the skin of an animal who was sacrificed on their behalf. It is important to note that sacrifice was never an end in itself but a means for deferring divine retribution into the future via a temporary substitute and thus a symbolic means of survival. The absurdity of sacrificial/Osirian logic is most clearly evidenced by human history itself or when analyzing the seemingly contradictory concepts of Time and Being. The Aeon of Osiris does not make sense unless it is placed in the context of humanity's primordial Fall into matter (Isis = the prelapsarian period) and future resurrection and dominion over the material plane (Horus).

As such sacrifice may be the primal founding and signifying act out of which the concept of law (right and wrong; appeasement of the gods etc) and time (history as a series of sacrificial acts) emerged. The concept of Judgement Day awaiting at the end of time implies a future where sacrificial logic no longer functions and divine judgement no longer deferred, all is unveiled (cf. the Apocalypse; Christ's harrowing of Hades, the Anastasis etc) and everyone is judged as they "are". In Revelations it is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the world (Rev 5:6), that is deemed worthy to unseal the seven seals on the book.

The above schema suggests Thelemic aeons need to be conceptualized in far broader periods than 2000 - 3000 year cycles. Based on the above I would say, for example, that humanity as we know it = the Aeon of Osiris. What is certain is that Crowley's religious upbringing and his background in the Golden Dawn (specifically the Neophyte Ritual) came into play during the Cairo Working and his formulation of aeonic succession. The evidence lies in the Stele of Revealing.

We know what attracted Crowley's attention to the Stele was the number 666 since he had identified with the Great Beast of Revelations from childhood ever since his mother called him a "Beast". But he never explicitly states what he "saw" in the Stele - a curious fact to note. The paraphrased reverse lines of the Stele read:

*Saith of Mentu the truth-telling brother
Who was master of Thebes from his birth
O heart of me, heart of my mother!
O heart which I had upon earth!
Stand not thou up against me in witness!
Oppose me, not, judge, in my quest!
Accuse me not now of unfitness
Before the Great God, the dread Lord of the West!
For I have fastened the one to the other
With a spell for their mystical girth *

Crowley's identification with Ankh-n-f-Khonsu comes from *the mother *but his revelation requires closer examination. Note the Lord of the West is Osiris. The sun rises in the East (birth) and sets in the West (death). For Osiris to sit on the throne in the West implies being ruled by knowledge of future death. The Equinox of the Gods and aeonic shift occurred when orientation changed from Osiris in the West (sunset) to Horus in the East (dawn). Sunset and dawn *look identical *but a reorientation of 180 degrees is required to understand the New Aeon. As such the glittering light of the Unique One (the moon/Iah/Khonsu) is either lunacy or sanity of a higher order:

Boulaq:
*I gather together / (those who are) among / the brightness *
Gardiner-Gunn:
*He that gathereth together those that are in the Light *

Recall that Osiris is the Dying God/Saviour/Green Fool archetype who paves the way for the rest of humanity to follow. The aeonic shift implies this is no longer the future but the reality of the present, that we have entered Night (as evidenced by the significance of the moon in the Stele), are undergoing vindication to await future dawn/resurrection.

JNV33

@Jim Eshelman said

"For at least a thousand years, Tiphereth itself - or, at least, all of the ideas we associate with Tiphereth - has been attributed to 8 in esoteric circles. The best place to study this in depth is in the system of Aurum Solis, where the Ogdoad, or Mystic 8, is the foundation of their system and literally refers to Tiphereth."

Case talks about how the Sun and Mercury can be interchangable in a sense; does that relate to the above? I believe I read something similar in an Alice Bailey book.

modernPrimitive

Excerpt from another analysis I found interesting:

"A form of this hypothesis, though unpublished and considerably less developed, was expressed in 1798 by William Blake, writing in the margins of his copy of R. Watson, Bishop of Landoff's An Apology for the Bible,

The Beast & the Whore rule without control. . . A defence of the Wickedness of the Israelites in murdering so many thousands under pretence of a command from God is altogether Abominable & Blasphemous. . . the Jewish Scriptures which are only an Example of the wickedness & deceit of the Jews & were written as an Example of the possibility of Human Beastliness in all its branches.13
Blake is not writing this in an attempt to express his own anti-Semitism. Rather, Blake interpreted scriptural figures such as the "Beast" and the "Whore" of Revelation, as "aggregates" or groups of man (clumps or agglutinations of many men) seen from a distance ("from afar"). In this Allegorical perception, really a direct transference of objective vision into subjective imagination, men grouped as such, assumed what Blake calls a "dragon form." A mass of marching men in a column, for example, seen from a great distance advancing down any typically winding road, would appear from that distance to be a huge, metallically gleaming snake coiling slowly over the land. The Greek word dragon ( drakwn ) itself derives from derkomai ( derkomai ), which means to see or took at, or to "behold."
Blake, going against the tide of all other pietistic Biblical analysis up to and including his own time, asserts,

The destruction of the Canaanites by Joshua was the Unnatural design of Wicked men [.] To Extirpate a nation by means of another nation is as wicked as to destroy an individual by means of another individual which God considers (in the Bible) as Murder & and Commands that it shall not be done. ... The laws of the Jews (both ceremonial & real) the basest & most oppressive of human codes. & being like all other codes given under pretence of divine command were what Christ pronounced them The Abomination that maketh desolate. i.e. State Religion which is the Source of all Cruelty.14
William Blake saw, I believe, that the "Beast" would arise of itself from the natural inclination of humanity (or "human nature") toward cruelty and evil. Man's predisposition to commit acts of atrocity or violence always finds some "rational" or "rationalized" cause or precedent, whether it be Simeon and Levi taking vengeance on Shechem, or Joshua mobilizing against the Canaanites, or Dan slaughtering innocents at the village of Laish. This evil animus John of Patmos, in Revelation, named "the Beast," and he brought together the numbers 600 and 66 to show the union of military power — the phalanx — and "State Religion" — the Amphictyony of the Twelve Tribes — as represented in the number of men in the twelve tribes of the Israelite court, its "royal family." These focused forces, brought together by the union of the military with State Religion, are the true servants of Satan and the anarchic, dark impulses that perpetuate evil in the world. When W. B. Yeats wrote in his famous line, "And what rough Beast slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"15, he may well have more appropriately used the verb, "marches.""

source: home1.gte.net/zzyzlane/write/essay/rev.html#m5

nightwatchman

@Jim Eshelman said

"Any political implications, or worldly-event circumstances, are the consequence of deep, unexpressed individual and mass-mind psychological factors working themselves out as projections.

Fundamentally, the book is a technical manual on yoga. It is a fairly rigorous curriculum of the chakras (four or five individual passes, going from memory) and the consequences of applying yogic methods to their systematic purification and awakening. All of the major content of besides the multiple seven-fold passes pretty much falls into the category of phenomena or consequences of that work.

I've had a book about one third written on paper, and almost finished in my head, for a dozen years. Several years ago, I gave a preliminary start-to-finish tour of it to our members at one of our annual all-Order seminars. There are a few technical rough spots but, for the most part, it's pretty straight forward.

Example: The seven letters to the Churches of Assiah are the purification pass of the chakras. Each is addressed in turn, something is said basic to establish its nature and characteristics, usually some praise of its virtue is mentioned, and then there is a symbolic statement of an existing error or something that needs to be done to bring it into preliminary purification. As a consequence of this, Ch. 4 then opens with a vision that is representative of typical consequences of that work.

I don't know that the vision anticipated Aeonic changes. Rather, it talked about things that we only started to understand in a different way thousands of years later.

No, I don't think it shows a reversion to Christianity etc. "Christ will return" is simply a measure of the fruit of the work. In this sense, "Christ" is the same as "Horus." This Greek work is careful to use the full "Jesus Christ" which, in the Greek original, has numerical ratios identical with those of the lines and line-parts that compose the pentagram (basic Golden Mean stuff) - this is "the Anointed One" in the broadest sense, the Holy Guardian Angel."

Jim, you're understanding of the book of Revelations is spot on.

I have completely translated the entire book, it has taken me several years. I give the meaning of every word and symbol line by line.

If anyone would like a free copy of my word file, just pm me or email me at <a href="mailto:zzzgoat@yahoo.com">zzzgoat@yahoo.com</a>

Danny

the atlas itch

Is it correct to equate the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse with Abramelin's Four Crown Princes of Hell?

Lucifer - white horse
Satan - red horse
Belial - black horse
Leviathan - pale horse