When judeo-christianity became the supreme power in Europe, the old gods were degraded as being demons and devils. Worshippers of the old gods were considered as being devil worshippers; on this ground thousands of men and women were persecuted, tortured and killed.

We, modern heathens, are sensible enough to see through the propagandistic lies of the Church, to go back to the authentic and the original. Unfortunately not everyone is as critical. We can name the so-called Wicca, wherein certain Germanic elements such as the cult of the earth goddess are being used, but wherein many judeo-christian propaganda elements left their marks.

The so-called Satanists take it a step further. They choose to reason in the terms of the Church. One can be for or against the law of God,
Satanists choose to be against it in all aspects. They are not free in their reasoning, when judeo-christianity makes a decree they are bound to be radically opposed. The bible forbids bestiality, well now, to the beasts they shall turn.

One of the symbols the Satanists use so proudly and extensively is the so-called "Number of the Beast", "666". This number would represent evil itself, the ultimate imperfection, three times the nearly holy number 7. The drug addict "occultist" Aleister Crowley, from the beginning of the 20th century, called himself the "Beast 666" for example. All of this is based on the biblical Apocalypse writings, where "the Beast" is called 666.

Satanists might think their own interpretation of the 666-issue is true, the truth lies elsewhere. The key to this riddle lies in the bible itself:

"Now it all boils down to acuteness. One who possesses over insight, can calculate the number of the beast. It appoints a man, and the number of that man is 666." (Apoc. 13,18).

666 is, if we interpret the Apocalypse scriptures correctly, not a
symbolical name, but a code that reveals the true name of the enemy of judeo-christianity. As with all ancient texts, text-and interpretation criticism can help us. First it is important to date the text. The text was published in 46-47, this is during the government of Emperor Claudius. Throughout the text we find hostile references to the Roman occupier who raised high taxes and imposed an emperor-cult; the document is clearly written by a Jewish author.  When we want to interpret the text, it is important to understand the style of writing. The Apocalypse is written in esoteric symbolic language; a literal interpretation is altogether wrong en immediately rejects the interpretations of too obliging Satanists. When we study an ancient text we must look for the meaning of the author but we
must also be able to understand  the conventions of that time. These
conventions are bound to time and culture; not being acquainted with these conventions may lead to aberrant decoding, misinterpreting the text.

It is a universal code to represent the enemy as a monster; this is no different in the Apocalypse:

"I saw a beast emerge from the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, and on its horns it had ten diadems, and on his head blasphemous names were written. And the beast that I saw, looked like a leopard, and his paws were like those of a bear and his jaws were like the jaws of a lion". (Apoc. 13,1-2)

Satanists may conclude that their god has ten horns and seven heads, heads that might represent Belial, Leviathan, Baphometh, Lucifer, Baal, Asmodeus or Samael. But when we bear the already mentioned conventions in mind, we will come to a whole other conclusion. The seven heads are nothing else then the seven caesars of Rome, the ten horns supposedly refer to the ten proconsuls or propraetors who had each one of the ten provinces op the empire under their custody. The reference to the beast emerging from the sea is not something the author made up, it is a memory of the victory of emperor August Atonius at the sea battle of Atticum. The composition of a leopard, bear and lion are symbols of the imperial power of Rome.

The Apocalyps continues: "And a mouth full of boasting and blasphemy was given to him, and he was granted the power for 42 months on end." (Apoc.  13,5)

These 42 months correspond exactly to the length of the government of
emperor Gaius, who oppressed the jews.

All we need to do now is to understand the number 666. Some interpret the number 666 as the numeral value of the Hebrew QSAR NRWN (Kaiser Neron). This does, however, not correspond with the way the jews form a number; 666 would be spelled as TRSW. Should the beast 666 be Nero, then we have a post factum prophety that refers to the fire of Rome.  Nero would then be the beast that devoured so many christians - unfortunately we are dealing with a text specifically from the jewish tradition and not from the christian one. Further on the interpretation causes more problems, such as the reference to the seven caesars, which doesn't make any sense.

To solve this we must seek our refuge to the philology. 666 is written as chi ksi digamma in Greek. Chi is 600, ksi is 60 and digamma is 6. Digamma probably refers to the sixth caesar, while ksi refers to caesar or Kaisar in Greek.

Thus 66 is the sixth caesar, but then what is 600? 600 must also be an abbreviation. In Latin script 600 is equal to DC. D refers to Divus what became nearly synonymous for caesar. In 42 before our time of reckoning, this title was already granted to Julius Caesar. This honorary title was granted by the senate as the result of the admiration of the people for the emperor. This was no longer the case with Gaius, he claimed this title as a right. When his follower Claudius did this as well, it became a very humorous thing for the Romans. Claudius happened to be very ugly and looked nothing like a Roman god. While the Romans might have enjoyed the humorous irony of this, the Jews who were subjected to the imperial cult certainly did not.

The missing C of DC can only refer to Gaius or Claudius. The enumeration of the emperors tends to be a bit problematic when interpreting the Apocalypse. One would start counting with August, followed by Tiberius and then skipped less important emperors to end with Domitianus. In the Apocalyps scriptures we also find a reference to "an eighth" who was one of the seven. This ""eighth" is, of course, Octavianus who is also known as August. Also in the book of Ezra he is mentioned as the second emperor. The first one is Julius Caesar. When we check the list of six caesars in this way, we end with the name of Claudius.

One can wonder why the reference to emperor Claudius is such a complicated one. The Jews, both christian and orthodox ones, believed in the return of the Son of Man during the rule of Nero, the seventh emperor. In the Apocalypse scriptures they are spurred on to take revenge upon Rome:

"Repay her with equal coin. Rejoice her double what she has done wrong, pour her a double measure in the cup that she has mixed for others. Give her so much pain and grief as she granted herself splendour and luxury. […] Therefore on one day plagues will come to her, plague and grief and famine and she will be consumed by fire.  Because God, the Lord, who has condemned her is strong." (Apoc. 18, 6-8)

"She", Rome, was indeed consumed by fire. During the rule of the seventh, Nero, Rome went up in flames. Nero probably wasn't too sad about it, because he wanted to rebuild Rome anyway - it's not improbable that he did his share of the work and set a part of Rome on fire. The decadent and hypocrite Roman he was, he blamed it all on the Jews of the christian persuasion.

This is the true essence of the Apocalypse scriptures, it is not a
prophecy predicting events Satanists can rejoice upon, it is merely a
scripture of Jewish resistance fighters meant to incite to agitation
against the Roman occupier.

Literature:

Somers (H.H.), Toen God sliep schreef de mens de Bijbel, 1990, Antwerpen
De Bijbel (Willibrordvertaling), 1978, Brugge
Rogiers (Jos), De Bijbel - het boek van de duivel, s.d., Asse
Nietzsche (Friedrich), De antichrist, 1997, Amsterdam