If there really was an historical Christ, Onias III will return, perhaps anytime soon, before it’s too late. When the time is ripe. If the dates of the Age of Aquarius proposed in the notes on the new age Messiah) aren’t too far out, we’re close to the same stage as the appearance of the historical Messiah of the Age of Pisces. Is the stage set ? Is anyone ready yet for something a bit different ?

This time will have to be an advance on the dusty sandals Gospels story. Without all this business of stardom, who’s listening ? We might even find John the Baptist already out in the wilderness of centre stage. Enjoying all the trappings of immortal glory ― and no one’s heard a word.

For the Age of Aquarius, the heavens, the stars, we might expect this superstar to be master of the stars and the astrology of Kabbalah, ‘the Tree of Life, which bears twelve crops of fruit in a year, one in each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.’ (Rev. 22.2. NJB; KJV) We need healing. The Dead Sea scrolls similarly promise this return to Eden and the ripe harvest of the Tree of Life, the spiritual facts of life, the objective knowledge of God, the obviating knowledge of the Devil. (below)

Will the leaves of the Tree heal the Beast himself ? ‘And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded unto death; and his deadly wound was healed : and all the world wondered after the beast.’ (Rev.13. 3 . KJV) This healing of the fatal wound of the Beast is richly reminiscent of the Wounded King who guards the Holy Grail, usually identified with the Fisher King, a Christ figure. The Grail legend is a profound myth on the margins of Christianity in which the Messianic figure has a deadly, debilitating wound which is finally healed. There appears to be a close identity between the Wounded Fisher King and the wounded Beast.

Man and Beast
The Coming Christ takes his place on this page as the Beast 666. ‘There is need for shrewdness here. Anyone clever may interpret the number of the beast ; it is the number of a man, the number 666.’ (Rev. 13. 18 . NJB; KJV)

There are two crucial clues in the Bible to this number. The one couldn’t be closer but has always been ignored. The second lies only a little further afield.

A proper knowledge of the Kabbalah will suggest this is an emphatic, enigmatic repetition of the number of Beauty, the Sun, on the Tree of Life. The number six. (Or is this repetition supposed to be mere 100 –1 coincidence ?) Six is the number of a man. Men are especially ruled by the Sun. The number 9 is the number of the Moon, the Foundation of the Tree. Womankind is especially ruled by the Moon.

The six and the nine : 6 for men, 9 for women. These are the sexes, the sixes. It is an ancient lore, the lore of the Tradition. The Cancer symbol shows the six and the nine in a close embrace. Cancer is the Moon’s sign.

However we interpret this number, if we condemn the Beast, we condemn all men. Beyond this simple difference, the Sun is the heart of goodness for us all. The number of the Sun cannot add up to anything but good according to all the lore of astrology, the Kabbalah and millennia of planetary pantheons, the fabulous galaxy of Sun Gods.

Various interpretations have been proposed, all ignoring this simple syllogism, this simple logic. In any case none of the identities proposed quite fits its own logic, let alone the respect due this sacred text.

It is not ‘shrewd’ to take this text as simple prose when the future is never written in plain prose but always in abstruse runes, inscrutable, as a rule, even to the musings of the magi. For it must ever be so.

We shall find these oracles have deep, hidden meanings : not to reveal the future too soon but to reveal the future is known, is set, is fated ― afterwards, when all becomes clear. This was ever the way of it. Did Isaiah’s foresight save Christ the Cross ? Or Onias a palace coup and assassination ? Is prophecy made to change the future ?

The most popular interpretation of the number puzzle is Nero, a solution still widely quoted in biblical commentaries, even though it requires the return of the dreaded emperor from the dead. Reincarnation. This is Robert Graves more scholarly evaluation of these suggestions :

“‘The earliest solution, that of the 2nd century bishop Irenaeus, is LATEINOS, meaning ‘The Latin One’ and so denoting the race of the Beast; the most widely accepted modern solution ― I forget whose ― is NERON KESAR, namely the Emperor Nero regarded as the Antichrist. Neither solution is quite satisfactory. ‘The Latin One’ is too vague a characterisation of Beast 666, and KAISER, not KESAR, was the ordinary Greek way of writing ‘Caesar.’ “

One might note that Irenaeus, who started us off on the wrong tack, is remembered as a great campaigner against heresy. The good bishop denounced most of the thousand flowers of different Christian inspirations and knowledge, not least the brilliant Gnostics. He was not, apparently, a man of wide knowledge or understanding himself. It is impossible to imagine he had ever immersed himself in the mysteries of the Kabbalah.

One might suspect those who knew the runes wouldn’t rush to publish when the text of Revelation spins this mystery in such a thick veil of confusion.

Good as Gold
The second vital clue confirms the first. The only other reference to this number in the Bible is in a verse immediately after the departure of the fabulous Queen of Sheba :

‘The weight of gold received annually by Solomon amounted to six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold.’ ( Kings I. 10. 14 . NJB)

Sol, (see Note on Helios) is Latin for the Sun and Solomon’s name claims fame as the apotheosis of the Sun King at Beauty, blazoning the biblical Tradition. All kings are, Kabbalistically, representations of the Sun; Solomon just the prime example. The golden throne at the centre. Gold has always been the noble metal of the Sun, the bounty of kings. This number associated with the gold of Solomon proclaims a resonant Kabbalistic symbolism. Resounding Beauty. Telling us this Beast comes with the spirit of the Sun. The spirit of Beauty and goodness. The spirit ‘of a man.’

Biblical numbers are generally symbolic rather than literal, insisting on spiritual wisdom more than historical facts.

This is not the number of the Antichrist which is better found around the spirit of Saturn.  If we look for an antichrist, we might look for a more natural identity, perhaps closer to home : the natural ignorance, prejudice and establishment interests which wilfully or woefully fail to recognise true Beauty. Something like last time, except last time was different.

666 is the number of ultimate good, as it is the number of mankind. Like the enigma of the Beast, mankind will prove ultimately good.

This is a pre-Christian, Essene portrait of our coming Superstar :

‘And his star shall arise in heaven as of a king. Lighting up the light of knowledge as the sun the day, And he shall be magnified in the world. He shall shine forth as the sun on the earth … And the spirit of understanding and sanctification shall rest upon him …. And in his priesthood the Gentiles shall be multiplied in knowledge upon the earth, And enlightened through the grace of the Lord …. And he shall open the gates of paradise, And shall remove the threatening sword against Adam. And he shall give to the saints to eat from the tree of life, And the spirit of holiness shall be on them. And Beliar (Satan) shall be bound by him;’

Testament of Levi, Ch. 18