"Cristian mystics made the pentagram an emblem of Jesus, who divided five loaves to feed five thousand people and who represents the archepytal man ( with five senses and five fingers to each hand.) Its esoteric connection with the crucified man is given further point by the fact that the square on the height of a five pointed star, contained in a pentagon with side measuring one unit, is equal to 2.368 square units. 2368 being the number of Jesus Christ." (The Dimensions of Paradise, John Michell.) 

The number of the Beast.

(The Dimensions of Paradise, John Michell.) "Behind the diverting nonsense is real problem with a serious meaning: the problem of identifying the individual whom St John had in mind when he wrote, "and the number is 666". In solving it one must apply to St John`s text the same cabalistic methods which, according to Irenaeus and other ecclesiastical writers, were practised by the gnostic masters and were therefore known to John himself. We are told to "count the number of the beast." The number 666 dows ot need to be counted or computed, for it is openly given, so evidently there is another number behind it which does need calculating. That number is in the final, key phrase of Revelation 13, "And his number is 666". The values of the word in that phrase are, 31, 70, 430, 1171 and 666. The sum of these numbers, and therefore the value of the whole phrase, is 2368, which is the number of Jesus Christ. The esoteric meaning of the whole verse is therfore:"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding wount the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man: 2368, Jesus Christ." (Note: This is based on the original Greek language.)

It is only at first sight that this interpretation seems schocking and paradoxical. When it is considered in context, as illustrating the gnostics` dispute with the institutionalized Church, its meaning is readily apparent. The main difference between the two sides was over the nature of Christ`s divinity. The gnostics affirmed that the spirit of Christ was divine, but they thought it was absurd to worship the body of Jesus or any material image. They criticized the Church for its emphasis on the historical figure of Jesus, for proclaiming the divinity ofhis human body and for making him, in modern terms, the object of a personality cult. Their own view of the matter was that Christ was a redeeming spirit, a renewed archetype, whose coming recharged the atmosphere and opened a new area of human understanding. The believed in personal communion with that spirit and aspired to mystical union with it, thus coming into conflict with the Church and the monopoly it claimed on religious instruction. Most blasphemous, to the gnostics`way of thinking, was the erection of an idol, the image of the wounded man on the cross, as object of compulsory worship. St John therefore stigmatized that idol as the Beast 666, the number of unbridled soloar power, using the same words to impart to those with understanding the number of its name, 2368."

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