Another biblical “code” in need of decipherment is the Book of Revelation, which has mystified and fascinated people for centuries with its bizarre imagery and purported prophecy. This fascination has led to endless speculation and interpretation of its “prophecy” by biblical literalists, who, being unable to do anything else with it, usually interpret Revelation allegorically. Needless to say, despite centuries of attempts to decode the text and to associate its players with a variety of world leaders, nations and organizations, Revelation remains a mystery, because it is, in fact, not prophecy, and its drama does not take place on Earth.
As to the question of who actually wrote Revelation, the Encyclopedia Biblica says, “The author of Revelation calls himself John the Apostle. As he was not John the Apostle, who died perhaps in Palestine about 66, he was a forger.”dcclxviii We would add that “died perhaps” is also accurate, in that John “lived not at all.” Nor is the book unique, as it is purported to be. As Walker says:
The Bible’s Book of Revelation purports to be a doomsday-vision experienced by St.
John the Divine, but it is in fact a collection of images and phrases from many sources. Literature of this kind was plentiful in the first few centuries A.D. . . dcclxix
In fact, many apocalypses were written prior to and during the Christian era, as the apocalypse was a genre of writing:
The Apocalypse, or Revelation, ascribed to John, seems to have been one of many productions of the kind which appeared early in the second century. It is similar to the Revelation of Cerinthus, and may have emanated from the same source.dcclxx
Even Eusebius calls Revelation “spurious” and further relates the words of Dionysius (c. 200-265), saint and head of the Alexandrian school after Origen:
Some of our predecessors rejected the book and pulled it entirely to pieces, criticizing it chapter by chapter, pronouncing it unintelligible and illogical, and the title false.
They say it is not John’s and is not a revelation at all, since it is heavily veiled by its thick curtain of incomprehensibility: so far from being one of the apostles, the author of the book was not even one of the saints, or a member of the Church, but Cerinthus, the founder of the sect called Cerinthian after him . . . dcclxxi
This devout and orthodox Christian writer Dionysius also admits that the author of the Gospel and Epistles attributed to John was not the same as that of Revelation.
Says he:
To sum it up, anyone who examines their characteristics throughout will inevitably see that Gospel and Epistle have one and the same colour. But there is no resemblance or similarity whatever between them and Revelation; it has no connection, no relationship with them; it has hardly a syllable in common with them.
Nor shall we find any mention or notion of the Revelation in the Epistle (let alone the Gospel), or of the Epistle in the Revelation.dcclxxii
This debate over Revelation is a recurring theme in the early Christian writings, in which a number of fathers and doctors at one point or another express their doubts as to the authenticity of not only Revelation but also virtually every text in the canon. This skepticism is all the more peculiar considering it was claimed that the apostolic lineage was continuous and “unbroken,” and that there were allegedly established churches all along whose authorities surely would have known for a fact whether or not any apostle had written biblical texts. It also reveals the tremendous amount of duplicity engaged in by clergy and biblicists who continue to present to the credulous populace that the books of the Bible were in fact written by those whose names are attached to them, knowing fully well that this assertion is false.
The book of Revelation was rejected by a number of churches, particularly the eastern ones, because they knew it was a spurious manuscript compiled from much older texts. As Pike says, “The Apocalypse or Revelations, by whomever written, belongs to the Orient and to extreme antiquity. It reproduces what is far older than itself.”dcclxxiii Higgins concurs:
That the work called the Apocalypse of St. John . . . is of very great antiquity is clearly proved by the fact that it makes the year only 360 days long—the same length that it is made in the third book of Genesis . . . dcclxxiv
Based on its astrological imagery, Massey evinced that Revelation, rather than having been written by any apostle called John during the 1st century CE, was an ancient text dating to 4,000 years ago and relating the Mithraic legend of one of the early Zoroasters. The text has also been attributed pseudepigraphically to Horus’s scribe, Aan, whose name has been passed down as “John.” Jacolliot claimed that the Apocalypse/Revelation material was gleaned from the story of Krishna/Christna, an opinion concurred with by Hotema, who averred that the book was a text of Hindu mysteries given to Apollonius. In fact, the words “Jesus” and
“Christ,” and the phrase “Jesus Christ” in particular, are used sparingly in Revelation, revealing they were interpolated (long) after the book was written, as were the Judaizing elements. Indeed, it is admitted by Christians that the book was worked on by a number of hands, including those of Andrew, Bishop of Caesarea, who wrote parts of Revelation in the 6th-7th centuries CE.
Despite all the brouhaha surrounding it, Revelation is not a “book of prophecy.”
Hotema reveals the real meaning behind the book:
It is expressed in terms of creative phenomena; its hero is not Jesus but the Sun of the Universe, its heroine is the Moon; and all its other characters are Planets, Stars and Constellations; while its stage-setting comprises the Sky, the Earth, the Rivers and the Sea.dcclxxv
In fact, Revelation records the mythos of the precession of the equinoxes, or the
“Great Year,” and was apparently originally written to usher in the Age of Aries, which began around 4,400 years ago. As Churchward says:
The drama appears as tremendous in the Book of Revelation, because the period ending is on the scale of one Great Year. It is not the ending of the world, but of a great year of the world.dcclxxvi
Churchward continues:
The book is and always has been inexplicable, because it was based upon the symbolism of the Egyptian Astronomical Mythology without the gnosis, or “meaning which hath wisdom” that is absolutely necessary for an explanation of its subject- matter; and because the debris of the ancient wisdom has been turned to account as data for pre-Christian prophecy that was supposed to have its fulfillment in Christian history.dcclxxvii
Sacred Numerology/Gematria
The Book of Revelation is in fact an encapsulation of the ancient astrological mythos and religion, a part of which is sacred numerology. Indeed, several sacred numbers repeatedly make their appearance in Revelation, such as three, seven, 12, 24, etc. The “seven stars” or “spirits” are the seven “planets” that make up the days of the week and the Seven Sisters, which were variously the pole-stars or the Pleiades.
These Seven Sisters corresponded to the Seven Hathors of the Egyptians, who were the “’seven beings who make decrees,’ whom the dead would meet on their journey through the seven spheres of the afterlife.”dcclxxviii The Seven Hathors were also considered the seven gates, as mentioned in Revelation, representing both the night hours and the “seven months of summer.” The seven “torches of fire” or seven- branch lampstand symbolizes the sun in the middle, with the moon and five inner planets as satellites, corresponding to the days of the week. Concerning Jesus as the lamb with the seven horns and eyes, Wells says:
Revelation’s figuring the heavenly Jesus as a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes
“which are the spirits of God sent forth into all the earth” (5:6) is a manifold reworking of old traditions. Horns are a sign of power (Deuteronomy 33:17) and in Daniel designated kingly power. The seven eyes which inform the lamb of is happening all over the earth seem to be residues from ancient astrological lore . . . according to which God’s eyes are the sun, the moon, and the five planets . . .dcclxxix
The Great City in Revelation is the city of the Gods, located in the heavens, with the 12 gates of the zodiac. The “tree of life” in the city that bears “twelve manner of fruit” is also the zodiac.
In addition, the 24 elders in white garments around the throne are the 24 hours of the day “around” the sun. The four angels “standing at the four corners of the earth” are the four cardinal points or angles of 90 degrees each. The 144,000 elect are the 360 degrees of the zodiacal circle multiplied by the four minutes it takes for the sun to move one degree, times a factor of 10².dcclxxx
The Four “Living Creatures”
Much has been made of the four mysterious creatures or cherubim found in Ezekiel and Revelation:
And round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes front and behind: And the first animal was like a lion and the second animal was like a calf and the third animal had the face of a man and the fourth animal was like a flying eagle.
As noted concerning the same cherubim in Ezekiel, these four animals represent the four cardinal points of the zodiac. The throne is the sun, and the multitudinous
“eyes front and behind” are the infinite stars. The three pairs of wings of each beast represent the three signs of each of the four zodiacal quadrants. These “living creatures” were also found in Egypt. As Walker says, “Spirits of the four points of the year were sometimes called Sons of Horus.”dcclxxxi
Jackson relates that the four beasts also represent Noah and his three sons, i.e., the various races. In this scenario, the lion is the lion of Judah, or Shem, “father” of the Semites; the bull symbolizes the Hamites of Egypt; the eagle is Japheth, progenitor of the Aryans; and the man is Noah, who is of the “Adamic” or
“Atlantean” race.dcclxxxii
The Four Horsemen
Concerning the frightening “four horsemen” endlessly interpreted and expected for almost two millennia, Jackson says:
In the Apocalypse we read about the four beasts, and the four horsemen; the beasts were the zodiacal constellations and the horsemen were the planets. . . .
1. The first horseman was a conqueror armed with a bow, wearing a crown, and riding a white horse.
This was the planet Venus.
2. The second horse was red, ridden by a
warrior with a sword. This was the planet Mars.
3. The third horse was black with the rider
holding aloft a pair of balances. This was the planet Saturn.
4. The fourth horse was of pale-green or blue- green color, and his rider was death. This was the planet Mercury.
dcclxxxiiiThus, the four horsemen, awaited for so many centuries, like the Second Coming, have been here all along, as has Jesus, the sun of God.
The Woman Clothed with the Sun
The “woman clothed with the sun” is both the moon, which reflects or “wears”
the sun, and the constellation of the Virgin, who has the moon under her feet and the stars above her head. As Graves explains:
. . . St. John’s marvelous figure of “a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head” (Rev. xii), is easily understood when viewed through an astronomical mirror. More appropriately may the astronomical virgin woman be said to be clothed with the sun, than could be said of any other of the twelve signs of the zodiac, judging from her situation among the signs and her relative position to the sun. There she stands, right in the focus of the sun’s rays in August, the hottest month of the year, and thus is clothed with the sun more brilliantly than that of any other sign. Of course the moon is under her feet, while the twelve months of the year, or the twelve signs of the zodiac form her crown of twelve stars.dcclxxxiv
This motif is found in Persia, India and Egypt, among other places. In fact, in the Berlin museum is an engraving of the Goddess (possibly Ishtar) in nearly the same posture, clothed with the sun, with the moon and stars above and the twelve signs of the zodiac surrounding her.dcclxxxv At the Temple of Isis at Denderah was an image of a woman “seated at the center of a blazing sun crowned by twelve stars and with her feet resting on the moon. The woman was the symbol of Mother Nature; the sun represented creative strength; the twelve stars stood for the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and the Moon signified Matter and its domination by Spirit.”dcclxxxvi Walker relates the eastern custom regarding the woman:
According to Tantric tradition, the Goddess concealed herself behind the sun’s brightness; it was “the mayik vesture of Her who is clothed with the sun.” This image reappeared in the New Testament as “the woman clothed with the sun.” (Revelation 12:1).dcclxxxvii
As to the antiquity of this motif, it should be noted that the temple at Denderah
has been averred to be possibly 10,000 years old, based on the astrology it depicts.
The Seven Seals
Regarding the mysterious “seven seals” opened by “the Lamb,” i.e., the sun in Aries, Graham says:
This part of the revelation is not from God but from Ezekiel, who got it from the Babylonians, the Assyrians and the Sumerians. The seven seals are identical with the seven decrees of Ishtar and Innana.dcclxxxviii
These “seven decrees” are the same as those of the Seven Hathors mentioned above, which are also the seven gates through which the Prince of Light must pass, representing hours of the night and months of the year.
The “Sweet” Scrolls
Both Ezekiel and the Revelator are given “sweet scrolls” to eat prior to their visions. These scrolls evidently represent magical practices. As Walker relates:
Eating instead of reading a piece of magical literature was a common Oriental method of absorbing the virtue of magic words even when one is unable to read. In Tibet, Madagascar, China, and Japan it was customary to cure diseases by writing the curative charm on paper and eating the paper, or its ashes. . . . The same notion was often found in the west. The modern pharmacist’s Rx began as a curative symbol of Saturn, written on paper and eaten by the patient.dcclxxxix
It has also been suggested that these scrolls represented hallucinogenic drugs, which were commonly used in mystery schools and secret societies.
The Dragon and the Beast
The frightening dragon and beast of Revelation have intrigued people for centuries and caused much speculation as to what they were or would be. The favorite interpretation of the beast has been the Catholic Church itself, particularly when it was murdering people by the millions. Again, the book of Revelation is not prophetic, so this “beast” is not applicable to any earthly kingdoms, organizations,
“Antichrists” or peoples, etc. Graves gives the astrological meaning of the dragon and beast:
St. John (Rev. 12) speaks of the Dragon having power to hurt the five months, and astronomically speaking, he does hurt the vegetable productions of the five principal prolific months of the year, with a vengeance. And St. John’s monster, with the seven heads and ten horns, may find a solution in astronomy, or astrotheology, by assuming the seven heads to be the seven Summer months (as some nations divided the year in this way), and duplicating the five Winter months for the horns. And then, the story of the Dragon “pursuing the woman to destroy her male child,” finds an easy explanation here. Turn to your almanacs, and you will notice that the Dragon or Scorpion is in pursuit of the woman, Virgin, sure enough, being the next sign in order in the zodiac; or direct your eyes to the heavens on a cloudless night, you will observe that just after the old maid (a virgin with a child in her arms, as the Persians show her) rises above the horizon in the East, up comes the old Scorpion called a serpent among the Persians; a Dragon in Phoenicia; Draco among the Romans, which is the Latin for Dragon. . . . The great Dragon, according to astronomical diagrams, is actually after the woman (Virgin) and her child, and was for thousands of years B.C., and until modern astronomers caught him, and cast him into a bottomless pit, and substituted the eagle in his place.dccxc
Furthermore, Egyptian images of the Dragon were painted red; hence, “the great
red Dragon.”
The Mark of the Beast 666
The much ballyhooed number, 666, mentioned in Revelation as the “mark of the Beast,” was in fact held sacred in the goddess-worshipping cultures as representative of female genitalia. When the Goddess was vilified by the patriarchy, she became the
“Beast” and her sacred number the “mark.” The number 666 was not held to be evil or a bad omen in Judaism, as is evidenced by the biblical story of Solomon possessing 666 talents of gold. In fact, it is a sacred number. As Higgins says:
The Hexad or number six is considered by the Pythagoreans a perfect and sacred number; among many other reasons, because it divides the universe into equal parts.
It is called Venus or the mother. It is also perfect, because it is the only number under X, ten, which is whole and equal in its parts. In Hebrew Vau is six. Is vau mother Eva or Eve?dccxci
In addition, Anderson points out that “666” also corresponds to the sun rising at 6:00 a.m., reaching its height six hours later, and setting at 6:00 p.m.dccxcii
As “history” or “prophecy,” the book of Revelation is not only incomprehensible but destructive, not merely boggling the mind but causing people to see “beasts” and
“Antichrists” everywhere, thus creating prejudice and bigotry, and serving as a blueprint for Armageddon and “end times.” Understood as astrology, or astrotheology, however, Revelation is powerful and informative, as it represents a condensed narration of the universal mythos and ritual, found throughout the Bible and revealed to be behind the Christ conspiracy. Its true meaning, of course, has been lost to the masses, as they have been told that astrology is “evil,” a deliberate device to prevent them from studying it, because, with such astrological knowledge, they would understand clues such as in Revelation (22:16), where the true nature of Jesus is clearly identified when he is called the “morning star,” i.e., the sun, which is the real “revelation.”
The Mysteries
It may be reasonably asked why, if the mythos and ritual are found around the world and thus in cultures not subjected to the censorship of the Catholic Church and Christian hierarchy, they are unknown. As noted, the mythos and ritual form part of “the mysteries” of secret societies, brotherhoods, priesthoods and mystery schools. As such, they were not to be revealed but dangled over the heads of the uninitiated. Of these secret societies, Allegro says:
The whole point of a mystery cult was that few people knew its secret doctrines. So far as possible, the initiates did not commit their special knowledge to writing.
Normally the secrets of the sect were transmitted orally, novices being required to learn direct from their mentors by heart, and placed under the most violent oaths never to disclose the details even under torture. When such special instruction was committed to writing, care would be taken that it should be read only by the members of the sect. This could be done by using a special code or cypher, as is the case with certain of the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, discovery of such obviously coded material on a person would render him suspect to the authorities. Another way of passing information was to conceal the message, incantations or special names within a document ostensibly concerning another subject.dccxciii
In reality, the Christian religion was a revelation of these mysteries, which had existed for millennia. Indeed, “Paul” himself attested that his preaching of Jesus Christ served to reveal “the mystery which was kept secret for long ages but is now