“The great affairs of the world, wars, revolutions, etc. were conducted by those who, while maintaining the public interest, acted from selfish interests, whatever they may pretend.” – Benjamin Franklin
In 1976, peace negotiations had begun during the civil war and America’s founding Fathers were debating on how to resolve the conflict.
One of the most outspoken members of the group was John Adams who believed that Benjamin Franklin’s ideas of how the country should operate were not only at odds, Adams believed that Franklin’s policies would divide the country rather than unite it.
Adams wrote:
“Franklin’s cunning will be to divide us; to this end, he will provoke, he will insinuate, he will intrigue, he will maneuver.”
This is an image of Benjamin Franklin, statesman, philosopher, scientist, and framer of our Declaration of Independence. As portrayed on the Broadway stage in the inspired musical drama, “1776,” he wins ovations at every performance and sends the audience home feeling warmed and re-Americanized.”
Why would John Adams make such a claim about one of the most renowned figures in American history?
Most Americans know Benjamin Franklin as one of the Founding Fathers of our country. He was a genius polymath who dabbled in many different fields, including science, politics, writing, and invention. Franklin is best known for his work as an inventor, creating such devices as the lightning rod and bifocals, as for his roles in the American Revolution and the founding of the United States.
What many people do not know about one of the greatest Founding Fathers was that he was also a British Spy.
During the formation of the American Colonies and throughout his career, Franklin maintained a close relationship with several British officials, including Lord North, the Prime Minister at the time, and regularly corresponded with British Army officer John Burgoyne. He would also spend a significant amount of time in London during the early stages of the American Revolution.
In 1776, at the height of the Revolutionary War, Burgoyne wrote a letter to Franklin asking for intelligence about American troop movements. While there is no definitive proof that Franklin complied with this request, some historians believe he may have passed along information that led to Burgoyne’s eventual defeat at the Battle of Saratoga—a turning point in the war.
He then became close friends with Edward Bancroft in 1768 who was also working as a spy for Britain. The two men exchanged information with each other about their respective countries for many years. It is not known for sure how much information Bancroft gave to Franklin or vice versa, but it is certain that they were both spying on their respective countries during a time of war.
Bancroft also introduced Franklin to several members of British intelligence, including John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, and Sir Joseph Yorke. It is possible that Yorke used Franklin as a conduit to pass information about American military plans to the British government during the Revolutionary War.
In addition, when Franklin returned to America after the war, he was given a very generous pension by the British government. It is worth mentioning that pensions were actually quite common at the time, and many other Americans who played key roles in the Revolution were also given pensions by the British government.
This pension given to Franklin and other key players in the Revolution has been cited as further evidence of his alleged spying activities.
According to the CIA publication, Studies in Intelligence, the British knew almost everything that was going on in America:
“The British had a complete picture of American-French activities supporting the war in America and of American intentions regarding an alliance with France. The British used this intelligence effectively against the American cause.”
One of Franklin’s fellow commissioners, Arthur Lee, was outraged over this lack of security.
“[Lee] wrote that a French official “had complained that everything we did was known to the English ambassador, who was always plaguing him with the details. No one will be surprised at this who knows that we have no time or place appropriate to our consultation, but that servants, strangers, and everyone else was at liberty to enter and did constantly enter the room while we were talking about public business and that the papers relating to it lay open in rooms of common and continual resort.”
While employed as a spy, it appears Franklin was involved in various projects for the British government.
First and foremost, he was tasked with spying on the American elite on behalf of the British government, while maintaining his public display as a diplomat that was directly opposed to British interests.
For instance, he negotiated an alliance with France— Britain’s arch-rival at the time—that ultimately helped lead to America’s victory in the Revolutionary War.
Once Franklin had gained the confidence of the American elite, Franklin’s second task was to infiltrate, recruit, and corrupt them with some of the oldest indulgences known to humankind such as power, money, food, alcohol, and free sex. By doing so, they could be more easily manipulated and controlled.
To accomplish this simple task The British government created a special “secret society” for these devilish activities called the “Hellfire Club.”
The Hellfire Club was founded in London, England in 1746 by Sir Francis Dashwood and originally included 15 members. Dashwood was a wealthy man who also held important positions in the British government. He used his influence to recruit other wealthy and powerful men to join the club.
Under the auspices of their motto, Fais ce que to voudras (Do what thou wilt), the club engaged in neoliberal acts that were distinctly immoral and some would call Satanic rituals.
According to Author and Political Philosopher, Dr. Nicolas Laos:
Francis of Wycombe, and its motto was “Fais ce que tu voudras” (“Do what thou wilt”), indicating a way of life inspired by François Rabelais’s fictional abbey of Thélème, which later also inspired the influential British occultist and spy Aleister Crowley. In general, those clubs served as the meeting places of members of the elites who wanted to indulge in what were socially perceived as immoral acts.
Both at that time and later, such clubs provide the opportunity for spies to manipulate target persons through the manipulation of the central nervous system (e.g., through psychotropic drugs and heavy drinking and eating) and through the manipulation of the reproductive instinct (through various sexual practices, including sexual magic and paraphilias).”
The name “Hellfire Club” is thought to be derived from one of Dashwood’s residences known as Medmenham Abbey, which was adorned with satanic imagery. The club members referred to themselves as “Devils,” “Knights of Bad Luck,” or “Children of Ill Fortune.”
The club met in a building that was once an old monastery, and periodically at various locations, including underground caves, an old monastery and Dashwood’s country estate. At these meetings, the members would engage in drinking, gambling, and sexual promiscuity. The members practiced black magic and would dress up as monks and celebrate “the Black Mass” which featured nude women as “priestesses.”
They would also take part in sexual orgies that were accompanied by mock religious ceremonies with the rites of Satan worship in which they indulged. This included sacrilegious readings from the Bible, praying to devils, and netherworld orgies involving simulated sacrifice rituals.
Other popular activities included smoking tobacco from human skull pipes while sitting atop coffins and dressing up like monks or nuns for nun-themed dinners. Live animals were reportedly sacrificed during some rituals and it had been rumored that some members engaged in necrophilia, bestiality, and pedophilia. The club’s library reportedly had the largest collection of pornography in England at the time.
Seemingly no taboo was considered off-limits for this club of human debauchery.
Hell, that was the whole point of this secret British intelligence operation.
The activities of the Hellfire Club scandalized polite society but Dashwood and his friends were largely immune from criticism because of their wealth and power.
The list of high-ranking British and American officials who were members of the society is impressive. It included the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Paymaster-General, a former Prime Minister, three members of Parliament, and the former Chancellor of the Exchequer le Despencer. Even Frederick, the Prince of Wales, was reputed to be a member.
According to Dr. Nicolas Laos:
“Some of the members of Dashwood’s Hell-Fire Club, or Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe, who were involved in British politics and intelligence was John Wilkes (a British radical journalist and politician), the Chevalier D’Eon de Beaumont (a French diplomat and spy, who joined English Freemasonry, enjoyed dressing like a woman, and, much to the delight of his British hosts, disclosed French government secrets);
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (who held various military and political offices, including Postmaster General, First Lord of Admiralty, and Secretary of State for the Northern Department), Thomas Potter (who sat in the House of Commons between 1747 and 1759), Paul Whitehead (who was a British satirist, spent a number of years in Feet Prison, became a secretary of Dashwood’s Hell-Fire Club, and, was appointed, though Sir Francis Dashwood, to a Deputy Treasurership of the Chamber), and Robert Vansittart (an English jurist, antiquarian, and notorious rake) An occasional participant of Dashwood’s Hell-Fire Club, or Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe, was Benjamin Franklin, especially during 1758, when he spent a long period of time in England.
Moreover, during the period that he was serving as the United States Ambassador to France (1779–85), Benjamin Franklin allowed his friend and chief assistant Edward Bancroft to organize a British secret service cell within the U.S. Embassy in Paris. In fact, Edward Bancroft was a Massachusetts-born physician and chemist, spying for both the United States of America and Great Britain while serving as secretary to the U.S. Embassy in Paris during the American Revolution .
Thus, the information that Benjamin Franklin received from Washington, together with a great deal of intelligence passed by French authorities, found their way to London. While relations between Great Britain and its rebellious American colonies were deteriorating, Benjamin Franklin passed on information to London regarding the sailing dates and cargoes of ships bound for Washington’s army,” Dr. Laos wrote.
The club continued to operate until 1766 when it disbanded after Dashwood’s death.
However, the age-old secret intelligence business of corrupting the corruptible and using power, money, sex, and drugs continues to this very day.
Whether if it is done through debauched secret societies like the Hell Fire Club that have been created by intelligence agencies to corrupt and control their targets or simply using paid hookers and drug pushers on the government payroll.
It is the oldest and simplest method of human mind control and corruption making people say and do stupid things they would not normally do when like when they are sober, healthy, and mentally fit.
That is why the Hell Fire Club exists with their motto Fais ce que tu voudras” (“Do what thou wilt”) and as you will see, why this exact same blueprint was copied 100 years later by the British Spy and most famous Satanist ever, Aleister Crowley.
Dr. Nicolas Laos Research see: Eric Evans Rafalko, American Revolution to World War II, U.S. National Counterintelligence Center, online: https://irp.fas.org/ops/ci/docs/ci1/ch1c.htm; George D. K. McCormick, A History of the British Secret Service, London: Frederick Muller, 1969, reprinted in paperback, London: Grafton, 1991; Richard Deacon, “Famous British Historian Claims Benjamin Franklin Was a British Spy,” Argosy, July 1970, online:https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/fc/deacononfranklin.html).
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a phenomenon known as the “Satanic Panic” swept through America.
This was a time when many people believed that Satanists were trying to take over the world.
There were rumors of cults sacrificing children and drinking their blood. Many people became convinced that satanism was a real threat, and they were terrified of what might happen next and others thought it was lunacy fueled by religious zealots.
One thing is for sure, it’s a period of history that is often misunderstood.
It was a time when people believed that Satanists were conducting rituals and sacrificing children all across the country. This religious fear was stoked by serial killers such as the Son of Sam and Richard Ramirez who openly professed they were Satanists who sacrificed their victims to Satan.
This is where the true Satanic Panic originated and it spread from here like hell fire.
It was events like that of Ramirez flashing an upside down pentagram on his hand at his murder trials that helped fuel the fear of the American nation.
This is why when the words Satan and serial killer are used together, it strikes fear deep into the hearts of most good people and especially devout Christians who are taught to fear and fight Satan.
Parents and religious leaders were convinced that a satanic cult was targeting children, and they did everything they could to protect their kids. There were even allegations of Satanic cults infiltrating daycares and schools such as the McMartin preschool, which led to a number of high-profile criminal cases across the country.
Parents became terrified of what their children might be exposed to, and many began to homeschool their kids or take them out of public schools altogether.
This was also the time when Satanism, the devil and the occult became deeply embedded into the minds of Americans and pop culture. Movies like the Exorcist, role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons debuted in 1974, scandalizing pastors and giving parents nightmares of their children falling under demonic spells.
A 1988 documentary about Satanism and ritual abuse by Geraldo Rivera called Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground became the highest-rated televised documentary to air up to that point. The documentary further fueled the worries of concerned parents and Christians across the nation.
This hysteria led to some pretty bizarre incidents, and a fierce cultural debate in the media and even congressional legislation was put forth to make Satanism illegal.
All the while, Satanists like The Church of Satan capitalized upon “some of these allegations,” by focusing ONLY on criminal cases where the defendants were found not guilty.
By doing this, they could divert the attention of an uneducated media and concerened American citizens to the Satanic crimes that were proven to be false, while completely ignoring the true stories.
It didn’t help that some ridiculous conspiracy theories helped bolster the Satanic Panic cause.
For example, in 1978, a conspiracy theory claiming that McDonald’s was secretly funding satanic enterprises gained so much popularity that the company had to release an official statement denying it. The founder, Ray Kroc had to reassure frightened customers by telling them that he was “a God-fearing, God-loving man.”
In the memoir, Michelle Smith, Michelle Remembers, introduced readers everywhere to satanic ritual abuse in a story about being caged, tortured, and sexually molested by members of a satanic cult. The story and the author were eventually debunked.
It is cases like there that became the focus by Satanists on the “false allegations” and “uneducated religious zealots” became the perfect calling card for the “Satanic Panic” and their main defense strategy that they still employ to this very day.
By doing so, they could claim that these were ALL false allegations made by crazy Christians causing social hysteria fueled by fearful media depictions of godless teenagers listening to deviant music and wearing heavy metal t-shirts.
Over thousands of years, magicians have developed the ability to control attention, to distort perception, and to influence choice. This is done in advertising and marketing by corporations who use false images and deception to influence our decisions.
The fear of a Satanic Panic eventually faded from the American collective consciousness, thanks in part to a public relations campaign conducted by the Church of Satan.
I contend that one of the main reasons the hysteria died out was because the founder of the Church of Satan, Anton Lavey, and his High Priest, Peter Gilmore, stepped into action to combat the negative publicity with their own PR campaign.
According to Peter Gilmore, he spent many hours combatting their foes and educating the public about Satanic philosophy. Gilmore said:
“The Satanic Panic” (80s-90s) there was proposed congressional legislation to make Satanism illegal. During that time Anton Szandor LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, had encouraged me as a spokesperson for the organization and the means for combatting this proposal was to educate people about what Satanism really was, rather than the, then current, fantasy of Devil worship, child abuse and sacrifice promulgated by evangelical Christians and gullible journalists.
Lavey did not have the Church of Satan issue statements rallying its members to sally forth. Instead, he felt that fulfilling the purpose of the Church of Satan—educating others as to what it represents—would serve to dissolve the false definition of Satanism fueling that proposed law. And so it did and I spent many hours accurately representing the reality of our philosophy in all forms of the media to that end.”
But several prominent authors and scholars who are not part of some Satanic sect or get paid to be a Satanist like Peter Gilmore would disagree with the Church of Satans and other people who claim that the Satanic Panic was the purely result of false allegations, religious fantasy, and irrational beliefs.
Sure, there was definitely a lot of that going on but there were also a lot of true stories that were being swept to the side or ignored all together.
In the midst of the Satanic Panic, author and Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Denver, Carl Raschke was asked by his publisher to research and write a book about Satanism. What Raschke discovered was that there was in fact credible evidence and a plethora of stories to support the narrative that Satanists were committing murders and other criminal acts.
Raschke’s book is really more about mind control and how during the 1960’s, various occultists like Anton Lavey tried to overturn mainstream religious and political beliefs. America’s youth and young adults were being manipulated by Satanists who were putting their message out through the media with art, books, music, movies, and drugs and free sex.
As Raschke eloquently points out, the 60’s was a time in our country when it was encouraged for both the father and the mother to work outside the home leaving a whole generation of kids at home alone.
This phenomenon created a new psychological term to describe their abandonment called latchkey kids – school age children of working parents who must spend part or most of the day unsupervised (as at home),
The kids of this generation had a vacuum to be filled that was once their parents, and Satanism would happily take their place.
Out of these abandoned kids, there were children who had been physically and sexually abused, rejected by parents and were never taught any moral values.
These kids would be on the fringes of society. They were angry and needed an outlet for their hate for the world and the violence they wanted to unleash upon it.
This is why Satanism and the neoliberal lifestyle of extreme freedoms, drugs, sex, music and media that came with it would be the perfect home for these wayward youth.
The kids thought that Satanism was going to lead to power, wealth, fame, and anything else that their little hearts desired. But once they got addicted to the lifestyle and vices of drugs and sex, they became under the mind control of their very Satanic doctrines they foolishly thought would be the answer to all their problems.
This can be seen time and time again by many people who take this path. A Satanic road that is littered with lost souls and ruined lives everywhere you look.
From drug addicted gurus like Aleister Crowley who died penniless and addicted to heroin to Ozzy Ozzborne’s open display of decades of hedonism, family turmoil and constant drug use and Church of Satan members like Marilyn Manson who in recent years has been accused of a long list of crimes.
As Raschke notes, there is no dabbling in the occult because depravity and bondage quickly develop.
Satan may promise much, but never delivers.
In 2021, I interviewed Carl Raschke and asked him about the Satanic Panic and his book. He believes to this day that there was a massive PR campaign to sanitize the bad press and he actually became a target of Satanic propagandists.
Raschke said:
“There was a whole PR campaign to try to sanitize what was happening and I was the target. A lot of these groups had the kind of intellectual authority. Satanism was not my thing. I knew a lot about it. I’d heard a lot about it on the ground.
The narrative, let’s call it, the PR campaign, was actually pushed by less than reputable academics who were just kind of in it to protect themselves and to protect their research clients.
I’m not saying there was necessarily a thing corrupt about it though. There have been rumors that it’s kind of like the tobacco industry.
How they tried to tell you in the early days that tobacco is not as harmful as they got their authorities together and they created this narrative,” Raschke emphasized.
He said, “That Satanism was a panic, based on the idea of a moral panic, that term was posed by a guy. I can’t remember his name, but it was called satanic panic.
It came out in the nineties and it was a sociological term that basically tried to look at the whole phenomenon as if it were just a bunch of spooked out people who didn’t really understand what was going on, who were panicking.
That’s totally false because the thing emerged kind of organically and slowly.
There must be this pure thing, purity you call Satanism, which is being slandered and abused and blah, blah, blah. And you know, so the whole thing was literally a shit show.
I got caught up in the middle of that and the book I didn’t expect that I was just trying to honestly write from the notes and the interviews and the stuff I read,” Raschke noted.
Similar to what Carl Rashke found, I also discovered the facts that people have been murdering people all across the U.S. for several decades that claimed to be either Satanists, demon possessed or did so under the orders of Satan or the Devil.
To a person outside the occult world of black magic and Satanism, they might ignorantly think that these stories are just crazy journalism and part of some type of Satanic Panic propaganda. But they could not be more wrong.
It is important to note that the people who commit serious crimes they claim their allegiance to Satanism are just a tiny fraction of the Satanic movement as a whole. But due to the serious nature of the crimes that some of these people commit, to say it is not a problem or factor is simply a lie.
I have found that both the Church of Satan and the Satanic Temple have made these public statements about the ordeal,
The Church of Satan has stated;
As Satanism is a recognized “New Religious Movement,” it’s important for an understanding of what is and what is not Satanism to be maintained. “The Satanic Panic” in the 1980s-90s is evidence of a willful distortion of this religion as the concept of a conspiracy of murderous “satanists” was promoted primarily by evangelical Christians and taken-up by the media worldwide.
Law enforcement debunked the claims of the evangelists but not before many people had become victims of false accusations of ritual child abuse, sacrifice, and kidnapping.
Some Christians—despite the five decades of a clearly defined belief system called Satanism expounded by a worldwide organization—still use this term to reference any acts or beliefs they consider to be “evil” or simply contrary to their own beliefs.
Ill-informed members of law enforcement agencies and journalists, often believers in some form of Christianity, also continue to misrepresent the religion of Satanism.
If the definition of Satanism is not kept clear, any unstable or insane person working from a Christian context could claim their actions were due to self-termed “satanic beliefs,” thus criminally implicating actual open adherents of Satanism to the public at large, people who are not generally familiar with the beliefs and tenets of religious Satanism.
The recent case of murderer Amanda Barbour, who along with her boyfriend murdered one person but claimed to have murdered many others as part of an interstate “satanic cult,” is another example.
The Church of Satan works publicly to maintain a clear understanding of the atheist, individualistic, and law-abiding nature of Satanism and regularly consults with law enforcement as well as journalistic researchers and academicians to this end.”
It appears that the Church of Satan is making a valid claim that these killers are just lunatics and even though they may be “affiliatd with some form of Satanism,” in no way is this some vast conspiracy of an organized Satanic cult. The reason I say that is valid is because I agree with them on this point.
What I do not agree with is the entire claim that these killers are in their words “any unstable or insane person working from a Christian context could claim their actions were due to self-termed satanic beliefs.”
While I agree with the truth that these people are unstable and or insane, the reason I don’t entirely agree is because there are many different sects of Satanism and also personal Satanic beliefs. People will kill innocent people and abuse babies in the name of Satan and or no God regardless of what anyone says or what press release is issued.
The Satanic Temple claims that the Satanic Panic was mainly about Satanic Ritual Child Abuse such as the McMartin Preschool Trials, which occurred a few years later during the late 1980s.
Here is their general statement on Satanic Panic;
“We then see an unconvincing attempt to justify this petty and undignified public temper tantrum with the claim that “it’s important for an understanding of what is and what is not Satanism to be maintained.
“The Satanic Panic” in the 1980s-90s is evidence of a willful distortion of this religion as the concept of a conspiracy of murderous ‘satanists’ was promoted primarily by evangelical Christians and taken-up by the media worldwide. Law enforcement debunked the claims of the evangelists but not before many people had become victims of false accusations of ritual child abuse, sacrifice, and kidnapping.”
Apparently, this “understanding” can only be gained by dogged insistence that only the website of the CoS defines Satanism. This is particularly infuriating as TST, unlike the CoS, has been actively fighting against the Satanic Panic which still exists, nor is it “promoted primarily by evangelical Christians.”
One need only look at our Grey Faction campaign to recognize that actively fighting back against anti-Satanist propagandists is one of the primary functions of TST.”
On the Satanic Temple’s website via their Grey Faction initiative, they state one of its main purposes is to “document, expose, and aggressively seek to bring to an end pseudoscientific mental health care practices that contribute to harmful conspiracist Satanic Panic delusions.”
I agree that pseudoscientific mental health care practices should be exposed and put an end to, but the facts are that this is just the small tip of the Satanic Panic iceberg. While there is definitely some validity to these claims by the Satanic Temple, it is only one of the reasons for the Satanic Panic.
In our present culture, religious Satanism exists primarily as a decentralized subculture. It does not appear to be an organized front on the surface but I contend that Satanists are united by their ideologies and thus united by an inherently “selfish and evil state of mind” that often (not always) leads to the practitioners unhappiness, destruction, and sometimes death.
What I’m simply claiming is what they are failing to address are the various crimes and murders that have been committed over the last five decades by people who claim to be aligned and or influenced by Satanism in some fashion.
With that said, let me state again that not all Satanists are evil, child abusers, and or criminals.
The facts are that 99% of the Satanists in the modern world are people just like you and me but who have chosen the Satanic lifestyle i.e.: individualistic, carnal, selfish, and materialistic life over the spiritual as their chief aim. You will find a hell of a lot of good people in this movement and the vast majority are certainly not all evil child abusers and or killers of innocent people for Satanic sport.
In fact, many of the people who I might call “good Satanists” would enjoy nothing more than killing the evil Satanists like child abusers and killers for sport. I have seen it happen in prison and it happens all the time behind bars.
The reality is that to the average person and even the hardened criminal, it is unthinkable how any one person could become so diabolical and evil that a good night for them is to go hunt for little children or women to abuse, rape, torture, and kill for sport.
Many people would say they are not human. Religionists may call them Demons. Like the Christian Scripture says, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”
Please keep in mind that when I use the words demons, Satan, and the devil when speaking about some of these brutal killers, these names are not something I dreamt of for a script or religious sensationalism.
No, these are the actual words used by many of the Satanists and murderers themselves after they are caught.
In no particular order, I would like to give you some real-world examples of cold-blooded killers who have said they worship Satan and or were Satanists.
It is important that you understand that the stories I present are just a small example of the number of cases that I could have reported on. This could be a book spanning several volumes.
But my goal is not to list every crime or murder committed by a Satanist. It is to prove a point that it does happen and that a Satanic State of Mind may not only lead someone to self destruction, it can also result in murder.
You will find that each killer who was involved in Satanism were in every single case young men and women who had terrible childhoods and were abused
They found that Satanism was the perfect ideology to not only accept their damaged and rebellious souls, it was the ideal philosophy to unleash their internalized rage against a society who had abandoned them.
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
In 1993, three innocent young kids were found raped, naked, and murdered in the mud of local woodland at Robin Hood Hills in West Memphis, Arkansas.
They were all American boys – 8-year-old Michael Moore, Steven Branch, and Christopher Byers. All proud members of the Boy Scouts with the world ahead of them but their lives were cut short in the most horrible way that anyone could ever imagine.
After getting together to go play and have fun in the local woods, the boys were instead abducted, tied up, beaten, raped, tortured, and then killed in what can be described as a “Satanic ritual sacrifice.”
“The state of the boys’ bodies quickly inspired rumors that a satanic cult was responsible. The crime scene’s location in the woods, the nudity, the positioning of the boys’ bodies, and especially the castration caused concern about Satanism amongst the locals, and amongst the police as well.
Within days of the murders, Gary Gitchell, the chief inspector, informed the public that the police were considering a number of possible explanations for the murders, one of which was cult activity.
Throughout the investigation, the cult theory overshadowed more traditional theories, such as the speculation that the murders were committed by someone who knew the boys.”
At the time of the killings, a local teenager from a nearby trailer park named Damien Echols quickly became a prime suspect. The main reason why police zeroed in on Echols was his criminal record, extensive mental health history, and his interest in the occult.
You see, Echols was a felon and his probation officer who knew his dark history had alerted homicide detectives about his tendency for violence, and his involvement in Satanism, black magick, and the fact that he had threatened to murder people in the past – including his own step mother.
Echols was not your average heavy metal tshirt wearing teenager.
He was a Satanist who was a convicted criminal who had a long history of dark occult and blood ritualistic behavior.
According to police and mental health records, Damien Echols had made a pact with his girlfriend to sacrifice their first born baby in a death ritual and that he liked to drink human blood as well.
When he was arrested, police investigators discovered a plethora of evidence of Echols occult and Satanic activities with various writings, drawings, and his own and other people’s damning statements.
For example, Echols had a ringed binder in his possession at his home that he made called the “Book of Shadows” with Satanic drawings such as these:
As I mentioned, there has been a lot written about the case from both perspectives so I won’t go into too much detail here other than summarizing the key points that I believe are the most important to prove that Damien Echols was and is a Satanist on the fringe.
It is important to note that one of the main suspects, Jessie Misskelley had confessed not once, not twice, but several times to law enforcement and he even placed his right hand on the bible admitting the killings. Later he would also confess to his lawyer. Hell, even his own father and family believed he was guilty.
The police then investigated into his background and what he was doing on the night of the murders. An eyewitness had seen Echols with another person in the very same neighborhood the boys were found dead covered in mud.
Damien along with two of his friends, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, were then questioned and arrested for the crimes and they would forever be known in Cult murder lore as “The West Memphis Three (3).”
Misskelley had quickly confessed to detectives about his involvement giving them intimate details of the crime scene such as being hogtied and having chased down one of the boys who almost got away, and he also implicated Baldwin and Echols as his accomplices.
He had told investigators;
“Then they tied them up, tied their hands up,” parts of which were tape recorded. After describing sodomizing and other violence, he went on: “And I saw it and turned around and looked, and then I took off running. I went home, then they called me and asked me, ‘How come I didn’t stay? I told them, I just couldn’t.’”
Misskelley later recanted, and defense lawyers said the then-17-year-old got several parts of the story wrong.
But that was not the only evidence and there were also other statements made to police that prove that The West Memphis 3 were violent teens who also practiced Satanic rituals.
For example, one of Jessee Miskelleys’ friends, Dennis Carter was interviewed by Lt. D. Hester at the request of Dennis Carter 6/9/93 completed @ 2:45 – 4:15 p.m.
According to the police report, Carter told police that he has known and been friends with Misskelley all of his life.
The last time he saw Jesse was the day before he was arrested. He claimed that he did not know Damien or Jason. However, he knew who they were but was not friends with either of them.
One of their mutual friends, Rick told Dennis about some Devil worshipers that would meet in a place called Stone Henge in the woods where they would cut a dog’s head off and would eat the meat from the leg. Rick said that Damien was the leader.
Dennis told investigators that about 6 months prior, Jesse told him that Damien was a Devil worshiper and that he ate the right leg of dogs and said that this happened in the woods located behind Elite lamp.
He also said to the police that Jesse liked to fight and a lot of times he would even start it. About 2 months prior to the crimes, Jesse was fighting a boy named Eric in Lakeshore when this girl named Tiffany (13) Eric’s girlfriend — went over to try and stop him — states Jesse turned around and hit her as hard as he could in the ear with his fist. Dennis stated that Jesse had to go to Juvenile Court over that.
Dennis said there was a little girl in the mobile home park who was 5 or 6 yrs old who was throwing rocks — one accidentally hit Jesse — Jesse chased the little girl and threw a rock and hit her in the head. The little girl was crying and Jesse was laughing.
He also stated to police that Jesse drank a lot and smoked pot when he could get it — thinks the guys name is Josh 17 yrs old and lives in Highland Trailer Park. States that he also saw Jesse sniffing gas about 20 times. Also saw Jesse take mini thins — bought them at Delta in Marion — got high from those.”
Damien Echols would fail a polygraph test and his alibis would be ripped to shreds. He even admitted on the stand that his timeline kept changing to try to fit the facts.
We know that after a short trial, the jury convicted the three teenagers of the crimes in 1994 based on the evidence put forth by the prosecution with the most damning being the actual confessions from two of the killers.
In upholding Echols’ conviction in 1996, the state Supreme Court noted that two people testified Echols bragged about the killings, an eyewitness put Echols at the scene, fibers similar to the boys’ clothing were found in Echols’ home, a knife was found in a pond behind Baldwin’s home, Echols’ interest in the occult and his telling police that he understood the boys had been mutilated before officers had released such details.
Since the deaths of the three boys, there have been countless articles, books, and even Hollywood films detailing some of the facts about the case and legal battles. What I have found in my own research is that there are two different camps of people who have taken opposite sides on this matter.
One camp still adamantly believes that Damien Echols and his accomplices are guilty and the other camp believes that they were innocent teens who were wrongly convicted simply because they loved heavy metal and wore Metallica t-shirts.
The camp who believes he is guilty is still very active online. Many people have started personal websites, wrote books, and have active Facebook Groups where they are still covering this case and keeping a watchful eye on who Echols who they feel is a serious threat to society.
The other camp who professes his innocence rely on the simple defense asserting that the killings were part of a Satanic Panic by over zealous Christians and Prosecuters, inspired many authors and film makers to document the case, and led to a movement of powerful people and Hollywood stars who believed that the Memphis 3 had been wrongly convicted.
These people with the help of Hollywood star power and millions of dollars would end up helping the three convicts released from prison. Their supporters would include, “Lord of the Rings” director, Peter Jackson, who donated millions of dollars and “actors” like Johnny Depp, Natlie Maines of the “Dixie Chicks,” and Eddie Vedder of “Pearl Jam.”
It has been estimated that they contributed approximately $20 million to help defend the convicted child killers by dragging out the appeals process, which eventually would secure their release from prison in 2011.
One of the main reasons I feel compelled to report on this case is because Damien Echols is now openly claiming to be a Satanist who used black magick and what he had coined as ‘High Magick” to get off Death Row for the murders of 3 innocent boys.
Also, the fact that the West Memphis Three had received millions of dollars for their defense fund from a bunch of celebrities and got a lot of media attention from Hollywood.
All because some people had characterized their prosecution as the result of a Satanic Panic and overzealous law enforcement who busted three local teens just because they were into heavy metal and wore Metallica t-shirts.
On August 19, 2011, after serving 18 years of Death Row, the convicted child killers – Echols and his co-defendants in the case, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., entered Alford pleas. An Alford plea is a no contest plea where the accused claims their innocence, but pleads guilty anyway to get a deal offered by prosecutors instead of risking a trial.
During the hearings, after years of investigation and millions of dollars spent by the Memphis 3, the defense attorneys, nor the defendants did not present any exonerating evidence to prove their innocence during the Alford Plea hearings.
Despite there being no evidence proving their innocence, the three men admitted their guilt in the crimes, Arkansas Judge David Laser accepted the pleas and released the men for time served with 10-year suspended sentences.
But the facts are that there is more to the story than Hollywood and the West Memphis 3 would like you to falsely believe. This story of child rape, torture, and murder and celebrities raising millions to release three convicted criminals is a perfect example of why I believe that the U.S. has devolved from our original ethos of Brothery Love and justice and liberty for all into the “Satanic State of America.”
In researching the case, I discovered that this outcast rage would be the main marketing calling card for West Memphis Three and their 3 Hollywood made movies which would convince many people around the world that they were just different – outcasts like you and me.
In fact, this is how they continue to convince people that they are innocent through these films and the many articles written by lazy journalists who consume Echol’s narrative hook, line, and sinker just because they saw the movie or read some article.
What people need to understand about this case are the facts that the people who backed up Damien Echols and the producers who made the films failed to include many facts, details and evidence that would have revealed a much different side of the case than they wanted to portray to their audience.
An audience they knew most likely would not do their own research so they included only the facts they wanted to put in the film to control the narrative in order to gain support and money for Echols’ cause.
And you know what?
Almost every person I have researched who believes the West Memphis Three are innocent based their beliefs mainly from watching the Damien Echols directed movies. Including one of his biggest supporters and who he calls his Brother, Johnny Depp.
They even have matching secret demon and talisman tattoos on their chests to signify their occult bonds.
Marilyn Manson calls them “The West Hollywood Three” which is a pun on the name West Memphis Three. A name that was given to Echols and his two convicted child pals in the rape and torture of 3 boys in Memphis, Tennessee.
“The man Johnny Depp helped release from Arkansas’ death row has become like a brother to him, right down to getting matching tattoos.
“We have some,” Depp said Saturday as he touched a tattoo on the right side of his chest.
“This one Damien designed. It’s one of my all-time favorites, and it means quite a lot to me,” Depp told The Associated Press before the premiere of the documentary, “West of Memphis,” about Damien Echols and his two co-defendants.
Echols said whenever he and Depp get together, they often end up in a tattoo parlor. Depp said it’s about “celebrating the moment.”
A fact that you need to know is that Damien Echols was the executive director of the films which played a huge part in securing his release.
This meant that he had the final say in what information will be presented in the film and what they will not be shown to the public.
When I discovered that Echols was the executive director, I immediately thought “How many convicts would love to receive millions of dollars for their defense and to direct a movie to secure their release telling the public about only the details of the crime that they would like them to believe?”
In my opinion, that is a lot of magical power to hand to a convicted child raping killer who is on Death Row. In fact, this has never happened in the history of our justice system.
As the author, Gary Meece points out in his book, Blood on Black: The Case Against the West Memphis 3 Killers, which is unlike the other books and documentaries about these crimes because he actually uses real court case files. Meece wrote:
“The murders were thrill kills, according to Echols himself. But they were much more than that. Police were struck by the ritualistic aspects. Local dabblers in the occult immediately came under suspicion.
Under questioning, Echols, already acknowledged as a witch, flaunted his knowledge of the occult, his theories of how the killings could have “magickal” implications and his insights into how the killer would think and feel.
He demonstrated special knowledge about the case beyond the little publicly known. He gave out signals that he was a prime suspect; a series of witnesses further implicated him. A confession broke open the case.”
All these facts were mysteriously left out of the movie script… I wonder why?
What is also left out of the film is over 500 pages of mental health records saying things like Echols was prone to extreme acts of violence, liked to drink human blood and threatened to kill and eat people like his own father.
These 500 pages are known in the West Memphis Three case filed as “Exhibit 500.”
It includes most of the hospitalization and mental health records of Damien Echols as a teenager while he lived in Arkansas and Oregon and also his application for disability. Yes, he applied for disability due to his inability to function as a normal person due to his severe mental health issues and thus keep a job.
It is a large collection of mental health status records, psychological testing, dozens of damaging notes by mental health doctors and nurses and also includes statements from Jerry Driver, Damien’s parole officer.
Here is a small example of some pertinent facts you should know about Damien Echols before the murders.
Harming self
* Suicidal.
* Made a suicide pact with Deanna Holcomb.
* Self-mutilation (cutting and burning).
* History of drug abuse.
Violent threats or ideation
* Threatened harm to or threatened life of Pamela Echols (mother).
* Threatened harm to or threatened life of Joe Hutchison (father).
* Threatened harm to or threatened life of father of Deanna Holcomb (girlfriend).
* Threats/terroristic threatening, others.
* Murderous ideation.
Violent acts and attempted acts of aggression.
* Chased child with ax.
* Initiates fights at school/aggression toward others.
* Attempted to claw out schoolmate’s eyes.
* Started fires.
Belief system/behaviors
* Witchcraft interest and practice.
* Satanism, occultism or devil worship.
* Possessed by a spirit or demon.
* Drank blood of peers (voluntary or involuntary).
* Claimed to be a vampire.
* Planned to have baby and sacrifice it.
* Wrote disturbing, dark, or occult (or satanic) poetry.
* Made occult (or satanic) drawings.
Damien Echol’s long history of family dysfunction, mental health issues, violence, and sexual abuse were the main themes that can be found in the Exhibit 500 documents and in later witness statements taken after his arrest.
In these records, Echols had said to various psychiatrists and therapists that he had no feelings for his family and that he hated both his step-father and biological father and that he did not like his sister because “she want(ed) to be like him and that bothers him a lot.”
His mother said Damien’s biological father may have been physically abusive and once threatened to break Damien’s arm. His stepfather was accused of being sexually abusive, and possessive toward his mother, and was “mentally abusive” to his step-children.
An interesting note is that Damien is not his birth name. He was born Michael Wayne Echols and he changed his name as a teenager from Michael to Damien. Damien said both in trial and to a social worker in 1992, that he was the reason behind the name change.
He claimed that he had been interested in Catholicism at the time and admired Father Damien, who tended to lepers on Molokai. But many people allege that he took the name himself after the boy in The Omen who was really a demon.
Damien’s first stay at a mental hospital was at the Charter Hospital in Little Rock after threatening to commit suicide after being arrested for burglary, sexual misconduct, and breaking and entering involving an incident with his then girlfriend and her parents. Damien was sent to the hospital after expressing plans to commit suicide in the detention facility.
From the numerous reports compiled there, we can start to see a more complete version of Damien’s mental health and occult history.
Damien said that he had been suspended from school seven times for setting fires. He also mentioned a fight with a classmate over a girl, where he almost gouged out his eyes. The classmate was questioned and the incident was found to be true. There was a time when Damien chased a child with an axe, but Echols would later deny the event happened.
The hospital staff confirmed that he had a history of physical aggression and felt that his peers at school taunted him. They observed Echols daily, and took a lot of notes referring to him as being “depressed” and “withdrawn”, with a “flat affect”. He told the hospital that he had burned himself with lighters, and huffed gas and paint
Echol’s mother expressed concern to the hospital about her son’s “anger and rage”. His MMPI evaluation (which begins on page 199) also made note of Damien’s apparent “impulsive hostility” and how he may “feel justified in treating others in an unprincipled matter” due to perceived wrongs.
The mental health staff noted that he may have been suffering from paranoia and auditory hallucinations, due to sniffing the air and giving “inappropriate smiles.” The MMPI evaluation diagnosed him with depressive disorder, bipolar, and paranoid schizophrenia. Echols claimed at his trial that he was on medication for manic depressive behavior, though what was prescribed to him (Tofranil) is actually an anti-depressant and is known to make manic behavior worst.
In 1992, while incarcerated at the Craighead County Detention Center in September of 1992, after it was found that he drank the blood that came from a peer, he was transferred to the Charter Hospital of Little Rock for observation.
Details about the incident are contradicted by Echols who claimed that the person had allowed him to suck blood from his neck but the incident report from the Juvenile Detention Center said that Damien had sucked blood from a peer’s arm without warning.
In an interview on September 15, 1992, a social worker claimed that Echols discussed his devil-worshippingiefs in vampirism. The social worker also claimed that Damien was giggling and smiling at inappropriate moments, during this interview.
The initial evaluation also stated that his peers at the detention center were afraid of him and that he showed poor judgment and had little insight into his illness. They also noted that Damien seemed cooperative but drew occult symbols, which concerned them.
In early 1993, Echols attended more counseling when he claimed to his therapist that his “parents were constantly fighting” and that he had “tried to ignore it but eventually started fighting back.”
During the evaluation, he made various disturbing statements that proved that he was a hardcore Satanist who performed blood rituals.
Echols said to the therapist that he wanted to “go where the monsters go when I die” and that he “hated the human race.” He talked often about his beliefs in witchcraft, but claimed that he was not part of a cult. Echols said that he drank blood to feel power, though it had to come from a sexual or ruling partner.
He said that he had a spirit living inside of him and communicated with demons through rituals and admitted that due to his anger, he blew up sometimes and wanted to hurt other people.
Shortly after he was released from the hospital, Echols applied for SSI disability benefits.
As I had mentioned, the West Memphis Three case had got a lot of attention from Hollywood because some people had wrongly characterized their prosecution as the result of a Satanic Panic and overzealous law enforcement who busted Echols and two other teens just because they were into heavy metal and wore Metallica t-shirts.
A movie was made that was funded by people such as Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder, and Marilyn Manson and directed by Damien Echols himself. In my opinion, that is a lot of magical power and money to hand to a convicted child-raping killing Satanist who is on Death Row.
As you can witness for yourself with the multiple confessions of one of the murderers and the facts documented in Echols mental health records via Exhibit 500, Damien was a hardcore Satanist with a lust for violence and liked to consume human blood.
He was not part of some local cult or organized Satanic sect, but like most people who commit crimes like this, he suffered from family problems, mental health and drug issues. He had a tendency for violence and a taste for human blood.
Fast forward to today and you will find Damien Echols free as a bird and happy as a Satanic clam.
Echols sells books on “High Magick” and demon sigils in his online store that he claims helped him get out of prison and you know what, I believe him 100%.
He is writing books teaching kids and adults on his popular Youtube channel. Dark wisdom that he dispenses to anyone and everyone showing the very magic that he used to escape from Death Row for the rape, torture, and murder of three boys that he “allegedly did not commit.”
In addition to his books, Youtube and Twitter, he also receives thousands of dollars a month on Patreon.
But let me remind you that he and his accomplices pleaded guilty to the crimes on two occasions.
They were never proved to be innocent or exonerated for the rape and murder of the three innocent boys.
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
In 2019, the evil world began to crumble around one of the most famous R&B singers of all time, R Kelly after several women shared their stories claiming he had sexually assaulted them in a six-part documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.”
The film starts with one of his victims separating the artist R Kelly from his legal name, Robert Kelly. As if he were two different people. She said:
“There’s a difference between R. Kelly and Robert,” she says. “R. Kelly’s this fun, laughing, loving guy. But Robert is the devil.”
Shortly after the news came out, R. Kelly’s manager, Darrell Johnson was confronted by TMZ. He told TMZ: “Mr. Kelly feels like the devil is working overtime in an effort to try to destroy his musical legacy for selfish, personal enrichment.”
After the documentary was released, the singer made reference to Lucifer and the Devil in an interview with CBS anchor, Gayle King. King asked Kelly, “Do you still sit here and say you have never been with underage girls? Can you really say that?”
He responded:
“If you really look at that documentary, which I’m sure you have…everybody says something bad about me. Nobody said nothing good. They were describing Lucifer.
“I’m not Lucifer. I’m a man, I make mistakes, but I’m not a devil. And by no means am I a monster.”
He added: “They [women] are lying on me.”
But the Devil was the least of the singer’s worries.
Legal authorities had charged R Kelly with several crimes including child pornography, kidnapping, obstruction of justice, sex trafficking, and racketeering for purposes of sexual exploitation of children.
Prosecutors said that Kelly led a “criminal enterprise” of managers, bodyguards, and other employees, who assisted the singer to recruit women and underage girls for sex and pornography, and crossing state lines for the purpose of sex trafficking.
And this was not the first time the Grammy-winning artist had faced child pornography charges.
In 2008, R Kelly was found not guilty of 14 counts of child pornography after Chicago prosecutors failed to convince a jury that he was the man seen on a sex tape with a 13-year-old girl.
During the court hearings, it was discovered that he also secretly married the late singer Aaliyah when she was only 15 and he was 27 in 1994.
Prosecutors alleged that Kelly had “sexual contact” with Aaliyah and bribed a government official for a fake ID showing her age as 18. The marriage was annulled soon thereafter.
The prosecutors in the current case were allowed to present evidence to the court that Kelly had “sexual contact” with Aaliyah referred to as “Jane Doe #1” when she was underage.
Prosecutors said she became pregnant, so he secretly arranged a marriage to protect himself from possible criminal charges, because a wife can’t be forced to testify against a husband.
“It’s clearly relevant and it clearly shows a motive for Racketeering Act Number One, so that is admissible,” U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly ruled.
One of the victims, Faith Rogers said she met the singer after a concert in San Antonio in 2017.
She claimed that Kelly sexually assaulted her in a hotel room two months after their first meeting alleging that it was “non-permissive, painful, and abusive sex” and that afterward, he criticized her for “lack of participation.”
In court documents, she stated: “Defendant, R. Kelly, locked Plaintiff in secluded areas including rooms, studios, and motor vehicles, for extended periods of time in order to punish Plaintiff for failing to please Defendant sexually and/or for perceived offenses and violations of his prescribed code of conduct.”
Rogers also said that he gave her alcohol despite her being underage and infected her with herpes after failing to disclose he had an STD.
In a previous interview with CBS News, she claimed that he told her to call him “Daddy,” and introduced her to one of the five women he was “raising.”
After Rodgers appeared in Surviving R. Kelly documentary, her lawyers claimed Kelly sent a notarized letter to a lawyer representing her, which contained compromising photos of her and said:
“If she persists in court action she will be subjected to public opinion,” and said Kelly would be able to get “10 personal male witnesses testifying about her sex life.”
When R Kelly was confronted by a Federal Grand Jury with the charges, he placed the blame on the Prince of Demons. Kelly told the courts:
“I blame the devil!”
On July 26, 2022, a Brooklyn, New York court found Kelly (55) guilty of all charges sending the disgraced singer to a lengthy prison sentence of 30 years.
R Kelly’s manager, Donell Russell also pleaded guilty to stalking, threatening, harassing, and blackmailing one of the victims in a desperate attempt to save his boss’s career and I’m sure, more importantly, his salary. Russell faces up to 5 years in prison and is awaiting sentencing on November 17, 2022.
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
666 is the number of the beast (666) in the New Testament and Christian numerology. It is mentioned only once in the Bible and is associated with the apocalypse and what Saint John calls “The Beast.”
The Book of Revelation 13:18-19 reads:
“Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”
Scholars of the Apocalypse agree that “no other problem in Revelation has given rise to so many speculations as that of the meaning of this number (666)”
The Bible does not give a definitive answer.
However, the association of 666 with the Beast, the devil, the Antichrist, and Satan is a long-standing one that has its roots in both Christianity and Judaism. Some Bible scholars say that the number stands for “the man of sin” who will deceive many and lead them astray.
Satan himself will one day come to power and rule over the world for a period known as the Tribulation. The Tribulation is said to be a time of great suffering, and those who do not know Christ will be subject to the Antichrist’s rule.
In modern times, some people have speculated that the mark could be a physical brand that identifies those who worship the beast. The prophecy has also been interpreted as meaning an identification device like bar codes and biometrics earlier but now it seems more likely that they are predicting some type of implantable chip for humans called “the number”
Today we have smart technology and biometrics to ID all citizens globally:
“Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead” (Rev 13:16).
This would also make it easier for the Beast or Satan to find and persecute his enemies.
Some Christians believe that 666 is a symbol of materialism and evil, and other people believe that it simply represents the imperfection of humanity. Some Bible scholars and esotericists believe that 666 is representative of man in his natural state – sinful and separated from God.
Meaning that 666 is the number for all of humanity, since man was created in God’s image.
Other people speculate that the mark could be a 666 tattoo or other physical markings that identify someone as being a follower of the beast.
For example, the Covid vaccine with governments around the world mandated forced vaccinations have been suggested to inject the mark into unsuspecting citizens under the guise of a pandemic. Perhaps, as some people say, there is a magnetizing substance hidden in vaccines such as graphene, which is magnetic and makes it easier for governments to track their citizens.
But what does 666 mean?
Whatever its origins, 666 has come to be widely recognized as a sign of man, sin, evil, and darkness. As far as people representing 666, the list is endless.
The most popular theory is that it refers to the emperor Nero, who was responsible for the burning of Rome in AD 64.
“The name ‘Nero Caesar’, written in its Greek form, yields the exact number 666”. This has led some to claim that Nero (who was Roman emperor from 54 until he died 68) was the Antichrist.
In 66, when Nero was emperor and the Jews revolted against Rome and coined their own money. The Greek word translated as a mark (of the beast), χάραγμα, also means stamped money or coin; “no one buys or sells without the money of the beast.”
He was responsible for persecuting Christians in Rome during his reign and may have even ordered their deaths by burning them alive inside a coliseum specially designed for this purpose (the Colossus). He also tried to rebuild Rome after it had been destroyed by fire in 64 AD.
Many Protestant theologians and authors such as Martin Luther and John Calvin identified the beast of Revelation 13 with the Roman Catholic Pope. Luther said that the “Pontifex Maximus” (Pope) was first considered uncontrollable about the year 666 A.D. Like Luther and Calvin, later Protestant writers identified the beast of Revelation 13 with the pope.
666 A.D. is the year when Wilfrid returns from France, newly consecrated as Bishop of York and the subsequent conversion of the Saxons from Paganism to Christianity. King Lucius is exhorted by Pope Eleutherius to prize the law of God far above the law of Caesar – “superior papal authority and dominion is derived from the law of the Caesars.”- Lucius Ferraris
One of the titles of the Pope is the “Vicar of Christ,” and in Latin “Vicarius Filii Dei.” In English, this means “Vicar of the Son of God” or “Substitute of the Son of God.”
As Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed in 1302 “Unum Sanctum”; “We, therefore, assert, define and pronounce that it is necessary to salvation to believe that every human being is subject to the Pontiff of Rome….. That which was spoken of Christ…
‘Thou hast subdued all things under His feet,’ may well seem verified in me. I have the authority of the King of kings. I am all in all and above all, so that God, Himself, and I, the Vicar of God, have but one consistory, and I am able to do almost all that God can do. What, therefore, can you make of me but God ?”
Boniface had feuded with Dante and excommunicated the French King Philip and several others from the church. Shortly after making the proclamation and excommunicating King Phillip, Boniface was imprisoned and beaten to death.
In his Inferno, Dante portrayed Boniface as destined for hell and recalls the story of the pontiff’s feud with the Colonna family, which led him to destroy the city of Palestrina, killing 6,000 citizens and demolishing both the home of Julius Caesar and a shrine to Mary.
Other candidates for the Beast include Caligula and Charlemagne and as time moved on, more people and suspects have been added to the list by authors and speculators. People like Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini, Saddam Hussein, John Kennedy, Sun Myung Moon, Mikhail Gorbachev, Henry Kissinger, and the US President with 6 letters in each of his names, Ronald Wilson Reagan.
Entities such as The World Bank, The Ecumenical Movement, The Council on Foreign Relations, The United Nations, The European Community, The Trilateral Commission, and one of the newest conspiracies is the mysterious CERN and all the weird events surrounding this agency.
Again, the list goes on and on…
However, the facts are that up until recent times, only trusted scholars and Fathers of the Church were trusted with the translations and interpretations of the Scripture.
When we study the traditional literature of the early church in which Saint John was involved, we see a common Apocalyptic theme among all Biblical scholars. This is the ancient struggle for world supremacy between the Greeks in the East and the Romans in the West and the priests, spies, leaders, and philosophers who defined them.
If we follow early tradition, we will see that many early Church commentators like Ireneaus believed that the Beast and the number 666 were connected with the Ancient Roman Empire (Latin).
One of the earliest commentators on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John, Saint Irenaeus proposed the Greek word “lateinos” in connection with the name and number of the beast. The letters found in “lateinos” add up to 666, which means in English, “Latin man.”
The Latin Empire was intended to replace the Byzantine Empire as the Western-recognized Roman Empire in the east, with a Catholic emperor enthroned in place of the Eastern Orthodox Roman emperors. The “Roman Empire” encompasses the history of the Romans from the origins of the Empire in approximately 45 BC.
The Greek Byzantines referred to the Latin Empire as the Frankokratia (Greek: Φραγκοκρατία, lit. “rule of the Franks”) or the Latinokratia (Λατινοκρατία, lit. “rule of the Latins”). It was at the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 during the Crusades and the institution of the Latin Empire under the Knights Templar and the installation of Baldwin of Flanders as “emperor” in 1204, until the Byzantines retook Constantinople in 1261.
Saint Victorinus of Pettau was an Early Christian ecclesiastical writer who flourished in about 270 AD. Victorinus associates the number 666 with Phoebus, also known as Apollo, an angel of light and knowledge in Greek and Roman mythology. Victorinus’ account diverges from the traditional line of thought associating 666 purely with evil and instead believed it was a “Apollo Helios” who is cut off from the light and then transforms himself into an angel of light.
He wrote in Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John;
“In Hellenistic times, especially during the 3rd century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks with Helios, Titan god of the sun.
His number is the name of a man, and his number is Six hundred three score and six.” As they have it reckoned from the Greek characters, they thus find it among many to be τειταν [teitan], for τειταν [teitan] has this number, which the Gentiles call Sol and Phoebus; and it is reckoned in Greek thus: τ three hundred, ε five, ι ten, τ three hundred, α one, ν fifty,—which taken together become six hundred and sixty-six.
For as far as belongs to the Greek letters, they fill up this number and name; which name if you wish to turn into Latin, is understood by the antiphrase DICLUX, which letters are reckoned in this manner: since D figures five hundred, I one, C a hundred, L fifty, V five, X ten,—which by the reckoning up of the letters makes similarly six hundred and sixty-six, that is, what in Greek gives τειταν [teitan], to wit, what in Latin is called DICLUX; by which name, expressed by anti-phrases, we understand Antichrist, who, although he be cut off from the supernal light, and deprived thereof, yet transforms himself into an angel of light, daring to call himself light. (Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John)
Swedish Christian theologian, scientist, and philosopher, Emmanuel Swedenborg believed that the mark of the beast received on the forehead or the right hand (Revelation 13:16) “signifies the acknowledgment of being a Reformed Christian, and confession that he is so” and “the name of the beast signifies the quality of the doctrine.” (The Heavenly Doctrines 1758)
Swedenborg said that the number of the beast signifies the quality of the confirmation of doctrine and faith from the Word among them. Six hundred and sixty six signifies every truth of good, and as this is said of the Word, it signifies every truth of good in the Word, here the same falsified, because it is the number of the beast. The number six hundred and sixty six is used, because that number six is tripled, and triplication completes.”
Christian author, Tom Horn says: “[m]any Christians believe that, before long, an antichrist system will appear. It will be a New World Order, under which national boundaries dissolve, and ethnic groups, ideologies, religions, and economics from around the world, orchestrate a single and dominant sovereignty…
According to popular Biblical interpretation, a single personality will surface at the head of the utopian administration… With imperious decree the Antichrist will facilitate a one-world government, universal religion, and globally monitored socialism. Those who refuse his New World Order will inevitably be imprisoned or destroyed,” Horn said.
As you can see, just like many alleged figures in history may be the Beast, there are almost as many theories among religious scholars and authors. However, a few common themes appear with most of them.
First of all, the Beast will be a man connected to the Tribe of Dan, the Latin Empire, the Franks (French), and Rome.
This man will be associated with a person who is mostly called the “Antichrist” and sometimes by the name Satan whose rule or governmental system will come in the so-called end days of the days of Revelation.
It will be a New World Order. What appears to be a global Socialist empire.
Saint Hippolytus (born c. 170—died c. 235) understands the fourth kingdom of Daniel as Rome. Hippolytus wrote in his “Treatise on Christ and Antichrist”;
“By the beast, then, coming up out of the earth, he means the kingdom of Antichrist; and by the two horns, he means him and the false prophet after him. And in speaking of “the horns being like a lamb,” he means that he will make himself like the Son of God, and set himself forward as king.
And the terms, “he spake like a dragon,” mean that he is a deceiver, and not truthful. And the words, “he exercised all the power of the first beast before him, and caused the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed,” signify that, after the manner of the law of Augustus, by whom the empire of Rome was established, he too will rule and govern, sanctioning everything by it, and taking greater glory to himself.
For this is the fourth beast, whose head was wounded and healed again, in its being broken up or even dishonored, and partitioned into four crowns; and he then (Antichrist) shall with knavish skill heal it, as it were, and restore it.”
This commentary by Hippolytus is interesting because modern-day Russia is sometimes referred to by the Russians themselves as the Third Rome.
As if they were the current torchbearers of the Ceasars. An empire that may have never ended.
For the last few years, the most observant Orthodox Church leaders in Russia have been protesting against the use of “satanic figures”, such as the “internet, smartphones, tax code, and Covid.”
Recently on September 30, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over a ceremony at the Kremlin to annex four Ukrainian regions partly occupied by his military forces.
During the 37-minute address, Putin decried “Satanism” in the West and U.S., referring to a radical denial of moral, religious, and family norms as well as transgender issues.
The overthrow of faith and traditional values. Indeed, the suppression of freedom itself has taken on the features of a religion: outright Satanism,” Putin proclaimed.
In January 2019, Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church proclaimed that the Antichrist was here and would eventually rule the entire human race over the worldwide internet web. He said, “The Antichrist is the person who will be at the head of the worldwide web, controlling all of humankind.”
“That means that the structure itself poses a danger. There shouldn’t be a single center, at least not in the foreseeable future, if we don’t want to bring on the apocalypse.”
“Every time you use your gadget, whether you like it or not, whether you turn on your location or not, somebody can find out exactly where you are, exactly what your interests are, and exactly what you are scared of,” Kirill continued. “Such control from one place forebodes the coming of the Antichrist.”
The “devil acts very wisely” in offering people such a “toy”, he said.
In May 2020, the bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church and the most authoritative member of the Moscow Synod, Metropolitan Ilarion (Alfeev), conveyed similar revelations about the time we are living;
“There is, alongside the hypotheses of biological warfare, also the possibility of bio-psychological warfare, when trying to instill fear in the population, to control it in a more radical way, “Ilarion told the Rossija-24 TV channel. He, therefore, called for the development of “strong immunity not only physically, but also spiritually, in the strength of mind”.
Valentina Pashenko, president of the “Committee in defense of the family and morality” in Voronezh, denounces the use of biometric fingerprints to enter bank and government buildings and rejects electronic texts.
Speaking to the BBC in April 2019, Valentina said that “when all personal data will be stored in one system, evil people will be able to exclude any unwanted person from the system”.
“First pensions and then all other information about the person, his property, social rights, data on the family and children, school and medical data, salaries: the whole life of the individual will be inserted into an electronic number”,
Pashenko warns, “it is like the mark of the Stalinist camps, where our grandparents were sent”.
Conclusion
So what does 666 mean?
Whether you believe in biblical prophecies or not, it’s fascinating to consider the deeper meaning behind this mysterious number.
One thing is for sure, the meaning of 666 is not entirely clear. It could represent Rome, the Pope, the Antichrist, or Satan himself.
Hell, maybe it is all of the above.
Do you have any thoughts about the biblical meaning of 666 or how it applies to man or your life?
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Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
