It was brought to my attention earlier today that tomorrow is June 6, 2006. This means that tomorrow's date is 666. Personally, this means nothing to me. The mythicism of the number, whether the prophecies (which we'll get to in a minute) result in truth or fallacy or whatever... My indifference is due mainly to the fact that, no matter what happens, if the whole shithouse goes under or continues to spin aimlessly in the cold black empty universe for eternity, there's nothing i can do about it. I could die now or wait fifty years to die. Whichever is fine. 
 
So, i accept all of it, sometimes gladly, other times weak and curious. therefore, let me die now and it's the truth about what i've done and so be it... blah blah blah (so how do YOU sleep at night?).... 
 
Anyway, we're addressing the biblical prophecies of THE END OF TIME, or the ARMAGEDDON, which is more or less the gist of the Book of Revelations in the Bible, and also the book that mentions 666. And again, it means shit to me. However, this is not to say that this book is not very interesting when it comes to the idea of its potential meaning, predictions and prophecies. 
 
First, i will deliver the passage in Revelations that, for the first and last time in the bible, mentions the number 666: 
 
"And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." (Revelations, 13:17-18). 
 
There are many speculations about what this verse - and this number - means. and of course, i have my own. Also, i am not about to go into all the different theories of what this particular theologan says and what this other idiot says and what the motherfuckers in the condo in Philly say and all that bullshit... do your own research if you want to take in all that crap, because there's plenty of "insight" out there, i'm sure. i'm just gonna give you two things to think about, which i can't seem to get away from when i think of what the number 666 might connotate. 
 
The first thing to note about the passage is this: that "the mark" is the name of the beast, the number of the beast, and the number of MAN. To me, this means that man IS the beast. And, if you know your bible, this is perhaps due to the fact that God created man on the SIXTH day! So, we might even say that if God is "spirit", than the Devil is the proverbial "man." The beast who rules blindly, without soul or spirit. That said, what then is "The Mark"? And who or what is "The Beast"? 
 
I'll give you my first thought, a brief speculation, which may or may not be far-fetched. Perhaps the beast (the Antichrist) is already among us, and the Armageddon is already in process. This may be best explained by the words of T.S. Eloit: 
 
"This is how the world ends 
This is how the world ends 
This is how the world ends 
Not with a bang but a whimper" 
 
As Eliot suggests, it's not unfathomable that the end of the world, since we live in an infinite universe, may take a very long time in human terms, but not so long in terms of Time in itself. For example, the time that man has existed on the planet as we know it, relative to the time that the universe has existed as we know it, equates to about as long as a blink of an eye. That quick! Anyway, the point is, that the end of the world comes slowly, dispairingly, and we are just parasites feeding from and on the process of decay. I'm trying to stay away from this metaphysical bullshit, so i'll give you a curios example of what i mean---first, about man being the beast, and second, about the significance of that damn number and it's relation to man AND religion: 
 
how about this?---First, lets take into consideration the history of the actual number. We all know of the age-old numbering system of Roman Numerals. Stay with me. At this time the common language was Latin. Latin letters also represent numbers. For example, the letter V is also the number 5. So, in Roman Numerals, the number 666 is VI VI VI. In the Latin language, if you do the research, this refers directly to Vini, Vidi Vinci, which translates to "I came, I saw, I conquered." Starting to see what's happening here? Well, let's take it another step further... 
 
Since man began the concept of physical religion---namely churches, law, order, and community as well as collective control, there has been a HEAD of that "church". In Christianity, this would be the Pope. Since the appointment of the very first Pope (by the way, Julius Caesar was a pope prior to the birth of Jesus) the Pope has been declared the "Vicar of Christ." This term is nothing new to Christianity. Now, if you translate it back into to Latin, we find something interesting: In Latin, the "Vicar of Christ" translates to "Vicarius Filii Dei", which basically means "the chief steward of Christ". And we know now that, in Latin, like in Greek, letters are also used to represent numbers. . so lets "add up" the title Vicarius Filii Dei. Below, the letters that are also used as numbers are in caps: and the numbers they represent are directly below the letter. 
 
(Note: in Latin, the letter V also represents the letter U, as in VicariUs) 
 
V I C a r I V s f I L I I D e I 
 
5 1 100 1 5 1 50 1 1 500  1 
 
So, the letters representing numbers are as such: V=5, I=1, C=100, L=50, D-500. Now, take all the numbers above, represented by the capital letters in the title Vicarius Filii Dei, and if you add them up across the board you'll see that they add up to 666. WHAT'S MORE, my friends, is that if you read Revelations, the sentence before the above passage we are now addressing reads: "And it will cause all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, to have a MARK on their right hand or on their FOREHEADS..." So---back to the Pope, who, as we all know from modern times as well as historical, wears a big funny hat. This is called a "miter." The dictionary describes a miter as "the liturgical headdress and part of the insignia of a Christian bishop. In the Western church it is a tall pointed hat with peaks in front and back, worn at all solemn functions." And, if you look closely, the Pope wears his "title", meaning "Vicarius Filii Dei", across the front of his miter, and thus on his forehead! 
 
666, people! across the fucking Pope's forehead! 
 
"This is how the world ends 
This is how the world ends 
This is how the world ends 
Not with a bang but a whimper" 
 
I'm gonna leave it here for now. For now! Because, if you take the whole passage, including the pre-passage sentence i just gave you, you might be able to relate it to the fact (referring to "the Mark" and the mention of "buy and sell" and "identification of the small and the great, the rich and the poor...") that we are in fact, all of us, identified by a social security number, identified by the "system" by a number, a mark! United States law requires everyone be assigned a S.S. number at birth! That number is used for tracking and i.d.-ing. And, the problem of losing the S.S. cards or numbers is giving way to the thougt of implementing invisible tatoos as a more "convenient" way of NUMBERING people! The mark, the chip imbedded in our heads, not so far-fetched! Oh, yeah, and it may be interesting to note that now each I.D. includes the number 666 along with the social security number! (really?) Check it out! Just a thought. I'm gonna listen to Alessandro Moreschi now, the closest thing to God or the Devil I've come across in a long time! Maybe we'll do more on this tomorrow.