Archetype of the Antichrist

Ordo Antichristianus Illuminati^®

Antichrist is an archetypal personage. The term "antichrist" denotes an antithesis, an Adversary to the mythical figure of the Christ. Symbolically, antichrist is a metaphysical and psychological annihilation of orthodox theories in the Christ-cult identifying evil with privation and personal deity. Achetypi of antichrist serve as a psychological mirror for Osirian replays of guilt and fear about human "evil." Christendom as a schizophrenic polarity of dread and deceit has expressed the fundamental nature of human “evil” pertinent to “anti-christ” collectively. In a manner of speaking, Antichrist and Christ is representative of a psychological-metaphysical-mystical dualism within the darkest depths of the human psyche. Evil as a human phenomenon forms an interdependent whole with the SELF in the constitution of subconscious archetypi. The fallow Christ-cult conception of "imago dei" includes the totality of the various aspects of the soul; the gross, animal, and empyrean. Throughout the spiritual history of the human race, evil is a misperceived schism of the shadowed Self, no longer emanating from the Middle Pillar. Evil transcends religious perspective and theological speculation.

The phenomenon of evil's existence as a malevolent deity alongside religion dominates our perception into human consciousness and the human condition. Evil exists not as the opposite of good, nor as noumenon, avoided through dualism, rather as an aspect of the microcosm, of the soul. If the archetype of antichrist is segregated from the psyche, evil in the semblance of privation and personal deity are externalized in the process of enantiodromia, or emergence of unconscious schism that began during the "Renaissance" of the Christ-cult, culminating in post-modern society where anti-Christian sentiment prevails in a self-fulfilling prophecy of Christendom's own demise.

The human condition has not yet fulfilled or defined any sort of limit. It is an ongoing reformation and evolution and toward enlightenment into human seity and divinity, or what initiates testify to as the Mystery. What are the perceptible limits of Evil? Christianity with its spiritual entrapment of guilt and shame offers no workable conclusion to the origin of, existence of, and the enigma of evil, or its alleged diabolical architect. This is due to the fact that evil is not an unsolvable paradigm. Evil is a perpetually evolving mark of the human condition. Religion fails to engage the enigma of "evil." Monotheism fails to produce a workable explanation of evil in the defiant face of Thelema. The exemplar of evil lies solely in perception and individuation, which transcends religion.

Archetype of the Antichrist is a Christian confounding and delusional handling of metaphysics and mysticism. Antichrist, as all personifications of evil, mirror obsolete Christian terrors pertaining to mysticism and apostasy (Greek apostasia). Thus, as Christianity is now an obsolete relic of human spiritual history in the New World Order, it has externalized its impotent personal and collective fears of Illumination and adoration of the Serpent. The Roman Catholic and Protestant church evokes its repressed collective Shadow in the form of Antichrist and the primordial "Devil" in order to legitimize itself in the last pangs of its entirely delusional struggle against imaginary adversaries to a Mythic Slave-God. The Christian Slave-God is but a pale reflection of a brief flash of existence in between endless No-Thing-ness. Let us further consume this identification of the Antichrist 616 as a human agent of "evil" by nullifying traditional Judeo-Christian theodicy.

The prominent defence of Christian theodicy against the issue of reconciling the existence of evil with fallow Christian ethics is that, evil is solely the result of rejecting deity in sin. This rejection, or rebellion so-called, arises from the human species exercising the sanctity of Will. The phenomena of so-called "evil" in the cult of Christ is permitted by divine providence in order to conquer and attain the fulfillment of the greater good (Latin summum bonum) of unconditional Liberty averse to agenda and dogma. The preconception that "god" is neither all-"good" nor all-powerful controversially challenges the providence of the dead Christian deity. The omneity of the dead monosexual Christian patriarchal deity as defended in orthodox Christian theodicy asserts that deity transcends the multiverse and human perception. Language thus illustrates defectiveness in reconciling human perception with human expression.

Evil in infinite varieties of diverse models is an external projection and insurrection of the Will within the human condition. Evil is not an independent principle, nor is evil privation, or non-being. Evil, be it in the archetype of a primeval "devil" or some other imaginary malicious Christian deity, exists metaphysically and objectively. Popular consensus in post-modern society maintains that antichrist, as designated by Daniel and St. Paul, is not a human agent, but possibly an institution or organized power. Thus, the Antichrist and anti-christendom metaphorically are ontological archetypi and personifications of "evil" within the dark chasms of the human psyche. The roots of "antichrist" obsession originate in apocalyptic and messianic expectations of Second Temple Judaism. Apocalyptic origins of the antichrist pathos are inseparable from Judaic speculations on the culmination of history and its proximity to persecution.

Judaic culture of the last centuries of the Second Temple Period did not share in Christian fantasies of a human adversary to the expected Messiah. Nonetheless, it was a common conviction, although ambiguous, that a solitary malevolent angelic power led the human forces of "evil" throughout history. The persecution and blasphemies of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Seleucid Emperor from ^BCE 175 - 164 (Before Common Era) served as historical impetus of such anti-messianic designs. Noticeable religious literature pertaining to fears of ultimate "evil" manifested as a human agent were the apocalypses produced by the Jews circa ^BC250. This literature is agreed upon by theologians as the catalyst for a paranoid schema of history called apocalyptic eschatology. Important to notice is that the language of apocalyptic texts is not denotative or descriptive, rather is it elegiacally expressive. Art and imagery of apocalyptic literature convey a mystical sense and experience about the nature of human spiritual history. The Qum'ran community of ascetics residing near the Dead Sea circa ^BCE 150-70 ^CE (common/vulgar era) collected eschatological literature and held firm convictions that were reflected in later creeds of the Christian Catholic canon.

From the Old Æon, obsession with identifying Antichrist has polluted history with perpetual paranoia. The dogmatic and fundamentalist paranoia of the masses with the identity of Antichrist is an ongoing metaphysical aversion of unexplored and unexpressed aspects of the obscure human condition. The paranoia in the history of the antichrist mythos unveils how Christianity fails to reform in the evolution of the New Order of the Ages. Religious obsession with identifying the antichrist in history projects onto a daemonic adversary the undesirable predispositions of the psyche, which the masses recognize in their temporal identities, in the nefesh. The fundamental nature of "evil" represented by antichrist is expressed in the cult of Christ chiefly through the polarity of dread and deception. Slavish paranoia in the history of the antichrist personage portrays the ill manner wherein Christianity as a collective plague has perceived the maturity and evolution of itself as an institutionalized religion.

To commit to serious study of Judaic and Christian apocalyptic literature propels the reader into sensational imagery, cryptic characterizations, puerile fantasies, and confounding allegories. Such symbolism is replete with moral dualism and patriarchal monosexuality. In Judaic lore, metaphysical struggle throughout the human epoch of religion is presented as a schism between this "æon" (ha'olam hazzeh), and the "æon to come" (ha'olam habba) which is the Æon of Set-Heru in Thelema. Such a schism in meta-history contributes to expectations of praeter-human intervention and divine providence in a phallic-solar reformation of a "new earth" and "new heaven." Malignant and "evil" (so-called) spiritual powers appear in the majority of the world's ordered religious lore. The angelic agent of evil presented as antichrist or 'adversary' appear in the Old Testament as Shaytan (ShTN), the Hebrew verb meaning "to oppose"; which, in the form of a noun is applied in the Bible to human and angelic agents.

Major mythic elements in the Jewish tradition of Opposer to divine providence include ancient combat legends of a Creator deity's struggle against IT-SELF, as shadow/reflection in the character of a monster or dragon of Chaos. Another common interaction in Jewish apocalyptic literature is the role of angelic prosecutor or trickster-tempter whom manifests upon the material plane to conduct and carry out divine dirty work and empyrean prosecution of creation. In accounts of religious antiquity, one example of the proto-combat mythos is the Akkadian "enuma elish,” a tale of struggle between Marduk (champion of the gods) and Tiamat, female dragon of the waters of Chaos. Humanity in Akkadian lore is birthed from the corpse of Tiamat and of the blood of her consort, Kingu. Similar mythos of primordial combat are presented in the Canaanite lore from the ancient city of Ugarit between Baal and Yamm (again, the seas of Chaos).

Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Seleucid Emperor, is arguably one of the first and foremost candidates whom contributed to the apocalyptic fetishes of later Christ-cult apostates. Antiochus IV captured Jerusalem and plundered the Temple in BCE 169; banning Jewish religious practices altogether, and defiled the Temple by erecting a pagan shrine to Zeus. The Biblical author Daniel's portrayal of Antiochus IV as an eschatological adversary to Jehovah surpasses other end time conceptions in Jewish literature, fueling the fires to fantasies of Christian apocalyptic mania.

The first encounter of the term Antichrist is in the vulgar New Testament First and Second Epistles of John: "Children, it is the last hour (Greek, eschaté hóra). As you have heard that antichrist is to come: so now, many antichrists have made their appearance, and this makes us certain that it is the last hour. It was from our ranks that they have set forth - not that they truly belonged to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained...who, then, is the Liar? None other than the man whom denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist (Greek, ho antichristos): the man whom denies the Father and the Son." (I John 2; 18-19, 22). The term antichristos and its ambivalent preposition anti denotes "in place of Christ,” ”false Christ,” and "opposed to Christ.” The striking reference in the latter verse of the Epistle of John to the antichrist in the plural designates all dissenting and heretical members of Christian communalism as "antichrists." The ambiguous author of I John likely did not refer to a historical persona, more so it appears the concern related to the early Church. The identifying of the Antichrist fuels apocalyptic expectations of the early christian church. The Epistles of John condemn the spirituality espoused by a fringe community of Christ devotees whom had segregated from the overall fledgling Christ faith.

Scholarly exegesis indicates II, III John, and I were writ by at least three primary authors sufficient in the practice of adopting the pseudonym of "John." These authors exhibit their early commitment to the interpretation of the message of "Christ" cherished in the Gospel of John. This devotional sect garnered sympathy for their writings in what is referred to as the Johannine doctrinal tradition. The authors of the Johannine tradition refer to antichrist as an opponent of Jesus Christ rather than the opponent, using the term in the plural sense. The Johannine Epistles indicate a schism over proper interpretation of the Christ's alleged philosophy. Such dissenting members of the early Johannine community likely segregated themselves from the community around the first century of the vulgar era; perhaps against a movement of proto-Gnostics the Epistles were writ. The principal concern for antichrist in the Epistle of John is for a collective opponent undermining Johannine theology rather than a final single agent of "evil." What is dreaded is not the unleashing of an apocalyptic phase in history, but the fomenting of apostasy. The identifying of antichrist in the Johannine philosophy completely degenerated during the Medieval era of the Christ-cult into apocalyptic fervour.

The denial of the mythic Christ as a denial of the redemption from the Lie of original Sin (the greatest falsehood of the christian slave religion) is associated with heresy by the early Roman Catholic Ecclesia. The two ostensible Letters of John indicate dread over theological deception in the persona of the mythic Christ as redeemer and alleged saviour. Antichristendom thus ascended simultaneously with the message of redemption from the central personage of the Christ myth. Antichrist arose from the Lie of the Christ. The ideal of "evil" as political and spiritual deception made it possible for Medieval Christ-worshippers to believe in many antichrists as well as in a final personal opponent prophesized in the Books of Daniel and Revelations. Scholars identify personas of antichrist in the Old and New Testaments, as well as in Medieval Church history. Therefore, Abimelech, Nebuchadnezzar, and Antiochus IV Epiphanes are antichrist models of the Old Testament; and Herod, Barabbas, the mythic Simon Magus of the New Testament, and Nero Caesar, Diocletian, and Caligula are the most suitable candidates for antichrist in the early Christian dominion. In the first centuries of the Christ-cult; diverse designations of antichrist coalesced into a widespread mythical narration where the identities of the "Devil" and antichrist were fearfully intertwined.

The Book of Revelation in the vulgar christian New Testament further incites dread and mystery concerning the archetype of antichrist. The Greek apokalypsis translates as "unveiling,” an uncovering of what is normally hidden. The nefarious symbolism of antichrist receives its obsession from what theologians refer to as eschatological or millenarian beliefs. The Book of Revelations concerns us with metaphysical eschatology, or the expectation of historical "end times" and culmination. Eschatology is a product of the Greek tongue, a derivative of the term eschaton, which means an "end.” This apocalyptic style of sensationalism is alien to post-modern religious science, of which Thelema is its Flagship. Apocalyptic literature implies a "revelation,” mediated to the author by the Genius, or praeter-human intelligence. All events in the material correlate to a cosmic drama orchestrated by beings existing (or non-existing) in pre-eminent time. Apocalyptic literature challenges the religious scientist to penetrate the mysteries of antichrist and its mark in the world's religious traditions.

Scholars and theologians have ceaselessly debated the context of the apocalypse, assigning the identity of the Antichrist to the Beast of Revelations, then unto innumerable historical personages in profane history of the Christ-cult. It is absurd to postulate the literal ending of human history in a Biblical context. The mystery of the dead christian deity embodied in the allegory of the Crucifixion indicates an ongoing phenomenon symbolizing the presence and distant influence of the Christ figure from the date of the reception of the apocalyptic texts. Revelations divulges the opposition of this political and spiritual influence, whether as mortal archetypes of evil or embodied principles. Historical evidence has led scholars and theologians in the post-modern age to conclude that the scribe of Revelations as likely not the apostle John, rather a priest of the Johannine sect of early history of the Christ-cult.

The mythological "war" waged by the two 'Beasts' of the apocalypse likely also correspond to a metaphysical struggle between the church of the Christ-cult of slaves and collective ideals of evil often personified as human intermediaries. Irenaeus (c. 160-230), the first great theologian of the orthodox Church in Rome, included an exegesis on the archetype of antichrist, revealing new depths in eschatological manias. Irenaeus appealed to evidence of the manuscripts, to reason (logos) itself to display a pattern of an insidious renewal of the apostate that occurred incessantly throughout the history of Christian dominion. Irenaeus knew that "antichrist" must recapitulate (Latin, recapitulatio, Greek, anakephalaiosis) "evil" in the form of antithesis to Christian philosophy and morality. Irenaeus repeatedly returns to the immanence of "antichrist""; the Man of Sin, Son of Perdition whom renews apostasy in himself. Bishop Irenaeus, the leading patristic author of his time, used apocalyptic mentality to justify the persecution of those "heretics" such as pagans, gypsies, apostates, idolaters, and prostitutes whom existed outside the orthopraxy of the Church. Later scholars such as St. Augustine were critical of literal interpretations of the Book of Revelations, not wholly abandoning eschatological hopes of Christendom. St. Augustine pointed erroneously to heretics, pagans, and Jews as antichrists. Despite St. Augustine's critique of interpreting Revelation as literal, identifying Antichrist gained popularity with the onset of Islam.

To the cult of Christ, the view that the figmental Jesus of Nazareth alleged focused his Word on the present immanence rather than a coming immanence of Apocalypse and the divine Kingdom thereafter. After the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, Judaism and the Christ-cult underwent dramatic theological change; changes that had a profound affect on the divergent roads both religions would take in the institutionalization of their doctrines. The Beast 616 of the Apocalypse allegedly is identified with Roman Emperor T. Claudius Nero whose name and imperial title transcribed into Hebrew (NRVN KSR) amounts to 616, the infamous number of the name of "Beast." Nero Caesar is the zeal for new ideas concerning the antichrist legend, as the persecutor of Christians was a paradigm of megalomania and cruelty according to Roman historians as well as Christians. Nero committed matricide, and elevated himself to divinity in the Roman Pantheon as only fractured elements of the Roman Empire supported his reign. Later Roman legends of Nero foretold of an Emperor whom fled yet would return from the unknown lands of the east to conquer Rome. Such legendary tales of Nero Caesar fostered apocalyptic antichrist eschatology.

The legends of Nero Caesar are also in an apocalyptic context attributed to Book III of the Sibylline Oracles. Book III of the Sibylline texts is dated to be the eldest, with literature dating an estimated mid-Second Century BCE according to scholars. In verse 63 to 74, Nero is attributed to Beliar (Belial): "Then Beliar will come up from the Sebastenoi (either, "from the Sebasti", the line of Augustus or "from Sebaste", a city in Samaria) and he will raise up the height of the mountains, he will raise up the sea, the great fiery sun and shining moon, and he will raise up the dead, and perform many signs for men. But they will not be effective in him. But he will, indeed, also lead men astray, and he will lead astray many faithful, chosen Hebrews, and also other lawless men who have not yet listened to the word of god. But wherever the threat of the great God draws nigh and a burning power comes through the sea to the land it will also burn Beliar and all overbearing men, as many as have put faith in him." In Revelations, the "Beast 666" is a polyvalent emblem, representing a final opponent to Christ and the Church in the form of a human agent of "evil,” the Pagan Roman Empire.

Essentially NRVN KSR is the Beast arising from the Abyss (Greek, to thérion to anabainon ek tés abyssou), occurring in the first sequence of the Apocalypse. Revelations Chapter XVII offers a cryptic explanation of the antichrist regime: "The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss, and go to perdition; and dwellers upon the earth whose names have not been writ in the book of life from the foundation of the world will be amazed when they see the Beast who was, and is not, and is to come." (Revelation XVIII; 8). The scribes of the Apocalypse potentially intended to unveil significant information in the text to convey their fears of the "Beast 616." If the scribes of the Apocalypse had desired the name of "antichrist" to be known in the context of eschatology, initiates would not have such cryptic verses upon his persona and reign. The end of the world fantasies of Revelations indicate metaphysical struggles between the failures of the Christ-cult slave-morals and evil fought in a meta-historical context. This metaphysical struggle occurs within the human sphere, in the ambiguous shadows of history, while transcending history in a mythological motif.

Origen of Alexandria (c. e.v. 185-245) argued the metaphysical necessity of antichrist as the complement of extremities in the human soul. Origen saw the extremity of "goodness" in the Christ and the extremity of "evil" in antichrist. The exegesis of Origen in his "Commentary on John" builds upon apocalyptic dementia of the Christ-cult by referring to the final antagonist of Christendom in terms of false wisdom (Greek, to pseudos), or the Lie indwelt in every soul before its Knowledge and Conversation. Since the Middle Ages of the institutionalized Christ cult, preconceptions of "antichrist" are sensationalized to persecute rival religious institutions (such as Islam, and the Gnostics), and political opponents. Such apocalypticism stemmed from obsessive exegetical construal of obscure language and culture. Nevertheless, apocalyptic fetish is a plague central to the cult of Christ.

Christian apostasy and opposition to modernity produce grand paranoia pertaining to the Mystery of the Temple of the Antichrist. Christian specters of obsession provide for a theological home for tepid apocalyptic, doomsday worldviews of identifying antichrist. Such a slave-like crisis mentality projects and mythologizes the struggle of "good vs. evil" within every fearful misled Christ-peon upon the external. Middle Age commentators such as Matthew of Janov (1355 - 1393) and Joachim of Fiore (1132 -1202) contributed to radical interpretations of eschatology and the antichrist lore. Abbot Joachim contributes noteworthy theses on the seven-headed Dragon found in Revelations XII: "The seven heads of the Dragon signify seven tyrants by whom the persecutions of the Church were begun."

Abbot Joachim of Fiore numbers these metaphysical antichrists as Herod and the persecutions of the Jews, Nero and the Roman calamities, Constantius and the oppression of the heretics (so-called) to orthopraxy, Muhammad and the insurgence of Islam into Christianized Europe, Mesemoth and the genocide of the sons of Babylon, Saladin and his persecutions, and the final "seventh head"; who is spoken of by Joachim as magnus antichristus, maximus antichristus, the great antichrist. Antichrist obsession reached a climax during the Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Papacy became the political inception of "corpus antichristus mysticus,” the mystical body of the final Adversary. The Papacy itself often was attributed to the essence of the mystical body of antichrist and the Pope arraigned as a human agent of evil by such "reformers" as Martin Luther (1483-1546), William Tyndale (1494-1536), and John Calvin (1509-1564). The three high profile Reformists collectively saw "antichrist" as an imminent danger and none other than the veil of the Catholic Papacy. Luther's condemnation of the Catholic Lie issued in e.v. October 1520 accuses: "The papacy is indeed nothing but the kingdom of Babylon and of the true Antichrist."

With the ongoing fetish of identifying antichrist 616, the cult of Christ has undergone a schism into a dark side of itself, a dark side of human totality and a fracture of the human condition, rather than conquer and surmount obsolete motifs of "good" and "evil"; such a segregation of spirituality initiates the archetype of the antichrist. The cult of Christ has externalized its dark side of itself manifesting as the Æon of Set-Horus. Such a crisis mentality invoked in the specter of antichrist intensifies fundamentalism and will only justify further the demise of Christendom in the second Century of Thelema. In the eyes of the Christ-vassals, antichrist is upon the earth working in silence to subvert the institutions of the Christ-cult. Fetishes of expecting the antichrist are self-fulfilling prophecies of Christendom's own demise as a dysfunctional religious institution. The antichrist is an archetype of a projection and tempter, from the dark chasms of the human condition, created merely by men and women. Individuals whom lay claim to epithet of "physical incarnation of "Antichrist" enter into a deluded fantasy of the psyche. Antichrist is an archetype of spiritual elevation innate within every man and Scarlet Whore of Thelema. Antichrist-Armillus-al'Dhajjal annihilates the phallo-centric Cult of Christ! For as the mythic Christ was a crucified male figure, it is fitting that perhaps Antichrist-Armillus-al'Dhajjal shall be the epitome of the exalted Beast! The Temple of Antichrist dwells in the ineffable splendour of Her perpetual Sabbath, annihilating the bondage of the Old World Order in a Rising Tide of Luciferian catharsis.