Anton LaVey’s Satanic Rituals

 666 is NOT the number of the beast.

From Anton LaVey's book Satanic Rituals:

THE UNKNOWN KNOWN

Despite others' attempts to identify a certain number with

Satan, it will be known that Nine is His number. Nine is the

number of the Ego, for it always returns to itself. No matter

what is done through the most complex multiplication of Nine

by any other number, in the final equation nine alone will stand

forth.

The true ages of time are cast in the likeness of Nine, with

all cycles obedient to its Law. All matters of terrestrial concern

may be evaluated by the infallible resolution of Nine and its

offspring. Action and reaction relative to humanity's tribal

needs are contained within successive nine-year periods: the

total of both (eighteen years) is called a Working. 

The beginning and end of each Working is called a Working Year, 

and each midway point between the Working Years displays a zenith of intensity for the Working 

which has been brought about.

Nine eighteen-year Workings equal an Era (162 years).

Nine Eras equal an Age (1,458 years), which has been mistakenly called a millennium. 

Nine Ages equal an Epoch (13,122 years).

Each Age (1,458 years) alternates as Fire or Ice, each

differing in the means by which the Control presents its dictum.

During an Age of Ice, man is taught to refrain from his pride

and to retreat from himself; then he will be good. During an

Age of Fire, man is taught to indulge himself and to tear

himself open and look inside; then he will be good. During

an Ice Age, God is above. During a Fire Age, God is beneath.

Throughout each Age, big things occur each eighteen years, for

the Control must maintain a cycle of action and reaction within

the greater cycle of Fire and Ice.

Meaningful and portentous messages are cast forth each

eighteen years, and are acted upon for the eighteen years which

follow, at the end of which a new statement appears. The Ice

Age from which we recently emerged began in the year 508

"A.D." Just as the zenith of passion for what each Working

has inspired occurs halfway between the Working Years, so the

greatest intensity of each Age's message occurs at its midpoint.

Thus in the year 1237 "A.D." man's fervor for what the last

Ice Age represented had reached its summit. 

That Age ended in 1966, and the new Age of Fire was born.

The twentieth century has prepared us for the future and

the coming of the Age of Fire was well heralded in the last

Working Years of the Ice Age. The peoples of the Earth have

been touched by the vehicles of 1894, 1912, 1930, and 1948,

and communication has been well wrought. The new Satanic

Age was born in 1966, and that is why His Church was built.

The infant is learning to walk, and by the first Working

Year of his age-that is to say 1984-he will have steadied his

steps, and by the next-2002-he will have attained maturity,

and his reign will be filled with wisdom, reason and delight.

2002+18=2020- COVID

2020+18=2038- ??