Welcome. Today we are going to cover more of the occult symbols we are exposed to. Only this time we are going to focus on those we might have experienced in our teenage years, and those that our children might be exposed to as well. Again, you may want to say a prayer for protection against the evils we will be discussing. Another major point of these symbols and the people that propagate them, even the older people of our youth, are still active in our society and offering influence even now. I am nearly thirty years old, so I’m obviously a child of the ‘90’s. I was sixteen in ’95, so I am very familiar with the symbols used starting at that time period. So let’s see what we can find. Let’s start back a bit with one of the most popular bands to ever have existed; The Beatles. Sounds like they are innocuous enough right? Well, you would be mistaken. First off, let’s consider the name. Beatles are bugs of course, and there’s nothing unnatural about an insect, for they too are God’s creations. Many of us, myself included, are really creeped out by bugs, but we understand they serve an important function in nature. Now, the Beetles might be based on the insect, but in the face of the occult references we’re going to talk about in a few minutes, I tend to think it refers to something else entirely. What could we find in myth or legend that is similar to a beetle, but unnatural? The scarab. This was used as a symbol of the sun god in Egypt. The Egyptians based the scarab initially off of the dung beetle. They considered the rolling of dung similar to the movements of the sun across the sky. Now this in itself doesn’t sound too strange, except for the sun worship part. But later, into our modern world today, scarabs are considered to be foul creatures that consume the flesh of those that disturb a pharaoh’s tomb. In fact, I believe the scarab is featured in modern Egyptian folklore films like The Scorpion King and The Mummy series. I’m not sure, it’s been a while, but I do believe I remember seeing them in those movies, especially the first Mummy movie. So in modern light, the mythology surrounding the scarab in our times, in which the Beatles took their name, this could be considered the endorsement of the creatures. Moving on with our examination of this group we find album covers that are deeply questionable. Consider the cover of Sgt. Pepper, which features Aliester Crowley, who, as we’ve mentioned in an earlier work, is known as the most wicked man in the world during his lifetime. He is featured in the back row, second from the left. He is the bald man staring forward. Many thanks to Frank of Salvation Revelation podcast for teaching me about Crowley on the cover of the Beatles album. The cover features people the Beatles have called their role models. So the most wicked man on Earth is a role model or hero for this band? That seems a little sinister to me! Consider Paul McCartney’s 1971 cover for the album ‘Ram’. What do we see prominently here? Paul holding a ram’s head, pointing it forward to face the camera. Now last time we discussed the significance of the ram. Paul seems to trying to draw the focus to the ram and his embracing of it, his holding of its head. The Yellow Submarine cover shows a cartoon like drawing of the band, and features John Lennon holding his hand in the ‘mano cornuto’ symbol, a.k.a. the goat’s head gesture. Another picture from the Yellow Submarine album features an actual photo of the band. I’m not sure where in the album it is featured, if it is on the cover, or on the back or whatever. I will admit it is possibly a photo taken in the time frame, but references I have indicate it’s from the album. The picture features the band with Paul and John in front making hand gestures and the back two holding a yellow submarine. John’s gesture is the horned hand again, a sign of Satan we will discuss more later. Paul is flashing the sign considered to be universal for ‘okay’ a circle with the first finger and thumb, and the remainder of the fingers pointing upwards. Now this may seem innocent enough, but consider what you could interpret the gesture to be. The circle would be the bottom of a 6, and the fingers could each be separate stems of the number. Now how many fingers are pointing up? Three. There you have it, 666. And if not, then it could be an endorsement, and ‘okay’ if you will, for John’s horned hand. Think this is a bit out there? Well let’s consider some quotes from the band taken at the time, and see if that sheds some light on the issue. Paul McCartney, Hit Parader pg. 15, Jan 1970. said the following: “We probably seem to be anti-religious. . . none of us believes in God.” Now there’s you a real wholesome role model eh? Yeah, I don’t think so either. John Lennon in his book ‘A Spaniard In The Works’, pg 14 says: “Jesus El Pifico, a garlic-eating, stinking little yellow, greasy fascist bastard catholic Spaniard.” Again, that sounds just right evil to me. Maybe Grandma and Grandpa were right to be concerned about this band. Now let’s talk Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page is a world famous occultist, so much to the point that he has purchased the estate of Aliester Crowley. Also Page used a symbol as his personal mark, along with being the unofficial name of the band’s fourth untitled album. I cannot describe the symbol, for it is fairly complicated looking, but it is referred to as ‘Sozo’, and is said to be a stylized 666. One source I have claims that Page himself admitted this, but I have no corroboration of this statement, although it wouldn’t surprise me at all. Page also runs a small occult bookstore in England as well, or if it is no longer in operation, he did run it for some time. Now let’s move on to some of the more contemporary examples. I grew up while the self proclaimed ‘Prince of Darkness’ was still riding a wave of popularity. This artist was none other than Ozzy Osbourne, who is still in the public mind due to his recent reality show, and the fact his wife judges NBC’s ‘America’s Got Talent’. Ozzy has impacted our youth, including back through my generation and even earlier with his occult symbols. Of course labeling one self as the prince of darkness is pretty blatant symbology, but there are many more examples in his works. The man may be too old to consistently perform these days, but his namesake concert event still takes place regularly, featuring bands that are not renowned for their virtues, to say the least. Ozzy often uses a pair of lines in the first ‘O’ of his name. If you remove the letter, the lines would create an inverted cross. The symbol is referred to ‘Peter’s cross’ for some, a sign of humility by the Biblical Peter who chose to be crucified upside down because he felt unworthy of sharing the method of death of the Lord. But Satanists use the symbol instead as a sign of subversion to God. They intend it to be evil, the opposite of holiness. The circle, or the letter ‘O’, is called the ring of protection, or the ritual ring to magical practitioners. It offers containment from the power within, or protection from assailants of power from outside the circle. The circle also signifies the female in certain pagan earth worshiping belief systems. This includes a feminine spirit, or force, a spiritual sacred female idea. Now what would this have to do with Ozzy? The feminine circle around an inverted cross would be a subversion as well, turning the cross upside down, and presenting a feminine symbol opposite to the male Christ. Now let’s talk posters and promotional images created for Ozzfest. The 2001 artwork features what appears to be a pentagram featuring a goat’s head. The background pentagram is obscured by a red, horned beast. The background circle is apparent, obviously formed for the word ‘Ozzfest’. The beast like goat’s head is faintly outlined in white against the black background. This is obviously an occult reference. Let’s look at the red beast in the foreground now. The beast has a flaming red tail sticking up into the picture, and is holding one hand in a tightly clenched fist, indicating violence and aggression. The beast is leaning forward on the other hand, appearing to be trying to leave the picture and actually assail the viewer. The beast is very obvious in its appearance that is demonic. It is beyond plain that the red beast is a demon, pure and simple, if not meant to be Satan himself. Ozzfest 2002 is even more appalling. This artwork features what appears to be a venue and a crowd holding up the beast from the previous year. Now we gain a full view of the beast, which features a goat like body from the waist down, complete with hooves. The flaming tail is not visible in this rendition, but I am not sure if it is removed or just out of frame. This beast, demon or Satan from before, is actually being held aloft by the crowd. He would appear to be ‘crowd-surfing’ as it is called. The group is willingly holding the beast up above them, almost in a caressing kind of way. People not below the beast seem to be reaching desperately towards the creature, as if yearning to embrace him. I’m sure you will all agree that this is a horrifying idea, that people would embrace the beast, either demon or Satan. This is a continuing feature of evil that permeates this concert event. Now the year 2003. This one features a purple demon bursting forward from the ground. The hole around the purple demon is red and yellow, indicating fire below. Also there are several hands reaching up from the hole around the demon. The hands seem to be trying to escape the fire in the hole, because not all of them are reaching towards the demon. Also of note is the cross on the ground, which would seem to indicate that indeed the hole is bursting forward from a grave, which is a symbol of death, and lending even more credence to the idea of the hole leading to Hell. The demon has arisen at night, with a full moon in view under his outstretched arm. Why is the night and moon important? The holiness of God is full of purity and light, therefore the opposite of this would be a foul darkness. The symbol of night and darkness is used to signify rebellion from God. Sins and unholy deeds are performed in the dark and cannot stand the light of day. Evil shies away from direct view, the scrutiny of light. The moon is also an important symbol as well. The pagans use the moon as a symbol for the goddess. The moon represents the cycle of life and rebirth as it moves through the phases. The idea of birth is deeply connected to womanhood, for obvious reasons. Not only that, but the cycle of the moon is connected to a woman’s menstruation cycle, giving the moon yet another feminine connection. Either way, the moon and the darkness both represent things opposed to God. The demon is also making the sign of the horned hand with both of his hands. He is also wearing what appears to be a helmet, with the word ‘Ozz’ or possibly ‘Ozzy’ written across it. This would seem to indicate the demon is a member of an ‘army’ for the prince of darkness apparently. Or at the very least to Ozzfest’s message. And the final and most appalling thing about that year’s logo work is the fact the purple demon is holding an American flag. This seems to indicate that either the American youth follow the demon, or the demon seeks to align itself with us. Either way, it is indicating a connection that is quite disturbing. Now let’s consider the meaning of the hand gesture so prominently shown. The gesture is commonly used throughout Texas as the symbol of the Longhorns sports teams, and the University of Texas which they originate from. It is also insanely popular among rock groups and their fans. Also the gesture is used by politicians and countless others. Do all of these disparate groups wish to lend support to UT? I find that pretty much unbelievable. Did the gesture, used by one sole school in Texas rise to international fame? Not likely either. Consider that the gesture does greatly look like a pair of horns. And what creature, especially revered by the occult, features horns that go up fairly straight? That’s right, the goat. The gesture resembles a goat head. It does not resemble the horns of a longhorn at all. I am Texan, I have worked longhorn cattle once, and have been around one of the official herds kept by the State of Texas in a state park. I know that bovines feature horns growing out of the sides of their heads, not from the top. Goats, however, do have horns on top of the head. Let’s consider Longhorn (the sport teams) support. Best I know, Bill Clinton is not from Texas, and his political career to the White House started in Arkansas. I find it odd if he was supportive of UT over his native teams like the Razorbacks. Nevertheless, Clinton has been seen using the horned hand on many occasions. Well, okay, Clinton is American, and did live close to Texas, so maybe he is a UT fan. So let’s consider someone who really would have no reason to support Texas collegiate sports, like, say, an Iranian man like Ahmaninejad, who you likely know as the man who threatened the existence of Israel along with denying the Holocaust. I seriously doubt he would be a fan of UT. Even King Abdullah has flashed the symbol, is he a fan too? Let’s just run down a list of the other important or famous people that have flashed the gesture: Anton LaVey (known for founding the Church of Satan), Dan Quayle, John Lennon, Prince William, Paul McCartney, Elizabeth Taylor, Tommy Franks, Yasser Arafat, Tom Ridge, Italian Prime minister Berlusconi, and even Spiderman. President Bush and his family use the gesture repeatedly. Bush himself is quite well known for the sign, using it on too many occasions to mention. But Laura Bush has used it, standing beside her husband, and the Bush children have too, often times at their father’s side. I find it hard to believe that all those people are showing support for the University of Texas. I find it hard to believe that all those folks even know about the University of Texas. I could find it possible that the global elite share a gesture of occult origins with each other as show of brotherhood. Most, if not all, of those listed above are wealthy. We discussed wealth on episode 3. We learned there that the love of money is the root of all evil, and that a rich man is rare in heaven. So if wealth can draw your focus away from God so easily, Satan must be a fan of money. And I believe that means that people who are a fan of money are a fan of Satan, knowingly or not. And that would be a good reason to flash the horned hand. Let’s talk now about the usage in rock culture. We’ve covered how Ozzy and Ozzfest have used the horned hand in their artwork. We’re all likely also familiar with how fans hold up the horns for rock bands and such at concerts. This is so prevalent that we’ve even seen the horns used in ‘fandom’ in cartoons, see for example ‘Beavis and Butthead’. I think that fans are just caught up in the ‘culture’ and surroundings around them, and are not aware of what they are doing. I know that when I was a teen I didn’t know any better either. I was into the rock and roll as well. I have flashed a horned hand a few times myself. I should have been more aware, but I wasn’t evil, and I don’t think the majority of teens are evil either. They are just rebellious and ignorant of what’s going on around them. But the bands and artists promoting them are likely more aware of the meanings of their works. When a musician calls Jesus vile names, and then shows the horned hand, I tend to believe he means something sinister. When a man calling himself the prince of darkness flashes the sign, again it is of darkness. Dio has featured the sign on multiple album covers. Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit also is in the horned ranks. As are the bands Forsaken, Iron Maiden, MegaDeth, Metallica, and many others. Speaking on artwork and album covers, let’s just look over a few rock covers that are amazingly saturated with evil. Iron Maiden featured a zombie type creature in all or nearly all of their covers, in which they named ‘Eddie’. Even with a run-of-the-mill name, the monster was obviously evil, and was created to scare or disturb. Metallica features a hammer with spilt blood surrounding it on the cover of ‘Kill Em All’. This needs no explanation obviously. They also featured an electric chair with a background of stormy night time clouds, and several bolts of lightning striking the chair, and emanating out of the word Metallica across the top. This is clearly pointing to death. Another major symbol in the logo is power, and symbology of the air in the lightning bolt reference. Who is the god of lightning and thunder? Zeus, Jupiter, Thor, and all those translate to a single name: Satan. Again, I remind you that I am painting in extremely wide strokes. There just is not enough time to cover all the layers of evil coating many of these things. I do not wish to dedicate this entire podcast’s life to occult studies. We will stare down the Devil on occasion, but we must look to God more. We can fight the enemy but we all need to replenish our strength with our Lord. You can be a warrior of God, fighting the darkness with the Truth of God’s word, but be sure you do not venture too far and get surrounded, cut off from the supply line, so to speak. So be sure to keep prayer in your heart in the presence of our spiritual enemy. For Stone Cold Crazy, Metallica uses a sexually charged scene. The background is dark on the left side, and featuring stone surroundings on the right side. The right side feels like a stone hearth, a medieval bakery in a castle basically. In the center of the background is a fire. This fire appears to be raging, signifying power. In the main frame of the picture is a woman. This woman is purely for sexual purposes only, a regular jezebel. She is wearing deep purple eyeshadow, emblazoned far beyond normal use, as many prostitutes in our time wear eyeshadow. She is wearing a stocking like thing on her head. It is black and has a great deal of holes in it. It’s a bit like fishnet stockings, that image of fine thread between spaces. To me, this seems to indicate some form of anonymous sexual offering. The woman is holding her hands together in front of her face, and is clasping a long staff. Of course we are likely all aware that staves are associated with magic, along with also being considered a form of phallic symbol. But the pose this woman is in seems to be indicating an offer of a carnal act that is wildly popular with males the world over. The rest of the woman’s outfit is barely even there. Several strips of what appears to be metal make up the outfit, ending at a triangle shape at her crotch. On one arm, she appears to have several bracelets and on the other, the metal band forms around her upper arm and ends with two serpent heads facing each other. We know full well that the serpent is a symbol of the Devil. Now, this woman is fairly chesty of course, this is rock art after all. The woman’s bra, or whatever you might call it is also made of metal, and curves around her breasts, creating either serpents, or more likely ram’s horns. A large pendant is positioned between her breasts, and on closer examination, you will see it is a head, and likely the head of Satan. It features burning red eyes, horns shooting straight up, and a gaping, open, threatening mouth. Very satanic. Finally we see that the material holding her bottoms on have come undone on one side. She is holding the staff and does not seem to be the least bit concerned about the imminent nudity. That is of course meant to appeal to your lust when viewing the picture. I do not mean to go on and on about such imagery, but when you consider the sexual overtones coupled with the occultic symbology, we’re facing a serious assault on our spirits. This is an example of multi-faceted attacks used by evil. They throw occultic symbols at us, and just in case we begin to decipher what we see, they throw at us something that appeals to our base instincts. This is why sexuality is so saturated throughout our times. The evil one appeals to us males’ basic instincts, and our natural desire to procreate. In times past, women have been taught to be chaste, and not openly or easily partake in the pleasures of the flesh, and rightly so. Women have been the balance to the male drive, a temperance factor. Not to say that women don’t needs, desires, or wants, but that instead women take the time to make sure they are willing to be with any given person. Women traditionally don’t rush and give in to hormones like some men do. The call of the hormones is strong, Lord knows I’ve felt it many times in my time. But now, the double attack by Satan and his mortal collaborators are attacking feminine values as well. They are generating the mindset that women should toss around intimacy like it is cheap garbage. This imagery, the cover discussed here, is aimed at the spiritual side with the occult stuff, and male sexuality with the woman. Make no mistake though, the enemy is going the other way too. There are really buff and ripped guys in work featuring occult imagery as well. Enough of a rant, let’s return back to the occult side, and save the rest of the sexuality issues for later. I was only going over that particular artwork with a ‘first look’ eye, and still spent considerable time covering it. I didn’t even bother to take in possible smaller symbols or more subtle symbols, like counting the stones or whatever. I’m sure there are many more things in that work, as there likely is in all the art/images we’ve discussed. Moving on, Metallica’s album cover for ‘Master of Puppets’ features a pair of hands, colored red, in a stormy, red sky holding strings that are attached to rows and rows of cross headstones. This appears to be presenting God as an evil being, hence the red appearance of the hands, and as being a cruel puppeteer that apparently either rules over the dead, or drove the puppets to death. God is not a puppet master, nor are we puppets. We serve God willingly, we are no slaves. In fact, to serve God is a choice, and there is no slavery or puppetry about it all. The representation of God, and us as well, is offensive. We will talk messages in the music later if we have time. Finally on the subject of imagery in rock, I do believe the cover of AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’ album features one member of the band with devil horns and possibly a tail, all while displaying the horned hand. Let’s go ahead and cover some lyrics and music that would indicate these folks in metal, rock, or whatever label you apply aren’t just real upstanding people. This also lends credence that these rockers are not showing the horned hand in support of the University of Texas. I will tell you, most of the songs discussed now are going to be from my youth, songs I’ve listened to in my teens. Although I had accepted Jesus, I still lived a good bit of rebellion during my teens, as many of us do. In the confusion of youth I turned away from my faith. When my mind cleared as I entered manhood, I found that though I had turned from God, God had not turned from me. I have since been struggling to live in God’s commands. So I tell you, I have stared into darkness, have briefly lost myself in it, but thankfully never too deep. God brought me back from the edge before I fell over. There’s no need to list the lyrics for AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’ song, if you are not familiar with it, then I assure you, it is basically what you imagine, the celebration of the damnation of the singer. Also from this group is the song ‘Hell’s Bells’. This too also is pretty much like you would figure from the title, in fact including the line, “If God’s on the left, I’m sticking to the right!” Great, more celebration of evil. They also sing several songs about drinking, and sexual activities. Ozzy sang a song entitled ‘Mr. Crowley’ which extols the virtues of, and lavishes admiration on Aliester Crowley whom we’ve already discussed. He also sang a song called ‘No More Tears’ which is blatantly sang from the point of view of a pedophile hunting his next victim. Sickening, isn’t it? Metallica put out a song called ‘Leper Messiah’. At the first listen, one might think they are railing against certain members of the cloth that defraud their following and betray them purely for money. One would be correct to think this is part of the message. But make no mistake, it is not the only message. The ‘leper messiah’ is a direct insult to our Lord Jesus Christ. The implications of the song are that the master served by those con men is a fraud as well. I can see someone being angry and calling foul play on ministers akin to Jim Baker and the things he’s accused of doing, or some of the money hungry ones I’ve talked about in the past, but that does not make Jesus a leper messiah. That just makes the con men preachers greedy. The Messiah has no place being mixed with the con men. Jesus was used to bilk money, and He was not a willing partner, not at all. He was basically a victim as well, used for pity, sympathy and deception. You cannot condemn the religion for the actions of a few bad seeds no more than you can smear Christ for what evil men have done. The use of the word ‘leper’ is indicative of diseased, foul, and grotesque, all things which do not apply to Christ. He saved lepers, sure, but He saved us all as well. He did not discriminate on who could receive His salvation, it is open to all humanity. Another Metallica song from the early days is brazenly named ‘Jump in the Fire’. Again, this is exactly what it sounds like. Lyrics go as follows: “Down in the depths of my fiery home, summon bells will chime, tempting you and all the earth to join our sinful kind”, “jump in by will, or be taken by force, I’ll get you either way, trying to keep the Hellfires lit, stalking you as prey”. No mistake there, they are singing from the point of view of Satan, complete with the devouring lion reference from the Bible. Remember that James 2:19 says that ‘the devils also believe and tremble” meaning that Satan and his demons of course know that God is real. Final song from the darkness that is Metallica: ‘The God That Failed’, think there’s any kind of statement in that name? Lyrics: “Pride you felt when you kneeled, not the Word, not the Law, not what you thought from above”, “Broken is the promise, betrayal, the healing hand held back by the deepened nail, follow the God that failed”. This song is just so very wrong. First off, we shouldn’t feel pride when we bow to our Lord in prayer, but instead humility and love for God. The rest of that line is very clearly referring to Jesus. Matthew 5:17 says ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill’ this means that Jesus was the law, for to fulfill the law requires involvement with it. Jesus is not from above? I beg to differ. Consider Jesus’ own words in John 8:23 ‘Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world’ that clearly states that Jesus is from above. Also John 8:29 ‘And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him’ again stating that He came from the Father above, and that God was with Jesus as He walked the Earth. Jesus offers the promise of salvation from sin. How can any member of Metallica know that this promise is broken? They cannot for it is not broken. There is no betrayal in the salvation of our souls after death. The ‘healing hand’ is Jesus, for He healed a great deal of people in His ministry on Earth. His hand was held back by the deepened nail, that much is true, for even devils know the truth of God as mentioned before, but they are denying the real meaning in that nail. That nail was not a symbol of defeat, no not at all, but a symbol of victory over the forces of darkness. I felt that the ‘Passion of the Christ’ was a deeply profound and moving film, and I imagine the Devil’s reaction was exactly as it was portrayed in that movie. If you are unfamiliar, as Jesus dies on the cross and saves all of mankind, the Devil is shown screaming at the top of his lungs in pure hate, anger, agony and defeat, knowing that he had just lost, that the Scripture is fulfilled, and that he has no more chance of victory over God. Of course we know he never did, but Jesus completely ruined Satan’s plans by cleansing sin for man. Jesus is not the God that failed, instead He won victory through His blood. We are deeply surrounded by darkness and evil my friends. Let us all be beacons of light against the veil surrounding us. We should walk with our Lord in our actions and reach out and save all those we can from the clutches of the great deceiver. Next time we’re going to talk about sin, discuss if it is real, and cover the 17 big ones. Wonder where I got that number? Check in next time to find out! God bless my friends, God bless. I want to close this with some lyrics that carry the ring of truth. “Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from Heaven above, with wisdom, power, and love, our God is an awesome God”.

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