A mind fixed wholly on the flesh burns without pause, its restlessness rising like smoke that never settles. The beast is the animal nature ruling from the lower body, and to worship it and take its mark is to give the whole of one's identity over to appetite and sensation. Such a person finds no stillness by day or night because the senses never stop demanding, and the craving feeds itself endlessly, generating its own torment from within. This is not a far-off pit of fire but the state of a consciousness enslaved to the body, forever agitated and never at peace.
The endless smoke is the unrest of a person who has made the animal self their god, kept awake and burning by desires that can never be satisfied.
Smoke: the ceaseless unrest rising from a mind that cannot settle, the visible sign of inner torment
Beast: the animal nature ruling from the lower body, appetite and sensation set up as master
Image of the beast: the mental idol a person builds when they picture themselves as only flesh
Mark of his name: the stamp of ownership appetite leaves on a consciousness given over to it