Moving on now past he election, although this has something to do with the election, kind of like how The Simpson's starts with one thing that leads to something else entirely. Well, it started like this: there was a meeting in church, and I think I brought the election up, coyly wondering if our priest favored Trump because of the abortion issue. He remained vague (as he should) but mentioned something - really, someone - that I did not expect: the renowned prophetess Baba Vanga. Again, he was wary of saying he believed in her predictions, but did send me a link to a site on her at news.com.au. Here is what it said:
Born to a peasant family in Bulgaria in 1911 (died, 1996), she was blinded by a freak wind storm at the age of 12, returning to home after two or three days with her eyes sealed shut with dirt. Since then, she claimed to have gained powers to see the future, so much so that she was consulted regularly (and jealously guarded) by the communist leadership. But other notables from around the world visited her, including politicians and scientists, which must mean they saw something in her beyond the ordinary. Of her many predictions, here are a few:
In the 1950's, she predicted that the planet would warm and the polar ice caps would melt, bringing great problems by 2033; that a tsunami would kill many thousands in Asia in 2004 (it did); that Islam would attack Europe in 2016 and WIN, forming a caliphate in Rome by 2043 (after Europe becomes a desolate wasteland by 2025 - nuclear war?); that the US would have "brethren" (twins) attacked by Muslims on 9/11 (obviously, it did happen); what was started by the conversation above, that America would elect its first Afro American president as the 44th, but that HE WOULD BE THE LAST; also, that the world would go communist by 2076, and many other things in a more distant future that includes space aliens, the death of the earth, and star travel.
A lot of ground to cover, no? As for the Caliphate, I don't know: can the invasion really happen by the end of this year? One might say that it already began with massive immigration starting in the 1980's, but that is not what was specified. It does seem that the "wasting" of Europe would be necessary to begin a caliphate at Rome, and that the most probable reason for this would be nuclear war. Iran? Pakistan? A little help from the Russians (who are already saber-rattling)?
And how about that "last president" thing? It may be that Trump dies before his inauguration, but that would leave Mike Pence, or if he died as well, Paul Ryan as speaker of the house as next in line. Even if the entire congress is eliminated, we would still have some sort of successor, if even the Washington, DC, dog catcher. So, it must mean mass destruction of the country (but that is not specified; she also predicted that US would be around to topple the caliphate in Europe later on), or some other event that changes the nature of the presidency to, what: a dictator? A theocratic head? Or maybe a parliamentary-style government? (Democrats are anxiously trying to end the electoral college and a parliamentary system would do it. They might wish they hadn't later, but that is another story.)
We shall see; even the best of prophets of the modern era get things wrong. Baba Vanga is estimated to have been about 85% right so far. Obviously, we want to know how the future is seen, but why the misfires? Why that 15 % inaccuracy, as small as that is? And why would a Catholic priest be interested in a Bulgarian soothe-sayer?
Of the last, Catholics have had prophets forever, including the heralded girls from Fatima - but that was all distinctly Catholic. I leave that question for others to ponder, but of the former two, I have an opinion based on years of reading esoteric literature, both relatively reasonable and wacky alike, and have come to this tentative conclusion: that the universe is a continuous web that exists all at once, beyond time, but also, paradoxically, can change at a moment's notice. This is the New Age equivalent of theological free will in a universe run by an omniscient God. How can one choose freely if God already knows everything? Christian philosophers have locked horns over this for centuries, and I can't recall the Church's final position, but it seems that it is a contradiction only in the human mind. Somewhere in the perspective of all-space, all-time, is an avenue to change all-space, all-time, being something like the chance given to Ebeneezer Scrooge. "Spirit, is this what WILL happen, or what MIGHT happen?" The ghost of the future never answers, perhaps because it cannot - for no human mind can carry the ideas of a set universe and a malleable one at the same time.
And so we can have prophets who genuinely tap into the universal web, but who can also often be wrong. Things that should be unchangeable CAN change (my bet is that some quantum theorist has already figured this out in more mathematical terms, but I can only vaguely recall - I am no mathematician). And so we listen to prophets who have been proven to be right with genuine interest, but also with some doubt - for prophets, we must recall, have always been about warnings, or why would they prophesy? What good, then, would it do?
In the Old Testament, Jehovah sent Jonah against his will to bring the warning to Nineveh. He tried to run away and was swallowed by a whale and deposited at ...Nineveh. He could not escape his fate, to preach at Nineveh, but Nineveh could escape its destiny through a decision to heed the words of Jonah. They did, and prospered.
Must it happen, or might it happen? Many things are there for us to decide. The prophet brings warning, but not necessarily doom. And so I suspect - and hope - of Baba Vanga. FK
Born to a peasant family in Bulgaria in 1911 (died, 1996), she was blinded by a freak wind storm at the age of 12, returning to home after two or three days with her eyes sealed shut with dirt. Since then, she claimed to have gained powers to see the future, so much so that she was consulted regularly (and jealously guarded) by the communist leadership. But other notables from around the world visited her, including politicians and scientists, which must mean they saw something in her beyond the ordinary. Of her many predictions, here are a few:
In the 1950's, she predicted that the planet would warm and the polar ice caps would melt, bringing great problems by 2033; that a tsunami would kill many thousands in Asia in 2004 (it did); that Islam would attack Europe in 2016 and WIN, forming a caliphate in Rome by 2043 (after Europe becomes a desolate wasteland by 2025 - nuclear war?); that the US would have "brethren" (twins) attacked by Muslims on 9/11 (obviously, it did happen); what was started by the conversation above, that America would elect its first Afro American president as the 44th, but that HE WOULD BE THE LAST; also, that the world would go communist by 2076, and many other things in a more distant future that includes space aliens, the death of the earth, and star travel.
A lot of ground to cover, no? As for the Caliphate, I don't know: can the invasion really happen by the end of this year? One might say that it already began with massive immigration starting in the 1980's, but that is not what was specified. It does seem that the "wasting" of Europe would be necessary to begin a caliphate at Rome, and that the most probable reason for this would be nuclear war. Iran? Pakistan? A little help from the Russians (who are already saber-rattling)?
And how about that "last president" thing? It may be that Trump dies before his inauguration, but that would leave Mike Pence, or if he died as well, Paul Ryan as speaker of the house as next in line. Even if the entire congress is eliminated, we would still have some sort of successor, if even the Washington, DC, dog catcher. So, it must mean mass destruction of the country (but that is not specified; she also predicted that US would be around to topple the caliphate in Europe later on), or some other event that changes the nature of the presidency to, what: a dictator? A theocratic head? Or maybe a parliamentary-style government? (Democrats are anxiously trying to end the electoral college and a parliamentary system would do it. They might wish they hadn't later, but that is another story.)
We shall see; even the best of prophets of the modern era get things wrong. Baba Vanga is estimated to have been about 85% right so far. Obviously, we want to know how the future is seen, but why the misfires? Why that 15 % inaccuracy, as small as that is? And why would a Catholic priest be interested in a Bulgarian soothe-sayer?
Of the last, Catholics have had prophets forever, including the heralded girls from Fatima - but that was all distinctly Catholic. I leave that question for others to ponder, but of the former two, I have an opinion based on years of reading esoteric literature, both relatively reasonable and wacky alike, and have come to this tentative conclusion: that the universe is a continuous web that exists all at once, beyond time, but also, paradoxically, can change at a moment's notice. This is the New Age equivalent of theological free will in a universe run by an omniscient God. How can one choose freely if God already knows everything? Christian philosophers have locked horns over this for centuries, and I can't recall the Church's final position, but it seems that it is a contradiction only in the human mind. Somewhere in the perspective of all-space, all-time, is an avenue to change all-space, all-time, being something like the chance given to Ebeneezer Scrooge. "Spirit, is this what WILL happen, or what MIGHT happen?" The ghost of the future never answers, perhaps because it cannot - for no human mind can carry the ideas of a set universe and a malleable one at the same time.
And so we can have prophets who genuinely tap into the universal web, but who can also often be wrong. Things that should be unchangeable CAN change (my bet is that some quantum theorist has already figured this out in more mathematical terms, but I can only vaguely recall - I am no mathematician). And so we listen to prophets who have been proven to be right with genuine interest, but also with some doubt - for prophets, we must recall, have always been about warnings, or why would they prophesy? What good, then, would it do?
In the Old Testament, Jehovah sent Jonah against his will to bring the warning to Nineveh. He tried to run away and was swallowed by a whale and deposited at ...Nineveh. He could not escape his fate, to preach at Nineveh, but Nineveh could escape its destiny through a decision to heed the words of Jonah. They did, and prospered.
Must it happen, or might it happen? Many things are there for us to decide. The prophet brings warning, but not necessarily doom. And so I suspect - and hope - of Baba Vanga. FK
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