12 Clues: The Prophetic Collision

Hope in the End

I hate watching the news, but I feel compelled to anyway. If there's bad news to be heard, we seem to need to know what it is. In our age of information overload, the waves of bad news just keep washing over us.

You might be reading this book because you too feel compelled to hear the bad news. There's lots of it -- war, economic crisis, beheadings, kidnappings – and I'm still on page one! But the real story doesn't end there. True, I've written this book to convince you that life as we know it is winding down. But we are not without opportunity to take action. We are facing something much bigger than the end of the world. We are on the edge of life beyond the end – a new world.

In this book, you will find 12 prophetic clues that we are at the end of the age – ancient prophecies that are being announced in your newsfeed headlines. But you will also discover that predictive prophecy can be useless. That is, it is useless if it offers no hope. And there is unimaginable hope.

We are driven to seek answers about the end of life. We recognize that there is a finality to life. We expect that eventually our world too will end. Not surprisingly, every faith group has something to say about the future of life on earth. Even many modern clairvoyants have a piece to add. However, very little of prophecy is useful to us. What good is it to know that Nostradamus predicted that New City (did he mean New York?) is slated for disaster? Sure, you might not want to move there. What good is it to know that a Jewish Dajjal will bring war, or the Antichrist will conquer the Middle East, or that Gog will attack Israel? Maybe you'll vacation somewhere else.

But seriously, is there any other benefit to knowing the future? In fact, there are three benefits (and staying away from certain parts of the world isn't one of them). The first benefit is fear. Fear is a huge motivator. You can't read the prophecies of the Bible's Revelation or Islam's Hadith without a small knot forming somewhere. Fear can motivate us to change the course of our lives. However, fear alone is useless. Fear cannot show us how to change or which way to go. We need something more.

The second benefit of prophecy is warning. If the ancient prophecies continue to come true, then things are going to get pretty confusing in the near future. It may not be obvious to the common observer who to trust anymore. There will be false messiahs and false prophets with pretty spectacular, even miraculous power. A little heads up will go a long way in warning us ahead of time.

The third benefit of prophecy is hope. Hope is what gives us the courage to move out of our fear because we see light beyond the circumstances of our fear. Hope promises that there is something better coming.

All prophecy invites us to fear. But hope is a little harder to find. So if you're along for the ride, I'll be walking through the convergence and collision of end times prophecies, and the recent fulfillment of ancient prophecy in the news. And I'll be pointing straight at the hope I've found.

How to Read this Book

As the title suggests, this book is going to shine a spotlight on the incredible events (clues) that predict our world is on the cusp of a major change. So if you're just interested in devouring those thrilling morsels, by all means skip ahead to Part C (C is for Cookie... and Clues). I won't know, and if I hear, I won't mind.

If you are curious to discover exactly how the prophecies of Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and Paganism align and collide, then you want to start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. (A is for Apple... and Align.)

And if you are looking for tough answers to the problem of prophecy, (What?! You didn't know it was a problem?) then head into Part B (B is for Bible) to find out why there's only one prophecy worth betting your life on. The very first recorded prophecy. And yes, your life actually does depend on it.

Part A - All About Prophecy

The Science Channel website offers a series of 10 semi-comedic videos entitled 10 Ways the World Might End. Their list suggests:

•Doomsday Asteroid

•Invasion of Grey Goo (that's nano-technology in layman's terms)

•Robots Inherit the Earth

•Super Volcanoes

•Alien Invasion

•Big Freeze

•Earth Spins Off Axis

•Killer Mutants

•Monster Plague

•Nuclear Holocaust.

As funny as this list is meant to be, it is thin humour. Humans have been watching for the end of the world, or at least the end of this age, for a very long time. There is no shortage of ideas of what this might look like.

Let's take a whirlwind tour of end times beliefs that are currently popular: Mayan and Pagan, Judaism, Christianity, Islam. (The last three are the monotheistic faiths.)

chapter one

World Religions' Eschatology

(Or how we think the world will end.)

A quick disclaimer! There are many variations of eschatology within each faith. This is not going to be an exhaustive report on every nuance of every religious prophecy. Instead, I'm looking to uncover the commonalities and collisions of end times prophecies. Read on at your own risk.

Mayan and Pagan

Most recently popularized by the movie 2012 is the Mayan calendar. This is believed by some to be the most ancient concept of our earth's future. While Hollywood portrays this as a catastrophic event, it is not understood that way by Mayan followers.

The Mayan calendar predicts that there are five ages each lasting 5,125 years for a total of 25,625 years, equaling one galactic day. Much like reaching December 31st in the modern calendar, when the Mayan calendar ends, a new age begins. Some people believe that the Great Cycle of the Mayan Long Count calendar ended on the winter solstice of 2012 A.D. Therefore, December 21, 2012 at 11:11am UTC would have been the end of a 25,625 year age according to the Mayan calendar and the beginning of a new age. Of course, the day came and went rather commonly; but did a new age roll in?

While that date creates a neat pattern when written 12-21-12, its authenticity as the calendar's end is dubious. The Head of the National Mayan Council of Indigenous Elders is Grandfather Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj. He is a 13th Generation Quiche Maya Priest and represents 440 Maya tribes. Because the Maya lost almost all of their calendars and books to the Spanish in 1562, he believes that they can't really say for sure when the cycle is ending. However, he concedes that we are now in the Window of the End of Time, and the closing of the Great cycle is drawing near, likely before 2016.¹

When the Mayan calendar does flip the page, so to speak, what sort of change is anticipated?

Rise of the Serpent

The Mayan calendar is thought to parallel the Mayan creation story portrayed by the Dresden Codex, the oldest surviving book produced in the Americas (1200 - 1250 AD), as a series of glyphs or pictograms.² The final pictogram depicts a transfer of power as the staff of power is returned to the Spirit of the Feminine. What is this staff of power and what does it portray? Nicaraguan Mayan Grandmother Flordemayo of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers says, the final glyph from the 'Mayan Story of Creation' shows the Reawakening of the Feminine, writes Vikki Hanchin.³ Interestingly, this theme is consistent among pagan religions.

The wildly popular 2009 movie Avatar portrayed an event that might parallel the Mayan calendar change and the new age it is supposed to initiate. In this movie, humans are ravaging a rich planet. A few scientists discover that the natives, Na'vi, of this planet understand and communicate with the planet's life force, which they worship as Ewya. She is the force that connects all life on this planet. The hero, Jake Sully, pleads with Ewya for help to stop the humans because they have already killed their Mother. The greed and violence of the humans propels them into a war with the Na'vi. Although many people die in this terrible catastrophe, the final result is that the balance of power returns to Ewya, the feminine spirit of the Avatar world.

This is a pretty good summary of how the Mayan end of the age might look.

Paganism

In paganism the feminine spirit of the earth is portrayed as a serpent: Kundalini. According to Sri Swami Sivananda, speaking of Kundalini Yoga, It [Kundalini] is an electric fiery occult power, the great pristine force which underlies all organic and inorganic matter.

Mayan religion also compares the image of a serpent with the motion of the calendar. In ancient Mayan practice, the Temple of Kukulkan in Mexico was built to the Feathered Serpent God. The temple is constructed to reflect the days of the calendar, with a combined total of 365 steps to the top platform. During the spring and autumn equinoxes, a brilliant illusion of a serpent crawling down the temple steps is created as the sun strikes off a corner of the pyramid and casts a series of triangular shadows against the northwest balustrade.

Many people believe that, unlike the cataclysm predicted by Hollywood, a new age in which power is restored to the feminine serpent would be a big improvement over the world's current state.

According to Carlos Barrios, who was trained in the Maya tradition, This [today] is the time in-between, the time of transition. As we pass through transition there is a colossal, global convergence of environmental destruction, social chaos, war, and ongoing Earth Changes... The world will not end. It will be transformed... Everything will change... Change is accelerating now, and it will continue to accelerate...If the people of the earth can get to this 2012 date in good shape, without having destroyed too much of the Earth, we will rise to a new, higher level. But to get there we must transform enormously powerful forces that seek to block the way...Humanity will continue, but in a different way. Material structures will change. From this we will have the opportunity to be more human...⁴

The hope that a feminine spirit of the world would unify and rule the earth was expressed over a century ago by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), who was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1913. Notice the power he ascribes to the female spirit.

Oh! Mother, let my mind awake slowly on the Sacred Shore of the sea, where great souls of the world have come together to offer their pranams. Here with outstretched hands we bow-down to the Divine in human form...

Adore here your Sacred Mother Earth where great souls have come together on the seashore to offer their pranams. Come oh! Aryans, come non Aryans, come Hindus and Muslims. Come come oh Englishmen, come Christians, come oh Brahmins purify your heart, hold the hands of the down-trodden and out-castes. Remove all ills and disrespect. Come quickly for the coronation (anointing) of the Mother.

Clearly Tagore saw the feminine spirit of the earth as a unifying force that will converge all religions in a singular focus. Long before 2012, the awakening of a pagan Mother was sought.

Drunvalo Melchizedek, author and speaker, champions a form of Paganism/ Hinduism centered on the Serpent of Light or Kundalini. Every 13,000 years, according to Melchizedek, the serpent breaks out and begins a new movement on the earth, initiating a new age. As in the Mayan religion, the expectation that power will be returned to the feminine spirit of the earth is central. Melchizedek claims that in modern times this force began to move in the 1940's. However, its release was held back for some time. As of January 2008 he claimed that a new movement of incredible light had been birthed on the earth. Melchizedek believes that he is assisting in the transition of Kundalini's force over the face of the planet.⁵

A review of Melchizedek's book Serpent of Light proclaimed ecstatically, something deep is reawakening in the heart of the Great Mother. That same force is alive inside each one of us now. As our hearts open to embrace it, our beautiful planet will move out of the darkness, into the Age of Light.⁶

Darkness to light. Weakness to power. War to peace. Anyone would welcome a change that is going to bring us to this new age of peace and wonder.

And yet, as I will prove in the first Clue (Part C), our earth is anything but lighter and stronger and more peaceful! This awakening force or serpent of light is believed to be connected to the world events we see all around us: earthquakes, flood, famine, and war. According to paganism, the spirit of the earth is rebalancing our world and a little shake up is a necessary part of the equation. We are warned that things might get a little messy in the middle. We must endure disaster and strife as a temporary inconvenience on the journey to a higher state of existence.

The Real Power Behind Change

Paganism assures us that the earth and its spirit are one interconnected system. The hard science of our world shows that closed systems only move one direction -- to disorganization. If you like science, the term for this is entropy. Entropy always increases. More entropy, more disorganization. Even the Mayan Codex depicts a declining state of existence through ensuing ages. Unless there is an outside source of power intervening, the closed system of earth and spirit will always move towards disorganization.

Although it sounds good to say that the earth will rebalance itself, nothing like this has ever been observed! If entropy always increases without an outside force, then this glorious change the pagans are heralding will be initiated, not from within the earth's system, but from outside.

That statement bears repeating. If the earth is an isolated system, it cannot move towards a state of higher organization unless there is an outside force adding energy and intelligence to the system. There are several possibilities then. First, perhaps the earth never will reach a higher age. So the Feminine Spirit of the Earth really is just that -- the earth – and will produce a negative downward spiral upon itself. The second possibility is that the awakening that pagans anticipate will come, but not from within the spirit of the earth. It must be a movement of power that is not part of the earth's system.

You may argue that some systems do improve themselves. For example, the human body, one of the most complex of earthly systems, has an incredible ability to heal itself. True, yet the body is still degenerating even as it is healing. For instance, humans break down and rebuild bone constantly. However, the rebuilding process requires the input of external calcium, vitamin D, and protein, among other things. The human body is not a closed system. Even as an open system that receives nutrients and energy from outside, the rebuilding process cannot ultimately undo all damage and eventually, the system will fail altogether. Death is the ultimate end.

Putting it Together

Paganism recognizes today's world is changing and ascribes this change to a rebalancing of internal forces -- a return to homeostasis, so to speak. The world will not end, but undergo a tumultuous transformation into a new solar age in which power will be handed over to the feminine spirit of the earth, often known as Kundalini. This serpent power is now already breaking out on the earth and beginning to initiate changes.

Nevertheless, if the power is strictly an internal force, the effect must be negative. If, however, the source is external, a host of possibilities opens up. As we are about to see, the three monotheistic faiths argue that the new age that is coming will be propelled by an external force, not the earth itself.

Judaism

While the Mayan calendar begins in the year 3114 BC, the Hebrew calendar begins just a few centuries earlier in 3760 BC with the creation of Adam and Eve. In fact, Jewish tradition holds that Adam died in 2831 BC at a very ripe old age, about a thousand years before the first Mayan settlements are believed to have been established.⁷ ⁸ But unlike the Mayans who lost their recorded teachings to the Spanish, the Jews have held onto copies of their writings through millenia of conquests. This is due in part to their obsessive-compulsive approach to copying, but even more so, to mind-boggling, miraculous survival and recovery of ancient manuscripts. Since the Hebrew scripture, the Tanakh, records events all the way back to 3760 BC, it contains the oldest recorded prophecies available to us, though many scholars believe they sprang from oral tradition.

The Jews trace their ancestry from Adam, and then through Noah's family who survived the apocalyptic flood. From there it's on to Abraham, who received a promise from God that through him all the families of the earth would be blessed and that he would be given a special parcel of land believed to be modern-day Palestine.⁹ This is the real root of Judaism.

Almost every book of the Tanakh takes the time to foretell:

a) that a future ruler would come to bring justice on the earth,

b) the Jews would be judged for disobeying God's commands, or

c) the nations would be judged for their misdeeds.

Usually all three.

Let me pull that together for you in seriously short form.

Jewish prophets foretold the conquering and subsequent dispersion of the Jews in response to their idol worship and disregard for God's law. However, the prophets of the Tanakh also wrote that after many years, God would return the Jews to their own land.¹⁰ This is to be a three-stage gathering: to gather Israel for judgment, to gather the nations around Israel for wrath, to gather remaining Israel for restoration.¹¹

The prophets also foretold that there will be a time of terrible distress for Israel at the end of