Prophets & Visionaries

Introduction

When you gaze across the spectrum of prophecies and visions of the future that we have generated in recent centuries, one thing leaps out: if the prophets saw true, then the transformation we are embroiled in and that is coming to a head, is more profound and unsettling than anything humanity has yet faced.

You know the parable about the elephant and the blind men trying to describe it. Apocalypse is an elephant of such vast dimensions that it will take the concentrated power of every last person on earth — stumbling around mostly blind and bumping into one another — to comprehend it. But we will.

There have been many good clues, many excellent (if necessarily partial) descriptions of what this climax in human evolution must mean. Looking at them side by side, as I have in putting together this section, you get a better sense of the elephant.

By its very nature, though, since it deals with a future that is never fully determined, prophecy is slippery. In fact one of our first, and last, questions must be, is there any valid prophecy at all? Biblical prophecy is impressive — I'm thinking of Daniel declaiming before the King of Babylon and St. John blowing wild in the Book of Revelation — but finally, it all happened an awfully long time ago, and with each passing century it becomes a little less likely that the biblical prophecies were a window onto our own time. Or does it? Certainly, in the shadow of the millennium, some people are trying hard to make the case that the Apocalypse of Daniel and Revelation is our Apocalypse. We'll see how well they're doing with that.

Latter-day prophets, from Edgar Cayce (and his contemporaries) forward, still echo those biblical themes, and often echo one another. "Earth Changes" is the loudest and most common refrain, and the current crop of prophets, led by Gordon Michael Scallion, is particularly clamorous. Scallion is an fine example, I think, of how consistently wrong a prophet can be and still earn a living.

The prophets I find most compelling are those who lived in historical times yet well before the present day, and who, while they may have had a lot to say about their own times, went to the trouble of pointing out that something very momentous indeed was due to occur at the opening of the third millennium — hundreds of years in their own futures. They range from St. Malachy (12th-century Ireland) through Nostradamus and Mother Shipton (16th century, France and England, respectively) to Mitar Tarabich (19th-century Yugoslavia), not to mention our very own George Washington. With these prophets, too, we must be cautious. How close to the original sources are the reports we now have, and how reliable were the prophets themselves? Let's try to find out.

The traditionally favored date for Apocalypse has been the millennium, specifically the years 1998-1999. Prophets from Nostradamus and Mother Shipton, to Edgar Cayce and Chet Snow — and goodness knows, even our George — weighed in with dates that fell just on the nether side of the great chronological divide.

But we slid right on through the millennium, Y2K bugs and all, and no fireworks; so now interest (and belief) have shifted to Dec. 21, 2012, when a major-major cycle is to be completed in the long-count calendar of the ancient Mayans. (All you ever wanted to know about the Mayan penchant for timekeeping, and just a bit more, can be found here.) On the increasingly crowded 2012 bus we find, in the front seats, such luminaries as Terence McKenna and José Arguelles. Chet Snow is along for the ride, too.

Note: I first put together this material in 1996. I've updated it where appropriate (and we've had a little millennium change since then).

Prophets & Visionaries

Alphabetically:

Edgar Cayce
Ed Dames
Michael Grosso
Dan Katchongva
St. Malachy
Nostradamus
Gordon-Michael Scallion
Mother Shipton
Chet Snow
Mitar Tarabich
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
George Washington
Paramahansa Yogananda

Chronologically:

St. Malachy
Nostradamus
Mother Shipton
George Washington
Mitar Tarabich
Edgar Cayce
Dan Katchongva
Paramahansa Yogananda
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Michael Grosso
Ed Dames
Gordon-Michael Scallion
Chet Snow

Summaries, by Theme:

Apocalypse
The 2012 Bus
Antichrist

Next: Spiritual Possibilities