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It is curious to see how prophetic in almost all things was the writer of Vishnu Purâna when foretelling to Maitreya some of the dark influences and sins of this Kali Yug. For after saying that the “barbarians” will be masters of the banks… There will be contemporary monarchs, reigning over the earth— kings of churlish spirit, violent temper, and ever addicted to falsehood and wickedness... Property alone will confer rank; wealth will be the only source of devotion; passion will be the sole bond of union between the sexes... women will be objects merely of sensual gratification. ~H.P. Blavatsky

The trance state of prophecy is like no other visionary experience. It is not a retreat from the raw exposure of the senses (as many trance states) but an immersion in a multitude of new movements. ~ Frank Herbert, in *God Emperor of Dune*

These have seen according to their sight. For every fiery prophet in old times, And all the sacred madness of the bard, When God made music through them, could but speak. His music by the framework and the chord; And as ye saw it ye have spoken truth."
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Prophecy is a process in which aspects of information, awareness, messages or knowledge which has been provided to an individual, often called a prophet, soothsayer, or a seer, are then indicated to others. The information provided typically involves indications of divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditions and events of the future, as well as testimony or repeated revelations of divine aspects of the world or Reality. The process of prophecy often involves reciprocal communication of the prophet with sources of the information.

Quotes

(Alphabetical by author/source)

Can prophecies remain unfulfilled? Indeed they can... A true prophecy foresees the best combination of possibilities, but it is possible to allow them to escape. The subject of fulfillment of prophecies is very profound; in it are combined cooperation and higher knowledge of the spirit.... Since time immemorial prophecies have been issued... as benevolent signs for humanity. Prophecies best of all inform mankind.
- Agni Yoga New Era Community 1926.

The manifestation of unfit elements is great at the end of Kali Yuga. The fiercer Armageddon is, the better it serves as purifier of the dross. (66) ...The end of Kali Yuga is significant, for many cosmic events are connected with this period... Armageddon was predicted ages ago, and the abnormalities at the end of Kali Yuga were described in the Puranas, but even keen thinkers underestimated those clear indications... (106) ...It is true that Armageddon is raging and incredible crimes have been committed, but it is also true that against the background of these terrors a speedy evolution rushes onward. Is it possible that people do not see how much of the new is entering life? We should not permit the doubting worldlings to proclaim that the dark forces are victorious. That which belongs to Infinity cannot be conquered. (259)
- Agni Yoga, Supermundane, (1938).

In the Puranas it was predicted that toward the end of Kali Yuga humanity would be driven to acts of madness. It is very dangerous that people do not recognize this state, for while it is possible to cure a patient who does not resist treatment, if he struggles against it the beneficial effects of the medicine will be diminished. But how do you explain to people that their leaders and their teachers are insane? ...such mental confusion fully corresponds with the end of Kali Yuga... Most people hate the messenger who brings knowledge... let them at least remember the warning that humanity is acting insanely. The Thinker warned, “Do not fall into madness.” (285)
- Agni Yoga, Supermundane, (1938).

Those... who foresee that which may or ought to be, are nevertheless well aware that though the fulfillment of... [some prophecies] is inevitable... the time factor may not work out as indicated...because the distressed human mechanisms of those to whom the work is given, will fail to react either correctly, or at the right time.
- Alice Bailey in Esoteric Psychology I: A Treatise on the Seven Rays Lucis Trust publishing, (1936).

The world has been changed beyond belief during the past five hundred years, and during the next two hundred years the changes will be still more rapid and deep-seated, for the growth of the intellectual powers of man is gathering momentum, and Man, the Creator, is coming into possession of His powers.
- Alice Bailey in Esoteric Psychology I Lucis Trust publishing, (1936).

The future will shine with an added glory and, though difficulties and problems incident to world adjustment and the new relationships between the spiritual man and his material environment will be found, the future will prove itself as the best yet unrolled. Difficulties will be found on all planes up until the last initiation, but the destructiveness of the life process will never again be so potent. The reason for this is that humanity is most definitely emerging from the thralldom of matter, and in such cases destruction parallels the impact of the descending spirit upon opposing matter. Ponder on this statement.
- Alice Bailey in Esoteric Psychology I: A Treatise on the Seven Rays Lucis Trust publishing, (1936).

Profoundly interesting is this world-tragedy of conflict to those who see in it a necessary preparation, a clearing of the ground, for the coming of the World-Teacher and for the new civilisation... The terrible lesson now being taught, the widespread suffering, the devastation by sword and fire, the poverty caused by the dislocation of trade, the tension, the bankruptcies... But through this Armageddon the world will pass into a realm of peace, of brotherhood, of co-operation, and will forget the darkness and the terrors of the night in the joy that cometh in the morning...
- Annie Besant, The Theosophist'' (October 1914).

Prophecy, n. The art and practice of selling one's credibility for future delivery.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

We are in the Kali Yuga [a Sanskrit term meaning Dark Age] and its fatal influence is a thousand-fold more powerful in the West than it is in the East; hence the easy preys made by the Powers of the Age of Darkness [evil] in this cyclic struggle, and the many delusions under which the world is now laboring. One of these is the relative facility with which men fancy they can get at the "Gate" and cross the threshold of Occultism without any great sacrifice. It is the dream of most Theosophists, one inspired by desire for Power and personal selfishness, and it is not such feelings that can ever lead them to the coveted goal. For, as well said by one believed to have sacrificed himself for Humanity--"Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life" eternal, and therefore "few there be that find it." (Matthew 7:14) So strait indeed, that at the bare mention of some of the preliminary difficulties the affrighted Western candidates turn back and retreat with a shudder... Let them stop here and attempt no more in their great weakness. For if, while turning their backs on the narrow gate, they are dragged by their desire for the Occult one step in the direction of the broad and more inviting gates of that golden mystery which glitters in the light of illusion, woe to them!
- Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in Studies in Occultism, (1888).

As the “ Satya-yuga” is always the first in the series of the four ages or Yugas, so the Kali ever comes the last... Anyhow, it is curious to see how prophetic in almost all things was the writer of Vishnu Purâna when foretelling to Maitreya some of the dark influences and sins of this Kali Yug. For after saying that the “barbarians” will be masters of the banks… he adds: “ There will be contemporary monarchs, reigning over the earth— kings of churlish spirit, violent temper, and ever addicted to falsehood and wickedness. They will inflict death on women, children, and cows; they will seize upon the property of their subjects, and be intent upon the wives of others; they will be of unlimited power, their lives will be short, their desires insatiable... People of various countries intermingling with them, will follow their example; and the barbarians being powerful... in the patronage of the princes, while purer tribes are neglected... Wealth and piety will decrease until the world will be wholly depraved. Property alone will confer rank; wealth will be the only source of devotion; passion will be the sole bond of union between the sexes; falsehood will be the only means of success in litigation; and women will be objects merely of sensual gratification.
- H.P. Blavatsky, in The Secret Doctrine, Vol I, p. 377, (1888).

Nativity is the enemy of prophecy.
- Giannina Braschi, in "United States of Banana" (2011).

You don't need no crystal ball,
Don't fall for a magic wand.
We humans got it all, we perform the miracles.
- Kate Bush, in "Them Heavy People" on The Kick Inside (1978).

Of all the horrid, hideous notes of woe,
Sadder than owl-songs or the midnight blast;
Is that portentous phrase, "I told you so."
- Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto XIV, Stanza 50.

Prophecy, however honest, is generally a poor substitute for experience.
- Benjamin N. Cardozo, West Ohio Gas Co. v. Public Utilities Commission (No.2), 294 U.S. 79, 82, (1935).

Thus, those who sought to penetrate the future cannot even see in front of themselves; they attempted to move themselves forward in time, so must they go backwards through all eternity; and as the arts of sorcery are a distortion of God's law, so are their bodies distorted in Hell.
- John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto XX, pg. 157.

[After the stock-markets crash] the number one priority will be the provision of adequate food for all the people; two, the provision of adequate housing for all the people; thirdly, the provision of adequate healthcare and education for all the people. These are the basic human rights needed everywhere by all people, yet there is no country in the world in which all of these pertain as a universal right. When the economic collapse occurs, humanity will begin to recognize its oneness, and the need to co-operate and share the world’s resources.
Maitreya will present the nations with an alternative way of living, of conducting economic and political affairs... The new government which will emerge after the stock market crash will reflect the will of the people and stand for the people.
- Benjamin Creme, Maitreya’s Mission, Volume Two, Chapter 4, Economic Change (1993)

After the preliminary shock [of the stock market's collapse], the nations will meet together to discuss the means of coping with the future in ordered fashion. Those who have stood most emphatically behind the rule of market forces will find themselves outvoted in the dispensation which will pertain, and those advocating co-operation will gain the ascendancy. This will not happen overnight. The process will be gradual, but will not be long delayed. 137
- Benjamin Creme, Maitreya’s Mission, Volume Two, Chapter 4, (1993)

The Masters have a very simple plan which has been worked out, not by Them but with Their help, by a group of initiates, economists and financiers of international standing, but who are also members of the Spiritual Hierarchy: Each nation will be asked to make an inventory of what it has and what it needs. In this way the world’s ‘cake’ will be known. Each nation will be asked to make over into a common trust that which it has in excess of its needs in any given commodity... a very sophisticated form of barter will replace the present economic system.
- Benjamin Creme, Maitreya’s Mission, Volume Two, Chapter 4, (1993)
The world stock market crash... will reorient the governments of all countries towards a more equitable redistribution of food, housing, health care and education, which as universal rights will become the priorities of all governments. After the crash, the first duty of governments will be to feed people with the right food. Their second duty will be to ensure adequate housing. Health and education will be the next priorities. Investment along these lines in other parts of the world will follow, and lastly, defense. In short, the crash will lead to a reordering of priorities.
- Benjamin Creme, in Homelessness FAQ,

Every new cosmic cycle — we are entering a new one now, the Age of Aquarius — brings into the world a teacher. People like Hercules and Hermes, Rama, Mithra, Vyasa, Zoroaster, Confucius, Krishna, Shankaracharya, the Buddha, the Christ, Mohammed — these are all Masters who have come from the same spiritual centre of the planet, called the Spiritual, or Esoteric, Hierarchy, which is made up of the Masters and Their initiates and disciples of various degrees. (p.6) For the next 2,500 or so years we will be absorbing the cosmic energy of Aquarius, which will transform all life on the planet. It is a synthesizing energy: it draws together, fuses and blends, while the energy of Pisces, the age now ending, has separated and divided the world. This process will go forward... and, gradually, humanity will understand the reality of its spiritual nature. (p. 39)
- Benjamin Creme in The Ageless Wisdom, An Introduction to Humanity's Spiritual Legacy', Share International Foundation, (1996).

Even the most dire prophecy falls short of the calamity facing the world today. Few there are who see the immediacy of the threat and the urgency of the steps needed to counter it. Great as is the peril posed by global warming, this, unfortunately, is not the greatest, or most hazardous, faced by man today. Did he but know it, man is engaged in a slow but steadily increasing intoxification... the greatest danger to men, animals and the Earth itself. All are poisoned and sick in their own way...
- Benjamin Creme in Invisible peril Share International (June 2006).

The world has entered a new phase. The dark age of Kali Yuga is over. Our solar system is now beginning the Aquarian experience (lasting approximately 2,500 years). Aquarius’s energy is the energy of synthesis. This will bring humanity together into a unity completely different from the situation of today.
- Benjamin Creme in Share International magazine (December 2012).

This is the end time of Kali Yuga, the Dark Age, and the beginning of Kalki, the Age of Light, and the coming of Kalki Avatar who is Maitreya. Thousands of people in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, in the last weeks of the revolution against Hosni Mubarak, experienced Maitreya Who appeared among the people as Kalki Avatar, the rider on the white horse. This was filmed by independent media and was seen by millions on YouTube. Kalki Avatar on the white horse travelled through the crowds fast and unhindered; He was probably unseen by the vast majority in the square, but was seen by millions of people who watched the film on the internet.
- Benjamin Creme in Share International magazine (December 2012).

Now in those days, brethren, there shall arise in the world an Exalted One by name Maitreya (the Kindly One) an Arhat, a Fully Enlightened One, endowed with wisdom and righteousness, a Happy One, a World-knower, the Peerless Charioteer of men to be tamed, a teacher of the devas (angels) and mankind, an Exalted One, a Buddha like myself. He of His own abnormal powers shall realize and make known the world, and the worlds of the devas, with their Maras, their Brahmas, the host of recluses and brahmins, of devas and mankind alike, even as I do now. He shall proclaim the norm, lovely in its beginning, lovely in its middle, and lovely in the end thereof. He shall make known the wholly perfect life of righteousness in all its purity, both in the spirit and in the letter of it, even as I do now. He shall lead an Order of Brethren numbering many thousands, even as I do now lead an order of Brethren numbering many hundreds.
- Gautama Buddha in Digha Nikaya (The Teachings of the Buddha) Cakkavatti Sihanada Sutta (~400 BCE).

At the beginning and end of the discourse, the Buddha exhorts his monks to 'keep to their own preserves' by the practice of mindfulness. Then he tells of a 'wheel-turning monarch' (a righteous ruler) who had the sacred Wheel Treasure, which had to be carefully guarded. He was followed by a line of righteous kings, but eventually they degenerated, and society went from bad to worse, while the human life-span sank to ten years and all sense of morality was lost. After a brief but dreadful 'sword-interval' things improved, and finally another Buddha, Metteyya (Sanskrit: Maitreya) will appear. (26)
- Gautama Buddha, A Translation of the Digha Nikaya (The Long Discourses of the Buddha ~400 BCE) , Cakkavfitti-Sihandda Sutta: The Lion's Roar on the Turning of the Wheel Translated from the Pali, Maurice Walshe, (1987).

Dreams, something like prophecy, are the offspring of imaginations and comparisons which we may form whilst awake.
- Genesis Rabbah 17; Tales and Maxims from the Midrash by Rev. Samuel Rapaport, (1907), p. 69.

Prophets don't know everything!
- Jim Henson and David Odell, The Dark Crystal (1982).

Muad'Dib could indeed see the Future, but you must understand the limits of this power. Think of sight. You have eyes, yet cannot see without light. If you are on the floor of a valley, you cannot see beyond your valley. Just so, Muad'Dib could not always choose to look across the mysterious terrain. He tells us that a single obscure decision of prophecy, perhaps the choice of one word over another, could change the entire aspect of the future. He tells us "The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door." And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning "That path leads ever down into stagnation."
- Frank Herbert, Dune (1965), Book 2: Muad'Dib, Arrakis Awakening by the Princess Irulan.

Prophecy and prescience — How can they be put to the test in the face of the unanswered questions? Consider: How much is actual prediction of the "wave form" (as Muad'Dib referred to his vision-image) and how much is the prophet shaping the future to fit the prophecy? What of the harmonics inherent in the act of prophecy? Does the prophet see the future or does he see a line of weakness, a fault or cleavage that he may shatter with words or decisions as a diamond-cutter shatters his gem with a blow of a knife?
- Frank Herbert, Dune (1965), Book 2: Muad'Dib, Private Reflections on Muad'Dib by the Princess Irulan.

The trance-state of prophecy is like no other visionary experience. It is not a retreat from the raw exposure of the senses (as many trance states) but an immersion in a multitude of new movements. Things move. It is an ultimate pragmatism in the midst of Infinity, a demanding consciousness where you come at last into the unbroken awareness that the universe moves of itself, that it changes, that its rules change, that nothing remains permanent or absolute throughout all such movement, that mechanical explanations for anything can work only within precise confinements and, once the walls are broken down, the old explanations shatter and dissolve, blown away by new movements. The things you see in this trance are sobering, often shattering. They demand your utmost effort to remain whole, and even so, you emerge from that state profoundly changed.
- Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune (1981), The Stolen Journals.

The prophet is not diverted by illusions of past, present and future. The fixity of language determines such linear distinctions. Prophets hold a key to the lock in a language. The mechanical image remains only an image to them. This is not a mechanical universe. The linear progression of events is imposed by the observer. Cause and effect? That's not it at all. The prophet utters fateful words. You glimpse a thing "destined to occur." But the prophetic instant releases something of infinite portent and power. The universe undergoes a ghostly shift. Thus, the wise prophet conceals actuality behind shimmering labels. The uninitiated then believe the prophetic language is ambiguous. The listener distrusts the prophetic messenger. Instinct tells you how the utterance blunts the power of such words. The best prophets lead you up to the curtain and let you peer through for yourself.
- Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune (1981), The Stolen Journals.

A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country and in his own house.
- Jesus, Matthew, XIII. 57.

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
- Jesus Bible, New Living Translation, Matthew 28:20.

Whenever...there is a decline in religious practice... I descend Myself. To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.
- Krishna, The Bhagavad-Gita, 4.7 & 4.8, ISKCON (1995).

The Future … is like a puzzle — with missing pieces — difficult to read, and never, NEVER, what you think.
- Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, in lines for "Rumpelstiltskin" in Manhattan, episode 2.14 of Once Upon a Time (17 February 2013).

The Future is a puzzle, with many pieces to be sorted. In Time you will learn to separate what can be from what will be.
- Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, in lines for "the Seer" in Manhattan, episode 2.14 of Once Upon a Time (17 February 2013).

Everybody makes the same mistake. Fortune-telling doesn't reveal the future; it mirrors the present. It resonates against what your subconscious already knows and hauls it up out of the darkness so you can get a good look at it.
- Charles de Lint, in "Paperjack" in Dreams Underfoot : The Newford Collection (2003), p. 396.

The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behaviour which makes the original false conception come "true". This specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.
- Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure (1968), p. 477.

I had determined to go as far as declaring in abstruse and puzzling utterances the future causes of the "common advent", even those truly cogent ones that I have foreseen. Yet lest whatever human changes may be to come should scandalise delicate ears, the whole thing is written in nebulous form, rather than as a clear prophecy of any kind.
- Nostradamus, in letter from Salon to his son Cesar (March 1555) as translated by Peter Lemesurier.

If I have eschewed the word prophet, I do not wish to attribute to myself such lofty title at the present time, for whoever is called a prophet now was once called a seer; since a prophet, my son, is properly speaking one who sees distant things through a natural knowledge of all creatures. And it can happen that the prophet bringing about the perfect light of prophecy may make manifest things both human and divine, because this cannot be done otherwise, given that the effects of predicting the future extend far off into time.
- Nostradamus, The Prophecies (1555), Preface.

Perfect knowledge of such things cannot be acquired without divine inspiration, given that all prophetic inspiration derives its initial origin from God Almighty, then from chance and nature. Since all these portents are produced impartially, prophecy comes to pass partly as predicted. For understanding created by the intellect cannot be acquired by means of the occult, only by the aid of the zodiac, bringing forth that small flame by whose light part of the future may be discerned.
- Nostradamus, The Prophecies (1555), Preface.

When twenty years of the Moon's reign have passed
another will take up his reign for seven thousand years.
When the exhausted Sun takes up his cycle
then my prophecy and threats will be accomplished.
- Nostradamus, The Prophecies (1555), Q 48.

For you know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were moved by holy spirit.
- Peter the Apostle, 2 Peter 1:20 - 21.

Sir Isaac Newton, having perhaps the greatest scientific mind of all time, accepted the books of Book of Daniel and Revelation as revelations from God, being very detailed and accurate representations of the history of the world's dominating kingdoms, and prophesying both the first and second coming of Christ. He understood that the scriptures taught that the true Church of Jesus Christ had been lost, and he awaited three separate future events: 1) the restoration of the gospel by an angel, 2) the re-establishment of the true church, and 3) the rise of a new world kingdom led by the Savior himself, which will crush the kingdoms of the world as the stone pulverized the statue to powder. He saw the whole purpose of these revelations is not to satisfy man's curiosity about the future, but to be a testimony of the foreknowledge of God after they are all fulfilled in the last days. He proposed that the revelations can be understood by discovering rules governing their consistent imagery, but only after they have been fulfilled, unless an interpretation is given with the revelation. Truly Newton's genius was remarkable, and we could learn much from his insights and systematic methods.
- John P. Pratt, in "Sir Isaac Newton Interprets Daniel's Prophecies" in Meridian Magazine (11 August 2004).

Every prophecy, afterwards uttered by various prophets, was handed over on Sinai at the time of the giving of the Decalogue, but was to be kept unproclaimed until each prophet had received the charge of proclaiming his respective prophecy
- Exodus Rabbah 28, Tales and Maxims from the Midrash by Rev. Samuel Rapaport, (1907), p. 103.

We are now in the midst of the Great Battle predicted in all the most ancient prophecies and in the writings of all peoples. We are approaching the great decisive battle between the Armies of Light...and the hordes of the Prince of this World....the whole army of Gog must be exterminated. But immutable is the Law of Light, and darkness shall be defeated.
- Helena Roerich in Letters I, (11 August 1934).

Dreadful is Armageddon — the dark forces are struggling for their very existence. Despair unites them and makes them so persistent in trying to achieve their aim. The Prince of the World has very many talented collaborators—some conscious, some unconscious—and it is foolish to think that they do not know the ways of the most cunning subtlety. There are very shrewd and inventive, and they act according to the level of their victims. But all of them lack tolerance and warmth of heart. (23 August 1934)
- Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich Volume I: 1929-1935.

Armageddon is the great decisive Battle between the Forces of Light and darkness. It was predicted in all the ancient scriptures, and the name "Armageddon, as well as the description of it, can be found in the Apocalypse... It is interesting to note that these calculations are also found in the pyramid of Cheops. Thus, today, we find ourselves in the midst of this Battle, which will increase... (10 September 1934).
- Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich, Volume II: 1935-1939

The predicted great Armageddon of our race is in full swing... victory is always with the forces of Light, but dreadful cataclysms are unavoidable... the destiny of the world is in the hands of humanity. The planet can be saved only if there is a resurrection of the spirit, only if the consciousness is liberated from the phantoms of the past and directed toward the construction of the New World on the basis of a new understanding of cooperation and knowledge. (16 July 1935) ...At present the whole world is passing through thrice difficult days, and it was indicated to read in the Apocalypse the first verse, chapter 21—"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth" so it is, and with the old consciousness one cannot enter the New World. (11 February 1938).
- Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich, Volume II: 1935-1939.

I shall quote an interesting passage from The Secret Doctrine taken from the Puranas. "...Anyhow, it is curious to see how prophetic in almost all things was the writer of Vishnu-Purana when foretelling... a man if rich will be reputed pure; dishonesty... will be the universal means of subsistence, weakness the cause of dependence, menace and presumption will be substituted for learning; liberality will be devotion; mutual assent, [will replace] marriage; fine clothes [will be regarded as] dignity. . . . He who is the strongest will reign.. the people, unable to bear the heavy burden, Kara-bhara (the load of taxes) will take refuge among the valleys. . . 
Thus, in the Kali age will decay constantly proceed, until the human race approaches its annihilation (pralaya). . . . When the close of the Kali age shall be nigh, a portion of that divine being which exists, if its own spiritual nature . . . shall descend on Earth . . . as Kalki (Avatar) endowed with the eight superhuman faculties. . . . He will re-establish righteousness on Earth, and the minds of those who live at the end of Kali-Yuga shall be awakened and become as pellucid as crystal. The men who are thus changed. . . shall be the seeds of human beings, and shall give birth to a race who shall follow the laws of the Krita age, (the age of purity). As it is said, 'When the sun and moon and the lunar asterism Tishya and the planet Jupiter are in one mansion the Krita (or Satya) age shall return.'
- Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich II, 19 March 1936.

I myself once heard intelligent people trying to prove that the Bolsheviks were predicted in the Apocalypse, and that even the number of the days of their power was mentioned, and that the Michael mentioned there was none other than the Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich! I certainly do not mention this to discredit Bajenov's book, but simply to warn those who are greatly attracted by research into Biblical prophecies. (22 June 1936)
- Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich, Volume II: 1935-1939.

The historian is a prophet facing backwards.
- August Wilhelm Schlegel, Anthenaem Fragments (Poetic Fragments fragment 80) 27, in Friedrich Schlegel's "Lucinde" and the Fragments (1971) ed. & Tr. Peter Edgerly Firchow, p. 170.

O my prophetic soul!
My uncle!
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act I, scene 5, line 40.

There is a history in all men's lives,
Figuring the nature of the times deceas'd,
The which observed, a man may prophesy
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life, which in their seeds
And weak beginnings lie intreasured.
- William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II (c. 1597-99), Act III, scene 1, line 80.

"Deafer," said the blameless King,
"Gawain, and blinder unto holy things
Hope not to make thyself by idle vows,
Being too blind to have desire to see.
But if indeed there came a sign from heaven,
Blessed are Bors, Lancelot and Percivale,
For these have seen according to their sight.
For every fiery prophet in old times,
And all the sacred madness of the bard,
When God made music through them, could but speak
His music by the framework and the chord;
And as ye saw it ye have spoken truth."
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in "The Holy Grail" in The Holy Grail and Other Poems (1869), and eventually, Idylls of the King (1885).

The inspiration for the title of this book came from a Bible prophecy that seems more applicable now than at any other time in human history. It occurs in both the Old and the New Testament and speaks of the collapse of the existing world order and the arising of a new heaven and a new earth. We need to understand here that heaven is not a location but refers to the inner realm of consciousness. This is the esoteric meaning of the word, and this is also its meaning in the teachings of Jesus. Collective human consciousness and life on our planet are intrinsically connected. “A new heaven” is the emergence of a transformed state of human consciousness, and “a new earth” is its reflection in the physical realm.
- Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth:Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, chapter 1, 2005

The Reappearance of the Christ, by Alice A. Bailey (1948)

Chapter I: The Doctrine of the Coming One

Right down the ages, in many world cycles and in many countries (and today in all) great points of tension have occurred which have been characterised by a hopeful sense of expectancy. Some one is expected and His coming is anticipated. Always in the past, it has been the religious teachers of the period who have fostered and proclaimed this expectancy and the time has always been one of chaos and difficulty, of a climaxing point at the close of a civilisation or culture and when the resources of the old religions have seemed inadequate to meet men's difficulties or to solve their problems...When the times are ripe, the invocation of the masses is strident enough and the faith of those who know is keen enough, then always He has come and today will be no exception to this ancient rule...

When men feel that they have exhausted all their own resources and have come to an end of all their own innate possibilities and that the problems and conditions confronting them are beyond their solving or handling, they are apt to look for a divine Intermediary and for the Mediator Who will plead their cause with God and bring about a rescue. They look for a Saviour.

This doctrine of Mediators, of Messiahs, of Christs and of Avatars can be found running like a golden thread through all the world faiths and Scriptures and, relating these world Scriptures to some central source of emanation, they are found in rich abundance everywhere. Even the human soul is regarded as an intermediary between man and God; Christ is believed by countless millions to act as the divine mediator between humanity and divinity.

Ever down the ages, and at every great human crisis, always in the hours of necessity, at the founding of a new race, or in the awakening of a prepared humanity to a new and wider vision, the Heart of God—impelled by the Law of Compassion—sends forth a Teacher, a world Saviour, an Illuminator, an Avatar, a transmitting Intermediary, a Christ. He gives the message which will heal, which will indicate the next step to be taken by the race of men, which will illumine a dark world problem and give to man an expression of some hitherto unrealised aspect of divinity. Upon this fact of the continuity of revelation and upon the sequence of this progressive manifestation of the divine Nature, is based the doctrine of Avatars, divine Messengers, divine Appearances and Saviours. To Them all, history unmistakenly testifies.

The reason He has not come again is that the needed work has not been done by His followers in all countries. His coming is largely dependent, as we shall later see, upon the establishing of right human relations. This the church has hindered down the centuries, and has not helped because of its fanatical zeal to make "Christians" of all peoples and not followers of the Christ. It has emphasised theological doctrine, and not love and loving understanding as Christ exemplified it.

It is not for us yet to know the date or the hour of the reappearance of the Christ. His coming is dependent upon the appeal (the often voiceless appeal) of all who stand with massed intent; it is dependent also upon the better establishment of right human relations and upon certain work being done at this time by senior Members of the Kingdom of God, the Church Invisible, the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet; it is dependent also upon the steadfastness of the Christ's disciples in the world at this time and His initiate-workers—all working in the many groups, religious, political and economic.

When the Christ, the Avatar of Love, makes His reappearance then will the Sons of men who are now the Sons of God withdraw Their faces from the shining light and radiate that light upon the sons of men who know not yet they are the Sons of God. Then shall the Coming One appear, His footsteps hastened through the valley of the shadow by the One of awful power Who stands upon the mountain top, breathing out love eternal, light supernal and peaceful, silent Will. Then will the sons of men respond. Then will a newer light shine forth into the dismal, weary vale of earth. Then will new life course through the veins of men, and then will their vision compass all the ways of what may be. So peace will come again on earth, but a peace unlike aught known before. Then will the will-to-good flower forth as understanding, and understanding blossom as goodwill in men.

The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom, by Benjamin Creme (1980)

We are moving into a period of climax, leading to events which will fundamentally alter life as we know it [...] To some people, this portends the Second Coming of the Christ. To others it is the realisation that only through a profound inner change and readiness for a new direction in our political, economic and social life can humanity survive. Is it not possible that both of these approaches are correct?
Mankind will soon see that there is no alternative to sharing the produce of the world. Every other method has been tried and failed, and has led inevitably to war, suffering, degradation and misery.
Women's liberation... It is absolutely necessary that humanity realizes that the male and female are in polarity. Energetically, both are necessary on the planet - not the domination of one by the other.
We must show our ability to become One with All, the whole of this planetary life: with our fellow beings... We must stop exploiting the planet and misusing its resources; stop exploiting the lower kingdoms and misusing their life; show that this is One World, One Humanity, One Life. This is the destiny of mankind.
In the esoteric tradition, the Christ is not the name of an individual but of an Office in the [esoteric spiritual] Hierarchy. The present holder of that Office, the Lord Maitreya, has held it for 2,600 years, and manifested in Palestine through His disciple, Jesus, by the occult method of overshadowing, the most frequent form used for the manifestation of Avatars.
He has never left the world, but for 2,000 years has waited and planned for this immediate future time, training His disciples, and preparing Himself for the awesome task which awaits Him...
The Masters of the Hierarchy are now ready to return, for the first time in countless thousands of years, to the everyday world... Under Their great leader, the Master of all the Masters, the World Teacher, the One known in the West as the Christ, the esoteric Hierarchy will walk openly among us and lead us into the Aquarian experience. They stand now, waiting for us to take, of our own free will, the needed first steps in the direction of unity, cooperation and fusion. Then They will emerge with the Christ at Their Head, and Their Presence in the world will be an established fact.
He [the World Teacher] will show humanity the steps which it should take to regenerate itself, and to create a civilisation based on sharing, cooperation and goodwill, leading inevitably to world brotherhood.
The history of humanity really can be seen as the history of man's response to certain great ideas which are put into the mind-belt, into the mind of humanity... So it has been down through all the ages [...]
It is not primarily as a religious leader that He is coming. You may look for Him rather as an educationalist in the widest sense of the word, advocating changes in our political, economic and social life.
The major area of concern in the immediate future will be the problem of leisure: how mankind will utilize the leisure which he will have. A great many people today, because of the world labour situation, have endless leisure. They do not want it, they do not want to be unemployed, but they have leisure. However, they have not been educated, for the most part, to use that leisure correctly. In this coming time, gradually (I am not talking about something that is going to happen overnight, but eventually) mankind will create machines which will do the work which today is done by the bulk of humanity. Mankind will be released into a state of leisure which will give him the opportunity to explore his own inner nature, to know what he really is, the great divine Being he really is, and allow him to manifest that quality.
In the future... The nature of work will change. We shall have to learn to live much more simply, not geared to this great mechanical civilization we have built around ourselves, especially in the industrialized West. The Christ and the Masters will show that we can live perfectly happily, even more happily, in a much simpler way, with fewer things. But those things will be beautiful. They will be made because they are needed, and they will be made with the creativeness of man behind them, whether they are man-made or machine-made.
A completely new attitude will take place in relation to work. Through the power of sound, man will build and create the artefacts of his civilization and control his environment, relating it to his real needs.
When he comes into correct relationship to his brother and his Source, he will inherit that Divine Science, which is his birthright, but is known today only by the Masters of Wisdom.
Whatever of significance happens in any country at all happens under the inspiration of Hierarchy. There is an entire department in the Hierarchy, the Department of the Manu, which deals with the politics of the world: the great movements of the races; the building of races; the forming of nations; the destiny of nations; the working out of the political, governmental and racial divisions of humanity.
In the future, the not too distant future, we will come to see that all political systems are divine expressions. There is more in common between true democracy and true communism than there would seem to be today. What is called communism today, as it exists in Russia, China and the communist world, is in no sense true communism, but it is an evolving structure, moving towards a more perfect expression of the thoughtform as it exists in the Divine Mind; likewise with democracy.
Very soon we shall become aware that all political systems, without exception, are in a state of transition, more or less. All of them are changing, all of them are coming to a purer expression of the Hierarchical energy and the Divine intention which is behind them... All of them will shortly be seen to be in this state of transition, and therefore not so mutually exclusive as they now appear to be and a much greater world harmony will result from this. You will see very shortly the healing of the wounds between the nations. Over this coming year you will see things taking place which you would not have thought possible. There will be greater detente, greater synthesis.
Very soon, the nations of the world will realize that all political systems have much in common. There is a similarity of intention in America, Russia and Britain for instance (Britain representing the Commonwealth of Nations; Britain in Europe represents a larger body of thinking along the same lines). They are not identical but there is a wide common ground and that common ground will find its expression in the transition of each of their political systems into something which will not be identical - there is no reason at all why each nation should have exactly the same political system - but they will grow into a kind of relationship which makes coexistence not only possible but natural and inevitable. The acceptance of the principle of sharing will make this inevitable. p. 175
What is happening at present is that the forces of evil are fighting a last-ditch stand, because they know that with the Christ and the Hierarchy in the world they are doomed. They are going to be sealed off to their own domain for 3,000 years, and they will not be able to affect mankind in the same way. Hence their present desperate fight to foment, as potently as they can, this fear reflex in mankind. They work through fear. They work mostly on the physical and astral planes, but also on the lower mental planes. They create fear, anxiety and chaos. They are doing this by focusing their attention on and stimulating these thoughtforms of destruction and catastrophe, so that they should become a reality. If mankind surrounds himself with a thoughtform potently enough, sooner or later he creates a situation in which that thoughtform works out. That is how our actions work out. p. 177

No wars can now be won, and spending vast amounts of money on international arms programmes is a complete waste. ~ Benjamin Creme

The Aquarian Age will be the age of right relationship, the age of reason, the age of brotherhood and love. This right relationship, of which reason, brotherhood and love are the expression, will be right relationship between all the kingdoms: between Man and his Source, which is Reality or God, however you envisage God; between man and man; and between man and the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.

All the kingdoms will come into a very active, dynamic relationship as humanity comes, more and more, into a conscious relationship with the next kingdom, above the human - the Spiritual Kingdom or the Kingdom of Souls, which is made up of the Masters and initiates in the Hierarchy. Through the teaching of the Masters and through the grounding in the human consciousness of the Plan which issues from Shamballa, mankind will come to realize his true destiny, which is to act as a great clearing house for energies flowing through him to the lower kingdoms. So he will see that he has a great responsibility, on the planet, to the other kingdoms in Nature, and a change in his relationship to the animal kingdom will take place. p. 193

Inevitably, out of this change will come, generally, a vegetarian diet for mankind. This will be the norm. That is not to say that the eating of meat today by large masses of mankind is wrong. There is no single group diet today - one diet for all men.... At some point along that evolutionary path vegetarianism does become necessary. Not simply because it is 'wrong' to kill animals, but because the vibrational rate of the animal body, in particular the blood of the animal, is inimical to the higher vibrational rate...

Mankind is beginning to realize that it is not alone in the universe, not alone in the solar system. The space people are our brothers. We are part of a family which embraces the whole of the solar system, not necessarily on the same plane of manifestation as we are. In fact, the matter aspect of the different planets varies. For instance, if you went to Venus you would see nothing. Venus is inhabited, but our highest etheric energy is their lowest. They start where we leave off.

Man is divine. He is also human and he has free will. And he is given the chance to exert that free will.

Humanity must evolve out of its sense of what is right for it; has to bring its will into line with the divine will, which issues from Shamballa, where the Will of God is known.

When the will of man and the Will of God coincide, you have right living - the Plan goes forward. There are no downfalls.

When you have a divergence of man's will from God's Will for long enough, disaster comes.

In the better civilizations you are thinking of, the Atlantean, men grew selfish, exerted their little self-will, and the eventual result was disaster. This time, man is far more evolved, is much more an adult, mental unit, and can make decisions as to his future in the light of the evidence which will be highlighted for him by the Christ. He will see that there is no alternative today to sharing and co-operation, and on that basis will go into the future. p. 224

The Celestine Prophecy, by James Redfield (1993)

The Manuscript dates back to about 600 B.C... predicts a massive transformation in human society... It's not religious in nature, but it is spiritual.

We're discovering something new about human life on this planet, about what our existence means, and according to the priest, this knowledge will alter human culture dramatically. p. 6

The Manuscript predicts that... human beings will begin to grasp these insights sequentially, one insight then another, as we move from where we are now to a completely spiritual culture on Earth.

The transformation is beginning with the First Insight... this insight always surfaces unconsciously at first, as a profound sense of restlessness... We're beginning to glimpse an alternative kind of experience... moments in our lives that feel different somehow, more intense and inspiring. But we don't know what this experience is or how to make it last, and when it ends we're left feeling dissatisfied and restless with a life that seems ordinary again... Most of society's recent ills, can be traced to this restlessness and searching, this problem is temporary, and will come to an end.

The First Insight occurs when we become conscious of the coincidences in our lives.... Coincidences are happening more and more frequently and that, when they do, they strike us as beyond what would be expected by pure chance.

The Manuscript says the number of people who are conscious of such coincidences would begin to grow dramatically... He said that this growth would continue... we would reach a specific level of such individuals a level I think of as a critical mass... once we reach this critical mass, the entire culture will begin to take these coincidental experiences seriously.

We will wonder, in mass, what mysterious process underlies human life on this planet. And it will be this question, asked at the same time by enough people... we will begin to find out.

Most church officials were fighting against it... because it challenges the completeness of their religion. Apparently the... insights extend some of the church's traditional ideas in a way that alarms the church elders, who think things are fine the way they are.

Staying connected, Father Carl said, will be easier once you get clear on who you are... The process of finding your true spiritual identity involves looking at your whole life as one long story, trying to find a higher meaning. Begin by asking yourself this question: why was I born to this particular family? What might have been the purpose for that?

You can go to sleep and never think again of what we have discussed. You can go right back into your old drama, or you can wake up tomorrow and hold on to this new idea of who you are.

The worst thing that can be done to children is to drain their energy while correcting them. This is what creates control dramas in them...

You should never take responsibility for more children than you can give attention to.

The Ninth Insight explains how human culture will change in the next millennium as a result of conscious evolution. It describes a significantly different way of life.

The Manuscript predicts that we humans will voluntarily decrease our population so that we all may live in the most powerful and beautiful places on the Earth. But remarkably, many more of these areas will exist in the future, because we will intentionally let the forests go uncut so that they can mature and build energy.

By the middle of the next millennium... humans will typically live among five hundred year old trees and carefully tended gardens, yet within easy travel distance of an urban area of incredible technological wizardry.

The means of survival food stuffs and clothing and transportation-will all be totally automated and at everyone's disposal. Our needs will be completely met without the exchange of any currency, yet also without any overindulgence or laziness.

Guided by their intuitions, everyone will know precisely what to do and when to do it, and this will fit harmoniously with the actions of others. No one will consume excessively because we will have let go of the need to possess and to control for security.

The Ninth depicts a human world where everyone has slowed down and become more alert, ever vigilant for the next meaningful encounter that comes along. We will know that it could occur anywhere: on a path that winds through a forest, for instance, or on a bridge that traverses some canyon.

Can you visualize human encounters that have this much meaning and significance? Think how it would be for two people meeting for the first time. Each will first observe the other's energy field, exposing any manipulations. Once clear, they will consciously share life stories until, elatedly, messages are discovered. Afterward, each will go forward again on their individual journey, but they will be significantly altered. They will vibrate at a new level and will thereafter touch others in a way not possible before their meeting...

Our natural pursuit of the truth will lead us there.

The real reason we spent five centuries creating material supports for human life was to set the stage for something else, a way of life that returns the mystery to existence.

That is what the information now returning from the scientific method indicates: mankind is on this planet to consciously evolve. And as we learn to evolve and pursue our particular path, truth by truth, the Ninth Insight says the overall culture will transform in a very predictable way. p.143

The Manuscript describes the progress of succeeding generations as an evolution of understanding, an evolution toward a higher spirituality and vibration. Each generation incorporates more energy and accumulates more truth and then passes that status on to the people of the next generation, who extend it further.

Isn't the story of the scriptures a story of people learning to receive God's energy and will within? Isn't that what the early prophets led the people to do in the Old Testament? And isn't that receptivity to God's energy within what culminated in the life of a carpenter's son, to the extent that we say God, himself, descended to Earth? Isn't the story of the New Testament... the story of a group of people being filled with some kind of energy that transformed them? Didn't Jesus, himself, say that what he did, we could do also, and more? We've never really taken that idea seriously, not until now. We're only now grasping what Jesus was talking about, where he was leading us. The Manuscript clarifies what he meant! How to do it! p. 151

Fear lowers one's vibration tremendously.

The Ninth Insight says that while some individuals may cross over sporadically, a general rapture will not occur until we have abolished fear, until we can maintain a sufficient vibration in all situations.

We can't do it yet but the role of the Ninth Insight is to help create that confidence. The Ninth Insight is the insight of knowing where we are headed. All the other insights create a picture of the world as one of incredible beauty and energy, and of ourselves as increasing our connection with and thus seeing this beauty... The more beauty we can see, the more we evolve. The more we evolve, the higher we vibrate.

The Ninth Insight shows us that ultimately, our increased perception and vibration will open us up to a Heaven that is already before us. We just can't see it yet.

Whenever we doubt our own path, or lose sight of the process, we must remember what we are evolving toward, what the process of living is all about. Reaching heaven on Earth is why we are here. And now we know how it can be done... how it will be done.

Connecting with energy is something humans have to be open to and talking about and expecting, otherwise the whole human race can go back to pretending that life is about having power over others and exploiting the planet. If we go back to doing this, then we won't survive. Each of us must do what we can to get this message out.

Mahabharata, Book 3, Vana Parva ~400 BCE

full text online

Kali Yuga Predictions

O thou foremost of all speakers, O Muni of Bhrigu's race, that which we have heard from thee about the destruction and re-birth of all things at the end of the Yuga, is, indeed, full of wonder! I am filled with curiosity, however, in respect of what may happen in the Kali age. When morality and virtue will be at an end, what will remain... tell me all in detail, O Muni, for all that thou narratest is varied and delightful...(Section CLXXXIX, p. 387)

Thus addressed, that foremost of Munis began his discourse... listen to me as I narrate the future history of the world during the sinful age. O bull of the Bharata race, in the Krita age, everything was free from deceit and guile and avarice and covetousness; and morality like a bull was among men, with all the four legs complete... In the dark age (of Kali)... morality mixed with three parts of sin liveth by the side of men... men in general will deceive their fellows...

And men with false reputation of learning will... cause truth to be contracted and concealed. And in consequence of the shortness of their lives they will not be able to acquire much knowledge. And in consequence of the littleness of their knowledge, they will have no wisdom. And for this, covetousness and avarice will overwhelm them all. And wedded to avarice and wrath and ignorance and lust men will entertain animosities towards one another, desiring to take one another's lives. (Section CLXXXIX, p. 387)

And the lowest orders of men will rise to the position of the intermediate ones, and those in intermediate stations will, without doubt, descend to the level of the lowest ones... And towards that period, even they that are always observant of vows, will become covetous... People will become atheists and thieves... the kings of the earth, with hearts wedded to sin without knowledge and always boastful of their wisdom, will challenge one another... (Section CLXXXIX, p. 388)

And the Kshatriyas [military caste] also towards the end of such a period will become the thorns of the earth. And filled with avarice and swelling with pride and vanity... And attacking and repeating their attacks upon the good and the honest, and feeling no pity for the latter.. the Kshatriyas will, O Bharata, rob these of their wives and wealth...

And no one will ask for a girl (for purposes of marriage) and no one will give away a girl (for such purposes), but the girls will themselves choose their lords, when the end of the Yuga comes...

And the kings of the earth with souls steeped in ignorance, and discontented with what they have, will at such a time, rob their subjects by every means in their power..., the right hand will deceive the left; and the left, the right....

And men with false reputation of learning will contract Truth and the old will betray the senselessness of the young, and the young will betray the dotage of the old. (Section CLXXXIX, p. 388)

And cowards will have the reputation of bravery and the brave will be cheerless like cowards... men will cease to trust one another... full of avarice... sin will increase and prosper, while virtue will fade and cease to flourish.

And Brahmanas and Kshatriyas and Vaisyas will disappear, leaving, O king, no remnants of their orders... jealousy and malice will fill the world. And no one will, at that time, be a giver (of wealth or anything else) in respect to any one else... men will... become omnivorous without distinction, and cruel in all their acts... urged by avarice, men will, at that time, deceive one another when they sell and purchase. And when the end of the Yuga comes, urged by their very dispositions, men will act cruelly, and speak ill of one another.. people will, without compunction, destroy trees and gardens. (Section CLXL, p. 392)

And men will be filled with anxiety as regards the means of living... overwhelmed with covetousness, men will kill... and enjoy the possessions of their victims... And when men become fierce and destitute of virtue and carnivorous and addicted to intoxicating drinks, then doth the Yuga come to an end... friends and relatives and kinsmen will perform friendly offices for the sake of the wealth only that is possessed by a person...When the end of the Yuga comes, men abandoning the countries and directions and towns and cities of their occupation, will seek for new ones, one after another. And people will wander over the earth, uttering, 'O father, O son', and such other frightful and rending cries. (Section CLXL, p. 392)

After Kali Yuga

And when those terrible times will be over, the creation will begin anew. And men will again be created and distributed..and about that time, in order that men may increase, Providence, according to its pleasure, will once more become propitious... And the clouds will commence to shower seasonably, and the stars and stellar conjunctions will become auspicious. And the planets, duly revolving in their orbits, will become exceedingly propitious. And all around, there will be prosperity and abundance and health and peace....(Section CLXL, p. 392)

And commissioned by Time, a Brahmana of the name of Kalki will take his birth. And he will glorify Vishnu and possess great energy, great intelligence, and great prowess.... vehicles and weapons, and warriors and arms, and coats of mail will be at his disposal as soon as he will think of them. And he will be the king of kings, and ever victorious with the strength of virtue. And he will restore order and peace in this world crowded with creatures and contradictory in its course. And that blazing Brahmana of mighty intellect... will be the Destroyer of all, and will inaugurate a new Yuga. And surrounded by the Brahmanas, that Brahmana will exterminate all the mlecchas wherever those low and despicable persons may take refuge."(Section CLXL, p. 392)

Markandeya continued, Having exterminated the thieves and robbers... and having established anew the blessed rectitude ordained by the Self-create, Kalki, of sacred deeds and illustrious reputation... the people of this earth will imitate his conduct... there will be prosperity everywhere (on earth). And as the countries of the earth will one after another be subjugated... (Section CLXL, p. 392)

Vaisampayana continued, "Hearing these words of Markandeya, the royal head of the Kurus... spoke... 'O muni, if I am to protect my subjects, to what course of conduct should I adhere? And how should I behave so that I may not fall away from the duties of my order?' Markandeya, hearing this, answered, 'Be merciful to all creatures, and devoted to their good. Love all creatures, scorning none. Be truthful in speech, humble, with passions under complete control, and always devoted to the protection of thy people. Practise virtue and renounce sin, and worship thou the manes and the god and whatever thou mayst have done from ignorance or carelessness, wash them off and expiate them by charity. (Section CLXL, p. 393)

Renouncing pride and vanity, be thou possessed to humility and good behaviour. And subjugating the whole earth, rejoice thou and let happiness be thine. This is the course of conduct that accords with virtue. I have recited to thee all that was and all that will be regarded as virtuous. There is nothing appertaining to the past or the future that is unknown to thee. Therefore, O son, take not to heart this present calamity of thine. They that are wise are never overwhelmed when they are persecuted by Time. O thou of mighty arms, the very dwellers of heaven cannot rise superior to Time. Time afflicts all creatures. (Section CLXL, p. 393)

A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle (2005)

The inspiration for the title of this book came from a Bible prophecy that seems more applicable now than at any other time in human history. It occurs in both the Old and the New Testament and speaks of the collapse of the existing world order and the arising of “a new heaven and a new earth." We need to understand here that heaven is not a location but refers to the inner realm of consciousness. This is the esoteric meaning of the word, and this is also its meaning in the teachings of Jesus.

Collective human consciousness and life on our planet are intrinsically connected. “A new heaven” is the emergence of a transformed state of human consciousness, and “a new earth” is its reflection in the physical realm. Since human life and human consciousness are intrinsically one with the life of the planet, as the old consciousness dissolves, there are bound to be synchronistic geographic and climatic natural upheavals in many parts of the planet, some of which we are already witnessing now.
(1) Revelation 21:1 and Isaiah 65:17 (New Revised Standard Version)

The greatest achievement of humanity is not its works of art, science, or technology, but the recognition of its own dysfunction, its own madness.

In the distant past, this recognition already came to a few individuals. A man called Gautama Siddhartha, who lived 2,600 years ago in India, was perhaps the first who saw it with absolute clarity. Later the title Buddha was conferred upon him. Buddha means “the awakened one.”

Another of humanity’s early awakened teachers emerged in China. His name was Lao Tzu. He left a record of his teaching in the form of one of the most profound spiritual books ever written, the Tao Te Ching.

To recognize one’s own insanity, is of course, the arising of sanity, the beginning of healing and transcendence.

Is humanity ready for a transformation of consciousness, an inner flowering so radical and profound that compared to it the flowering of plants, no matter how beautiful, is only a pale reflection? Can human beings lose the density of their conditioned mind structures and become like crystals or precious stones, so to speak, transparent to the light of consciousness? Can they defy the gravitational pull of materialism and materiality and rise above identification with form that keeps the ego in place and condemns them to imprisonment within their own personality?

The possibility of such a transformation has been the central message of the great wisdom teachings of humankind. The messengers—Buddha, Jesus, and others, not all of them known—were humanity's early flowers. They were precursors, rare and precious beings. A widespread flowering was not yet possible at that time, and their message became largely misunderstood and often greatly distorted. It certainly did not transform human behavior, except in a small minority of people.

This book itself is a transformational device that has come out of the arising new consciousness. The ideas and concepts presented here may be important, but they are secondary. They are no more than signposts pointing toward awakening. As you read, a shift takes place within you.

What a liberation to realize that the "voice in my head" is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that.

Only by awakening can you know the true meaning of that word.

When you don't cover up the world with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous returns to your life.

How do you let go of attachment to things? Don't even try. It's impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them.

Accepting means you allow yourself to feel whatever it is you are feeling at that moment...you can't argue with what is. Well, you can, but if you do, you suffer.

The more unconscious individuals, groups, or nations are, the more likely it is that egoic pathology will assume the form of physical violence. Violence is a primitive but still very widespread way in which the ego attempts to assert itself, to prove itself right or another wrong. With very unconscious people, arguments can easily lead to physical violence.

Awareness is the greatest agent for change.

You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge.

Teachings that pointed the way beyond the dysfunction of the human mind, the way out of the collective insanity, were distorted and became themselves part of the insanity.
And so religions, to a large extent, became divisive rather than unifying forces. Instead of bringing about an ending of violence and hatred through a realization of the fundamental oneness of all life, they brought more violence and hatred, more divisions between people as well as between different religions and even within the same religion.

Instead of asking "what do I want from life?", a more powerful question is, "what does life want from me?"

You cannot be both unhappy and fully present in the Now.

Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being present now; and if the past cannot prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?

All the things that truly matter - beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace - arise from beyond the mind.

You cannot find yourself in the past or future. The only place where you can find yourself is in the Now.

When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself.

Suffering has a noble purpose: the evolution of the consciousness and the burning up of the ego.

A new species is arising on the planet. It is arising now, and you are it!

Being must be felt. It can't be thought.

Listen to people's stories and they all could be entitled "Why I Cannot Be At Peace Now" The ego doesn't know that your only opportunity for being at peace is now.

Presence is a state of inner spaciousness.

Nonresistance is the key to the greatest power in the universe.

Being spiritual has nothing to do with what you believe and everything to do with your state of consciousness.

When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.

The human condition: lost in thought.

Life is the dancer and you are the dance.

What you react to in others, you strengthen in yourself.

We could say that the totality, life wants the sapling to become a tree, but the sapling doesn't see itself as separate from life and so wants nothing for itself. It is one with what life wants. That's why it isn't worried or stressed. And, if it has to die prematurely, it dies with ease.....

When you accept everything for what it is without labels you are outside of your ego.

Right now we are being given the experience we need to raise our consciousness.

The New Earth Is No Utopia... All utopian visions have this in common: the mental projection of a future time when all will be well, we will be saved, there will be peace and harmony and the end of our problems. There have been many such utopian visions. Some ended in disappointment, others in disaster. At the core of all utopian visions lies one of the main structural dysfunctions of the old consciousness: looking to the future for salvation. The only existence the future actually has is as a thought form in your mind, so when you look to the future for salvation, you are unconsciously looking to your own mind for salvation. You are trapped in form, and that is ego.

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth,”(1) writes the biblical prophet. The foundation for a new earth is a new heaven – the awakened consciousness. The earth – external reality – is only its outer reflection. The arising of a new heaven and by implication a new earth are not future events that are going to make us free. Nothing is going to make us free because only the present moment can make us free. That realization is the awakening. Awakening as a future event has no meaning because awakening is the realization of Presence. So the new heaven , the awakened consciousness, is not a future state to be achieved. A new heaven and a new earth are arising within you at this moment, and if they are not arising at this moment, they are no more than a thought in your head and therefore not arising at all. What did Jesus tell his disciples? “Heaven is right here in the midst of you.” (2)
(1.) Revelation 21:1 (New Revised Standard Version). (2.) Luke 17:21 (New Revised Standard Version).

The Prophecy of Hermes Trismegistus

Excerpt from Asclepius III contained in the Corpus Hermeticum, Full text

And in that day men will be weary of life, and they will cease to think the universe worthy of reverent wonder and of worship. And so religion, the greatest of all blessings, for there is nothing, nor has been, nor ever shall be, that can be deemed a greater boon, will be threatened with destruction; men will think it a burden, and will come to scorn it.
They will no longer love this world around us, this incomparable work of God, this glorious structure which He has built...
Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable than life; no one will raise his eyes to heaven.
The pious will be deemed insane, and the impious wise; the madman will be thought a brave man, and the wicked will be esteemed as good.
No word of reverence or piety, no utterance worthy of heaven and of the Gods of heaven, will be heard or believed.
But when all this has befallen, Asclepius, then the Master and Father, God, the first before all, the maker of that God who first came into being, will look on that which has come to pass, and will stay the disorder by the counterworking of His will, which is the good.
He will call back to the right path those who have gone astray; He will cleanse the world from evil, now washing it away with water-floods, now burning it out with fiercest fire, or again expelling it by war and pestilence.
And thus He will bring back His world to its former aspect, so that the Cosmos will once more be deemed worthy of worship and wondering reverence, and God, the maker and restorer of the mighty fabric, will be adored by the men of that day with unceasing hymns of praise and blessing.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 636-37.

Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!
- Lord Byron, Bride of Abydos (1813), Canto II, Stanza 20.

The prophet's mantle, ere his flight began,
Dropt on the world—a sacred gift to man.
- Thomas Campbell, Pleasures of Hope, Part I, line 43.

Bene qui conjiciet, vatem hunc perhibebo optimum.
- I shall always consider the beet guesser the best prophet.
- Cicero, De Divinatione, II, 5 (Greek adage).

Ancestral voices prophesying war.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan.

We know in part, and we prophesy in part.
- I Corinthians 13:9.

From hence, no question, has sprung an observation … confirmed now into a settled opinion, that some long experienced souls in the world, before their dislodging, arrive to the height of prophetic spirits.
- Erasmus, Praise of Folly (Old translation).

Thy voice sounds like a prophet's word;
And in its hollow tones are heard
The thanks of millions yet to be.
- Fitz-Greene Halleck, Marco Bozzaris.

Prophet of evil! never hadst thou yet
A cheerful word for me. To mark the signs
Of coming mischief is thy great delight,
Good dost thou ne'er foretell nor bring to pass.
- Homer, The Iliad, Book I, line 138, Bryant's translation.

A tunnel underneath the sea from Calais straight to Dover, Sir,
The squeamish folks may cross by land from shore to shore,
With sluices made to drown the French, if e'er they would come over, Sir,
Has long been talk'd of, till at length 'tis thought a monstrous bore.
- Theodore Hook, Bubbles of 1825, in John Bull (1825).

This solemn moment of triumph, one of the greatest moments in the history of the world … this great hour which rings in a new era … and which is going to lift up humanity to a higher plane of existence for all the ages of the future.
- David Lloyd George, speech at Guildhall after the signing of the Armistice (11 November 1918).

My gran'ther's rule was safer 'n 't is to crow:
Don't never prophesy—onless ye know.
- James Russell Lowell, Biglow Papers, No. 2. Mason and Slidell.

It takes a mind like Dannel's, fact, ez big ez all ou'doors
To find out thet it looks like rain arter it fairly pours.
- James Russell Lowell, Biglow Papers, No. 9, line 97.

No mighty trance, or breathed spell
Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.
- John Milton, Hymn on Christ's Nativity, line 173.

Till old experience do attain
To something like prophetic strain.
- John Milton, Il Penseroso (1631), line 173.

Is Saul also among the prophets?
- I Samuel 10:11.

Prognostics do not always prove prophecies, at least the wisest prophets make sure of the event first.
- Horace Walpole, letter to Thomas Walpole (9 February 1785).

Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
- Zechariah 1:5.

External links

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Wiktionary

Look up prophecy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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+=== [[Benjamin_Creme#The_Reappearance_of_the_Christ_and_the_Masters_of_Wisdom_(1980)|''The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom'', by Benjamin Creme]] (1980) ===
+* We are moving into a period of climax, leading to events which will fundamentally alter life as we know it [...] To some people, this portends the Second Coming of the Christ. To others it is the realisation that only through a profound inner change and readiness for a new direction in our political, economic and social life can humanity survive. Is it not possible that both of these approaches are correct?
+* Mankind will soon see that there is no alternative to sharing the produce of the world. Every other method has been tried and failed, and has led inevitably to war, suffering, degradation and misery.
+* Women's liberation... It is absolutely necessary that humanity realizes that the male and female are in polarity. Energetically, both are necessary on the planet - not the domination of one by the other.
+*We must show our ability to become One with All, the whole of this planetary life: with our fellow beings... We must stop exploiting the planet and misusing its resources; stop exploiting the lower kingdoms and misusing their life; show that this is One World, One Humanity, One Life. This is the destiny of mankind.
+*In the [[esoteric]] tradition, the Christ is not the name of an individual but of an Office in the [esoteric spiritual] [[Hierarchy]]. The present holder of that Office, the Lord Maitreya, has held it for 2,600 years, and manifested in [[Palestine]] through His disciple, [[Jesus]], by the [[occult]] method of overshadowing, the most frequent form used for the manifestation of Avatars.
+*He has never left the world, but for 2,000 years has waited and planned for this immediate future time, training His disciples, and preparing Himself for the awesome task which awaits Him...
+*The [[w:Masters of the Ancient Wisdom|Masters of the Hierarchy]] are now ready to return, for the first time in countless thousands of years, to the everyday world... Under Their great leader, the Master of all the Masters, the World Teacher, the One known in the West as the Christ, the [[esoteric]] Hierarchy will walk openly among us and lead us into the [[w:Age_of_Aquarius|Aquarian experience]]. They stand now, waiting for us to take, of our own free will, the needed first steps in the direction of unity, cooperation and fusion. Then They will emerge with the Christ at Their Head, and Their Presence in the world will be an established fact.
+* He [the World Teacher] will show humanity the steps which it should take to regenerate itself, and to create a civilisation based on sharing, cooperation and goodwill, leading inevitably to world brotherhood.
+* The history of humanity really can be seen as the history of man's response to certain great ideas which are put into the mind-belt, into the mind of humanity... So it has been down through all the ages [...]
+* It is not primarily as a religious leader that He is coming. You may look for Him rather as an educationalist in the widest sense of the word, advocating changes in our political, economic and social life.
+*'''The major area of concern in the immediate future will be the problem of leisure: how mankind will utilize the leisure which he will have. A great many people today, because of the world labour situation, have endless leisure. They do not want it, they do not want to be unemployed, but they have leisure. However, they have not been educated, for the most part, to use that leisure correctly. In this coming time, gradually (I am not talking about something that is going to happen overnight, but eventually) mankind will create machines which will do the work which today is done by the bulk of humanity.'''  Mankind will be released into a state of leisure which will give him the opportunity to explore his own inner nature, to know what he really is, the great divine Being he really is, and allow him to manifest that quality.
+*In the future... The nature of work will change. We shall have to learn to live much more simply, not geared to this great mechanical civilization we have built around ourselves, especially in the industrialized West. The Christ and the Masters will show that we can live perfectly happily, even more happily, in a much simpler way, with fewer things. But those things will be beautiful. They will be made because they are needed, and they will be made with the creativeness of man behind them, whether they are man-made or machine-made.
+*A completely new attitude will take place in relation to work. Through the power of sound, man will build and create the artefacts of his civilization and control his environment, relating it to his real needs.
+*When he comes into correct relationship to his brother and his Source, he will inherit that Divine Science, which is his birthright, but is known today only by the [[Masters of Wisdom]].
+*Whatever of significance happens in any country at all happens under the inspiration of Hierarchy. There is an entire department in the Hierarchy, the Department of the Manu, which deals with the politics of the world: the great movements of the races; the building of races; the forming of nations; the destiny of nations; the working out of the political, governmental and racial divisions of humanity.
+*In the future, the not too distant future, we will come to see that all political systems are divine expressions. There is more in common between true democracy and true communism than there would seem to be today. What is called communism today, as it exists in Russia, China and the communist world, is in no sense true communism, but it is an evolving structure, moving towards a more perfect expression of the thoughtform as it exists in the Divine Mind; likewise with democracy.
+*Very soon we shall become aware that all political systems, without exception, are in a state of transition, more or less. All of them are changing, all of them are coming to a purer expression of the Hierarchical energy and the Divine intention which is behind them... All of them will shortly be seen to be in this state of transition, and therefore not so mutually exclusive as they now appear to be and a much greater world harmony will result from this. You will see very shortly the healing of the wounds between the nations. Over this coming year you will see things taking place which you would not have thought possible. There will be greater detente, greater synthesis.
+*Very soon, the nations of the world will realize that all political systems have much in common. There is a similarity of intention in America, Russia and Britain for instance (Britain representing the Commonwealth of Nations; Britain in Europe represents a larger body of thinking along the same lines). They are not identical but there is a wide common ground and that common ground will find its expression in the transition of each of their political systems into something which will not be identical - there is no reason at all why each nation should have exactly the same political system - but they will grow into a kind of relationship which makes coexistence not only possible but natural and inevitable. The acceptance of the principle of sharing will make this inevitable. p. 175
+*What is happening at present is that the forces of evil are fighting a last-ditch stand, because '''they know that with the Christ and the Hierarchy in the world they are doomed'''. They are going to be sealed off to their own domain for 3,000 years, and they will not be able to affect mankind in the same way. Hence their present desperate fight to foment, as potently as they can, this fear reflex in mankind. They work through fear. They work mostly on the physical and astral planes, but also on the lower mental planes. They create fear, anxiety and chaos. They are doing this by focusing their attention on and stimulating these thoughtforms of destruction and catastrophe, so that they should become a reality. If mankind surrounds himself with a thoughtform potently enough, sooner or later he creates a situation in which that thoughtform works out. That is how our actions work out. p. 177
+[[File:Stopwar.jpg|thumb|No wars can now be won, and spending vast amounts of money on international arms programmes is a complete waste.  ~  [[Benjamin Creme]] ]]
+*The [[Aquarian Age]] will be the age of right relationship, the age of reason, the age of brotherhood and love. This right relationship, of which reason, brotherhood and love are the expression, will be right relationship between all the kingdoms: between Man and his Source, which is Reality or God, however you envisage God; between man and man; and between man and the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.
+*All the kingdoms will come into a very active, dynamic relationship as humanity comes, more and more, into a conscious relationship with the next kingdom, above the human - the Spiritual Kingdom or the Kingdom of Souls, which is made up of the Masters and initiates in the Hierarchy. Through the teaching of the Masters and through the grounding in the human consciousness of the Plan which issues from Shamballa, mankind will come to realize his true destiny, which is to act as a great clearing house for energies flowing through him to the lower kingdoms. So he will see that he has a great responsibility, on the planet, to the other kingdoms in Nature, and a change in his relationship to the animal kingdom will take place.  p. 193
+*Inevitably, out of this change will come, generally, a vegetarian diet for mankind. This will be the norm. That is not to say that the eating of meat today by large masses of mankind is wrong. There is no single group diet today - one diet for all men.... At some point along that evolutionary path vegetarianism does become necessary. Not simply because it is 'wrong' to kill animals, but because the vibrational rate of the animal body, in particular the blood of the animal, is inimical to the higher vibrational rate...
+*Mankind is beginning to realize that it is not alone in the universe, not alone in the solar system. The [[space people]] are our brothers. We are part of a family which embraces the whole of the solar system, not necessarily on the same plane of manifestation as we are. In fact, the matter aspect of the different planets varies. For instance, if you went to Venus you would see nothing. Venus is inhabited, but our highest etheric energy is their lowest. They start where we leave off.
+*Man is divine. He is also human and he has free will. And he is given the chance to exert that free will.
+*Humanity must evolve out of its sense of what is right for it; has to bring its will into line with the divine will, which issues from Shamballa, where the Will of God is known.
+*When the will of man and the Will of God coincide, you have right living - the Plan goes forward. There are no downfalls.
+*When you have a divergence of man's will from God's Will for long enough, disaster comes.
+*In the better civilizations you are thinking of, the Atlantean, men grew selfish, exerted their little self-will, and the eventual result was disaster. This time, man is far more evolved, is much more an adult, mental unit, and can make decisions as to his future in the light of the evidence which will be highlighted for him by the Christ. He will see that there is no alternative today to sharing and co-operation, and on that basis will go into the future. p. 224
 ===[[James_Redfield#The_Celestine_Prophecy_(1993)|''The Celestine Prophecy'', by  James Redfield  (1993)]]===
@@ Line 274: / Line 314: @@
 *Connecting with energy is something humans have to be open to and talking about and expecting, otherwise the whole human race can go back to pretending that life is about having power over others and exploiting the planet. If we go back to doing this, then we won't survive. Each of us must do what we can to get this message out.
 ===''Mahabharata, Book 3, Vana Parva'' ~400 BCE===