Selection # 10 – The New Golden Age
This selected entry was originally published here on July 2, 2013.
Readers of this Blog will by now have realised that the central message of my book The Last Days of Tolemac, is that we are currently living through the death throes of the present world age, and that the new age that is dawning will exceed everything we can imagine.
In the penultimate chapter of the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, we find the following words:
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)
However, the transition from our existing world age to the new one that is coming, will be accompanied by world-wide calamities brought on by a close encounter with a comet, that will totally transform the surface of the earth. As St John goes on to explain:
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” (Revelation 21:1)
The world that we know today with its continents and countries will be completely changed. Many landmasses that are presently above the sea will sink below the waves, while new lands will arise where previously there was only ocean. The earth will appear to have been made new.
And because this close encounter with a comet will cause a change in the axis of the earth, the stars that previously inhabited the night sky will now be seen in different parts of the heavens. To those who will inherit this new earth, it will appear as if the stars themselves have moved. The old heaven will have passed away.
Now the idea of the earth undergoing cataclysmic changes leading to successive world ages is not new. In fact it is as old as time itself, and stories of similar past events can be found in the sacred writings of all the ancient cultures of the world.
When Immanuel Velikovsky was researching the global legends of mankind in the course of developing his revolutionary cosmological ideas that led up to the publication of his book Worlds in Collision, he was struck by the fact that so many societies retained in legend, dim memories of cataclysmic changes which had destroyed entire societies and changed the face of the earth.
Velikovsky found that these legends were common to many societies which otherwise were remote in time and geography from one another. According to these legends, the planet appeared to have enjoyed periods of physical stability interrupted by recurring cataclysms of overwhelming ferocity.
In many cases which Velikovsky documented, the earth appeared to have been shaken in its course, altering not only its polar alignment, but also its orbit around the sun. According to these legends, the history of the earth was reckoned by successive ages.
Each age was a period of relative stability between cataclysms, and was in turn characterized by a particular “sun”, which represented the path traversed by the sun through the heavens during that particular age.
Among the peoples of Meso-America, persistent traditions of cosmic catastrophes can be found among the Incas, the Aztecs and the Maya. The Maya referred to these past ages by the names of their “suns”, such as Water Sun, Earthquake Sun, Hurricane Sun and Fire Sun. They substituted the word “sun” for ”world age” in order to define a time characterised by a specific orbit of the earth around the Sun.
As H. B. Alexander wrote in his epic Latin American Mythology published in 1920:
“The Water Sun (or Sun of Waters) was the first age, terminated by a deluge in which almost all creatures perished; the Earthquake Sun or age perished in a terrific earthquake when the earth broke in many places and mountains fell. The world age of the Hurricane Sun came to its destruction in a cosmic hurricane. The Fire Sun was the world age that went down in a rain of fire.”
The idea that the earth has undergone a succession of catastrophic upheavals associated with cosmic encounters did not originate with the Maya. Legends, myths and stories of these devastating events can also be found throughout the ancient world. They tell of times when dwellings were destroyed and the earth was convulsed by natural disasters which had their source in space.
While these stories vary in the number of ages that have come and gone, they all agree that there have been at periodic intervals, various disasters that have assailed the earth causing widespread destruction. The agents of this destruction have been earthquake, fire, wind and flood.
The Chinese called these vanished ages Kis, and recorded that ten ages had passed from the beginning of the world up to the time of Confucius. The ancient Chinese encyclopedia Sing-li-ta-tsiuen-chou described these past eras in the following words: “In a general convulsion of nature, the sea is carried out of its bed, mountains spring out of the ground, rivers change their course, human beings and everything are ruined, and the ancient traces effaced.”
The sacred Hindu book Bhagavata Purana called these past ages Kalpas or Yugas, and referred to four previous ages that had terminated through different catastrophes. The Buddhist scripture Visuddhi-Magga, written about 430 BC, contains a chapter on “World Cycles” declaring that: “There are three destructions: the destruction by water, the destruction by fire, the destruction by wind”. Each of these ages is separated from its previous one by a world catastrophe.
Similar references can be found in the Zend-Avesta, the sacred book of the Persians. The Pahlavi Texts quote the prophet Zarathustra referring to “the signs, wonders, and perplexity which are manifested in the world at the end of each millennium.” One of the books of the Avesta, the Bahman Yast, numbers seven world ages or millennia that have preceded the present age.
The Greek philosophers Anaximenes and Anaximander both referred to past world ages in their writings, as did Diogenes of Apollonia in the fifth century BC. Heraclitus (540-475 BC) taught that the world was destroyed by fire at regular intervals, while Aristarchus of Samos claimed that in every period of 2,484 years, the earth underwent various destructions, some by flood and some by fire.
In his work Theogony, the Greek poet Hesiod described the end of one of these ages:
“The life-giving earth crashed around in burning . . . all the land seethed, and the Ocean’s streams . . . it seemed even as if earth and wide Heaven above came together; for such a mighty crash would have arisen if Earth were being hurled to ruin, and Heaven from on high were hurling her down.”
Another famous Greek by the name of Herodotus (484-425 BC), who has been called the “Father of History” because he was the first Greek historian to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy, and then reduce them to a written narrative, had an opportunity to visit Egypt. In his Second Book of History, Herodotus referred to his own meeting with various Egyptian priests, and recorded his conversation with them. As he wrote:
“The priests asserted that within historical ages and since Egypt became a kingdom, four times in this period (so they told me) the sun rose contrary to his wont; twice he rose where he now sets, and twice he set where he now rises.”
The Greek philosopher Plato recorded in his essay Timaeus, that the renowned Athenian statesman Solon (638-558 BC) also undertook a visit to ancient Egypt. While he was there he was confronted by an elderly priest who told him:
“Oh Solon, Solon, you Greeks are all children, and there is no such thing as an old Greek. You are all young in mind. You have no belief rooted in old tradition and no knowledge hoary with age. And the reason is this.”
“There have been and will be many different calamities to destroy mankind, the greatest of them by fire and water, lesser ones by countless other means. Your own story of how Phaeton, child of the sun, harnessed his father’s chariot, but was unable to guide it along his father’s course and so burnt up things on earth and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt, is a mythical version of the truth that there is at long intervals a variation in the course of the heavenly bodies and a consequent widespread destruction by fire of things on the earth.”
Jesus predicted that there would come a future time on earth when nations would rise up against other nations, as well as kingdom against kingdom. These wars would be compounded by other troubles such as famines, pestilences and earthquakes in different parts of the world. (Matthew 24:7)
This affliction and tribulation throughout the earth would culminate in a cataclysmic event that would bring an end to the current cycle of civilisation. In his book of Revelation, St John described the disasters that would herald this event.
“The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all the green grass was burnt up.
“And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.
“And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and a third of the day shone not, and the night likewise.” (Revelation 8: 7-12)
“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.” (Revelation 9:1-2)
At the time these words were written, these enigmatic predictions by the favoured disciple of Jesus could have held little meaning for those living in past centuries. Today however, their meaning stands revealed as the clear imprint of a heavenly harbinger of doom. The tribulations predicted by John are a vivid illustration of just those disasters that would befall the earth if it were to have a close encounter with a large comet.
Suppose a large comet was to pass in orbit around the sun. As it sped away on its outward path heading back into the dark void of space, its luminous tail of particles would travel ahead of it, blown by the force of solar radiation. If the earth should happen to lie in the path of this comet after its perihelion, or closest approach to the sun, it would first come in contact with this extended tail.
If the dust particles in the comet’s tail were ferruginous (containing iron), the earth would be showered by particles of fine, red dust. The presence of these fine particles in the atmosphere would then spawn torrential downpours of rain, which would be characterized by a rusty-red colour.
As the earth continued to be showered by poisonous dust, this rusty rain would soon contaminate the rivers and the seas, causing them to become blood-red in appearance. Those who drank from these toxic waters would die.
As the nucleus of the comet drew closer to the earth, larger particles in the comet’s tail would fall as blazing meteorites. This torment of fiery hail would set fire to large portions of the land. Should a part of the comet, or even the nucleus itself, plunge into the sea, this flaming asteroid would create appalling havoc, not just to those creatures within the sea, but also to those craft which happened to be travelling upon it.
Coastal cities all around the globe would be ravaged by tumultuous tidal waves. Hundreds of millions of people would die in a matter of minutes.
The resulting collision would devastate the land and decimate all forms of life on the planet. A cloud of dust and debris would soon circle the earth, blotting out the light of the sun, moon and stars. The impact of this asteroid would severely jolt the earth, causing it to tilt on its axis and change the alignment of its poles.
Such a scenario may seem farfetched in terms of astronomical probabilities. Yet it is entirely possible that a long-period comet, hitherto unknown to science, could at any time sweep into the solar skies. Now if such a catastrophe were to afflict the earth, the existing topography of the land would undoubtedly be dramatically changed by the fury of water, wind and flame.
The earth would appear to have been made new, with the old earth having been transformed. And if the poles themselves were tilted into a new alignment, the sun would appear to traverse a new path through the constellations. The heavens themselves would appear to have been changed. A new age would then begin on earth, just as had occurred many times before in our half-forgotten past.
But whereas in ages past, those few who managed somehow to survive these disasters would have been forced to start anew amid the wreckage of a devastated planet, by reverting to living in caves and assuming a hunter-gatherer existence, the prophets of old have assured us that this time will be different.
For according to all the ancient prophecies, as well as the recorded words of sages and the founders of all the major religions of the world, this coming age will be a golden age of wonder that will dwarf even the greatest achievements of past civilizations.
It will be an age of peace, freedom and justice, as well as an age of scientific accomplishment that will beggar the mind. It will not only be an age free of all pain and suffering, but of spiritual insight and understanding where all beings will live in harmony with one another.
September 12th, 2019 at 9:11 am
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