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Apocalypse (page 2)
With the destruction of the ozone layer which
"departed as a scroll "when it is rolled together" humankind will be
forced to
seek shelter wherever it can find it. The following verse (6:15)
reveals how at that awful time everyone, from kings and rich men down to
ordinary free men, will hide "themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the
mountains".
Contemporarily this verse has been interpreted as the population escaping nuclear
fallout in underground shelters, but it might also be
some kind of ecological disaster.
In the next chapter St John envisions "four
angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the
earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any
tree". This verse invokes an eerie vision of a noiseless land with not a breath
of wind, that pregnant pause before disaster hits.
Before the full horrific forces of destruction are
released, a voice commands that the servants of God be identified by a mark on
their foreheads so that they can escape harm. Interestingly, the same marking is
carried out by the Beast, so that he, like God, will be able to distinguish his
own.
Until this is completed, the avenging
angels are commanded to "hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees" (7:3).
This verse is practically a direct plea to our age to stop raping the earth, polluting the
sea, and cutting down the once great forests of the Amazon.
Finally, after the seventh seal has been unlocked,
there is a period of silence before "there were voices, and thunderings, and
lightnings, and an earthquake" (8:5).
The earthquake paves the way to widespread volcanic eruptions from which fire, hail and
blood rain down on the vegetation. Then a "great mountain burning with fire"
(8:8) turns the sea to a blood color, poisoning one-third of the fish in the
oceans.
The third trumpet conveys yet greater destruction,
"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". The star
is named Wormwood, which does not appear in any catalogue of stars. The word is
used as a pun on the bitter herb which went into the making of the drink
absinthe, "and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died
of the waters, because they were made bitter" (9:10-11)
or poisonous.
This might point toward a poisoning of water supplies,
possibly by some new plague from outer space. Another ambiguous passage concerns
a type of poisonous locust which is sent to plague mankind.
When the fourth trumpet sounds more cosmic
changes occur, reminiscent of Velikovsky's theories of cosmic cataclysm: "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 the day shone
not for a third part, and the night likewise" (8:12).
These are the passages in the Apocalypse of St John which
seem to have
ecological disaster significance.
See
Antichrist,
The End of the
World,
Casting Black Magic Spells,
Commanding Spirits,
The Tarot Store and
Divination & Scrying Tools and
Supplies.
Sources: (1)
Dictionary of the
Occult, Caxton
Publishing; (2)
Spence, Lewis,
An Encyclopedia of
Occultism, Carol Publishing Group; (3) Alexander, J.C.,
The Kingdom of the Beast and the End of the World: The Truth About the End, ACW Press;
(4) Skinner, Stephen,
Millennium Prophecies, Carlton
Books.
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