Tag: Saint Malachy

2023 – A Landmark Year? Be Ready

Photo by Alexas Fotos on Pexels.com

The past three years have been extraordinarily difficult for us, on many levels. I do not have to go into the details, the reader will be more than aware, whatever their standpoint.

Astrologically, 2023 promises change after a difficult start. Right now (early January), with Mercury and Mars retrograde in particular, it might feel that nothing is happening and than 2023 is continuing pretty much like 2022, in a kind of frustrating stalemate politically and economically, nevertheless with wild, hard to believe news stories dominating the headlines.

Retrograde Mercurys are notorious for making any kind of communication and travel difficult. With Mars retrograde in Mercury’s sign of Gemini until January 12, this only compounds the situation, creating a sense of inaction.

But once these two planets turn direct shortly, much of the underlying frustration will begin to clear, especially when the Sun moves into Aquarius around January 20 and Uranus turns direct in Taurus on January 22. A fundamental change of atmosphere will occur and we will see things more as they truly are; the deceptions we have had to live with for far too long.

And with Jupiter already beginning a new 12 year cycle by entering Aries, now is the time for opportunity in new beginnings of any kind. From May Jupiter enters Taurus to join revolutionary Uranus; there will be big financial opportunites and news from the late spring, which should see us finally begin to leave this planetary state of depression.

Add to this Pluto’s initial stint in Aquarius from March for a few months, before finally settling into the Waterbearer in early 2024, and we are going to witness a fundamental shift, as important as we saw in 2008 when Pluto entered Capricorn, which brought the so-called Credit Crunch and all the chaos thereof. This time however, in Aquarius, the changes are going to be more societal, among groups and in humanity in general. The people are not to stand for certain situations any longer; Pluto is a malefic, it undermines, trawls deep, and bring detritus to the surface in a major cleansing which is never easy, nor straightforward. At times its going to be pretty ugly.

Pluto is in Aquarius for around 20 years, and always marks a major shift for humanity. The last time this occurred there was the French Revolution (was that positive???) and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, for example.

What I have noticed is that in the 1530s to 1550s (when Pluto was in Aquarius the time before last) and towards the mid 1040s (when it was also in the Waterbearer), at the beginning of each of these phases Neptune was in watery Pisces. Now Pisces has strong associations with religion and Christianity in particular. I suggest that Pluto and Neptune are working in tandem.

During both of these periods there were major shifts in religion and belief and consequent changes in society. The 1050s brought the Great Schism, the split between the Churches of Rome and Byzantium, which also ushered in major societal and military actions, such as the Norman Conquest, blessed by the then Pope to bring England truly back into the re-energised Catholic fold. In the 1530s to 1550s, the Reformation brought huge chaos and change to the Church and society, plus major political and military conflict. The Dissolution of the Monasteries in England, for example, brought major societal upheaval.

So once again, in 2023/4, as Pluto enters Aquarius, Neptune is found in Pisces. The difference this time, I suggest, is that that all three of these so-called outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) are now known to humanity, and we are conscious of them. This may make it more positive than it might have been, but I predict that major, groundbreaking changes are about to occur to the Church in general, changing it forever. Will it even survive in its present form?

Are we, for instance, living in the times of the last ever Pope, as predicted by Saint Malachy? It could easily be. And if so, what comes afterwards?

Just as importantly, I predict that the way we see the world, the ‘universe’ and our accepted narratives of history, are all about to fundamentally alter as a result of changes in belief and perception; the blindfolds are about to be ripped away, perhaps quickly, but certainly over the next two decades. Seatbelts are advisable. Hold on tight.

Copyright Francis 2023

Book Review: ‘Beyond The Time Barrier’, by Andrew Tomas

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Aliens, Atlantis, Ancient Astronauts… I’m not sure I believe in any of that these days.

However, time was, when once a green teenager, that books like Andrew Tomas’ ‘Beyond The Time Barrier’ published in 1974 by Sphere Books Ltd., fired my imagination, which is no bad thing.

What first drew me to the book was the cover, naturally. The connection between flying saucers and the sphinx, or Egyptian civilisation as a whole is intriguing, and there have been many books written since which hint, if not exactly prove, that human civilisation owes its origin to alien interference.

However, once you get into the core of this short book (160 pages), Tomas’ thesis, as far as I understand it, is that time may not be what it seems, that the so-called rules of time might be broken, or that the past and future can be seen by sensitive individuals using various mediums.

The Meaning of Tarot

Most intriguing for me, however, is his interpretation of the Tarot cards, which he thinks may have originated in Egypt. He seems to say that they do not merely predict what happens in an individual’s future through divination, but perhaps could also encapsulate the essential meaning of each century from the first century BC to our own twenty first century.

How is this? He takes the traditional images of the cards, ‘The Emperor’, ‘The Hermit’, ‘The Devil’ etc., and sees a summation of each century’s character. For instance, take the card called ‘The Pope’. If we are counting from the first card, ‘Il Bagattel’ standing for the first century BC, then ‘The Pope’ coincides with the fourth century AD – the most significant event (most might agree) of that century being the Emperor Constantine making Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire.

It’s all very interesting, especially when one looks at the card standing for the twentieth century, ‘Il Matto’ (The Fool), who seems to be blindly walking towards a precipice, despite a dog’s futile attempts to prevent him falling over. I think you can see that such a symbol might very well fit when describing the tragedy of two world wars and all the other conflicts of that time.

However, it could also be argued that it’s easy to find events which match the pictures on the cards. This may be true.

Saint Malachy

Similarly, he takes a look at the prophecies of Saint Malachy, the twelfth century Irish Bishop of Armagh, who allegedly predicted future popes from his time using allegory and symbols, each pontiff given an epithet, like Pope John the Twenty Third who died in 1963.

One rather imaginative interpretation of Malachy’s description of Pope John, ‘Pastor et Nauta’, or Shepherd and Pilot, is that it’s meant to be ‘Astor et Nauta’, or Astronautics, which certainly did begin during his reign.

The End of Time?

One worrying aspect of these prophecies is that we are now, as of 2019, apparently living in the time of the last Pope that Saint Malachy gave an epithet to, namely Pope Francis, ‘Petrus Romanus’. Some have interpreted this as to mean that we are living at the end of the age, but people have been saying this for hundreds of years… so who really knows?

There are also references to Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, Jeane Dixon and Nicholas Roerich, the latter whom he believes made prophecies through the medium of painting rather haunting landscapes. He is certainly one of my favourite painters.

However, like I said above, I do not subscribe to all this conjecture, except to say that it was books like this which set me on the path of ‘free thinking’, not necessarily believing anything I was told, nor ruling anything out. I believe we should be open to anything. Uncertainty is the usual state of affairs and is actually quite good in the long run – the truth will probably never be known.

Leofwine Tanner 2019