By Michael H. Brown

In all kinds of circles, not just among mystics, is a sense of looming events and in some cases, a year is even attached.

Of course, this is always the height of the precarious. We warned before the year 2000 not to place too much importance on that specific year (we all recall Y2K). We warn again of the same thing now.

Rarely does prophecy pinpoint matters according to a human timeline, for events are conditional and God is infinite, which means He is timeless.

Moreover, there is not a bit of despair here. With prophecy comes the notion of protection and the joy that goes with it. Life is life, and it rains on the good as well as the evil. In prayer, we go about life normally.

But we do believe that major events will occur between now and the mid-point of this century -- we are seeing signs of them already -- and the most reliable of reputed seers claim they will bear witness to (meaning they will be alive during) certain events contained in their "secrets."

Many of them are in their forties, and so if they live normal life spans, we might project that events must occur during the next four decades.

We heard this general time frame from mystics such as the late Maria Esperanza of Venezuela, who felt that one major occurrence would be before the year 2020 (stating, however, that this was only her opinion, and that hardships will be followed by a "reawakening").

Does prophecy ever cite specific times? What are we in for?

The great sun miracle was predicted at Fatima to occur on October 13, 1917 -- and did. But such was not done years in advance, and where seers claim to know dates, they have not been publicly revealed.

The current drumbeat is over the year 2012.

That's the year, according to the Mayans, that the calendar halts. There is much ado about this -- many websites -- and even a movie being made about it (yes, reportedly, Mel Gibson).

According to those ancient South American Indians, we are on the cusp of a new era as their "great cycle" of 5,125.36 years grinds to a halt.

This represents a fifth of a larger cycle of 26,000 known to Babylonians, Norsemen, Celts, Chinese, Egyptians, and others, as one friend of mine points out.

The excitement is because a number of ancient calendars end, we are told, between 2012 and 2050. Is there significance in that?

One matter of interest, perhaps, is that in the year 2012 our planet will encounter maximum "galactic gravitational forces" as it moves with the rest of the solar system through the galactic center of the Milky Way (on December 21, 2012, at 11:11 Universal Time, if you want to be really precise).

That means the earth, and particularly its molten core, will be especially subject to gravitational influences which theoretically could manifest as earthquakes, volcanoes, sun-generated weather, tidal waves, and even, perhaps, a shift in the magnetic North Pole. Powerful radiation bursts, which normally never touch the atmosphere, would heat up its upper layers, triggering climatic disruption.

"Earth's magnetic field has disappeared many times before -- as a prelude to our magnetic poles flipping over, when north becomes south and vice versa," says Dr. Alan Thomson of the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh. "Pole reversals happen every 250,000 years or so, and as there has not been one for almost a million years, we are due one soon."

The Mayans -- who were deeply immersed in paganism and astronomical magic, which must raise our collective antennae -- had what is called a "Sacred Tree," and in it is allegedly found to be none other than the crossing point of the ecliptic with the band of the Milky Way. The ecliptic is the plane in which the earth and the other significant planets orbit the sun.

Indeed, the Milky Way seems to have played an important role in Mayan imagery and the Mayans appear to have been conversant with remarkable long-range astronomical calculations -- although we should be very careful here that astronomy does not meld into astrology, kabbalah, and the New Age.

Mythically, at sunrise on December 21, 2012, the solar orb  rises to conjoin the center of the Sacred Tree, the World Tree, the Tree of Life.

Magnetic poles have shifted throughout history (perhaps we should say "prehistory"), and so it is not out of the range of possibilities.

In fact, just last week, the Associated Press reported on scientists who say that "earth's north magnetic pole is drifting away from North America and toward Siberia at such a clip that Alaska might lose its spectacular Northern Lights in the next 50 years."

Those poles are part of the magnetic field generated by liquid iron in Earth's core and are different from the geographic poles, the surface points indicating the axis of the planet's rotation. This is not like the earth flipping upside down! But for all we know, there could be repercussions, and significant ones.

Scientists have long known that magnetic poles migrate and in rare cases, even swap places. Exactly why this occurs is a mystery.

No one knows what can happen as our solar system moves through the universe. It's postulated that at the galactic center is a supermassive black hole that may exert untold force. (Black holes are collapsed stars that have fantastic gravity, sucking in even light and stars systems.) Others say a neutron star.

And so the question: Could major events linked to ancient Indian prophecies, as well as current scientific hypothesis, be related to the secrets at places like Medjugorje? Many are those who foresee major changes this century. We are among them. We're just cautious about being too specific about it.

"The earth has entered a seismically active period when weaknesses in earth’s crusts start breaking apart, volcanoes erupt, plate collisions cause major earthquakes, mud volcanoes erupt and geysers come out in different parts of the world with much higher frequency," said a newspaper. "This results in volcanic eruption, mudslides, tsunamis, mega earthquakes and more.

"According to the Russian scientists, the number of earthquakes in the earth has increased exponentially over the past few years, a phenomenon not seen in modern human history. According to thousands of years of Mayan civilization, this kind of period come after thousands of years. The ancient civilization warned that around 2012 the world would face major calamities from natural disasters and other factors. They used planetary positions and interferences as well as sun signs. According to some Russian scientists, another major earthquake in the same vicinity and a series of the same near the equator is evident in near future."

This comes from sources like Pravda and it is interesting to hear folks who have had near-death experiences state similar things -- in visions they claim they received of the future.