Signs Of The Times? Stargazers Braced For Convergence Of Comets, Red Moon

By Michael H. Brown

The times, they are A-strange. They are getting stranger. There are questions everywhere we look. Many things to consider.

Lots of talk of natural disasters these days. Earthquakes. And soon, a major movie on climate shift. There is also terrorism, and a question: is there more than is being acknowledged? (In just the past several months, radar has been knocked out at several major airports -- Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, which now has had three blackouts in just a few weeks.)

Could that be sabotage, and could sabotage also be involved in some of the train wrecks, electrical blackouts, and outbreaks of illness (for example, on cruise ships)?

It's tough to tell -- one thing to ponder. Another is the issue of technology. Recently it was announced that scientists had created a healthy mouse from just a female -- with no male genetic material. This occurred in Japan and Korea, and we urge President Bush, whom we have long supported (and are likely to continue to support, despite some differences) to stand strongly against these potentially devastating transgressions.

There is also the issue of illness. Remember the time when a cold lasted just three days? Have you noticed how "colds" and the flu seem to linger for weeks -- longer than ever? And so another question: Is this caused by bacteria that have become resistant to overly-used antibiotics, or is it another "sign of the time" (a little chastisement)? Or both?

We try to watch all things, for it is our belief that they can be the precursors of larger manifestations. While we have to be careful not to impute prophetic significance to every little turn of events -- every nuance of nature -- we must always weigh what transpires around us.

Shortly, stargazers may be treated to yet another spectacle. The show starts Tuesday (May 4), with a total lunar eclipse that will be best seen in Europe and Australia -- an event that occurs when the sun, moon, and earth are all in alignment. The moon will slide into the shadow of the Earth and will be tinged by residual sunlight that is deflected by the earth's atmosphere.

Will it be a red moon, as has been reported across the U.S. lately? And if so, is a red moon simply the result of eclipses and refractions of light (through earthly dust) or do such turns of nature bear potential prophetic significance?

Then there are the comets. As news reports inform us, "blazing across the heavens will be two fiery stars -- the first comets of the millennium that are expected to be visible by the naked eye. Both of them were spotted only recently and should slide into view as they streak past earth on their track around the Sun. They are C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) and C/2002 T7 (LINEAR). "Comets have long been considered the harbingers of great events, of famine, earthquakes, war, the death and birth of kings," notes a news service.

Superstition? It's not always the end of the world. But sometimes a comet can be a sign of earthly consternation or coming consternation -- if we believe the numerous references to signs in nature contained in the Old Testament.

It's interesting that they will be most visible over Australia, which recently okayed use of human embryonic material for stem cells. Then, in June, earth, Venus and the sun will all be directly aligned, staging a cosmic eclipse that no human alive today has seen.

It does seem like a convergence of some sort, and so we will stay tuned, as we also do to smaller signs. We get much mail on strange things seen in the sky -- from pillars of light to unique cloud formations. The same occurred before September 11. Does it portend anything? And if so, what?

Prophesies one reader with a poetic bent: "There shall come a time when the winds shall change their course, and the mists shall be lifted from the fields which have known no harvest. And in the fields the lamb that has lain lost shall be filled with elation as it again lays eyes upon its shepherd. And the light shall filter through every window and every serpent that has been sheltered by the shadows shall be cast from every room of every home. And in the markets there shall be chaos as the merchants of jewels and fine silks shall know no reward and the merchants of bread and water shall reap fine bounties. And on the wind there shall be carried a voice which had not been heard since the falling of the mists, and the voice shall fill the ears of the deaf with respite from their suffering. And the shadows shall pour themselves from the wombs of women and the hands of men and their temptation shall be slain by the birth of a child to those who have never known innocence. There shall come a time when the winds do change their course, so rest sweet children now for it is your breath which shall carry the new winds."

May 2004