Forgotten Ages Research

Visions of the Advent of New Spiritual Teachers and the Coming of a True Age of Peace

Product ID: PP26

Report Topics:

• Reincarnation and the Phoenix Cycle
• 12th Century Vision of the Advent of a New Spiritual Age
• Greek and Hebrew Visions of an Age of Peace—Sibylline Oracles, 2nd Century B.C.E.
• Ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Persian Prophecies of a Coming World Peace
• Chuang Tzu’s Prediction of a Coming Age of Perfect Virtue, 3rd Century B.C.E.
• 16th Century Mother Shipton’s Vision of Global Death and Rebirth
• Maya Prophecy in the Book of Chilam Balaam of Tizimin
• 5th Century Bishop Orientius on the Genetic Accountability of All Souls
• Islamic Prophecy of the Opening of the Books of Life

Full Report:

Reincarnation and the Phoenix Cycle

There is a 500-year cycle familiar to scholars of the ancient wisdom as being an important key to the intellectual and spiritual growth of humanity. It was called the Phoenix Cycle by the Greeks, derived from the Egyptian legend of the Bennu bird that rose from its own ashes every half millennium. There are some indications this Cycle was linked with the Plutonic revolution of 247 years doubled.

So important a Cycle was this considered to be that in the first century early Christian mystics and the Alexandrine Greeks combined forces to develop a calendar system that would be coordinated with its rhythm, past and future. It was not fully accepted into Europe until one Cycle later in A.D. 525, introduced by the Roman theologian and mathematician Dionysus Exiguus, who “Christianized” the Cycle and was the first to apply to it the term Anno Domini.

Orthodox Christian scholars tell us that the Anno Domini counting was calculated from the birth of Christ. Yet we know from both historical and astronomical observations that Jesus of Nazareth was actually born in either 5 or 7 B.C.E. The usual explanation for this discrepancy is a major miscalculation crept into the record-keeping during the early Christian era, so that we today are off by several years in our calendar. But the truth is the discrepancy was rather a small adjustment that better correlated Christian chronology with the older Phoenix Cycle.

With each Phoenix culmination, and for a hundred years on either side of it, there comes an influx of special souls, variously called savants, teachers, masters, messiahs, magi, avatars and bodhisattvas by different traditions. Their special work has been to raise the overall planetary consciousness to new levels:

Circa 1500 B.C.E. saw the advent of Moses, Queen Hatshepsut, Akhnaten, Nefertiti, Hammurabi, Krishna.

The era around 1000 B.C.E. then witnessed the births of Solomon, Zarathustra, Queen Seminaris, and White Buffalo Woman in the Americas.

In the years encompassing 500 B.C.E. came Lao-tse, Confucius, Gautama Buddha, Thales, Anaximander, Sappho, Pythagoras, the authors of the Vedas, the Delphic oracles, and Afrekete to the black nations of Africa.

Five hundred years later brought Yeshua of Nazareth, the Three Marys, Hu Shin, Plutarch, St. Paul, Hypatia, as well as Quetzalcoatl and Quetzalpetlatl to the Maya.

The period of A.D. 500 next saw Lo-tsun, Arther and Guinevere, the Empress Theodosia, Mohammed, and Ce Atl Topiltzin to the Toltecs.

In the following Cycle, about A.D. 1000, appeared Charlemagne, St. Hildegard of Bingen, Omar Khayyam, Tung Yuan, Yang Hsui, Viracocha in South America, Pacal and Apo-Hel among the Maya, and Anokya to Africa.

Nostradamus was keen to recognize that he himself, having been born at the beginning of the 1500’s, was living at the influx point of yet another Phoenix Cycle. This of course blossomed into the Renaissance era that produced Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Queen Elizabeth. Galileo, Shakespeare, Martin Luther, and in North America, Hiawatha and Deganawida.

Five hundred years more now brings us to our modern age, and right on schedule we have already seen the first wave of numerous great minds and spirits—Einstein, Madame Curie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Abdu’allah, Black Elk, Sai Baba, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, to name only a few so far. As we have now passed the “peak” year of 2000, many more have only just now entered at this time, and we will not hear of their presence and work for a few more decades.

According to esoteric traditions, especially in the East, these special souls who come to serve humanity out of compassion and unconditional love, very often enter into physical existence more than once. The Greeks recognized more than one advent of Hermes and Aphrodite, the Egyptians of Thoth and Isis, the Celts of Merlin and Morgana, and the ancient Mexicans of the Feathered Serpent and the Feathered Butterfly. In modern times we can point to the Tibetan belief that their present spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is the fourteenth appearance of the same soul who has kept returning through the centuries.

This is all part of the belief in reincarnation, generally accepted in the East but rejected with the Christianization of Europe and the West during the last two millennia. However, before the rise of dogmatic Christianity, reincarnation was part of the teachings of all ancient Mystery Schools. This included the occult traditional Jewish mysticism, which played an important role in the upbringing of Nostradamus by his two grandfathers. Though such a belief would have been considered rank heresy by the Church, certain secret societies in Europe—among them the Cathars and the Templars—included its precepts among their secret teachings.

It is very possible that if Nostradamus believed in reincarnation, and recognized the existence of the Phoenix Cycle during which certain souls may return to complete their chosen work for the world, he may have also accepted the possibility of his being able to choose to re-appear himself in the next upcoming Cycle—which is the Cycle we have just entered.

This may be what the French seer implied in his verse, III, 94, that it is a prediction of his own return in this century. Who better could be a commentator and interpreter of the Nostradamian prophecies, than the prophet himself, the one who originally wrote them? We may want to keep an eye on all those children born in 2003, and their spiritual progress over the next several decades, particularly to the year 2055.

As an interesting modern parallel, the twentieth century American seer, Edgar Cayce, likewise forecast in his psychic readings made between 1903 and 1945 that he would return in physical existence, both in 1998 and later in 2100, or at the beginning and ending of the twenty-first century.

Similarly, when we look at the prophetic messages given by the great Teachers and Avatars of all major religions and spiritual communities of the world, every one of them predicts either their own coming incarnation, or a return of the spirit of their teachings to be embodied in a special person at some point in the future. The prophecies pinpoint the next focal period for this influx to occur between 2001 and 2013. It would appear that many of those who looked forward to the advent of a quantum leap of humanity into its next evolutionary step, are going to make a special effort to return to see their visions fulfilled. Significantly, their commonly held point in time seems to be during the early years of the present century—the era we are living in today. Nostradamus, in several of his quatrains, gave us hints as to the identity and time-frame when many of these Spiritual Masters will appear—and his indications match many of the Avataric pronouncements of old. Here is a sampling of their predictions:

Gautama Buddha, founder of the largest religion in the East, gave this prophecy before his death:

“I am not the first Buddha who has come upon the earth, nor shall I be the last. In due time another Buddha will rise in the world, a Holy One, a supreme enlightened one, endowed with wisdom auspicious, embracing the Universe, an incomparable leader of men, a ruler of gods and mortals. He will reveal to you the same eternal truths which I have taught you. He will establish his Law, glorious in its origins, glorious at the climax and glorious at the goal in the spirit and the letter. He will proclaim a righteous life wholly perfect and pure, such as I now proclaim. His disciples will number many thousands, while mine number many hundreds. He will be known as Maitreya—which means World Unifier.”

Buddha further predicted that he and his followers will come to India “from the west, from the mountains.”

Two Westerners who traveled extensively throughout Central Asia in the 1920’s and 1930’s—Nicholas Roerich and Josephine St. Hiliare—recorded several prophecies concerning the coming of Maitreya and the events to precede his appearance:

“First will come an unprecedented war of all the nations. Brother shall rise against brother. Oceans of blood will flow. And the people shall cease to understand one another. They shall forget the meaning of the word Teacher. But just then shall the Teacher appear and in all corners of the world shall be heard the true teaching. To this word of truth shall the people be drawn. Already, many warriors of the teaching of truth are reincarnated. Only a little time more will elapse before everyone shall hear the mighty steps of the Lord of the New Era. And one can already perceive unusual manifestations and encounter unusual people. Already they open the gates of knowledge and ripened fruit are falling from the trees. And the Banner of Shamballa, the spiritual kingdom, shall encircle the central lands of the Blessed One. And the warriors shall march under the banner of Maitreya.”

In Central Asia also, tribes of the steppe country are discarding their ancient gods and are awaiting the soon arrival of the “White Burkhan,” who will offer them and the entire world a spiritual rebirth.

Among the many devotees of Mahayana Buddhism are prophecies of the coming Bodhisattvas, enlightened beings who by choice have denied themselves ascension to high planes in order to help humanity as a whole to struggle out of their material bonds. The next great Bodhisattva who is to incarnate will be called Amida, and he is described to be Christ-like in his message and life.

Disciples of Tibetan Buddhism predict the forerunners of the next Buddha have already been born, and before the birth of the new Buddha himself his coming will be preceded by geological upheavals, plus an increase of the Earth’s heat and a catastrophic reduction of rainfall—the effects of present global warming. Many claim the new Buddha was already born in 1987 during an event called the Harmonic Convergence, and after an early life filled with special training, he will revolutionize the world spiritually in the early twenty-first century. His message toward the middle of the century will bring about a new way of life, with humanity evolving into fantastic and unexpected dimensions of being.

In medieval Japan, the Shinto priest Kukami Monjo wrote:

“It happened in the past and it will happen again in the future that Susano (the peaceful god of water) will come in earthly form and all but one country will reject him. As a gift Susano will give a charm, a symbol, to the land that did not reject him. It will be a wooden talisman with two triangles merged as one.”

Those of the Hindu faith anticipate the arrival of a new Avatar or savior figure. According to the Vishnu Purana, we are now approaching the end of an Age of Darkness, and this period will be marked by a steady decline of human values coupled with rampant materialism and violence. But just before this cycle ends, divine influences will be felt that will lead to a complete transformation of the human spirit, readying it for the commencement of an Age of Light. Instrumental in this transformation will be the next Avatar whose name shall be Kalki, or Javada, who will be the ninth and last reincarnation of Vishnu, the god of Peace. His appearance will be from the west, riding on a white horse.

In his last incarnation as Lord Krishna, he spoke these words recorded in the Bhagavad Gita:

“I have been born many times and I remember my past lives. When righteousness is weak and faints, and unrighteousness exults in pride, then I return on earth. For the salvation of those who are good, for the destruction of evil in man, for the fulfillment of the kingdom of righteousness, I will come to this world, as in ages past.”

Muslims await a new spiritual leader called by them the Mahdi or Imam. The Sunnis call him Muntazar, while the Shi’ites know him as al-Qa’im, the “Promised One,” and it is said he will come back on March 21 in the year of his Return. He will be a successor to Mohammed, and will bring understanding to all races of the world, beyond the end of time. He is described as one who “will manifest the perfection of Moses, the splendor of Jesus, and the patience of Job. He will fill the earth with justice after it has been filled to the brim with tyranny.”

The Sufis, on the other hand, recognize him as Khidr, their final prophet, and his motto will be: “Each man is a man of bright prospects because each man has God as his ultimate flowering. Only by living it will you know it.”

The Jews still await the coming of Moshiach or Immanuel, their Messiah, a Messenger from the God of their fathers who will restore His people to the blessings of the Chosen Race. The Book of Ezra, Chapter 7:28-33, says this about his future life:

“The Messiah shall be revealed and shall rejoice them that remain four hundred years. And after these years the Messiah shall die and all that have the breath of life, and the world shall be turned into the ancient silence seven days, like as in the first beginning, so that no man is left. And after seven days the earth will give up those that sleep in it. And the Most High will be revealed upon the throne of judgment.”

In the Christian New Testament the second coming of Christ is mentioned over 300 times, more than any other topic or doctrine.

The Zoroastrian Vestas of Iran believe that the present world will last for a period of twelve thousand years. The great spiritual leader Zarathustra came at the end of the ninth millennium, and that another like him will be called Saoshyant or Astvat-ereta, who will come at the end of the twelfth millennium to unite the world. Historians date Zarathustra as having lived about 1000 B.C.E., which means Saoshyant is due to appear soon after A.D. 2000.

The twelfth century king and spiritual leader of Indonesia, Djojobojo, foresaw the coming of a “strange white race” to invade his country, followed by the advent of a “yellow race”—anticipating by several centuries the arrival of Dutch colonists and the Japanese conquest of his islands between 1610 and 1942. Following would be a period of self-rule, but it would also be a time of divisions between brother against brother and religion against religion, which is what the Indonesian nation is suffering from at the present time. But after this, Djojobojo predicted, will enter a “Spiritual King” who will unite the warring factions into a single peaceful world, fulfilling the hopes of all humanity.

Montezuma, king and high priest of the Aztecs, made the prediction to his daughter in 1519 just before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors under Cortez that his vast empire was about to be destroyed. He foresaw that the Aztec peoples would be dominated by a religion of Priests holding a Cross, who would carry out persecutions worse than the Aztecs ever inflicted on their neighbors. But after Eight Cycles of 52 years each was to pass, a great change was to come. Within and toward the end of the Ninth Cycle would be a brief Age of Battles, and within the next Two Cycles after that the Priests would disappear, the Cross would change its shape (and spirit), and a man would arrive from the east representing true Freedom and Faith. The First Cycle began in 1519, and the Ninth Cycle ended in 1987—which means the Man from the East is due to arrive some time between 2039 and 2091.

The Hopi have prophesied the advent of a spiritual rebirth to come out of the east in the form of Pahana, the True White Brother.

Black Elk, of the Ogalala Sioux also foretold the coming of a spiritual Message from the east in the form of a man. He will be dressed in red, have long flowing black hair, and to be of a race different from either the white man or the First Peoples.

In 1912, many of the shamans among the Eskimo tribes of the far north received dreams, all picturing the same coming of a Prophet to their people. He will be light-skinned, but not entirely white, and he will have long hair and a long beard. He too will come from the east.

The Iroquois of Canada were left with the tradition of their seer Deganawida, who prophesied that someday a great light will come to his people from the east. That light, he told them, would be himself, returned, to bring hope to all nations and represent the spirit of peace.

12th Century Vision of the Advent of a New Spiritual Age

Giaocchino de Fiore, a Cistercian monk who lived from 1130 to 1202 in Calabria, Italy, authored many commentaries on prophecy, from the Sibylline Oracles and Merlin’s portents, to the Revelations’ apocalypse of the apostle John. These works and their interpretation in turn helped Giaocchino formulate his own vision of the future.

The Italian monk taught that there will be a total of three Great Ages, corresponding to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In his work, Prophecies of the Eternal Gospels, first printed in 1484, Giaocchino described the Old Testament era as the Age of the Father—a time of the law and fear, servile slavery, tradition, and the domination by the old.

With the advent of Jesus of Nazareth and on to the present, we have been living in the Age of the Son—an era of faith, grace, symbolism, liberty and youthful vigor.

Today, however, we are fast approaching the last, the Age of the Spirit, wherein we shall see the exercise of mutual love, communal friendship, complete freedom, rebirth, spiritual contemplation, charity and transcendence.

According to the monk, the Christian Church of his day, and ours, is a bulwark of symbolism. But symbols are only a temporary reflection, and must give way to a new form of actualization, one of spiritual realism.

The Latin Church, Giaocchino wrote, “is only a pale and wan prologue of the coming revelations of the Holy Spirit.” He also exclaimed, “Peter will disappear in front of John, because the reign of the Holy Spirit will be the reign of the free.”

The coming transition, however, will not be easy. The Italian monk foresaw that the dawning of the Third Age would be preceded by a short period of “persecutions and calamities,” that will only end with a great downpour of the Spirit from Heaven. As the Father brought a Flood of waters to destroy the wicked in Noah’s day, and the Son sacrificed a surge of blood to give men an understanding of faith and liberty, so the Spirit will bring about a deluge of fire, love and justice.

With this, the whole concept of the Church will be metamorphosed into a way of living, of spiritual action and being. All fear will be erased and, as Giaocchino foresaw, it will not only be the beginning of the Age of the Spirit, but also the Age of Perfection.

Greek and Hebrew Visions of an Age of Peace— Sibylline Oracles, 2nd Century B.C.E.

No more will treacherous gold and silver be,
Nor earthly wealth, nor toilsome servitude,
But one fast friendship and mode of life,
Will be with the glad people, and all things
Will in common be, and equal right of life.
And wickedness from the earth in the vast sea
Shall sink away. And then the harvest-time
Of mortals is near. Strong necessity
Is laid upon these things to be fulfilled.
Not then will any other traveler say,
Recalling, than men’s perishable race
Shall ever cease. And then o’er all the earth
A holy nation will the scepter hold
Unto all ages with their mighty sires.

The Kingdom of God shall come upon good men,
For the earth, which is the producer of all things,
Shall yield to men the best, and infinite fruits.
And the cities shall be full of good men,
And the fields shall be fruitful,
And there shall be no more wars, nor drought,
Nor famine, nor hail to waste the fruits,
But there shall be great peace in all the Earth,
And one king shall live in friendship with another,
To the end of the Age,
And the Immortal who lives in the Heavens,
Adorned with stars,
Shall give common Law to all men in the Earth,
And instruct men what things must be done,
For his is the only God, and there is no other,
And he shall burn the great strength of men with Fire,
Then he shall give his Holy Law to the righteous,
To all whom he promised to open the Earth,
And the World of the blessed, and all Joys,
And an immortal mind, and eternal cheerfulness,
Out of every country they shall bring incense,
And gifts to the houses of the great God,
And there shall be no other house to be enquired for
By the generations of men that are to come,
But the faithful Man has given to be worshipped,
For mortals call him the Son of the great God,
And all the paths and fields and rough shores,
And high mountains and the raging waves of the sea,
Shall be easily passed, or sailed through in those days,
And there shall be just riches for men,
For the Government of the Great God
Shall be just Judgment.

All who are holy will live again on the earth,
God giving them spirit, honor and especially life.
The city which God chose for himself He will make
More gleaming than the stars, the sun and the moon.

The sailor himself shall give up the sea and the sea-going
Ship not exchange merchandise, for the whole earth will bear everything.
The ground shall not suffer the hoe, nor the vine the pruning hook.
The hardy plowman shall loose the yoke from the oxen.

The plain shall grow slowly golden with the waving grain,
The purple grape shall hang from the uncut brambles,
And the solid oaks shall sweat honey wet with dew.
Wool will not learn to adopt falsely various colors,
But the ram himself in the meadows will change his fleece,
Now to sweet purple, now to saffron yellow:
Scarlet will cover the grazing sheep of its own accord.
The goats will bring home udders swollen with milk
And the herds will not fear the great lions.

Wolves and lambs, devoutly joined, shall feast on the mountains,
And leopards shall feed with kids.
Bears shall lie with calves and other small cattle, And the carnivorous lion shall eat like a cow at the manger,
Serpents and vipers shall sleep with infants.

Then God will give great joy to man,
For the earth and the trees and the innumerable herds of cattle
Shall give to mankind their true fruit
Of wine and sweet honey and white milk
And grain which is the most wonderful of all for men.

The holy land of the pious alone will bear these things,
For all the just there will flow a stream from a rock dripping with honey,
And from a fountain ambrosial milk.

For a blessed man came from the expanses of heaven
With a scepter in his hands which God gave him.
And he gained sway oer all things well, And gave back the wealth to all the good
Which previous men had taken.

He destroyed every city from its foundations
With much fire and burned nations of mortals
Who were formerly evil-doers.
And the city which God desired, this he made more brilliant
Than the stars and sun and moon.
And he provided every ornament, and made a holy temple,
Exceedingly beautiful in its fair shrine,
And he fashioned a great and immense tower
Over many stadia touching even the clouds and visible to all,
So that all faithful and all righteous people could see
The glory of eternal God, a form desired.
East and west sang out the glory of God.

For terrible things no longer happen to wretched mortals,
But competition is fair to all.
It is the time of the holy people when God thunders on high,
The founder of the greatest temple,
Accomplishes these things.

The End of One World and the Beginning of the Next, from the Book of Enoch

And all the ends of the earth will be shaken,
And trembling and great fear will take hold of them unto the uttermost parts of the earth.
And high mountains will shake and fall and dissolve,
And high hills will be laid low, that mountains should waste away,
And they will melt like wax in front of the fire in flame.
And the earth will be torn into pieces by being rent,
And all things that are on the earth will be destroyed.

And with the righteous he will make peace,
And upon the elect there will be protection and peace,
And upon them shall be mercy,
And they shall all belong to God and He will give them prosperity,
And He will bless them all and protect them all and help us,
And light will shine for them,
And He shall make peace upon them.
And all the innocent will rejoice, and there will be for them
Forgiveness of sins and every mercy and peace and gentleness.
There shall be for them salvation, good light, and they will inherit the earth.
And for the elect there will be light and joy and peace,
And they will all live, and they will sin no more,
Neither by ignorance or presumption,
And there will be light in an enlightened man,
And in an intelligent man understanding,
And they will incur no guilt,
Neither will they sin all the days of their life,
Nor will they die by the anger of wrath,
But the number of days of their life they will fulfill,
And their life will be lengthened in peace,
And the years of their joy will be multiplied
In gladness and peace eternal.

The Apostle John’s Dream of the New Jerusalem:

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

“And the Divine One shall wipe away all tears from children’s eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there by any more pain, for these former things are passed away.

“And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me a great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from the Divine One.

“Having the glory of the Divine One, her light was like a gemstone most precious, even like a jade or emerald stone, translucent like a quartz crystal.

“And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of the Divine One illuminated it. And the great Leaders of the Earth bring their glory and honor into it.

“And there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither the light of the sun—for the Divine One gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.” Revelations Chapters 21 and 22.

Ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Persian Prophecies of a Coming World Peace

“Justice shall prevail in the land, so that the wicked and evil may be no more. And so that the strong might not oppress the weak, (justice) shall rise like the sun over the black-hearted people, and it shall light up the land.”
—Royal Hymns of Ur-Nammu, circa 2100 B.C.E.

“In the (coming) Age of Dilmun, the bird of death does not cry, the lion does not devour, the wolf does not tear at the lamb, the dove does not mourn, where there is no widow, nor sickness, nor old age, nor any sorrow. It is the land of clear waters, eternal springtime, full of rain and little wind.”
—Cuneiform tablet from Uruk, circa 2000 B.C.E.

“Rejoice, you entire land, for the goodly time has come. A lord is appointed to appease all countries. All you righteous, come and behold. Truth has repressed falsehood, the sinners are fallen on their faces, all that are covetous are turned back. The water stands and falls not, and the Nile carries a high flood. The days are long, the nights have set hours, and the months come aright. Both gods and men are content and happy of heart, and life is spent in laughter and wonder.”
—Song of Merneptah, circa 1200 B.C.E.

From that day on men will never grow old and never die,
Will never decay and never be corrupted,
Ever living and ever increasing, and master of their wishes,
When the dead will rise,
When life and immortality will come,
And the world will be restored.

And the days will begin to grow many and increase amongst the children of men,
Till their days draw nigh to one thousand years,
And to a greater number of years than before was the number of days.
And there will be no old man
Nor one who is full of days
For all will be as children and youths.
—Zoroastrian Hymn of Zamyad Yasht, First Millennium B.C.E.

The Advent of World Peace from Old Testament Writings

“In days to come the mount of the Lord’s house shall be established higher than the mountains. It shall rise high above the hills, and people shall steam to it. For from Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples and impose terms on strong and distant nations. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” Micah 4:1–5

“No longer shall the sun be your light by day nor the brightness of the moon shine upon you at night. The Lord shall be your light forever. No longer shall your sun go down, or your moon withdraw, for the light shall be your light forever.” Isaiah 60:19–20

“Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new Earth.” Isaiah 65:17

“It is the seedtime of peace. The vine shall yield its fruit, the land shall bear its crops, and the heavens shall give their dew. All these things I will have the remnant of the people possess.” Zechariah 8:12

“And the days will begin to grow many and increase amongst the children of men, till their days draw nigh to one thousand years. And to a greater number of years than before was the number of days. And there will be no old man nor one who is full of days. For all will be as children and youth.” Book of Jubilee

“They shall all see the men who were taken up into heaven without ever knowing death. Then shall men on Earth feel a change of heart and come to a better mind. Wickedness shall be blotted out and deceit destroyed, but fidelity shall flourish, corruption be overcome, and truth, so long unfruitful, be brought to light.” II Esdris 6:18–28, Apocrypha

Ancient Greek Vision of a Better World, 4th Century B.C.E.

Zeno of Citium, who was born in 336 B.C.E., foresaw a possible future world without states, political institutions, or class distinctions, having only a communal life in which everyone is their own ruler. Marriage, temples, courts or law, money, and unequal wealth were to be abolished. This was to be done, according to Zeno, so that humanity could be allowed to evolve into a state of virtue and wisdom, tempered with an innate sense of justice and responsibility, inherent with the natural instincts of the soul. The only rulership or worship allowed would be for Eros, the god of universal friendship, peace and concord.

Chuang Tzu’s Prediction of a Coming Age of Perfect Virtue, 3rd Century B.C.E.

“In the Age of Perfect Virtue, men will be upright and correct, without knowing that to be so is righteousness. They will love one another, without knowing that to do so is benevolence. They will be honest and real-hearted, without knowing that it is loyalty. They will fulfill their engagements, without knowing that to do so is good faith. In their simple movements they will employ the services of one another, without knowing they are conferring or receiving any gift. Therefore their actions will leave no trace, and there will be no record of their affairs.”

Prophecies of a True Age of Peace Among Roman Authors

“You shall be born to a godlike life, and shall see heroes mingling with the gods, and yourself shall be seen among them, ruling a world restored to peace by Divine virtue. On you, child, shall Earth bestow your earliest playthings—the flowers of the garden. The serpent will disappear, and poisonous herbs. The roadside will spring up with blossoming trees. The time to begin your career, dear child of the gods, is near at hand. See how the world already trembles beneath the vault of the heavens, the lands and oceans also. See how all rejoice at the next Age that shall come forth.”
—Virgil, first century B.C.E.

“Human beings will live with no evil desires, without guilt or crime, and therefore without penalties or compulsions. Nor will there be any need of rewards, since by the prompting of their own nature they will follow righteous ways. Since nothing contrary to morals will be desired, nothing will be forbidden through fear.”
—Tacitus, first century

“A star shone forth in the sky brighter than all the stars and its like was unspeakable and its newness caused astonishment. All other stars with the sun and moon gathered in chorus around this star, and it far exceeded them all in its light. There was perplexity, whence came this new thing so unlike them.

“By this all magic was dissolved and every bond of wickedness disappeared. Ignorance was removed and the old kingdoms were destroyed. And God within humanity was revealed for the newness of endless life. What had been prepared by God now took its beginning. Hence all things were disturbed, because the abolition of death was being planned.”
—Ignatius of Antioch, second century

Mohammed’s Promise of a New Age of Security, 7th Century

“Allah has promised to those of you who believe and do good that He will most certainly make them lords on the Earth as He made rulers those before them, and that He will most certainly establish for them their religion which He has chosen for them, and that He will most certainly, after their fear, give them security in exchange.”

7th Century Church Father Methodius on the Coming Great Peace

“Then the Earth shall sit in peace and there will be great peace and tranquility upon the Earth such as has never been nor ever will be any more since it is the final peace at the end of time.”

World Destruction and Rebirth— The Norse Saga of the Ragnarok, the Dusk of the Gods

“The Age of Evil has come to the world—the Age of Knives, Battle-axes and Split Shields. The warlike fall upon the peaceful, brothers kill brothers, and even children spill one another’s blood. Everyone steals and hoards great wealth, and sensual sin prevails. The end of the world is nigh—yet men are hard and cruel, and listen not to the doom that is coming.

“Now follows the Age of the Northern Winds. Swords clash against an ever-darkening sky. Fierce beasts, in terror, leave their habitations in forests and mountains and deserts to seek their prey among men. No one heeds the cries of his neighbor, or lifts a hand to save.

“Fimbul Winter now comes. All over the world, the heavens are filled with falling snows, and the ground is covered with killing frosts. The sun is dimmed, it offers no gladness, while never-ending storms blow and devour the crops. In vain do men await the coming of summer. Three times winter follows winter over a world imprisoned in snow and ice, yet despite these perils, men still wage war, blood is shed, and Evil grows still greater.

“Now, at the appointed time, the Midgard Serpent is shaken with tremendous rage. It trembles and quakes on Ocean’s slimy floor, so violently that its motions cause waves to sweep across the Midgard Earth, as high as the mountains. It raises its terrible head out of the sea—fire and fumes it shoots forth. At the same time, the world’s mountains shake and the rocks tremble, and the giant maidens are stricken with terror. Mortal men in Midgard are killed in great numbers, and their shades crowd the path to Hela. The sky begins to stretch, and finally breaks in half, because Surtur, whose flame shall one day engulf the world, now comes forth.

“On the plain of Vigrid is the last battle fought. It is a hundred miles by a hundred miles, enclosing the forestlands of Vidar the Silent, where Odin is doomed to die. From the east drives Hrym, his defender covers him with his shield, and his hordes follow him. The hosts of Evil now clash against the godly host of Asgard.

“Suddenly, in the skies, a disaster occurs. Closer and closer the wolf Skoll has crept toward the sun, and finally devours it. The heavens are blackened at noon, the earth turned red with blood, and the seats of the mighty giants drip with gore. The moon, too, is swallowed, by Hati-Managram, and the stars vanish from the sky.

“Now Surtur finishes the end of creation. He aims his firebrands against the last warring gods, and they are burned up. The Midgard Earth is swept with fire, and the smoke curls about the mountain peaks. Even heavenly Asgard is scorched, the flames enveloping the withering trunk of Ygdrasil, the World Tree. Earth, smoldering and blackened, sinks into Ocean, and the waves slowly cover it.

“Yet now, when all seems lost, miraculously a new dawn has come. The sun shines bright again, for Balder the Peaceful has returned. Earth rises a second time from the sea, clad with green pastures and forests—a thing of beauty to behold. The morning air is filled with the sounds of falling waters.

“In the new Earth, Evil has ended and every ill has ceased. Balder the Peaceful has indeed returned, and together with Hodur the Faithful, he takes up residence in the empty and silent halls of Odin. Lifthraser and Lif, and their offspring, who are the regenerating race, come out of their hiding places in Mimer’s subterranean realm, to inhabit the Midgard Earth. Pure are they, and without stain. The food they share with one another in Time’s second morning is honey-dew, and their children shall overspread the Earth. And at the center of the world the elders of the new race shall dwell in their hall which is called Gimle. It shines brighter than the sun, with a roof of pure gold, and it rises as high as the heavens. Here indeed shall the holy ones live in peace and eternal joy forever more.”

16th Century Mother Shipton’s Vision of Global Death and Rebirth

In some far off distant time and land,
Some men left, of such a tiny band,
Will have to leave their safe and solid mount,
Will span the earth, those few to count,
Who survives this end-time and then,
Begin the human race again.

But not on land already there,
But on ocean beds, stark, dry and bare,
Not every soul on Earth will die,
As the dragons (meteors or comets) go sweeping by.
Not every land on earth will sink,
But these will wallow in stench and stink,
Of rotting bodies of beast and man,
Of vegetation crisped (burnt) on land.
But the land which rises from the sea,
Will be dry and clean and soft and free,
Of mankind’s dirt and therefore be,
The source of man’s new dynasty.

And before the race is built anew,
A silver serpent comes to view,
And spews out men of like unknown,
To mingle with the earth now grown,
Cold from its heat and these men can,
Enlighten the minds of future man.
To intermingle and show them how,
To live and love and thus endow,
The children with the second sight,
A natural thing so that they might,
Grow graceful, humble and when they do,
The Golden Age will start anew.

Maya Prophecy in the Book of Chilam Balaam of Tizimin

Gifts from the sky will fall from the sky in heaps,
Gifts given to all, and to all will be land,
From the Great Spirit they shall settle down,
They shall come sailing in, the gifts,
Given from the ancestors returned.
Then the gods shall come to earth to visit,
Witnessing what remains of the sacred places,
Speaking on the subject of the after-death.
The sign of Hunab-ku (the Creator) will appear in the sky,
It shall be displayed so that all the world is enlightened,
A new day shall dawn from the north and west,
While the bearded man of the east (Kukulcan) shall return,
Bearing the symbols of the Great Spirit.
The First Tree of the World (the Ceiba Tree of Eternal Life) is restored,
It is displayed as the sign of Hunab-ku to all the world.
I am Chilam Balaam, and I have interpreted the entire message of the One,
Who shall be the prophet in that time, who will be the priest,
Who shall rightly interpret the words of this book?

A Tibetan Vision of the World to Come

“For a thousand years religion will be taught, but then will come the end of the world. Fire will be followed by wind, destroying all we have built. Then will come water to cover everything we know. Only a few will survive, in caves and in the tops of trees. The gods will come from Ganden Paradise and take those people back with them. They will be taught so that religion will not die, and when once again the winds blow across the milk ocean and once again the world is formed, these same enlightened ones, saved from the world before, will be the stars in the sky.” —Thubten Norbu, brother to the Dalai Lama, 1980

More Visions of Planetary Peace

“The True White Brother and his helpers will show the people of Earth a great new life plant that will lead to everlasting life. The Earth will become new and beautiful again, with an abundance of life and food. Those who are saved will share everything equally.”
—Hopi Nation Prophecy

“No longer I saw the Age of Destruction. Gone was the horrible Age of Warfare. I was looking beyond the Age of Carnage. Walk with me through this Age of the Future.

“The City shines in all its glory, but the metals are types we know not. Loving hands have rebuilt the parkways, have paved the streets, have rebuilt the temples. There is a great building where the books are kept for the scholars, and many are those who come to read them.

“Here are buildings unlike those we build, yet they have breathless beauty. Here people dress in materials we know not, travel in manners beyond our knowledge, but more important than all these differences are the faces of the people. Gone is the shadow of fear and suffering, for man no longer sacrifices, and he has outgrown the wars of his childhood. Now he walks in full stature toward his destiny—into the Golden Age of Learning.”
—Toltec Prophet Kate-Zahl, First Century

“Westward the course of Empire takes its way,
The four first Acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama of the day,
Time’s noblest offspring is the last.
—Robert Walpole, 1740

“Behold the end of evil and the beginning of good. It will be necessary that God shall send His Spirit to renew the face of the Earth. The fire from below (volcanoes) will burn and change everything, as well as the fire from above (comet or meteor?). I see the Earth rendered level, its valleys are raised, its mountains lowered. There will be nothing more but gentle hills and beautiful vales.

“I see nothing else before us but union and universal fraternity. All men are in reciprocal love. One helps the other. They are all happy.”
—Magdalene Porzat, 19th Century

“Then all nations will follow Michael and the world will become a real garden of Eden. There will be food everywhere, in rivers, seas and forests. Those who will be born then will live happily and for so long that they will forget when they were born.”
—Mitar Tarabic, 19th Century

A brighter dawn awaits the human day,
When poverty and wealth, the thirst of fame,
The fear of infamy, disease and woe,
War with its million horrors and fierce hell,
Shall live but in the memory of time.
—Percy Shelley, 1820

They came up to Jerusalem, they walked before Albion,
In the Exchanges of London every Nation walked,
And London walked in every Nation,
Mutual in love and harmony,
Albion covered the whole Earth,
England encompassed the Nations,
Mutual within each other’s bosoms, in
Visions and Regeneration.
—William Blake,1825

“There is one Eternal Law in Nature, one that always tends to adjust contraries, and to produce final harmony. It is owing to this Law of spiritual development superceding the physical and purely intellectual that mankind will become freed from its false gods, and find itself finally—self-redeemed.” —Helena P. Blavatsky, 1888

For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see
Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew
For the nation’s airy navies grappling in the central blue.
Far along the world-wide whisper of the south wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging thro’ the thunderstorm,
Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.
There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.
—Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1890

“There will be a time when the world will have no use for armies, hypocritical religions, and degenerate art. Life is evolution and evolution is development from the simple to the more complicated forms of the mind and body. I see the passing show of the world drama in its present form, how it fades like the glow of evening upon the mountains.”
—Leo Tolstoy, 1910

“May each one of you become a shining lamp, of which the flame is the Love of God. May your hearts burn with the radiance of unity. May your eyes be illumined with the effulgence of the Sun of Truth!”
—‘Abdu’l-Baha, 1911

“The old is about to give birth to the new. In all lands, in all peoples, the travail pains are becoming more and more intense. The last War was but the turning point in the womb of Nature—the real birth has yet to come. Alack and alas, to those who must cling to the old, to the traditions of the past, to the habits of their forebears—their day has already passed forever. The Clock of Time has struck the Midnight Hour, and the blackest darkness lies before the greatest dawn. The cry, O Lord, how long, how long? Will break from many hearts before the light of the new civilization will chase away the shadows of the night. It may be that the revolutions and upheavals we see around us on all sides may for the time being bring about the fall of Empires, the destruction of Thrones, the death of the old and the birth of the new. It may be that times of great tribulations lie in store for humanity. I am, however, such a believer in the ultimate perfection of Divine Design that I see in the symbol of the Aquarian Age the promise of the Water Bearer pouring out water on the earth, that in the end seeds may have more richness, flowers more fullness and all sections of humanity more love for one another.”
—Louis Hamon, or Cheiro, 1926

“Many people first expect life to improve before they themselves become good. This would mean that the idea of the good should first be applied in life and then in human beings. This is not possible. People expect the Kingdom of God to come from outside before it enters into them. They expect it to come from outside in some spiritual way and that they will immediately acquire the right to citizenship in this kingdom. But this can never happen. The Kingdom of God is within people and not outside them.”
—Peter Deunov, 1935

“Whoever will survive this settlement will see an entirely new Earthly existence manifested. For a long, very long time the word war will be crossed out from the dictionary of mankind, perhaps even for all time. Christmas, the festival of Christianity, will be accepted by all religions as the true festival of peace. Blessed be who will live to see this epoch.”
—Mahatma Gandhi, 1947

“While the old and outworn civilization is doomed and dying, there is already evidence of something new and glorious—a new man, a new creation—coming to birth. We are to experience this as a total healing—the welding into oneness—of our divided and tortured body of humanity.

“The barriers in Man’s mind are in fact today giving way to powerfully creative and uplifting energies which are flooding into his consciousness to provide him, individually and collectively, with an unparalleled opportunity to be instrumental in bringing new life to the planet, a new civilization based upon enduring values of love, truth, joy, peace and the ideal of service to his fellow human beings and to the other life-streams which contribute to and support the life of our planet. Many are the ways that are open to Man to play his part in the creative process, and these energies themselves, provided he opens himself to them, are the enabling source to provide him the strength to be increasingly effective to this end.”
—Anthony Brooks, 1973

“A new world is taking birth. This world already exists and in a sense, its energies are precipitating out into form. People throughout the world are beginning to attune to this energy, because in their higher consciousness they are already part of that world. They are already citizens of it, though they may not know it consciously. Through the power of their lives, in their individual and collective demonstration, they provide precipitation points.

“As this new world increases vitality, the world that has vitalized form up to this point will decrease in vitality and will in a manner of speaking, fade away. This transition between two worlds could be smooth or could be chaotic, according to the will of the individuals involved. As far as the energies of the new world are concerned, the change has already taken place and there was no destruction. There was only the opportunity to join with Divine energy, to become a co-creator with the planet.”
—David Spangler, 1977

“Let us commit ourselves earnestly to the Design Science approach to achieving utopia. This moment of realization that it soon must be utopia or oblivion coincides exactly with the discovery by man that, for the first time in history, utopia is, at least, physically possible of human attainment. Humanity is now going through its final examination as to whether it can qualify for its universal function and thereby qualify for continuance on board the planet. Whether humanity will pass its final exams for such a future is dependent on you and me. The stars are trying to tell humanity to awake and prosper and to consciously assume the important cosmic responsibilities for which we were designed. Humanity has the option of making it. If humanity does not opt for integrity we are through completely. It is absolutely touch and go. Each of us could make the difference.”
—R. Buckminster Fuller, 1980

5th Century Bishop Orientius on the Genetic Accountability of All Souls

Every forefather with quickened step will pass rapidly along,
Leading his children and his stock.
Every ancestral stock will be conducted in a dense line
With the progenitor amidst his descendents.
Whoever has been born from the beginning of the world
To the last day that will be its end,
Souls just and unjust from every land,
Will be brought to a single place and time by the command from beyond the Eastern sky.

Islamic Prophecy of the Opening of the Books of Life

When the sun ceases to shine,
When the stars shall fall down and the mountains are blown away,
When camels big with young are left untended,
And the wild beasts are brought together,
When the seas are set alight and men are reunited,
When the infant girl, buried alive, is asked for what crime she was slain,
When the records of men’s deeds are laid open, and heaven is stripped bare,
When Hell burns fiercely and Paradise is brought near,
Then each soul shall know what it has done. Qur’an 81:1–4

[Copyright 2008. Joseph Robert Jochmans. All Rights Reserved.]