Deb wrote:

With only one day left to go it might be best to leave it until after the date for the end of the world has been and gone, and I wonder if it might be helpful to point to this in the future when the next apocalypse day prediction comes around.

Hi Deb,

Ok in the light of your comments I have decided to keep the thread going and have unlocked the thread. Its not that anyone has been offensive here. I was just worried about the direction of travel we were taking. Still, as you suggest the question of what has motivated the apocalyptic mind set throughout recorded history is very interesting. I personally, think there might be are several factors at work. In particular:

1 Natural phenomena such as comets, nova and eclipses that had no apparent explanation causing the natural order to be disrupted and threatened. Comets in particular caused the greatest consternation due to both their traditional association as malefic omens and the fact that unlike an eclipse they could appear for weeks or months. Unlike planets they appeared to come from nowhere as there was no measurable pattern at work.

2 Linear religious views. In other words religions that suggest history is a narrative moving towards a particular end rather than being cyclical. Especially the Judeo-Christian-Islamic beliefs that posit 'end times' in scriptural terms. This often reinforced concerns over natural phenomena which could be 'signs of the times'. Such views are still very much with us.

3 Beliefs that society was in moral decline and that the wrath of God or the Gods was imminent. This seems to be a perennial theme in human thought. For example

According to Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts (1979), an Assyrian clay tablet dating to approximately 2800 BC was unearthed bearing the words "Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common." This is one of the earliest examples of the perception of moral decay in society being interpreted as a sign of the imminent end.

4 Numerology and astrology often combined with the above factors. For example there was a scare in the early Roman history, with many Romans fearing that the city would be destroyed in the 120th year of its founding. There was a myth that 12 eagles had revealed to Romulus a mystical number representing the lifetime of Rome, and some early Romans hypothesized that each eagle represented 10 years. The Roman calendar was counted from the founding of Rome, 1 AUC (ab urbe condita) being 753 BC. Thus 120 AUC is 634 BC. (Thompson p.19)

5 Periods of rapid historical change, insecurity or violence seem to strengthen people's receptiveness to such ideas. For example see the frenzy of millenial predictions during the 30 years war and English civil war. In that era this was achieved by pamphlets. Today of course such ideas can quickly go viral on the internet.

One of the most famous astrological predictions of the end of the world was for Feb 20, 1524. A planetary alignment of Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions in the water triplicity culminating in Pisces led the astrologer Johannes Stoeffler to predict the world was to be destroyed by a flood on this date (Julian), Pisces being a water sign. There was mass panic across Europe due to this prection. The failure of this prediction didn't help the credibilty of mundane astrology.

I got a lot of this information from an excellent website giving an historical summary of end of the world predictions:

http://www.abhota.info/end1.htm

http://www.abhota.info/end2.htm

http://www.abhota.info/end3.htm

http://www.abhota.info/end4.htm

http://www.abhota.info/end5.htm

The site also discusses apocalyptic predictions for after 2012....

http://www.abhota.info/end6.htm

Hi there,
If I may be excused for a little sketchiness, and brevity. I'd like to throw in a couple of things. Firstly, on a general note, we have another thread on Neptune in Pisces. I'm interested in how its transit unfolds, in the light of its past residences. I think there may be a pertinence to this thread.

In Aquarius social fabrics and society were convulsed by irrational fearful impulses , which most obviously coalesced around the neptunian image of the suicide bomber. At the same time it was as though the whole concept of "Society" was undergoing change due to a loss of faith in traditional social models, and a lack of trust in "humanity".

Following similar shorthand astro-reasoning (with apologies scholars!) as Neptune moves through Pisces surely we will be confronted around crises about the whole subject of "Belief" and "Faith". THe forces of stirred up and irrational Neptunian fear will be at work here, reshaping and remodelling.

In the here and now the Sun's transit into Gemini is disseminating this current apocalyptic religious idea around the globe, as it transits its square to Neptune.

In the context of earthquakes , specifically. It is entirely possible that between now and May 24th , there may be earthquakes of local consequence to us humans, since the planetary picture including fixed sign 'bunching", aspects to Jupiter/Neptune, and the tussle between Mars and Saturn. I think there is precious little chance of any really "big one" though because the planets do not having any latitudinal alignment (I have sketched out my interest in astrological latifude many times here), SO of course IF there was , even minor earthquakes (and of course there always are! I really don't think we are looking at anything extraordinary). How will that feed into the Neptunian transit feeding zealotry or crises of faith etc???
mike c

MikeCoop wrote:SO of course IF there was , even minor earthquakes (and of course there always are! I really don't think we are looking at anything extraordinary). How will that feed into the Neptunian transit feeding zealotry or crises of faith etc???
mike c

With regards to earthquakes it is always good to keep this in mind:
Earthquake facts and statistics

134 R6-6.9 per year means one of them every 3 days
1319 R5-5.9 quakes per year, this means there are 3 of them per day.

So you are right that we are not looking at anything extraordinary.
And even to get one R8+ quake per year is completely normal expectation.

Whenever we try to judge (or make) forecasts, we have to consider what is the normal expectation.

By the way, here is a nice real time map showing all earthquakes of the last 24 hours:
http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/

Well is May 22nd and we all appear to be still here.

except for Joplin MO

except Joplin MO

That comment will not be understood by a lot of non-Americans.

Here is a link regarding the Tornado at Joplin on May 23rd.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -town.html

Mark