Legends, Predictions and Curses There were many ancient legends, predictions and curses. I think they have a common thread sometimes. A legend is defined as a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated. The example often given is the legend of King Arthur. Predictions are defined as a forecast of things to come. I would like to add there are many which never come true. A curse is defined as a solemn utterance intended to invoke a supernatural power to inflict harm or punishment on someone or something. Notice that in all three cases you have a human telling us about something. There have been a lot of curses cast since the beginning of time. Of course, one of the ones which most of us know is the curse for breaking into King Tut’s tomb. It made believers out of many people who refused to think about the fact a huge coincidence could have taken place. Coincidences do happen. Some of them are pretty weird. I have often talked about the one which happened to my daughter’s in laws. I will give you a quick reminder. When they visited Florida, they went to the beach and took photos. They were from New York. Many years later someone in their family was looking at old photos and came across the Florida photos. Behind them was their future son-in-law who was in the navy and unknown to them at the time. Another famous curse was the curse put on the Hope Diamond. It is both a legend and a curse. The legend states a man by the name of Tavernier, stole the diamond from a Hindu temple. It had been placed as one of the eyes in an idol and supposedly this incredible gem was one of a pair. It is said when the temple priests found out, they cursed anyone who possessed it. It is said the death toll of the curse is now 10 people, that is since 1792 when it was stolen. If Tavernier was killed by the curse, it sure took a long time. It was said he lived until the age of 84, but no one is sure of the facts. I guess there are enough curses to fill a library. Just the curses the native Americans put on the white man would probably fill many books. People seem to like talking and writing about curses and many of them get quite embellished over the years. It is like playing telephone where a message is passed around and by the time it reaches the last person it is changed so much the first person passing it might not recognize it anymore. One of the things about predictions is similar to the curse, and it is the fact predictions can also get embellished over time. When people talk about predictions it is not the same as prophecy in my mind, even though I think of it as being similar. To me prophecy has more of a religious connotation to it. The dictionaries seem to differ somewhat on this point with some mentioning it and some not. One definition called it a divinely inspired prediction. I guess I am forced to mention Nostradamus even though I don’t believe he was either a prophet or predictor of future events. I have often said because of the use of quatrains nothing is clear and his predictions are always after the fact. What I mean is instead of using them to predict the future, his followers try and fit them into events which already happened. The ancient Greeks even had a god of prediction among other things, which was Apollo. It seems he was assigned a lot of different tasks to be the god of. The Greeks also had a god of foresight, it was Prometheus which name means foresight. I wonder how these two gods decided who’s turn it was to predict the future? Getting more into religious prophecy, there were quite a few ancient prophets in the bible. These prophets were said to be passing the word of God to the people. It is thought the first prophet was Abraham, even though some say prophecy was given to Adam. I have to say who would he give it to if there was only he and Eve? It a funny thing. It was believed he and Eve had three sons, Cain, Abel and Seth. Geneticists now say, and I don’t know how, he and Eve had 10 sons and 18 daughters. Abraham prophesized that his descendants would be slaves and strangers in a strange land but they would come out after 400 years. This turned out to be true. He had been told this directly by God and told the people. There were quite a few ancient biblical prophets and here are a few others which have come to mind, Moses, Elijah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Isaiah. There were more but I know you get the idea. I find Ezekiel a really fascinating person. He was an ancient Israelite priest. He had prophesized the destruction of Jerusalem but also the restoration of the Jewish people to Israel. One of the things that fascinates the UFO community is Ezekiel is said to have been taken aboard a UFO and some say he was taken away and never returned. His description of the UFO is fascinating since he tried to describe it in terms he understood. There are many who do not agree. Perhaps the most famous prophet of all in ancient times was Moses. He is said to be the most important prophet by those of the Jewish faith. He is also recognized as a very important prophet by the Christians, Islam and other faiths. Moses said The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from you brethren. Him you shall hear. He said he had been told this by God. He was so right. He went on to lead his people out of Egypt. I want to mention the Sleeping Prophet. Edgar Cayce was a religious man who claimed to have visions which came true while he was asleep. Most of the time his visions came true. He would help others for free who had problems not only with prophecies but with medical diagnosis which even the doctors of the time could not figure out. His works fill many books and he gave over 14,000 thousand readings. When he was 12 years old, he said a winged woman had appeared to him and promised to answer his prayers. If the human race survives, we probably will have more prophets born over the ages.
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