Old Document Review 'Prognostications'

This fantastic document was originally published in 1536 A.D and was written by Paracelsus (d.1541). It contains 32 images with very cryptic statements to go with them. Paracelcus was originally born as Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim and was a German-Swiss, in his life time he was a physician, a botanist, an alchemist, astrologer and occultist. He was famous for many things, he gave zinc its name and contibuted greatly to the development of medicine.

The 32 predictions are of mundane events, ecclesiastical affairs and political upheavals, yet they are so cryptic that has made them almost impossible to interpret. The Past, Present and future are described as three separate entities yet there are the same. Like a Trinity of time itself, and Paracelsus claims that it is through divine intervention that he has been shown things, as nothing is impossible through the Trinity of God. He speaks many times of Magic, yet by magic he means divine power. Magic and Occultism at his time ran the risk of being tried for heresy, yet in reading extracts of his various writings, the only thing that comes clear is that he was a devout believer in God, a spiritual person with a great understanding of the nature of God.

An example of the text from the book;'What a thing is internally is shown by its outward sign. As Nature signs her own so does Magic. You have been signed as a devourer of all who have to do with them'

As you can see the text is very cryptic and quite hard to understand yet some scholars claim that several of the prophecies have been fulfilled. They interpret seperate words from the texts just as one would do with interpreting dreams, for example the bear is Russia, the lion is England and so on.

There are a couple of interesting things I found in the document; the first is a reference in Figure 26 to Sibyl, meaning the Sibylline Oracles perhaps, or maybe he had access to other writings from the Sibyls that is now lost to time. Secondly; In the third figure, the image contains beams of sunlight 6 on the left, 7 on the right, is this possibly a reference to the same beliefs that the Mayans had of the sevens days of existence (seven days and six nights) making the number thirteen.