2012 and Beyond

Coming soon, my first nonfiction book (not counting my memoir), 2012 and Beyond: Ancient Secrets and Mysteries.

Excerpt from the Introduction:

“Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?” – Job 11:7

In a dark dungeon, Dr. Faustus utters magical words in some ancient tongue, which he reads from an ancient manuscript. Having turned away from his faith and given up his position as a Christian priest, he has put away the Bible and turned the pages of magical tomes. The words have their effect, and the Devil – Mephistopheles – appears, offering Faust a deal that he cannot refuse. For twenty years he enjoys all sorts of luxuries and debaucheries, while demons serve his every whim. Then he must pay the price upon which he agreed when he signed the contract with the Devil in his own blood. Fearing this end, Faust hides in his basement, but the demons find him there and tear his body to shreds, and then they drag his soul down to Hell. That is Christopher Marlowe’s version of the Faust story. Goethe, finding that ending unsatisfying, gets Faust off the hook on a technicality.

In ancient Egypt, the young Greek wise man Solon lay in the stone coffin in the King’s Chamber inside the Great Pyramid and saw visions of the Great Flood. His grandson Plato would write down what Solon told him about Atlantis in two of his dialogs, the Timaeus and the Critias. On a moonless night in the 1300s, a group of men sat in a circle around a small camp fire in the midst of a forest in southern France. One of the men opened a black cloth sack to reveal the severed head of their martyred leader. Their religious order of knights was on the run, persecuted by their own church and their own king. On a July afternoon in 1858, a young woman dug in the dirt near a cave in Lourdes, France, seeking the water of the spring which the apparition of a lady had ordered her to drink – the Catholic Church finally declared Bernadette a saint in 1933.

In France in the early 1500s, a physician name Michele de Notre Dame (Nostradamus) peered into a bowl of water and saw visions of the future. He predicted that the world would end in the year 3797. Sorry, but he did not foresee anything special for the year 2012. However, many ancient cultures did predict the end of the world for 2012.

A word of warning before you delve into the depths of ancient mysteries: Never attribute great wisdom to people who worshiped cows and other creatures, rather than the Creator. Never open doors that might let in something that could harm you. Just say no to the Ouija board, whose name means “Yes yes”; if you try it, you will open the door to some serious mischief that can cause you great harm. Do not attempt to summon demons to serve your ends; you will end up serving theirs. Do not aspire to great power, as it will take away your personal power over your own life.

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