Laughable, but oddly chilling.
Fans of The Bible Code, read on.
Sixteenth-century prophet Nostradamus left behind a set of complicated and at times scary predictions. Here, Ovason (The Secret Architecture of Our Nation’s Capital, p. 863) untangles them for us, claiming that Nostradamus employed an elaborate code, the so-called Green Language. Nostradamus supposedly forecast a great many events that came to pass: the execution of Charles I in 1649, London’s Great Fire of 1666. Did he come out and say these things? Of course not. He used his code. Here, for example, is the quatrain that predicted the fire: “The blood of the just at London will be a mistake, Burned by thunderbolt the twenty three the sixes; The antique lady will fall from a high place, From among the same sect several will be killed.” The first line tells us we’re in London, declares Ovason, the second that there is a fire, and that somehow the number 666 is involved. (Incidentally, this is one of Nostradamus’ most lucid predictions.) The prophet also foresaw the London plague, the flight of James I, the election of William, Prince of Orange, to the English throne, and almost every detail of the French Revolution. Turning to the 19th century, Nostradamus predicted Napoleon and several earthquakes. In the 20th: Hitler, the decline of Islam in Turkey, the Spanish Civil War, the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Di (but apparently not the latter’s death) . . . and don’t forget the spate of UFOs that visited Earth. Perhaps wisely, when it comes to interpreting the verses concerning the 21st century and beyond, Ovason speaks only in generalities—none of which, by the way, include a great stock-market crash.
Laughable, but oddly chilling.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-019671-8
Page Count: 496
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
The role of fantasy in personal and cultural evolution, explored in depth by an erudite psychiatrist (Columbia Univ. Medical School) who draws not only on her own patients' histories and the psychoanalytic literature, but from world history and literature. Person's interest in fantasy arose from her work on romantic love (Dreams of Love and Fateful Encounters, 1988) and deepened as she began to see how fantasy influences all human relationships. In her words, ``We enact aspects of our fantasies not only in our personal relationships but in the choices we makethe goals we aspire to, the paths we follow, the overall tone and content of the voyage we make from birth to death.'' Person examines various kinds of fantasies: repeating fantasies, which persist from childhood into adulthood; generative fantasies, which unfold over time; fantasies shared by two people; and borrowed fantasies, that is, ones drawn from the culture at large, often from fiction, but also from real life. Her discussion of borrowed fantasies, which focuses on two themes, suicide and violence, includes a timely look at the role of paramilitary fantasies in the formation of fanatic sects. Person concludes with an examination of how shared and borrowed fantasies influence the way a whole culture is shaped. The examples she chooses range from the establishment of a Jewish homeland to the French Revolution to the topic that triggered her initial interest in fantasy: the rise of romantic love in Western culture. The book ends on a somber note, for Person, citing as example the Aryan fantasy of the Superman that pervaded Nazism, warns that ``fantasy is to cultural evolution as mutation is to biological evolution, and cultural mutations, like biological mutations, may benefit us, but they may also kill us.'' A mind-stretching inquiry into the hidden but decidedly powerful world of daydreams.
Pub Date: Sept. 11, 1995
ISBN: 0-465-02359-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995
A vivid account of one woman's pilgrimage to the shrines and sacred sites of the New Age quickly degenerates into pop psychology and pseudo-profundities. Bolen (Goddess in Everywoman, 1984), a Jungian psychoanalyst and a professor of psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, begins this spiritual memoir at a low point in her life. Nearing 50 and recently separated from her husband, she is searching for a new direction. Just at this midlife crossroads, an invitation arrives from a Netherlands foundation to undertake a journey. She is to visit many of the supposed holy places of Europe. Readily accepting this apparent godsend, she begins her quest for fulfillment with an arranged audience with the Dalai Lama. The spiritual and temporal leader of Tibetan Buddhism seems, by the author's own account, more bemused than captivated by her question about possible connections among Tibetans, the Hopi Indians, and the Oracle at Delphi. Her next stop is the great cathedral at Chartres, where she meditates on its relation to the Earth Goddess. A lengthy discussion of the legend of the Holy Grail and its psychological meaning precedes and follows her visit to Glastonbury, where the Grail was supposedly brought by Joseph of Arimathea. The book's title derives from the mystical island other world to which King Arthur sailed in death. Two places in Scotland- -Findhorn, a well-known New Age commune, and the Isle of Iona, an ancient Christian community—round out her personal quest. As she journeys, she picks up other spiritual vagabonds in the manner of Chaucer's travelers to Canterbury. Jungian psychological concepts form an overlay. Although the trip chronicled was undoubtedly meaningful for the author and will appeal to New Age seekers, it will leave others cold. ($50,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Pub Date: May 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-250112-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1994
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