Raw Prophecy
From Chapter 6, Prophecies Past and Present:
- It was foretold that one day, if we are fortunate, we will meet up with another race of people of peace, who will respectfully request the use of the land, and who will accept our rules concerning the land without question. But if we are unfortunate, we will meet up with the wrong people. We will encounter many pitfalls, and once we are caught in this we will be cursed forever. (189)
- We are now awaiting out White Brother who traveled eastward across the great waters long ago, who is to return when he hears of our difficulties. He will deliver the sacred Hopi stone tablets into the proper hands. (191)
- Just two or three righteous people will be able to fulfill the Creator's mission. Even one truly righteous person would be able to do it. (193)
From Chapter 7, Prophecies Present and Future:
- The Hopi will play a key role in the survival of the human race through their vital communion with unseen forces that hold nature in balance. [They will act] as an example of a practical alternative to the suicidal manmade system and as a fulcrum of world events. (208)
- The liberators will come in from the West with a great force. They will drop down from the sky like rain. They will show no mercy. (209)
- The Great Day of Purification has been described as a "mystery egg" in which the forces of the swastika, the Sun, plus a third force symbolized by the color red culminate either in total rebirth or total annihilation. (210)
- The degree of violence will be determined by the degree of inequity among the people of the world and the balance of nature. That it will be very violent is now almost taken for granted by the traditional Hopi, but man may still lessen the violence by correcting his treatment of nature and his fellow man. (210)
- The forces we must face are formidable, but the only alternative is annihilation. Still, the manmade system cannot be corrected by any means requiring one's will to be forced upon another, for that is the source of the problem. If people are to correct themselves and their leaders, the gulf between the two must disappear. To accomplish this, one can rely only on the energy of truth itself. (210)
- This approach, which is the foundation of the Hopi way, is the greatest challenge a mortal can face. Few are likely to accept it. (211)
- The men with ambitious minds will decrease, while the people of good hearts will increase until the earth is rid of evil. (218)
- We should [remember that] the Creator has promised to bestow his greatest blessings. He knows that those of us who will take a chance on the seemingly impossible are those who, given help, can reach their goals. When the Creator sees that we entrust ourselves to Him, He fulfills his promise to us! (219)
Prophecy from Dan Evehema:
- It was to Spider Woman's two grandsons that the stone tablets were given. These two brothers were instructed to carry them to a place where the Great Spirit had instructed them. The older brother was to go East to the place of the rising sun, and upon reaching his destination to turn around and immediately start searching for his younger brother (the Hopi). The younger brother was to remain in the land of the Great Spirit. The older brother's mission when he returned was to help his younger brother bring about peace, brotherhood and everlasting prosperity.
- Hopi, the younger brother, was instructed to hold this world in balance with the land and the universe by using special prayers and rituals, which continue to this day. He was instructed to cover all the land and mark it well with sacred markings in order to claim it for the Creator and for peace on Earth. Hopi established his ceremonials and sacred shrines to hold this world in balance in accordance with his first promise to the Creator.
- Hopi was told to settle permanently in Hopiland and wait for his older brother to return from the East. When he returns, he will place the stone tablets side by side to show that they are the true ones.
- Hopi was told that three helpers were appointed by the Great Spirit to help bring about peace on Earth. It is known that Hopi's true White Brother, when he comes, will be all-powerful and wear a red cloak or cap. He will be large in population and belong to no religion but his very own. He will bring with him the sacred stone tablets.
- With him there will be two great ones, both very wise and powerful. One will carry the symbol of the swastika [the Earth], which represents purity and is female, a producer of life. The other will carry the symbol of the Sun. He too will be many people, and be very wise and powerful.
- It is also prophesied that if these three fail to fulfill their mission, then one will come from the West like a big storm. He will be many in numbers and unmerciful. When he comes he will cover the land like the red ants and take over it in one day.
- If the three helpers appointed by the Creator fulfill their sacred mission, even if there are only one or two or three of the true Hopi still holding fast to the ancient teaching of the Great Spirit, Massau ["He is the First and will be the Last" (Mails, 188)] will appear before all and our world will be saved.
- The three will lay a new life plan that leads to peace and everlasting life. The Earth will be as it was in the beginning. Forests will grow again, wild animals will return, and there will be prosperity for all life again. Those who have been saved will share everything equally and will recognize the Great Spirit and keep His law.
Commentary
Above you can see the Hopi prophecy in its unaltered form, as given by Dan Evehema to Thomas E. Mails for Mails' 1997 book, The Hopi Survival Kit, and as given by Evehema in his Parting Message to Humanity before his death in 1999.
Below I hope to discuss an interpretation of the prophecy that Mails brings us courtesy of another Hopi elder, Dan Katchongva.
On page 324 of the original Stewart, Tabori & Chang edition (New York 1997), the author states: "The Hopi traditionalist leaders identify the symbol at the upper left hand as the Swastika of the Nazi regime."
It is interesting to note here that the Hopi elder does not know what the swastika symbolizes. Katchongva further identifies this symbol with a local plant: "The meha symbol, which refers to a plant that has a long root, a milky sap, and grows back when cut off; and has a flower shaped like a swastika, symbolizing the four great forces of nature in motion." (325)
It is clear from this description, even though Mails cannot articulate it, that the flower is another symbol for the Earth. Katchongva seems to carry a proto-memory of the symbolism of the swastika, associating the meha with a local plant and also with "the four great forces," also known as "the four directions." (326)
The four directions, and the corresponding symbolism of each, are described both in the the Hopi prophecy that first inspired me in 2009, and also in that classic account of Native American experience, Black Elk Speaks (John G. Neihardt, 1932).
The four directions are: the place "where the great white giant lives (the north)" ; the place "where the sun continually shines (the east)" ; the place "you always face" (the south)" (23) ; and the place "where the thunder beings live (the west)." (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1961, 29)
The 20th-century metaphysician and writer Rene Guenon can help us shed more light on this symbol of the swastika. In his 1927 book The King of the World, in which he treats the subject of spiritual centers, Guenon writes:
"We particularly wish to emphasize that since the world rotates around it, the center in question is the fixed point that all traditions refer to symbolically as the 'Pole,' generally represented by a wheel among the Celts and Chaldeans, as well as the Hindus. Such is the true significance of the swastika, a symbol found everywhere from the Far East to the Far West, and which is essentially 'the sign of the Pole' ; and this is no doubt the first time in modern Europe that its real meaning is being made known." (Sophia Perennis, Hillsdale NY 2004, 10)
In a note, Guenon goes into more detail: "In cruciform figures such as the swastika, this primordial element [from which the other four proceed] is also represented by the central point, which is the Pole ; the four other elements, as well as the four cardinal points, correspond to the four branches of the cross, symbolizing moreover the quaternary in all its applications." (61)
So Guenon equates the swastika with the four elements, and also with the four cardinal points, and explains it as "not a representation of the world, but rather of the action of the Principle in relation to the world," (56) that principle being the fixed point around which the world rotates. In this Guenon is in perfect agreement with Dan Katchongva, who describes the swastika as the symbol of "the four great forces of nature in motion." (Mails, 325)
And just so there is no confusion, Dan Evehema, in his Parting Message to Humanity, adds that "the symbol of the swastika," taken in its secondary meaning as a local plant, "represents purity and is female." I hope this helps completely dispel the interpretation of the swastika as a sun symbol.
[to be continued...]
