ENTER THE DRAGON

Jan 23, 2012 Features / Columnists, Tony Deyal column

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On Monday we will enter the dragon or the dragon will enter our lives.  Monday January 23 is the first day of the Chinese New Year which will end on February 9, 2013.  This year, 2012, is the Year of the Dragon.  The dates for the Chinese Horoscope coincide with the lunar calendar.   As with the Western Zodiac, the Chinese have 12 signs that follow in the same order but the Chinese name the year after one of twelve animal signs- rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
Similar to western Astrology, every Chinese Birth Sign has a particular character and qualities. People born in a specific year are believed to take on the character and qualities of the animal after which the year is named.  The Dragon is the fifth sign in the Chinese Horoscope and signifies luck.  There are five elements in the Chinese astrology – metal, water, wood, fire and earth.  The last appearance of the Dragon was in 2000 – or the “metal” dragon.  This year we have the “water” dragon and already, to herald its entry, the rain has been falling every day for the past week.
The closest I ever came to a dragon, apart from the many fantasy books, games and movies that are becoming increasingly popular, was a pair of rubber slippers that I owned.  Some people call them flip-flops because of the noise they make and others call them “drag-ons”.  I almost broke my neck with one of those.  I didn’t expect an accident or predict any, but in this year of the water dragon, psychics are predicting that the world is going to hell in a handbasket at breakneck speed.
LaMont “Monte” Hamilton says he holds multiple degrees in business, psychology, and education, and has worked in the paranormal field full time for over 25 years.  He predicts an Iranian revolution this summer; China will lose its reputation as a world financial leader after clashes with protesters begin over economic reform and will have a military conflict with Japan; panic and protests in all the major countries with citizens demanding economic reforms; several explosions in Israeli military bases; and civil war in the Philippines.
Judy Hevenly, whose clients include royalty, former presidents, Hollywood movie stars, and heads of state, and who was called in to work at the O.J. Simpson trial, says that gold will reach US$2,000 an ounce and oil US$130 a barrel this year. For the world’s poor, this won’t be a barrel of fun.
She says that there will be power outages in Paris, Las Vegas, London, New York, and Los Angeles, and that Barack Obama will get a second term.  She also predicts that angels will actually be seen walking among us by some with “Extraordinary Powers of Perception” (EPP).  How do you know if you have EPP?  Simple.  If you see angels walking among us you have EPP.
Nikki, the self-proclaimed “Psychic to the Stars” boasts that she predicted the Japan earthquake and tsunami, the Wall Street protests in New York City, the devastating Joplin, Missouri tornadoes, the deaths of Elizabeth Taylor and Amy Winehouse, and the trouble in Syria.  Her predictions include a giant earthquake in California; animals and birds, wild and domestic, will attack people leading up to the end of 2012; weird weather conditions worldwide including snow in Hawaii, Las Vegas and in the Caribbean (get your winter clothes ready); major earthquakes in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Alaska; giant prehistoric sea monsters under the sea; major UFO sightings all over the world; a possible landing of a space ship; a Stock Market crash like 1929 worldwide; North Korea attacks South Korea and Japan; an attack on the Vatican and the Pope; earth will fall off its axis a little more; and the Holy Grail will be found.
That should make Da Vinci code author, Dan Brown, happy. She adds that a plane will crash into the White House in Washington, DC., an event which won’t make the Obamas happy.  And for parents who have not yet bought Atlases for their kids for geography class, hold off a bit since Nikki says that the map of the world will change because of catastrophic events happening in the world.
Then there is the biggie – the mother of all disaster predictions or the end of days.  According to this one the world will end before the dragon departs.  It is the “121212” prediction, claimed to be Mayan in origin, that the world will end on December 12, 2012.  One website claims, “On 2012 our solar system will cross with the Galactic Equator which only happens every 26,000 years…The Mayan Long Count calendar says the current age of mankind began on a day of destructive Earth movement and it will end on a day of destructive Earth movement.
This day of movement could mean horrible earthquakes. It could also be translated to the missing planet Nibiru slamming into our planet.”  The planet Nibiru (an ancient name for Jupiter) supposedly comes through the solar system every 3600 years and causes major destruction.
Writer, Jean Claude Koven, says, “Whether or not December 12, 2012 marks an immutable cosmological event or not becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy is moot.  There is no question that it looms as a very significant moment.
What concerns us most is wanting to know what will happen. At one end of the bell-curve of probabilities is total physical annihilation. At the opposite end is the arrival of the Golden Age we all dream about. Every other conceivable possibility lies between them…The Hogwarts Express is bound for the next dimension – the Golden Age of our dreams.
The problem is that until you become a wizard, you have no way of finding the right platform. The world, as you know it will definitely end on December 12, 2012, if that’s what you choose. You will definitely be there when it happens, boarding one of the infinite number of trains leaving the station. Every one of us will be required to be on board.”
Whether Hogwarts or plain, unadulterated hogwash is up to you.  As for me, I plan on an early Christmas.
*Tony Deyal was last seen quoting an exasperated dragon in a fierce encounter with St George on the planet Nibiru, “Mother said there would be knights like this.”

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