Metaphysical Monday: Prophecy

Here’s the thing about prophecies: it’s really easy to mess up.

Why? Because it can only be proven if you don’t tell anyone about it before it happens. But if you tell people about it after the fact, chances are they’re not going to believe you didn’t just make it up.

If you tell people about it before hand, well, then you have to worry about that whole “self-fulfilling” angle. Even worse (or better if it’s a prophecy of disaster), once people get the idea of what may be in their heads, they could take active steps to prevent it from happening–leaving you, the well-meaning prophet, looking like you were just plain wrong.

To add even more kinks into the mix, there’s the whole mess of Fate to deal with, too. You may think you’re fated to be a prophet, but there’s never any external proof of that. How would you find it? Every “hit” you get can be explained away, every “miss” a case of faulty judgment or free will on the part of others. At least if you tell anyone.

But if you don’t tell anyone, what’s the point of the gift of prophecy?

This, I think, is why so many prophets come across as crazy. Or, maybe, it’s why so many crazy people can come across as prophets to those desperate to believe in… something.

The future is a malleable thing. Anything is possible, only certain things are probably, and you don’t need to be a prophet to pick out some of them. Charlatans and megalomaniacs have taken advantage of this fact for as long as there’s been an idea of “the future.”

I think that true Prophets–true Seers of the future–work quietly and mostly alone. They have to be sure of themselves, but also confident that other people are capable and just as important in the scheme of things.

At least that’s what the “good guys” would do. And I have no doubt that if there are white hats out there, there are black hats, too–hacking away at the system, trying to manipulate it for their own gain (or that of whatever they think they serve).

And, over it all, the Universe maintains balance regardless.

Nature is a wonderful thing.