GREAT DEEDS VI: ETERNAL LEGACY
The well known book: A Gift of Prophecy by Ruth Montgomery, ends with a series of visions by Jeane Dixon, the subject of the book. Jeane explains that the visions relate to the JFK assassination and of a future turmoil that America will have to face. The set of visions took place on the election day of November 2, 1964 and she naturally related them to this event. Jeane would often look to her crystal ball to predict a current event. In her ball she saw only the Democratic donkey tugging and pulling its way through clouds; the Republican elephant had disappeared from view. Johnson would win this election after succeeding President Kennedy following the assassination. But more than likely the outcome of this election was not the message she was seeing in her crystal ball as it was not of her subsequent visions.
In attempting to interpret her gift of prophecy, I am not advocating her methods. I accept that she indeed had a gift and that she believed that it came from God. Whether this is true or not can be the subject of endless debate. The proof of prophecy is in the accuracy of all predictions. Her admitted shortcoming was in her interpretation of what she was shown. In her method of prediction, a gift of discernment is needed. Whether she had this gift or merely relied on her own intuition can also be debated. She was a devout Roman Catholic Christian, but this in itself does not qualify her to be a prophet of God. Christians accept the bible to be the true prophetic word of God, yet there is no true consensus on the many interpretations of God’s word. I believe that she was sincere in her faith and in her daily prayers to God. I am not trying to prove her right or wrong for in the end only God can judge. I am only giving my interpretation of her gift.
To understand her confusion of what she was being shown in her crystal ball concerning the election requires a brief explanation. The manner in which she saw things was not clearly defined messages. It was not like seeing a newspaper result of what took place or a box score. She was shown symbols in response to her question and then she had to interpret the meaning. For example, the one “miss” that she had over the years of predicting the outcome of presidential elections came in 1960. She consulted her crystal ball and interpreted the result to be Nixon winning the presidency over Kennedy. However, Kennedy won by the narrowest of margins. Where did she err?
The background to this miss began with the vision that she had while in prayer in her Washington, D.C. church in 1952. She saw the White House with 1960 overhead with a dark cloud that spread out from the white numerals and dripped on the W.H. A man was standing in front that she described as being young, tall, blue eyed, with a shock of brown hair. She was told that he was a democrat and that he would die violently while in office. Four years later she told Parade magazine: “a blue-eyed Democratic president elected in 1960 will be assassinated.” She also had a vision of a large coffin being carried into the W.H. An edited version of her vision was published in the magazine.
Clearly, she was being shown in visions that Kennedy would win in 1960, and be assassinated while in office. Then, as the 1960 election drew near, she consulted her crystal ball as she had done in the past to correctly name the winner. What she saw was the Republican Vice-President Richard Nixon on the right side with the symbol of the presidency directly over his head. But there was a small old-fashioned scale behind him that concerned her. The prediction went out to the press that Nixon would win.
However, a few days before the election, Jeane saw a change in her crystal ball. “I still see Nixon in the right half of the ball, which means victory, and Kennedy in the left, “ she explained, “but the bisecting line between them is not quite closed at the bottom. Through that tiny space I see little feelers, like snakes, crawling from the left side into the right.” She explained, “It means that unless the Republicans police every poll the victory will be stolen from them.” She then penciled out the description: on the left side was a dark cloud completely surrounding a small balloon or bubble with a star inside; on the right a chair with a circle representing Nixon above it. Under the vertical line, five snakes were crawling into the right side. Jeane explained that Democratic intrigue in five separate polling areas will rob Nixon of his rightful victory.
Jeane said that Kennedy will sit in the presidential chair and not Nixon. But Kennedy will not be able to break through the dark clouds that surround him (he is the shining star) and suddenly the balloon will burst and he will be gone. Unknown to Jeane was that in fact there was intrigue as Kennedy had reached out to mob boss Sam Giancana to help him win the election. Election fraud had been charged in several precincts but went unchallenged. Jeane maintained that she was shown that Nixon won the election but lost to voter fraud. Kennedy probably rationalized at the time that he was merely utilizing resources available to him by way of his father Joseph Kennedy.
The scale of justice remained on Nixon’s side of the ball. I believe that this meant that justice would prevail as Nixon would later become president in 1968 after Johnson declined to run again and Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated. Jeane at the time did not know that these events would take place as her crystal ball showed signs in the near or present time. The visions that would come unexpectedly were of future events. This demonstrates the difficulty in interpretation even by someone with as much experience as Jeane had.
Her vision in 1952 showed her that a democrat that resembled Kennedy would win in 1960. This should have been the overriding answer to the unusual signs in her ball. She should have questioned what she was being shown based on the strength of the vision being of utmost importance. The dark cloud in the vision resembled the dark cloud in the ball. It was because of the dark cloud that Kennedy was to be the president. It was to be his light that would dispel the dark cloud of nuclear war and for this he was to lose his life. It was not Nixon’s time: his time would come later with the Vietnam War.
The first vision as described by Jeane in the book is thus: “Seated on a throne before fluted marble columns was a gorgeously arrayed Roman emperor who, with great energy and strength, was hurling bits of food toward far-off throngs of ragged barbarians. The hoards gradually inched closer, seizing on the scattered tidbits, while beauty radiated from the exquisite pavilion. Watching intently, Jeane noticed that the emperor was beginning to cast the food more carelessly, with less vitality, so that some of it was falling near his feet; and at last the barbarians swept across the pavilion like a swarm of locusts, eradicating all traces of the culture and refinement which it reflected.”
Jeane interpreted the vision to be the decline and fall of the Roman Empire with the subsequent Dark Ages. But she also likened the vision to America, a warning that America was similarly weakening itself with a careless disbursement of foreign aid. I believe that this vision of America as Rome is still playing out. As a Western nation, America is a part of Rome and as the secular leader of the world America can be likened to an empire with the president as an emperor. A symbolic representation of this can be seen in the Lincoln Memorial with President Lincoln sitting much like the Roman Emperor in the vision.
The vision is an example that was set in the beginning that existed then and exists now. The Roman Empire was weakened first from within and then from without, but the Roman system of government continued. The danger to America from within is wealth and abundance that breeds a love of luxury and personal gain over charity and sacrifice. But the greater danger to America is from without, as it was with the threat of nuclear war during Kennedy’s presidency and now with the threat of nuclear-armed terrorists. The threat of terrorist attacks on the American Empire abroad and at home is growing, in a similar way to the Roman Empire by invading barbarian hordes.
For example, the brutality and ruthlessness of the Islamic State militants is reminiscent of the Huns, Goths and Fascists before them. No one person or nation is so big that they cannot fall. President Kennedy’s star was still on the rise when he was felled by an assassin’s bullet. History has shown that a great nation falls when it becomes weak and the enemy becomes stronger. Events can repeat with different players and a different stage. History is known to repeat if warnings of impending doom go unheeded. If warnings are heeded, disaster can be averted.
The second vision is more complex and longer and so I will paraphrase. Jeane found herself in a house talking with a trusted friend and a large, old woman who was the Voice of Wisdom. Through an open window, the sound of wildly victorious music from an American presidential inauguration (Kennedy’s was the last one at the time), flooded the room. The friend entrusted Jeane with a baby girl, telling her to protect the baby as she loved her very much. The old lady sagely told Jeane to protect the child of love and to not let anything happen to her.
She held the infant in her arms as she left the house with the door closing noiselessly behind her. She looked to the beautiful inauguration pavilion where the music had come from and that was crowded with merry-makers was now abandoned. Filthy debris now covered the smooth marble floor. The baby was now a toddler and Jeane held her hand as she led her down a curving marble staircase. She felt strangely drawn to the pavilion but it was too soiled to walk on so they walked beside it on emerald-green grass which was soft as velvet carpet. Jeane realized the pavilion represented America and she was heart sick that it was littered with filth.
Sparkling, pure, clean water was now flowing across the grass up to her ankles. But sadly the cleansing flood of water was sweeping under the debris instead of washing it away. The child that was happily walking beside her abruptly slipped into an unseen hole. Jeane braced herself against the pavilion and frantically tried to pull-up the child by her hand. As she struggled to lift her up she beseeched the child: “Help me. Help me to save you. You can help me if you try.” The child made no effort to help but slowly rolled over to gaze at Jeane. An inch of water covered the child’s face but her eyes showed serenity, overwhelming love and wisdom in a way that Jeane had never seen in human eyes. She continued tugging until the child smiled and said joyously: “It must be this way. It’s got to be this way. Don’t you see that it must be this way?”
Jeane turned and stared again at the pavilion with the filthy litter covering the floor. She sensed that she belonged to it as this was America and she felt overwhelmed with shame because of it. She quietly watched as smoky gray clouds began to churn the debris about like matchboxes caught in the funnel of a tornado. She looked up to see that above the dark clouds were even blacker ones. They were rolling in angry billows (like smoke) and they were rising up. As far as she could see, the horizon was dark and tormented. But near the top of the black clouds a fire crackled and burned with white hot intensity, gradually burning up the filthy debris.
Above this unearthly heat a gentle flame began to glow. With relief, she saw that this healing flame was spreading through-out the universe and was dispersing the fierce black clouds. “This is the aura-flame, this is the aura-flame,” a voice repeatedly told her. Slowly a peaceful blue color returned to the once black and tortured sky. She glanced a little to the right to behold a beautiful green knoll on which an eternal flame glowed. As the vision faded she realized that the knoll bore a marked resemblance to the Arlington hillside where the mortal remains of JFK rest beside an eternal flame.
Jeane instantly felt that she had been shown why JFK’s death was an integral part of God’s plan. The vision was given to her to explain why her warnings went unheeded. This was his destiny: she wasn’t supposed to deter him from completing his preordained mission in life. This message in the vision was meant to give her troubled spirit peace: that she did not fail. Her only role was to give a warning of impending tragedy to prepare the nation for what was to be inevitable (The King Must Die: a true king, whose duty is to look after his people, may need to make the ultimate sacrifice - from Wikipedia).
Jeane interprets the vision as a warning that Americans will pay dearly in the years to come for: “the confusion, degradation, and immorality in our political, business, labor and family lives.” Americans like the Romans are squandering their great cultural and political leadership with the love of material things and compromises with high principle. The debris of our national lifestyle will have to be consumed by cleansing fires before peace can return. She relates the gray clouds to the struggle of the races. The black clouds represent a horrible war in which many Asian and African nations whom America has helped with foreign aid will join with Red China to destroy our way of life like the barbarians in the vision of ancient Rome. She sees this as occurring in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s: which did not take place. If the vision is true, then it is her calculations that are off. She probably based the timing on previous signs in her ball on a race war in America and germ warfare by Red China. I believe that the clouds represent the many wars that America will have to fight ending with a war with Islamic Asian and African nations before there is a lasting peace.
She is correct to compare America with the Roman Empire and the president as an emperor. In this instance, President Kennedy is a symbol of this era much like Lincoln and Washington for their time. This era is the one of the threat of nuclear war and annihilation. Kennedy was the right man to face the Cold War threat and to establish nuclear deterrents. The threat did not end with the Cold War and continues with the threat of nuclear armed nations like Iran and with terrorists.
Another possible reason that Kennedy was given to Jeane as a symbol is that they were both Roman Catholics. Kennedy was the only Catholic president in our nation’s history. Her vision in 1952 of a dark cloud over the White House in 1960 took place in a Catholic Church. One label for Jeane would be that of a Catholic mystic. She viewed her visions through a Catholic believers lens and she would interpret her visions in the light of the Church’s teachings. It could also be that her visions reflected this light to speak to her in a language that she would understand.
The vision begins with Jeane in a house which could be the White House or a government building as an inauguration was nearby. The old woman was called the Voice of Wisdom which implies that she could represent an ancient goddess. As the government is based on the Greco-Roman system, gods and goddess’ are often used symbolically to represent an ideal (the Roman goddess Minerva is on the great Seal of California). A likely candidate for the Voice of Wisdom is the goddess (A)Egeria (identified with Diana): known to give wisdom and prophecy at her sacred groves. She could predict the future of the newborn babies that she watched over. She was a guardian of childbirth and a female advisor and companion of women.
The child of love could be represented by Providentia: divine personification (to represent a character trait in the form of a person). This Latin word is the origin of the Christian concept of divine providence (the foreseeing care and guidance of God over the creatures of the earth). The death of the child was therefore preordained by God and no human effort could change what God determines to take place. Thus, President Kennedy’s death could not have been prevented. Clearly, Jeane was haunted by her knowledge of his impending death and that she failed to prevent it. The green grass that is as soft as velvet carpet could be a reference to the Garden of Eden: a place of purity. The water represents healing waters that were unable to clear the filthy debris away. The child of love is to be a sacrifice in these healing waters for a greater good.
The smoky gray clouds represent wars to come and the moral gray area of these battles. Above the ominous dark gray clouds are even darker clouds of war that extend across the globe: the prophesied time of darkness. America is going to have to contend with wars: The Vietnam War, The Persian Gulf War, The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and more. These gray clouds are a portent for the darker clouds of a coming world-wide conflagration. The fire of this war will consume all that was left of the past excesses of wealth and immorality. Above the judgment-like-fire, a healing flame began to glow like a candle flame. This healing light is called the aura-flame or the holy fire of God. The war on earth and in heaven is over and a peaceful blue returns to the once stormy sky.
Jeane then sees a beautiful green knoll on which burned the earthly symbol of the healing flame. She says the true meaning of President Kennedy’s life and death is that through his martyrdom, he would light an eternal flame. This is to remind the people of the world that an eternal flame is in each of us. This was not of his doing but of God: President Kennedy was simply an instrument of God’s will. During his brief time in the public spotlight, he was able to kindle in the hearts of men an awareness that there is more to life than the narrow pursuit of personal gain; that our greatness lies not in the size of our bank accounts but in our faith and in the development of our divinely granted talents.
Jeane concludes with a final vision and begins by saying how fortunate John F. Kennedy was to be chosen by our Lord for such a role. Like the child of love he would not have wished his life or death to be otherwise. She knows this because of the vision on November 25, 1963, while watching his funeral on television:
“The President’s casket was being carried out of St. Matthew’s Cathedral – the same church in which I first saw the vision of his assassination in 1952 – and as it was solemnly lifted into place on the caisson, I suddenly saw John Fitzgerald Kennedy dancing an Irish jig on top of it. He was happy and gay and free! The funeral procession moved slowly down the avenue, with the President continuing his merry twirling until it reached Memorial Bridge. At that juncture I saw Uncle Sam raise both his hands, as if pronouncing a benediction, and when I glanced back at the caisson only a fleecy trail of smoke remained where the President had danced.” On the green hillside directly opposite Memorial Bridge, an eternal flame now lights the grave of America’s thirty-fifth president.
This concluding vision is a bookend to the one in 1952 that began this journey for her with JFK. This vision is different than the preceding ones that are predictions of things to come given in symbolic form. In this vision she describes seeing JFK’s spirit in present time as he dances above his body in the casket. She describes his spirit as being happy to be freed of his earthly burden. She sees the spirit of America in the symbolic form of Uncle Sam. He is giving the President a blessing at the end of his earthly service to God and Country. Then he is gone from this earthly plane of existence. The bright light that he was for America: now glows in heaven and on earth as an eternal flame. The eternal flame reminds us that the warmth of America's son will never die.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr. (assassinated on April 4, 1968)