Will Francis Be The Last Pope?

Dear Readers: I have to apologize for not posting comments or responding to those comments for the past week.  It was 100% my fault.  The comments received have been posted and I will respond to each comment shortly.  Again my apologies... 

History Channel aired an interesting two-hour documentary tonight that I participated in as a commentator about Saint Malachy O'Morgair (1094-1143).  Born in Armagh, Northern Ireland, he became the Archbishop in Armagh, and first met Bernard de Clairvaux at Clairvaux Abbey, where he stayed while in France during his pilgrimage from Ireland to the Holy Land.  So impressed with the asceticism and "perfection of the religious life" of the monks at Clairvaux under Bernard, they became close friends where Malachy expressed a desire to join the abbey as a monk.  Bernard advised him to return to Ireland to establish a monastery there. (Konemann, Page 256, 2006) In 1142, he established the abbey of Mellifont in the Boyne Valley roughly a 45-minute drive north from Belfast.

What most people don't know is on the granges, or lands, of the Cistercian monks at Mellifont were three megalithic ritual temples archaeologists today call "passage tombs" for the dead.  The most famous of these is a UNESCO World Heritage Site called Newgrange.  In fact, these incredible structures believed to be over 5,000 years old, were ancient observatories the monks actually excavated in the twelfth century.  Having visited the site in 2012, it is quite clear Newgrange, which has a long stone-lined tunnel with three niches at the center, captures the light of the rising sun to the southeast on the Winter Solstice.  What few people know is the alignment of the tunnel and the deepest most niche are most accurately aligned to the planet Venus at sunrise on the shortest day of the year.  This fact is further evidenced by the eight "X's" carved in base relief into the slab of stone directly above the entrance that allows the light of Venus, and the sun, to enter the tunnel on the solstice.  Eight is the number of Earth years it takes for the planet Venus to make the five-pointed star when viewed from Earth astronomically.  It is a deeply sacred number to the Cistercians and many other cultures who embrace the "Hooked X" ideology of Monotheistic Dualism.

You might be asking what does all this have to do with the Malachy Prophecy?  The simple answer is the Cistercians, and Saint Malachy, were deeply versed in astronomy/astrology and understood the concepts associated with Precession of the Equinoxes.  Essentially astronomer priests, they received ancient knowledge passed on through initiation and ritual about the 26,000 year long cycle of the twelve primary constellations of the zodiac when viewed from Earth.  Possessing this knowledge was how Malachy knew something profound was to occur in 2012, the same year cultures like the Mayans, who also understood and venerated astronomical precession, knew the old "Great Year" would end and the new "Great Year" would begin.  It's quite possible, if Malachy in fact made the 2012 predictions, the presence of the ancient megalithic observatories on the granges at Mellifont may have had something to do with that knowledge and the prophecies.

Stained glass image of Saint Malachy at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Temple Street in Sligo, Ireland. Photo by Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45864216  

The octagonal shaped lavatorium that sits on eight columns with Romanesque arches survives somewhat intact at the Cistercian monastery of Mellifont that was founded by Saint Malachy in 1142.  

Author Alan Butler and I stand in front of the over 5,000 year-old megalithic structure called Newgrange in the Boyne Valley of Ireland.  This structure has a diameter of over 300 feet and is one of three such ancient observatories that capture the light of the setting sun, and the planet Venus, on the winter solstice. 

Outside the entrance to the stone-lined tunnel that leads to three chambers at the center of the  structure are large curbstones with ornate carvings of spirals and other symbols.

Above the opening that is the entrance into the tunnel is a large slab of stone with eight "Xs" carved in base relief.  The primary winter solstice alignment is for the planet Venus which the eight carved "Xs" appear to be consistent with.