The Hopi Prophecies – Stone Tablets and Predictions of an Age's End

The Hopi are a Native American people who have lived for centuries on the mesas of northern Arizona, in the region known as the Four Corners. Their name is sometimes translated as “the peaceful people”. The Hopi see themselves as guardians of ancient knowledge, given to humankind so that people might live in harmony with the Earth. Part of their tradition concerns the future – changes that are to come when people forget about balance with nature. In esoteric literature these stories have become famous as “the Hopi prophecies”.

It should be said at the outset that many versions of these prophecies are in circulation. They are above all oral teachings of the elders, written down and interpreted by various authors, often from outside the Hopi community. So the wording quoted below should not be treated as a literal, canonical text, but as the tradition in the form in which the literature presents it.

The stone tablets and Prophecy Rock

According to Hopi tradition, when their ancestors emerged into the present world they received sacred stone tablets from the guardian spirit Maasaw, with instructions on how to live and what to expect. These tablets, kept by the clans, are regarded as sacred and are not shown in public. The prophetic tradition is also linked to a petroglyph known as Prophecy Rock, near the village of Oraibi, which depicts two paths for humanity: one in harmony with the Earth, and the other – a path of technological haste, cut off from spirituality.

A message revealed to the world

In 1948 the Hopi elders decided to make part of their ancestors’ prophecies public. At their heart lies a warning: if people use knowledge and technology only to destroy and do not change their ways, the history of the previous worlds will repeat itself. A wide audience first learnt about Hopi beliefs through, among other works, Frank Waters’s “Book of the Hopi” (1963), written on the basis of conversations with the elders, although the book itself has been criticised for inaccuracies. Waters wrote that the life of the Hopi reflects the universal plan of creation and that they remind us of the need for inner transformation if we are not to allow a chasm to open between mind and heart.

These teachings also feature the theme of the land: when strangers come to Hopi lands to extract precious riches from them, it will be a sign that the Purification is approaching. Many commentators linked this prophecy to the twentieth-century land disputes around Black Mesa, where coal was mined, and to the relocation of people living on the disputed territory.

Four worlds and the coming of the Fifth

According to Hopi stories, humanity has already passed through several worlds, each of which ended when people turned away from the right path. Today we live in the Fourth World. The prophecies describe conflict, destruction and finally renewal as parts of a great process of Purification, after which the Fifth World is to dawn. Esoteric literature also attributes to the Hopi a story of successive cycles – of minerals, plants and animals – after which the cycle of humankind is to come.

The nine signs

The most frequently quoted version of the prophecy lists nine signs that precede the end of the present age. The interpretations given to them by commentators appear in brackets:

1. The first sign – white-skinned people will come, take lands that are not theirs and strike their enemies with thunder (the arrival of Europeans with firearms).
2. The second sign – the lands will see spinning wheels filled with voices (settlers’ wagons on the prairies).
3. The third sign – strange beasts like buffalo, but with long horns, will overrun the land (cattle brought by the settlers).
4. The fourth sign – the land will be crossed by snakes of iron (railway lines).
5. The fifth sign – the land will be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web (telephone and power lines).
6. The sixth sign – rivers of stone that reflect the sun will flow across the land (roads and motorways).
7. The seventh sign – the sea will turn black and many living things will die (tanker disasters and oil spills).
8. The eighth sign – young people with long hair will join the tribes to learn their wisdom (the hippie movement).
9. The ninth sign – we will hear of a dwelling place in the heavens that will fall with a great crash and appear as a blue star (interpretations vary – most often space stations are suggested).

Commentators also read into the Hopi teachings predictions of twentieth-century events. The phrase about “three great powers – of the Sun, the swastika and red” was linked with the Second World War, and the words about a brother who would bring the symbol of the Sun and cause an explosion that shakes the Earth – with the atomic bomb. In some interpretations the explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the later nuclear tests are seen as the beginning of a great trial for humankind.

A choice, not a verdict

Although the Hopi prophecies speak of destruction, their most important message is not fear. According to the teachings, there is another way beside the path of destruction: it is up to people whether they are guided solely by reason, or also by the heart and respect for the Earth. In the years before 2012 many New Age writers linked these teachings with the expectation of a leap in consciousness and a “transition to the Fifth World”. Whatever such interpretations may say, Hopi tradition remains above all a story about human responsibility for the world we live in.

First published (Polish original): 27 December 2009. Written by astrologers and esoteric specialists working with our editorial team; edited and translated for HOROSCOP.SPACE. © All rights reserved.