Gifts of Heaven · Volume 3 · Chapter 362

Meteor in Prussia

20th December 1846

[1] You would like to know what this threefold sign(*1) meant, which was seen first in the form of a sword, then of an angle and finally a circle, in which form it then disappeared. See, this sign in the sky is really a very meaningful one. But nobody in the land where it appeared understands it. You will get to know it, however, in three periods soon to follow.

[2] Will you wage war with the sword? Yes, war – but what kind of war? Under that perspective you will think a political, learned, well-measured opposition? – Yes, that – but what kind?! And under the circle you will think a separation and containment from all sides? Yes, a separation and closure from all sides – but what kind?

[3] I tell you: Everything will be like cabbage and turnips with one another: war with feather-pens, war with empty pockets, war with thieves and robbers, of whom there are already twenty-five thousand in B., who only speak of scolding, stealing, cheating, burglary and robbery. This is a blessing from communism! Then really war with the sword, war with necessity, war with fornication, war with the devil, war with oneself, war with morality, war with humanity, war with religion, war with worldly wisdom and even war with death!

[4] When this real war will be fought, then one will take the square measure and will critically and mathematically measure everything that every person is allowed to have, to eat and to know, what he is allowed to speak and what he is allowed to write. That is the angle that excludes three quarters of the circle. That will be the learned proposition, which, however, will soon find a very mean opposition!

[5] Finally one will draw a circle and separate oneself and regard oneself as the only most perfect. That will be the circle!

[6] But then I will secretly take My freedom and put an end to such foolish circles. How? I know that! That will be the end of an extremely stupid song of this generation.

[7] But see you not how the northern polar bear grinds his teeth sharply on the ice? The seal's meat no longer tastes good to him. He has been longing for the cattle and sheep of the south. Soon, it will have ground his rear teeth into fangs from all the grinding. Then woe to the fat cattle and the fat sheep of the south! I tell you, their fat will curdle very much on the icy coasts of Siberia!

[8] Behold, he is one who is not afraid of goose quills and detests this weapon. But a lot of gold and silver, a lot of riders and a lot of shotguns and cannons are his business! Woe if he leaves his camp! I tell you, he will win through power and tyrannical generosity! And that soon – very soon, very soon, if the cattle and sheep of the south are not soon transformed into lions, i.e. in lions of wisdom and in lions of true inner strength.

[9] There you have your meteor! Just don't think that it all has to happen because I told you about it. But it can happen if these people do not change, but persist in their great folly! And only then do I say the inexorable and unalterable ‘Amen’.

Footnote (*1) On November 23, 1846, at 1 o'clock at night in Berlin, a beautiful meteor was observed in the sky. The sky was pure and starry. And the meteor, in the shape of a fiery sword, remained almost motionless for eight minutes, contracted into an angle and finally into a circle and disappeared. ('Stiria' No. 152, 4th year, 19 December 1846)