What might the third Fatima letter be about?

14 May 2000

Just yesterday, May 13th, Pope John Paul II went on pilgrimage to Fatima in Portugal, where in 1917 three shepherd children saw apparitions of the Virgin Mary. At first the children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto and Lucia dos Santos were not believed and indeed for a short time the church authorities had them imprisoned whilst they were interogated. Today all this has changed and the pope himself went to Fatima to celebrate the beatification of the brother and sister, Jacinta and Francisco, who died whilst still children (Lucia, a Carmelite nun, is still alive at the ripe old age of 93).

What makes the Fatima apparitions interesting, over and beyond their spiritual significance for catholics, is that the when the children saw their apparition of the Virgin Mary she apparently made certain prophecies to them. Lucia later wrote these down in the form of three letters. The first of these propecied that Russia would become communist and spread this evil throughout the world. The second said that although the First World War would end (in 1917 it was still raging) a Second World War would follow. The contents of the third letter is still a mystery. It was opened by Pope Pius XII in 1960 and what it says has been kept secret from all except for his successors as popes and their clossest advisers.

Needless to say the secrecy surrounding the third Fatima letter has only served to fuel curiosity concerning its contents. Rumour has it that it contains prophecies relating to the end of the present age and possibly even to the second coming of Jesus Christ. On May 13th the popes representative revealed that amongst other things it contained, as many other people have suspected for some time, a prophecy relating to the attempt to assasinate John Paul II in 1981. This took place on May 13th—the anniversary of the first appearance of the Virgin at Fatima. As he collapsed to the ground, a bullet lodged in his stomach, the pope is said to have glimpsed a poster of ‘Our Lady of Fatima’. This in part explains why he has chosen 13th May 2000 (19 years after his near-death at the hands of an assasin and 83 years after the first apparitions) to make his pilgrimage to Fatima but is there more to it than this? In particular is there something special about 13th May? Surprising as it may seem, I believe this to be so and that it is directly connected with the real date for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and with what I call the "Opening of the stargate" on June 21st.

Now to explain all this we need to consider what we know about the timing of the first Easter. Proving an exact chronology for the life of Jesus is not easy but there are one or two anchor points contained in the Gospel narratives that can be used to give us a time-frame. The most important of these is a statement in John's Gospel, Chapter 2. Here, after Jesus has driven out the money-changers from the Temple of Jerusalem he says "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews reply, "It has taken forty-six years to build and this temple and, will you raise it up in three days". Now this converstion took place, according to the Gospel, near the beginning of his three year ministry. We know from other sources that King Herod began work on the temple in 20 BC so that forty-six years later brings us to 26 AD. The consensus opinion, as expressed by the Encyplopaedia Brittanica is that the crucifixion took place three years later in 29 AD.

Now given that this is the right year, finding the actual day of the crucifixion is not difficult. The Feast of the Passover (which is what was being celebrated with the Last Supper) was always held at the time of the first full-moon after the equinox. In 29 AD this would have been 14th April. The curcifixion would have taken place on the following day, 15th April. By means of the computer program, SKYGLOBE, we can see the positioning of the sun, stars and planets over Jerusalem at the very moment of execution at around 12 noon that day.

Two days later it would have been the day of the resurrection, the first Easter Sunday. The sun had now moved on a little:

From the crest of the Mount of Olives and much to the amazement of his apostles, Jesus Christ is supposed to have ascended to heaven.

We are told in the Acts of the Apostles that the Ascension took place on the fortieth day after his resurrection. This would place the sun over the outstretched hand of Orion, in what I call the "Shake-hands" position.

Now discussion of Orion may seem out of place in a Christian context but that this is not so can be seen from another legend, one concerning that curious saint: Christopher. According to this legend Christopher was a giant who though born a pagan was converted to Christianity. Wanting to serve his fellow man but knowing that he was not of a temperament to become a monk, he decided to become a ferryman. It then became his chosen task to carry pilgrims across a river, placing them up on his shoulders. One day a child appeared on the bank of the river and asked to be carried over the swollen stream. As usual Christopher hoisted him on his mighty shoulders and waded off into the river. As they went further and further across, so the child became heavier and heavier. When they eventually arrived at the opposite bank, the by now exhausted Christopher upbraided the child. "Had I carried the whole world on my shoulders it would not have been heavier!". The child replied: "You carried not just the world but its maker too". At that moment the giant realised he had carried the Christ on his shoulders and thereafter he was called "Christopher", meaning "Christ-bearer" in Latin.

The figure of Christopher the giant carrying the Christ, the source of light, over a flooded river is clearly an allegory. What it represents would seem to be the way Orion (also a giant) "carries" the sun over the Milky Way, the River of Heaven.

Curiously, it is was believed by the ancients that where the ecliptic (the pathway of the sun) crossed over the Milky Way, there was a gateway to Heaven. What I term a "stargate". The ascension of Jesus therefore took place on the very day the sun was positioned by the stargate. In this context Christopher represents the ferryman of the dead, taking the ascended Jesus Christ to the stargate: the entry point of Heaven.

Now all these events, true or mythical, took place a long time ago. Even so the Christian church continues to celebrate the Ascension as well as Easter as a very important feast.Finding the right day to celebrate Easter has in the past been a matter of serious debate. However it is normally determined by the lunar calendar. There is a complex formula for fixing the date but it corresponds to the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. This means that the date of Easter Sunday changes year by year. This year it was 23 April, which is very late, placing the sun in Aries instead of Pisces as it usually is.

Even so the sun was only at the beginning of Aries and not in the same place along the zodiac that it was at the time of the Ressurection in 29 AD. This is because of what is known as the precession of the equinoxes, a slow cycle caused by the "wobble" of the earth. The period of this cycle is roughly 26,000 and its effect is to move the first day of spring (the vernal equinox) back through the zodiac at a rate of one sign every 2160 years. At the time Jesus was alive the vernal equinox took place with sun near the end of the sign of Pisces, today it is close to its beginning and it will soon move into Aquarius. This means that these days the first Sunday after the equinox can never occur with the sun in the same position relative to the stars that it was on the day of the first resurrection. Thus looked at from a stellar, or sidereal, point of view, Easter never correponds with the true anniversary of the Resurrection.This may not seem very important but as we shall see, in terms of "signs in the sky" it has enormous repercussions.

To take this argument further, we have to ask ourselves what, from a stellar point of view, should be the correct date for celebrating the resurrection? The answer to this is when the sun is at the same position in the zodiac that it occupied on the day of the Resurrection. This, as we have seen, is 2º on from its position under the star delta-Aries. Now amazing as it may seem, this is precisely the place that the sun occupies on May 13th, the anniversary of the first apparition of the Virgin Mary at Fatima apparitions and the anniversary of failed assasination attempt on the pope (apparently prophecied in the third Fatima letter). It is also the day chosen by the pope to make his latest pilgrimage to Fatima and to announce the beatification of the two children: Jacinto and Francisco Marto.

Now all this may just be a coincidence but if so it is still quite an extraordinary piece of syncronicity for it means that the day esspecially revered by the pope, May 13th, is the real anniversary of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. However there is even more to it than this. As we have seen, Jesus is supposed to have appeared to his apostles during the forty days following his resurection. On the fortieth he is said to have ascended to Heaven. Counting forty days from Easter this year (23rd April) brings us to Ascension day (1st of June). Astronomically this has no meaning but if we take 13th May (the real Easter) as the first day and count to forty we come to 21st June. This is the correct day for the Ascension when the sun is by the stargate over the hand of Orion. However, because of the precessional cycle, these days the sun comes over Orion's hand at exactly the summer solstice. In other words the solstice today occurs when the sun is at the stargate position over the hand of Orion. Moreover, because of the special gathering of the planets that has been occurring this year, this year they are tightly grouped around the sun.

This to me symbolises the "Opening of the Stargate" and I believe it to mark the true beginning of the Age of Aquarius and the start of some very important changes on earth. What these might be I would not like to speculate but perhaps the second part of the Fatima letter, which the pope will not reveal until the faithful have been properly been prepared, concerns what is shortly to happen. Will it be the imminent return of Jesus Christ, coming back when the stars are in the same position they were when he left? WHo knows. What is clear is that we do not have long to wait in order to find out!

For further details concerning the stargate see other articles on this website by pressing the 'stargate' tab on the menu-bar.

Copyright © 2000 Adrian G Gilbert