London - (Gnostic Mess): 'Lo and forsooth 'tis writ, on the 515th anniversary of my birth the Great Whore of Babylon's putrid suckling pig shall be smote and cast unto Hades to languish forever.'
Thus wrote fabled Renaissance alchemist, physician, astrologer and occultist Baron Philippus Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, aka Paracelsus, after studying the portents for 11 November 2008, 90th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice.
Grounded in the scholarly Hermetic, Neoplatonic, and Pythagorean philosophic traditions Paracelsus always seemed to have a bit of a nose for prediction.
And now the leitmotif of his 1536 magnum opus Prognostications ('WTF Nostradamus, A Charlatan!') faces its biggest curtain call.
"The venerable soothsayer calculated it would take exactly 515 years from the day of his birth for the toppling of a massive cold war evil," Dr V Smart, Gerwurtztraminer Professor of Parasitology commented today.
Internet spreadbetting index Aintgottaprayer.con goes 2/1FAV on the Puppet Monarch croaking on Armistice Day.
