Night of the Red Sky
The Prophetic Vision of 'Grandfather'
by Tom Brown, Jr © 1991

A number of people can predict the future, but few get the timing
correct. "Grandfather" was an Apache wise man and scout, named Stalking
Wolf, who grew up outside white man's influence. His many predictions
not only came true in the manner he predicted, but also when he predicted.

Tom Brown, Jr learned extensively from Grandfather for twenty years,
from their first meeting when Tom was seven years old. Stalking Wolf was
the real-life grandfather of Tom's best friend at the time. The
following excerpt from Tom's book, The Quest, tells of Grandfather's
predictions for all of mankind.

Looking back, I can clearly see that Grandfather's prophecies, unlike
anything else, had the greatest influence on my life. At the time they
had little more effect than to frighten me and cause me to sit up and
take notice. It wasn't until after his prophecies began to come true
that their haunting impact began to affect me in a very profound way.

More than any other person-prophet, religious leader or psychic-I have
ever met, Grandfather's prophecies, on both a major and a minor scale,
came true exactly at the time he prophesied and exactly as he
prophesied. With that record, I could not help but feel the impact of
these prophecies on my life.

Grandfather could foretell the future with tremendous accuracy. Not only
could he precisely tell us what would happen in the next moment, day,
week or year, but with the same accuracy he could predict the possible
futures for ten years and more away. It was not long before I began to
keep detailed records of his predictions, along with other notes I kept
on survival skills, tracking, awareness and things of the Spirit. I
received from Grandfather hundreds of personal, minor predictions, and
well over half have since come true. Along with the minor personal
prophecies was a list of 103 major predictions, of which, to date, over
65 have become absolutely true, not only in time and place but also in
the exact order in which they were predicted to happen.

Grandfather said that there was not future, only possible futures. The
'now' was like the palm of a hand, with each finger being the possible
future, and, as always, one of the futures was always the most powerful,
the way that the main course of events would surely take us. Thus his
predictions were of the possible future, which meant that he always left
a choice.

"If a man could make the right choices," he said, "then he could
significantly alter the course of the possible future. No man, then,
should feel insignificant, for it only takes one man to alter the
consciousness of mankind through the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things. In
essence, one thought influences another, then another, until the thought
is made manifest throughout all of Creation. It is the same thought, the
same force, that causes an entire flock of birds to change course, as
the flock then has one mind."

Out of all the personal and major prophecies that Grandfather foretold,
there are four that stand out above all the rest. It is these four that
mark the destruction of man and life on Earth, as we know it to exist
now. Yet Grandfather said that we could still change things, even after
the first two prophecies came true, but that there could be no turning
back after the third.

Now that we have gone well past the second prophecy, danger and
destruction are very apparent, and our only recourse is to work harder
to change what has possibly become the inevitable. The urgency that I
feel-now, more than ever-is a direct result of the second, impossible
prophecy coming true. It is the reason that I teach, sometimes with a
certain desperation, and constantly with the sense that we are quickly
running out of time.

I should have worked harder and with that same desperation at a much
earlier date, but, like the rest of mankind, it took a strong message to
get me motivated. I should have known that these things he prophesied
would some day come true, because his personal, minor predictions were
coming true daily.

He so accurately foretold of Rick's death on a white horse, that I would
some day teach, that I would have a son-and that taking him into the
Pine Barrens for the first time would forever change my life. He
predicted the formation of my school, my books, my family, and even the
horrible mistakes I would make as I tried to live within society.

Yet with all of this coming true on a daily basis, I simply would not
believe or accept that the major prophecy of man's destruction would
come true, and its reality hit me hard. It was then that the urgency
made itself known.

I remember so vividly the "night of the four prophecies"-as I have
become accustomed to calling that night when Grandfather first made us
aware of their possibility. We had been with Grandfather for five years
at the time and were accustomed to his prophecies and their accuracy.

Our ability to understand the things of the Spirit world were as sure as
our ability to survive and track. Very little of what society calls "the
paranormal" shocked us any more, because miracles were part of our
everyday existence. Grandfather was a living miracle, and so many of the
things that he did on a daily basis, sometimes unconsciously, would be
considered miraculous by most. Yet as savvy as we were spiritually, the
night of the four prophecies shocked us like nothing we had ever
experienced before.

We had been hiking all day without much of a break, making our way to a
place where we were going to camp, atop a small hill that I now call
Prophecy Hill. It was a typical midsummer hike: hot, humid and dusty,
with no water available along our entire travel route. As usual, we
still took time to stop frequently or take side trips to explore various
areas along our route. The adventure and exploration kept us fresh and
eager, making the fatigue, heat and thirst hardly factors.

Many times along the way, Grandfather would stop and teach us-not
physical lessons of survival, tracking or awareness, but lessons dealing
with the awareness of Spirit. Very often he would discuss the future
and, almost as frequently, the past-the distant past.

At one point we stopped along the deer trail we were travelling and
followed Grandfather through some heavy brush. The trees and shrubs were
far different than those throughout the rest of the Pine Barrens, and I
immediately knew this place as an old homestead or town of some sort.
Even though the buildings had long since rotted away, the plants and
trees still marked the spot where civilisation had once stood. Passing
through several very thick areas, we finally entered a grove of very
tall, old sycamore trees. From their branches and up their trunks ran
huge vines, the kind one might imagine finding in a jungle. In fact, the
whole place looked like a jungle-so out of place from the pine, oak and
blueberry that is typical in the Pine Barrens. As we sat down, a deeper
spiritual sense of awareness came over me, and it was then that I
noticed the gravestones.

This was the place of a very old and probably long-forgotten cemetery,
possibly belonging to the town that had once been here. The stones were
old; some lay flat on the ground and others stood upright, though none
was straight. Plants and bushes had overrun many of the stones, and I
could barely make out the markings on the stones. The weathering process
had worn away many of the names and dates, making them barely readable.

At once we were in awe, humbled and reverent in this place of death; at
the same time, we were amazed that Grandfather had found it so easily.
To my knowledge, none of us had been there before, nor had Grandfather
ever spoken of this graveyard. Yet for some reason he seemed to be drawn
to it, knowing that it was there on some unseen spiritual level, at
least unseen to us. I suspect now, as I look back, that he knew that it
would become a teaching lesson for us.

He walked over to a gravestone that was partially hidden by foxgrape
vines and gently pulled them away. After a long moment, he motioned us
to come over. We could barely make out the name on the grave or the
dates, but at the bottom was carved clearly: "12 years old".

Grandfather then spoke. "Who are these people; who is this boy? What did
they work for and what were their hopes, dreams and visions? Did they
just work physically or did they work for the things beyond the flesh,
for a grander purpose? Certainly they affected the
Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things, but did they really work to the best of
their ability to make things better for the future of their
grandchildren, or did they do nothing other than to perpetuate the myth
of society? Were they happy, joyous and filled with spiritual rapture,
or did they just lead lives of labour and mediocrity? And did this boy
live close to the Earth and the Creator, or did he just give up his
youth, his sense of adventure, to toil, as did his parents and their
parents before them? This boy was exactly your age, and I suspect he had
hopes and dreams much like yours. But this is his legacy, lying in a
forgotten grave."

"But, Grandfather," I said, "isn't it enough just to be happy and live
your life fully?"

After a long moment of silence, Grandfather answered. "It is not enough
that man be just happy in the flesh, but he must also be happy and
joyous in spirit. For without spiritual happiness and rapture, life is
shallow. Without seeking the things of the Spirit, life is half lived
and empty. And by spiritual life I do not mean just setting aside one
hour of one day of one week for worship, but to seek the things of the
spirit every moment of every day. I ask you, then: What did these people
do to seek spiritual enlightenment and rapture? Did they just give in to
a life that was little more than work? They were given a choice every
day of their lives-as you will be given a choice to seek the rapture of
the Spirit or to resign yourselves to a life of meaningless work. The
end result is always the same: forgotten graves and forgotten dreams of
forgotten people. It is not important that anyone notice or remember,
but that you work to touch God and affect in a positive way the
consciousness of the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things, thus bringing the
consciousness of man closer to the Creator."

We left the graveyard without a word and headed up to the campsite on
the hill. By the time we reached the camp, it had cooled off and the Sun
had long since set. As we built shelters and a fire and gathered food,
time seemed to fly by unnoticed, as my mind was thoroughly engrossed in
thoughts of the lessons in the graveyard. I wondered how much I might be
like that nameless dead boy in that forgotten grave. Was I just seeking
the flesh and not working hard enough in the things of the Spirit?

It was then that I realised the deeper lessons of what Grandfather was
trying to teach me. I realised then that I should live life as if I were
to die tomorrow, for that is what happened to that young boy. No one can
be assured of another day, but we must live each day fully, in flesh and
most of all in Spirit. It isn't important that anyone remember who we
were, but that we made a positive change in the consciousness of the
Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things, the life force of the Earth, and, in
doing so, find spiritual rapture and touch the Creator.

I sat by the fire after the work was done, relaxing, still deep in
thought about the boy in the graveyard. Grandfather sat at the far end
of the fire, his eyes closed, but I suspected that he was not sleeping.
In the firelight, his features appeared more that of a spirit than of
flesh. Quietly he leaned forward and answered the many questions I had
on my mind. At times, his ability to know what was on my mind was
unnerving, sometimes making me angry to think that he could know my
thoughts.

"Did you ever watch a flock of sandpipers on the beach, how they ebb and
flow with the tides, becoming at times not a gathering of individual
animals but one organism, moving as a unit together along the surf? When
they burst into flight, their cohesiveness is even more startling and
wondrous. At once they all will be flying in a certain direction, and
then in an instant the entire flock will turn simultaneously and take a
new direction.

"Studied closely, there is no one bird that makes the decision to turn,
but it seems to be a Spirit, a collective consciousness, that runs
through the flock instantly. When viewed from afar, the flock appears to
be one animal, one organism, one consciousness, governed by the
collective force and spirit of all the individuals. It is this same
consciousness that runs through man, Nature and the Earth-that which we
call the 'Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things', or the 'life force'.

"I suspect," he continued, "that it is but one bird that creates the
thought that turns the flock, and the one thought becomes immediately
manifested in all the others. The individual then transcends self and
becomes one with the whole. Thus, at once, the bird moves within the
flock and the flock moves within the bird. So, then, do not ask what you
can do to affect the life force in a positive way, for the same Spirit
that moves within the birds also moves within you. One person, one idea,
one thought can turn the flock of society away from the destructive path
of modern times. It is not a question as to whether we make a
difference, for we all make a difference, each of us in our own way. It
is the difference we make that is important."

"So if we live a life that is close to the Spirit, seek the spiritual
rapture of oneness, that will affect the outcome of life," I said. My
statement was more a question than a declaration.

"It is not enough," Grandfather said, "just to seek the things of the
Spirit on a personal level. To do so is selfish, and those who just seek
the spiritual realms for themselves are not working to change the Spirit
that moves through the consciousness of man. Instead they are running
away, hiding from their responsibility and using their wisdom for their
own glorification. Spiritual man must then work for a principle, a
cause, a Quest far greater than the glorification of self, in order to
affect the spirit that can change the course of man's destruction."

I sat for a long time in the quietude of the night, trying desperately
to understand what Grandfather had told me. In essence, it was not
enough to work for spiritual enlightenment for self, but to work for the
spiritual enlightenment of all of mankind. To work only for self, to
cloister oneself in the seeking of spiritual rapture, is to run from
this responsibility. What Grandfather was saying is that a spiritual
person must take the wisdom and philosophy of the Earth and bring it
back into modern society.

Grandfather spoke again. "Trying to live a spiritual life in modern
society is the most difficult path one can walk. It is a path of pain,
of isolation and of shaken faith, but that is the only way that our
Vision can become reality. Thus the true Quest in life is to live the
philosophy of the Earth within the confines of man. There is no church
or temple we need to seek peace, for ours are the temples of the
wilderness. There are no spiritual leaders, for our hearts and the
Creator are our only leaders. Our numbers are scattered; few speak our
language or understand the things that we live. Thus we walk this path
alone, for each Vision, each Quest, is unique unto the individual. But
we must walk within society or our Vision dies, for a man not living his
Vision is living death."

For a long time there was no other conversation. I retired into my own
thoughts and doubts. I did not want to live within society, for the
wilderness was my home, my love, my life and my spiritual rapture. I
could not see why a man could not live his Vision in the purity of
wilderness, away from the distractions of society. I could feel no
urgency or see any reason why I should take what I have learned back to
society.

Grandfather's voice shattered my thoughts. "The Earth is dying. The
destruction of man is close, so very close, and we must all work to
change that path of destruction. We must pay for the sins of our
grandfathers and grandmothers, for we have long been a society that
kills its grandchildren to feed its children. There can be no rest, and
we cannot run away; far too many in the past have run away. It is very
easy to live a spiritual life away from man, but the truth of Vision in
spiritual life can only be tested and become a reality when lived near
society."

"How do I know that we are so close to that destruction?" I asked.

"I had a Vision," Grandfather said. "It was a Vision of the destruction
of man. But man was given four warnings to that destruction, two of
which gave man a chance to change his ways and two of which would give
the children of the Earth time to escape the Creator's wrath."

"How will I know these warnings, these signs?" I asked.

Grandfather continued. "They will be obvious to you and those who have
learned to listen to the Spirit of the Earth; but to those who live
within the flesh and know only flesh, there is no knowing or
understanding. When these signs, these warnings and prophecies, are made
manifest, then you will understand the urgency of what I speak. Then you
will understand why people must not just work for their own spiritual
rapture but to bring that rapture to the consciousness of modern man."

The Four Signs

Grandfather had been wandering for several years and was well into his
forties when the Vision of the four signs was given to him. He had just
finished his third Vision Quest at the Eternal Cave when the Vision made
itself known. He had been seated at the mouth of the cave, awaiting the
rising Sun, when the spirit of the warrior appeared to him. He felt as
if he were in a state somewhere between dream and reality, sleep and
wakefulness, until the spirit finally spoke and he knew that it was not
his imagination. The spirit called Grandfather's name and beckoned him
to follow.

As Grandfather stood, he was suddenly transported to another world.
Again, he thought that he was dreaming, but his flesh could feel the
reality of this place; his senses knew that this was a state of abject
reality, but in another time and place.

The spirit warrior spoke to Grandfather. "These are the things yet to
come that will mark the destruction of man. These things you may never
see, but you must work to stop them and pass these warnings on to your
grandchildren. They are the possible futures of what will come if man
does not come back to the Earth and begin to obey the laws of Creation
and the Creator. There are four signs, four warnings, that only the
children of the Earth will understand. Each warning marks the beginning
of a possible future, and as each warning becomes reality, so too does
the future it marks."

With that, the spirit warrior was gone and Grandfather was left alone in
this strange, new world.

The First Sign

The world he was in was like nothing he had ever known. It was a dry
place with little vegetation. In the distance he saw a village, yet it
was made out of tents and cloth rather than from the materials of the
Earth. As he drew closer to the village, the stench of death overwhelmed
him and he grew sick. He could hear children crying, the moaning of
elders and the sounds of sickness and despair. Piles of bodies lay in
open pits awaiting burial, their contorted faces and frail frames
telling of death from starvation. The bodies appeared more like
skeletons than flesh, and children, adults and elders all looked the
same, their once dark-brown complexions now ash-grey. As Grandfather
entered the village, the horror of living starvation struck him deeper.
Children could barely walk, elders lay dying, and everywhere were the
cries of pain and fear. The stench of death and the sense of
hopelessness overwhelmed Grandfather, threatening to drive him from the
village.

It was then that an elder appeared to Grandfather, at first speaking in
a language that he could not understand. Grandfather realised, as the
elder spoke, that he was the spirit of a man-a man no longer of flesh,
but a man who had once walked a spiritual path, possibly a shaman of
this tribe. It was then that he understood what the old one was trying
to tell him.

The elder spoke softly. "Welcome to what will be called the 'land of
starvation'. The world will one day look upon all of this with horror
and will blame the famine on the weather and the Earth. This will be the
first warning to the world that man cannot live beyond the laws of
Creation, nor can he fight Nature. If the world sees that it is to blame
for this famine, this senseless starvation, then a great lesson will be
learned. But I am afraid that the world will not blame itself, but that
the blame will be placed on Nature. The world will not see that it
created this place of death by forcing these people to have larger
families. When the natural laws of the land were broken, the people
starved, as Nature starves the deer in winter when their numbers are too
many for the land to bear."

The old one continued. "These people should have been left alone. They
once understood how to live with the Earth, and their wealth was
measured in happiness, love and peace. But all of that was taken from
them when the world saw theirs as a primitive society. It was then that
the world showed them how to farm and live in a less primitive way. It
was the world that forced them to live outside the laws of Creation and,
as a result, is now forcing them to die."

The old man slowly began to walk away, back to the death and despair. He
turned one last time to Grandfather, and said: "This will be the first
sign. There will come starvation before and after this starvation, but
none will capture the attention of the world with such impact as does
this one. The children of the Earth will know the lessons that are held
in all of this pain and death, but the world will only see it as drought
and famine, blaming Nature instead of itself."

With that, the old one disappeared, and Grandfather found himself back
at the mouth of the Eternal Cave.

[Author's note: This is the great African famine that inspired the Bob
Geldof "We are the World" Live Aid relief effort.]

Grandfather lay back on the ground, thinking about what he had
witnessed. He knew that it had been a Vision of the possible future and
that the spirit of the warrior had brought him to it to teach him what
could happen. Grandfather knew that people all over the Earth were now
starving-but why was this starvation so critical, so much more important
than all the rest, even more important than the starvation that was
taking place now?

It was then that Grandfather recalled that the tribal elder had said
that the entire world would take notice, but that the world would not
learn the lessons of what the death and famine were trying to teach. The
children would die in vain.

Grandfather looked out across the barren land that surrounded the
Eternal Cave to try to re-establish the reality of his 'now'. He said
that it was still hard to discern between waking reality and the world
of Vision, but he felt that he was back into his time and place.

He told me that the Eternal Cave was always a place to find Visions of
the possible and probable futures, and it was not uncommon for the
searcher to have a Vision at the mouth of the cave, not just inside.

In a state of physical and emotional exhaustion, Grandfather fell into a
deep sleep, but it was in this sleep that the warrior spirit appeared to
him again and brought the remainder of the first sign to completion.

In his dream, the spirit spoke to Grandfather. "It is during the years
of the famine, the first sign, that man will be plagued by a disease, a
disease that will sweep the land and terrorise the masses. The white
coats [doctors/scientists] will have no answers for the people, and a
great cry will arise across the land. The disease will be born of
monkeys, drugs and sex. It will destroy man from inside, making common
sickness a killing disease. Mankind will bring this disease upon himself
as a result of his life, his worship of sex and drugs, and a life away
from Nature. This, too, is a part of the first warning; but, again, man
will not heed this warning and he will continue to worship the false
gods of sex and the unconscious spirit of drugs." [Author's note: This
is presumably a reference to AIDS.]

The spirit continued. "The drugs will produce wars in the cities of man,
and the nations will arise against those wars, arise against that
killing disease. But the nations will fight in the wrong way, lashing
out at the effect rather than the cause. It will never win these wars
until the nation, until society, changes its values and stops chasing
the gods of sex and drugs. It is then, in the years of the first sign,
that man can change the course of the probable future. It is then that
he may understand the greater lessons of the famine and the disease. It
is then that there can still be hope. But once the second sign of
destruction appears, the Earth can no longer be healed on a physical
level. Only a spiritual healing can then change the course of the
probable futures of mankind."

With that, the warrior spirit let Grandfather fall into a deep and
dreamless sleep, allowing him to rest fully before any more Vision was
wrought upon him.

The Second Sign

Grandfather awoke at the entrance of the cave once again, the memory of
the warrior spirit still vivid in his mind, the spirit's words becoming
part of his soul.

When Grandfather looked out across the landscape, all had changed. The
landscape appeared drier; there was no vegetation to be seen, and
animals lay dying. A great stench of death arose from the land, and the
dust was thick and choking, the intense heat oppressive. Looking
skyward, the Sun seemed to be larger and more intense; no birds or
clouds could be seen, and the air seemed thicker still. It was then that
the sky seemed to surge and huge holes began to appear. The holes tore
with a resounding, thunderous sound, and the very Earth, rocks and soil
shook.

The skin of the sky seemed to be torn open like a series of gaping
wounds, and through these wounds seeped a liquid that seemed like the
oozing of an infection, a great sea of floating garbage, oil and dead
fish. It was through one of these wounds that Grandfather saw the
floating bodies of dolphins, accompanied by tremendous upheavals of the
Earth and violent storms. As he held fast to the trembling Earth, his
eyes fell from the sky, and all about him, all at once, was disaster.
Piles of garbage reached to the skies, forests lay cut and dying,
coastlines were flooded and storms grew more violent and thunderous.
With each passing moment, the Earth shook with greater intensity,
threatening to tear apart and swallow Grandfather.

Suddenly the Earth stopped shaking and the sky cleared. Out of the dusty
air walked the warrior spirit, who stopped a short distance from
Grandfather. As Grandfather looked into the face of the spirit, he could
see that there were great tears flowing from his eyes, and each tear
fell to the Earth with a searing sound.

The spirit looked at Grandfather for a long moment, then finally spoke.
"Holes in the sky."

Grandfather thought for a moment, then, in a questioning, disbelieving
manner, said, "Holes in the sky?"

And the spirit answered. "They will become the second sign of the
destruction of man. The holes in the sky and all that you have seen
could become man's reality. It is here, at the beginning of this second
sign, that man can no longer heal the Earth with physical action. It is
here that man must heed the warning and work harder to change the future
at hand. But man must not only work physically, he must also work
spiritually, through prayer, for only through prayer can man now hope to
heal the Earth and himself."

There was a long pause as Grandfather thought about the impossibility of
holes in the sky. Surely Grandfather knew that there could be a
spiritual hole, but a hole that the societies of the Earth could notice
would hardly seem likely.

The spirit drew closer and spoke again, almost in a whisper. "These
holes are a direct result of man's life, his travel, and of the sins of
his grandfathers and grandmothers. These holes, the second sign, will
mark the killing of his grandchildren and will become a legacy to man's
life away from Nature. It is the time of these holes that will mark a
great transition in mankind's thinking. They will then be faced with a
choice-a choice to continue following the path of destruction, or a
choice to move back to the philosophy of the Earth and a simpler
existence. It is here that the decision must be made, or all will be lost."

Without another word, the spirit turned and walked back into the dust.

The Third Sign

Grandfather spent the next four days at the cave entrance, though for
those four days nothing spoke to him, not even the Earth. He said that
it was a time of great sorrow, of aloneness, and a time to digest all
that had taken place.

He knew that these things would not appear in his lifetime, but they had
to be passed down to the people of the future with the same urgency and
power with which they had been delivered to him. But he did not know how
he would explain these unlikely events to anyone. Surely the elders and
shamans of the tribes would understand, but not society, and certainly
not anyone who was removed from the Earth and Spirit.

He sat for the full four days, unmoving, as if made of stone, and his
heart felt heavy with the burden he now carried.

It was at the end of the fourth day that the third Vision came to him.
As he gazed out onto the landscape towards the setting Sun, the sky
suddenly turned to a liquid and then turned blood-red. As far as his
eyes could see, the sky was solid red, with no variation in shadow,
texture or light. The whole of Creation seemed to have grown still, as
if awaiting some unseen command. Time, place and destiny seemed to be in
limbo, stilled by the bleeding sky. He gazed for a long time at the sky,
in a state of awe and terror, for the red colour of the sky was like
nothing he had ever seen in any sunset or sunrise. The colour was that
of man, not of Nature, and it had a vile stench and texture. It seemed
to burn the Earth wherever it touched. As sunset drifted to night, the
stars shone bright red, the colour never leaving the sky, and everywhere
the cries of fear and pain were heard.

Again, the warrior spirit appeared to Grandfather, but this time as a
voice from the sky. Like thunder, the voice shook the landscape. "This,
then, is the third sign, the night of the bleeding stars. It will become
known throughout the world, for the sky in all lands will be red with
the blood of the sky, day and night. It is then, with this sign of the
third probable future, that there is no longer hope. Life on the Earth
as man has lived it will come to an end, and there can be no turning
back, physically or spiritually. It is then, if things are not changed
during the second sign, that man will surely know the destruction of the
Earth is at hand. It is then that the children of the Earth must run to
the wild places and hide. For when the sky bleeds fire, there will be no
safety in the world of man."

Grandfather sat in shocked horror as the voice continued.

"From this time, when the stars bleed, to the fourth and final sign,
will be four seasons of peace [that is, one year]. It is in these four
seasons that the children of the Earth must live deep in the wild places
and find a new home, close to the Earth and the Creator. It is only the
children of the Earth that will survive, and they must live the
philosophy of the Earth, never returning to the thinking of man. And
survival will not be enough, for the children of the Earth must also
live close to the Spirit. So tell them not to hesitate if and when this
third sign becomes manifest in the stars, for there are but four seasons
to escape."

Grandfather said that the voice and red sky lingered for a week, and
then were gone as quickly as they were manifest.

The Fourth Sign

He did not remember how many days he'd spent at the mouth of the cave,
nor did it make a difference, for he had received the Vision he had come
for.

It was in his final night at the Eternal Cave that the fourth Vision
came to Grandfather, this time carried by the voice of a young child.

The child said, "The fourth and final sign will appear through the next
ten winters [that is, ten years] following the night that the stars will
bleed. During this time, the Earth will heal itself and man will die.
For those ten years, the children of the Earth must remain hidden in the
wild places, make no permanent camps, and wander to avoid contact with
the last remaining forces of man. They must remain hidden, like the
ancient scouts, and fight the urge to go back to the destruction of man.
Curiosity could kill many."

There was a long silence, until Grandfather spoke to the child spirit,
asking, "And what will happen to the worlds of man?"

There was another period of silence until finally the child spoke again.
"There will be a great famine throughout the world, like man cannot
imagine. Waters will run vile, the poisons of man's sins running strong
in the waters of the soils, lakes and rivers. Crops will fail, the
animals of man will die, and disease will kill the masses. The
grandchildren will feed upon the remains of the dead, and all about will
be the cries of pain and anguish. Roving bands of men will hunt and kill
other men for food, and water will always be scarce, getting scarcer
with each passing year. The land, the water, the sky will all be
poisoned, and man will live in the wrath of the Creator. Man will hide
at first in the cities, but there he will die. A few will run to the
wilderness, but the wilderness will destroy them, for they had long ago
been given a choice. Man will be destroyed, his cities in ruin, and it
is then that the grandchildren will pay for the sins of their
grandfathers and grandmothers."

"Is there then no hope?" Grandfather asked.

The child spoke again. "There is only hope during the time of the first
and second signs. Upon the third sign, the night of the bleeding, there
is no longer hope, for only the children of the Earth will survive. Man
will be given these warnings; if unheeded, there can be no hope, for
only the children of the Earth will purge themselves of the cancers of
mankind, of mankind's destructive thinking. It will be the children of
the Earth who will bring a new hope to the new society, living closer to
the Earth and Spirit."

Then all was silent, the landscape cleared and returned to normal, and
Grandfather stepped from the Vision. Shaken, he said that he had
wandered for the next season, trying to understand all that had been
given to him, trying to understand why he had been chosen.

Grandfather had related the story to me in great detail during that
night of the four prophecies. I don't think that any event had been left
out, and his emotions and thoughts were such that he actually relived it
for us. Thus the power of his Vision became part of our spirit, our
driving force, and a big part of our fears.

I sat for a long time up on the hill. The fire had gone out, and all had
retired to sleep for the night. Creation seemed to be at a standstill,
awaiting this darkest part of the night to pass by. I felt alone and
vulnerable, as if all of Creation were scrutinising my every thought.

Grandfather had this Vision some time in the 1920s.

About the Author:
Tom Brown, Jr has called the wilderness home for most of his life. In
1978 he wrote his first book, The Tracker (an autobiography), and
founded the Tracker School where he teaches courses in survival skills
such as tracking, nature awareness and ancient Earth philosophy. He has
since written another 15 books, including Tom Brown's Field Guide to
Wilderness Survival as well as The Search, The Vision, The Quest, The
Journey, Grandfather and Awakening Spirits. For details on tracking
courses and how to obtain Tom's books, visit The Tracker, Inc. website
at www.trackerschool.com.

13 MOON MISSION / NATURE'S CALENDAR / PURCHASE / RESOURCES / WORLD PEACE MOVEMENT /
TESTIMONIALS / THE PROPHECY / FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS