Many might be worried about portents in the heavens, but we are not. What we need to know has been told us. But we do like to note whether events in the natural world might 'speak of' things observed in the political world.

There has been much going on in the political 'heavens'. The most dramatic event is that of the pope resigning on Monday 11th February.

Their neighbours explained that the 265th pope had just become the first pontiff in 598 years to resign.

Only a handful of the Pope’s most senior aides had been given any warning of what was to come. Among them was Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, who said it had come as a “bolt from the blue” when he was told. Telegraph

Indeed there was a bolt from the blue sent in the form of a vivid lightning strike in a subsequent storm at the Basilica venue at the Vatican at 6pm which is the beginning of the next Jewish day. bbc Therefore the lightning is not about the resignation but what is to happen next. The next pope is therefore the 266th. We are told six is the number of a man (Rev. 13:18). Lightning is associated with judgement (Zech 9:14, Psa 144:6).

Image from Alesandro Di Meo/ Reuters (BBC)

Just how far his influence reached is shown in that President Obama and even Britain's PM David Cameron sent a message.

But is there more? If this was not dramatic enough, at about this time those that watch the heavens began watching for an approaching asteroid: 2012 DA14.

An asteroid passed relatively close to Earth around 2:24 p.m. ET Friday. As scientists had been predicting all week, it did not hit.

Stargazers in Australia, Asia and Eastern Europe could see the asteroid with the aid of a telescope or binoculars. At the Gingin Observatory in Australia, the asteroid appeared as a bright white streak .. CNN

While some stargazers were looking in the direction of this asteroid in the South and Eastern Europe, on the Friday morning of the 15th February an unexpected blazing star falls to earth.

A synagogue in Siberia was lightly damaged by a meteorite that shot across the sky in central Russia on Friday, sending fireballs crashing to Earth, smashing windows, setting off car alarms and injuring about 1,000 people.

On Friday, Rabbi Yechiel Michel Levitin, director of the Or Avner Jewish day school in Chelyabinsk, a city located 1,000 miles east of Moscow, was quoted by an Israeli website as saying congregants heard a huge explosion during morning prayers followed by a bright flash that lit up the sky. .. the Chelyabisnk synagogue's stained-glass windows,.. he said were shattered by the shock waves...

Residents on their way to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt a shockwave, according to a Reuters correspondent in the industrial city.

The meteorite raced across the horizon, leaving a long white trail in its wake which could be seen as far as 200 km (125 miles) away in Yekaterinburg. Car alarms went off, windows shattered and mobile phones worked only intermittently.

Chelyabinsk city authorities said about 1,000 people sought medical help, mainly for light injuries caused by flying glass.

"I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as if it was day," said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg in the Urals Mountains."I felt like I was blinded by headlights," he said. JPost

Another report,

One of the locations to sustain damage was the local synagogue. Chabad Rabbi Yechiel Lotan recounted the event: "I was at home when all of a sudden there was a massive flash of light followed by a huge explosion. I've never heard anything like that before...I ran to the window and saw a huge ball of fire in the air. I immediately called the synagogue and the people attending the morning prayer service told me that all the windows virtually exploded. Thank God no one was hurt."

Another Chelyabinsk resident, Valya Kazakov, said some elderly women in his neighborhood started crying out that the world was ending. YNet

Is the world ending?

Some might now start trotting out Revelation.

And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. (Rev 8:10-11)

So let us consider, who and what and when. If each picture symbol is given event spacing and event began to occur as John was told “shortly” ( Rev 1:1 & 22:6), or not long after John's era, then there has been one event about every 100 years. If this was literal some truly weird things will happen, as a meteor cannot pollute water in that way. However, if the natural is a symbol for the 'political' it makes sense.

We know stars are great people. One man was to come from rule in the political 'heavens' suddenly like a blazing meteor conquering all in his path and so affect the people of one third of the 'river' and mountain spring district of the Roman Empire (see context). Such a 'star', a great conqueror, could indeed make many people's lives bitter. Many know of such a star by name. A famous man. His name was Attila the Hun, and his rule brought only calamity as 'wormwood' might also be translated. He had power, already a large empire, and treaties with the Roman power which placed him in the political heavens. Then he sought yet greater power by attacking from his base in Hungary over the Volga and pillaging (often destroying) settlements along the rivers of Europe, along the Danube, then the Nisava, which at the time were places of commerce. His power became immense by doing this, but nothing much was left behind. They began invading in 440, again in 443, 447 and 452. In the 443 campaign apart from the damage they did they imposed a heavy tribute on the Roman Emperor. In the next campaign Venice was established in the lagoon because he destroyed utterly as he invaded Italy. It seems he may have stopped in 452 as Italy had a famine and could not support his troops. For a very short time, less than 12 years, he blazed and burnt along the rivers of the Roman Empire, like a meteor, but his destructive power and the calamity be brought along those rivers was, and is, legendary.

Then there is a second star in Revelation,

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. (Rev 9:1-3)

One might imagine a meteor releasing locusts as super scorpions, but such a thing would defy all that is known about thing falling form heaven and the behaviour of all the animals, even during the 10 plagues on Egypt. However if each part has a political counter-part, we see another star, a great and powerful person, falling from political heavens to earth and there coming through the deepest place on earth, though the Middle East, to then affect what was left of the Roman Empire. A lot is said about the type of people that were like these 'locust-scorpions'. It is famous that it was the Islamic hordes who brought gun powder. See how that is that the smoke of gun powder that darkens the sky? And who is their star, still famous, still well known? In a very short time Mahomet who had been a star, who fell out with the powers that were in Arabia, gained control. He opened the political 'pit' which is the Levant (it still is, as it is the bridgehead of the 3 continents) the 'deepest' place on earth. It was his commander Abu-Bakr who lead the hordes, like locusts, coming out from the smoke of their cannon. They 'stung' what was left of the Roman Empire. We use the word 'stung' to mean, both a literal and figurative hurt.

Two cases where the 'stars' that fall from heaven, like burning meteors, match as a metaphor for truly terrible power wielded in the hand of one person for a short burst of time. Though Meteors fall we might speak of 'a meteoric rise to power'

The world didn't end. Both passages indicate that things continue. When we see a bright 'star' like object that falls like it did in Russia, and know that it cam with such blinding light and noise we can wonder if perhaps there is yet to be another political 'star', not perhaps in the order of the previous, but one capable of shattering 'political glass'. Someone who is as bright as the political sun, as great ruler, but burns themselves out as they go.

Screen Capture from dash camera via SMH

More on the meteor

It was described as being a very bright light, as if it was summer in winter.

Alla Yeryomicheva, a blogger in Chelyabinsk, wrote that she was in her apartment when the dark sky suddenly grew as bright as “a July afternoon.” She looked out the window and saw the contrails but realized they were puffier and more ragged than those a plane would make.

“No sound,” she wrote. “And I thought how very strange . . . and then bang! Several times. Our windows and balconies were closed, but not tightly, and they swept open and everything that was on the windowsills was thrown into the middle of the room.” Washington Post

The event occurred about 9am on a clear morning. It is thought that the damage and noise it seems was mostly caused by the sonic boom when the object entered the earth's atmosphere, though possibly some fragments fell and damaged the roof of the zinc factory.

A meteor that exploded in the skies above Russia's Ural Mountains was the largest since the Tunguska blast in Siberia in 1908 and released about 33 times the energy of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

Before hitting the Earth's atmosphere on Friday, the object was about 17 metres in size and had a mass of about 10,000 tonnes, NASA said. Russian scientists offered vastly different statistics, saying the meteor weighed about 10 tonnes.

the Chelyabinsk meteor hit the atmosphere at a speed of 18 kilometres per second (40,000 miles per hour) and took 32.5 seconds to break apart 15 kilometres to 25 kilometres above the Russian city, according to NASA. SMH

It was like a great explosion;

The meteor, which weighed about 10 tonnes and may have been made of iron, entered Earth's atmosphere and broke apart 30-50 kilometres above ground, according to Russia's Academy of Sciences. The energy released when it entered the Earth's atmosphere was equivalent to a few kilotonnes, the academy said, the power of a small atomic weapon exploding

The strike is the most stunning cosmic incident above Russia since the 1908 Tunguska Event, in which a colossal blast most scientists blame on an asteroid or a comet levelled trees across a stretch of Siberia.

Scientists at US space agency NASA estimated that the amount of energy released in the atmosphere on Friday was about 30 times greater than the force of the nuclear bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II. SMH

So great:

The powerful blast was picked up by 11 out of 45 infra-sound stations of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) network. The organization’s stations are designed to track atomic blasts around the globe. INN

Some saw it as a sign, but we are not too sure they understood what it was a sign of,

Of course, a meteor streaking in unbidden from space on an otherwise normal day to shower destruction on a city of more than 1 million was unnerving enough on its own.

It was “the Lord’s message to humanity,” said Feofan, the Russian Orthodox metropolitan of ­Chelyabinsk and Zlatoust, in a statement reported by the RIA Novosti agency.

“From the scriptures, we know that the Lord often sends people signs and warnings via natural forces,” he said. “The meteorite is a reminder that we live in a fragile and unpredictable world.” Washington Post

Just like Attila, and Mahomet, nobody in their day saw them coming.

Nobody saw it coming

A United Nations team met in Vienna last week to come up with recommendations on how best to track, and someday deflect or destroy, orbiting space rocks. SMH

The meteorite – which left more than 1,200 people injured – was undetected until it hit the atmosphere.

"I'm not aware of anyone who saw this coming," Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Operations Centre in Germany, said.http://rt.com/news/meteor-explosion-chelyabinsk-tunguska-313/

Midmorning today, near the city of Chelyabinsk in western Siberia, a meteor came in from the northeast. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/02/russian_meteor_why_didn_t_we_know_it_was_coming.html

There was a massive cosmic co-incidence, as people were watching for an asteroid at the time.

[the asteroid] actually approached the vicinity of earth from the south. Now this [the meteorites] struck Russia, which of course is in the northern hemisphere, so it is extremely unlikely to be able to connect the two things. (Dr Lowry http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/15/meteorite-explodes-over-russian-urals-live-updates

Prof Alan Fitzsimmons, of the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast, said there was "almost definitely" no connection. "One reason is that 2012 DA14 is approaching Earth from the south, and this object hit in the northern hemisphere," he told BBC News."This is literally a cosmic coincidence, although a spectacular one." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21468116

What might a shooting star be a metaphor for politically? In the South, President Obama is making news at this time as he is to visit Israel. But everyone knows he will not serve again. He is a phenomena in the heavens, but just passing by, to be watched in wonder. While watching him, the world forgot to watch the North.

Where the Meteor is seen,

Now the place itself. Chelyabinsk was established in 1763 as a outpost at the site of a fortress Chelyaba. It served as a centre for the construction of the trans-siberian railway. From the 1930's it became a centre for industry being nicknamed 'Tankograd' for the number of tanks made during WW2. Since then it was non-accessible for foreigners as it was a place for nuclear and conventional arms testing until 1992. Thus we might note that this place is part of the engine room for Russian power. The year 1992 is the time Russia lost its satellite countries.

While the world has been distracted by events in the South, the Russian President Putin has been making his plan clearer, to those who wish to see. On the 14^th, the eve of the meteor,

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned foreign-funded non-government organizations against meddling in the country’s affairs.

Putin also angrily lashed out at recent U.S. criticism of the Russian-led post-Soviet alliances

Speaking at a meeting with top officials of the main KGB successor agency, Putin mentioned what he described as “recent nervous statements about integration processes in the former Soviet lands.”

While Putin didn’t name any names, he appeared to refer to a statement by former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said in December, while still in the job, that Russian-led regional alliances represent an attempt to restore the Soviet empire.

Putin has described the existing economic and security groupings of ex-Soviet nations as precursors to a stronger Eurasian Union, which he pledged to form by 2015. He insisted the new alliance would help Russia and its neighbors boost economic efficiency and compete more successfully in global markets.

Putin said Thursday that efforts at closer economic and political integration between Russia and its neighbors “can’t be stopped by shouts or calling down.” He told officials of the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, they must be prepared to thwart foreign attempts to derail the integration plans.

“They may use various instruments of pressure, including mechanisms of the so-called ‘soft power,’” he said. “The sovereign right of Russia and its partners to build and develop its integration project must be safely protected.”

Leading Russian NGOs have vowed to ignore the bill, which also allows an unlimited number of inspections and checks that could paralyze the activities of NGOs.

Putin on Thursday strongly defended the bill in language that reflected the Kremlin’s view of NGOs as an instrument of Western pressure. “No one has the monopoly of speaking on behalf of the entire Russian society, let alone the structures directed and funded from abroad and thus inevitably serving foreign interests,” he said. “Any direct or indirect meddling in our internal affairs, any forms of pressure on Russia, on our allies and partners is inadmissible.”

While Putin avoided direct reference to the U.S., FSB director Alexander Bortnikov said, according to Russian news agencies, that Washington and its allies last year “raised geopolitical pressure on Russia, whom they continue to view as a major rival in the international arena.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russias-putin-warns-ngos-against-meddling-in-russias-affairs/2013/02/14/c80bb10e-769e-11e2-b102-948929030e64_story.html

When you ask the Babylon translator what Челяб (Chelyab) means it gives “foreign countries.” This is precisely where the great light of the meteor-like 'star' ruler will have effect.

On the Friday, the day of the Meteor, there is more events in relation to the worlds nations, the 'foreign countries'

No deaths were reported but President Vladimir Putin, who was due

to host finance ministry officials from the G20 nations in Moscow, and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev were quickly informed. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/15/meteorite-explosion-shakes-russian

Putin then addressed the G20 meeting of foreign nations finance ministers in Moscow

Russia has started its chairmanship in G20. President Vladimir Putin met with finance ministers of G20 member-states in the Kremlin on the 15th of February to discuss the transparency of capital markets, global economic development, boosting investment and creating jobs. The finance ministers and heads of central banks supported the agenda suggested by Russia for the period of its chairmanship at the unofficial forum of world key economies.

At the forthcoming G20 summit this summer Russia suggests focusing on the reform of the international financial system, world trade, investment, the energy sector and job creation. Vladimir Putin stressed that Russia would insist on more transparency of the global financial and economic system and consolidation of key players.

“It is impossible to fence ourselves off the world economic processes. No country is capable of withstanding contemporary challenges alone. All this imposes more requirements to the institutes of global management. We see the main task of G20 and Russia as its chairman in fine-tuning these institutes.” http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_02_17/G20-finance-ministers-agree-to-avoid-currency-war/

We might expect then that the meteor-like star has an effect on finance, or via finance. Much may be done with finance to conquer. At the same time Medvedev was also talking finance,

Speaking at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum, Mr Medvedev ...said the incident was proof that not only was Russia vulnerable to meteors, but "the entire planet".

The Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin,said Russia and other countries should develop a system to protect the planet from similar events in the future.

"I have already spoken of the need for some international initiatives relating to ... preventing a dangerous approach to Earth by objects of extraterrestrial origin," he said. http://www.newsroomamerica.com/story/347222/pm_medvedev_says_russian_meteorite_kef-2013_shows_entire_planet_vulnerable_.html

Though there is no evidence that the rest of the planet has been as vulnerable recently, as the striking events have occurred in Russia, one might extrapolate that the great 'star' that will fall shortly from the political heavens to earth in a blaze of glory will have global impact. According to Wikipedia,

The 2013 G-20 Russia summit will be the eighth meeting of the G-20 heads of government. The hosting venue will be the Constantine Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, September 5–6, 2013

This exactly co-incides with the Feast of Trumpets in 2013, which precedes Sukkot, the feast of Tabernacles.

As to precisely how unseen the danger of the great star falling over Russia, we table below the clueless praise from the South, finance minister from Australia [a G20 member]

Mr Swan said being in Moscow for the G20 underlined the fundamental shift in global economic power from West to East.

"Russia's G20 presidency, as both a European and an Asian power, confirms the G20's complete and genuine global reach and reinforced the shift from developed to developing nations."

Mr Swan said ...

"In particular, Russia's foresight in pushing for greater representation and collective action in April 2009 set the G20 up as the pre-eminent voice in global economic decision making," he said.

"Today, I bring the personal support of Australia's Prime Minister as Russia goes about the substantial task of hosting the G20." http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/02/16/18/00/swan-praises-russia-at-g20-opening

(Despite saying they wouldn't, this same government brought in a tax on carbon [a challenge to the Creator as shown by the 'Gore effect' and what happened after Copenhagen COP15], due to an agreement with the Greens, and recently announced the next election would be on Yom Kippur.)

The Jewish Synagogue in Chelybinsk, 'Foreign Countries' noted a miracle. At the flash of light one prayer-goer went out and so avoided being injured.. But the windows shattered. http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=303581&R=R5

The other big events over Russia were in 1908 and 1947. Both heralded interesting eras. See here 1908 , here 1947.

and here 1922

Between Tunguska [1908] and Chelyabinsk, Russia has witnessed at least three such events. In 1922, a meteor shower rained down on the village of Tsaryov near Volgograd in Southern Russia. Some 1.6 tons of meteor fragments were found there, with the biggest weighing almost 300 kilograms.

Siberia appears to be a real meteor magnet: In 1947, the Sikhote-Alin Mountains were hit by an iron meteor. An estimated 23 tons of extraterrestrial material were eventually found in the area. And just over a decade ago, another asteroid fell near the Siberian village of Vitim. The explosion of the Vitimsky meteorite was relatively weak, reaching only approximately 200 tons of TNT. rt.com

And what will be so interesting about this era, well while the dust is still settling and all the windows being replaced and the G20 meeting in Moscow, the cardinals in the Vatican, to the South, are lobbying to bring the election of the next pope forward. This was after they appointed a German to run their bank.

the Vatican says it could speed up the election of a new pontiff as lobbying for Pope Benedict's job intensified.

...battle between top cardinals over whose candidate should be appointed to head up the Vatican's scandal-hit bank. The choice of German financier Ernst Von Freyberg on Friday was seen by some as a snub to the Vatican's powerful No.2, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who had backed another candidate. SMH

In 2011 the Vatican who criticised groups such as the G20, and the..

current leadership system, focusing on groups like the G7 and G20, which exclude most of the world's nations.

The Vatican says that if a “world government” isn't created with the ability to cope with large-scale speculation, “A climate will generally progress with growing hostility and even violence to undermine the foundations of democratic institutions”. http://www.romereports.com/palio/vatican-proposes-a-world-government-to-stabilize-the-financial-system-english-5227.html#.USGjL_LfUjc

Let us not forget, the influential German Ratzinger (house singer), might be stepping down but he has not yet died, and he plans to be in the Vatican writing. According to the BBC he “spent 24 years in charge of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - once known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition” (bbc.co.uk). In addition, another German will run the Vatican bank. At the same time Russia will hold the G20 presidency.

The interesting point that connects the two events is just how much honour the Russian president has given the Russian Church and also the pope by visiting him in 2007. When the meteor struck Putin spoke of God sparing people, which fits with honouring the Church. The last time a pope stepped down it was to resolve a schism. And before that famously a Bendictine monk, Celestine V, resigned. It was this monk's body which was disturbed by the 2009 Aquila Earthquake. In such a way the natural earthquake is related to the political one which began to occur in the same land soon after. The butler revealed the power play, and it remains to be seen if the one with all the credentials of ancestry from the Holy Roman Empire comes to the fore, or not. It's likely their run will be blazing across the political and financial heavens and, also possibly, very short. In the end the Most High, the God of Israel rules in the kingdoms of men.

And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Rev 11:15)

For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory. (Isa 66:18)

But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. (Micah 4:12)

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