Prophecy 4

Key

The standard alphabet with A, B, and C out of place. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ becomes DEFGAHIJKLMNOPQRSCTUVWXYZB.

Translation

breitenwinner snakes surround him schermerhorn cloaked one approaches xan turn your back lowell county inform without convincing lascaux St. George’s armor androzani avoid further contact miladon pink trainer home rainbow canyon isti mirant stella agharta bepposax will return janus VI beware the pediatrician ritidian metropolis united charities qaidam chandler’s field windmill altamira.

Hidden Message

None.

Interpretation

breitenwinner

In Breitenwinner, Germany (1535), men claimed to have found a cave filled with huge bones... Bones they thought belonged to giants.

snakes surround him

According to Greek mythology, Hera, mother of Hercules, put snakes in baby Hercules' crib to try to kill him. Even though snakes surrounded him, he survived-- and killed the snakes, too! Clark, like Hercules, is truly a god among men. Chloe told this story in "Lineage."

schermerhorn

I'm not sure if this is the right "Schermerhorn," but John Schermerhorn signed a treaty removing the Cherokees from their land in 1835.

cloaked one approaches

In "Slumber" (blech), the villain was shrouded in a dark red cloak. However, in Season 4's "Spell," Countess Madeline Isobel Marguerite Thoreaux (I THINK that's her name, but it's so long that I probably messed it up somewhere along the line), Lana's ancestor (who happens to be her identical twin, just like her great aunt Louise!), wore a red cloak right before she was burned at the stake... There is yet another possibility, though. The Hopi Indians of Northern Arizona have legends of a red-cloaked one who will come to ‘purify’ the earth through violence-- and let's not forget Superman's famous red cape! One of the signs would be iron falling from the sky-- meteors? There are supposed to be several fires. The environment will also be thrown into disarray. Apparently, this Armageddon will be very violent, but it can be lessened, possibly averted, by changing our ways, much like Clark will change his and not follow Jor-El's plans.

xan

This is a Kryptonian city-state, located on the continent of Urrika, that warred with neighboring Ekon.

turn your back

lowell county

The county in which Smallville, Kansas is located.

inform without convincing

This is the motto of the Raelians, the cult that claims to know the true history of the world, seeks to build an interplanetary embassy in Israel, and claimed to have cloned the first human.

lascaux

Caves in Lascaux, France, contain 17,000-year-old cave paintings of animals that are similar to Smallville's very own Kawatche caves. In fact, when Clark showed Lex the Kawatche caves for the first time in "Skinwalker," Lex said, "Incredible. These may be more impressive than the caves at Lascaux." Major animals appearing in the paintings are red crows, black stags, yellow horses, and bulls. There's also a picture of a bird-headed man, which is a clear connection to the Egyptian god Ra, as well as a dying man-- Jonathan Kent, or perhaps Jor-El? Also, keep in mind that, in Season Four, Lana traveled to Paris, France, and Lex traveled to Egypt in search of Kryptonian artifacts.

St. George’s armor

In "Memoria," Lionel Luthor gave young Lex a box supposedly crafted from the armor of St. George. Lex gave this box to Clark and told him this story in Season One, and Clark gave it to Lana.

androzani

There's a Dr. Who movie called The Caves of Androzani. The plot involves two people getting sick and Dr. Who sacrificing himself to save the other guy. He's later reborn into another body and acts erratically. Is this a reference to Clark giving himself up to Jor-El to save Jonathan, only to return from the caves as Kal-El?

avoid further contact

miladon

The remains of Miladon, a giant sloth living 800 years ago, were found in a cave in Chile. Another cave reference. These creatures may have been killed off by early humans (or Kryptonians).

pink trainer home

This is totally just a guess, but Lex trained Lana (dubbed the Pink One) in martial arts at his home ("Precipice").

rainbow canyon

There are places called "Rainbow Canyon" in California, Washington, Utah, and Nevada. The Utah (and possibly the Nevada) canyons were destroyed by several floods and were the sites of a Mormon camp where a railroad war almost broke out. The California canyon used to be a verdant marsh, but is now a desert and contains fossilized remains of prehistoric animals. There was also a Rainbow Canyon on Krypton. So these two words are linked to floods, prehistoric animals, Krypton, and destruction-- major themes of the Prophecies.

isti mirant stella

The Bayeux tapestry depicts men marveling at Halley's comet. The caption above them reads isti mirant stella, or "they see the star." The Kawatche saw the missing star in the wolf’s head. The Ritidian star chart also shows the appearance of a star, seemingly from nowhere...

agharta

Buddhist word for the subterranean realm, located in the center of the earth. It is said that there are tunnels under Brazil, Egypt, and India that attempted to reach "the inner star," and "supermen" and "gods" are supposed to come from the underground to help humans.

bepposax will return

Bepposax is an X-ray astronomy satellite that returned to Earth in April 2003. However, the name of the brilliant man who found the Ezra Small diary containing the Prophecies is Christopher James Beppo-- is he giving himself a shout-out? J

janus VI

Planetary home of the Horta race of Star Trek.

beware the pediatrician

Helen, aka "Dr. Dropkick," was a pediatrician. She turned out to be evil-- for no apparent reason other than to make those of us who liked her (sniff) mad at the writers.

ritidian

In the Star Cave of Guam, there is a Ritidian star map or calendar pictogram. Apparently, the chart was a method of navigation for ships and a calendar based on different constellations and their locations in the sky; this calendar had 16 months of unequal length. The cave was also a burial site, and because there is no soot (an inevitable residue left any time torches or fires are burned) on its ceiling, the drawings on its walls were apparently made either without a source of illumination or with an advanced light source. All of the drawings are of constellations/heavenly bodies, and not symbols. There is mention of the crab supernova, as well as a star that appeared as if from nowhere.

metropolis united charities

The fictional adoption agency created to cover up the secret behind Clark's entrance into the Kent family and Lucas Luthor's adoption.

qaidam

A region in China, the country Clark, Lex, Lana, and Jason visited in "Sacred."

chandler’s field windmill

This is the windmill Lana climbed in "Nicodemus" as well as the landmark near which Chloe was buried in "Obscura." The windmill was destroyed in the horrible episode "Ageless" when the baby/kid/teenager Evan exploded.

altamira

The Altamira cave paintings in Spain are between 10,000 and 20,000 years old. These are some of the most advanced cave paintings currently known; they utilize the natural curves of the cave walls to show depth, use many colors (many cultures only used one or two), and were created with an advanced light source (since there is NO evidence of soot marks on the ceiling, which would be caused by fires). The most common animals are bison. May be significant simply because it’s in Spain, where a meteor shower occurred. They were also some of the most advanced cave paintings-they utilize the natural curves of the cave walls to show depth, use many colors (while many cultures only used one or two), and they were created with an advanced light source (again, there is a lack of soot).

It's a long excursion
Not a brief conversion
You should remember that

Lex said this to Ryan in "Ryan" when the two were discussing becoming evil.

She was only there
In the painter's brushstrokes
Yet she shared in his greatness

Lex said this about Jacques-Louis David's "Le Sacre," a painting of Napoleon's Coronation. Napoleon asked the artist to include his mother in the painting even though she was not actually at his Coronation.

The great swarm of bees will arise
Such that one will not know
Whence they have come

Sasha, aka "Bee Girl," had the power to control bees in the awful episode "Drone." In this episode, Martha commented that she had never seen bees behave in such a strange manner.

Empires rise and fall around her
As beauteous as Prometheus' sister
She blinds those who would possess her

Desiree Atkins. Gorgeous and gained wealth through marriage, but completely blinded the men who sought to possess her. These men had empires but lost them, as every man who possessed Desiree fell victim to her powers and died.

You see him...and you want him
All this time you've been hiding it
Now's your chance to show him

Kyle Tippet said these words to Chloe in "Hug," causing her to grab Clark and give him a passionate kiss. Minty!

By the shaven head
A very bad choice will come to be made
He will speak with great fury and rage

This bit, unsurprisingly, can mean several things. Ezra may have had a vision of Lex and assumed his head had been shaved. However, Lionel's head was shaved during Season 3's finale, leading me to think Lionel is the one speaking with great fury and rage... At any rate, this is part of a prophecy of Nostrodamus. The full prophecy is By the shaven head, a very bad choice will come to be made / Overburdened, he will not pass the gate / He will speak with such great fury and rage / That to fire and blood he will consign the entire sex.

In a church near a pond
Find a crypt
Before it becomes a tomb

In "Tempest" and "Vortex," Jonathan and Nixon were trapped underground during the tornado in what used to be the basement of a church.

A great cloud from the North
Lightning from burning spheres
Wheel within a wheel

To me, this sounds like a reference to the biblical book of Ezekiel, specifically, to a vision Ezekiel describes in the first chapter.

I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north-- an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal... Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it... The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning. As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like chrysolite, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. (Ezekiel 1:4, 14-16)

I suppose it's only fair to note that an extremely small, radical minority of Jews/Christians claim this vision is actually an encounter with a UFO. Additionally, there was a Kryptonian animal that was called "the living wheel." Both the Raelians and some Hopi believe they will be taken from earth in a "wingless ship."

Twisting, spiraling, bending
Nature gives up her secrets
Now it's our sixth day

This refers to DNA and cloning, specifically the creation of Emily ("Accelerate"); in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, man was created on the sixth day of Creation. Also, in "Accelerate," after Lex found out about Lionel's cloning experiments, he asked Lionel, "How does it feel to play God, Dad?"

Do you give the horse his strength
Or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?
He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing

This is a quote from the Book of Job (The first two lines are Job 39:19 and the last is the first half of 39:22) in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible.

How quickly our differences would vanish
And yet I ask
Is not an alien force already among us?

Ronald Reagan (R.I.P. 2004) said these words in a 1987 speech to the United Nations. Chloe said something similar in "Visitor," as did Lex.

I'm glad you caught me
I really don't want to be in Dallas
You'll see soon enough

Richard Nagell said these words after being arrested a few months before Kennedy was assassinated... in Dallas.

Beyond the pillars of Hercules
Along the Bimini Road
She waits, arms outstretched

The Bimini Road is a landmark in the Bahamas that some believe is part of the ruins of Atlantis. Could this be hinting that Helen, lost at sea, is awaiting rescue after her plane "mishap"? Another possibility is that this refers to Clark's mermaid girlfriend Lori Lemaris (from the comics).

As her light flickers
A glow washes over her
Sibling of Lazarus, come forth

In the New Testament, Lazarus is a man who died and was resurrected by Christ (John 11:1-44; Christ went to Lazarus' tomb and commanded him, "Lazarus, come forth!" The sister of Lazarus, according to Scripture, was Martha. In "Fever," Martha Kent dies, but the glow of the ship's healing power restores her life.

In a moment of desperation
A deal will be struck
A town will writhe and suffocate

In "Pilot," Jonathan Kent, desperate to keep foundling Clark and cover up his extraterrestrial origins, strikes a deal with Lionel Luthor. Jonathan convinces his friend, Mr. Ross, to give Lionel ownership of land in Smallville; this is how Lionel gained control of the town's resources.

The Cleric was right
We can't stop now
Where is our Ark?

The Cleric was an alien who came to Krypton and preached against the cloning process used there. Black Zero was a sect who fought him, and the Eradicator was created as a result of this conflict by an ancestor of Kal-El. It purified Krypton by destroying the Cleric.

These late eclipses in the sun and moon
Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide

This is from Act I of Shakespeare's "King Lear." Gloucester says,

These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects: love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's father against child. We have seen the best of our time: machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his offence, honesty! 'Tis strange.

Definitely refers to the rifts that developed between Clark and Lex and the "cooled love" between Clark and Lana at the end of Season 3. Also, notice the name "Kent" appears in the passage-- hee! Finally, remember that many stories about the end of the world, or Armageddon, refer to signs in the heavenly bodies.