faraway land put on a hooded robe, take up a walking staff, and set out on a journey. I saw him arrive at a harbor, board a ship, and set off on a voyage across the sea. I then saw him disembark, journey inland, then return to the ship and sail off to the next land, one land after the other until finally he arrived at his destination.
“It was a forbidding land. I saw him journey through it, through barren hills, barren valleys, deserts, and ruins. He seemed astonished by everything he was seeing. He kept a pen and writing pad to jot down notes throughout the journey. Finally he sat down on a rock, took out his pen and pad, and began writing. He wrote slowly in large letters—just one word. At that moment, I was taken back to the mountaintop where I had seen the man in the red robe, Moses. He was still there and now sitting on a rock. In his hand was a parchment, on which he had also written in large letters a word. It was the same word.”
“What was it?”
“Desolation.”
THE INVISIBLE CITY
“I continued walking behind the ram. It stopped again and turned now to the right. I did likewise. I saw a young man clothed in red military apparel. He appeared to me to be a soldier from the British Empire. I watched as a man in a white robe approached him and gave him an object. It was a measuring line. The soldier then appeared to be measuring structures that weren’t there or that were invisible: invisible walls, buildings, and towers. When he finished, the two of them walked away. But then the man in white stopped and turned around. The soldier did likewise. Then they saw it.”
“Saw what?”
“On the ground they had just left now stood a city, an ancient city with walls, buildings, and towers, all according to the dimensions the soldier had just measured out.”
THE SYNAGOGUE SCROLL
“I turned and saw again the man with the staff and hooded robe, the journeyer. He was now walking the narrow streets of an old city. He came to an ancient-looking synagogue of hewn stone. He went inside. He sat down with the worshippers, bearded men with their heads covered in white shawls. In the front of the synagogue, standing just behind a rolled-up scroll on a stone lectern, was a man with a long white beard and a shawl over his head. But the shawl was more ornate than those of the other men. I took him to be the rabbi. ‘Stand,’ he said to the congregation. Everyone rose to their feet. Then he motioned to the journeyer to join him by the scroll. So he did. The rabbi then unrolled the scroll and asked the journeyer to read from it. So he did. ‘You are standing today, all of you,’ said the journeyer, ‘before the Lord your God.’ The rabbi then placed his right hand on the journeyer’s head. ‘And this day,’ he said, ‘it is fulfilled in your coming.’”
THE SHAFT
“I turned again and saw an ancient city filled with life and movement, men, women, and children walking its streets, going about their daily lives. Then suddenly everything froze and every person became as a statue. And then everything and everyone turned to stone. Then the entire city began to sink down into the sand until it disappeared. Time passed. I saw a man in a white robe with a giant pickax. He walked over to where the city had stood. He raised the ax and smashed it down on the sand. A shaft opened up in the ground. Out of the shaft came rays of light and then a rumbling. The city was rising up through the sand. I could now again see the people, still frozen in stone. But then the stone began to give way to the original colors and textures that were there at the beginning. And then everything unfroze. It was as if no time had elapsed, as if all was continuing on its course from the moment the city froze. And then the man in white spoke: ‘And that which was,’ he said, ‘shall be again.’”
THE WOMAN IN THE VINEYARD
“In the next vision I saw a barren vineyard of withered vines. In the midst of the vineyard was a woman imprisoned in a cage of dry branches. She had the appearance of one who had been beaten, abused, and scarred. She sat downcast on the