Since ancient times, people have observed strange signs, symbols or shapes in the sky. Sometimes their meaning seemed obvious, but more often it was incomprehensible.
There is no scientific explanation for the heavenly signs, although scientists are trying to connect their occurrence with the difference in temperature layers of the atmosphere or weather anomalies.
Such phenomena are very similar to attempts to share with us some important information from the past or the future. But who or what is passing it on to people is still unsolved.
Flying shields
In the pre-Christian era, it was believed that such signs are manifestations of certain divine forces that foreshadow future events: a victory in a battle, an epidemic or famine. Only the high priests were allowed to interpret the heavenly signs.
Plutarch in his writings describes the case when in 343 BC over the galley of the Greek general Timoleon a bright flame that descended from heaven hovered over the galley and accompanied the ship for a long time. In the same year, the Carthaginian army under the command of Timoleon defeated the army of the Syracuse tyrant Dionysius the Younger.
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In the chronicles of the victories of Alexander the Great, there are records that in 332 BC in Tire (Phenicia), five flying shields, moving in a triangular formation, appeared over the camp of the Macedonians besieging the city.
Before the eyes of the astonished warriors, the shields made a circle, then lightning flashed from them, which formed openings in the walls. Overjoyed, the Macedonians went to storm, and the resistance of the Phoenicians was broken.
It is also known that one of such signs predicted a military victory for Julius Caesar - and this happened a little later.
Be kind and merciful
With the advent and spread of Christianity, heavenly pictures and signs began to be interpreted as symbols with the help of which Jesus and the Mother of God try to ward off trouble or warn people about it.
One of the most famous visions in history occurred in 312. The historian Eusebius writes that the Roman emperor Constantine, while still a pagan, saw a cross in the sky with the inscription "Conquer by this". Having sworn allegiance to Christ, Constantine won the battle with the troops of Maxentius, who claimed the throne, and became the first Christian emperor.
On December 17, 1826 in France, in the town of Minier, during a prayer service commemorating the victory of Emperor Constantine, a giant cross appeared in the sky again, which was observed by about 3,000 people.
In 1110 the monks of the Caves Monastery saw a pillar of fire from earth to sky. The pillar stood over the refectory for a while, then rose to the domes and became invisible. The chronicler notes that this was the appearance of an angel: "For an angel is thus, sometimes a pillar of fire, sometimes a flame." The sign appeared before Prince Monomakh's campaign against the Polovtsians, which ended in complete victory for the Russians.
In January 1584, a luminous cross appeared in the sky over the Moscow Kremlin. Ivan the Terrible was a witness to this spectacle, who considered the phenomenon a warning of his death (it happened in March of the same year).
During the First World War, in 1915, when the Russian army suffered severe defeats, a solemn prayer service was held in Kharkov in honor of St. George the Victorious, during which a cross of snow-white clouds with reflections appeared in the sky. This sign was seen by several hundred people.
Already in our time, on November 3, 2000, not far from Kazan, near the road bridge across the Volga, against the background of fog, a huge figure of a man in a long flowing clothes was drawn. The figure hovered in the air, then its hand lifted to greet, and golden reflections flashed on its palm.
At the same time, according to eyewitnesses, a pleasant male voice appeared in the head of each of them. All the witnesses remembered the same words: “I am coming. The hour of My miracle is near. Be kind and merciful to each other."
Virgin at the front
Among the heavenly visions, the face of the Virgin Mary occupies a special place. Many cases have been recorded when thousands of witnesses observed such a phenomenon.
The most famous of them occurred in 1914, when the figure of the Virgin appeared in the sky over the section of the Russian-German front. It was seen by thousands of Russian and German soldiers, many of whom believed that the sign was a call for peace. Later, they tried to explain this event as a propaganda technique using a powerful projection lamp.
However, then several questions arise. Who could have carried out such an original operation, about which nothing is said in either Russian or German military documents? And how could it have been carried out if by that time none of the opposing sides had the appropriate equipment?
During the assault of Koenigsberg by Soviet troops on April 6, 1945, a huge female figure in flowing clothes appeared in the air over the positions of the fascist army. Seeing her, the German soldiers shouted in horror: "Holy Virgin!" - and their command immediately accepted all the terms of surrender.
Some experts suggest that these phenomena are a reflection of some real objects that are not subject to time frames. That is, the light could be reflected from some female figure, for example, in the XII century, and people saw it only after 800 years, and due to the refraction of the rays, the image itself has significantly increased in size.
But how could such a visual image persist for so many years? There is no unequivocal answer, although there are suggestions about temporary portals through which rays from the past move to the present.
After death there will be paradise
Signs that often appear in the sky are very similar to letters or numbers. This allows some researchers to argue that some higher, most likely, alien intelligence is behind the creation of heavenly signs.
The father of Russian cosmonautics K. E. Tsiolkovsky in his memoirs talked about how on May 31, 1928, on the glassed-in balcony of his dacha, he encountered an amazing phenomenon. In the evening, white Latin letters R, A and Y suddenly appeared on the horizon line, which were clearly read in the dark blue sky.
Beneath the letters, he saw another cloud that looked like a tombstone. At first, Tsiolkovsky decided what this meant: after death there will be paradise, that is, the end of all human suffering. Then, reflecting on what he saw, he remembered that in English the word ray means "ray" - and suggested that the sign concerned the rays of life or the rays of knowledge.
70 years after Tsiolkovsky, on December 2, 1990, a similar phenomenon was observed by Kazakh meteorologists. Over the Caspian Sea, they observed huge glowing letters that formed the abbreviation JVL. Their colleagues from Uzbekistan confirmed that they see exactly the same picture. But no one could understand the meaning of the heavenly message.
A year earlier, on October 15, 1989, a whole set of signs and numbers appeared in the sky over Salsk (Rostov region), which thousands of people saw and many researchers tried to decipher. After some time, the symbols disappeared, and in their place two question marks formed. Then the signs turned into two two's, between which there was a minus. Two sevens followed an interval, followed by two sevens, and three sevens followed another interval.
Russian researcher A. Priima interpreted this heavenly sign as a warning about the end of the world, which will come on July 7, 2002. Another ufologist, M. Gaponov, having agreed with his colleague on the main point, suggested the date of July 19, 1999. But the apocalypse never came these days.
On October 24, 1990, four light squares with flames inside appeared over the Kokichev farm and the nearby village of Krasnodonetskaya (Rostov region). A little later, the squares formed a black cross, next to which the numbers 2001 appeared, separated in the middle by a small burning circle. According to observers' estimates, the dimensions of the signs exceeded 100 meters.
In general, 1990 was unique for the celestial signs in the USSR - then, in different places of the country, numbers and graphic symbols appeared in the sky. Maybe these signs spoke of the imminent 1991, the time of the collapse of the great country?
Unanswered questions
- But what about scientific theories and hypotheses? - the meticulous reader will be interested. - How do they explain the origin of the celestial signs?
Meteorologists suggest that such phenomena are caused by the presence of tiny ice crystals in the upper layers of the air, refracting the sun's rays. True, it is not clear what to do with night visions - after all, they are much brighter than the light of the stars or the Moon, which should be refracted by these crystals.
Other scientists try to present celestial signs as mass hallucinations, optical illusion, or even a play of atmospheric electric charges - however, this does not provide an exhaustive explanation of the phenomenon.
In other words, there is still no clear and clear scientific interpretation of visions in heaven.
Just an unusual cloud?
In fact, today scientists can clearly explain only one case of a heavenly sign, which occurred in 1670. The astronomer from Gdansk Johann Gibelius wrote about him in his works. The sign in the form of bright flashes in the night sky was observed in the constellation Cygnus for several weeks, after which it disappeared.
More recently, using the APEX telescope in Chile, scientists discovered a small nebula in the constellation Cygnus - and after analyzing it, they came to the conclusion that in 1670, Ghibelius observed a rare phenomenon - a collision of two stars in outer space.
What about the rest of the heavenly signs? Alas, there is no explanation yet. And there are much more questions on this topic than answers.
Platon VIKTOROV