Can Mathmagic Predict a Volcanic Eruption

For the record, I am predicting that sometime in the near future (before the end of the year 2017) that the volcano Mt. Lassen in northern California will experience a major eruption. How horrific the eruption will be, I do not know. I am not asking anyone to accept my prophecy as a “sure thing,” nor am I suggesting that people evacuate the area around Mt. Lassen.

I do not claim to be a clairvoyant psychic. I based my prediction on a pattern that I observed in certain recent cosmological and geological events. I also state for the record that I would rather be proven a fool and a victim of a cosmic joke for making a prediction that does not come to pass than be correct and have a natural disaster occur.

“We pessimists would rather be wrong—it usually means we survived.” That quotation comes from a Russian character in my novel Lantamyra A Tapestry of Fantasy.

Now before you exclaim, “Aha! This is just a clever plug for a book,” please, hear me out. It does involve my book cover image, but not necessarily the story. It also involves a recent total (annular) solar eclipse, two recent earthquakes and one recent volcanic eruption.

This story begins a year ago in April 2012 (a grand year for doomsday predictions). I was finishing the acrylic painting that I planned to use for my book cover. The fantasy image was a landscape of Lantamyra, and the last items added to the painting were the two moons. I made two paper cut-outs and placed them in different positions on the canvas. Unable to decide, I tossed the cut-outs on the table; the smaller landed on top of the larger and made it appear as if the moons were eclipsing. “Perfect!” I decided to paint an eclipse because one is mentioned in the book. The painting was completed soon after.

A few days later, I received the May/June issue of Via, a travel magazine that had a headline on the cover: “Don’t Miss The Eclipse” I always wanted to experience a total eclipse of the sun. Needless to say, I was excited to discover that this eclipse would occur over California’s Sierra Nevada on May 20, 2012. One of the recommended viewing points was Mt. Lassen State Park because the path of totality would pass directly over Mt. Lassen. I started making plans to be in the area for the event.

At one of the science websites, I found a map of the complete path of the eclipse. It would begin near China and Japan, make a wide arc up the Pacific to the Aleutian Islands then down to southern tip of Oregon and across northern California. I learned that the path of totality would be fifty miles wide and pass right over my Sierra home, so I wouldn’t need to travel.

The eclipse would not be a total blocking of the sun, but instead, it would appear as a “Ring of Fire” with the moon completely in the center of the sun. I was a bit disappointed, but it was better than no eclipse at all.

I told my husband that my “Ring of Fire” eclipse just happened to follow the path of what is known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. He said that it might be a doomsday omen. I laughed it off and called it just a good photo op. Then I noticed on the California map that it would travel directly over Susanville, Ca.

“Since my name is Susan, I claim all magical rights to this cosmic event.” I said

My husband noticed the eclipse would pass right over the mountain I had used as a model for my painting.

I had used an old vacation photo of the Sierra near Donner Pass. The photo of the mountain was taken from eastbound I-80 near Hwy 20. The town of Susanville would be on the far side of that mountain. In my painting I embellished the details to make my fantasy mountain appear as a Native American woman lying on her side looking to the East

On Sunday, May 20th 2012, my daughters and granddaughters came to visit me. I carried my painting and easel out to the front yard and clicked a number of photos during the time of totality. It got dark enough to cause my driveway lights to turn on, but not the spooky dark that I had hoped would occur. Then my granddaughter noticed something unusual. She was looking through the branches of my oak tree at the eclipse. When it was surrounded by dark leaves (but not blocked by the leaves) you could see the black center (the moon) and the ring of fire at the edge of the sun, and amazingly, the ring was surrounded by purple light!

“Gramma, it’s just like the doorway in your painting!”

Magically true! The interdimensional doorway on my painting had a black center surrounded by a ring of fire surrounded by purple light. It was amazingly similar, but attempts to photograph the phenomenon without a special lens failed.

Okay, so after the eclipse had passed into history, we didn’t think much more about it. We went inside and had burgers and salad.

Fast forward to the night of May 23rd 2013, I was working on the sequel to my book when an earthquake occurred. Not terrible, but strong, in fact, it was the strongest of the five or six quakes we have felt since moving into the Sierras sixteen years ago. We checked the news online; it was a 5.7 near Greenville, CA. I didn’t know where that was located; they didn’t show a map, and I didn’t give it much thought. A 5.7 wasn’t worth the effort to research.

My husband noticed a news story about a big 8.2 earthquake off Russia in the eastern Pacific that had occurred a few hours earlier (note: because the international date line is in the Pacific Ocean, the Russian quake technically occurred on May 24th). Then, he saw another story about an eruption of a volcano in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. He mentioned that all three events took place on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”—almost a year to the day, since the eclipse.

“And that’s almost spooky,” I teased.

“Go ahead and laugh, but there’s more…” He held up the May/June issue of Via which had a picture of a volcano on the cover. The main story was about volcanoes of western America, and one of the five volcanoes featured was Mt. Lassen. And, coincidentally on the left side of my painting, there is a volcano that I named the White Queen.

“You don’t suppose that quake was near Lassen?” he said.

“Let’s check…”

The map showed the 5.7 earthquake had occurred close to Mt. Lassen, on the eastern side. When I considered the symbolic relationship between Mt. Lassen and my White Queen I noticed that the epicenter for the quake would be directly under the eclipse I had painted. And, that was too mathmagically coincidental to be ignored. I am certain the 5.7 quake was inside the path of totality. However, I am not certain if the Russian quake, or the Alaskan volcano, occurred in the narrow path of totality or just along the general path of the eclipse, but I still find it intriguing.

According to Dr. Deepak Chopra: “Coincidences are glimpses into the creative mind of the Universe.”

We found other peculiar circumstantial anomalies that have led me to declare that Mt. Lassen’s eruption will occur before the end of 2017. But I will not go into every trivial detail we uncovered.

Once again, I claim all magical rights to the solar eclipse last year and name it: “Susan’s Eclipse.” Furthermore, I am not afraid, and I’m not making any plans to move out of the Sierra. AND, on December 31st 2017, if the eruption has not taken place, I will celebrate the New Year dressed in the cap and bells of a fool (or jester), and at exactly midnight, I will take a full banana cream pie in the face and post it on YouTube.

Sincerely, Susan…blessings of life.

P.S. On lighter note, my next blog will contain a couple of my Nature poems written about the beautiful Sierra.