USSR/ Soviet National Anthem - Red Army Choir

USSR/ Soviet National Anthem - Red Army Choir

The Heir Apparent-Leon Trotsky and The Year of Broken Pathways

We are now going back to 1922; a critical time in the new Communist Party's history. You see the Revolution of 1917 had only just happened by a few short years, but Lenin's health had undoubtedly been affected by an assassination attempt in August, 1918 (when he was in his own 48th personal 'Year of Revolution'). He was hit by three bullets and left unconscious. This was later to become manifest in 1922/3, when he suffered a series of three strokes between May 1922 and March 1923.

There is no question that the leader of the Bolsheviks and head of the Soviet State, began to think about who would succeed him. Why should I analyse this? What has this to do with Life Cycles theory and in paricular the 'Year of Broken Pathways'? Well I'm not featuring Vladimir Lenin in this post, I'm featuring his second-in-command, Leon Trotsky. You see Trotsky was entering his 43rd 'Year of Broken Pathways' (in his case:- 7th November, 1922 to 7th November, 1923) at the time the future leadership was reaching a crossroads. Remember that we are looking for major direction change, that would take several years to fully resolve (at least until Trotsky's age 48 'Year of Revolution' in November, 1927). This is what the 'Year of Broken Pathways' means to us all. But what in particular did it mean to Trotsky?

There was no question that Trotsky should have been the natural successor, but he had a strong opponent in the ruthless and cunning Joseph Stalin. Stalin, who had been elevated to the position of Party General Secretary in early 1922, had distanced himself from Trotsky, by forming a troika (a triumvirate with Zinoviev and Kamemev) to keep Trotsky from power. They chose to exploit Trotsky's policy of seeking world communist rule, by appealing to an already revolution-weary populace, that they should just focus on running the Soviet State.

Trotsky wrote an autobiography and I will use this as my guide. Lenin was shocked when he learned of a plot to throw Trotsky out. He then spent much of his time devising a counter-plot to ensure Trotsky succeeded him. In December, 1922 he wrote a will suggesting Stalin be removed as Secretary General. He offered Trotsky an alliance against him. However his final stroke in March, 1923 left Lenin speechless till his death in 1924. Only weeks before Trotsky confirms a conversation with Lenin saying:- "Yes, he does not trust Stalin and wants to come out against him openly, before the entire Party. He is preparing a bomb".

From the moment of the final stroke it was a huge change for Trotsky. The would-be successor and the co-conspirator becomes the hunted. With Lenin sidelined, the Stalin faction moved to take control of the politcal process and cut Trotsky off from decision making. His faction became known as the Left Opposition. After Lenin's death worse was to come. Even though Lenin's Testament came to the surface at the Party's Congress it was defused by the troika and they criticised Trotsky's military leadership in the 1917 Revolution. He became sick and was unable to answer them and in late 1924, they forced him to resign as Red Army Chief.

In 1925 he became effectively unemployed. The troika broke up, with the other two former members gravitating to Trotsky and forming a United Opposition. In 1926 Stalin became increasingly extreme. He started using the Soviet secret police to infiltrate and discredit his opponents. Finally in November, 1927 Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Communist Party. This brings to an end the several years of uphill struggle that follows the 'Year of Broken Pathways'. It was so for John Lennon (sounds a bit like..) and for Robert the Bruce and Anthony Prince and Diego Maradonna. It will be so for you too.

Don't imagine my quaint theory won't touch your life; it has already. As I begin to write my follow-up book:- "The Life Cycles Revolution" I am getting ready to provide such a weight of evidence that it will be impossible not to accept it. More is to come in the most unique blog ever written. Don't miss it and make sure you read all the posts, they are all linked. Until then:- "May the cycles always bring you good fortune".

Diego Maradona's Goal of the Century.

Flawed Genius-Diego Maradona and The Year Of Broken Pathways

Look at any ranking of "Best Soccer Player of All Time" and Diego Maradona is number 1 or very close to it. Physically short and stocky, he nonetheless grew into a giant on the field. At his height he took Argentina to the very zenith of the soccer world, virtually singlehandedly. He has also scored, in the infamous 'handball goal' match against England, what is recognised as the best goal ever scored. He passed through the entire English side and the ball never touched his right foot.

But that is on the field. Off the field he strikes a tragic figure and today we'll turn to his 43rd. 'Year of Broken Pathways' to see just how tragic. Remember all the years of 'Broken Pathway':- 19,31, and now 43 are featured in this blog. In every case we look at life altering moments, somewhat outside of the individual's control, that took several years to resolve (in Diego's case until his next 'Year of Revolution' at 48). I did this analysis blind at the request of a fellow blogger, so remember just how powerful 'Life Cycles' is as a predictive tool. I don't really know much about soccer either.

Throughout his career he has been known for his drug abuse (particularly cocaine) and his romantic indiscretions, which he owned up to in his autobiography. Since retiring in 1997 he had gained a lot of weight, spent time in a Cuban rehab centre and continued with a reckless lifestyle. When he was 43 he came to his lowest point. On 18th April, 2004 he suffered a major heart attack, following a cocaine overdose and was admitted to intensive care in a Buenos Aries hospital. During the 12 days he was there he said:- "I saw death up close". His ex-wife said, that committing him for psychiatric care in a local hospital against his wishes in May, was the only way to save his life. Interestingly it was in the same year that he and Claudia Villafane divorced. Apparently he did not take this well either with Claudia saying:- " He doesn't want to acknowledge it, he still keeps wearing the wedding ring". She also said he couldn't cope with fame:- "He always said he had been taken to the top of the mountain, but once there nobody told him what to do".

So he certainly had an uphill battle from there. You can't get much lower. His own family took an injunction against him leaving the country. He even met the Argentine President to discuss it. What happened over the next couple of years? Well he went on to become good friends with his ex-wife and they travelled together to Napoli in 2005 for a series of homages. He also went on Argentine TV in 2007 to say that he had not touched drugs for 2 1/2 years. With alcohol it took longer however. In March, 2007 he was admitted to a hospital in Buenos Aries and treated for hepatitis, brought on by alcohol abuse. After this he vowed publicly to quit drinking.

Has this story of tough love and even tougher redemption got a good ending? Yes, I'm pleased to say it has and just before his 48th birthday, he learned of his upcoming confirmation as coach of Argentina. Yes this was to happen in his 48th 'Year of Revolution', just as retirement had marked his 36th 'Year of Revolution'. His most devoted fans call themselves "the Church of Maradona" (now 120,000 members). They rang in the year DD 48 (or After Diego) carrying a "goalary":- an over-sized rosary with 34 beads, which is the number of goals he scored for Argentina.

'Life Cycles' is the only theory where you get this analysis. Nowhere else! You don't see 'the hand of God' at work in that controversial goal, but you may choose to see it in the extraordinary predictive power of 'Life Cycles'. So, till we meet again:- "May the cycles always bring you good fortune".

Dumb And Dumber-Anthony Prince and the Year of Broken Pathways

It's a good thing we Australians have a droll sense of humour. Otherwise why would I choose to feature the first post about one of my fellow countrymen, who achieved international notoriety by carrying out (along with one accomplice) what was termed:-"possibly the most inept bank robbery of all time". The stunt earned Anthony Prince and Luke Carroll the names 'Dumb and Dumber'. They were both holidaying in the glamorous ski resort town of Vail, Colarado and came from solid loving middle class families.

The reason I feature the life of Anthony Prince is that he (along with Luke Carroll) were both 19 at the time of the robbery and were thus in their first adult year of 'Broken Pathways'. Anthony chose to speak out about his life in a national TV Show called 'Australian Story' and he left an excellent psychological profile of just what it means to feel somewhat 'out of control' and suddenly have your direction altered and have to slowly accommodate to the changes over the remaining years of the cycle till his next 'Year of Revolution' at age 24.

He couldn't tell it any better than if I had access to an in-depth interview and asked just what I wanted. This material is similar to the 'Wolf of Wall Street' biography because it is detailed, exact and describes 'Life Cycles' as if they knew about it. Remember I do all my work second hand.

Their own defence lawyer described this crime as "absurd". Carroll and Prince robbed the Weststar bank in Vail, a place where they were regular customers and well known to the tellers. Their Australian accents made easy picking even though they wore ski masks. They also wore name tags from the sports store they worked at. Their getaway was to board a chair lift about a quarter mile away and snow-board down the opposite side of the mountain and go home. They took photos with the cash in a McDonald's toilet and tried to buy one-way tickets to Mexico the next day. Told they couldn't, they opted for a round trip. The FBI already had mugshots, because they were arrested in January that year, for shooting out windows with a paintball gun. A police officer recognised them from the FBI flyer and their accents and arrested them as they tried to pass through airport security. More could be said about what they did with the money, including trying to flush $800 down the holding cell toilet, but I think by now you've got the picture.

Hollywood could not do better if they tried. What were they thinking? This was the brain snap to end all brain snaps. Now Anthony Prince was interviewed about all this. Just how did it happen? He tells how he was overawed by Vail:- "everywhere you look, flashy cars, money, houses....this was the Mecca". "We were two Aussie larrikins out for a good time....up early, in bed late, trying to get into clubs with fake ID's etc," They were amazed they could buy paintball guns in Walmart, so that's what they did.

Shooting out window panes with the guns got them arrested, but unfortunately it didn't slow them down. "We felt like we could get away with anything....and we were like how crazy would it be to take these BB guns into that bank and rob it? It was a small bank, two female employees, no security whatsoever. You'd be stupid not to try it".

"So it began as a joke and then just slowly, subconsciously moved into something which was real and we'd talked ourselves into it". This is exactly the sense of not being fully in control of events that marks the 'Year of Broken Pathways'. Not as dramatically for most of us as these two poor kids, but it does in so many different ways for everyone one of us. It did for John Lennon when he thought nothing of donating money to the Black Panther movement, and Robert the Bruce when he thought nothing of telling the Red Comyn he wasn't going to be the first King of Scotland in private. Events seem unreal at the moment they occur.

Now what was the outcome of Anthony Prince's life over the remaining years of that cycle? What uphill struggle did he continue to face? Well the first thing was getting used to the inside of a US maximum security prison. "I've been slashed with blades. I've been beat down, hit with padlocks.....it was a scary environment".

He cried openly at his trial and begged forgiveness of the teller he had pointed a gun at. He only got 4 1/2 years, not the possible 25. He thought that he had to make it up to the his long-suffering parents, so he got correspondence material through his mother to study at an Australian university.

He spent a lot of time with immigration detainees whose English was bad so he sat down and helped them write letters to their loved ones. "I had a bit of a knack for it so I became known as this.....the love letter writer in there". Then in the final year of the cycle, just before his 24th birthday, he was released and came home to Byron Bay, an idyllic holiday spot on the NSW coast. "Coming home was amazing. I wish everyone could feel what I felt. The first plate of bacon and eggs...."

Yes it took him all of the remaining years of the cycle to finish this modern morality tale, complete with forgiveness from Jessica Cole Gunther the bank teller. It wasn't until the end that she looked him up on Facebook and showed him her letter written years ago. "It really did blow me away" he said.

Keep with me because I'm asking you to tell me who I'll be featuring next. He has been billed as 'the world's greatest footballer'...and that is of the round ball game I don't know much about. OK you couldn't get Robert the Bruce and you've never heard of Anthony Prince, but this guy you know! So leave me a comment and tell me. Oh, and for the big prize I want to know which year I'm featuring and why? Till then, may the cycles always bring you good fortune.