The event
Time: During the day
Date: 3 October 2020
Place: My room on the 2nd floor, Hotel Zentral, Wiener Neustadt
A thunderstorm started. I went over to my east-facing window to watch the lightning. In the next moment, several forks of lightning drew the perfect picture of a woman — her left profile, complete with long, flowing robes and with a long, flowing headscarf and possibly her long hair, too. The robes were flowing out behind her as if she was moving. It seemed to be several forks of lightning because the picture was quite detailed, but it was perhaps only one fork that broke out into several different branches. The lightning lasted one second. It moved from right to left. Despite the brevity, I could see that the picture was perfect.
Background
This happened nine days after I had visited the “house of the Virgin Mary” on Mt. Koressos, above Ephesus.
Thoughts and theories
In the minutes following the fork lightning, I tried to explain it “down” by thinking, “It was a woman; it could be any woman; it could be referring to Mum, for instance, or even me.” I didn’t want to jump to a grand conclusion. But after a few days, I accepted that it was most likely a reference to Mary.1
I saw Mary’s left profile, and she (or the lightning) was moving from right to left. In spiritual matters, left suggests the future.
Why would Mary appear to me like this? Was it a greeting? Unlikely, because Mary doesn’t appear to people simply in order to greet them. Her appearances always have a more serious reason. Was this event to give me comfort or support? No, I don’t think so. I derived neither “eternal comfort” nor “angelic support” from the event. Nonetheless, I count it as being the third such occasion — following those in 1982 and 1984.
Lightning does have a spiritual meaning, apparently. If you google “lightning spiritual meaning”, you can read some interesting theories.
- “Meanwhile, the Pontificia Accademia Mariana Internationalis (PAMI) … has created a special observatory devoted to the study and interpretation of Madonna-related apparitions and mystic phenomena throughout the world — of which there are thought to be thousands — pending an official pronouncement by the Church concerning their authenticity.” This is an excerpt from:
https://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2023/04/13/probe-may-find-nothing-supernatural-about-weeping-mary_e1054cb8-36f6-41b0-8fa2-a1c7c204cacc.html ↩︎
