A portent is a sign or warning of events that are yet to come. I like the word “portent”, it has a mythic quality and evokes the idea that we might have some access to divine patterns in the chaos of current events. Somehow, it also offers a less depressing way of thinking about the world right now. My late mother kept all the wisdom about portents in our family and, from them, she would discern all sorts of things, from illness to financial trouble, pregnancies and conflic