Nostradamus

Nostradamus, (December 14, 1503- July 1, 1566) born Michel de Nostredame, is one of the world's most famous authors of prophecies. Mystic, doctor, astrologer, apothecary, writer.

Biography

Born in Saint-Rémy de Provence, in the south of France, he was the son of either a Jewish grain dealer or a prosperous notary. He was Jewish by birth, but since the authorities of Provence insisted that Jews either move or convert to Catholicism, his family outwardly converted and practiced the Roman Catholic faith. As a child, Nostradamus showed an aptitude for mathematics and astrology. In fact, his teachers were upset by his defence of Copernicus and astrology. He studied medicine at the University of Montpellier, and finished his baccalaureate exams in 1525. The plague soon disrupted his schooling and he traveled around France helping cure the sick with ideas that included a better diet, clean bedding, clean water and clean streets. It was while Nostradamus was traveling that he met and exchanged information from various underground Renaissance doctors, alchemists, Kabalists, mystics - a practice he would continue most of his life. He was also skilled as an apothecary, having created a "Rose pill" that was aclaimed at the time for helping the plague, and appears to mainly offer a strong dose of vitamin C. In 1529 he returned to Montpelier to receive his doctorate and then teach, but the conservative views of the university forced him to once again establish a medical practice and help cure the plague.

In 1534 he was invited by Julius-Cesar Scaliger, considered to be a leading Rennaisance man, to come to Agen. There Nostradamus married a woman whose name is still in dispute, but who bore two children. In 1537, his wife and two children died, presumably from the plague. At this time, Scaliger struck an agrument with him and church authorities were asking him to face the Inquisition in Toulouse for an offhand remark made about the workmanship of a statue of the Virgin Mary. He traveled through France and Italy many times. Perhaps in an effort to find himself, to assuage the sense of loss of his family, or to find a sense of peace, he began exploring mystical teachings. It was during these travels that rumors about his prophetic powers emerged.

He settled down in 1547 in Salon where he married a rich widow named Anne Ponsarde Gemelle and had 6 children - 3 daughters and 3 sons. He soon began to transition away from medicine and towards the occult and a cosmetics business. He wrote yearly almanacs (first in 1550) and was so encouraged by their success that he continued. He then began a project of writing 1,000 quatrains (four-line poems) which predicted probable future events and responses. However, due to the scrutiny and pressure of the Inquisition, he devised a method of obscuring the prophecies by using word games and a mixture of languages such as Provencial, Greek, Latin, Italian, Hebrew and Arabic.

The quatrains, written in a book titled "Les Propheties", received a mixed reaction when they were published. Some people thought Nostradamus was a servant of evil, a fake, or insane; while many of the elite thought his quatrains were spiritually inspired prophecies. Soon nobility came from all over to receive astrological horoscopes and advice. Catherine de Medici, the Queen of France, was one of Nostradamus' admirer's and a student of metaphysics. After reading "Les Propheties", she invited Nostradamus to Paris to explain Century I, Quatrain 35 regarding her husband, King Henry II, as well as to draw up horoscopes for her royal children. After this meeting, Queen Catherine was a staunch supporter of Nostradamus and by the time of his death in 1566, she had made him Counselor and Physician in Ordinary with priviledges and a salary.

By 1566 Nostradamus' gout, which had painfully plagued him for many years and made movement very difficult, finally turned into dropsy. In July, he wished to spend his last night alone, and when his secretary Chavigny asked him "Until tomorrow, Master?" Nostradamus said, "You will not find me alive by sunrise." The next morning Chavigny led friends and family upstairs to the study (which had been converted into a bedroom) and found Nostradamus' body lying on the floor between the bed and a makeshift bench.

Biographical accounts of Nostradamus' life states that he was afraid of being persecuted for heresy by the Inquisition, as indeed many of those who spoke or wrote anything not sanctioned by the church in those days were often tortured or burned at the stake. It was for this reason, and also because he did not want anyone in the future changing the prophecies, that Nostradamus chose to cloak his prophecies.

It has been suggested that because of his in-depth knowledge of individual and group destinies, that he was fully capable of accessing the Akashic Records - a supposed etheric library of information for human consciousness. What is known is that his Quatrains endured for centuries, and have often been interpreted differently by various annotators throughout the years.

One common technique supposes that he used a series of simple encryption methods, including backward writing interspersed with different languages.

Preparation & Methods for Prophecy

What were some of Nostradamus' influences? His medical studies included writings from Alberto Magnus, Paracelsus and Cornelius Agrippa. Paracelsus maintained that the soul must first be healed, that the source of disease was the mind, and he used astrology as a tool to "diagnose" how to treat the soul. Agrippa held the belief that man's "conscious" knowledge was useless, and that the societal conditioning to feel separate from existence/nature must be explored and released. The use of occult language in his prophecies suggest a familiarity with Hermetic magic which has parallels with Tantra and Shaivite Hinduism. Nostradamus possessed copies of the Keys of Solomon and studied the Jewish Kabbalah.

In Sicily, he connected with Sufi mystics and read "The Elixir of Blissfulness" by Sufi master al-Ghazzali, who stated that every seeker must pass through seven valleys or "dark nights of the soul" which included knowledge, repentance, stumbling blocks, tribulations, thunders, the abyss, and the valley of hymns and celebration. Nostradamus also studied "De Mysteriis Aegyptorum" (concerning the mysteries of Egypt), a book on Chaldean and Assyrian magic written by Jamblinchus, a 4th-century neo-Platonist.

Nostradamus employed various techniques to enter the meditative state necessary to access future probabilities. For entering a trance state (theta brain frequency), he included the ancient methods of flame gazing, water gazing or even both simultaneously. These techniques are designed to still the mind and see internally - much like watching a movie on a blank screen. He also used a technique from Branchus, the Delphic prophetess of Greece, of sitting on a brass tripod and gazing into a brass bowl filled with water and various oils and spices. In the Epistle to Henry II Nostradamus says "I emptied my soul, brain and heart of all care and attained a state of tranquility and stillness of mind which are prerequisites for predicting by means of the brass tripod".

Examples of "Prophetic" Quatrains

Nostradamus' book "Les Propheties" took quatrains (4 line poems) and placed them in sets of 100, called Centuries. To check for the veracity of a quatrain, simply check the number stated (ie:C1, Q25 means Century 1, Quatrain 25) with an authentic version of Nostradamus' works - which will likely also have the original old French. Even the Preface and the Epistle to Henry II have been assigned numbers (ie: PF50, EP102).

Supporters of Nostradamus have credited him with predicting an amazing number of events in world history: the French Revolution, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the atom bomb, and the rise of Adolf Hitler. According to a 1982 book by Rene Noorbergen, he also supposedly foresaw a war between the United States and Russia against China.

Skeptics of Nostradamus state that his reputation as a prophet is largely manufactured by modern-day supporters who "shoehorn" his words into events that have either already occurred or are so imminent as to be inevitable. These skeptics believe that very rarely, if ever, has a Nostradamus quatrain correctly been interpreted before a specific event occurs beyond a very general level (e.g. A fire will occur, a war will start, etc.)

Death of King Henry II

CI, Q 35 The young lion will overcome the older one, on the field of combat in single battle, He will pierce his eyes through a golden cage, Two wounds made one, then he dies a cruel death.

The prophecy that made Nostradamus famous in his own time was the quatrain predicting the death of King Henry II of France. In 1559, despite King Henry being warned against ritual combat by Luc Gauricus, he proceeded to joust in a tournament celebrating his sister Marguerite's marriage to the Duke of Savoy, and his daughter Elizabeth's marriage to the King of Spain. Both King Henry and his younger jousting opponent Comte de Montgomery had lions embossed on their shields. Because the bout ended in a draw, the king insisted on another joust, which resulted in Montgomery's lance splintering and piercing the king's visor. Multiple wounds to the face and throat caused the king to linger for 10 days before dying. This prophecy was first published in 1555 - 4 years before the tournament and the king's death - far enough in the future to be considered prophetic, close enough in his own lifetime to receive validation and be taken seriously.

Louis Pasteur

C1, Q25 The lost thing is found, hidden for so many centuries, Pasteur will be honored as a demigod: (in original French "Sera Pasteur demy Dieu honore:") This happens when the moon completes her great cycle, He will be dishonored by other winds [rumors].

Louis Pasteur discovered that germs contaminate our environment and he was considered a "demigod" by his contemporaries. Pasteur is not only named outright, but Nostradamus correctly dated the establishment of the Institut Pasteur. He used the last great lunar cycle in astrology, which began in 1535 and ended in 1889 - the two years after the institute was created in 1887.

Charles de Gaulle

C9, Q33 Hercules King of Rome and of Annemark, Three [times] one surnamed de Gaulle will lead France, (in original French "De Gaule trois Guion surnomme") Italy and the one of St Mark [Venice] to tremble, First monarch, renowned above all.

Charles de Gaulle was a leader of France three times - first as leader of the Free French forces, then as the leader of the provisional post-WWII government, then as the first president of the French Fifth Republic.

Hitler

C2, Q24 Beasts ferocious with hunger will cross the rivers, The greater part of the battlefield will be against Hister. (in original French "Plus part du champ encontre Hister sera.") Into a cage of iron will the great one be drawn, When the child of Germany observes nothing.

The name "Hister" has become famous for including the name and childhood residence of Adolf Hitler. Ister is the Greek name for the River Danube which is near Linz, Austria, his childhood home. The first line is said to refer to battles fought across rivers, and the 4th line is said to refer to the attitude that the German youth were being indoctrinated with at the time.

Pope John Paul I

C10, Q32 The one elected Pope will be mocked by his electors, this enterprising and prudent person will suddenly be reduced to silence. They cause him to die because of his too great goodness and mildness. Striken by fear, they will lead him to his death in the night.

This quatrain is commonly interpreted as referring to Pope John Paul I and his mysterious death, although there is no reference to his name. Servants found the Pope dead in the morning and the bottle of Effortil (to alleviate low blood pressure) was immediately cleared from the bedroom by Jean Cardinal Villot. False statements were issued to the police and no autopsy was performed on the body. On the night before his death, Pope John Paul I allegedly gave a list to Cardinal Villot that included dismissals and a reorganization of the power structure of the Vatican. This list of dismissals has never been found.

Space Shuttle Challenger

C1, Q81 Nine will be set apart from the human flock, separated from judgement and counsel: Their fate to be determined on departure. Kappa, Theta, Lambda, dead, banished and scattered.

In 1986 the US space shuttle Challenger exploded 71 seconds after lift-off. The tragedy was caused by gas leakage from the left side solid rocket booster. There were only seven astronauts (not nine) that were killed. The final line with Greek letters has been interpreted by some as an anagram: K, TH, L = Th(io)K(o)L = Thiokol. The Morton Thiokol corporation designed and built the faulty rocket boosters, yet neither NASA or management officials took notice of junior engineers doubts about the rocket booster design.

1999

C10, Q72 In the year 1999 and seven months, a great King of Terror will come from the sky, he will bring back the great King Genghis Khan, before and after Mars rules happily.

One of the most famous Nostradamus predictions was frequently interpreted as a prophecy that a great disaster or event would occur in July of the year 1999. When July came and went in 1999 without any world-shattering event occurring, scholars of his writings began re-interpreting the prophecy in an attempt to determine its "true" meaning. It is worth noting that John F. Kennedy, Jr. died in a plane crash during this month.

9/11 & New York City

C6, Q97 At forty-five degrees, the sky will burn, Fire approaches the great new city, Immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up, When they want to have verification from the Normans.

After the events of 9/11 happened, many supporters of Nostradamus recalled this quatrain. Supporters claim that the latitude of "forty-five" and the reference to the "new city" refers to New York City. Nostradamus seems to have his latitude wrong, because New York City is actually closer to the 41st parallel (a significant distance from the 45th), while numerous world cities lie closer to the 45th parallel. The Peshtigo Forest Fire also occurred almost directly on the 45th parallel. "Verification from the Normans" is commonly interpreted as asking the French for verification, who were indeed asked by the United States for assistance in locating the perpetrators; however, many other countries were asked for similar assistance.

Misquotes and hoaxes

Nostradamus' writings have frequently been misquoted and in some instances, even deliberately altered in order to "prove" that he supposedly predicted various events. Also, especially since the advent of the Internet, many prophecies have been outright fabricated, therefore enhancing the mystique of Nostradamus. After the September 11 Terrorist Attacks, the following was circulated on the Internet, along with many more elaborate variants:

"In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb, The third big war will begin when the big city is burning"

As it turns out, the first four lines were written before the attacks, but by a Canadian graduate student named Neil Marshall as part of a research paper in 1997. Ironically enough, the research paper included this poem as an illustrative example of how the validity of prophecies are often exaggerated. For example, "City of God" (Why is New York City the City of God?), "great thunder" (Could apply to just about any disaster), "Two brothers" (Lots of things come in pairs), and "the great leader will succumb" (succumb to what?). The fifth line was added by an anonymous Internet user (obviously, since Nostradamus always wrote in quatrains). Nostradamus never actually explicitly referred to a "third big war" anywhere in his quatrains.

Sometimes the hoaxes are tongue in cheek:

"Come the millennium, month 12 In the home of greatest power, The village idiot will come forth To be acclaimed the leader."

Obviously, referring to the instatement of George W. Bush as President of the United States. Nowhere does anything like this appear in Nostradamus's writings, and it would be inconsistent with other quatrains because of the explicit reference to a very specific time (which occurs only once in a Nostradamus writing, see above).

External links

Category at ODP, A directory of Nostradamus related links, including the writings themselves.
Urban Legends page: False claims of Nostradamus predicting the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001
The History of World War III : Analysis of the quatrains of Nostradamus in the light of similar prophecies from around the world. This site is an effort to predict the events which lead to the Third World War

Biography

Preparation & Methods for Prophecy

Examples of "Prophetic" Quatrains

Misquotes and hoaxes

Further reading

External links