Nostradamus

The neutrality of this article is disputed.

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.

Table of contents

1 Biography
2 Preparation & Methods for Prophecy
3 Intent of Prophecies
4 Examples of Prophetic Quatrains
5 Possible Future Interpretations
6 Misquotes and hoaxes
7 Further reading
8 External links

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 much 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 skewed and 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 tragedy struck as 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, to find a sense of peace, he began exploring mystical teachings. Whatever the reason, it was during these travels that rumors about his prophetic powers emerged.

After a period of travel where he was busy learning and healing, 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. With his ability to foresee the future, 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 (as they still do). Some people thought Nostradamus was a servant of evil, a fake, or insane; yet 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 initial 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 because of the mystery of his prophetic Quatrains they have endured for centuries, and they have often been interpreted differently by various annotators throughout the years. Many books have been written based on these various interpretations, though the different "readings" of his material have varied wildly from one publication to the next. One common technique supposes that he used a series of simple encryption methods, including backward writing interspersed with different languages.

Preparation & Methods for Prophecy

If Nostradamus was able to foresee probable futures for individuals and nations, then understanding his background and methods might serve as more than simple curiousity about the man himself. What did he study? What were the techniques he used to prepare himself? Nostradamus left clues for those who might want to discover the mystic's path or search the Akashic Records for themselves.

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. Discovering how to pass through these spiritual pitfalls enabled seekers to move out of the state of struggle/tension and into the unified state of being a buddha/christ. 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". In the present day, unlike Nostradamus' time of extreme censorship by the Church and the Inquisition, books commonly exist which offer many techniques for entering the meditative state. Yogicic breathing, chanting, singing, dancing, movement exercises utilizing chi, and visualizations are some other ancient techniques still used by mystics today.

Intent of Prophecies

Various mystics, including Nostradamus, have tried to give "signposts" of events throughout history as an offering to help alleviate fear and increase awareness. Unfortunately, people can get sidetracked by obsessing about the signposts instead of paying attention to the destination. In the realm of prophecy, information is offered so we can change our outcome and circumstances by changing our response, both individually and en masse. By offering clues about possible future events and our possible responses, humanity could recognize the signs (ie:famine, pestilence, war), become less afraid, prepare better, choose different responses, and thus change our outcome and circumstances, and shift the ultimate outcome or at least the effect of the prophecy.

Specifically, if an event is inevitable then prophecy allows us to prepare for it. Consider knowing that you're going to be tested in school. What is the amount of fear in taking an exam after studying for two weeks versus taking a pop quiz with no notice? How does your fear affect you and those around you - not only in the moment but over time? However, if an event is mutable, then we could change our response (less fear, more awareness) which in turn may change its outcome and circumstances. Consider that a friend tells you that a mountain road is slippery - black ice has formed which isn't readily visible. Normally you would whip around the mountain curves for the sheer fun of it. While driving on that road for your weekend getaway, you decide to slow down and because of that, you don't slide off the side of the mountain. Having an accident was a probability in this scenario, not a certainty, and your response changed the outcome and your circumstances.

Also, the timing of an event might shift based on individual and group responses. Nostradamus attempted to "course correct" the timing of his prophecies by including other signs, such as planetary movements and environmental circumstances (Mars in Aries, disease, drought) instead of exact dates. Although this was not entirely accurate, to give the probable conditions at the time of the prophecy was very sound in consideration.

Another difficulty might arise when a seer witnesses multiple, possible future events about one topic. Which one should he write about? Which one will come true? One way to handle this is to write down all of the most probable future events and the conditions with which they are seen. Nostradamus also attempted this. The alternate futures for King Henry II involved either becoming a second Charlemagne or dying in a jousting tournament. The latter probability happened.

Nostradamus expressed that he had reservations about speaking or writing prophecies based on the possible harm to himself and his family (the threats actually became so pronounced that he once briefly sought shelter in a jail), as well as the misuse of information by future generations. In the Preface of Les Propheties, he states his concerns and reasons for eventually writing the prophecies, but in veiled language:

PF10-PF20

"For how long a time and how often have I predicted what was to come to pass, and in the particular regions, acknowledging all to have been accomplished through divine power and inspiration and other joyous and sinister events which with increasing promptness have later come to pass throughout other climates and regions of the world. I was willing to keep silent by reason of the injury - and not only in the present time, but also for the future time as well - and refrain from writing because the kingdoms, sects and religions will make changes so diametrically opposite to the present view, that if I came to reveal what will happen in the future those kingdoms, sects, religions and faiths would find [the future] so little in accord with the fantasies they would like articulated, that they would damn that which future centuries will know and have see to be true.

Also consider what the true Savior said: Give not that which is holy unto dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and rend you.

Later, [I] decided to withold my tongue, and pen from paper, because of forseeing the advent of the common people. [Therefore I wrote] in dark and cryptic sentences the events of the future evolution of human kind, especially the most urgent ones, and the ones I perceived, without scandalizing and upsetting fragile sentiments, by clouding my writing in obscure but, above all, prophetic language, inasmuch as: Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and the learned, that is, from the powerful and from kings, and hath revealed them to the small and weak..."

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, the rise of Adolf Hitler. He also supposedly foresaw a war between the United States and Russia against China. Critics, however, maintain that many of these predictions stem from using hindsight to adapt Nostradamus's works to current events, thus making it seem as if he had predicted them. Though interpretation of Nostradamus' quatrains has created both supporters and critics, perhaps the mystery of each quatrain is meant to provoke and inspire us to discover the truth for ourselves.

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, but further inquiry discovered flaws in the shuttle and in the command decisions. 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.

Possible Future Interpretations

http://ww-iii.tripod.com : Will President Bush be assassinated ?

Assassination of George W. Bush

C1, Q57

By great sound the "waterspout" will tremble, harmony broken lifting its head to sky, Bouche blood-covered will float in the blood, on ground the face anointed with milk and honey

The word "Bouche" (pronounced like "Boosh") means "mouth" but it also sounds like the name of Bush. The last line seems to indicate that Nostradamus is speaking about the the fate of a particular individual - a person whose face has been anointed with milk and honey, typically indicating a man who is a king or highly placed official who is lying dead on the ground.

While "trombe" literally means waterspout, I suspect it will be something akin to the explosion of a bomb or nuclear weapon where the smoke spreads like a waterspout. The word "grand discord" also means great sound and fits well in this context, which may indicate a bomb explosion. And it will obviously tremble and its consequence will disturb harmony in the world, as the second line seems to specify. "Lifting its head to sky" goes with the "waterspout" and could indicate the rising smoke and fireball.

What is almost certain is that Nostradamus speaks of a highly placed person lying dead on the ground in a pool of blood. The hint is that he is dead due to a bomb explosion. But could the word "Bouche" actually mean a similar sounding name "Bush" instead of its actual meaning? The line can be interpreted as "Mouth blood-covered will float in the blood" or "Bush blood-covered will float in the blood". Does this quatrain describe a general event or an event with a specific name? Is Nostradamus using a dual-meaning word to describe the specific name as well as the event?

Its not unusual for Nostradamus to use double-meaning words so that the quatrain becomes hard to interpret until the event happens and actual names are hidden in the guise of similar sounding words. For example everyone interpreted "Boristhenes premier" in III.95 as the river Dnieper until Boris Yeltsin became the President of Russia. The rest of that quatrain is claimed to indicate the fall of communism and rise of capitalism in Russia quite clearly. Similarly, in this case we cannot discount the possibility that Nostradamus actually hints at the assassination of President Bush, and this quatrain might indicate a great danger to the life of the President in the near future.

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