4 - 10 October 2001
Issue No.554
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 4 - 10 October 2001 Issue No.554 |
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Limelight
Enter Nostradamus
The young man blew out the oil lantern by the bed, after making sure his master and mentor was snug and comfortable. He gently bade him goodnight and whispered "until tomorrow". As he turned to leave he heard his master's faint reply "you will not see me alive at sunrise". The next morning Chavigny, the devoted assistant went to wake his master and found him dead, and almost cold. Thus died the man who saw the future after predicting his own death, July 1st 1566.
Michel de Nostredame was born in St. Remy en Provence, France, December 14th 1503 to Jewish parents who had converted to Catholicism following the Inquisition. By the time his formal education began at Avignon, Michel was already a learned young man having been tutored in a variety of disciplines by his Jewish grandfather. He taught the young boy the Cabala, classical literature, mathematics, history, astrology, herbal and folk medicine and some even believe, magic. At the Faculty of Medicine at Montpellier University, he became famous for his innovative methods for curing the bubonic plague, or 'Black Death', which had spread throughout Europe and eventually wiped out 25% of its population. His treatments consisted mainly of cleanliness and vitamin-C in the form of rose hips. He saved most of his patients from the plague, but could not save his wife and two children who succumbed to the disease. Devastated by his loss and hounded by the Inquisition, he left Provence and wandered aimlessly throughout Europe for the next six years. It was during this time that he became aware of his prophetic powers.
He returned to Provence, settled in Salon, remarried and had six children. He transformed the attic in his house into his private study. He filled it with his magical equipment, magic mirrors, divining rods and astrolabe. When evening came and the house was still, he would climb to the attic and in the dark of night, don his special robes and partake of nutmeg powder, a hallucinogen that helped stimulate the mind, creating his bioelectric force. He would sit upright, spine erect on a brass tripod whose legs were angled at the same degrees as the pyramids of Egypt. There, he would gaze at flames, or pungent smelling waters. He induced ecstatic trances that opened to him the portals of the future: "I emptied my soul, brain and heart of all care and attained a state of tranquility and stillness of mind". Night after night he sat, looking into the very far and dreaded future of mankind. He was reticent to make known his visions, always fearful of the Inquisition. In 1550 he published an almanac using the Latin name of Nostradamus. In it he gave general prophecies of the coming year. It was so well received, he was encouraged to write an almanac every year for the rest of his life. "Centuries", his most famous work, began in 1554. It consisted of ten volumes of approximately 100 quatrains (4-line verses), each predicting an event of the future. They have remained in print for the last 400 years. Because 'clairvoyance' was considered an act of 'witchcraft', Nostradamus disguised his predictions every way that he could. He wrote in poems, riddles anagrams and epigrams. He wrote in French, Provençal, Greek, Latin and Italian, making them exceedingly complex and hard to interpret. In spite of this, he continually enthralled and engaged all those who have been exposed to them through the centuries, making him more popular today than ever, and considered by many including philosophers and scientists as one of the world's greatest prophets. His sheer "gift" for prophecies, repeatedly reinforced by the occurrence of foretold events, is unparalleled in history.
Nostradamus (1503 - 1566)
He predicted disasters, wars, the rise and fall of governments and dynasties of great leaders and great nations. In 30 quatrains he describes in astonishing detail the French Revolution, which occurred more than 200 years after his death. He names the "place of tiles" interpreted as Louis XVI Palais de Tuileries. He wrote of an "Emperor from Italy" the new destroyer (Greek for Napoleon). Obsessed and driven, he could not stop. Again and again he climbed to his private haven to look at the stars and shudder at the future. Some names he saw clearly, Franco of Spain, Pasteur of France, and Hitler of Germany, misspelled by one letter - he wrote Hister. He recorded faithfully, feverishly, hoping and praying that men could avert some of the impending disasters he foresaw. Scholars have been mesmerized and mystified for the last 400 years as they laboured to interpret his fascinating prophecies. Vision after vision came to him. He saw the abdication of Edward VIII of Great Britain, as one "unworthy to rule...will be turned out". He saw the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy. Of the latter he saw the guilty man go free "disappear in the misty wood". He saw the World War I and World War II, the Cold War and the Spanish War. He saw spaceships, microchips, submarines and AIDS. Did he see the WTC massacre? You be the judge. He saw: "Earth-shaking fire, from the centre of the earth, will cause the towers in the New City to shake".
A couple of anecdotes during his lifetime shed light on his "special gifts". While wandering through Europe during his years of despair, he came across some young Franciscan Friars, near Ancona, Italy. Nostradamus immediately fell to his knees and kissed the robes of a lowly Friar explaining: "I must cede myself and bend my knees before his holiness". The monks were amused and puzzled by the act of a madman. Forty years following Nostradamus' death, that same Friar, Felice Peretti, was elected Pope Sixtus VI. Another famous incident tells of Lord Florinville who hosted Nostradamus for dinner. He asked "What pig shall we have for dinner, the white pig or the black pig?" Nostradamus was quick to respond: "The black pig". The host secretly instructed the cook to prepare the white pig. When the feast was laid, the host asked again, and the answer came again: "The black pig". Lord Florinville called for the cook, who quickly explained that after preparing the white pig, it was devoured by a wolf, so he promptly prepared the black pig. Florinville doubted no more.
The desire to believe in supernatural forces is a primeval one, and exists in varying degrees in all of us. The fear within us, of ourselves, of each other and of the future, breeds in us the need to eliminate it.
Enter Nostradamus, the most advanced of fortunetellers, warning us against future disasters. What motives did he have? An affluent, successful physician and astrologist, respected and revered in his country and beyond - counselor to kings, dukes, noblemen, dignitaries. What drove him to risk his life and write so uncontrollably of a far away future that neither he nor any of his generation would ever witness? Was he a psychic, soothsayer, madman, a futurist, a hoax, a quack, or a true prophet? One fact that cannot be disputed by supporters or detractors is that he has been an outstanding success for the last four centuries, appearing and reappearing at the occurrence of each and every global disaster.
Could man reverse his destiny? That is the goal of a prophet. After all "a prophecy fulfilled is a prophecy failed". How then has Nostradamus served mankind? Clearly, that was his intention. Yet man never heeded, nor has he averted past, present or future disasters.
In which case, another dreaded question lingers - was Nostradamus right again in predicting the horrors of WW III?
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