In the Twentieth Century

Nostradamus, the Man Who Saw Through Time, by Lee McCann [1941], at sacred-texts.com

p. 337

CHAPTER THREE

In the Twentieth Century

As THIS LAST CHAPTER IS BEING assembled with the horrid word "deadline"--Oh, anathema to writers!--ringing in the author's ears, one portion of her attention is on the radio, one on the newspaper, and the rest on the ancient quatrains, written so long ago, and yet so full of meaning for those who live in the present day. Today's news is in the prophecies of the Centuries. Russia and England are now fighting on the same side, while war rages in the Orient, just as Nostradamus predicted. Before this book is off the presses, more striking predictions may have seen fulfillment. And perhaps there will be verses, omitted here because their meaning was not yet clear, which will have become clear through the rapid onrush of events. It is difficult to indicate chronological sequence in events of the future, and any interpreter's confusion on this point in unavoidable. Nostradamus may have juggled order to further mask identification and meaning. Also many of the quatrains had to be omitted for lack of space. Those most pertinent to our time, and to the development

p. 338

of the future, are given first consideration here.

The final chapter of the historic cycle of the Nostradamus predictions is naturally the most exciting to us who live in the midst of its predicted alarms and tragic drama and can foresee, in part, some of the fearsome days of the future. Nostradamus has given in the course of the Centuries many dates, both actual years and astronomically stated times. He has not given, directly, the date for the emergence of France from her yoke of bondage. But in the opinion of this author he has given it in the number of his verses, one of the cryptic methods which he enjoyed using for his half-concealments. The final edition of his work contained ten Centuries which by right should have totaled a thousand quatrains. There were but nine hundred and forty-four. If one takes these two facts as giving the elements of a historic date, and adds them, the date is 1944.

This is not to be taken, however, as the date for the crowning of a new king of France, but rather perhaps of his coming to the fore, or raising the royal standard, together with a new attitude in France. In other words, it is the turning point. Several verses indicate that the stabilization of Europe, and the fullness of a new king's power will not come until 1952-3.

The present Pretender to the French throne is Henri, Duc de Guise. He corresponds in the facts of his life to the description given by the prophet of the coming king. The last king of his line, he would be the

p. 339

first to bear the name Henry since the founder of the Bourbon dynasty, Henry of Navarre, and would complete the cycle of the house of Bourbon-Orleans, whose first ruler was born within the lifetime of Nostradamus.

1914 AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

In March, 1915, the second year of World War I, these three planets were in conjunction in Pisces; the Sun, in the chart of the Third Republic, is in the ninth degree of Virgo, the opposing sign to that of the conjunction. The full Moon of that month, occurring March 1st, on the day of the second battle of Ypres, fell on nine of Virgo, exactly on the Sun of the Republic.

The new Moon of the 15th of March fell in Pisces, thus giving emphasis to the other planets in that sign which, since it is opposite Virgo, is the house of enemies of the government, and of war. It is in the precision of such details as this that the vision of Nostradamus seems the most fabulous. For vision it was. No

p. 340

astrologer on earth, lacking the chart of the Republic (and it was then of course unborn), could have made a forecast based upon it.

VI-81

III-18

Around Rheims, center of the two battles of the Marne, the artillery duel developed such clouds of smoke that the sky seemed to touch the land, and the horror of so many dead deterred even relatives and officials from the agony of the place. The prophet's picture is as accurate as it is harrowing.

p. 341

VIII-61

III-7

III-6

In 1917 a shot from a Big Bertha killed people in a church in Paris. The Seine was very high that year, at times touching the walls.

VIII-48

Saturn was in Cancer throughout the first six months of 1917, leaving the sign at the end of June. On the 3rd of February Woodrow Wilson broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. In June Mars and Jupiter came to conjunction when the first American contingent of troops sailed for France. Nothing could be more precise than this astronomical timing of the period from the first cheering announcement to France of the break which meant this country was coming in, to the sailing of the first troops of the A.E.F. to "save the land."

Nostradamus made use of a triple anagram to characterize President Wilson, which is a triumph of ingenuity and condensation.

III-71

p. 343

IX-100

X-2

The battle of Jutland is very well indicated in these two verses and the device of camouflage is duly observed by the prophet.

IV-12

Alsace-Lorraine was regained by this war.

p. 344

II-82

X-1

VII-25

An illustration in the Jour, for the 26th of February, 1937, showed coins of 1914 as a full moon, those for 1918 as half moon, those for 1936, a quarter

p. 345

crescent, and those for 1937 as a thin crescent. (Extrait du "Jour," Georges Lachapelle, Les Finances de la III^e République.)

VI-72

The Czarina of Russia and the influence of Rasputin.

I-14

This is a clear picture of the Russian Revolution.

X-22

VIII-38

These are the events around the abdication of Edward VIII.

*

V-49

In the papal elections of 1922 many thought that the papacy would go to the Spanish cardinal, Merry del Val. It was given instead to Monsignor Ratti, Pius XI, who though Italian, came from what was anciently Cisalpine Gaul.

p. 347

V-92

Pope Pius XI reigned seventeen years. The five governments which underwent changes in his time were Italy, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Spain. Pius XII is not too "conformable" to Mussolini's ideas.

*

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

V-13

The house is the League of Nations, run by foreign policies. Nostradamus, as we have seen, in earlier quatrains here included, did not trust the League.

p. 348

X-49

I-47

IX-92

The captive king is Haile Selassie.

II-64

Yes, that was the time they imposed the Italian sanctions and the British fleet backed down.

I-100

The reference to the dove and the olive branch of the League of Nations seems to close with a reference to the death of Woodrow Wilson. Perhaps the exigencies of rhyme induced the prophet to mention his concluding war, after the man "will die". The meaning is clear enough, but cart-before-horse.

II-23

I-87

II-39

IV-59

The two besieged, or limited, by the League, are Hitler and Mussolini quenching their thirst for power

p. 351

with Czechoslovakia and Ethiopia. The strong man is Daladier; the dreamer, Chamberlain.

*

1940

II-40

V-85

III-12

One can only say that the comparison of Mussolini to Aretino is unflattering to the early journalist and satirist.

*

THE SPANISH REVOLUTION

Because of the Greek ideas which characterized the French Revolution and Directorate, foreseen by Nostradamus, he usually calls a government la dame, and uses throughout the Centuries the Greek Woman, or Castula to signify it. Here he sees the importation of democratic principles into Spain, crystallized in the Spanish Republic.

I-19

The author has seen a newspaper reference to the flight of the late ex-King, Alfonso, in a boat carrying a cargo of fresh-killed meat, but cannot cite the reference.

The reference to the Coffin area is fascinating. Bertina Harding, in The Phantom Crown, tells how young Maximilian visited the tombs of his ancestors while in Spain in 1856. "The mystery of Philip II's oracle confronted him. In the octagon-shaped chamber, at the center of the mausoleum, the eccentric monarch had fitted out a permanent abode for his embalmed ancestors. That was not all. After providing accommodation for ten defunct forebears, he had added with dreadful insight, space for as many crowned successors to himself as he deemed probable. Tier on tier the marble coffins stood, thirty in all. And only three were empty . . . but the Queen, Isabella II, was fitting up a nursery in her palace at Madrid for this expected heir, Alfonso XII. Would there then be but one more Alfonso? A thirteenth? The Archduke fell into uncomfortable reflections while a phlegmatic guide rattled a bunch of keys.

"'When they are quite full', the man said, pointing at the coffins, 'we will get the Republic.'"

The construction of the tombs (the Coffin) was probably begun by Philip II during the lifetime of Nostradamus.

p. 354

X-48

It is generally recognized that Franco's revolt was the real beginning of the present world war.

VI-64

III-75

p. 355

VI-10

The robes of nuns and of the priesthood are black and white. Red and yellow are the Spanish colors. Franco's party will have the confidence of the Church for a while, because ostensibly the Franco revolt is on behalf of royal restoration.

X-14

The wife is the royal government whose principles will survive, though her children are murdered.

p. 356

VI-19

III-62

IV-70

p. 357

III-19

The recent death of Alfonso XIII confirms his prophecy for Spain's "great warden."

*

THE SECOND GREAT WAR

II-56

The death of Pius XI in 1939 six months before the outbreak of war.

I-91

The meaning of this is that the old gods and myths revived will dominate human action. Such a revival has been seen in Germany, and Hitler's belief in his relationship to the figures in Wagnerian drama is well known to all readers of magazines and newspapers today. The left hand meant in the prophet's day, not Communism but peace or pacifism. This verse, from a man of peace, is a powerful indictment of the prewar policy of his country.

Interesting is the phraseology of a New York Times editorial (June 22, 1941) on the subject of myths, commenting on a speech by President Conant, of Harvard: "President Conant's new nihilists are the people who believe in the Myth as the great motive force in history. To stir the masses you don't need to tell them the truth. Just tell them anything that gets them excited."

III-26

p. 359

Everyone has heard that Hitler uses astrology and other occult methods to guide his life and activities as well as the destiny of Germany.

VII-14

Presage 27

X-99

p. 360

*

ITALY AND SPAIN

VII-32

This is Mussolini, even to the "march," by train, from Milan.

VI-36

The wounding of Victor Emmanuel is metaphorical, as is the black saddle-cloth of Fascism.

II-65

Saturn in Aries is associated with acquisitiveness. The prophet appears here to indicate the period of January 1938, when Saturn entered the sign and Mercury became direct in Sagittarius, to January of 1939 when Saturn turned direct preparatory to leaving the sign, and again Mercury was in the Archer's sign. Nostradamus pays close attention to the times when the planets change from retrograde to direct motion, as did all of the older astrologers who would have noted these details in the prophet's mention of astronomical timing. This time was a period of new and grave economic problems for both Italy, which had not then entered the war, and for the United States whose economic policy, born of the war, was not then fully formulated. The death of a pope during this period would have been felt by Nostradamus as a further deep affliction to Italy.

VII-20

p. 362

This verse seems to describe 1940 in the spring, when Mussolini's agents were active on all fronts before his entrance into the war. He of the Calf is Hitler born under Taurus, sign of the Bull, Ox or Calf. The prophet here implies that he is not only Taurus, but the Golden Calf as well. He, Hitler, was, as one recalls, busily explaining that he had nothing against the French--only their government.

IV-35

VI-33

Obviously a reference to Mussolini, the dark man with his black-shirt legions. The land between the two rivers, referring to the Po and the Tiber, is Italy. The defeat of the Italians, so recently, is clearly given.

p. 363

IV-20

It was the Mediterranean defeats of the Italian navy which paralyzed the power of Italy and threw her at the mercy of Britain, causing Hitler to move in and take control.

Leopards were the famous device of the Plantagenets, and Richard I, the Crusader, carried them to the Orient. This provides one analogy to the present crusade of England, and the fact that the Mediterranean battles were fought for control of the Eastern bases.

III-68

VII-30

Ox-tenders is a play on words referring to Hitler's birth under Taurus, and also is a reference to the low, or ordinary, parentage of Hitler and Mussolini.

IX-76

Dictatorship organized by Mussolini eventually defeated by the coming Henry V.

VI-98

p. 365

II-54

It has all been reported in the newspapers. First the Fascist revolution, then the coming of Hitler. Italy helpless, her sword in a beautiful scabbard, but dull and rusty when drawn.

X-20

V-21

p. 366

V-14

This warlike conjunction will occur on November 12, 1947. It would seem to indicate General Franco, whose prestige has always been bound up with his African influence; it was from the coast of Africa that he planned and led his invasion of Spain. It also specifies the final overthrow of dictatorial power in Italy. Exit the Fascists and Falangists.

IV-34

Since there was nothing in the rule of Henry of Navarre corresponding with this verse, it must apply to the coming Henry V and the downfall of the Italian dictatorship. Fascism is particularly associated with Milan.

p. 367

III-54

The heir to the Spanish throne, Don Juan, or another?

III-21

Just what this means is uncertain, except that the fish in Nostradamus’ writings indicates an heretical religion or ideology.

VII-49

This prediction refers to February 6th, 1971--for readers of another day to check!

p. 368

*

THE COMING OF HITLER

III-76

II-45

The bi-sexual interests of Hitler have been frequently commented on in the press. Late and early refers to the long interval elapsing between the fall of the monarchy and this modern restoration, which will begin early in the great struggle (1944).

IX-68

X-46

Hitler will not be a second Martin Luther, nor the patron of Luther, the Elector of Saxony. His "reform" movement will not be lasting.

V-5

Probably no one will need to have it pointed out that the dramatis personae of this verse are Hitler, France and Mein Kampf.

p. 370

X-10

This sounds like what a large part of the world thinks of Adolf Hitler today, and recalls to the frivolous, "his sisters and his cousins and his aunts etc."

IV-66

It has been noted that Hitler, who was inspired by Mussolini's success, has consistently surrounded himself with seven leaders who carry out his orders and develop his ideas. Whether this is happenstance or related to some of his ideas on occultism is not known, but the number seven has some association with the occult in the minds of many and its legends are very ancient.

p. 371

II-9

1933 + 9 = 1942 unless the time should be counted from Hitler's rise in 1932.

V-18

This very well describes conditions after the fall of France. The author does not know the exact number of members of the former government now dead or imprisoned at Rion; but it is close on seven. France, through Clemenceau, was responsible for the peace of Versailles.

VIII-13

This verse is as puzzling as it is intriguing. The Bellerophon was the ship that took Napoleon to Saint Helena. Here it is a symbol of England. Classically, Bellerophon was a hero who retired after involuntarily causing the death of Praytus, his friend and hunting companion, while both were guests in the house of Praytus' father-in-law. The meaning could be that England allied with a government of France, the Republic (which is not the true son of France but an in-law), while both are guests of France, will meet tragedy; that England (at Dunquerque) will be responsible for the death of (Praytus) the French government.

Then the symbolism changes, and seems to indicate Britannia, "for a thousand years" a sea-going power from the days of William the Conqueror, will taste defeat, and thereafter both Britain and her antagonist, Germany, the crossed brother, will perish.

VI-99

This appears to be a forecast of the eventual defeat of Italy and Germany, "the efficient enemy."

VIII-90

Rudolf Hess is said to have fled because his mind was troubled at the thought of occupation and war in the Holy Land which shocked his Catholicism. The horned bull is Hitler, the Taurean, who has brought the war to the Holy Land.

When the Robin Moor was sunk the New York World-Telegram carried a story from the survivors which stated that the submarine hoisted no flag, but was painted with the large device of a red bull. So that it would seem that not only the forces of Hitler, but also his actual astrological insignia are in evidence in the far places.

VI-77

This seems to mean Hitler's destruction by his own people.

VI-18

*

ENGLAND AND HER ALLIES

IV-50

p. 375

Many people interpret the old prophecies concerning the popes to mean that the present pope is the prophesied Pastor Angelicus. Libra is England, so called because of her policy of the balance of power.

II-89

IV-56

Joseph Stalin is an ally of England as this goes to press, but here and elsewhere his passing, along with Communism, is predicted.

X-81

This may refer to the gold hoard of the United States; or it may have reference to Spain, known to the ancients as Hesperus, and often so designated by Nostradamus.

III-3

This triple conjunction last occurred September 2nd, 1940, just before the invasion of Greece.

Nostradamus lived too near the time of Jeanne d’Arc, and he was too passionately French, to feel other than jealousy and distrust of England, a power which he saw steadily expanding through centuries to greater possessions than his own nation. From early times a prophecy of the downfall of England had been handed down from the Welsh prophet, Merlin. Eustache Deschamps, the French bard of the early fifteenth century, used the Merlin prophecy in one of his satiric poems. Nostradamus has come very near to

p. 377

copying it. Both of these troubadours hoped Merlin was right, and, because of that, one may perhaps discount something of the gloom that hangs about Nostradamus’ forecasts for England. The lines of Deschamps are these.

Nostradamus elaborates on the theme in the following verses. No specific dates are indicated in these prophecies for England, some of which may be quite distant.

X-100

p. 378

Portugal was the great maritime rival of Britain at the time Nostradamus wrote this. There is something deeply symbolic in the fact that this verse is the closing one of the Centuries. It is as if there were an implication that the end of England would be the end of the world as we know it. It is like the old saying about Rome: "While stands the Colosseum, Rome shall stand, when falls the Colosseum, Rome shall fall, and when Rome, falls the world." The civilized world today has a similar feeling about England and her relationship to all that is held free and precious.

III-70

III-57

p. 379

VI-81

The League of Nations and Britain, differently approached, have been Hitler's main objectives.

VI-90

These curious lines, which seem only applicable to 1940, admit that France has played a not quite heroic part--a great admission for the prophet. Yet he manages to blame England for not following in the footsteps of France.

X-32

Everyone will desire to head the great empire, One shall obtain the power over the others. But there is little time for his power or life, Two years his navy will sustain him.

p. 380

II-100

III-71

It was all right with Nostradamus when England blockaded the seas in 1914 to the advantage of France. The same situation is all wrong in 1941, and England is then "dog in the manger."

VI-21

As this book goes to press, Russia is invaded, and Winston Churchill announces that England will assist

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her, the two northernmost empires, "those of the Arctic Pole." The fighting and terror in the Orient are at peak.

IV-63

II-93

Sir Thomas More, contemporary of the prophet and author of Utopia, was the ancestor of Communism. The prophet seems to blame his ideas beyond those of Rousseau, though he mentions the latter for the tragedies produced by the Communistic ideology. How closely this verse follows the headlines and reports on the Russian-German conflict, as this book goes to press (June, 1941)!

p. 382

VIII-64

S-50

IX-51

V-59

p. 383

VIII-7

III-32

II-78

VIII-97

IX-6

*

FRANCE AND THE PAPACY

VI-74

This is a peculiarly interesting verse. In his letter to King Henry the prophet speaks of "the great trembling of the earth together with the increase of the new Babylon, wretched daughter (of the Revolution), augmented by the abomination of the first holocaust

p. 385

[paragraph continues] (1792). It will hold its power for just seventy-three years and seven months. Then there shall issue from the long barren tree (of the monarchy), born at the 50th Parallel (latitude of the Franco-Belgian border), one who will revitalize the entire Christian Church. And there shall be created a peace, union and concord between the children of opposed and separate races."

If 1944, as previously analyzed from the number of verses and Centuries (this author may possibly be alone in seeing such a connection; certainly the first to say so), it constitutes Nostradamus’ date for the beginning of "France Second," over which the new and great Henry V is to rule.

If to the date of the Battle of Sedan, September 1st, 1870, the seventy-three years and seven months of the prophet are added, it brings us to March, 1944. If the seventy-three years are subtracted from the date of the downfall of Napoleon III at Sedan one gets 1797, dating the rise of Napoleon I. Napoleon III died in 1873, which is a kind of echo of the number. Nostradamus mentions, not in a prophetic connection, the Hebrew prophet Joel. This is in the letter to the King. It seemed odd to single out for no reason this one short Biblical book and not to refer to other prophets. But on looking into Joel, one discovers that the book has just three chapters and seventy-three verses. The French Republic has had three chapters too, the First, Second and Third Republics. This number 73 is a peculiar one.

p. 386

Nostradamus gives the precise date of the French Revolution, also in the letter to the King. "Then will be seen the beginning of events of long duration, and in the first year there will be a great persecution of the Christian Church. This will break out in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two. The people will think that it is a renewing of the age."

If 1792 is taken as a starting point, and two additions of the number of Joel, 73, are made, one has the date of 1938.

Returning to the quatrain, the verse of course refers to the government of Napoleon I, which returned to power under Louis Napoleon. Yet as has been shown, the verse has a much more subtle application, and the seventy-three years does not refer to the tenure of power of either man, but to cycles which included their years. The rise of one and the downfall of the other give points of reference for use of the number.

X-28

Nostradamus severely blamed Louis Philippe, whose reign was the beginning of the Second Republic, in other verses, for his catering to democratic ideas, and

p. 387

abandoning the flag of the lilies for the tri-color. He is the King referred to here.

IV-30

There have been twelve elected presidents of France, in addition to the first two who were royalist in sympathy.

VIII-96

Léon Blum's tenure of office.

IV-32

The boomerang in both defense and economics which marked the Blum régime is predicted.

VI-50

Nostradamus never fails to ascribe the faults of democracy in France to its hideous beginnings in the French Revolution, the step-mother of the Third Republic. He hears the rattle of its bones in the revival of Communist ideas in the Blum régime.

I-3

p. 389

The Cagoulards, or hooded ones, who hid their faces, arose to fight the leftist tendencies of the French Republic, and by so doing played into Hitler's hands.

IX-51

VIII-91

This probably referred to the conjunction of 1938, when the harmony between the Axis members was at its height. Mention was made in the press of their conspiracies, notably those of burning French ships. They had their headquarters in the valley and mouth of the Rhone. The deluge here is the figurative one of the onset of tragedy.

p. 390

VIII-1

Sixain 36

VII-33

The ancient enmity of France and England.

VI-34

II-77

VI-43

For a long time the country will be abandoned
Where the Seine and the Marne flow together.
The soldiers from the Thames will be despised,
They will be driven back from those whom they were supposed to guard.

I-41

II-8 7

The golden throne in Nostradamus’ writings is always the throne of France, whose ancient emblem was the lilies of gold on the white flag. Nostradamus often uses prince or king when speaking of a foreigner of great power. Here Hitler.

II-5

Paris and Vichy. Nostradamus uses such terms as scourge in the Biblical sense of general affliction.

X-85

Pétain, Laval, and the prisoners at Rion.

IV-21

This sounds as if it were a reference to Marshal Pétain and Laval or Darlan.

I-61

VI-9 7

The degree is that of the city of Lyons, which is indicated elsewhere as the route of conquest, up from the south and the path which the coming Henry V will follow. The Normans are the old monarchy of which he is the descendant.

IV-40

VIII-6

Don Raz is Franco, so called because of his Moorish connections.

p. 395

III-82

S-4

Saturn will be in Libra in 1951, when the new King may be expected to reach the fullness of his power.

II-88

This verse clearly prophesies that the coming King of France will arise at this time when France is under the heel of Germany. Germany, like England, has long been considered by many astrologers to be under the general rulership of the sign Aries. The astrologer Cheiro once told Edward VII that the salvation of both countries lay in peace and agreement because they were both ruled by Aries.

V-53

III-5

p. 397

Nostradamus indicates in verses, not given here, that the coming King of Spain will be a friend and companion-at-arms of Henry V.

I-51

The present Pretender was born July 5, 1908, with the Sun in the watery sign Cancer.

X-71

Thursday, the day of Jupiter, planet of ecclesiastical hierarchy, is here used in contradistinction to Friday, sacred to the Mohammedans. The meaning is that of the Christian King, Henry V, whose reign will be closely harmonized with the Church.

p. 398

VI-12

By Paris, here, one assumes that he must refer to the Free French movement representative of the former government seated in Paris. But the verse is puzzling in advance of the event.

S-15

X-42

p. 399

The Pastor Angelicus, of the prophecy of Malachi, is the pope yet to come, and is the one indicated by the prophet in this verse. Apparently he is to be of royal French blood and hold his office while Henry V is King of France. This prediction does not check with the papal succession given by Malachi.

S-53

If these numbers are added and the sum added to 1870 the resultant date for the rebirth of the Phoenix is 1945.

X-44

p. 400

June, 1951. Both Sun and Mars were in Cancer in 1940 but not close enough for conjunction. This checks the previous verse giving the same year, and indicates that fighting will go on until the turn of the decade.

VIII-52

The angle of Poictiers is what military men still call the strategic position in this terrain which dominates the approach to Paris. The Holy Empire is that of Germany. Boni is thought by Fontbrune to mean the Bohemians--Czechs. This author doubts it, but does not know what the interpretation is. The original line consists of only two words, and there is probably a

p. 401

trick reading. Such verses were an art in the prophet's day.

VIII-1

In this verse which begins the three Centuries dedicated to Henry, King of France Second, Nostradamus indicates the Bourbon ancestry by addressing the coming King by the name of the birthplace of the Bourbon line, Pau, and two other towns in Béarn. Avignon, the papal city, is near the confluence of the Rhone and Durance.

V-6

p. 402

VIII-18

S-34

X-75

In the last three verses the tragic end of the house of Bourbon is indicated, and reaction against the monarchy.

p. 403

VIII-99

V-46

VIII-98

There are no dates for these verses.

*

DISCOVERY OF THE TOMB OF A SAINT

The fascinating prophecy given below concerns the finding of a tomb of some early Christian saint, which is to happen in April of whatever year. The prophet does not indicate a closer date except that the "new party" will be founded upon the bones of the saint,

p. 404

whom he calls the Great Roman. This presumably means the Christian royalist party of the coming King. The saint may possibly be one of the early Christians of the time of Trajan, who journeyed into Gaul and died there. Under Trajan the Roman Empire reached its greatest expansion of territory. It also achieved a very high and wide-spread culture. The persecution of Christians was, however, very severe. The verses seem to point to an analogy between Trajan and the imperialist ambitions of Mussolini, who is perhaps typified in the mention of Prince Ulpian. Trajan's name was Marcus Ulpius Trajan. Nostradamus’ reference to the golden lamp of Trajan would seem to mean the spiritual lamp of Christianity which, though buried under persecution, still glows in its secret place in the old Roman province, now Provence. The parallel is made by the prophet between the persecuted Christians of Trajan's day, of whom the old saint may have been one, and the modern Christians, whose lamp must also burn in secret, persecuted by dictators.

VI-66

IX-31

VIII-59

VI-15

Nuremberg and Wittemberg refer to Hitler.

V-66

VII-66

III-65

I-25

p. 407

*

THE RISE OF THE ORIENT

The author, sometime ago, cited some of the predictions in the following verses to a well-known military commentator. He said that they were not news. That men in his particular work who were always scanning future horizons for long-range prophecies of their own had long accepted the rise of the Orient as a fait accompli of the future, and that for this reason the political forecasters gave triple attention to every item that came out of Asia and Africa. Nostradamus in his own day saw the might of the Orient and its menace to Christian Europe, and he knew that cycles return.

VIII-5 9

IX-60

p. 408

The frogs are the French; that is the ancient name from Merovingian times.

VI-85

Probably the prophet looks back from this advanced time to what is Portugal today, as this is a small country and may be incorporated in a large one. A modern French commentator, realizing its size, says, naïvely enough, that Portugal will send for the U. S. fleet!

VIII-77

I-18

III-44

V-112

Life will be frankly hedonistic in Africa without the mask of moral hypocrisy.

V-5

p. 410

VI-80

III-20

I-73

In the coming invasions of Europe, through the rising of the Orient, the prophet makes sarcastic reference to the long years in his own day when the Venetian fleet, unaided, protected Europe against the East

p. 411

while the nations of Europe quarreled amongst themselves. That situation, he says, will come again, and this time there won't be the Venetian fleet.

II-96

IX-73

This conjunction takes place February 18, 1981.

Presage 35

The Crocodiles are the people of Africa and tropical Asia who will overwhelm France, the mother and tutrice, after the final fall of the Bourbon dynasty.

V-75

V-25

The date of this conjunction is August 21, 1987.

*

THE END OF THE AGE

Not only ever since the Christian era, but long before in the songs and lamentations of the Hebrew prophets, the end of the great precessional era of the

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[paragraph continues] Fishes, Pisces, has been foretold in a wealth of tragic and saddening detail. It is not the end of the world, as many people of old times thought, but the end of a grand period, and the birth of a new age with a different type of thought and civilization. Nostradamus prophesied that it would be marked by the downfall of old Europe, and be ushered in with earthquakes and eclipses such as the Bible describes in the scene of the Crucifixion.

Science recognizes that from time to time the earth changes the inclination of its axis. They know this from fossil remains (which, for example, show that Alaska had once a warm climate, and other localities show that similar changes have taken place). But science has no knowledge of what causes this change, nor in what cycle of years its return may be expected. Nor does Nostradamus specify the date for this occurrence, but by implication he links it with the phenomenon of the double eclipse which will take place in 1999.

The two eclipses will occur in the sign Leo, a partial one on July 28th, and a total one on August 11. The event is a very rare astronomical phenomenon. Camille Flammarion wrote of it in detail. All astronomers then living will prepare to observe it with every advanced resource of scientific equipment. Nostradamus, in both his letter to the King and in his verses, has given his picture of what he predicts will affect the entire world. Science is just beginning to have an understanding of terrestrial phenomena, such as floods and earthquakes, coming as the result of celestial phenomena, the doctrine

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held by astrologers for thousands of years. Science has arrived at some limited conclusions forced by the necessity for better long-range weather forecasting. But the study of earthquakes, floods and volcanoes, made in the light of the gravitational and magnetic strains and stresses of the Sun, Moon and planets, is still in its infancy and as yet almost nothing is known about it. The wise men of old knew these things, and Nostradamus knew them. He needed no telescope for the double eclipse, and he not only saw it, but he saw the train of events that came with it, something no giant telescope can show.

In his letter to the King the prophet has this to say of the last years of the twentieth century:

"Then shall begin the great empire of Antichrist in the invasions of Xerxes and Attila ('one who will revive the King of the Angoumois,' and the Oriental invasion) who will come with a countless throng, so that the advent of the Holy Spirit, from the 48th parallel, will make a great change and chase away the abomination of Antichrist that made war on the sovereign Vicar of Christ (the Pope) and against his Church for a time and to the end of time. This will be preceded by an eclipse of the Sun, of denser darkness than has ever been seen since the Creation and up to the passion and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and from that time until the coming one. There will take place in the month of October a great translation made so that the earth will seem to lose the weight of its natural motion in an abyss of endless darkness. There will be premonitory

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signs in the spring, and there will be extreme changes, overthrows of kingdoms, and earthquakes."

"In the last period all the Christian kingdoms, and those of the infidels, will be shaken for twenty-five years. The wars and battles will be more injurious. Towns, cities, castles, and other buildings will be burned, laid waste, and destroyed, with great bloodshed of vestals, violation of wives and widows, and children at the breast dashed and broken against the walls of the towns. Satan, the prince infernal, will commit so many evils that nearly the whole world will be afflicted and desolated.

"After this has endured for a certain length of time, Saturn will almost renew his cycle (twenty-nine years), but God the Creator will bring an age of gold. He will heed the affliction of His people, and He will bind Satan and throw him into the abyss. Then shall begin between God and man a universal peace, and Satan will be bound for a thousand years. Then the cycle will return in grand power, Satan will be once more unbound against the Church."

IV-67

This configuration occurs in April, 1998. It is in that year that Nostradamus predicts the great invasion of France. The path of the solar eclipse, which will be total, passes through northern France and Belgium.

V-54

II-29

X-72

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The Angoumois were an early Gallic people conquered by the invading Goths. The situation will be similar.

III-84

II-28

Diana is the Moon, so that Monday will be the Pope's day of rest. The Moon rules changes, travels and voyagings, and it is involved in mental frenzies and distracted mentalities. In the famous prophecy of Malachi, in his descriptions of the popes yet to come he names third before Petrus Romanus (the last one named) De Medietate Lunae. De Medietate Lunae means "relating to the half-Moon, which is the crescent of Diana." Malachi's further description of this pope is: "From the half-moon proceeds this pope sent to Rome by the Divine Doctor, Hail, our well-beloved Pius XII, most holy Mediator, future victim." The

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present incumbent of the holy See is Pius XII, and more than any previous pope he has "wandered afar." But otherwise the description does not fit, nor does he come in the order given by Malachi. According to the Monk of Padua there will be two popes after the Lunar, and three more before him. Nostradamus names him as the "penultimate" pope. In the times of the Avignon popes and the Great Schism Cardinal Pietro di Luna was one of the false popes. Eustache Deschamps, a famous satiric poet of that time, whose writings were not only familiar to Nostradamus but imitated and quoted by him, wrote a satire called, "Of the Schism in the Church Which is Much Troubled by the Moon" (Luna). Some of Nostradamus’ lines are very close to lines in this satire.

III-17

VIII-15

These two eclipses, one of the Sun and the other of the Moon, both occur in August of 1999, in the sign Leo, traditionally associated.

VIII-16

I-69

I-56

I-84

I-47

X-74

X-73

VII-41