Nostradamus :
Biography
Nostradamus was born Michel de
Nostradame in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France in 1503. He studied medicine and
became a physician, treating plague victims throughout France and Italy. It’s
believed he had a psychic awakening. He began to practice the occult and make
predictions of the future, which he published in The Prophecies. Many people
today believe his predictions have come true or will in the future.
Early Life
Astrologer and physician. Born Michel
de Nostradame, December 14 or 21 1503. French astrologer and physician known
for his prophecies which he published in a book entitled The Prophecies
in 1555, which have become famous worldwide.
Michel de Nostradame was born in the
south of France in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, one of nine children to Reyniere de
St-Remy, and her husband Jaume de Nostradame, a well-to-do grain dealer and
part-time notary of Jewish dissent. Nostradame's grandfather, Guy Gassonet, had
converted to Catholicism a half century earlier and changed the family name to
Nostradame, in part to avoid persecution during the Inquisition.
Little is known of his childhood, but
evidence indicates he was very intelligent as he quickly advanced through
school. Early in his life, he was tutored by his maternal grandfather, Jean de
St. Remy, who saw great intellect and potential in his grandson. During this
time, young Nostradame was taught the rudiments of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and
mathematics. It is believed that his grandfather also introduced him to the
ancient rights of Jewish tradition and the celestial sciences of astrology,
giving Nostradame his first exposure to the idea of the heavens and how they
drive human destiny.
Studies
At the age of 14, Nostradame entered
the University of Avignon to study medicine. He was forced to leave after only
one year, however, due to an outbreak of the bubonic plague. According to his
own account, he traveled throughout the countryside during this time,
researching herbal remedies and working as an apothecary. In 1522 he entered
the University of Montpelier to complete his doctorate in medicine. He sometimes
expressed dissension with the teachings of the Catholic priests, who dismissed
his notions of astrology. There are some reports that university officials
discovered his previous experience as an apothecary and found this reason to
expel him from school. Evidently the school took a dim view of anyone who was
involved in what was considered a "manual trade." However, most
accounts state he was not expelled and received license to practice medicine in
1525. At this time he Latinized his name—as was the custom of many medieval
academics—from Nostradame to Nostradamus.
Combating the
Plague
Over the next several years,
Nostradamus traveled throughout France and Italy, treating victims of the
plague. There was no known remedy at the time; most doctors relied on potions
made of mercury, the practice of bloodletting, and dressing patients in garlic
soaked robes. Nostradamus had developed some very progressive methods for
dealing with the plague. He didn't bleed his patients, instead practicing
effective hygiene and encouraging the removal of the infected corpses from city
streets. He became known for creating a "rose pill," an herbal
lozenge made of rosehips (rich in Vitamin C) that provided some relief for
patients with mild cases of the plague. His cure rate was impressive, though
much can be attributed to keeping his patients clean, administering low-fat
diets, and providing plenty of fresh air.
In time, Nostradamus found himself
somewhat of a local celebrity for his treatments, and received financial
support from many of the citizens of Provence. 1n 1531, he was invited to work
with a leading scholar of the time, Jules-Cesar Scaliger in Agen, in
southwestern France. There he married and in the next few years, had two
children. In 1534, his wife and children died—presumably of the plague—while he
was traveling on a medical mission to Italy. Not being able to save his wife
and children caused him to fall out of favor in the community and with his
patron, Scaliger.
The Occult
In 1538, an offhanded remark about a
religious statue resulted in charges of heresy against Nostradamus. When
ordered to appear before the Church Inquisition, he wisely chose to leave
Province to travel for several years through Italy, Greece and Turkey. During
his travels to the ancient mystery schools, it is believed that Nostradamus
experienced a psychic awakening. One of the legends of Nostradamus says that,
during his travels in Italy, he came upon a group of Franciscan monks,
identifying one as the future Pope. The monk, called Felice Peretti, was
ordained Pope Sixtus V in 1585, fulfilling the prediction of Nostradamus.
Feeling he'd stayed away long enough
to be safe from the inquisition, Nostradamus returned to France to resume his
practice of treating plague victims. In 1547, he settled in his home-town of
Salon-de-Province and married a rich widow named Anne Ponsarde. Together they
had six children—three boys and three girls. Nostradamus also published two
books on medical science by this time. One, was a translation of Galen, the Roman physician,
and a second book, The Traite des Fardemens, was a medical cookbook for
treating the plague and the preparation of cosmetics.
Within a few years of his settling
into Salon, Nostradamus began moving away from medicine and more toward the
occult. It is said that he would spend hours in his study at night meditating
in front of a bowl filled with water and herbs. The meditation would bring on a
trance and visions. It is believed the visions were the basis of his
predictions for the future. In 1550, Nostradamus wrote his first almanac of
astrological information and predictions of the coming year. Almanacs were very
popular at the time, as they provided useful information for farmers and
merchants and contained entertaining bits of local folklore and predictions of
the coming year. Nostradamus began writing about his visions and incorporating
them into his first almanac. The publication received a great response, and
served to spread his name all across France, which encouraged Nostradamus to
write more.
By 1554, Nostradamus' visions had
become an integral part of his works in the almanacs, and he decided to channel
all his energies into a massive opus he entitled Centuries. He planned to write
10 volumes, which would contain 100 predictions forecasting the next 2,000
years. In 1555 he published Les Prophesies, a collection of his major, long-term
predictions. Possibly feeling vulnerable to religious persecution, he devised a
method of obscuring the prophecies' meanings by using quatrains—rhymed
four-line verses—and a mixture of other languages such as Greek, Italian,
Latin, and Provencal, a dialect of Southern France. Oddly enough, Nostradamus
enjoyed a good relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. It is believed he
never faced prosecution for heresy by the Inquisition because he didn't extend
his writings to the practice of magic.
Nostradamus ran into some controversy
with his predictions, as some thought he was a servant of the devil, and others
said he was a fake or insane. However, many more believed the prophecies were
spiritually inspired. He became famous and in demand by many of Europe's elite.
Catherine de Medici, the wife of King Henri II of France, was one of
Nostradamus' greatest admirers. After reading his almanacs of 1555, where he
hinted at unnamed threats to her family, she summoned him to Paris to explain
and draw up horoscopes for her children. A few years later, she made him
Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to King Henri's court. In 1556, while
serving in this capacity Nostradamus also explained another prophecy from Centuries I,
which was assumed to refer to King Henri. The prophecy told of a "young
lion" who would overcome an older one on the field of battle. The young
lion would pierce the eye of the older one and he would die a cruel death.
Nostradamus warned the king he should avoid ceremonial jousting. Three years
later, when King Henri was 41 years old, he died in a jousting match when a
lance from this opponent pierced the king's visor and entered his head behind the
eye deep into his brain. He held on to life for 10 agonizing days before
finally dying of infection.
Nostradamus claimed to base his
published predictions on judicial astrology—the art of forecasting future
events by calculation of the planets and stellar bodies in relationship to the
earth. His sources include passages from classical historians like Plutarch as
well as medieval chroniclers from whom he seems to have borrowed liberally. In
fact, many scholars believe he paraphrased ancient end-of-the-world prophecies
(mainly from the Bible) and then through astrological readings of the past,
projected these events into the future. There's also evidence not everyone was
enamored with Nostradamus' predictions. He was criticized by professional
astrologers of the day for incompetence and assuming that comparative horoscopy
(the comparison of future planetary configurations with those accompanying
known past events) could predict the future.
Death and Legacy
Nostradamus suffered from gout and
arthritis for much of his adult life. In the last years of his life, the
condition turned into edema or dropsy, where abnormal amounts of fluid
accumulate beneath the skin or within cavities of the body. Without treatment,
the condition resulted in congestive heart failure. In late June of 1566,
Nostradamus asked to see his lawyer to draw up an extensive will, leaving much
of his estate to his wife and children. On the evening of July 1, he is alleged
to have told his secretary Jean de Chavigny, "You will not fine me alive at
sunrise." The next morning he was reportedly found dead lying on the floor
next to his bed.
Most of the quatrains Nostradamus
composed during his life dealt with disasters such as plagues, earthquakes,
wars, floods, invasions murders, droughts, and battles. Nostradamus enthusiasts
have credited him with predicting numerous events in world history including
the French Revolution; the rise of Napoleon and Hitler; the development of the
atomic bomb; and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center. Nostradamus's popularity seems to be due in part to the fact that the
vagueness of his writings and their lack of specific dates make it easy to
selectively quote them after any major dramatic events and retrospectively
claim them as true. Some scholars believe he was not writing to be a prophet,
but writing to comment on events of his time and the people in it. Whatever his
method or intentions, Nostradamus' timeless predictions continue to make him
popular to those seeking answers to life's more difficult questions.
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