HISTORY PERTAINING TO FRANCE AND TO NOSTRADAMUS

The month of May 1791 represents the year whereby the French Revolution was at its apogee. Three skeptics were out to prove that a certain legend was nothing but a lie. The legend said, "Whoever drinks from the skull of the man who is buried in this particular church wall will inherit his power." The name of the dead man was Michel de Nostredame. His power, or God-given gift, had been to write in a poetic fashion about certain events which were part of the future.

For a period of two hundred years, his tomb was to remain intact. However, precisely as predicted by Nostradamus himself, the profanation of his sepulchre did take place. The legend also said that whoever would desecrate this particular tomb would die because of it. It was not the skeleton which scared the people doing the desecration but the metal plate which he wore around his neck and on which was inscribed a certain date in time, May 1791.

The plate, which had also aged with time, could only have been put there by the family members of Michel de Nostredame when he was buried in the walls of that church in 1566. Two hundred and twenty five years previously, Michel had predicted the exact month and year that the profanation of his sepulchre would take place. The shots that killed the people doing the desecration came from the French Revolutionary troops. The death of the people doing the defiling was the proof that the legend or prophecy concerning this great man had come to pass.

Was this a mere coincidence or was it a true prophecy? Who was Michel de Nostredame? Was he an imposter, a charlatan, or was he an authentic seer or prophet who could foresee the future while most others could not?

Michel de Nostredame has been remembered in history by the Latin name of Nostradamus. He was a well-known French physician and a great seer whose predictions of the future have mystified most searchers for the past 400 years. Many of his predictions about the past have been proven to be accurate, his premonitions concerning the future will surely begin to affect us soon.

During his lifetime, Nostradamus made more than a thousand predictions. Some experts have stated that more than 500 of them have already been realized. Let us review some of his most important predictions concerning the French Revolution, Napoleon I, Adolph Hitler, the Kennedy brothers and many more possible futuristic happenings. We will also study other prophecies concerning another very fanatical individual who is alive today and who shall, in the near future, involve the people of our planet into very catastrophic happenings.

The Great Seer labels that infamous individual as the third Antichrist, he predicts his apparition on the world scene at the beginning of the new century, sometime after the year 2000. Was he wrong? He will be a man of war who will soon become very infamous. That fanatical individual could bring countless miseries to various countries and to many of the people living on this planet. According to Nostradamus, that series of unfortunate events could last for 27 long years.

As a child, Nostradamus was already conscious of his gift to be able to foresee certain events pertaining to the future. He grew up in the village of St. Remi de Provence in France where he had been raised since his birth on the 14 of December 1503. His family roots dated back to Judeo Christian traditions. Both of his grandfathers converted from Judaism to Christianity after doing an intensive self-study of both the old and the new testament of the Bible.

Michel de Nostredame was a Frenchman and a good Catholic who strongly believed that his power to foretell events of the future was derived from a Divine source.

By perusing his writings, the searchers of the truth have noticed that his Church and his religion were the centre of his references.

From his grandfather, who had been a physician, he learned to understand and to respect the contents of both the new and the old testament of the bible. At school he had also studied astronomy as well as grammar. Therefore, as a youth he received an exceptional education which was unusual for a young Frenchman of his time.

His father, who had been the village notary, saw to it that his son received a classical as well as a scientific education. From his mother he received the gift of the love of God and that of a deep faith. He soon learned to respect the gift of prophecy as being the power of God to unite in a single instant, the past, the present and the future.

Doctor Edgar Mitchell, a man of science who was one of the first astronauts to walk on the moon, was asked whether it was possible to see through time.

"Yes", he said, "It is possible to foresee the future. Each human being possesses a conscience and a creative power that is practically unlimited. Certain individuals benefit from this more than others. This question is the object of many studies which reaffirms it more definitely every year. The future is merely nothing but a series of probabilities derived from decisions which are presently made and which lead to certain future happenings. Every human being has the power to determine his own future, some people are more conscious of it than others."

One of Nostradamus' first visions was concerning religion. As an adolescent, on a particular day, he saw a young Franciscan Christian brother approaching a well. He felt himself propelled towards him in order to pay him tribute. Having made his way towards him, he fell on his knees and kissed his garment. The young Christian brother was astonished to receive the attention of such a noble youngster. The young Christian monk said to him,

"Are you being honest with yourself in rendering such honour to a noble brother?"
Michel replied to him by saying,
"I must kiss the robe of his Holiness the Pope."
That was definitely an irregular event.

Many years later, in 1585, and after the death of Nostradamus, the same young Christian brother became Pope under the name of Sixtus the fifth. His name was Felix Peretti. Had the young Michel actually seen the future, had he seen that the young Christian brother would some day become Pope? Yes, it would seem that he did.

Nostradamus, as a youth, was not ready to lead the life of a seer or that of a prophet. He continued his studies at Avignon and then, later on, he began to study medicine at the medical school of Montpelier. During the course of his studies the plague spread itself to various parts of France, it was the curse of the 16th century. In those days medical science could not offer any treatment for that illness and thousands of people died from it.

Michel left the medical school while he was only 22 years old and, although he had never previously practised any medicine, he began to travel all across his country catering to the sick and the dying. His love and passion for medicine was the reason for his successes at healing the sick. No traces of medicinal potions, which he utilized in those days, were ever found. Many cities affected by the curse of that century were calling for his services, he quickly became a legend. Had he never written any prophecies, he would have been renown in history as a most remarkable physician.

Nostradamus' successes eventually brought him to the city of Agen. It was in that city that he remained to practice medicine and where he eventually married and settled down. It was also in that same city that his strange gift of foretelling the future made him the talk of the town. One day, he was invited to attend a banquet. His host attempted to fool him because he had heard of his unusual powers of clairvoyance. He told him that all of the invited guests would be served young piglet for dinner. There was a black piglet and a white piglet. The host invited Michel to tell him which one of the two would be served. Without any hesitation whatsoever the great seer answered his host by saying, "The black piglet". It was then that the host gave secret instructions to the chef telling him to prepare the white piglet for dinner. Later on during the evening, and while they were still dining, the host asked him once again: "Which piglet are you dining on?" He answered his host as he had answered him earlier, "The black piglet." Triumphantly, the host called the chef and asked him to tell everyone present which of the two piglets they were dining on. The chef responded to his master by saying to him that while he was preparing the white piglet for dinner it had unfortunately fallen off the table onto the floor, the master's wolf dogs had devoured it immediately. He then told his master that he felt obliged to serve the other piglet, the black one.

As time went on the great clairvoyant became more and more conscious of his power to foretell the future. It was only after a personal tragedy had affected him that he began to pay attention to his God-given gift and modified his lifestyle accordingly. Then, in 1533, a new series of the plague killed his wife and his two children. He went into a deep depression, which caused him to retire from public life and to withdraw within himself. He then wandered throughout the various countries of Europe for the next ten years. He was now taking time to discover the task which was ahead of him. In 1544, he returned to Salon in the Midi of France where he remarried with a well known rich widow. Six children were eventually born of that second marriage, three boys and three girls.

Nostradamus began to write what he saw and heard in his nightly visions. It was during his nocturnal meditations that he wrote what the great Spirit whispered to him. He wrote in four-line rhymes which he later labelled quatrains.

The following quatrain is the first which Nostradamus ever assembled. In that four line poem, he tells us how he accomplished writing all of his quatrains. He says that he wrote them during the quiet hours of the night through that wonderful and strange God-given gift of clairvoyance.

Estant assis, de nuict secret estude,
Seul repose sur la scelle d'aerain,
Flambe exigue sortant de solitude,
Fait proferer qui n'est a croire vain.
Century 1 quatrain 1

At night, secluded in my study,
All alone relaxing on my bronze chair,
A demanding flame emanating from the quietness of the night,
Making me utter that which is hard to believe.

Nostradamus chose to write his prophecies in four-line rhymes, which he labelled quatrains. He wrote them in French, his mother tongue. To protect himself against the witch-hunters of his days, which were full of superstitions, he mixed into his verses some Latin, some Greek and many anagrams. He wrote more than a thousand quatrains divided into ten separate groups, which he called "Centuries".

The first edition of some of his quatrains were realized in 1555. Since then, they have continuously been edited into numerous tongues. In 1550, he had assembled an Almanac in which he predicted various weather patterns of which there are no records as to their accuracy.

In the following quatrain, Nostradamus attempts to explain how he received his nocturnal visions. It would seem, by the information which he has given us, that he may have utilized some kind of divining rod or perhaps a branch cut from a certain type of tree and which he had dampened at both extremities. He had dampened that branch at both ends, which he calls 'Le limbe et Le pied'. In this case, the French word limbe seems to mean something which is yet undefined and 'Le pied' means the foot or the other extremity of the branch. He loved to confuse us with his writings, he did it to make us better searchers of the truth because he knew that only those who truly searched out his writings would eventually discover some of the hidden meanings of his strangely assembled quatrains.

La verge en main, mise au milieu de branches,
De l'onae je mouille Le limbe et Le pied,
En peur j'ecris fremissant par les manches;
Splendeur Divine; Le Divine prez s'assied.
Century 1 quatrain 2

With a branch in my hand, taken from the middle of other branches,
With water I wet opposite ends of the branch,
As if scared (to death) the branch trembles in my very hand,
While the heavenly Splendour; The Divine Spirit sits closely by.

Onae is an anagram of the French word "onde", which means water. Verge is also a French word, it was commonly used in older days to describe the branch of a tree utilized for measuring. It was most probably marked in millimetres. Some people are saying that some kind of a globe or map was utilized and at which the divining branch was pointing. The branch which was utilized had been well dampened at both ends. A globe could not have been utilized because, in those days, the earth was considered to be flat.

Then, suddenly, a flame would seem to leap out at him giving him strange visions of future happenings. The divining branch would then point to the part of the world that pertained to the vision. There are others who say that he utilized a brass bowl, which had a darkened bottom and which was filled with water. Whichever method was utilized is irrelevant. It would seem that his ability to visualize the future was very acute. It is an ability that is God-given and it is an infinite power which only the Almighty possesses; only He decides whom shall share of that marvellous gift.

In the following presentation, we shall discover various...

Prophecies pertaining to France