With so little appreciation for those who would follow Michel of Notre Dame (Nostradamus) 500 and more years later, we have very little text in the hand of the man remaining for scholars. With counterfeited quatrains insterted into various printings of the work of Michel of Notre Dame, and various important texts published without dates, many plagues await the scholars of this well-known prophet of the 1550's.

After the horror of September 2001, an wave of increased interest in the prophecies raged, delighting booksellers. It should be stated also that the astrological world is experiencing an important trend in scholarship and the recovery of very old manuscripts from their prison of the ancient languages. Astrologers have become voracious for the astrological writings that remain from the second century to the Middle Ages. Resucitation of Medieval Astrological techiques are enjoying a resurgence of passion. But nowhere among these hundred or so authors are any of the texts of Notradamus, particularly for the reasons cited. Nostradamus shares with Shakespeare the murky clueless past of recorded history's worst enemy: a lack of witnesses or persons who took interest to preserve the personal works of the writer.

By the time the quatrains reach us here at the end of the millenium, the same quatrains being applied to one event or another have already been applied to previous events by the "translators" of the past, who did not care much for the original writer's intent and could not resist temptation to add a few quatrains (sometimes predicting horrors against their least favorite political party) to satisfy their admiration for Nostradamus' fame and uncanny reputation.

From Arthur Grant:

Programming code considers metaphors of mnemonic assembly language. Assembly language is a mnemonic relation to the operations that directly occur inside the microprocessor. Draw the comparison to hieroglyphics which were a visual, object-based (object-oriented?) means of recording. There's no speaking in hieroglyphs, the spoken language would be Egyptian. Liken it to the manner in which we speak the language of computers, one must first create a mnemonic representation of the operation before verbalizing it. A tree is much easier to describe with a picture, than with words. It conveys the tree accross language barriers because the picture is more free of descriptors, or a language subset which is inefficient for communicating accross different languages, or even different perspectives.

A free verse rendering is similar to Nostradamus' "Centuries." A fully translated summary of the meanings of symbols may stretch it out of context--too many words still do not convey the image; yet in the free verse, you just convert the images (hyroglyphs, machine code) into something written (mnemonic). It is like the concept of RISC chips (Reduced Instruction Set Chips). These chips run much faster than a conventional CPU because their instruction set is much simpler.

Programs written in RISC code may be longer than a corresponding program written for a conventional CPU, but the program may actually execute more quickly based on the simplicity of the processor. And in a similar fashion, your "free verse" does not fully translate into common grammar, but may be a more efficient way of seeing to the meaning pictorially. The picture or image conveys more, communicates more, but uses images to store the idea. The common proverb is true: the picture (or the symbol) is worth a thousand words.

From Gary Price, in China:

There was this guy in the office yesterday, from Singapore. He said, "So, you do astrology, I hear. Here's my birth date and approximate time of birth. What can you see?"

I said, "OK buddy."

I decided to comply to the impromptu "free reading," since he was going to be working at my place of employment. I made a mental calculation and figured he had the Sun in Capricorn on my ascendant. That would mean that I can remember the various configurations of the planets, so I said, "You had career problems in 1995 which broke up your partnership." (for the astrologer: South node firdaria during that time.)

I continued, "Your girlfriend ran off and left you for this other guy and here is his physical description (the astrologer did not describe this to me) shown by Jupiter in the 7th opposed to the ascendant in sextile with Venus in Pisces of which your asc ruler, Mars is conjunct."

Then he said, "I was with a prostitute last week, what did she look like?"

I said. "You were with two prostitutes because Pisces is a dual-bodied sign, one had cherry lips and a roundish face and is quite tall for a Chinese because of Venus' position (oriental vs. occidental) and furthermore when the Venus transit hit your Venus return trine to Jupiter with the Moon and Mars together in Aries squaring your Sun, (by then we had gathered a crowd) a robber came in and stole all your money. (I thought, "That is why you can't pay me,") and the prostitute's money, and you think they robbed her. But it was a set up, she was in on it too. how did it feel to be caught 'with your pants down?"

He went from Chinese yellow to white!! and said, "OK, OK, I believe you. I will get in touch with all my rich friends in Singapore and bring you lots of business."

Nostradamus, continued

Century X Quatrain 72

L'an mil neuf cens nonante neuf fept mois

Du ciel viendra vn grand Roy deffraieur

Refufciter le grand Roy d'Angolmois.

Auantapres Mars regner par bon heur.  

The usual translation:  

In the year nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, seven months,

From the sky will come a great King of Terror

To resuscitate the King of Angoumois.

Before and after Mars reigns happily.

Anyone read French? The well-schooled 12-year old from France might spot the old text is not properly lettered out in this example.  The "S" and the "F" both in capital and in lower case were hand written in the same swirling stroke.  Also the letters "v" and "u" are often mistaken.  The original line should be spelled:  

L'an mil neuf cens nonante neuf sept mois

Du ciel viendra un grand Roy deffraieur

Resusciter le grand Roy d'Angolmois.

Avant apres Mars regner par bon heur.  

The usage of the expression "bon heur" should not be taken so simply as "happy hour," or translated as "before and after Mars reigns happily."  This should be verified by the French-speaking astrologers on the list. The better translation would actually be, "The right hour," as in "right on time."   So, I propose something a bit more astrological, "Before after the Mars-ruled hour."  Better, would be: "Before the end (apres, meaning, "after") of Mars' timing."  

The most glaring is the work of one apostrophe perhaps added to the word "deffraieur." If spelled "d'effrayeur," it implies "of the terrorist." Which may fit the event in one word, but does the apostrophe exist in the had-scribed text? I am not at the moment privileged to know.

Without hte apostrophe, "deffraieur" derives from a verb, whose definition in French follows, (French dictionary: http://www.francophonie.hachette-livre.fr/)  

Definitions translated: #1 discusses the word as an "offset," or someone who picks up the tab, offsets the expense of someone else, defrays the expense,  #2 as someone who becomes the object of conversation, #3 someone who causes much talk about himself.  

So, this first quatrain may lead us to a better understanding if only the French language was better understood.  It seems to me the literal translation doesn't take much interest in the language that was actually spoken, and which can be read by French speakers today--but not in the way that it is translated here.  "Deffrayeur" (with "i" or "y" makes little difference) might conjur someone who makes a fuss of picking up the tab, and thus wins a few comments to benefit his self-aggrandizement. He's a manipulator, behaving as if he weren't looking for fame when footing the tab, but accepts the accolades in self-dampered humility. It's a show. He loves being famous, is what one word is trying to say.

Let's add the French as it was submitted above:          

  which has been translated: (I say this is mistranslated)

When 1999 is seven months o'er Shall heaven's great Vicar, anxious to appease,

But using the words which appear there and adding no more:  

Year nineteen hundred and ninety nine,  seven months

From the sky (skies) a big, talked-about king, (does he talk about picking up the tab?)  

There is no vicar, just a bully. What "appease?" This word appears as a new concept, not actually stated in the quatrain.  

Again, let's add the French as it was submitted above:

Stir up the Mongol-Lombard King once more, And war reign haply

where it once did cease.  

Clearly, the first word is rooted "resuscitate" in English. In French, it really means "to suck once more," as in with the lips and tongue; and it makes the concept of a second go-around, coming around to "suck" again. This does become "revive," but by virtue of the mouth, as in sucking.  How can this concept be overlooked?   The spelling of the "Angolmois" seems to be a kind of mixture of Mongol and whatever else that belonged to the French of this era, but there is nothing to suggest the appearance suddenly of "Lombard," even if it is a partial word title of a region of France. There really is very little to suggest Mongol, as well. 

Perhaps the likelihood of the imagination of the writer, reaching deeply into the archetype of the future may have read the names in the best way he could understand it. What country had since the writing of these quatrains, been newly created and settled by Englishmen?  Anglo is very close to Angol. I will settle on this idea for the moment.   So, let me piece it back together to my liking and see what results:  

Sucks once more upon the American ruler (Bush in 1990, and Bush "again" in 2000)

Before and after Mars' ruling hour. (could the retrogrades of Mars be a question here?)  

Now, these are conjectures, and I am not a scholar of old French. I am bilingual, and qualified to translate French literature. These quatrains are interesting, but their translation from, whether old French or new is atrocious!! My conjecture is proposed as a joke to demonstrate what little discipline it takes to conjur almost anything.

Century I Quatrain 24 I.24

The eaglelike attacker of a "New City" is at first uncertain, then magnanimous in victory, despite damage to Cremona and Mantua:

Attributed to Napoleon at Villanova druing Italian campaigns of 1795-7 C,F / Nuremberg trials R  

A cite neufve pensif pour condemner,

Loysel de proye au ciel se vient offrir:

Apres victoire a captifs pardonner,

Cremone & Mantoue grands maulx aura souffert.  

This is clearly an innovation. There is no eagle in this quatrain! To spell "eagle" in French you would have to compose as follows, "aigle," but I just don't see the "aigle," anywhere. I do see "proie" as prey, and everything else because of the names, becomes vague. Also, many spelling errors (undoubtedly copied over and over, scribe to scribe, a new apostrophe here, a comma there...) which may later change the meanings; i.e. "A cite," should be "La Cite" and "neufve" should either be "neuve" or "neuf" but the scribe was hedging his bets.  

What I do see is:  

A new city is pensive to condemn 

their (Loysel) leisurely prey (proie) the sky did offer

After a victory of captives to pardon

Cremone and Mantoue (only conjecture for me) terrible hurts will have been suffered.    

As I continue to read and translate, I have to react strongly to the fact that much of what is said in French does not appear translated at all, and much of what is translated has nothing to do with the original, if we can say that these are the original quatrains.  

Since another writer has posted the quatrains were not published for at least 100 years following the death of Michel of Notre Dame, we can imagine that the manuscript was allowed by the printer to by pass the services of an editor, such as the writer, who might have made corrections before allowing it to go to press.  

I would reccommend a complete scrap of the proposed translation illustrated here based solely on these points, without really delving into the history or intended names; just the mistranslation from French is enough to warrant disdain.

A Prediction by Nostradamus to which the astrologers are paying attention.

While referring to the Mercury and Mars as an "attack by Islam," let me clarify by saying that we are ignoring the possibility of last May's sustained opposition as being significant to someone like Nostradamus, from whom this observation is taken. I did not write that. Nostradamus wrote the above equation. (I posted a link to the article by Jung at my site, but I understand that we are "advertising" if we use links.) I would not suggest that the original writer (Michel of Notre Dame) would require that astrologers look for lobs and attacks by Arabic types on every single occasion of a tense transit between these two; that is why I mention it. Nostradamus was using larger cycles, "the eighth sphere" of Saturn and Jupiter? What is that? And why would this writer of the late Medieval period refer in all these huge cycles to something so transient as a Mercury square? That square, opposition and conjunction must come up at least a dozen times a year, does it not?

So, we astrologers may indeed wonder why Nostradamus would even mention this Mars/Mercury at all, and that is my question. It seems that in 1965, when Saturn and Pluto last did its thing, the war in Viet Nam took over the nightly news but the sale at Bloomingdale's was still an option. I don't think anyone was having a "Flower Power" day after 9/11 this year. So, I sense a greater tension with this transit currently than I did then. I was a hippie, so maybe I was doing a little too much smoke at the time, and not paying attention to the headlines. Every day we have grave news in the papers if we want to observe. However, the current Saturn/Pluto feels so much more tense than anything I can remember in aspects between these two in the past that I return to Nostradamus and ask him (if only I could consult his texts) to what Mars/Mercury "quartile" (square) was he referring? Was it also a sustained tension like the example this year? I don't think Nostradamus would have us in army gear for every single tense aspect between the Bitchy Communication and Harmful Hitter planets. The line up of planets, including the Mercury and Mars in a sustained opposition for around a month, from around the 18th of May to around the 17th of June, occurred within a four-month period which includes the retrograde of Mars (May 11 to July 18) in those degrees; and concludes with the retrograde of Saturn (end of September). All the direct motions (and the stationary retrograde of Pluto) of 5 planets take place in the same 7-degree span of the zodiac. I am guessing that we may be missing something from Nostradamus which may in fact point to the planetary conditions of 2001 and give us reason to conclude that this particular set-up is a formula that Nostradamus would have us look at and not the daily transits of two planets in direct motion who frequently arrive at a tense aspect. (11/10/01)