The Pythia
- The Delphic Oracle – the oracle at Delphi in ancient Greece announced its prophecies through a priestess. She had to be at least fifty years old and was called the Pythia.
The Pythia had access to the sacred spring of Kassotis; she chewed laurel leaves and pronounced the oracle’s words from her tripod, in hexameter – though sometimes it was the temple poets who shaped her words into verse. The custom came to an end during a period of decline, only to be revived under the Roman Empire.
From time to time the suggestion resurfaces that the Pythia delivered her prophecies under the influence of peculiar vapours rising within the temple.
Only men could consult the oracle, after a series of purification rites and the prescribed offerings. Questions touched on every area of life. The most famous was the question asked by Chaerephon:
Who is the wisest man in Greece?
The answer was: Socrates.
The oracle was often asked about the future in times of crisis and war.
Mimir
Mimir was the Norse god of wisdom, in the form of a giant. He lived beneath Yggdrasil (the evergreen tree whose branches reached the sky and whose roots reached the underworld realm of the dead), by Mimir’s Well (Mímisbrunnr), whose magical waters held all the wisdom in the world.
For the chance to drink the water of wisdom and become the wisest of the gods, Odin gave up one of his eyes.
Calchas
Calchas – alongside Mopsus and Tiresias, one of the greatest Greek seers, and the finest at divining from the flight of birds. He was the son of Thestor and thus a descendant of Apollo. He accompanied the Greek army on the expedition against Troy. Several of his prophecies are known.
Phineus
- Phineus – Greek mythology presents him as a son of Agenor and king of Salmydessus in Thrace; he possessed a great gift for foretelling the future.
Phineus’s wife, Idaea, falsely accused his sons from his first marriage of insulting her, and Phineus had them blinded. The gods punished him for this deed by sending the Harpies, who snatched the food from his table and fouled it before Phineus could raise it to his lips. Calais and Zetes saved him from this curse and from starving to death.
Nostradamus
Michel de Nostredame, known as Nostradamus, was a seer of Jewish descent. He was one of nine children of Reynière de Saint-Rémy and the grain merchant and notary Jaume de Nostredame. Wanting to earn a doctorate, Nostradamus returned to Montpellier. But his fame had arrived there before him, and the jealous medical establishment decided to block his academic career. His skills were ridiculed: treatment with herbs and unfamiliar remedies could hardly please doctors whose practice rested mainly on bloodletting with leeches (something Nostradamus firmly opposed). Nevertheless – largely thanks to the intercession of his patients and fellow students – he received his doctorate and stayed on at the university for a year as an outstanding lecturer. In 1533 he opened a private practice in Agen, a small town on the Garonne.
In 1531 Nostradamus was invited to Agen by Jules-César Scaliger, a respected Renaissance thinker. There he met the lovely, intelligent and wealthy Henriette d’Encausse, whom he married. The marriage produced two children. In 1534 his wife and children died, probably in a great plague. After their deaths he continued travelling around France and Italy.
He took the loss of his loved ones very hard and had problems with his late wife’s family (a lawsuit over the inheritance). For the following years he became a wanderer, still treating people. His fame spread ever wider.
When the plague subsided, Nostradamus set off again – this time to Salon-de-Provence, a small town halfway between Marseille and Avignon. There he met a rich widow, Anne Ponsarde Gemelle. He married her and settled on the Place de la Poissonnerie; the house still stands today. Having set up a cosmetics workshop, he spent the rest of his life among his books, a flock of children and a loving wife. In the attic of the house he built an observation post. From his observations of the heavenly bodies and their movements he foretold the future of the world. The method of reading the stars that Nostradamus chose remains unknown to this day.
Nostradamus was possibly Grand Master of the Priory of Sion from 1556 to 1566.
Cassandra
Apollo fell in love with her and gave her the gift of prophecy, but Cassandra did not return his love. The embittered suitor cursed her so that no one would ever believe her prophecies. Not even her own people heeded Cassandra’s dramatic warnings, and she was unable to prevent the tragic fall of Troy. When the Achaeans captured the city, she was taken to Mycenae as King Agamemnon’s concubine. She bore him twin sons, Teledamus and Pelops. Agamemnon did not believe her prophecies either. Cassandra died together with him and their sons, murdered by Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.
Her name has become a byword for a prophetess of doom, foretelling misfortune and despair.
Cassandra (Greek Κασσάνδρα, Kassandra) – in Greek mythology the daughter of King Priam of Troy and his wife Hecuba. Her twin brother was Helenus.
First published (Polish original): 12 January 2009. Written by astrologers and esoteric specialists working with our editorial team; edited and translated for HOROSCOP.SPACE. © All rights reserved.
