We know Nostradamus mainly for his prophecies, which stir up as much sensation as dread. Let us add that most of that dread and sensation is manufactured by people who have no serious grasp of astrology, of precognition or of the great visionary and physician’s life, but who understand the rules of commerce perfectly well. The achievements of Michel de Notre-Dame, once processed in this way, are of course worth very little – but presumably nobody in their right mind expects more from glossy books with screaming titles such as “Prophet of the Apocalypse” than a way to fill a summer afternoon. Nostradamus’s real achievements – and they are far from small! – remain accessible only to a handful of “initiates” working at a safe distance from the paid-sensation machine built to turn over millions.
For those of you who placed your trust in the organisers of the “Apocalypse 2000?” review, I will attempt to decipher one such message, one that usually goes unnoticed. Using the horoscope of the visionary from Salon, we will uncover not only many hidden details of Nostradamus’s “Centuries” but also the meaning of his message as a whole.
Here is Nostradamus’s horoscope:
We leave out the positions of the planets discovered long after Nostradamus’s death – Uranus, Neptune and Pluto – because they were unknown in his time. We may assume that the forces these planets symbolise were not yet available to humanity back then.
The data we have are relatively precise: 14 December 1503, 12:00 noon, Saint-Rémy in Provence. Nostradamus supplied these details himself, and the horoscope calculated and interpreted from them fits what we know of its owner’s life rather well: you can see the makings of a humanist and a physician, a stormy youth, a thirst for knowledge, high intelligence and two marriages – the first a great love, the second the sensible wisdom of maturity… and other biographical facts. One thing, however, you will not find: there is neither a prophet nor a clairvoyant here. Of course, as is often done in astrology, you can hunt for secondary factors – known in the trade as midpoints, Arabic parts, sensitive points… – and something will always fit the facts already known. But had we not been told that this is the horoscope of a great man, and had we known only that its owner was an exceptionally intelligent and receptive descendant of Jewish converts to Christianity, it would be hard to spot the future Nostradamus even with the most subtle methods of Renaissance astrology.
Interpreting Nostradamus’s horoscope calls for broader and more general knowledge than tinkering with the rules of interpretation.
One of the most universal laws known in esotericism states: all that falls will rise, and all that has reached the summit of its manifestation begins to fall. We know it as the Law of Change. In Nostradamus’s horoscope two planets sit at the very bottom of their fall: Mars and Saturn. According to astrological tradition, the sign of Cancer and the fourth house are Saturn’s place of exile (detriment), where its influence is suppressed, while for Mars this is the place of its fall, a position as weak as exile. The third notable planet in Cancer and the fourth house is Jupiter – and for Jupiter this is an exceptionally strong position: in Cancer and the fourth house Jupiter is exalted.
Before we continue with the astrological analysis, let us briefly look at the symbolism of these planets. Since time immemorial astrology has called Mars the “lesser malefic”. The planet named after the mythical god of war was associated with wars, droughts, sudden deaths, wounds, fires and accidents on the road. A strong Mars in a person’s horoscope marked an aggressive and cruel warrior; in the horoscope of an event it foretold sudden and unfavourable happenings.
Saturn, called the “greater malefic”, was the planet of prolonged suffering, painful penance, a hard lot, chronic illness, poverty and torment beyond human endurance. It could also be the planet of power and might – though, like everything worldly, impermanent. Saturn always warns of the inexorability of time, the vanity of earthly affairs and inevitable transience.
Jupiter, in turn, was called the “greater benefic”: it promised success in every undertaking, fame, power, dominion, wisdom and the kindly protection of the gods. Jupiterian horoscopes foretold Fortune’s favour at every step.
And there you have the message of Nostradamus’s horoscope! The malefics – Mars and Saturn – are weak and humbled in it. The benefic Jupiter is at the height of its power. And the horoscope points to the year 1503, the beginning of the Renaissance’s flowering in Europe. It would be hard to find a better horoscopic account of the Renaissance way of seeing and feeling the world.
At the same time, Nostradamus’s horoscope is the horoscope of an entire historical era. In keeping with the Law of Change, Jupiter will decline while Saturn and Mars will rise. And we know from history that even within Nostradamus’s lifetime bloody religious and imperial wars broke out, against which the message of humanism remained no more than a beautiful legend.
The Renaissance was a moment of wonderful balance between the ancient pagan worldview, full of the joy of existence and love for all things earthly and material, and Christianity, which reminded people of the fleeting nature of worldly matters. A balance, let us add, in which no element was lost or exaggerated. It was a time when God looked kindly upon people and their bustle, and anyone able to perceive the perfection of Creation raised their eyes to the Heavens and saw there a Smiling God. Anyone who could read the open book that nature was for Renaissance man knew they were assured of Salvation, because Renaissance natural philosophy taught that God’s laws are the same both for the knowable natural world and for the unfathomable depths of Heaven. In this way the law of Hermes Trismegistus, “as above, so below”, harmoniously and beautifully joined God, Man and Nature.
This was the atmosphere in which Nostradamus grew up. Taught by his guardians to love Latin and Greek, thoroughly versed in the culture and mythology of antiquity and gifted with the uncommon mind of a naturalist, the boy quickly joined the civilisation of Renaissance humanists (he met many of them in person and corresponded with others); he knew the works of the greatest minds respected at the time: Avicenna, Paracelsus, Ibn Ezra… He probably also knew Copernicus’s theory, which its author made semi-public in his famous “Commentariolus” of 1508, copied by letter across humanist Europe.
This is how Jupiter manifested itself in Nostradamus’s horoscope. But remember that after this manifestation Jupiter withdraws into the shadows, giving way to Saturn and Mars. Hence Nostradamus’s prophecies, each gloomier than the last; hence, too, the life of the visionary himself, with the Inquisition constantly at his heels. Even without understanding the complex cipher – still unbroken to this day – with which Nostradamus protected his “Centuries”, you can deduce the direction events would take: from Jupiter to Mars and Saturn, from the joy of the humanist to the fanaticism of the inquisitor.
Did it have to happen this way? Did Nostradamus truly know that events after him would take such a fatal course? We cannot say for certain. What we can do is turn to astrology once more to gain a fuller understanding of the work and life of the visionary from Salon. But this calls for astrology at a deeper and nobler level than popular handbooks offer. This astrology – let us call it spiritual – proclaims the famous maxim “the stars rule the fool, the wise man rules the stars”. For the spiritual Sage, Saturn is indeed a great test of character and will, but whoever passes it will find the legendary Philosophers’ Stone and gain mastery over the most secret and best-guarded mysteries of God and the Universe; Mars is indeed an energy hard to control and master, but it is also valour, chivalry, righteousness, superhuman powers and great strength of will. Yet to tame the planetary malefics and make them the servants of Man, a person must be of the right calibre.
Were Nostradamus’s contemporaries of such calibre? Judging by the course of his life and the tenor of his work, decidedly not. And remember that the Renaissance was a time of great choices, pregnant with consequences for European culture. So when, at the dawn of a new cultural formation, power is held and minds are shaped not by those most fit for it – the Renaissance humanists, people of great spirit, great learning and culture – but by people such as the Valois and Borgia kings; when, instead of the hoped-for new Christianity, free from the fear of “memento mori” and full of the joy of the Good News, primitive and fanatical priests unleash bloody disputes over the “one true” faith – small wonder that Nostradamus was a pessimist, and that from his prophetic visions he chose and published the darkest possible scenario.
One of the great truths about oracles and prophecies says: evil prophecies are spoken so that they will not come true. By this law, every prophecy of Nostradamus is a warning rather than a real threat. But when people are blind and deaf… well, then every “Titanic” will find its iceberg. Then people follow catastrophic predictions and prophecies with the flushed cheeks of unhealthy greed, rejoicing when they come true! We, however, mindful both of the principles of divination and of the meaning of humanism, will look at Nostradamus’s work through its creator’s eyes: as a great message that the gods gave to us mortals through their favourite. Every date given for an event is therefore more a moment of great choice, a chance to come to our senses, than a sensation for the shouting newspapers.
For this purpose we will use a technique that is very popular in astrology and often used to forecast the future: it is known technically as secondary progressions and works by a kind of stretching of time – one day in the horoscope describes one year in the real world. Naturally, we will follow the planets most important for the whole chart: Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. What matters to us are the angular distances of these planets (called aspects in astrology) from their positions in Nostradamus’s birth chart. These distances come from dividing the circle into 30° segments, the length of one zodiac sign: 60° – sextile, 90° – square, 120° – trine and 180° – opposition. Each aspect has its own meaning: the sextile suggests an opportunity for action; the square is an uncontrolled discharge of forces set in motion earlier; the trine is a time for reflection and possible correction of the chosen course; the opposition brings the events and choices that decide the success of the whole cycle. Just as important is the passage across the angles of the horoscope: the Ascendant, Medium Coeli, Descendant and Imum Coeli. For our purposes the passage across the Medium Coeli is the most significant. During this progression, things that were hidden or unreal until then become material and real.
In Nostradamus’s horoscope the progressed sextile of Mars falls in the year 1720.
What happened in that year was recalled by Voltaire, who wrote of “the spectacle the Russian empress and the Polish king gave the world”. The downright farcical enthronement of the tsarina’s lover as the puppet king of a thoroughly demoralised country in the middle of Europe is surely a vivid enough fact to prompt at least an attempt at understanding. But Europe did not want to understand; it wanted to rule. No wonder, then, that the trine of Mars to Mars in Nostradamus’s horoscope falls in none other than the year 1812:
Oh, that year!.. Had it not been for Napoleon’s blindness, for the boundless pride of that self-proclaimed emperor, might the map of Europe look different today? For a trine is a time of reflection – and that is plainly what Napoleon lacked. This date is widely regarded as the beginning of the European Enlightenment and the start of the triumph of reason over faith. It is an important moment, because it set the direction of European thinking that holds to this day. The manifestation linked to the square phase was not long in coming – here is Nostradamus’s progressed horoscope for 1763, when Mars forms a progressed square to its own natal position:
The progressed Mars crossed the Medium Coeli – an extremely important passage for the whole cycle – in 1872. And that was a remarkable year: the cards were being dealt on the European political, military and social stage.
Let us recall: the telegraph and the telephone already exist; on the battlefields of the Franco-Prussian War modern weapons are tested, similar to those that will be used in the twentieth century; the spectre of communism becomes real with the Paris Commune… This is what became reality out of dreams and visions! Can we be surprised by the catastrophism of the “Centuries” associated with precisely this period?
The opposition, decisive for the whole cycle, falls in 1890. The first great battleships – the dreadnoughts – are launched; a furious arms race between Germany, Britain, France and Italy is in full swing; imperialism is flourishing, and just around the corner lie 1905 and world war… This is the decision taken in the opposition phase that decides the whole cycle! And here, too, are further “Centuries” in which researchers see visions of technology-backed totalitarianism and aeroplanes dropping bombs on defenceless civilians.
The second trine – the second chance for reflection – we find in the crazy year of 1968. Things are better here: 1968 was the manifestation of the “flower children” culture which, though utterly degenerated today, nevertheless gave impetus to the search for a path of human development other than the one laid down by the Enlightenment.
The next square falls in 2005, the year in which, according to scholars of the “Centuries”, a great war was supposed to break out.
Such an event is, sadly, not improbable. The symbolism of the square, as a time of uncontrolled discharges, fits the prophecies of war rather well. The seeds of conflict are already there: the rich North against the poor South, for example. And there are plenty of would-be “saviours of humanity” in the mould of Khomeini or Saddam Hussein, enjoying considerable support.
And what about the humanist’s message? Did Nostradamus hide it, or leave it out? Probably not. For it is precisely in 2005 that the Mars cycle ceases to be active. And there are still the cycles of the other planets important to Nostradamus’s horoscope: Jupiter and Saturn. But those lie far ahead: the progressed sextile of Jupiter will occur in Nostradamus’s horoscope in 2170, and the progressed square – the manifestation of Jupiter’s humanist content – around 2700. Scholars of the “Centuries” claim that Nostradamus placed the start of the Age of Aquarius, awaited as a time of universal human brotherhood, in the middle of the third millennium. And he carried his prophecy through to the year 4000, when Saturn – lord of transience and perhaps of the end of history as such – forms a progressed square in his horoscope.
So we can hardly count on the swift arrival of an age of blessed happiness. Closer to us than these distant, astrologically calculated dates are current affairs: ecological devastation, overpopulation, growing inequality, ever-wider areas of poverty… Here the planets will not help us. Here people themselves would have to become Sages, unafraid even of the verdicts of fate.
And this – very briefly, of course – is how Nostradamus’s horoscope looks through the eyes of a humanist. The visionary from Salon, or rather the forces that spoke through him, have, it seems, set us enormous demands. Will we rise to them? Will we mature, as humanity, to the point of ruling the stars – or will we destroy ourselves at the dictate of one freshly deciphered prophecy after another?
