PREFACE

Of M.Michel

To his Prophecies

To Caesar Nostradamus my son,

Long life and happiness.

Thy late arrival, César Nostradame, my son, has caused me to devote a great deal of time in continual nocturnal watches so that – by putting it in writing – you may be a left a memorial the corporeal extinction of your father [that will be] to the common benefit of the human race, [the source being] that divine essence – drawn out of astronomical revolutions – which has been give to my understanding. And since it has pleased immortal God that you should have come to the natural light of this earthly shore but recently, and your years cannot yet be said to be matured [or coupled, formed] – [and since in] your martial months [you] are incapable of receiving [my message] [because of] your weak understanding – [I see] that which I am forced to designate after my passing is not possible to leave you in writing because it would be obliterated by the injury of time – indeed, the voice of my hereditary gift of occult prediction wil be entombed with me. There are also grounds to consider that events of human origin are uncertain, but all is regulated and governed by the inestimable power of God, inspiring us not by drunken ecstasy, nor by the spirit of a deep melancholic process, but by the evident influence of the stars: Only those divinely inspired can predict particular things in a prophetic spirit. For how long a time and how often have I predicted what has come to pass, and in the particular regions, acknowledging all to have been accomplished through divine power and inspiration and [how often have I forseen] other joyous and sinister events which with increasing promptness have later come to pass throughout other climates and regions of the world, I was willing to keep silent by reason of the injury – and not only in the present time, but also for the future time as well – and refrain from writing because the [present] kingdoms, sects and religions will make changes so diametrically opposite to the present view, that if I came to reveal what will happen in the future those [present] kingdoms, sects, religions and faiths would find [the future] so little in accord with the fantasies they would like articulated that they would damn that which future centuries will know and have seen to be true. Also consider what the true Savior said: Give not that which is holy unto dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and rend you (Matthew 7:6). Later, [I] decided to withhold my tongue, and pen from paper, because of forseeing the advent of the common people. [Therefore I wrote] in dark and cryptic sentences the events of the future evolution of human kind, especially the most urgent ones, and the ones I preceived, [doing so] without scandalizing and upsetting fragile sentiments by clouding my writing in obscure but, above all, prophetic language, in as much as: Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, that is, from the powerful and from kings, and hast revealed them to the small and the weak (Matthew 11:25) and also the prophets, by means of the Immortal God, and his good Angels, they receive the spirit of prophecy, by which they behold distant things and future events; for nothing can be accomplished without Him whose great power and kindness to his creatures is so great that as long as these dwell in them, much as they may be exposed to other influences, an account of their good genius this prophetic heat and power approaches us: it comes to us like rays of the sun casting influences on bodies both elementary and nonelmentary. As for ourselves who are but human, we can discover nothing by our own natural notions of our ingenuity about the obscure secrets of God the Creator. It is not for you to know the times nor moments, etc (Acts 1:7). However, in the present or in the future there may be persons to whom God the Creator might wish to reveal through fanciful impressions, some secrets of the future, according to judical astrology, in much the same manner that in the past a certain power and voluntary faculty came over them like a flame, inspiring them to judge human and divine inspirations alike. For the divine works, those which are totally absolute, God accomplishes; those which are median, the angels; and the third kind, by evil [spirits]. But, my son, I speak here a little too obscurely; as for the hidden prophecies which come to one by the subtle spirit of fire, sometimes through the judgment being disturbed in contemplationg the remotest of stars, while remaining alert and watchful, the pronouncements, we [can] surprisingly take them down in writing and pronounce them without fear or shame and with the minimum of verbiage. But why [you ask]? Because all things proceeded from the divine power of the great eternal God, from whom all goodness proceeds. Furthermore, my son, though I have been attributed the name of “prophet”, I do not wish to attribute to myself a title so sublime for the present. For He who is called a prophet now was once called a seer. For a prophet – strictly speaking, my son – is one who sees things remote from the natural preception of all creatures and men. And for instance it can happen that the prophet, by means of the perfect light of the prophecy manifestly appearing before him, [can see] things which are divine as well as human; which he cannot yet understand, for the effects of predicting the future extend far. For the incomprehensible mysteries of God and their effective power belong to a dimension very remote from natural human knowledge, taking their immediate origin from the free will. They bring about the appearancesof events which of themselves could not acquire enough attention top become known, neither by human augury, nor by any other hidden knowledge or virtue comprised under the concavity of heaven, not even by the contemporary fact of all eternity, which comes to embrace all time in itself. But through some indivisible eternity and by means of Heraclian agitation, the happenings are made know by celestial movements. I do not say, my son, that the knowledge of this matter cannot yet impress itself upon your tender mind, nor [do I say] that very distant events are not within the understanding of reasoning man, much less those which are simply the extrapolation by an intellectual person of current events – these are by no means too carefully hidden from him, but on the other hand nor can they be said to be obvious. But a perfect knowledge of events cannot be acquired without divine inspiration, since all prophetic inspiration receives its principle motivating force from God the Creator, then from good fortune and from nature. For which reason, a presage may be fulfilled in part or be correctly predicted [only] in proportion to the extent to which comparable events have manifested themselves similarly or have failed to manifest themselves. For human understanding, being intellectual, cannot see hidden things unless aided by a voice comming from limbo by means of the slender flame showing what direction future events will incline toward. Furthermore, my son, I beg that you will never want to employ your understanding on such dreams and vanities as dry up the body put the soul in [peril of] predition and give trouble to weak senses. [I caution you] especially against the vain and more than execrable magic, long condemned by the Holy Scriptures and by the invine Canons [of the church]. However, judicial astrology is excepted from this judgement. For it is by means of [such] inspiration, divine revelation, and continual nightly watches and calcualtions, that we have drafted our prophecies into written words. Although such occult Philosophy might not have been condemned, I had no desire to make freely public all its unbridled assertions. I had at mu disposal several volumes that had been hidden for a great many centuries. But dreading what might otherwise become of them, I made a present [of them] to [the God] Vulcan, and even as he began to consume them, the hungry flame lent the air an unusual brightness, clearer than that of natural flame – bright as lightning – suddenly illuminating the house as if in a sudden conflagration. Thus, so that in the future you might not be led astray in a search for the perfet transformation of silver, or of gold, or of incorruptible metals under the earth, or hidden in the waves, I have reduced [these books] to ashes. But [beyond this] it is that judgement that comes by means of discernment obtained through reference to the heavens, that I want to reveal to you. By this [insight] you may have knowledge of future events while rejecting completley the fanciful imgainations [of things] that will occur. By limiting the description of the locations by means of harmonizing divine and supernatural inspiration with astronomical computations, one can accurately name places and specific times, with an occult accuracy, authority, and a divine faculty. Through this [faculty], the cycles of time – the past, present and future – become incorporated into one eternity: for all things are naked and open. (Hebrews 4:13). In this way, my son, notwithstanding your tender mind, you will easily be able to understand that things that are bound to happen can be prophesied by the lights of the sky at night, which are natural, coupled with the spirit of prophecy. Not that I would assume the titleor quality of a prophet, for revealed inspiration, like a mortal man, is no less distant in knowledge and sense from Heaven than his feet are from the ground. I cannot fail, err, or be deceived, although I am the greatest sinner in the world, subject to all human afflictions. But many times a week I am overtaken by a prophetic ecstasy – and by means of exhaustive calculation, having undertaken my nocturnal studies within an agreeable fragrance – I have compiled some books of prophecies, each containing one hundred astronomical quatrains composed of prophecies which I have desired to render a little obscurely. They are prepetual prophecies, and extend from now to the year 3797. It is possible, that some will raise their brow at seeing such a far – reaching extent of time and a treatment of everything under the vault of the moon that will happen and [will be] universally perceived all over the earth, my son. But if you attain the natural span of human life, you will come to see, under your own native skies, the [surprising] future events [I have] forseen. Although the eternal God alone knows the eternity of the light proceeding from himself, I say frankly to all those to whom he wishes to reveal his immense magnitude – immeasurable and unknowable as it is – after long and melancholic ecstasy, that it is a hidden thing divinely manifested to the prophet by two principal means, which are contained in the understanding of the inspired one who prophesies. One comes by infusion, which clarifies the supernatural light in him who predicts by the doctrine of the stars, making [it] possible to predict by divine revelation; the other comes by means of an authentic participation with the divine eternity, by which means the prophet can judge what is given to him from his own divine spirit through God the Creator and a natural instilling; so that what is predicted is true, and has an ethernal origin. This light and the slender flame [one’s inner spark of God] are altogether effications, and of exalted origin no less than natural clarity and the natural light that renders philosophers so sure of themselves which by means of the principles of the first cause they have attained to the innermost cores of the most exalted doctrines. But an end to this, my son, for I must not stray too far from the future capcaity of your senses. I find that letters will suffer a very grand and incomparable loss. I find also that before the future universal conflagration the world will see so many floods and such high inundations, that there will remain scarcely any land not covered by water, and this will last for so long that outside of the topography of the earth and the races which inhabit it, everything will perish. Furthermore, before and after these floods many nations shall see very little rain and there will fall the sky such a great amount of fire and flaming meteorties that nothing will remain unconsumed. All this will happen a short time before the final conflagration. For although the planet Mars will finish its cycle, at the end of its last age, it will start again. Some will asemble  in Aquarius for several years, others in Cancer for a longer time and for evermore. And at present we are conducted by the Moon – by means of the total power of the eternal God – when she will have completed her entire cycle [1889-2250], the sun [the 20^th century] and then Saturn [the Aquarian Age] will come. According to the celestial signs the reign of Saturn will return a second time [the age of Capricon], so that as it is all calculated, the world the approaches its final death-dealing revolution. From this present momoent I can write that before 177 years, 1 month and 11 days, by pestilence, long famine and wars, and most of all by floods, the world between now and the end of this predestined term, [as had happened already] several times before and [will again] after, be so diminished, and so few remaining, that no one will be found willing to work in the fields, which wil become wild for us long a period as they had been tilled. And according to the visible judgement of the stars, although we are in the seventh number of the millenary – which finishes all – we are approaching the eighth sphere [cycle], which is in the firmament of the latitudinary dimension of the eighth sphere, whence the great eternal God will come to complete the revolution and the heavenly bodies will return to their motion, and the superior movement will render the earth stable and secure for us, not deviating from age to age (Psalm 94:5) unless He wills it to be; His will be done and not otherwise. How many [are] the ambiguous opinions beyond all genuine reason through Muslim dreams, and also even sometimes by God the Creator by means of fiery missives brought by his angels of fire, there come before our exterior senses, even our eyes, the events of future prediction, and that which is significant to future circumstances. These ought to manifest themselves to one who persages anything. For the presage which is made by the exterior enlightenment comes infallibly to be judged together with and by means of the exterior light. Truly, the part that seems to come by sight of understanding comes only by the lesion [opening?] of the imaginative sense. The reason is very evident. All is predicted through divine inspiration, and by means of the angelic spirit inspiring the man who is prophesying, rendering him anointed with prophecies, illumintaing him, moving him, before his fantasy through diverse nocturnal apparition. By daytime he can certify the prophecy through astronomical calculations, combining the most holy future prediction with nothing more than free courage. See now, my son, that I find by my calculations, which are according to revealed inspiration, that the sword of death is approaching us now through plague and war more horrible than has been seen in the life of three generations, and famine, which will fall upon the earth, and return there often, according to the cycles of the stars, and likewise to the saying; I will visit their inquities with a rod of iron, and will strike them with blows (adapted from Psalm 89:32). For the mercy of God shall not be extended at all for a time, my son, until most of my prophecies will have been accomplished, and will by accomplishment have become resolved. Then several times during the sinister tempests, I will trample them, the Lord will say, and break them, and not show pity (adapted from Isiah 63:3). And thousands of other events will come to pass, because of floods and continual rains, as I have set forth more fully in writing my other Prophecies, which are drawn out at length in proses, defining the places, times and appointed duration so that men coming after will see them, knowing the events to have occurred infallibly; such as those others we have noted, speaking more clearly – for although they are written under a cloud the meanings will be understood. When the time comes for the removal of ignorance, the situation will be cleared up still more. I make an end here, my son. Take then this gift of your father, Michel Nostradamus, who hopes to make known to you each prophecy from the quatrains introduced here. I beseech the immortal God, that he will be willing to bestow upon you long life in good and prosperous happiness.

From Salon this first of March, 1555.