|
|
|
|
Nostradamus letter to his son Ceasar
Greetings and happiness to Cesar Nostradamus my son
Your late arrival, Cesar Nostredame, my son, has made me spend much
time in constant nightly reflection so that I could communicate with
you by letter and leave you this reminder, after my death, for the
benefit of all men, of which the divine spirit has vouchsafed me to
know by means of astronomy.
And since it was the Almighty's will that you were not born here in
this region [Provence] and I do not want to talk of years to come but
of the months during which you will struggle to grasp and understand
the work I shall be compelled to leave you after my death: assuming
that it will not be possible for me to leave you such [clearer] writing
as may be destroyed through the injustice of the age [1555]. The key to
the hidden prediction which you will inherit will be locked inside my
heart.
Also bear in mind that the events here described have not yet come
to pass, and that all is ruled and governed by the power of Almighty
God, inspiring us not by bacchic frenzy nor by enchantments but by
astronomical assurances: predictions have been made through the
inspiration of divine will alone and the spirit of prophecy in
particular.
On numerous occasions and over a long period of time I have
predicted specific events far in advance, attributing all to the
workings of divine power and inspiration, together with other fortunate
or unfortunate happenings, foreseen in their full unexpectedness, which
have already come to pass in various regions of the earth. Yet I have
wished to remain silent and abandon my work because of the injustice
not only of the present time [the Inquisition] but also for most of the
future. I will not commit to writing.
Since governments, sects and countries will undergo such sweeping
changes, diametrically opposed to what now obtains, that were I to
relate events to come, those in power now - monarchs, leaders of sects
and religions - would find these so different from their own imaginings
that they would be led to condemn what later centuries will learn how
to see and understand. Bear in mind also Our Saviour's words: Do not
give anything holy to the dogs, nor throw pearls in front of the pigs
lest they trample them with their feet and turn on you and tear you
apart.
For this reason I withdrew my pen from the paper, because I wished
to amplify my statement touching the Vulgar Advent (1), by means of
ambiguous and enigmatic comments about future causes, even those
closest to us and those I have perceived, so that some human change
which may come to pass shall not unduly scandalize delicate
sensibilities. The whole work is thus written in a nebulous rather than
plainly prophetic form. So much so that,
You have hidden these things from the wise and the circumspect, that
is from the mighty and the rulers, and you have purified those things
for the small and the poor, and through Almighty God's will, revealed
unto those prophets with the power to perceive what is distant and
thereby to foretell things to come. For nothing can be accomplished
without this faculty, whose power and goodness work so strongly in
those to whom it is given that, while they contemplate within
themselves, these powers are subject to other influences arising from
the force of good. This warmth and strength of prophecy invests us with
its influence as the sun's rays affect both animate and inanimate
entities.
We human beings cannot through our natural consciousness and
intelligence know anything of God the Creator's hidden secrets, For it
is not for us to know the times or the instants, etc.
So much so that persons of future times may be seen in present ones,
because God Almighty has wished to reveal them by means of images,
together with various secrets of the future vouchsafed to orthodox
astrology, as was the case in the past, so that a measure of power and
divination passed through them, the flame of the spirit inspiring them
to pronounce upon inspiration both human and divine. God may bring into
being divine works, which are absolute; there is another level, that of
angelic works; and a third way, that of the evildoers.
But my son, I address you here a little too obscurely. As regards
the occult prophecies one is vouchsafed through the subtle spirit of
fire, which the understanding sometimes stirs through contemplation of
the distant stars as if in vigil, likewise by means of pronouncements,
one finds oneself surprised at producing writings without fear of being
stricken for such impudent loquacity. The reason is that all this
proceeds from the divine power of Almighty God from whom all bounty
proceeds.
And so once again, my son, if I have eschewed the word prophet, I do
not wish to attribute to myself such lofty title at the present time,
for whoever is called a prophet now was once called a seer; since a
prophet, my son, is properly speaking one who sees distant things
through a natural knowledge of all creatures. And it can happen that
the prophet bringing about the perfect light of prophecy may make
manifest things both human and divine, because this cannot be done
otherwise, given that the effects of predicting the future extend far
off into time.
God's mysteries are incomprehensible and the power to influence
events is bound up with the great expanse of natural knowledge, having
its nearest most immediate origin in free will and describing future
events which cannot be understood simply through being revealed.
Neither can they be grasped through men's interpretations nor through
another mode of cognizance or occult power under the firmament, neither
in the present nor in the total eternity to come. But bringing about
such an indivisible eternity through Herculean efforts (2), things are
revealed by the planetary movements.
I am not saying, my son - mark me well, here - that knowledge of
such things cannot be implanted in your deficient mind, or that events
in the distant future may not be within the understanding of any
reasoning being. Nevertheless, if these things current or distant are
brought to the awareness of this reasoning and intelligent being they
will be neither too obscure nor too clearly revealed.
Perfect knowledge of such things cannot be acquired without divine
inspiration, given that all prophetic inspiration derives its initial
origin from God Almighty, then from chance and nature. Since all these
portents are produced impartially, prophecy comes to pass partly as
predicted. For understanding created by the intellect cannot be
acquired by means of the occult, only by the aid of the zodiac,
bringing forth that small flame by whose light part of the future may
be discerned.
Also, my son, I beseech you not to exercise your mind upon such
reveries and vanities as drain the body and incur the soul's perdition,
and which trouble our feeble frames. Above all avoid the vanity of that
most execrable magic formerly reproved by the Holy Scriptures - only
excepting the use of official astrology.
For by the latter, with the help of inspiration and divine
revelation, and continual calculations, I have set down my prophecies
in writing. Fearing lest this occult philosophy be condemned, I did not
therefore wish to make known its dire import; also fearful that several
books which had lain hidden for long centuries might be discovered, and
of what might become of them, after reading them I presented them to
Vulcan. [i.e. burned them]. And while he devoured them, the flame
licking the air gave out such an unexpected light, clearer than that of
an ordinary flame and resembling fire from some flashing cataclysm, and
suddenly illumined the house as if it were caught in a furnace. Which
is why I reduced them to ashes then, so that none might be tempted to
use occult labours in searching for the perfect transmutation, whether
lunar or solar, of incorruptible metals (3).
But as to that discernment which can be achieved by the aid of
planetary scrutiny, I should like to tell you this. Eschewing any
fantastic imaginings, you may through good judgment have insight into
the future if you keep to the specific names of places that accord with
planetary configurations, and with inspiration places and aspects yield
up hidden properties, namely that power in whose presence the three
times [past, present, and future] are understood as Eternity whose
unfolding contains them all: for all whings nare naked and open.
That is why, my son, you can easily, despite your young brain,
understand that events can be foretold naturally by the heavenly bodies
and by the spirit of prophecy: I do not wish to ascribe to myself the
title and role of prophet, but emphasize inspiration revealed to a
mortal man whose perception is no further from heaven than the feet are
from the earth. I cannot fail, err or be deceived, although I may be as
great a sinner as anyone else upon this earth and subject to all human
afflictions.
But after being surprised sometimes by day while in a trance, and
having long fallen into the habit of agreeable nocturnal studies, I
have composed books of prophecies, each containing one hundred
astronomical quatrains, which I want to condense somewhat obscurely.
The work comprises prophecies from today to the year 3797.
This may perturb some, when they see such a long timespan, and this
will occur and be understood in all the fullness of the Republic (4);
these things will be universally understood upon earth, my son. If you
live the normal lifetime of man you will know upon your own soil, under
your native sky, how future events are to turn out.
For only Eternal God knows the eternity of His light which proceeds
from Him, and I speak frankly to those to whom His immeasurable,
immense and incomprehensible greatness has been disposed to grant
revelations through long, melancholy inspiration, that with the aid of
this hidden element manifested by God, there are two principal factors
which make up the prophet's intelligence.
The first is when the supernatural light fills and illuminates the
person who predicts by astral science, while the second allows him to
prophesy through inspired revelation, which is only a part of the
divine eternity, whereby the prophet comes to assess what his
divinatory power has given him through the grace of God and by a
natural gift, namely, that what is foretold is true and ethereal in
origin (5).
And such a light and small flame is of great efficacy and scope, and
nothing less than the clarity of nature itself. The light of human
nature makes the philosophers so sure of themselves that with the
principles of the first cause they reach the loftiest doctrines and the
deepest abysses. But my son, lest I venture too far for your future
perception, be aware that men of letters shall make grand and usually
boastful claims about the way I interpreted the world, before the
worldwide conflagration which is to bring so many catastrophes and such
revolutions that scarcely any lands will not be covered by water (6),
and this will last until all has perished save history and geography
themselves. This is why, before and after these revolutions in various
countries, the rains will be so diminished and such abundance of fire
and fiery missiles shall fall from the heavens that nothing shall
escape the holocaust. And this will occur before the last conflagration
[1999].
For before war ends the [twentieth] century and in its final stages
[1975-99] it will hold the century under its sway. Some countries will
be in the grip of revolution (7) for several years, and others ruined
for a still longer period. And now that we are in a republican era,
with Almighty God's aid, and before completing its full cycle, the
monarchy will return, then the Golden Age (8). For according to the
celestial signs, the Golden Age shall return, and after all
calculations, with the world near to an all-encompassing revolution -
from the time of writing 177 years 3 months 11 days (9) - plague, long
famine and wars, and still more floods from now until the stated time.
Before and after these, humanity shall several times be so severely
diminished that scarcely anyone shall be found who wishes to take over
the fields, which shall become free where they had previously been
tied.
This will be after the visible judgment of heaven, before we reach
the millennium which shall complete all. In the firmament of the eighth
sphere, a dimension whereon Almighty God will complete the revolution,
and where the constellations will resume their motion which will render
the earth stable and firm, but only if He will remain unchanged for
ever until His will be done.
This is in spite of all the ambiguous opinions surpassing all
natural reason, expressed by Mahomet; which is why God the Creator,
through the ministry of his fiery agents with their flames, will come
to propose to our perceptions as well as our eyes the reasons for
future predictions.
Signs of events to come must be manifested to whomever prophesies.
For prophecy which stems from exterior illumination is part of that
light and seeks to ally with it and bring it into being so that the
part which seems to possess the faculty of understanding is not subject
to a sickness of the mind.
Reason is only too evident. Everything is predicted by divine
afflatus (10) and thanks to an angelic spirit inspiring the one
prophesying, consecrating his predictions through divine unction. It
also divests him of all fantasies by means of various nocturnal
apparitions, while with daily certainty he prophesies through the
science of astronomy, with the aid of sacred prophecy, his only
consideration being his courage in freedom.
So come, my son, strive to understand what I have found out through
my calculations which accord with revealed inspiration, because now the
sword of death approaches us, with pestilence and war more horrible
than there has ever been - because of three men's work - and famine.
And this sword shall smite the earth and return to it often, for the
stars confirm this upheaval and it is also written: I shall punish
their injustices with iron rods, and shall strike them with blows.
For God's mercy will be poured forth only for a certain time, my
son, until the majority of my prophecies are fulfilled and this
fulfillment (sic) is complete. Then several times in the course of the
doleful tempests the Lord shall say: Therefore I shall crush and
destroy and show no mercy; and many other circumstances shall result
from floods and continual rain (11) of which I have written more fully
in my other prophecies, composed at some length, not in a chronological
sequence, in prose, limiting the places and times and exact dates so
that future generations will see, while experiencing these inevitable
events, how I have listed others in clearer language, so that despite
their obscurities these things shall be understood: When the time comes
for the removal of ignorance, the matter will be clearer still.
So in conclusion, my son, take this gift from your father M.
Nostradamus, who hopes you will understand each prophecy in every
quatrain herein. May Immortal God grant you a long life of good and
prosperous happiness.
Salon, 1 March 1555
Nostradamus Almanacs 1555 - 1567
bravenet.com