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Siege en cité & de nuict assaillie,
Peu eschapé: non loing de mer conflict :
Femme de joye, retours filz defaillie
Poison & lettres cachées dans le plic.
This sounds a lot like the invasion and capitulation of France in 1940. The city is Paris, besieged and assailed. But the worst siege occurred in the hearts and minds of the French leadership, which literally self destructed in the weeks of the active assault of France in 1940. The sea conflict is the British-German naval fights that occurred in 1940, as well as the miracle of Dunkirk. But few Frenchmen escaped at Dunkirk (even though the British took all they could and would have taken more if they could have). The prostitute is the Vichy government, who received the soldiers of the defeated Third Republic. Vichy, lead by willing adherents of anti-Semitism and the now defunct Nationalist League, prostituted itself to the German Reich. The last line refers to the writings and dealings of the Vichy and Germans while occupying France.
Le dix Kalendes d’Avril de faict Gotique,
Resuscité encor par gens malins :
Le feu estainct, assemblée diabolique
Cherchant les or du d’Amant & Pselyn.
Note on Originals: The Bonhomme edition, the first known edition ever printed, spelled the last word Pselyn, which I have used. The Du Rosne edition spelled it Prelin while the Benoist Rigaud edition spelled it Pselin. Because of this, it is likely that Peilin, or Peilyn, is a word that was altered to rhyme with malins of line 2. To make it more interesting, the Bonhomme and the Du Rosne editions had the last line say “Cherchant les or” (searching for the gold) while the Rigaud edition has it say “Cherchant les os” (searching for the bones).
Almost everyone else translates this last line as “Searching for the bones of the Demon of Psellus.” However, Demon is démon, not d’Amant which translates into “the lover.” So the traditional translation is, to put it kindly, wrong. However, it is possible that Pselyn was modified from Psellus, so I have used that translation.
If Pselyn, or Pselin, is indeed Psellus, which I am uncertain of, then this is more likely concerning the lover of one named Psellus. I can only find one Psellus of import in history, Michael Psellus, the monkish author of several literary works of note, including his most important work, the Chronographia which is a record of the Byzantine Emperors from Basil II to Michael VII. He also authored other works, including De Operatione Daemonum, a classification of the operations of demons, from which the mistranslation is likely to have occurred. If Psellus is the one referred to, then the gold or bones of his lover would likely be power or scholarship, as there is every reason that Psellus was infatuated with power and scholarship.
The Calends of April is April 1st. In ancient Roman days, it was considered to be sacred to the Goddess Venus. The tenth of the Calends of April would therefore be April 10th. This is, of course, by the Julian calendar. It is somewhat earlier according to the Gregorian calendar we now use.
Assuming that Psellus is the correct translation of Pselyn, then it is likely this quatrain is talking about people who use magical rites in order to gain knowledge and power. They perform these rites on the 10th of April, by either the modern Gregorian or the older Julean calendar.
Avant qu’advienne le changement d’empire,
Il adviendra un cas bien mervielleux,
Le champ mué, le pilier de porphyre
Mis, translaté sus rochier noilleux.
As said, much as I try to shake the impression, I keep thinking Napoléon in this quatrain. The reason I keep getting this thought is the first line. If I am correct, this will have occurred before his exile to Elba. Of course, if I am wrong, it could have happened any time. But, what is the event?
Porphyry could refer to the Neo-Platonic philosopher who lived around 234-305 AD, the saint of Gaza who lived around 347 - 420 AD, or the mineral of the same name.
I will have to leave it to the knowledge of the reader to figure out.
En bref seront de retour sacrifices,
Contrevenans seront mis à martire :
Plus ne seront moines, abbés ne novices,
Le miel sera beaucoup plus cher que cire.
The first three lines put together time this quatrain. During the height of the French Revolution, when the Cult of Reason was begun, the original Christian sacrifices were banned. A new type of sacrifice was initiated, the sacrifice of La Guillotine! Yet Catholics and Protestants who were true believers did continue their own sacrifices and services, in private. Some were dragged out and executed during the Reign of Terror. All the churches of Christiandom were closed. Nostradamus of course focused on the Catholic religious, the monks, abbots and novices also included priests who left. The Cult of Reason was born. But Robespierre did not think that even this new cult was sufficient to deal with Christianity, so he tried to banish both by creating the Cult of the Supreme Being. Yet, true to line 1, within a year a return to religious based faith was beginning to be apparent. And within a few years, Napoléon would negotiate the Concordant of 1801 with the Vatican. Concerning line 4, it was not that honey became more expensive, but that wax was suddenly less expensive. With the closing of all the Catholic churches, abbeys, and other religious institutions, a major purchaser of wax candles was suddenly gone. The supply of candles went up. With the laws of supply and demand, with the demand down and the supply up, the price of candles went down. Honey, of course, remained constant in its price.
Secteur de sectes grand peine au delateur,
Beste en theatre, dressé le jeu scenique :
Du faict antique ennobly l’inventeur,
Par sects monde confus & scismatique.
A theater is involved and a beast (likely a human beast) is in the theater. One of the participants is a founder of sects. Maybe these sects are religious, maybe political. It seems that these sects confuse many parts of the world. The creator seems to be ennobled somehow.
This could refer to Robespierre, who founded both the Cult of Reason and the Cult of the Supreme Being, but where is the theater involved?
I must leave this one to the reader to figure out.
Tout aupres d’Aux, de Lectore & Mirande,
Grand feu du ciel en trois nuictz tumbera :
Cause adviendra bien stupende & mirande,
Bein peu apres la terre tremblera.
Unless there is some historical event that is hardly ever written about (mainly because it is so strange people just try to ignore it) this is something that has to occur in the future.
Mirande is located in the Gers department in southwestern France. While there is no Aux and Lestore, there is an Auch and Lectoure. Auch, also in the Gers department, is the traditional capital of Gascony. Lectoure is about twenty miles (32 kilometers) north of Auch.
Nu lac Leman les sermons fascheront,
Des jours seront reduictz par les sepmaines :
Puis moys, puis an, puis tous deffailiront,
Les magistratz damneront leur loix vaines.
Lake Laman is the ancient name for Lake Geneva. The League of Nations was located in Geneva. It is an ironic description of the utter worthlessness of the League. The days were reduced into weeks is a deliberate ironic statement describing how worthless the debates among the League were – decisions that should take days were taking weeks, then, months, then years – still the members of the League were unable to do or enforce anything. The magistrates, the ambassadors to the League, finally condemned their decisions and inability to do anything while Adolf Hitler was busy launching the Second World War.
Vingt ans du regne de la lune passés
Sept mil ans autre tiendra sa monarchie :
Quand le Soleil prendra fes jours lassés
Lors accomplir & mine ma prophetie.
Depending on the correct interpretation of the second line, there are two ways to look at this. The first, and obvious way, is to translate “sept mil ans” as seven thousand years. However, there is another way of interpreting it, the seventh thousand years!
This may seem like a minor quibble, but it actually has a vast difference of meaning. If Nostradamus meant his prophecies to last seven thousand years, then the last prophecy will occur in the year 8555. However, if it occurs in the seventh thousand years, then it is tied to the Seventh Millenium of the Hebrew Calender. Nostradamus published the first edition of his prophecies in the year 1555, by the Julean Calendar. That was the year 5315 in the Hebrew Calendar. That gives a minimum of 686 years with a maximum of 1685 years for the last prophecy to occur.
Unless I am completely incorrect, the majority of the prophecies will be completed by the end of the 21st century. That said, Nostradamus is giving a duration that is under two thousand years. Likely there will be a number of prophecies that are ambiguous to us but willbe understandable to those in the future.
Beaucoup avant telles menées.
Ceux d’Orient par la vertu lunaire :
L’an mil sept cens seront grand emmenées
Subjugant presques le coing Aquilonaire.
This stunning quatrain is noted for the literal statement of the year and the accurate placement of the participants.
In 1700, an alliance of Denmark, Poland-Lithuania and Saxony was formed. The prime mover of this alliance was the nation to the east; Russia under Peter the Great, wanted to build St. Petersburg. The target was Sweden, which had developed a rather large empire in the north, which included modern day Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia, and part of Norway. Land Sweden owned was right where Peter wanted to build his new capital and port.
At first, things went well for Sweden. Under Karl XII, the Swedes won victory after victory, beating the Poles, the Danes and the Saxons. Yet Karl did not follow up with his victories with favorable terms; he let the Poles leave the alliance after he dethroned August II and he failed to destroy Saxony, accepting the given word of its king.
Yet even with all this, Sweden could have emerged the victor if Karl had been careful with Russia. Peter had used the first seven years of the war to lay a stake to the area he wanted to build his port city, he also took over Estonia and ruined Livonia. During this time Karl could have made an easy peace and walked away with almost everything – Peter only wanted to keep the area for his new city. But Karl took it as a personal affront; he refused any negotiations with Peter. This would bring ruin to Sweden.
In 1708, Karl invaded Russia. Unfortunately for him, Peter pursued a scorched earth policy and the Russian winter did its work on his troops, decimating a number of them. When the winter was over, the Swedes approached a better fed and rested Russian army and were slaughtered by them. Karl barely escaped with his life, fleeing to the Ottoman Empire. This left Russia (the east) full freedom to take whatever it wanted from Sweden. Peter completed his conquest of Livonia and conquered modern day Finland. Karl finally escaped and made it to Sweden, only to find the situation hopeless. He was unable to hold the city of Strausland, which fell to the Prussians, who joined the coalition with an eye to territorial conquest.
Karl died in 1718. The war continued on for three more years until 1721, when the Swedes finally brought the war to a close. It was fortunate that they did so. Denmark and Russia were preparing final campaigns that would have divided Sweden between them. As it was, Sweden lost everything outside of Sweden proper. The shrinkage of territory was vast. Russia was the great winner, taking over half of the old Swedish Empire lands.
De l’aquatique triplicité naistra,
D’un sera le jeudy pour sa feste :
Son bruit, loz, regne, sa puissance croistra,
Par terre & mer aux orients tempeste.
Traditionally, the aquatic triplicity are the three astrological water signs – Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. However, to say that the sun would be in all three signs is, of course, clearly ludicrous, as it can only occupy one sign at a time. Therefore, there is another meaning to the aquatic triplicity.
The key to understanding this is that this person, or group of people, will take Thursday for its holiday. Muslims take Friday as their Sabbath, Christians Sunday and Jews Saturday (the true Sabbath). Therefore, it cannot refer to a religious person.
The only people that this can apply to is the people of the United States. Born in the sign of Cancer (4th of July occurring while the sun is in the astrological sign of Cancer) it has a holiday that must fall on a Thursday – Thanksgiving Day, which always falls on one of the last Thursdays of the month of November.
The third line is self-explanatory. The praise of the United States has grown over the two hundred years it has been in existence. And it has certainly proved to be a tempest to the East, i.e. Islamic states, China and Japan. So much so that Osama bin Laden and the Mulah’s of Iran have labeled this country the Great Satan. For these reasons, I am certain this quatrain does apply to the United States.
And concerning the meaning of the aquatic triplicity, I do have an interesting idea. On the Treaty of Paris, formally signed the 3rd of September, 1783, it states: “It having pleased the Divine Providence to dispose the hearts of the most serene and most potent Prince George the Third, by the grace of God, king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland....” (Italics mine). The British king in those days claimed France as his own land. If this is the case, than the line De l’aquatique triplicité should be translated not OF the aquatic triplicity but FROM the aquatic triplicity – The three lands bound and separated by the waters, claimed by the British King. If true, it would be a Nostradamian prank, a pun on the British claim.
Though the prophecies are serious, there is nothing to preclude Nostradamus from having a bit of fun at the expense of one of France’s traditional enemies, especially when it concerns the claim that has caused so much trouble between England and France for so many years.