Much debated subject of the 20th century, but somewhat forgotten at the beginning of this third millenium, the prophecies of Nostradamus did not fall into oblivion. Having become the infatuation of the last decades, they had gained popularity on the Internet where many sites offered their own interpretations of the quatrains, some of them quite interesting, some others a little farfetched, but all of them intent on proving that the prophet was a genuine clairvoyant.

However, it is not desirable to know before the fact, the course of future events and,for this reason and the fact it is nearly impossible to decipher them, I concentrated on past events. The prophecies were meant to be read and interpreted not before but after the event has occured. Life follows its inexorable course and, whatever you do in whatever place you may be at any specific time, that is your destiny.

As expected, most, if not all of the events depicted in those interpretations did not occur because they had no solid foundations and were not based on a logical and intuitive interpretation of the prophecies. And when I say intuitive, it means that the interpreter must try to put himself in Nostradamus' shoes so to speak and try to find the meaning of the words, not from one's own perspective, but rather that of a 16th century prophet.

For instance, I put myself in Caesar's place and tried to understand the 'Letter to Caesar' as if it were addressed to me, and the quatrains, as Nostradamus would have explained them to his son, with his own words and his own interpretation of the events he was seeing in his visions, all this, again, from his own 16th century perspective.

I chose to work on a specific past event, World War II, because I thought there was a lesson to be learned through the fact that it occurred as predicted. The facts that I discovered showed, without a doubt, that Nostradamus has seen those events as they occurred. If you take the time to read The Italian Campaign and the interpretations that follows, you cannot but come to the same conclusion.

Those, amongst the interpreters, who saw in Nostradamus a fervent catholic, have seen but the exterior appearances. Considering what the jews had to go through throughout the centuries in order to survive, and their determination to preserve the faith of their forefathers, it is hard to believe that fear could have erased the faith of a people whose traditions go back to the times of Moses. It is more logical to believe that, faithful to the tenets of their jewish faith, the parents of Nostradamus pretended to follow the rules and rites of the Church to avoid the numerous searches and persecutions of its Inquisition.
Nostradamus was all the more cautious since he had ventured in a domain, clairvoyance, that, in the eyes of the Church, was very close to sorcery. If astrology was a respectable science in the 16th century, it was not the same with so-called occult sciences that were then equated with sorcery and magic. Witch hunt had become the fad of the day and, by means of the Congregation of the Holy Office, (the late Inquisition) the Church used all means at its disposal to track down the 'heretics' and force them to embrace catholicism:
It became notorious for its use of torture and secret denunciation.
[New Webster's Dictionary]
Particularly vicious in the times of Nostradamus, the Congregation had tribunals in all major cities of France, and Salon, where Nostradamus had finally settled, was not spared. The seer himself had had some problems with the Church and these experiences had simmered down his enthousiasm. He had become a prudent and cautious man. This is why, when he finally published the Centuries, the sentences had been so cleverly arranged that, in spite of obvious incongruities and nonsenses, they looked as though they had been written that way.
The prophecies must be read, studied and interpreted from that perspective, taking into account the morals and customs of the times and the considerable influence of the Church in all matters pertaining to the religious, social and political structure of the 16th century.
For centuries, and strange as it is, the interpreters have tried to interpret the prophecies in their actual form, and no one has dared challenge the structure of the quatrains. This is why most of today's interpretations are not consistent with historical facts and do not reflect true nostradamian thought. It is probably for this reason that, to many unbelievers, the book is a massive fraud, and Nostradamus, a charlatan.
In order to veil the contents of the Centuries, Nostradamus used various living and dead languages, coding methods, and grammatical mechanisms such as the aphaeresis, apocope, ellipsis, syncope, synecdoche, and the play on words very popular in his days. And yet, all these processes are not the main obstacle to the interpretation of the prophecies. All those means of codification were already known to 16th century scholars, and they would have deciphered the quatrains in a relatively short period of time. This is why, in order to veil their meaning until the time was ripe for their disclosure, Nostradamus worked out his own code, taking care, as mentioned earlier, to hide clues for the interpretation of the prophecies somewhere in the book. Once interpreted, these quatrains offer a detailed panorama of the visions that had haunted the seer's nights and disrupted the course of his life.

My findings have lead me to believe that part of this code has been hidden in the 'Letter to Caesar' and 'The Epistle to Henry, King of France, Second'. I did find what I believe to be the first key. It is, unfortunately, not enough to unveil the events of the future hidden in the quatrains. However, that first key has helped me decrypt part of the event of the past (WWII) which is most representative of the decline of humanity in the past 400 hundred years , for it shows to what depth human beings can sink when, instead of centering on their earth mission of love and compassion, they take advantage of their brothers and sisters of the world and desecrate the land that feeds and sustain them.
That first key is very simple. Nostradamus has reversed the order of the quatrains in such a way that the relation of an event was dispursed in as much as three different locations, so that each quatrain dealt with three different events. For instance, the first two lines of a quatrain relate part of an event, and the next lines of that same quatrain must be found somewhere else in the Centuries. That is the second clue and until it is found, it will be very difficult to interpret an event in its totality. I am not saying that all the quatrains were reversed, but most of them, specifically those that could have a deep impact on people. I do not need to explain it further. The interpretrations that follow are self-explanatory.
Up to now, that first clue of the Centuries has allowed me to authenticate a series of events and replace each of them in the actual context of a main tragic event that occurred not so long ago, World War II. However, even though my interpretation is, in my viewpoint, correct, the results are, nevertheless, fragmentary and, because of that reversal of order, many pieces of the puzzle have yet to be unearthed. When all pieces finally fall into place, the events will unroll before our eyes, unveiling historical past events and a kaleidoscope of the Great Changes that will have by then transformed the world and given birth to that New Humanity foreseen by the prophets.
It is not without reason that, in his 'Letter to Cesar', Nostradamus wrote:

Abscondisti haec a sapientibus, et prudentibus, id est potentibus et regibus, et enucleasti ea exiguis et tenuibus.
[You have hidden those things from the intellectual and the educated, that is to say, the powerful and the kings, and you have revealed them to the ordinary and common people.]
Another point, very important: many interpreters have seen, in numerous quatrains, the prediction of a Third World War. I believe many of the quatrains attributed to a Third World War have been erroneously taken out of context and relate, in fact, the numerous events that occurred during World War II, as well as the many changes that have begun to occur on the planet and will unfold as we reach the end of this century. Of course, many other events are related in the prophecies, for they are part of the human drama that culminated in that war, the most devastating conflict in human history.
It is therefore my viewpoint that an important part of the Centuries has to do with three major occurences:

-The emergence of the spiritual teacher Nostradamus calls the Great Monarch.
-World War II.
-The Coming Changes at the turn of the century.

The present essay relates a major event that occurred during World War II, the 'Landing in Sicily and Italy' and the war that followed, prelude to the landing in Normandy, the invasion of France and the rest of Europe. I chose to concentrate on that part of the war, a tremendous work nonetheless, and leave for another book, these other episodes of the the war in Europe and other countries that led to the fall of the Third Reich in 1945.
For the first time, and as seen in his visions, Nostradamus relates a World War II event in its entirety, but the interpretations that follow are presented in a fragmentary manner, just like the archeologist who deciphers a parchment of which many passages have been obliterated by time. Of all the prophets that incarnated on earth, Nostradamus is the one whose prophecies are the more detailed, for it is the first time that an event of that scale is related with an accuracy that sometimes equals that of history books.
I was asked what was the real purpose behind all that saga that spans four centuries, and I must admit it is not easy to answer that question. However, in the light of what I found in my studies of the prophecies, and the many catastrophies we are now confronted with, I would sat that purpose is two-fold:
First, even though the events and their meaning were veiled, the Prophecies showed enough evidence that these events were of a catastrophic and cataclysmic nature. They were a warning to 16th century man to mend his ways, as well as the proof that war has never been the solution to mankind's problems. Unfortunately, century after century, the leaders of the world followed one another, only to repeat the same mistakes and the same atrocities. And for that reason, the Prophecies are also a warning to 20th century man, who, being reminded of a series of events that were predicted four centuries ago, is offered the chance, once again, to finally understand that man is the creator of his own destiny. It is not a vengeful God that brings upon us all those catastrophies and castaclysms, but the stubbornness of the present humanity that has not learned the lessons of love and compassion, true purpose of its earth incarnation.
20th century wars are the direct consequence of all those wars that were fought in the past, just as future cataclysms will be the consequence of the present humanity's behavior if it remains on the negative path it is now following.
Those who believe in the theory of successive lives or reincarnation will understand when I say there are individual and group karmas, just as there are societal and planetary karmas, Thus an entity [or a spirit] decides to reincarnate in a specific environment and family circle. There he will evolve, surrounded by other individuals that are also on their individual path and linked to his own karmic pathwaw through agreements made prior to his entrance in the world. At the same time, he reincarnates in a specific societal environment and a religious, economic and political structure that he will be a part of and participate in as a fully-fledged member. He stands by that society.
For example, World War II is a societal karma of which all the participants have been, at one time or another of their many lives, part of the wars and conflicts that have plagued humanity for centuries. It is the boomerang effect where one learns the harsh lessons of life: 'Do to others as you would have them do to you'. [Matt: 7-12]
Some might object that if Nostradamus predicted those events 400 years in advance and they actually occurred, then they would have occurred no matter what. Fortunately, cosmic laws do not work that way. The visions of Nostradamus or any other prophet are perceived from a cosmic reality where probability plays a major role. What the prophets see is but the probable scenario of a drama that may or will occur if nothing happens to change the course of events. Even though an event is or has been predicted no matter how many years ago, that event or the course of that event can be changed by man's divine power to alter his destiny.
Here we have a societal as well as a planetary karma, and to understand all the implications of what was just said, one must place himself in the context of that period. 16th century humanity and that of subsequent centuries were warring people whose intolerance led, most of the time, to cruelty and inhuman behavior, for instance, the Inquisition and the french and russian revolutions. Thus, the visions of Nostradamus represented a probability based on a collective unconscious and a planetary behavior that spanned 400 years: if humanity continues on the same path, the visions were telling us, here is what will happen. If only one of those past conflicts had been changed for the better by man's will, it would have also possibly changed World War II events one way or another. May be it would not have occurred. May be the Holocaust would have been avoided.
In fact, Nostradamus' visions were a warning : 'If humanity follows on the same negative path, here is what will occur'. The same thing is done on election day: 'if the current trend persists, so and so will be elected....!' Thus, World War II and all other wars occurred, not because Nostradamus predicted them, but rather because humanity has continued on the same negative path. It is quite probable that some of the prophet' s predictions did not, or will not occur. If that is the case, it only means that there has been a change of course, for man has total control of his destiny. That change can be on a huge scale, or individual. The Jews who could avoid, as if by miracle, the gas chambers, have changed their own individual karma, but, on a greater scale, the Holocaust, a societal karma, could not be avoided. The visions of Nostradamus were but cosmic forecasts, just like weather forecast. Just as the wind changes course and brings sunshine instead of rain, so events such as World WarII could have been avoided, had there been a change in the collective unconscious of humanity. That collective unconscious is what makes our world a heaven on earth or the hell of fire and brimstone that we witness everyday on our TV screen. The other purpose of the Centuries is not so much the prediction of the future in itself, as it is the confirmation and the proof that events can actually be predicted centuries in advance. This opens the door to a totally new vision of the cosmos as we know it. If our future is already there to be seen, it means that it coexists with the past and present and is forever part of man's cosmic destiny on earth and any inhabited planet of the cosmos. It means that there is only an eternal present through which man walks from life to life, as he walks from one room to another in his own home. Each room is different, but they are all part of the same structural components. Thus, not only are we part of a physical humanity, but again, we are involved in a cosmic drama that extends far beyond the tridimensional boundary as we know it. Each of us has taken part in that drama that we play from life to life, and, in this sense, we bear the responsibility of the events of World War II, as well as that of all these other wars that occurred, and may occur, in the course of history. The relentless pursuit of war criminals more 50 years after the fact, is the proof that man has not grasped the meaning of that cosmic reality. War has never been the solution. War is an abomination and is directly responsible for the present state of the planet and the catastrophies we are now witnessing in our everyday life. That is the legacy and the true purpose of the prophecies.
Nostradamus was, first and foremost, the prophet of the events that would occur in our 20th century which the seer recognized as a time of great changes, culminating in a final cataclysm that will transform the world and its inhabitants and give birth to a new humanity.
Far from being a charlatan, Nostradamus was a true prophet and I hope these interpretations partly fulfill his wish of the Letter and restore his good name in the mind of 21st century humanity.