In the philosophical discipline of Logic, especially when deciphering the meaning of poetry, words often have metaphorical applications in poetic verse, whereby the most logical way to accurately discern the intent of a poem is from asking the author. The author is the best source for the meaning behind his or her words; but sometimes authors die before anyone reads their works; and sometimes authors want to keep people guessing about the meaning. However, most authors have no problem explaining the meaning of their works.
For instance, the Beatles produced a song entitled, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which used very surreal wording, such as “plasticine porters with looking glass ties” and where “rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies” was sung. This imagery is created by surreal wording, especially during the drug days of the late 60s. They seemed obviously to be a poetic representation of a psychedelic acid trip. That then led to the assumption that the three capital letters in the song title, L.S.D., meant the song was John Lennon’s marvelous way with words, to sing a song about a drug the members of the band had recently experimented with.
Reporters went right to the source, to confirm that the meaning of the title was LSD. However, John Lennon told them that was a coincidence. He told everyone that the title was the same title as one of his son Julian’s finger paintings, which he brought home from school. John had asked Julian what one of the paintings was about; and Julian said, “That is Lucy (a classmate) in the sky, with diamonds around her.” John then named the song he was working on the same as Julian’s painting. John Lennon maintained this happening as the meaning behind the title of his song, up until shortly before his tragic death.
The point of this example is that despite John Lennon repeatedly telling the meaning of the title, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, there are people that still maintain the title means the song is about LSD. These people can only be seen as fools, who can only offer conjecture and opinion, when others can offer proof to the contrary, from the mouth of John Lennon (not to mention visual evidence, since the painting has been preserved).
The Prophecies of Nostradamus are two letters of prose, amid 950 poems of metaphor. The epistles are the prose that explain the metaphor. Thus, the same can be said of those who boldly state that Nostradamus saw glimpses of the future, while staring into a pool of water, boiling over a flame, in a bowl mounted on a tripod of bronze, while he waved a wand in the air, as though there was some traditional practice (black magic?) that could make visions appear in the steam.
We are to believe that Nostradamus followed this procedure each night; and every time he saw a vision, he then wrote of it in poetic verses that he just constructed on the fly. After he wrote one down on paper, he would look back at the mystical bowl and a different vision would appear, in no way related to the previous (nor the following) vision. Some say they have come to this conclusion because Nostradamus wrote these lines:
Seul repous sus la selle aerain, (line 2 of quatrain I – 01)
Baston tortu en main, bouche serree. (line 4 of quatrain V – 75)
La verge en main mise au milieu de BRANCHES (line 1 of quatrain I – 02)
Le tout accord & presag l’vne partie tripode aeneo. (Letter to Henry II)
Translated as:
Alone thrust upon the stool of brass,
Staff crooked in hand, mouth closed.
The wand in hand placed in the middle of BRANCHES
The whole accorded & prophesied the one distinguished tripod copper.
Now, of these four lines of words, three come from quatrains, which are 4-line poems. That, by itself, says a line of text is taken out of context, to make some statement of support for a wild claim of how Nostradamus predicted the future. However, the question: How did Nostradamus predict the future? is then answered by what amounts to being his predictions.
We would prefer more of the line that comes from the Letter to Henri II, because that is one of Nostradamus letters explaining the meaning of the quatrains. To jump to the conclusion that the quatrains themselves explain the quatrains would be like someone supposing the lines of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds explained the title. That supposition is wrong; and likewise, we cannot accept statements made in Nostradamus’ poems to be explanatory of all the poems he wrote, in Les Propheties.
Now, about the statement that comes from the Epistle to Henry II, the tripode aeneo is not something that can be assumed to be real, as much as a historical reference. This possibility of the words used being designed for such a reference becomes even more possible when we see the word “presage” preceding it. When we see this use of the past tense form of the verb meaning, “to prophesy or to foretell,” we are then told to look for the one that becomes most distinguished from such an art. We then find (by searching for meaning) that the Oracle of Delphi, a sibyl or prophetess ceremoniously named Pythia, would sit in a tripod seat, which was aligned over a fissure in the rock, where vapors rose. The god Apollo would speak the truth through the oracle, answering truthfully to questions posed by querents, giving the answer that would be found in the future. The tripod is said to have been constructed of copper or bronze, with some saying the tripod was made of gold, but the lid (seat) was made of brass.
When this part of the statement in the Letter to Henry II is understood properly, it says, the whole (experience of prophecy) was accorded to me, meaning it was yielded unto me & by that I mean not by my design, because I prophesied as though I was in the one distinguished tripod of copper, with the spirit speaking through me. In other words, this statement is, in fact, Nostradamus stating his utter and complete lack of personal manipulation of special articles that would allow him to see the future. He is stating the future was shown to him, merely with him being a vehicle for the truth to be told.
When we understand this explanation, which is just one small fragment of the Letter to Henry II, we can then turn around and see this explanation further explained in the quatrains (the same ones listed above). As such, being “Alone,” while also being “thrust upon the stool (or seat) of brass,” indicates an invisible presence with Nostradamus, one with the power to thrust.
The word Nostradamus wrote, pous, is a modified form of the Old French word, repouls, which meant, “repulsed; repelled; foiled; thrust; or driven back.” Some have transformed this word into a form of, repos, making it as though Nostradamus made himself comfortable in a brass seat, because that word means “peace; rest; and pause.” The correct translation shows a powerful force taking hold of Nostradamus, while he did sit on a metal stool.
We can also get a sense that the other two statements agree when the word “Staff” is used (Baston and verge). One refines the other, by a separate word being used, which further describes the Staff (Baston) as small (verge). We also see that there is nothing indicated that this “Staff” or “Wand/Rod” was in the hand of Nostradamus, which means the “hand” (main) and staff could have become elements that appeared, while Nostradamus was “Alone.” Further, when Nostradamus wrote, “placed in the middle of the BRANCHES,” there is absolutely nothing that tells us “BRANCHES” are to be interpreted as the legs on a tripod.
The Old French translation for the word branche indicated primarily the “branch or bough of a tree.” This then was the foundation for the use (as in family tree), where lineage, or line of a pedigree was the translation. As such, that quatrain is stating that Nostradamus was transported (in one way or another) to a time that was, in the middle of someone major’s lineage. The importance comes from the word BRANCHES being written in all upper-case letters, instead of normal type. That importance would then be related to the La verge in main, which can translate to state, “Here single branch upon public authority.”
When the word staff is seen as symbolic of a shepherd, the “BRANCHES” of shepherds would be the “BRANCHES” of religions in the world. However, La (capitalized first-word) becomes meaningless as an article (A, An, or The), meanings importance is conveyed when accented, as Là. That is an important statement of “There” to “Here,” where a “small staff” (verge) is in the presence of or “in the midst of” all the other “BRANCHES” of Yahweh. For the Catholic Christian that Nostradamus was that single branch would be the Biblical BRANCHES from Adam to Jesus, i.e.: Jewish lineage. Nostradamus, as the grandson of a converted Jew, was of this Spiritual line.
Certainly, to reach this conclusion logically, supporting evidence of explanation written by Nostradamus in his Preface and Epistle to Henry II would have to be shown. If Nostradamus claimed this divine presence as his source, then agreement must be made relative to that established parameter of meaning.
The title of the work – Les Propheties or The Prophecies – is a major statement that everything relative to that work is: “an inspired utterance of a prophet,” as a “divinely inspired revelation.” Nostradamus explains this in his Preface and poems. Thus, all quatrains must be read as a Christian book, on the level of a book of prophecy like those in the Old Testament, with ALL books of the Holy Bible the utterances of prophets. In Nostradamus Preface, he quoted the Bible. In both epistles and in the verses, he wrote in Latin, which is symbolic of the language of the Church of Rome. Therefore, The Prophecies is an apocryphal Book of the Holy Bible, where its doubt comes from the minds of human beings not spiritually possessed to understand.
That is explained Scripturally by Nostradamus as “Give not that holy unto dogs, nor cast pearls before swine, lest they turn and rend them” (Matthew 7:6) and “you have hid these things from the wise and prudent and exposed them to children” (Matthew 11:25). Only the divinely led children of rebirth can realize the truth to be found in what seems to be insanity, but is “unique intelligence, without here to have anything put with ambiguous not amphibologic calculation” (epistle to Henry).
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