Vocabulary

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Video (First 10 minutes

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

In 1555, in an obscure corner of France, Nostradamus began to write a series of mysterious verses full of strange ideas.

Now it’s claimed these were astonishingly accurate predictions of future events: predicting cataclysms and disasters hundreds of years before they happen.

Mario Reading, Author: “Nostradamus stands head and shoulders above the other prophets and seers.”

Mark Corby, Historian: “He has been credited with virtually predicting the entire of world history since his death up to now and well beyond.”

But who was this extraordinary man? And where his verse is really the
most accurate prophecies ever told?

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We like to think we live in a rational scientific age — a world away from medieval superstition.

That view though was challenged by the events of September 2001. 9/11 was the most shocking event in recent history.

But in its immediate aftermath, millions turned not to science or rational explanations they sought out instead the words of a long-dead prophet.

On the Internet in the days after 9/11, the name that received most searches wasn’t of Osama bin Laden or George Bush. It was Nostradamus.

The idea that Nostradamus could help shed light on recent events may seem absurd; yet that’s exactly what his supporters claim.

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Nostradamus’ reputation hangs on the almost one-thousand four-line verses or quatrains he wrote. These are full of cryptic references.

But to believers in Nostradamus they are actually a secret code which predicts all manner of future events, including 9/11.

Mario Reading is one of the foremost supporters of Nostradamus. When it comes to 911 he believes it’s foretold in detail.

Mario Reading, Author:

“‘Far from the center of the earth will shake the towers of the new city.
As a result two great rocks will fight a long war.
Until Arethusian Springs bloody the river afresh.’

Well every line has links to the 911 disaster there.

‘Far from the center of the earth.’ That’s the petroleum that was the basis of the explosion. ‘Will shake the towers of the New City.’ That’s more or less self-evident. But the new city was in the New World, and Nostradamus was fully aware of this at the time.

‘Two great rocks’ are of the two great rocks of Christianity and Islam, which will fight a great war, and a long war which will continue for many many years.

This I have to say impressed me enormously.”

Reading believes Nostradamus verses predict everything from the Great Fire of London through Hurricane Katrina.

Others disagree in think Nostradamus is words are being misused by his supporters.

Professor Richard Wiseman, Psychologist: “They know the none of it’s true, but it’s just an easy way of making a living.”

So was Nostradamus a prophet or not?

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Nostradamus was born in 1503 in Provence his southern France. It was a troubled time.

Mark Corby, Historian: “When you look around at actual living conditions for Nostradamus in Provence has been everywhere in Europe it was absolutely filthy: people never washed; the church preached against bathing. They were covered in lice, spent most of their daylight hours scratching.

It was a short life of squalor and superstition, where death haunted every living moment.”

From the start Nostradamus was marked out as different.

Mark Corby, Historian: “He came from Jewish stock which meant really he was in the second tier — his grandparents probably been Orthodox Jews who had actually converted to Christianity.

But even then, people would always remember he will be worried about the Church watching his every move.

Nostradamus is early life though seems remarkably mundane. By his twenties he had married, settled down and trained as a doctor. He even opened his own apothecary shop.

Professor Evelyn Welch, University of London: “You have to imagine it’s it’s like being something between a grocer and a pharmacist. Anything from sweets and candies wax all kinds of stuff. Pharmacy shops were great places for gossip gambling took place there lots and lots of betting on things like whether a baby was gonna be born male or female.

All that kind of predictive stuff certainly takes place in pharmacy shops.

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By the end of the 1530s, Nostradamus was just another happy marriage shop owner.

But then something happened which set his life on a very different path.

Mario Reading, Author: “I think there’s no doubt that the death of Nostradamus’ his wife and children in the plague outbreak at Agen had a profound effect on him.

And I think it did trigger something in him because it was from that moment that he started seeing his revelations.”

Stricken by grief Nostradamus set out in the journey through Europe. For over a decade he traveled absorbing the ferment of new and occult ideas spreading across the continent, from Jewish mysticism the astrological techniques.

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When Nostradamus returned to Provence in the 1550s, he was ready to publish his greatest work the prophecies a book that would change history.

In 1555 the book appeared which would in time make Nostradamus famous across the world: the prophecies, 942 dire predictions of terrifying events to come.

Before Nostradamus there had been many seers prophesying doom. He though was different for he had access to a thoroughly modern invention.

Mark Corby, Historian: “It was the great technological breakthrough in the Renaissance — the printing press suddenly it was possible to produce printed books on a vast scale and disseminate them right across Europe.

So extraordinary radical and ludicrous ideas — and brilliant ideas — simultaneously could flood into all the houses of those who are fortunate enough to be literate.”

Robin Briggs, Historian: “It’s probably one of the fastest-growing if not the fastest growing industry of the period the printers are very keen to find bestsellers and that has a very strong influence of course on the popularity of astrology, prophecy and the like because these books often sell in very large numbers.”

Mark Corby, Historian: “This is the perfect time and this is a chance for a man to use this brand new information technology: his work will be disseminated right across Europe. Had he been born 100 years earlier it would have remained stuck in Provence, if he was lucky.”

It wasn’t just in Nostradamus his work circulated more widely than his predecessors, his language was of a different order to.

Dr. Elmar Gruber, Author: Nostradamus’ great popularity is due to the fact that he found this very special style. It is like a raw form of the raw vision coming, flowing directly from his mind and put into a very strange, crooked and hard to understand poetry.

Everyone thought that this man really had a glimpse into the fate of mankind.”

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Questions

Prophecy. Nostradamus was a computer wiz who invented the internet in 1965. True or false?

Mysticism. After 11 September, 2001, did most people look into airplanes, flying and skyscraper architecture? Did people search for God on the internet?

Trance. Why did people search for Nostradamus? Did he write in his book, “Two airplanes will fly into the Twin Towers of Manhattan, causing an explosion?”

Astrology. Have books always been very common and widespread?

Astronomy. Everyone believes that Nostradamus was a genuine prophet and that his predictions are real and accurate. Is this right or wrong?

Soothsayer. In his early life, was Nostradamus a monk? Did he work in a monastery?

Fraud, Charlatan, Quackery. One day, Nostradamus was struck by a lightning bolt and it changed his life; he became a farmer. Is this correct or incorrect? What did he do as a result?

Horoscope. Did he create a blog and Twitter account to express his ideas and opinions? Was the Catholic Church very proud of him?
 
 
 
Crazy, Insane, Mad. I have seen documentaries about Nostradamus. I have read books about Nostradamus. Yes or no?

Alchemy. Is there much interest in Nostradamus? Is Nostradamus famous? Do people talk about him?

Apothecary, Pharmacy. What do you think is the theme or message in Nostradamus’ book?

Sorcery, Witchcraft, Magic. Do you think Nostradamus is genuine or a fraud, charlatan or quack?

Warlock, Wizard. What could or should people do?