Johnno
The Living Force
Could have posted this in books, The work or here.....decided on here.
Since there is a bit of a discussion going on in the behave/beehive thread regarding The Language of the birds or he Green Language, I thought I'd post some pages from David Ovason's The Nostradamus Code. he gives examples of various methods used with some examples.
I scanned and tidied this up this afternoon, if there are any errors or edits required let me know.
It makes reading Nostradamus no easier!
Since there is a bit of a discussion going on in the behave/beehive thread regarding The Language of the birds or he Green Language, I thought I'd post some pages from David Ovason's The Nostradamus Code. he gives examples of various methods used with some examples.
I scanned and tidied this up this afternoon, if there are any errors or edits required let me know.
It makes reading Nostradamus no easier!
The following alphabetic list of Green Language techniques
used by Nostradamus is probably not complete, but
will certainly cover adequately the examples discussed in
this present work. The names attached to the techniques, as
denotations, are, with one exception, derived from the
literary tradition. The single exception is the term 'occult
blind', which is derived from the occult tradition. The fact
that we can examine the techniques of Nostradamus in the
light of the analytical tools of English literature should not
disguise the fact that Nostradamus often made up his own
linguistic rules. This, of course, means that in some cases
his methods are beyond simple classification. We have
attempted to give some insight into this complex use of
words below.
ANAGRAM
A word, or phrase, in which the letters may
be transported so as to form a new word or phrase. In
Nostradamus, the word Rapis stands for Paris: in this case,
as in most anagrams constructed by the master, the
anagrammatic treatment is not merely intended to deceive
or confuse, but also to produce a secondary meaning
(raptor, rapist or raped) which would be relevant to the
quatrain. The rape of Paris during the siege of 1870-71
would be a relevant example. Mendosus, which some have
wrongly translated as meaning 'the liar', is directly from the
Latin meaning 'full of faults', or 'deceptive'. The word is
probably an aphetic anagram for Vendosme, or Vendome,
which may relate either to the department of that name or
(more likely) to one or other of the Dukes of Vendome.
Nostradamus appears to have used few ana grammatic
sentences, but perhaps the most famous was the triple PAU
NAY LORAN, which was not a bad approximation, in the
sixteenth century, for NAPAULON ROY (see page 346).
Chien is said to be a syncopic anagram (see SYNCOPE) for
Chiren, which is in turn Henrie, a sixteenth-century way of
spelling the name of Henri II.
ANASTROPHE
A word used in Green Language to
denote the reversing of a word, sometimes in terms only of
letter forms, at other times only in terms of sound-values.
An example of the latter, mentioned on page 38, is the
anastrophe of HIRAM to MARIA, where the sound-value
of the final A is regarded as being the equivalent of the
Hebraic H. In exoteric literature the word is sometimes
used to denote an unusual order of words, as well as
Incomplete inversions. If this ground rule were adopted in
the study of Nostradamus, then virtually every line of the
Propheries must be considered anastrophic.
ANTONOMASIA
The substitution of an epithet to
stand for a proper name, or the use of a proper name to
represent a general idea. A few of the antonomastic words
joined by Nostradamus reflect his clairvoyance and his love
for irony. For example, his word doux, the French for
'sweet, gentle and affable' stands for Jacques Clement, who
assassinated Henry III in 1588: in Presage 58 - derived
from a quatrain in one of his almanacs - Clement is Doux la
pernicie. Nostradamus is being ironic, for the Latin clemens
means just about the same as the French doux.
Appearing frequently, le grand, or la Dame, are used to indicate
important or famous people, whose identities must be
determined from other clues within the context of the
quatrain. We are reminded that in the entry for the month
of his own death (see page 57 ff), Nostradamus predicted
the deaths of les grands: the plural may be taken as a
reference to the fact that Nostredame is a plural possessive.
In at least three quatrains, La Dame is Catherine de'
Medici, but the same word also represents Marie Antoinette
in two verses. La grande cite is sometimes Paris. Le
Pelletier notes that la grande cite neuve (the great new city),
which some modern commentators have read as meaning
New York, is a reference to the Paris reconstructed under
Napoleon III.
In quatrain X.49, on the other hand, the cite
neufve is definitely Naples (the ancient Neapolis, 'new city'
in Greek) - see page 366. In total contrast, the Cite neufue
of quatrain 1.24 is a reference to the name of the French
Vice-Admiral, Villeneuve (ville means 'town'), who served
under Napoleon - see page 369 ff. Precisely which new city
Nostradamus has in mind may only be determined from the
context of the quatrain.
APHESIS
Omission of a letter or syllable at the beginning
of a word. For example, Nostradamus uses the word
bondance for abondance: his aim is not merely to aid
scansion, but to introduce the notion of the bondage to
which abundance can give rise. The intriguing use to which
Nostradamus put the simple word eau (water) is instructive,
for in some cases it represented the water triplicities
(Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces) by antonomasia.
Just to add to the confusion, Nostradamus uses the same construction, in
other cases, to represent Aquarius, by the aphesis of the
French Verseau (as in quatrain IV.86 - see p. 283), and in
others, it represented a river or a sea. A simple aphetic
anagram used by Nostradamus is the innocent-seeming
Dedans (within, or in) which is intended to read Sedan, the
first important battle of which led to the fall of Paris, in
1871 (see p. 195). However, to make this reading viable as
an anagram, the rule of aphesis must be applied.
APOCOPE
The omission of a letter or syllable from the
ending of a word. The apocope Cap stands for Capet. A
more complicated example isfum for fume, or fumee: smoke,
or steam. In this case, as the apocope is in a quatrain
dealing with a battle (see p. 229 ff), the word may be
intended to suggest onomatopoeically the distant sound of
cannon - fum. In quatrain III. 53, which deals partly with
the treatment of the Jews under the Nazis, the two words Ie
pris are probably abridged for lepre (leprosy), relating
metaphorically to the Nuremburg laws. See also SYNCOPE.
ARCANE ASSOCIATION
This literary technique lies at the very basis of the Green Language: it is the use of
specialist words in such a way that they may be interpreted
as giving rise to further words with meanings evident only
to those familiar with the specialism. Thus, since one
zodiacal sign cannot be in another, the phrase Cancer in
boeuf is meaningless, in quatrain X.67. This will lead the
specialist to read Cancer as a reference to the Moon, as this
planet rules uniquely over the zodiacal sign Cancer. The
phrase would therefore read 'Moon in Taurus'.
Nostradamus is particularly fond of this kind of Green Language.
Perhaps more subtle is the way in which Nostradamus
would refer arcanely to such things as horoscopes which
contained data that reflected significantly upon the quatrain:
for example, in quatrain 1.31 he evokes a horoscope
which emphasizes the sign Leo to point to the three letters
contained in Napoleon's name.
Nostradamus is also fond of the arcane associations
offered by degrees of latitude. When using this method,
Nostradamus names a particular latitude (derived essentially
from the astrological tradition) in order to designate a
city or town. The main problem is that without the further
coordinate of the longitude, such a reference is ambiguous.
Thus, when Nostradamus refers to 45 degrees (actually,
Cinq f5 quarante degrez) in quatrain VI.97, he could have in
mind such cities as Bordeaux - perhaps even Perigueux Turin,
and perhaps Pavia, Cremona and Mantua, and,
given his clairvoyance, even Minneapolis, in the United
States.
However, he would not have had in mind those
other cities of the USA which the irrepressible Roberts
proposed, such as New York (which is at latitude 41
degrees) and certainly not San Francisco (which is as low as
36 degrees) nor even Chicago (which is in 42 degrees).
Non-specialists have tended to misinterpret these degree
references: for example, the first line of quatrain V.98 (A
quarante-huit degre climatterique - 'At 48 degree climata')
has been translated as relating to Paris, and this degree technically
inaccurate as it is - is given in the standard
astrological works of his day. However, this city is between
48 and 49 degrees, whereas Orleans, Le Mans and Freiburg
are exactly upon 48 degrees, and this means that there is
considerable ambiguity in the quatrains for the modern
reader.
Contemporaneous astrological texts, such as the
Orontius Fine of 1544, list latitudes for the main cities of
Europe, and however wrong they may be by modern
standards, they were widely adopted by sixteenth-century
astrologers. In the tables of houses published by Luca
Gauricus in 1533, the following are given:
Sicily 37 degrees
Rome 42 degrees
Venice 45 degrees
Bologna 45 degrees
Paris 48 degrees
London 54 degrees
Berlin 54 degrees
Fig. 53, taken from Oronce Fine, shows the latitudes for
the south of France, from 42 to 47 degrees - hence just
short of Paris - which we presume Nostradamus used.3 In
the example, quatrain V.98, the word climatterique is an
unnecessary repetition, perhaps intended to confuse the
uninitiated. It is coined by Nostradamus to indicate that the
degrees relate to the climata, the early-medieval equivalent
of degrees of longitude, which were already almost defunct
by the sixteenth century. In his Mundi Sphaera of 1542,
Fine remarks that these latitudes are 'what the vulgar call
the seven Climata'. When Nostradamus uses the degree
system (or the word dimata, in one form or another), then
he is clearly inviting one to regard the quatrain in terms of
arcane astrology.
ARCHAIZING
The use of old terms to denote thingsand places.
Nostradamus is fond of disguising his placenames
by using Greek and Roman names. One archaizing
name of which he is fond is Sextrophea, with which he
sometimes signs his almanacs: this refers to the monument
which still stands a mile or so outside his native SaintRemy.
As we see, on page 211 ff, this archaizing enters into
Ihe quatrains, though perhaps as a double occult blind.
Nostradamus delights in the ambiguities which archaizing
affords: for example, Ausonne is the old name for Bordeaux,
hut the Latin Ausonia meant the inhabitants of lower Italy.
When he uses this term, Nostradamus more frequently
intends the latter meaning. Boristhenes, the old term for the
river Dnieper, is archaizing for Russia. Lygustique (as in
quatrain IIL23) is archaizing for Liguria, but it often means
Italy, according to the law of SYNECDOCHE (see below).
As though his astrology were not already complex enough,
Nostradamus sometimes archaizes the planetary and zodiacal
names, as for example in the brassieres of VII.91,
derived from a Greek word which denoted Jupiter and
Saturn. A most remarkable example of archaizing is in
quatrain IX.14, which deals with the Battle of Waterloo,
with the words Sept. and borneaux: see page 230 ff, above.
EPENTHESIS
The adding of a letter or syllable to the
middle of a word. The Calpre of quatrain 1.77 is epenthesis
1.77 Calpe, the cape near to Gibraltar .
HOMONYMS
Words having the same sound and/or
spelling as another, but with a different meaning or origin.
The word Selin was the name of a historical leader of the
Turks (see page 242 ff), but it is also almost an homonym
for Selene, a Greek name for the goddess of the Moon. The
word Gaule is one of the names used by Nostradamus for
France,yet it appears in a context wherein it may be taken
as pointing to General Charles de Gaulle.
In some cases,Nostradamus creates his own homonyms,
to give a double connotation to a word. Thus, terroir can mean both
territory and terror, though properly speaking terror is
terreur, while terroir means soil or ground, in the sense of
'territory' .
HYPALLAGE
When, in a figure of speech, the epithet is
transferred from the appropriate noun to modify another,
to which it does not properly belong. The most cunning
hypallage in Nostradamus is one that kept commentators in
ignorance until after the event: this is the last line of
quatrain IV.65: L 'empereur tost mort sera condamne, from
which one assumes (quite wrongly, as it happens) that the
emperor lately dead will be condemned. The solution to the
hypallage is given on page 378 ff.
HYPHAERESIS
The omission of a letter to form a
word. Sometimes, the omitted letter can be of considerable
importance to the reading of the text. Nostradamus
frequently omits the letter s from words, without inserting
the traditional circumflex: an example which appears in
several quatrains is the hyphaeresis matim for mastim
(mastiff), as for example in quatrain X.59. In quatrain
III.53, Gaul is represented as Gale (see however HOMONYMS,
above). A typical hyphaeresis is Aper for Asper
which is an anagram of Aspre. This is in turn an ellipsis for
Aspromonte (a 'massif' in Italy), which Le Pelletier links
with an incident from the life of Garibaldi.
ICONOMATIC
This usage occurs when a word is
intended to be read as a rebus, as though relating to a
figure. Nostradamus, working only with words, uses the
rebus technique suggested by the Horapollo or Icon books.
The word coq is Gallus in Latin, which connotes France
(the word Gallus in Latin meant both cock and that area of
Europe which corresponds approximately to modern
France).
However, the Gallus was also a priest of Cybele
(the name said to be derived from the similarity between
the delirious ravings of the priests and the crowing of
cocks), and the connotation hinted at in the word coq is
emasculation (a condition attributed to the priests of
Cybele). In many instances, loup (wolf) is Italy, after the
wolf which suckled Romulus and Remus. On the other
hand, Romulides is also derived from the name of the
'founder of Rome', Romulus, and may denote either Rome,
or Italy. In quatrain I. 9, it seems to relate to the south of
Italy, whence succour came for the great siege of Malta, in
1565. One iconomatic word has survived (like coq) into
modern symbolism, for l'ours (the bear) is sometimes used
of Russia.
INVENTION
The invention of a new word only peripherally
connected with an existing word in a familiar
language. In Nostradamus, the familiar language is usually
Greek or Latin, but he occasionally invents from Hebrew,
and such European languages as English, German, Italian
and Provencial. The phrase Mars en Nonnay is invention,
for there is no such planetary position: almost certainly, the
Nonnay is Virgo, from the French nonne, or nonnain, as in
quatrain X.67. Another example is the sedifragues of
quatrain VI.94, which is from the Latin sedem frangere, 'to
break a siege'.
The phrase, Le Port Phocen, for Marseilles,
seems to be a more complex invention, for the Greek Phocis
was in ancient times a country of central Greece. The
seaport town of Massilia, founded as a colony from
Phocoea, was eventually known as Marseilles. Perhaps
Nostradamus used the ancient Greek reference because the
Phocens were warlike, being allied at times with the
Spartans. The bellicose planet Mars, which begins the
modern name Marseilles, is connoted in the French word.
Phocus (with its undertones of homonymous 'focus') is not
merely Marseilles, but a warlike Marseilles in a state of
martial endeavour, or even revolution.
METATHESIS
The interchanging of consonant sounds to produce different (though relevant) words.
For example, brune is metathesed by Nostradamus in brume. In quatrain
III.53, which deals with the Second World War, Nostradamus
subjects the German place name Augsburg to metathesis
by rendering it Auspurg. The new word is relevant
because the quatrain seems to relate to the expulsion of the
Jews, (literally, an aus purgans, to remain with the German)
under the Nuremburg Laws.
METONYM
A word used as a valid transference, in
which an attribute of a thing or person is used to denote
that thing or person. The word bossu, deformed, is used as a
metonym for the prince of Conde, who was a small
hunchback. A better example from Nostradamus is the
word boiteux (lame) which could refer to the Duke of
Bordeaux, who was lamed in a fall at Kirchberg in Austria
in 1841.
The application in this case is virtually double
because of the close HOMONYM between boiteux and
Bordeaux. In quatrain V.4, le cerfis probably a metaphor for
Charles X, who was chased from France. Used in this
sense, cerf is a metonym, yet it is something more than
merely a metonym in its reference to Charles X as a hunted
creature, driven from the fields of France. Charles, prior to
being made king of France, was the Count of Artois: the
cerf is, of course, the hart in English. After he was driven
from France, he went to England. (By a strange coincidence,
during his first stay in this country, he lived at
Hartwell.)
PARAGOGE
The adding of a letter or syllable to the end
of a word. Selene is a paragoge for Selin, but the former is
intended to add an additional connotation to the latter, by
virtue of its connection with the Moon (Selene was an
ancient Moon goddess). The French word Amerique, which
was used for the Americas in the sixteenth century, was
sujected by Nostradamus to both SYNCOPE (Amerique to
Americ), and paragoge when he offered the word Americh:
whether this is paragoge or METATHESIS is anyone's guess.
This version of the word appears in the first line of
quatrain X.66.
Whether he wanted to connote the fabulous
riches (rich) of the place, which were in his day being
exploited by the Spanish, or whether he had some other
arcane design in mind is unclear. One thing is evident,
however: in making this change, he elected for once not to
make a rhyme with the third line (the normal rhyming
structure is alternative in couplets).
The word which would
anticipate such a rhyme is Antechrist. The fact that the H of
the Roman alphabet is the equivalent of the E of the Greek
alphabet is probably significant here, for the difference
between Antechrist and Antichrist is of profound importance
in the arcane and theological traditions. Perhaps
Nostradamus is anxious to show that he is writing of the
one: who comes before Christ (Antechrist), rather than of
the one who will oppose Christ (Antichrist).
PROTOTHESIS The adding or a letter or syllable to the
beginning of a word.
REBUS A riddle by which pictures, letters or sentences
are read in terms of sound values. It is not surprising that
Nostradamus should have used this device, since the rebus
(for all it is a Latin word) was highly popular in France
during the sixteenth century, when it was called 'style de
Picardie'. It has been argued by many that the dedication to
Henry II, in the Epistle, was to some other king than the
one who died in a golden cage (see page 236 ff).
This argument (to which we do not subscribe) is supported by
the reading of the words Henry II as Henri secundus, which
means (in Latin), Fortunate Henry. Although the rebus is
essentially a pictorially based art, Nostradamus uses it in
clever literary ways. For example, he will refer to an
heraldic coat of arms in order to distinguish (arcanely, of
course) a ruler.
The lys can be a French king, because the
French coat of arms bears the fleur-de-Iys (see page 223).
The classical French rebus is Ga, which reads G grand, a
petit (big G, small a): When pronounced in French, this
reads: J'ai grand appefit (I have a big appetite). The word
rebus is probably the only term used to denote a form of
Green Language which is itself from that same strange
tongue.
Rebus, in its arcane sense, seems to be from
alchemy, and is linked with Rebis, which means in ablative
Latin, 'the thing twice'. The thing twice is the thing seen
from two aspects, once in a material sense, a second time in
a spiritual sense. The construction should remind us that
the initiate is sometimes called 'the one of the two levels'.
In some alchemical documents, the rebis is said to be an
egg, or the contents of an egg, consisting of red and white,
'in the same proportion as in a bird's egg'. In this image,
the red is the yolk, the white the glair.
There are seven levels to every alchemical symbol, but this red
and white is the blood and tissue of the human being who, as the
Buddha said, lives in an eggshell, even though the shell of
the philosophic alchemist is a far from auric thing,
sheathing bodies quite invisible to ordinary vision.
The Red (rouge) and the White (blanc) to which Nostradamus
frequently refers in his quatrains, are at once alchemical,
political and ecclesiastical symbols, according to the spiritual
literacy of the reader. See also ICONOMATIC.
SYNCOPE A Greek word meaning 'cutting short' - in
literature, an abbreviation. Technically, the word is virtually
interchangeable with APOCOPE, but it seems to be
accepted practice to denote massive cuts by syncope and
the lesser abbreviations by apocope.
For example, the Ast of quatrain II.15 is apocope for the place name, Asti. On
the other hand, in quatrain II.83, the word pille (quatrain
II.83) is syncope for pillard or pillage (pillage, or destruction).
The syncope Phi means Philip. The word Auge,
which could be taken as the German for 'eye', could also be
a syncope of the verb Augmenter. As with the anagrams, one
purpose (beyond mere disguise) is to add a further meaning
to the word: thus, Carats may mean Carcassonne, but the
word also carries with it the idea of a dead body (carcasse),
and hence a killing. Foreign syncopes are words or phrases
derived from non-French sources, and in some way
changed so as not to be immediately recognizable.
Cron is an abridgement for the Greek Cronon, its significance in
quatrain III.91 being that it is linked with a lame prince:
not only is this prince in some way imperfect, but so is the
word Cron an 'imperfect' form of a word. In this context,
see boiteux under METONYM. The most remarkable sentence
syncope we deal with in our text is the last line of
quatrain IX.14, marked with the distinctive abridgment sign
Sept., which we discuss on page 230. This is a curious
apocope, for it is not completed until the last word of the
same line.
SYNECDOCHEA literary technique of 'part for the
whole', by which a less comprehensive term (such as the
name of a town) is used to represent a more comprehensive
Icrm (in this case, the country in which this town is
located). The quatrains of Nostradamus abound in synecdoches.
A good example is Londres (London) to represent
England, or even the British Isles. In quatrain VII.26
Madrid stands for Spain, the Chef de Madrid being the
Spanish Admiral.
The more obscure Boristhenes is the old
name of the Dnieper, and therefore an example of archaizing,
but Nostradamus uses it to denote the vast territories
divided by this river - notably, the territory to the east,
which is mainly Russia. Blois may stand for that city, but it
may also stand for a particular ruler associated with Blois,
such as Henry of Guise. The Liguriens should really mean
those from Liguria, or the Genoese, but the word may also
stand for the Italians as a whole. A remarkably prescient
example of synecdoche by Nostradamus is his use of the
word Isles to denote Britain, as the British Isles.
