He who walks for a long time acknowledging the route stones should be listened to!
He was my guide, the Noble Traveller, and he advised me in the research into L’Inconcevable secret du Masque de Fer” (The Incredible Secret of the Iron Mask'). This elderly and distinguished gentleman met me at the Hotel Negresco in Nice - i knew him then simply as Monsieur G, and he offered to tell me ‘the secret’ of the Iron Mask on one condition - that i publish it. Monsieur G told me that the conspiracy involving the Iron Mask was created by ‘secret’ members of the ‘Order of the Temple’. This, he said, was a ‘clandestine’ organisation which survived the Knights Templar after their demise in 1307. Monsieur G himself claimed to be a member of this ‘secret order’. He explained:
‘ ….The secret that the Templars of the 17th century were seeking, as were the Templar knights
before them, was to impose their ‘grand design’ upon the world, a political and
religious system to unify all nations and sects …….’
Monsieur G then went on to detail the first part of this ‘grand design’ of these secret Templars. It involved the re-instatement of the French monarchy and this monarchy was identified as the Frankish kings –the Merovingian's – who Monsieur G added ‘were kings by right of birth’. All dynasties which followed after – the Capetian's, the Valois and the Bourbon were said to be illegitimate. It was re-iterated: ‘The crown of France belonged by divine right to the descendants of Charles de Lorraine, who was the true heir when Capet usurped the throne at the end of the 10th century’.
My guide spoke cleverly to me during our too rare meetings. Thus I was able to slip out of the labyrinth created by Michel de Nostredame. The exit which was made known to me was not the only one. But it was one of the exits predicted by Nostradamus … and at the same time a new entrance in the wonderful and bewitching maze of the Centuries where the fascinating and often painful course was to be endlessly repeated.
That was the secret of the Work.
From the words, the language and the symbols an unexpected alchemy was revealed, bit by bit transforming the reader.
On condition that he allowed himself to be swept along by the whirlwind; on condition that he paid close attention to the landscape, not hesitating to stir up the leaves of Autumn, to
collect the dew of the mornings in Spring… So, slowly, in the furnace of the Centuries, the base metal became gold. The wandering vagabond, in his turn, became lucid and his heart at peace, a Noble Traveller.
Labyrinth, we have said…
At each turn seven passages appear, each with four branches. And the sum of all human knowledge is there, buried in an inexplicable way in this mysterious maze. Unquestionably, ancient books carry the Knowledge of the Wise. Initiations of high degree allow him to acquire the Science of the Philosopher and to grasp all that Man intrinsically possesses. And in a powerful synthesis, Nostradamus knew how to analyse and then bring the very thing under control to make the written Work as magical as possible.
FROM A SYMBOLIC UNIVERSE TO AN UNKNOWN WORLD
From the beginning of time it has been dangerous, and often fatal, to the keepers of Wisdom and Knowledge to reveal the Truth, particularly those things inherent in human nature that do not change and are even fought by the keepers of the Power, whatever it was.
Only people’s ignorance allows them to be servile. Knowledge frees them; but it does
not matter what Knowledge. Nostradamus was clearly an initiate. He knew the difference between a doctor and a bomb maker, between a philosopher and an inquisitor, between a baker and a canon maker… He knew and wanted to make known. He wanted to pass on (as it was passed on to him) the means for material Man to progress towards becoming a spiritual being.
He was an heir of the Megaliths and of Ancient Egypt, and also the ring of the initiatory serpent travelling through the millennia; thus it was up to him to discover the process for saying.
He had to create the vehicle.
Many chose the stones, whether they were menhirs, pyramids, temples or cathedrals.
In the Middle Ages, Romanesque art was an ideal transmitter. One only has to peruse the Romanesque structures of Corsica to be convinced of this; coded messages were hidden there, in safe places, off the main roads. It was not chance that led Vincent de Paul to this island, at the beginning of the 17th century…
Some great initiates, a rare few chosen by genius, will dare to take on the great difficulty: to set out in an unassailable work the total Knowledge that the symbols in stone can only allow
to be guessed at, in a fragmentary way moreover, and thus, even with the best will in the world, virtually inaccessible to the uninitiated.
And Nostradamus dared!
Literature was his mode of expression and his work resembled the Bible or the Divine Comedy. However, he needed a new genre. He chose prophecy, so well suited to the languages of astrology, alchemy and particularly symbolism, that were in vogue in the 16th century. This would be developed into a double screen behind which, all could eventually be said.
All!
But, this all, what would it be?
My enigmatic Master, M.G. … went even further than he had for the “Iron Mask”.
In several critical meetings, first of all he would give me useful advice, and then he would give me effective help to tackle the subject, which he had chosen for me: Nostradamus, the Mage of Salon-en-Provence, or rather,“Nostradamus, the Initiate”. This work owes everything to
him. He supplied its soul and set up the framework; his immense Knowledge has fed the indispensable secret fire without which the Master of Literature could not accomplish his work. He was the glass receptacle, white and translucent, in which my thoughts dissolved then coagulated in the Sun of his Knowledge. He was the Furnace where the ultimate concoction was completed…
And I very firmly believe that, thanks to him, I have understood an important part of the Centuries in particular and of Michel de Nostredame’s esoteric work in general.
Because the Knowledge which M.G… brought to me is essential for those who want to understand the meaning of the quatrains, by which I mean their hidden meaning. And above all, to grasp their spirit, which, finally, is the main thing.
What a path to travel, thanks to my Master!
What a height this mountain is that he has had me climb and what a fine view there is from up there! But let us go back over the facts in chronological order.
In 1978 “L’Inconcevable Secret du Masque de Fer” was published. I hoped on that occasion to receive news from M.G…., if only to find out his opinion of this work, which owed so much to him. I had to wait more for than a year, since our next meeting took place on 3rd September 1979 in the evening. Following his instructions, I went to wait for him at Antibes Railway Station.
According to his wishes, we went to the Cap d’Antibes and there took the Garoupe path where, on the strip of land dominating the Cap and the two harbours of Antibes and the Golfe-Juan, we spent three hours, which were very enriching for me. Far off, to our left, the lights of Nice strung a necklace of gold around the neck of the Mediterranean. Below us, the dark mass of the Cap Forest plunged into the darkness of the sea. To drown there. After a long silence, my Master spoke:
“Everything began well before Mankind…well before Adam.”
Another silence, then:
“Adam, Adamus, the man made from red earth, is present in all the traditions. He explains the paintings in red ochre on the menhirs, on which, for several millennia, our ancestors depicted
the Adam undifferentiated, the sign of union between God and Man. The Man-Angel before the fall, before the differentiation of the sexes, inevitable evolution!
“ To learn how to read the menhirs is the first initiation which opens the eyes and teaches one to read all the remnants, all the symbols, all the signs.
“Corsica offers us a fine example of these works in stone through which men have provided the depiction of the Adamus; they worked for a long time because each statue-menhir is the work of several lives…
“Everything comes from the Adam symbol; all the myths and all the initiations draw from that source. Initiation goes through the understanding of this pre-man, the key of the Knowledge. Fulcanelli gave a good description in “Les Demeures Philosophales”, of the link that exists
between our “Adamus” and Alchemy: “the body next to the Adamus substance (lump
or sulphur of the gold(sic)) is the second Adam, considered in the organic kingdom as the real father of all mankind, and in the mineral kingdom as the agent and procreator of the
individual metallic or geological constituents.
“ You see, dear friend,” (and M.G….assumed a paternal attitude, which I already recognised in him), “that is the reason why Michel de Nostredame called himself Nostradamus, or ‘Notre Adamus’ (Our Adamus), in order to show a link between the Divine and the Human, and a remarkable link revealing, to who desires it, the first truths concealing various ideas.
“Initiate among the initiates, knowing how to ‘read’, then how to understand the essence of things, of words, of numbers, their quint-essence, Nostradamus also knew how to write his
revelations and even the word prophetiés(prophecies) hides the divine character of the said
revelations...”
M.G…. tapped his right knee with his fingers, like a pianist, in an unconscious way, which I recognised in him.
After a short pause, he went on:
“The things I have to tell you! But the basic essentials will have to do. So, the initial sign of union would be an androgynous figure, made in the image of God, that is to say, possessing
intrinsically the ten divine attributes: what the Tradition teaches us through the universal myth of Adam. Giving up of one of his ribs, to create Eveis an allegory marking the loss of androgyny. The fall of God-One! This evolution, distancing man from Androgynous God, later on imposing an image of the Christ man without woman, would see the Catholic religion impose, by analogy, celibacy on the priesthood … But this image of Christ is in contradiction with the reality of Christ-Man, which Nostradamus reveals…”
M.G. speaks … I take notes like a student on the Faculty benches ! That evening, he very kindly gives me thousands of pieces of information. He taught me the rudiments of interpretation of universal symbology in which Man bathes and which Nostradamus utilises. From the megaliths, we jumped to the world which surrounds us and that the hand of Man has simply touched
lightly; I learned to see the sacred alphabet in the sky as if sensing the vibrations of a colour…
After this evening at the Cap d’Antibes, we met again several times, on the road to Mont Agel, in June 1980, at the Col de Vence then at Villefranche-sur-Mer one evening in April, soft and
moonlit. At our random meetings, through the apparent “programming” by my speaker, I learned how to grasp “the Work”. An osmosis occurred in me. Bit by bit, the message passed on to posterity by the genius of Salon was getting through to me.
And I was astonished, as was M.G. … that Michel de Nostredame was not considered to be either a great philosopher or a great poet. He was of the stature of Dante and Machiavelli combined! … for those who understand the real meaning of “The Divine Comedy”and “The
Prince”.
“In order to analyse the literary work of Nostradamus”, M.G. declared on one particular evening, “… it is necessary to have a perfect understanding of his period and the hundred
centuries which preceded it. The men and the events are of primary importance because Nostradamus used word ‘prophecy’ in the biblical sense.
“Like a Pico de la Mirandola, he possessed the quasi-totality of the knowledge of his time. If he did not actually display it, he made systematic and hermetic use of it in his deeds and
his writings.
“For the Rosicrucian good of men.
“For, at the centre of the affairs of his century for more than thirty years, he benefited from occult support of the first magnitude.”.
M.G….looked at me closely. He decided it would be a good thing to add:
“To understand Nostradamus, is to Learn, before everything, the historical Truth, that of Great History and in accordance with this Truth it is to know which political tactic the initiates are to follow in order to achieve the Grand Design described in the Centuries.”
M.G. … brought me help and advice.
He set me onto the footsteps of Michel “de Saint Rémy” as regards the site of Glanum that he had visited, now unknown, now submerged by a land of forgetfulness.
… “There is one question to ask which it is necessary to answer both candour and prudence, using the data at our disposal: Should Nostradamus be considered a Seer?”
That evening, M.G. …had just posed THE NOSTRADAMUS problem. Was he also going to provide me with the solution?
He went on: “The answer will only be provided after the assurance of maximum security. It is not a matter of denying the possibility of being a seer, but a great deal of assurance that Nostradamus only used the process of clairvoyance to construct his “Cloak of Fables”. That is
why we must look for the technical procedures that he had at his disposal and which he could use for another purpose. On this subject, there is no doubt that he had knowledge of a certain number of books. In fact, very early on, he collected such books, ancient manuscripts for the most part. It is not possible to draw up the list of these books but they certainly included the “De Mysteriis Agyptiorium” of Marsilio Ficino, Canon of Florence, born on 19thOctober 1433, and also “The Egyptian Mysteries” of Jamblicus and the “Book of Oracles” of the Sybil.”
As regards this last work, I was to discover, by chance in my researches, what Albert Slosman wrote about it: “… more than 4000 hexameters, set out in ten books of unequal length, providing oracles concerning the present and the future, presented in a style which would later be that of Nostradamus … Book III is undoubtedly the justification of the Apocalypse of Saint John … “ (La Grande Hypothèse” published by Robert Laffont).
M.G…. replied:“From another source, we are certain that among others, he possessed the famous “Interprétation de la Hiéroglyphique de Horapollon”, the 1515 Latin publication of an author of the 6th century. In fact, Nostradamus possessed a great number of other books some of which were very rare and very valuable; he knew nothing of divinatory procedures nor the vocabulary. Is that saying that that is enough to be aClairvoyant?
No! Quite the contrary.
Let us go back to Antiquity … “Assyrian literature reports seers transmitting oracles by using omens and “methods”. The “Barin” (or Assyrian seers) built up collections of observed and observable phenomena and their meanings with personal interpretation in mnd. Among others, they took the intervention of animals as omens: serpent, sheep, dog …
They also noted the intervention of celestial signs, such as the clouds and the stars: the Sun, Venus, the Moon … The daily events, such as births, were also sources of interpretation. To return to the animal world, the serpent, occupied a prime position. If it fell onto a man’s breast, his children would die… The daily and historical observation and interpretation of phenomena had the most important place.
And Nostradamus learned that!”
From what I had just understood, what should I conclude first of all?
M.G…. was silent: to leave me, it seemed, time to reflect.
The omens were undoubtedly studied very seriously by Michel de Nostredame. The valuable manuscript found in Paris by Pierre Rollet at the Bibliothèque Nationale, confirms it.(1) Faced with this statement, what attitude should we adopt? Certainly, that would tend to prove that Nostradamus was not a born “seer”. Because, if the idea of “seeing” is accepted, A TRUE SEER, WOULD NOT NEED TO LOOK INTO THE SIGNIFICANCE OF OMENS.
And the simple manuscript that we have just mentioned would be enough to prove to us that Michel de Nostredame was not a CLAIRVOYANT. But, more to the point, what could
have provided him with the knowledge of these omens? Several things have to be singled
out in order to grasp the purpose of this. In the first place, he inherited from it a traditional LEARNING, known to a small number of human beings. This LEARNING, which came from the use of statistics, although that science was unknown in those days, would more prosaically be said to be drawn from experience, or rather, from thousands of experiences spread out over the centuries, indeed over the millennia and affecting the human as much as the divine in what concerns Man in his daily life as much as in eternity.
Among this traditional knowledge appeared a LEARNING that today we call 'parapsychology’, because it reveals Man’s‘divine possibilities.
Is it astonishing, then, that the Centuries contain quatrains dealing with the soul after death, of telepathy or of astral travel … all knowledge possessed by man from time immemorial; moreover it is enough to have one experience of any one of these subjects to be convinced that Mankind was bound to have been aware of them ever since he first populated the earth. From parapsychology, we are not far from well understood cosmic influences that allow us to see precise events and the dates when they will occur. Nostradamus was a sagacious and serious astrologer who would have nothing to do with the corrupt practices of commercial astrologers with whom he certainly did not want to be confused. The hundredth quatrain of Century VI
affirms:
Legis cantio contra ineptos criticos.
Quid legent hosce versus, mature censuto
Profanum vulgus et inscium ne attrectato:
Omnesque Astrologi Blenni, Barbari procul sunto
Qui aliter facit, is rite, sacer esto.
We will use the translation proposed by Albert Slosman to find out that:
Avertissment contre les lectures inept.
Que ceux qui liront ces vers y reflechissent mûrement!
Que le profane et l’ignorant s’en éloignent mêmement
Arrière aussi les astrologues, les sots, les charlatans pareillement!
Que soit maudit selon les rites celui qui agira autrement!
(A warning to inept readers.
Let those who read these verses carefully reflect!
Likewise let the profane and the ignorant remove themselves!
Away also the astrologers, the fools, the charlatans!
Let he who behaves otherwise be cursed according to the rites!)
This quatrain provides some invaluable indications on how to read the Centuries correctly.
First of all, think carefully. Become an initiate (do not remain “uninitiated”) and a scholar!
Do not behave as a charlatan astrologer and do not believe in predictions made by 'fools’. Finally, the fourth line, stresses the initiation received by Nostradamus, he knew “the
rites”… But what are these rites?
To find out what they are would certainly be to find out the nature of the initiation which Nostradamus received. There again, certain quatrains show us the way.