Preliminary results
Five major trends have been determined after classifying the
Centuries in themes, which are referred to as "Times and
Regions" all accross Nostradamia. First, it appears that Nostradamus felt essentially
concerned with the Western world and in particular Christian countries. Other parts of the world seem to play only a secondary role. Furthermore, Italy and Southern France are his preferred subjects as he depicts them throughout the Roman, Middle Ages and Renaissance history. And he also projects himself there into the future.
Second, the most important subjects to the seer deal with "Wars and power"
and over half of the quatrains are dedicated to that. Religion comes
behind with 15% of the global content. Natural catastrophes such as earthquakes
and floods stand right behind with mysteries,
secrets and treasures - archeological and money alike - with 10% each. Third, the Centuries
mainly concentrate on days of misery for humanity. It is quite difficult to determine a date for the next disaster, but it could come very shortly as he explains it will happen on the day of the death of a very old pope. The fourth
trend is more controversial. It seems that Nostradamus uses past events to
predict the future according to some predetermined cycle in the stars movements.
Last but not least, nothing yet can confirm that the quatrains were written in a chronological
order. The seer shuffled everything before publishing, and they may have originally been ordered in themes rather than time. But
this is still under investigation and it is expected that the quatrains, when
put back in their original place, will deliver an important message to our
generation or the next. However, considering the number of great minds that
have tried to solve the secret code in the past, it should be considered to be more complicated than
hieroglyphs.
Common flaws and bad interpretations
No one has yet solved the
mystery of the Centuries, and each time an interpret shouts "Victory!",
his brilliant predictions and mental constructions break apart shortly after
as history contradicts him.
Various commonly used techniques that give no
results are found on the World Wide Web. A first one consists in projecting
a simplistic and alarmist vision of what the world could become should the
present world political situation degenerate to the worst. The good news is
that these predictions never came true. But given more time, there is no doubt
that some will happen sooner or later.
A second flaw is to attempt to prove
that Nostradamus is always right and never wrong. Unknown historical events
are picked out of a hat to justify the validity of a quatrain or a verse. But
since the described events have no historical relevance, they certainly do
not represent the seer's original thought.
Still a third way to go wrong is
to deliberately misinterpret and give meanings to quatrains that can't reasonably
represent Nostradamus thoughts. These interpretations usually stick to recent
historical events, and they are quickly forgotten afterwards.
With all these
methods and any 4 meaningless words combined in every possible order, 16 "always
true" prophecies can be obtained. Michel de Notre Dame never pretended
to be a Messiah for a religion of fools.
The most dishonest misinterpretations
on the web concern the Great Future Ruler theory. The French monarchists interpret some of the quatrains
to announce the imminent return of the "Bourbons" (French kings) dynasty ! In the
democratic space of Nostradamia, we predict just the opposite. The king has already found his right and permanent place in the national
folklore.
Some pretend that their secret society members have the best understanding
of the Centuries. They are likely to belong to a harmful sect and don't get much consideration on Nostradamia.
Some misinterpretations are simply harmless
though. Many mediums read the quatrains to obtain psychic
visions. For the same result, they could just as well draw tarots or read the palm of
a hand.
Let's just not get confused with these.These and many strange practices
can be found on the web. They underestimate the capacity of modern governments
to defend their nations. They underestimate the citizens' capability to realize
what's happening. They come up with interpretations before having even read
and understood the Centuries. They give too much credit to irrationality.
And they are wrong.
Conclusion
In Nostradamia, the approach
is quite different. The Centuries are thought to have a precise meaning that should be understood, and no doubt it will soon be. A considerable intellectual
effort is required to solve the extreme complexity of the prophecies, and
the largest public participation is a condition to obtain significant results.
The main criteria for success is simply to not get discouraged after reading
the first few quatrains.
