The History of the Future
Nostradamus: How Did He Do It?
Tool 2: Astrology
by Larry A. Filoso, February – August 2023
Astrology
“Ye stars, which are the poetry of Heaven!
If, in your bright leaves, we would read the fate
Of men and empires, – ‘tis to be forgiven…” – Lord Byron
“Millionaires don’t use Astrology, Billionaires do” – J.P. Morgan
“What’s your sign?” Astrology is older than the pyramids and yet it is still used today.
All advanced ancient civilizations used it. During the Renaissance in Europe, there were Departments of Astrology in the best universities. Most professionals of the period, including Galileo, Kepler and Newton, knew a good deal about the subject.
Fast-forward to the 1980’s, when US President Reagan and his First Lady set the timing of important meetings using astrology to get the best result. In 1998 one of my favorite “OG” groups, Outkast, called their album “Aquemini”, a combination of the astrological signs of the two main rappers, one an Aquarius and the other a Gemini. Drake named one of his albums “Scorpion”- he is a Scorpio.
So what is astrology? The basic premise is that each moment in Time and Space has a quality. The characteristics of that quality can be determined by an astrologer using a complex set of rules which have been honed and handed-down for thousands of years. That quality of Time influences, but does not control, the people living within it.
The personality and the future of a person will be affected by the characteristics of the moment of their birth. Similarly, countries, religions and companies, even the outcome of meetings which begin at a certain time will be influenced by its qualities.
Most astrologers don’t believe that everything is predestined. They believe that people have choices. By looking at the influence of Time, and also looking at the context of any situation, astrologers try to determine the probabilities of things that might happen – to foretell the future. Those predictions may not always be accurate, because of freewill and other factors.
In order to measure Time, astrologers track the movements of the heavenly bodies as a giant “cosmic clock”. Nostradamus was taught about this clock at a very young age and he later used astrology to make his many prophecies.
In October 1484 a European astrologer, Paul of Middelburg, predicted the year that Nostradamus would be born. Paul was also a professor of mathematics in Padua, Italy, and later became a Catholic Bishop. According to his forecast, a “prophet” would be born in 1503.
Paul based this upon two successive Saturn/Jupiter conjunctions. The first occurred in November 1484 in Scorpio. The second happened 19 years later when they were conjunct Mars (the co-ruler of Scorpio) in Cancer.
The Saturn/Jupiter conjunction of November 1484 was highly significant for several reasons. (Click here to see that chart.)
Firstly, every couple of hundred years the Saturn/Jupiter pattern of conjunctions moves into a different anchoring sign and element, which symbolizes that whole period. In the period including 1484, the anchoring sign was Scorpio, and the element was Water. The conjunction of 1484 was in that anchoring sign of Scorpio. For more details on this pattern, see my upcoming article about Precession and The Golden Age.
Secondly, that conjunction occurred within a wide stellium of nine celestial objects (see the chart below). One of these objects was the massive Black Hole smack-dab in the middle of the Milky Way (the Galactic Center). I believe that this is an important point in the sky that today’s astrologers miss.
All of the stars which make up the constellations of the Zodiac are within our Milky Way galaxy, and they all spin around this Black Hole. The Sun is to our solar system what this Black Hole is to our galaxy. The Sun is one of the most important parts of an astrological chart. As above, so below.
Although they may have been unaware of this celestial object, ancient astrologers did track the center of our galaxy. On many star-charts, this was the “bull’s-eye” to which Sagittarius shot his arrow. In today’s Tropical zodiac, it is found at 27° Sagittarius.
The third thing that made 1484 so important was that another astrologer, 800 years earlier, had predicted many changes which would be signified by that conjunction. He predicted the birth of a “little prophet” – someone who would usher in wars within Christendom, and perform acts which would be considered “miracles”, such as healing those with the plague or predicting the future. [21] That astrologer was named Abu Ma’shar, whom I will detail in Tool 3 of this article.
Abu Ma’shar’s prophecy had been well known throughout Europe for centuries. By the early 1500’s, many people believed that it had foretold the birth of Martin Luther. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Western and Christian history.
Martin was born on November 10, 1483 OS and was a Scorpio, born almost exactly one year before the 1484 grand conjunction/stellium in Scorpio (the sign of change).
He led a large group of Catholics to break away from the Church and to form the Protestant branch of Christianity which was later adopted by England and Germany. As Abu Ma’shar had predicted, there were indeed many wars between these two branches.
Remember Paul of Middelburg, the astrologer who became a Catholic Bishop? Like others, he knew of Abu Ma’shar’s very old prophecy.
But he foretold that the “little prophet” would be born 19 years after that grand conjunction of 1484, during the next conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars (about a year before Saturn and Jupiter were exactly conjunct). (See Nostradamus’s chart below.)
Paul also based his timing on the Metonic Eclipse Cycle in which eclipses occur at the same location in the zodiac every 19 years. That solar eclipse point was directly on Nostradamus’s descendant, and the lunar eclipse point was in his first house.
Perhaps the “little prophet” who had been predicted by Abu Ma’shar ended-up being two men instead of one. Martin Luther started a new competing Christian religion which resulted in wars, while Nostradamus healed hundreds from the plague and predicted the future.
Michel de Nostredame was born on December 14, 1503 OS, in France. He learned astrology from a very young age. His Jewish grandfather Jean de St. Rémy taught him the celestial science. He used classical astrology, which differs in some respects from the methods used by most astrologers today.
Because of his high intellect, by the age of 14, Michel had entered college at Avignon. He amazed his fellow students with his knowledge of astrology. [22]
There is a legend that he predicted the timing of a solar eclipse more accurately than did the astrology professors at his college (see Tool 4 about a computer he may have used to make this hyper-accurate prediction). In those days courses in Astrology were pre-requisites for medical students.
By his early 20’s he had become a physician and natural herbalist. He traveled from town-to-town healing many of those who had been stricken by the Black Death. During his journeys he continued to study natural (today we call them “herbal” or “wholistic”) medicines.
In his late 20’s, he garnered the attention of a mentor, who continued his education.
Julius-Caesar Scaliger was born in 1484. Paul of Middelburg, who had predicted Michel’s birth, was the godfather (and, my intuition tells me, the father) of Julius.
Paul provided his godson with an expensive education, after which Julius became a physician and Renaissance genius. For the first decades of his adult life, I believe that Julius was searching for the “little prophet” that his godfather Paul had predicted near the time when Julius-Caesar Scaliger was a baby.
Around 1531, the 47-year-old Scaliger believed he had found who he was looking for, someone born in 1503. He invited the 27-year-old Nostradamus to come to stay with him at his large estate in Agen, France. They quickly became friends and Dr. Scaliger took young Dr. Nostradamus under his wing. Michel learned more about medicine and astrology. Scaliger surely exposed Nostradamus to the knowledge of Greco-Roman scientists and astrologers found in forbidden Ancient Hidden Books (see Tool 3a).
Unfortunately, the two hot-headed geniuses had a falling out in 1534. This happened during a disastrous time for Michel. His first wife and two children died. He was also threatened by the Inquisition and had to disappear “off the grid”. Michel and Julius never spent time together again. (By the way, disaster literally means “bad star”.)
This unlucky year for Nostradamus was symbolized by his Saturn return transiting through his fourth house also joining with Mars and trine his natal Moon (ruler of his home and children) in Scorpio on the cusp of his eighth house. His progressed Moon would have conjoined his natal Moon and traveled through his eighth house.
Nostradamus then continued to earn a reputation all around France as a doctor who had been more successful at curing the plague than others. His unorthodox methods and wholistic medicines contributed to that success. For more details, including the formula for the medicine he created to fight the plague, see my article Dr. Nostradamus Vs. The Plague: Fight of the Century! (published March 2021).
By 1550 the plague had mostly subsided, and Michel turned his attention to writing and publishing his annual astrological Almanacs. It was then that he officially took the name Nostradamus.
As a professional astrologer, Nostradamus foretold the future for many of the rich, powerful, and/or famous people in Europe.
He had their birth charts, and he also had the charts of most countries and large cities in Europe, and the major religions of his day. He used directions and progressed charts.
He was able to look into the futures of both individuals and institutions. By foreseeing the future of royalty and religious leaders, he could also predict what would happen within the kingdoms and religions that they controlled. He could predict the politics of Europe.
One of his astrological prophecies concerned his King, patron and patient, Henry II. It catapulted him to fame throughout France after it came true.
It is well documented that in the mid 1500’s several famous astrologers warned France’s King Henry II that he might face a horrible death. The Italian Luca Gaurico, the British John Dee, and the French Nostradamus all had given warnings. Nostradamus wrote in 1555 in Century I, Quatrain 35:
The young lion will overcome the older
On the field of battle by single duel:
In a cage of gold eyes put out
Two fractures one, then to die, death cruel.
Luca Gaurico, having studied the charts of the French King and Queen, wrote the King a letter which Henry received in 1556 which said, very directly, “avoid all single combat in an enclosed place, especially near your 41st year, for in that period of life you will be menaced by a wound in the head which might rapidly result in blindness or even death.”
Jousting was a formal public game in which two armored knights on horseback, in order to practice attacking their enemies with a long pointed wooden lance, would race toward each other with the 10-foot-long weapon extended in front.
In order to win, one would knock the other off of his horse. Jousting was like a duel, between two contestants. The lion, the “king of the jungle”, has symbolized royalty for thousands of years.
On June 30, 1559 OS, as the 40-year-old King prepared for a joust with his friend the younger Count of Montgomery, worried Queen Catherine reminded Henry of the prophecy. The King is reported to have said to his opponent, “I care not if my death be in that manner more than in any other, I would even prefer it, to die by the hand of whoever he might be, so long as he was brave and valiant and that I kept my honor.” [Leoni pg 27, footnote 49]
Perhaps at any other time King Henry would have skipped this joust. But it was part of the festivities celebrating the two important political marriages of his sister and daughter which would result in the end of a long bloody war.
Within an hour the “older lion” was lying on the field, profusely bleeding from a wound above his right eye. He had forgotten to lower his protective visor over his face. His skull had been punctured and fractured by two splinters from the Count’s lance that went through the King’s face. As the injury in his brain above his eye progressed, he slowly lost his sight.
The King died 11 painful days later, as infection spread throughout his body, and blood-poisoning set in. According to records, during the joust he was not wearing a helmet of gold, although kings sometimes did. This episode reinforced Nostradamus’s contention that, although people have choices, they usually make the “obvious” choice, fulfilling the prophecy.
Since almost everyone in France had heard of Michel de Nostredame’s prediction about the King’s death several years before, this breaking news cemented his reputation as a psychic astrologer.
If you would like to study Henry’s chart, here is his birth information courtesy of Luca Gaurico: Henry II, King of France born March 31, 1519 OS at 5:02 AM LMT in St Germain en Laye, France (48n18, 002e05).
One of the core precepts of astrology is that “history repeats itself”. Analyzing those patterns allows us to predict future probabilities. We all know that after Winter, Spring will blossom, because it happens over and over again. “Things happen in cycles”, but many cycles are not as obvious as the seasons.
This horrific jousting incident was almost an exact repeat of what had occurred to another King Henry, the British King Henry VIII, about 36 years before the death of the French King.
This was three orbits of Jupiter, which was the ruling planet of both Kings.
On March 10, 1524 OS in a jousting match, he forgot to close his visor which would have protected his face. His opponent’s lance struck him above the right eye, and the lance sent wooden splinters into the British King’s helmet, just like the later French King. The King sustained no serious injury, but may have been plagued with migraine headaches after that.
However, twelve years after that first jousting accident, the 44-year-old British monarch had another one. On January 24, 1536 OS, he fell off of his horse, and the horse fell upon him. He was unconscious for two hours. This fall caused brain trauma and injuries to his thigh, which never completely healed.
Afterwards, perhaps because of the brain trauma, constant pain, insomnia, and infection, he became an obese tyrant.
Several official writers of that time recorded that before this accident, Henry VIII had been tall, muscular, attractive, athletic, generous, and funny.
These are all personal attributes of his ruling planet, Jupiter. This planet also “rules” horses and thighs. Jupiter takes 12 years to spin all the way around the zodiac.
Here are the particulars for the chart of King Henry VIII from Marc Penfield in “An Astrological Who’s Who” (1972): June 28, 1491 OS at 9:25 AM LMT in Greenwich, England.
Challenge:
Erect the natal charts of both Kings and then do progressions to see if you can spot which configurations symbolized these dramatic events. Then share and compare your results and Comments with other readers at the bottom of this page.
In His Own Words
Nostradamus wrote frequently about his use of astrology. Here are just a few examples:
…even the vanity of the more than detestable [black] magic rebuked by the sacred scriptures, and by the divine canons; but the best of these is exempted, the judgment of Judicial Astrology by which, with psychic ability and divine revelation, by continual watches and calculations [of the stars], have our prophecies been written down [Leoni pg 125:15-16]
I have consecrated my nocturnal and prophetic calculations; composed by psychic instinct and accompanied by a poetic fury, less than by the rules of poetry; and most of them composed and tuned to Astronomical calculation, corresponding to the years, months and weeks of the regions, countries, and most of the towns and cities of all Europe, including Africa, and part of Asia [Leoni pgs 325:3 – 327:3]
How many in the present or future can be persons to whom God the Creator reveals by psychic visions some secrets of the future, given through judicial astrology, as in times past [Leoni pg 122:9]
…but as for the occult pronouncements which one comes to receive by meditation which sometimes defy understanding, contemplating the remotest of stars… [Leoni pg 122:10]
For he who is called a prophet now was once called a seer. [Leoni pg 125:11]
If I had wanted to date each quatrain, I could have done so. [Leoni pg 339:39]
All these figures are justly adapted, by the divine writings, to the visible celestial objects, that is to say, by [conjunctions of] Saturn, Jupiter and Mars and the other consorts [planets], as one will be able to see more fully in some quatrains. I would have performed even more advanced calculations and grouped the quatrains dealing with the same event, but seeing, O most serene King, that some of the censors would find difficulty with them, that causes my pen to be withdrawn… [Leoni pg 345:57]
Note that in the last quote he specifies the word “visible” (your author italicized it). Did he know of the outer planets which are not visible? He mentions the planet Neptune, which was not discovered until 1846, in Century 4, Quatrain 33 (’46).
Paul made that prediction based on a conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in 1503 (see Nostradamus’s birth chart above).
Summary
Astrology was one of the main tools that Nostradamus used to predict the probabilities of the future. His biographers tell us that he began to learn the celestial science at a very young age from his great-grandfather. As a teenager he attended college and become a doctor.
Through 40 years of research, I was the first to discover that the astrologer Paul of Middleburg had predicted that Nostradamus would be born. Paul’s godson Julius-Caesar Scaliger was likely looking for and found Michel de Nostredame. In his late 20’s, Michel was tutored by Julius-Caesar in Medicine and Astrology.
Michel de Nostredame cured many hundreds from the Death Plague using advanced medical techniques and wholistic medicines. Then, in his late 40’s, he began to publish astrological predictions. One particular prediction of the death of his King made him a household name in France.
He studied history and advanced astrology from what my research indicates was a hidden library, which had its roots in ancient Egypt. We’ll explore that next time in Tool 3. We’ll also learn how two exploding stars that he predicted changed Europe. Please join us.
References, Citations and Notes
All charts and planetary positions were calculated using Solar Fire version 9 in Windows.
For citations from Edgar Leoni’s book, one of my main references, I specify the Century and Quatrain numbers for poems, or Page:Paragraph numbers for prose writings. Within my text, direct quotations from Nostradamus are printed in Red, usually with the citation source next to the quotation for easy reference.
Nostradamus: How Did He Do It? Tool 2 was published in the American Federation of Astrologers magazine “Today’s Astrologer” in the December 12, 2023 edition, Volume 85, Number 12 and the January 11, 2024 edition, Volume 86, Number 1.
The AFA was founded in 1938 to promote the art and science of astrology through education and research. It was the first American national astrological organization to administer certification examinations to encourage a high standard of professional ethics among astrologers.
1 thought on “Tool 2: Astrology”
This is a great and insightful article! Thanks for sharing.