The Lost Tarot of Nostradamus Ebook. John Matthews

XI Page

       XII Knight

       XIII Lady

       XIV Prince

       SUIT OF MOONS

       I of Moons

       II of Moons

       III of Moons

       IV of Moons

       V of Moons

       VI of Moons

       VII of Moons

       VIII of Moons

       IX of Moons

       X of Moons

       XI Neophyte

       XII Initiate

       XIII Prophetess

       XIV Master

       SUIT OF SPHERES

       I of Spheres

       II of Spheres

       III of Spheres

       IV of Spheres

       V of Spheres

       VI of Spheres

       VII of Spheres

       VIII of Spheres

       IX of Spheres

       X of Spheres

       XI Apprentice

       XII Astrologer

       XIII Astronomer

       XIV Alchemist

      Part Three

       WORKING WITH THE LOST TAROT

      The Nostradamus Spreads Meditating with The Lost Tarot The Art of Seership

      Further Reading ♦ About the Authors ♦ Acknowledgments

      PREFACE

      The Lost Tarot of Nostradamus brings together two powerful and original threads of prediction that have never before been connected: the visionary and prophetic writings of the sixteenth-century seer Nostradamus and the ancient system of fortune-telling known as the tarot. In the pages that follow we will explore the astonishing story of a long-lost book containing a set of visual keys to Nostradamus’ prophecies, the parallels between these images and the landscape of the tarot, and the way we recreated this important lost card deck using the seer’s own words and images.

      This has been a truly collaborative effort. John has been the primary author, while Wil, as illustrator, has created the cards and written the section Reinterpreting the Images (see page 17) to explain his approach and techniques. We are particularly pleased that Caitlín has provided new translations of the original quatrains (four-line verses which Nostradamus used almost exclusively to record his prophecies) from Nostradamus’ own writings as couplets for each card, and written the section Translating the Quatrains (see page 27), explaining the particular challenges of this work. Both these sections are written in the first person.

      For both of us this work presented us with a challenge to which we rose with pleasure. We constantly felt we were working with a third person—the shade of the great seer himself. During long hours of meditation, discussion, and creativity, we often felt we were being watched over, our hands and thoughts guided to assemble this astonishing and powerful set of images into the form it was always meant to have. We hope we have succeeded, and that Nostradamus himself would be proud of the finished work, which continues what he began almost five centuries ago.

      John Matthews & Wil Kinghan

       Oxford, 2011

      Part One

      IN SEARCH OF

       THE LOST TAROT

      Etant assis, de nuite secrette etude,

       Seul, repose sur la selle d’airan,

       Flambe exigue, sortant de solitude,

       Fait proferer qui n’est a croire vain.

      quatrain I:1

      While sitting by night in secret study,

       Alone, at rest on my brazen stool,

       A small flame cancels solitude,

       Ensuring my prophecies will not be disbelieved.

      The Seer from the South

      The history of prophecy is a long one, but one of its most famous practitioners is undoubtedly Michel de Nostredame (1503–1566), better known as Nostradamus. His collections of prophetic writings, originally entitled Centuries (Hundreds), which began to appear in 1555 and continued until 1564, have almost never been out of print, and more than two hundred “translations” and more than twelve thousand commentaries have appeared and been consulted by countless numbers of people since the death of their author.

      During this time, the verses have been scanned, interpreted, reinterpreted, and found to contain references to virtually every significant historical event since Nostradamus’ time and well into the future. Thus, it is said that Nostradamus foresaw the coming of Napoleon, the rise of Hitler, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the destruction of the Twin Towers. The fact that almost no two translations read the same way, or even appear to refer to the same quatrains, might suggest that such interpretations are personal rather than universal. However, there is no doubt that Nostradamus’ writings, when faithfully translated, do suggest some remarkable parallels with certain events—and if only a few of the hundreds of quatrains that make up the complete collection of Centuries appear to be accurate, then we are forced to consider that the rest might be as well.

      The life of Nostradamus

      As to the man himself, his story is soon told—though it leaves almost as many questions unanswered as do his writings. Born at St Rémy in Provence on December 14, 1503 to parents of Jewish extraction, Michel received an excellent education and quickly showed himself to be of more than usual intelligence. After studying grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy at Avignon, he opted to study medicine, having been inspired by the wandering physician Paracelsus, who was only ten years his senior. His unique abilities and forward-thinking attitude is illustrated by the fact that he told several fellow students that the Earth resembled a great ball and that it revolved each year around the Sun—this at a time when the notion of a heliocentric universe was considered foolish in the extreme, if not heretical, and was not to be proved by the astronomer Galileo (1564–1642) for almost another hundred years.

      In the autumn of 1520, Nostradamus’ studies were interrupted by an outbreak of the plague in the area, but rather than return home he set out on the road, putting his medical skills into practice by treating plague victims. He seems to have used largely untried methods, advising not only on treatment but on methods of prevention, hygiene, and diet far ahead of their time.

      He remained a peripatetic figure for the next eight years, and to this day his exact route remains uncertain, but it was during this time that Nostradamus decided that medicine was of secondary importance to him. Another skill had begun to show itself—prophecy. Just how Nostradamus discovered his ability to foresee the future remains a mystery, but from 1548 onwards he more or less gave up the practice of medicine in favor of his new art, at which he was soon to