A Key to Developing a Perspective of Nostradamus - His Letter to Francois Berard

My recent articles about Jane Roberts and 'Seth' show how transcendental communication cases can encompass prophetic statements and circumstances.  This article presents English translations of the 1562 correspondence between Francois Berard and Nostradamus (1503-1556).  Nostradamus's letter in response was translated in English and posted to the alt.prophecies.nostradamus newsgroup on August 31, 2000 by author Peter Lemesurier (1936-2016) with the notation: "So far as I know, this letter has not been translated into English before.  I'll leave you to adjust for any mechanical transcription errors."  The article headline is "Nostradamus's letter to Francois Berard of 27 August 1562."  The letter contains acrostics of the two men's names.  Peter Lemesurier also included the translated letter in his final books about Nostradamus. 

Here are Peter Lemesurier's introductory comments and then the Nostradamus letter to Francois Berard.

Letter 41 of Nostradamus's private correspondence [as collected and published by Jean Dupèbe] is the one that contains most of what we know about his nocturnal esoteric practices and the sort of raw material that they produced.  The copy appears to be in Chavigny's hand.

The original letter seems to have been delivered personally by the seer to Francois Berard, lawyer and Procurator Fiscal to the Papal Legation at Avignon, a keen alchemist and would-be disciple and assistant of the mage of Salon, on or about 10th September 1562.  It concerns (among other things) a golden magic ring that the latter had recently acquired.  As a magician in his own right, Nostradamus naturally had such a ring of his own (in his case, one inset with cornelian, subsequently bequeathed to his son Cesar), and its purpose, like Berard's, was to help bestow on him power to summon up the spirits and to assist the general alchemical magnum opus.  Such, at all events, was the known function of such rings, and the precise methods of making them were likewise well-known and in print.

Not surprisingly, therefore, Nostradamus devotes most of his letter to his 'reading' of Berard's ring.  It's Latin syntax is notably vague and inconsistent, but with Nostradamus this does not necessarily argue any kind of drugged or trance-like state.


To the most learned Francois Berard, Doctor of Law, from Michel Nostradamus, greetings.

Most learned Berard

Since leaving you, I have often reflected in my mind both on your letter and on what passed between us, but was unable to satisfy all your requirements in this great heat.  Accept therefore that for nine nights in succession I have sat from midnight until about four o'clock both with my brow crowned with laurel and wearing the [ring with its] sky-blue stone and, as it were on the [prophetic] tripod, have wrung out of that good spirit [everything I can] about your ring.  Therefore, having plucked a swan's quill (for he thrice refused a goose one), and with the spirit dictating to me, as though carried away by a poetic frenzy I launched myself into the following verses:

For thee the suspect potions Leontine
Refused are by the voice.  Thy field is free.
And PARPALUS, 'spite slain burnt offering
No ring shall grant.  Yet, bare-head, now rejoice.
Crushed all your enemies.  Stern spearman, he
In fluid air who lives, shall be that seer.
Shall come that ring when, splitting rocks, the ram
Colchis's fig trees shakes with furious horns,
Or cypresses on tombs far from the sun.
Bathed be the hideous limbs with blood of frog.
Enmired the nightly ghoul in Thracian gore.
Render the cedar charcoal in the censer
And seek the half-gnawed bones of fasting dog.
Ring-saved thou from every whirling cyclone.
Dearer the gods be blood November-sprinkled.
On folk though fall Carina, now rejoice!

Turning now to our own good spirit in person, and excellent in every point, I prayed that for the sake of his most faithful Achates [i.e. friend and follower] Francisco Berardo, an alchemist who succeeds admirably in the transmutation of metals and is a supreme investigator of them, he might teach me how and in what manner he might bring forth ELICIUM and gold and purify pyrites, which we call emery.  Thus I, laurel boughs having been laid upon the pillow, and my head girt with a crown of laurel and daphnoides which we call periwinkle:

"Angel who art my guardian and who guideth me in piety, grant that on matters touching the transformation of natural substances I may prophesy as on the brazen tripod, according to the courses of the stars.  Grant these things, I beseech thee, through the friendly silences of the moon, and through these shades as Mars shines at his rising.  Grant them, I say, for the sake of the most good Christ and his Holy Virgin Mother, and of Michael the Archangel my invincible patron.  Above all, grant that by your guidance I may increase both the resources and the favour of nature, transform with mercury the basest metals, even the slightest traces, into the veritable solar image that is gold, and make this gold itself potable for the prolongation of the lives of emperors, Kings and the greatest princes: [grant also] that these metals, along with the gold, may flow easily through the tubes of the still, without any of these liquids evaporating and [without] the gold, separated both from the watery and from the earthy, sinking to the bottom, but that all may be distilled at once by subtle artifice."

And he, in my dreams, seemed to me to reply:

Not Amaltheus' horn raise at the door:
Olenus' goats let thou not prance within.
So let the twin-born blow the fires alight.
Turbid the wind hydraulic that thee gives
Rare gold; the dewy moonstuff pour in th' cup.
Aesgynum press, lest ought of it escape.
Do thou add cadmia, some pompholix
All fresh; of summer myrtle add the oils.
Mix in, with sulphur, scraped molybdenum,
Upon this, burn cucii and ciphii stalks.
So shall thy fleece catch Tagus' precious lees.

Furthermore, on the subject of your destiny, of your life and its length, of your death and the manner of it, of your foes, of the spirit hidden in the ring receive, among other jewels of your recompense, the following:

Make me some statues in a rustic place,
In gold a magic image and a wand
Carved round with mice that in these vast abodes
Have dwelling: this shall be our offering.
And mix with styrax, myrrh and purest blood
Incense, and add to sacred thymiama,
Laurel-entwined, within a bough of green.
Night shall it be when He Who Thee Rewards
Opens the age of gold, swan-quill in hand,
Stroking thy beard, though strangely hairless thou.
Then shall descend on thee, sprinkling its dew,
Rose-fingered dawn, granting the ring-empowered
Aglaia's grace by him whose spirit wild
Dwells in pyropes.  Free from demons foul
And pure that solar ring!  And as dread Saturn
'Midst Libra walks, soon shall the sprites attain
Unto thy blissful brow; then pullets' entrails,
Spring's fair burnt-offering, roast o'er steady flame.

These, then, learned Berard, are the things that I have been able to glean from that good spirit, as from the [oracular] cave, according to the most profound judgement of the stars.  And for it, in truth, I had to await the rising of Mars, which appeared in the first hour after midnight, when the moon was in conjunction with the Tail of the Dragon and the sun in fortunate conjunction with the Tail of the Lion, while Mercury was in quadrature with the right shoulder of Orion.  This is why you did well, who are nevertheless outstanding in wisdom, unequalled in erudition, virtue, eloquence and knowledge of the occult, to think of addressing yourself as it were to the oracle of Apollo in respect of these questions that are exacting, difficult and remote from the common [understanding].  For in every deliberation that touches on things great and exacting it is [only] pious to implore the aid of the Gods, since without it the human [variety] can achieve little.  It is meet to imitate Xenophon who called Socrates in counsel as to whether he should follow Cyrus after his departure from Athens.  For the rest, all those things that you desired to know you can easily obtain by detailed examination: for the stars promise you the greatest things.  But in matters of occult philosophy, you shall not yet obtain your desires, for Saturn in Cancer stands most greatly in your way, and even opposes it all diametrically.  But truly that recompense promises you (apart from the baldness from the ring, and apart from the good [indwelling] spirit) safety from all terrors, and shall confer on you a life of good fortune for as long as it shall last.  I have recently sent you some thymiama, which some call Vulpinacea occidentalis Arabica, at the same time as our astrolabe which I received from the Prefect of Provence, Baron [...]: if this bears on your concerns, use it as you wish, I have nothing against it; otherwise see to it that everything is returned to me as soon as possible.  As far as the thymiama is concerned, various people think different things — some call it amber, others something else — but be  persuaded that what I have sent you is the true thymiama thanks to which Medea, once she had [gathered it], forced old men to grow young again.  I hope soon to complete your birth-chart and to send it to you.  And in following through your [astrological] revolutions, I have discovered that in this year of 1562, from mid-July to the beginning of August, there were serious events in your life and dangers for your honour and repute.  Be therefore of good courage, since hereafter the stars promise you prosperity.  Farewell and live happily.  From Salon-de-Crau, 27th August 1562.

Done by M. Nostradamus 1562

Other extant Nostradamus correspondence includes the letter from Francois Berard to Nostradamus.  The letter may be read at http://archive.is/TY9U (as follows).

Francois Berard to Nostradamus:

To the most eminent master of all sciences, remarkable for his merits, Michel Nostradamus, his incomparable friend, greeting.

Most eminent master, I have urgently asked your companion hereby to remind you of the conversation that we had [while you were] here:

First, to the effect that you would entrust him with your astrolabe, together with the book of Hermes and various associated pieces, so that he can forward them all to me.

Secondly, that you would provide me with a little thymiama.

Thirdly, that you would work on my birth chart as soon as you have a quiet moment in your house.

Fourthly, that you would draw up a chart on the basis of whatever you can find out about my ring.

Fifthly, that you would send me a full and detailed commentary on the birth-chart that I myself have drawn up, so that the subject of it may by God’s grace anticipate the ills to come as best he may to the best of your satisfaction.  I hear that he will shortly be back, [so] my sister is pressing me to insist that you hasten on his account.

Sixthly, I request that you devote yourself to a study of the chart of my cousin Paul Seguin, who is ready to pay you generously for your work.

Finally, you know what it is that I want above all and that torments me. I beg and implore you in your incredible mercy to gratify your friend Berard, to support him, stand by him and help him in this; for he will for ever hereafter feel obligated to you and your descendants.  Let your friends participate in your work.  Remember what you predicted for me on the basis of the stars, in particular because of Mercury in Aquarius.  Let what you said not be in vain!

This messenger is trustworthy: have no fear of confiding to him whatever you wish to convey to me, I know him and his background.

While I await your prophetic writings, I implore God almighty to maintain you and your family in health and in happiness.  Farewell and love me as ever.

(This letter’s purpose is to refresh your memory.)

Avignon, 13 August 1562.

Your all-devoted,

Francois Berard.

A Road to Expanded Spiritual Awareness with Jane Roberts and 'Seth'

 

The Road to Elmira Volume 1 (2011) is Rich Kendall's remembrance about what he learned from attending classes of Jane Roberts—the 'channel' for the transcendental communicator known as 'Seth'—during the 1970s.  The previous decade was the time of Vietnam war protests and "the Hippie revolution that had sought to make the world over into a Mecca of peace and love."  Rich commented: 
 

. . . within a few years yesterday's hippies would become today's lawyers, doctors, and Wall Street brokers.  For some, this transition was relatively easy.  For me, thoughts of finding a steady job, settling down; focusing on making money—all these goals were anathema to the hippie spirit that still lived within me.

As I held tight to my counterculture stance I knew I risked being left behind.  But how to find a place for myself in the world I had railed against was a dilemma I did not know how to solve.  So as the decade drew to a close, uncertainties hung in the air all around me.

There was only one thing I felt for certain: I needed some answers before I could move on with my life, answers to a few simple, basic questions.  Questions such as Why am I here?  Is there a God?  What happens to us when we die?  Have I lived before?  Why is there so much suffering in the world?  

Rich was 19 years old in 1969 and acknowledged: "By the time of my Bar Mitzvah (at thirteen years old) I had little interest in religion anymore.  Yet religious impressions made upon the young mind have a way of maintaining a presence throughout one's life."
 
On January 4, 1972 Richard Kendall attended his first class session conducted by Jane Roberts and 'Seth.'  Rich was among a group of 'guys from New York,' who regularly drove 240 miles from New York City via Route 17 to Elmira, a town in central New York.  After attending a class that usually lasted between three and four hours, the 'guys' would drive back home.  Rich recalled his thoughts during that first class when "in walked Jane and placed herself in the handsome Kennedy rocking chair I had seen pictures of in The Seth Material, one of the first books Jane had published."

Casually dressed with jeans and a loose fitting long-sleeved top, Jane lit up a cigarette and poured herself a glass of wine.  She then started talking about some recent developments involving something called Sumari.  Sumari was described as a psychic family or guild of consciousness whose members worked together through the centuries to help mankind.  There was also a Sumari "language," although not a language in the usual sense since it had never been verbally spoken by any group of people in our history.  Despite the nature of this "non-language," Jane had recently begun singing as well as conversing in Sumari.

As class continued to speculate about the meaning of Sumari, Jane suddenly took off her glasses, placed them on the nearby coffee table, and began speaking in a loud, deep masculine voice.  Along with the voice change, her facial muscles also changed.


This other personality, who was known as Seth, was speaking now about the Sumari and how they were gathering together from near and far.


Then, as quickly and easily as Jane had gone into trance, she now came out of trance.  She put her glasses back on, took a sip of wine, and asked class what Seth had said.  After class members gave Jane a brief description of Seth's comments, she went back into trance, but instead of Seth coming through, Jane started singing.  The words Jane sang did not correspond to any language I was familiar with, so I assumed this must be the Sumari language that the class has been discussing.  And although I say Jane was singing, the personality that was now looking out through Jane's eyes and doing the singing was neither Jane nor Seth.

Whatever this new personality was (or wasn't), the vocal gymnastics that were operating were quite impressive, as low notes and high notes were executed with perfect pitch.  As the song continued I could feel the sounds bouncing off the walls, and at times it felt like the walls themselves were doing the singing.

At one point during the class, another student noticed that Rich was responding with hostility whenever a classmate named Ray spoke.  The student asked aloud, "Why is Ray on trial?"; and then the student asked Rich why he was feeling anger toward Ray.
 

. . . Jane went back into trance and started singing in that Sumari "language" again.  While still in trance she motioned for Ray and me to walk over to her and stand on either side of her rocker.  She took Ray's hands and my hands and clasped them together.  As the Sumari song continued I could feel my anger toward Ray beginning to fade.  I then smiled at him as if to say, "Okay, all my anger for you is now gone."  Secretly however (or so I thought), I was still hanging on to some of that anger.  Jane then vigorously shook Ray's hands and my hands which were still intertwined, and with that gesture all of my anger toward Ray truly did dissipate.  Ray and I laughed, released our hands, and Jane ended the song.

Before we barely had time to blink, Seth came through, looked at me, and emphatically stated, Let that be a lesson to you!  He did not say this in a mean-spirited manner (no pun intended), and I didn't feel put down or demeaned in any way.  I walked back to my seat by the bay windows, not really sure what had just transpired.

A few of the class members then said that as they were listening to the Sumari song, they had images of a trial, with me being the judge and Ray being accused of some form of sexually immoral act.  Jane said she was receiving similar images.  As this judge, it seems I cut Ray no slack for his misdeeds and meted out a very severe sentence, which in effect relegated him to the role of outcast in society's eyes.  I later learned that one of the purposes of the Sumari songs was to conjure up memories of events from past lives.

Continuing to make the long drive to attend class sessions in the following weeks and months, Rich found himself contemplating such lessons as the importance of listening to the voice of the inner self and the realization that one's present reality could influence occurrences of past and future incarnations.  Rich quoted Seth: "If you want to understand what reincarnation is, then examine this instant of your being.  From this moment, as you understand it, all realities flow and are created."

One night when the instruction related to people's secrets, Jane said: "There is someone in this room who has a secret that if told will help someone else in the room."  Rich wrote: ". . . I knew the secret Jane was referring to was my having been raped, which I had mentioned a few days earlier . . ." 

After I finished speaking, one of the women in the class started to cry softly.  She then told of how she was sexually abused by her father as a child.  Suddenly, it was as if some kind of invisible floodgate opened up, and what came pouring out was a veritable potpourri of sexual secrets, as people began to share details about sexual experiences that had occurred in their lives of which they had never spoken before.  As this deluge of repressed memories continued to inundate the room (in some cases these memories had been buried for decades) one of my friends spontaneously announced that he was gay.


As for me, I was relieved to have finally released a secret I had harbored for a very long time.

Some people say let sleeping dogs lie.  Yet sometimes, the simple act of sharing something that you have never been able to talk about before can be a very freeing experience.  Perhaps in sharing the details of what happened to me, someone else may feel inclined to share an event in their own life (of whatever nature) that until now they have never been able to disclose.

Rich's rape had occurred when he was 15 and afterwards brought him feelings of intense anger and anguish that "were being driven in large part by a deep sense of shame for what had happened to me."  He reflected:
 

Perhaps if I had gone to some counselor trained in such things they would have pointed that out to me from the beginning, but until that Friday night get-together at Jane's, and then in class a few days later, I wasn't able to reveal to anyone what had happened to me.  Looking back at the event from the standpoint of my present consciousness, I am able to recognize (and acknowledge) the part I played in its creation.  This is not to say that I consciously knew exactly the way things were going to unfold, but to feign total innocence would be a lie.  At that time in my life I was feeling conflicted about my sexuality.  While I was for the most part drawn to women, there was a part of me that wanted to experience sex with a man.  I wouldn't admit it to myself on a conscious level, much less bring myself to willingly seek such an encounter.  So my "solution" was to create a situation where I would be forced into having such an experience—a poor solution for sure.

  

A discussion involving 'military duty' in Vietnam resulted with Seth commenting: "There is no way to insure peace but for every man, EVERY man, to lay down his arms."  Rich imagined a worldwide program that could be called 'Worldwide Military Disarmament.'

Rereading Seth's statement about every man laying down his arms, I began to imagine soldiers from every country banding together in a conspiracy to create a worldwide divestment of weapons. 


Events begin within the mind and within the imagination.  As long as we imagine that violence can act as an agent to bring about peace, then young men and young women will continue to spill each other's blood as they have done for centuries.  What is there to lose by imagine an army of young people from all corners of the globe joining together to rock the world with peace?

Seth could be very direct when making suggestions to Rich about how to overcome obstacles that were holding him back.  At a time when he was unemployed, Rich conveyed the gist of Seth's advice: "Get out!  Go into the world!  Seek your own sustenance.  A nine-to-five job is not going to destroy you; how fragile that you must think that you are! . . . When you work with your beliefs, you will find that you have inhibited yourself and your natural curiosity about the world, out of fear that you are inferior and you are not ready."

Rich also recalled Seth's response to a statement Rich had made to Jane about wanting to feel "part of a meaningful universe" —

Unexpectedly, off came Jane's glasses and Seth came through with the following words: "You are not so much part of a meaningful universe, as the universe in part.  That is the next step for you to joyfully follow."

Rich's expanded spiritual awareness is expressed through the conclusion:

We are not bound by historic events, be they fact or fiction.  What we choose to focus on NOW is what matters, for what we focus on NOW reaches out to all realities, whether we think of them as past, present or future.

One chapter of The Road to Elmira is an account of how Rich learned about an apparent 'past' incarnation.  He reported what Seth told him on March 28, 1972:

Now: the small but brilliant sardonic part of you was, and in other terms still is, a very brilliant courtesan in 16th Century France, who sat with the philosophers and thought they did not know what they were talking about.  Since you were a woman with an excellent mind, you listened to these men who seemed to think they knew what they were talking about and you thought, "They do not have the slightest idea in their heads and yet they look at me and think I am beautiful and silly when I can think rings around them."  And so you did, and in other terms so you still do.  This woman had much energy and still possesses it.

Rich had no recollection of any previous life so he "filed this information away and continued to grapple with the challenges I was facing in this life, which kept me busy enough."  However, he began to notice synchronicities.  After accompanying a friend to an art exhibit displaying the works of René Magritte, Rich began researching the life of the artist.  Reading an encyclopedia, his attention was drawn to the opposite page.

When I glanced over, staring up at me was the name Marguerite de Valois.  There were only a few lines written about her, but one of those lines stated she was "a well-known courtesan in 16th-Century France."  

At the next class session of Jane Roberts and Seth, Rich asked Seth if he cared to say anything about a 'Margaret' de Valois.  Seth is quoted to have responded:

Not now I do not.  But I appreciate the reason for the question.

Later, during that same class, he looked at me and said "Marguerite," correcting my earlier mispronunciation when I had said "Margaret."

Rich began researching Marguerite's life and certain similarities between himself and the famous courtesan became "readily apparent."  For example: "Marguerite had a habit of holding a pen in her hand whenever she was reading a book.  I have that same habit."  There were also instances where events would seem to overlap, such as a noticed parallel when Rich was reading about one of her first love affairs.

She was in love with a well-known military leader named the Duke of d'Guise, and believing the feelings to be mutual was quite surprised when the Duke informed her one day that he had proposed to another and his proposal has been accepted.  The day after reading about this, I was speaking with a woman I had grown increasingly fond of, and believing the feelings to be mutual, I was quite surprised when she informed me that a friend of ours had proposed to her and she had happily accepted his proposal.

 
. . . I had the distinct feeling that my friend Rick Stack was this Duke d'Guise fellow I had just spoken of.  The more I read about the Duke d'Guise the more I began to see connections between Rick and the Duke.

One day while Rick and I were in the middle of an argument, he used the phrase, "You stabbed me in the back." 

 
I later found out as part of my research that in 1563 the Duke d'Guise was summoned to the Château de Blois, ostensibly to meet with King Henry III (who was Marguerite's brother).  As the Duke awaited the king's presence a band of assassins hired by the king was hiding in the shadows.  They snuck up behind the Duke and repeatedly stabbed him in the back, the wounds proving to be fatal.

Rich eventually sought verification from Seth about the apparent other incarnation and asked if Marguerite de Valois was "the woman you were referring to . . ."  Seth is quoted as having answered: "It is indeed."  Rich told him: "Thank you.  You have made me feel outrageous."  Seth is then quoted: "No, you have made yourself feel outrageous.  When you told your story just now, you wondered whether you had been that woman.  It is quite proper of course, to say that woman was you.  It is much more basically truthful to say that a correspondence exists between you and that woman now; but you are yourself now and not the woman."

Rich attested:

I believe reincarnational selves speak to us every day in various guises and that there are always clues for us to follow.  When we are open to such possibilities we need not search for those selves; they will find us.

bar mitzvah photos of Rich;
below is a portrait of the teenaged Marguerite de Valois