Prophetic Method of Nostradamus


Nostradamus used a variety of magical arts and tools to induce ecstatic trances. Visions came to him through flame or water gazing, sometimes both together. he also followed the practice of Branchus, a Delphic priestess of ancient Greece, requiring him to sit, spine erect, on a brass tripod, the legs of which were angled at the same degree as the Egyptian pyramids. The upright position, and possibly the use of nutmeg (a mild hallucinogen when consumed in sufficient quantity -- [deadly when the dose is too large]), stimulated the mind; the angle of the tripod legs was thought to create a bioelectric force which would sharpen psychic powers.

Or the prophet would stand or sit before a tripod that held a brass bowl filled with steaming water and pungent oils. "I emptied my soul, brain and heart of all care and attained a state of tranquility and stillness of mind which are prerequisites for predicting by means of the brass tripod."

"Although the everlasting God alone knows the eternity of light proceeding from himself, I say frankly to all to whom he wishes to reveal his immense magnitude -- infinite and unknowable as it is -- after long and meditative inspiration, that it is a hidden thing divinely manifested to the prophet by two means: One comes by infusion which clarifies the supernatural light in the one who predicts by the stars, making possible divine revelation; the other comes by means of participation with the divine eternity, by which means the prophet can judge what is given from his (her) own divine spirit through God the Creator and natural intuition."

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