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