1551
SALON, FRANCE
So much so that persons of the future may be seen in present ones, because God the Creator has wished to reveal them by means of images and impressions, together with various secrets of the future…. "
Nostradamus was pleased with himself. He had achieved something he had been striving for over the last eight years. He could separate the dual image of the god. He could have the female entity visit him independently of the male and vice versa. Now, the block that prevented him talking with Hermes about Aralyn’s rescue was gone. And in addition he could use each half to view the life of the other. This had not been possible while they had been united.
He closed the book in front of him and leaned back on his chair. It was almost quiet enough to begin. Downstairs Anne, his wife would be sound asleep.
Anne did not know what to make of this strange habit of her husband who read occult books late into the night. When she had married him late in 1547 her main impression was of the famous doctor who had saved the capital of Provence, Aix, from plague. The Provence Parliament had even given him a lifelong pension for his work during those nine months of 1546.
Nostradamus knew of her uncertainties. He knew she did not quite understand what had made him settle down. Both knew it wasn’t her money that had brought about the change, although she was wealthy.
Despite her uncertainties Nostradamus could not tell her of his drive for atonement related to his previous wife; that had to remain his secret. He had settled down in order to complete his quest. In settling down he had taken the chance to enjoy, once more, the benefits of married life.
His marrying Anne Ponsarde Gemelle in Salon was not just convenient for he had a genuine liking for this personable young woman. It could never be the same as his passion for Aralyn; he would never again allow himself to be so committed to love but it was not a cold relationship. He would join her when she went to bed and then slip up to his observatory when she fell asleep.
He rose from his chair and went to sit on the window ledge, as was his habit at this time of the night. The moon shone clearly onto the Rue de la Poissonerie revealing the perfect serene solitude of the night. The town of Salon was asleep and not even a dog barked.
Although pleased, Nostradamus was also a little irritated and the source of his irritation was the male half of his visitor.
Nostradamus felt good about the visions of the female, his Sophia, as he liked to think of her. Not only did he feel the presence of Aralyn whenever she was near but he learned so much from her in such a clear manner. It was Sophia that held the music, that emotional music of yearning. He could feel every word of the lovers’ song and even knew much of its author. In addition through her he could draw links to his own feelings and knowledge regarding Norse poetry and runes.
And from this female presence he had seen so much of his France and events that were to come. They obviously weren’t real experiences of his female sprite but the result of passionate reading and learning. These were not just facts coldly stored but visions where she felt for the people, imagined their lives and gave warm emotional depth to each image. The ideas were sometimes jumbled and it was often hard to fix the date and era but the images left him in a pleasant frame.
And through Carolin, Nostradamus was able to give a name to the conscious mind from which Hermes was formed. The conscious man he termed Tomas in keeping with Carolin’s perception. So Tomas and Hermes are one; conscious man and unconscious sprite.
Nostradamus had also resolved some part of the lives to which Sophia was linked. He had seen enough to realise that in a young woman called Carolin there was also Aralyn. Here was the product of his ill-fated experiment; Aralyn’s essential nature, her psyche, linked to a new born child, that had grown uniquely into the maiden Carolin. He reread thoughts he had penned some years earlier aware of their past and present relevance.
Le corps sans ame plus n’estre en sacrifice, |
The body without a soul will not be sacrificed |
Jour de la mort mis en natuite: |
At the day of death rebirth is set: |
L’esprit diuin fera l’ame felice, |
The divine spirit will make the soul rejoice, |
Voyant le verbe en son eternite. |
Seeing the word in its eternity. |
| Nostradamus’ Centuries II Quatrain 13 |
But the conscious Tomas failed to live up to the glorious name of Hermes Nostradamus had bestowed on the spiritual form. This was a pity and frustrating for Nostradamus. It made the task so much harder for it was with this Tomas that he must work in order to achieve his end. This Tomas, source of Hermes, lacked music in his soul, his poetry was appalling, his learning erratic, unsettled, with so many places involved that no easy grasp could be made of ideas he had learned. There was no one place that this Tomas had gained his knowledge, no comfortable seat that gave strength to the image.
Nostradamus could sense feelings in Hermes’ form but not Tomas. He knew Hermes was emotionally tied to the Sophia part of the duality. But Tomas seemed cold, aloof, detached and this made it difficult for Nostradamus to interpret what he was seeing. Michel felt Tomas held knowledge of vast wars, scattered remnants of an English history and images from unknown lands but it was so difficult to feel their importance, to give balance to the visions because of the unemotional way they had been stored. This Tomas did not live these stories; he pondered them, analysed and dissected them as if they constituted a problem to be solved.
To be fair, Nostradamus conceded in his mind, part of this was not Tomas fault, it was the nature of the material. "The ideas are so new to me. He deals with machines and concepts that will really only come into being during his lifetime. It takes all my effort to comprehend the machine he uses for his calculations, let alone the other endless devices of his time."
But the worst aspect of Tomas was his dissociation from his own image within the deeper mind. It was apparent that neither Tomas nor Hermes had any direct awareness of the other. Unlike the Sophia half who saw, and was sometimes bemused by, the connections between her real self and the persona living a life within her deeper mind.
The only view Nostradamus could gain of the conscious being, Tomas, was by using the time travelling Sophia. Sophia was emotionally linked to Hermes and when freed of his presence her time travelling talents could be used as a channel to Tomas.
It was not from Carolin that he had his fears confirmed about Aralyn’s fate. He could feel a fear in "Carolin’ but it was not open to either of them.
Hermes had a clearer idea of the fear. It was not a perfect image, it never was from Hermes, but it linked Carolin to death by fire; pain and screaming death; racing fire, exploding fire amongst a ruined world.
Nostradamus understood why he could not see Carolin’s fate through her own eyes; she was too involved. Just as he could not see where Aralyn would end up when he first tried to save her. But once having put it in place he could see what had happened to her. He could see because he could not change it.
"We human beings through our natural consciousness and intelligence cannot know anything of God the creator’s hidden secrets, Quia non est nostrum noscera tempora nec momenta (for it is not for us to know the times and the instances etc)."
He knew there was no contradiction in the laws of time in what he had done. There was only one Carolin, he had not replaced a person with another. He had not looked into the future and seen a different Carolin. If he had known where to look and been able to see, the only thing he would have observed was Aralyn’s presence in Carolin, just as it was now and ever would be. From whatever point in time he looked this would be true.
But he still held the fear that his previous actions may have placed Aralyn in a far more horrendous life than he had originally planned. This seemed to be confirmed by Hermes. Nostrdamus could not undo his actions that sent the dying Aralyn’s spirit into the future but he could now try once more and place Carolin into safety.
This then was the task of Nostradamus and Hermes, to rescue Carolin. And to do this these two conspirators needed Hermes’ physical counterpart to complete their plan.
Nostradamus was now using Carolin to track the life of Tomas. In doing this he could see his own accomplishment. He was tracking the means by which he had wrought the change in this out-of-reach personality.
He was seeing the effects of what was to be. He also knew he would willingly put these foreseen events into place and this gave him a great deal of pleasure. This was no contradiction to history and the laws of time but just a loop that is in equilibrium.
"No contradiction," Nostradamus reflected. It was true Hermes and he appeared to be attempting to change the future. But this was an unreal perception. From Nostradamus’ view of the future he would only be changing it if he didn’t go through with his plan and that could not happen. He was destined with Hermes to bring about a change in Carolin’s fate. That he was able to see so much of that change indicated there was nothing inherent in him that caused ambivalence. It was not possible that he would choose some other course than that which was there. Nostradamus knew that if his visions of the future were true then every action that he took would lead to the fulfilment of that future. This did not mean he could do anything and it would end up the same for this concept is a false loop. Of all the choices available to him he would not end up choosing any one that changed the foreseen future.
"And it can happen that the prophet bringing about the perfect light of prophecy may make manifest things both human and divine, but this cannot be done otherwise given that the effects of predicting the future extend far off. "
This he knew did not mean the world’s achieved history and future was predestined. He was merely recognising a basic equation of time; you cannot go back in time and make another choice. Life is full of choices and statistical occurrences but no matter what the range of these, in each case only one comes into being. You cannot unpour the wine out of the cup once it is poured. From the point that it is poured you can drink it, spill it, empty the cup but you cannot go back and have any other action but that the wine is poured. And each action you take after that cannot be undone no matter how wide the range from which it is selected.
"For both the incomprehensible mystery of God and these effective virtues depend on the great expanse of natural knowledge, having its nearest and most immediate origin in free will and describing future events which cannot be understood simply through being revealed. Neither can they be grasped, through men’s interpretations nor through any other mode of cognisance or occult power under the concavity of heaven, neither in the present or the eternity to come. But through this and by means of epileptic agitation the causes are made known by celestial movements."
And in this quest to save Carolin there could be no contradiction. All the actions with which future and present were involved would be in accord with the unitary path of time.
So his task tonight was a continuation of the quest. To find the means to complete his task throughTomas, a mind that could not directly be contacted. The nature of the duality in his visitors gave him the opening, for he was exploiting their individual natures to overcome their inherent limitations.
Nostradamus could not affect the conscious mind of Tomas within which Hermes lay. Hermes could not influence the result without a better contact with the conscious mind. To bring about this contact various stimulations were needed and these Nostradamus was now about to provide. He would write his prophetic works in order to save Aralyn and Carolin. A prophetic work containing words and ideas to cause the conscious mind, Tomas, to find its unconscious rhythm in Hermes. This was Nostradamus’ contribution, allowing Hermes to implement their plan.
Nostradamus would lay the seeds in Tomas, this future mind, to dwell upon the content of the prophetic words until even his speech took on poetic twists. A seared mind scorched with repetition that would give Hermes the strength to meet the demands that fate required. Tomas’ mind seared by constant search for anagrams, hundreds a day, that burned a track within his mind shaping it to an unusual form.