Nostradamus
In the 16th century, a French doctor and prophet, Michel de Nostradame, was born. He gained his fame when his predictions of the death of King Henry II of France came true. Nostradamus, as he is also known, wrote a ten volume book, The Centuries, filled with prophecies. He became a man that people from all over the world came to see to seek his counsel. Nostradamus had a life filled with many twists and turns and has made many prophecies that have come true during the twentieth century.
His grandfathers were the first people to notice his display of talent for prophecy when Nostradamus was very young. His grandfathers taught him a wide range of subjects: classical literature, history, medicine, astrology, and herbal folk medicine. At the age of fourteen, he went to study in the city of Avignon. In 1522, at the age of nineteen, he enrolled in the University of Montpellier as a medical student. After only three years, he passed the oral and written examinations for his degree (Hogue 12-5).
With his medicine license in his hand, Nostradamus went to practice in the countryside, far away from his professors. During the 1500’s, Southern France suffered from a chronic form of the bubonic plague. Nostradamus started going to plague-stricken households to try to help the sick. He followed the plague through Southern France and he never left a town until everyone sick was well (Hogue 15).
Nostradamus was also a master astrologer who studied the movements of the stars and planets in relation to each other. He believed his gift of sight had “divine intervention.” He was sought out by wealthy citizens to tell them their horoscopes “and by their wives for his advice on cosmetics.” (Hogue 15). He wrote a book on the doctors and pharmacists he met throughout his travels in Southern Europe. He would stay with some of them during the day helping them heal the sick. By night, he became their pupil.
In 1529, Nostradamus returned to Montpellier for his doctorate degree. After this he decided to set up a more permanent practice in 1534 in Toulouse. He then decided to move to the town of Agen. He soon became the town of Agen’s most eligible bachelor. In Agen, he married and had two children, a boy and a girl. It was ...
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...re money without having any gold and silver to back it up. Some feel that this has been fulfilled and possibly will be fulfilled again in the future. (Hogue 149.)
November 22, 1963. The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) in Dallas, Texas. Nostradamus not only saw the death of a man who could have been America’s greatest leader, but he also saw events and people that no one today is certain of, the killers. He gives hints that JFK was to be a great president. One quatrain describes Kennedy as a two term president.
Nostradamus led a very interesting life. I personally believe that he was a wonderful man and could really see into the future. Read his quatrains and you too will be convinced that this man predicted even some of the events that have occurred in mine and your lifetimes, during the 20th century.
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Works Cited
Hogue, John. Nostradamus and the Millennium. New York: Doubleday and Company,
Inc., 1987.
Roberts, Henry C. The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus. New York: Nostradamus,
Inc., 1979.
In The Damnation of Theron Ware, Harold Frederic uses the character of Dr. Ledsmar to represent science and the modern, scientific world-view, as a counter to the other archetypal world-views in the story: that of the Church in the priest Father Forbes, a quasi-pagan Hellenistic attitude of Celia, and the unstable Protestantism of Theron Ware. Like the very unique Father Forbes, an unusual priest indeed, Dr. Ledsmar is characteristic of a certain popular image of science that is frequently found in fiction, the isolated and eccentric crank, an unfeeling and driven by a need to take some kind of truth from Nature by force, with no consideration for the ordinary human wants in life. This poor form of science was unfortunately a part of the establishment during Frederic's time, and no doubt much later as well. But it was not the only kind of science that was practiced, and many at the time understood the difference, though in this novel we only get an image of the most negative kind, in service to Frederic's dramatic and rhetorical purposes.
The battle of fact versus coincidence has been around since long before any of us were born. Believers argue that everything in life has brought them to their present situation while skeptics may be more reluctant to give into the notion of a predetermined fate. However, everyone questions whether or not fate might actually be true at least once in their life. At the beginning of Oedipus the King, Oedipus did not believe in fate. He thought he could escape his destiny by running away from Corinth after he discovered it was his fate to kill his father and marry his mother. Mike Church, the private detective in the movie Dead Again, is called to a catholic orphanage to assist in finding an amnesiac's family. Unknown to Oedipus and Mike, this would be the start of what both men were destined to do. Stories like Oedipus the King and Dead Again both illustrate the irony of mans struggle with predetermined fate through the eyes of a skeptic.
A. On that day in 1963, the 35th president John F Kennedy was assassinated while driving through Dealey Plaza in Texas (Nelson, “Breach of Trust”).
The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, marked a tragic historical moment in American history. The president was fatally shot by a sniper while traveling with his wife, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally’s wife in a presidential motorcade at 12.30 pm on Friday, November 22, 1963. JFK was pronounced dead shortly after rushing to Parkland Hospital, where a tracheostomy and other efforts failed to keep him alive. Although Lee Harvey Oswald, a former United States Marine, was convicted of the crime, the purpose behind the assassination remained inclusive as Oswald’s case never came to trial as he was shot to death two days later by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub operator in Texas. The assassination raised many questions and theories concerning the murder.
Death of a President on Dallas streets gets the nations attention. In the afternoon of November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealy Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. When he was shot, it was done by two snipers.
Campion, N. "Prophecy, Cosmology And The new Age Movement: The Extent and Nature of Contemporary Belief In Astrology".(PhD Thesis, Bath Spa University College 2004)
The year of 1963 would be the year that would forever be remembered as the time when President John Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. On a warm Friday afternoon in downtown Dallas, perched on the top floor of the Texas School Book Depositary, Lee Harvey Oswald set aim on one of the more popular presidents of all time. This event impacted the history of the United States, and is one of the most talked about killings of all time.
This has been a neccessarily brief and incomplete account. I have not mentioned Rabelais, the Rosicrucians, the decadent poets, Nietzsche, de Sade, Levi, Gurdjieff, James, Augustine, Shakespeare, Masonry, Paine, American utopian communities, Jung, Merlin, art and spirit, or Gnosticism, all of which are vital elements of the story; I have given short shrift to the psychical movement and its influence on nineteenth and twentieth century
...escent. The Cumaean Sibyl owned, according to tradition, nine books of prophecies, which she sold the remaining three to the Roman king Tarquin. In ancient legends women who could predict the future were called sibyls. These prophets were believed to be inspired by the gods and were found primarily in the famous oracle centers, particularly those of Apollo, the Greek god of prophesy. Sibyls were believed to live 900 to 1,000 years. According to the legends, some could interpret dreams and others could make their voices heard after death. Early Greek writers only mentioned only one sibyl, Erythraean Herophile, who predicted the Trojan war. Later on the number of sibyls were increased to ten, including the Samian, the Trojan, the Phrygian, the Cimmerian, the Delphian, the Cumaean, the Libyan, the Tiburtine, and the Babylonian. Of these the most important was Deiphobe.
"Kennedy Assassinated in Dallas, November 22, 1963." Historic U.S. Events. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Student Resources in Context. Web. 6 May 2014.
If prophecy were to be real, one could expect what is bound to happen in the future. This is true; at least in “Oedipus the King” in which the protagonist, Oedipus calls forth his doom unwillingly. Fate is defined as something that unavoidably befalls a person. The author of “Oedipus the King,” Sophocles, writes a tragic fate that Oedipus was born to experience. Fate is what is meant to happen and cannot be avoided or unchanged. Furthermore, events that lead to other events could be the result for one to meet their fate. In “Oedipus the King,” Sophocles expresses the nature of fate to be determined upon choices made.
What if even before someone was born his or her fate was already set? What would that person do? What changes would they make, or what things would people around them do to try to make this person’s fate not come true? The character, Oedipus, in the book Oedipus the King by Sophocles has to deal with this exact situation. Before Oedipus is born, his parents receive an uncanny prophecy, which states that their child would grow up and kill his father and have children with his mother. After this is prophesied, Oedipus’ parents try to kill their newborn to keep this awful prophecy from coming true. Oedipus even, when he is older, tries to take precautions for this explicit prophecy. Though many may try to void it there is no way to avoid Oedipus’ fate. In this book, Oedipus the King by Sophocles, there is a lot of foreshadowing or prophecies that lead to lots or irony later on in the story. All of this goes to show that there is no way for Oedipus to avoid his fate.
Money has evolved with the times and is a reflection of the progress of man. Early money was itself a physical commodity, grain, gold or silver. During the vital stage, more symbolic forms of money such as certificates of deposit, bank notes, checks, letters of credit, bonds and other forms of negotiable securities came into prominence. Social development transformed money in to a trust, “In God We Trust' it says on the back of the ten-dollar bill.” (The Ascent of Money, 27) Today money is faith in the person paying us and belief in the person issuing the money he uses or the institution that honors his money. This trust has no end it can be extended to a greater number of individuals.
The concept of fate has existed since the time of the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed very strongly in fate, which can be defined as either a power beyond human control that determines events, or the outcome or end. In "Oedipus Rex," King Oedipus lives and dies by fate. Fate influences the entire plot, thereby allowing for some interesting developments that may be unpredictable to the audience.
Oedipus faced many problems and hardships in his life, and it can seem like his fate was predestined from before his birth. That idea however, is incorrect. Oedipus did not, knowingly or unknowingly, make certain decisions because of the prophecy. Oedipus lived his life, and the decisions he made ended up fulfilling that prophecy. The key, is his decisions. Oedipus had full control over his life, and was able to live his life in the way he wanted. Likewise, we can do the same. We, as humans, do not have a predestined plan, but instead wake up every day with a mind full of new ideas and ways to go on with life. We make the decisions in life, and that keeps us going. We do not know our end goal, and where we are going in life, but a majority of the enjoyment we have in life is the new experiences, the differing decisions, and doing what we