Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (September 15, 1486 – February 18, 1535).  Agrippa’s sixteenth century works titled Three Books Concerning Occult Philosophy were arguably the foremost references on the use of code and the meaning of symbols at the time Nostradamus was publishing his prophecies. It was 22 years earlier, at the time Nostradamus was in Agen, that the books for which Agrippa is most well known were published. According to Wikipedia : De occulta philosophia libri tres (Three Books Concerning Occult Philosophy, Book 1 printed Paris 1531; Books 1-3 in Cologne 1533). This summa of occult and magical thought, Agrippa's most important work in a number of respects, sought a solution to the skepticism proposed in De vanitate. In short, Agrippa argued for a synthetic vision of magic whereby the natural world combined with the celestial and the divine through Neoplatonic participation, such that ordinarily licit natural magic was in fact validated by a kind of demonic magic sourced ultimately from God. By this means Agrippa proposed a magic that could resolve all epistemological problems raised by skepticism in a total validation of Christian faith. Nostradamus' Interest One of the things that ensured these volumes were well read was that they served as a source for many types of ancient coding practices and it is this aspect, not the esoteric, that Nostradamus would have found invaluable for he needed a hidden reference to which he could direct the knowledgeable reader. It is paramount that Nostradamus' sources be knowable but only by those intended to read his work. and this presents great difficulties in the case where the writer can't communicate directly and the recipients don't even know its meant for them.. The clues have to be set in hints, supported by some hidden mechanism. If this is the case one would expect such clues to be set early in Nostradamus' Prophecies. I believe the seventh verse, Quatrain 7, Centuries I, holds the answers. I believe that Nostradamus used the work of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa whose books on magic were published shortly before his own writings commenced. However it would be incorrect to believe that his interest was in the occult methodology encompassed by Agrippa's work. I believe Nostradamus used Agrippa's work as a basis for the tables needed for setting the planet ciphers. It is from Agrippa's work that Nostradamus developed a code based on Agrippa's music formulas for the stars and translated these into musical sounds in the lettering of his quatrains. The basis for my assumption that Nostradamus' ciphers depend on music is founded on evidence within Nostradamus' Prophecies. An example of this is found in C.VI Q.100 which is discussed in several of my papers.

Pointers to places in Agrippa's works on Symbols and Coding Methods.

I have no doubt that Nostradamus embedded an obscure code in his work. In order for it to be useful he had to also embed clues that would lead to its decipherment. There are several verses that provide clues to use Cornelius Agrippa's works as a reference source. The clues are built in cryptic meanings in the text that cannot be resolved without using the anagrams interwoven into the lettering of the text. A prime example is C.I Q.07 

C. I Q.7

Now in this verse the clues are easily missed. It is obvious that a number is embedded in line 3 but it adds little meaning as written by Nostradamus. However it is part of an anagram sequence that does give meaning "xiiii d'vne secte les coni" yields "XII iidvne sectele sconi" which leads to "XII divine celeste icons". And this means twelve divine heavenly icons. The word selection is also found as an anagram. In the first part of the line is the ultimate clue as to the reference point since the lettering 'Les coniur" is an anagram for Cornelius, the middle name of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa.

A factor that closely links this verse of Nostradamus to the text on magic by Agrippa is to be seen in the location of the charts for 'the number twelve' in Agrippa's work. It occurs in Book II, Chapter XIIII, the number mentioned in the third line of the above verse by Nostradamus. It is worthy of comment that both Agrippa's Chapter heading and Nostradamus' verse use the same unusual form xiiii to write the number fourteen (Agrippa uses XIV in his contents page but xiiii for his heading). 

There are other verses that support my conclusion. Of these the following is important since it bears the name of Agrippa in the form Henric-AGRIPPA, and Henric is a French variant of Agrippa's first name. This anagram occurs as Ar AGRIPPine cH = AAGRIPP-rine cH =AGRIPPA-Henric

C. III Q. 53

Included in the English anagrams of this verse are: Report.named.pasquiler (pasquiler =an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.) poem.relates parentdom perils danger. Base.guards.executed.numbered.group. Henric-Agrippa appraiser enchiffre.rank.for pairs.report. A.just.man alter.agen patron.treasure norse.part angel.queu's. This is a significant amount of material in which the reader can detect meanings that are well outside normal expectations. Of course some of the simpler bits are likely to be false and this will also apply to some of the more complex sequences but despite this they form a formidable collection pointing to Agrippa especially where they are a reflection of the visible wording, 

For example the  third line carries the anagram Agrippar-ENCHIFFRE through the lettering ar AgrippINE CHEF FR and this correctly implies that Agrippa built a system of code but he also did it in the locations identified in the verse. The following facts can be read from the many references on Henric Agrippa available on the internet.

Agrippa was born at Cologne on 14 September 1486. He lived in Geneva from 1521–23 where the city licensed him to practice medicine. He also became city physician for the Swiss city of Frieburg in March of 1523-24. Frieburg is a town near Basle (i.e Bâle). Agrippa was constantly in conflict with religious authorities throughout his life and it was not until 1530 that, while living in Flanders, he received permission to publish several important titles, including his treatise on magic De occulta Philosophia and De Vanitate. In 1530, Cornelius Grapheus of Antwerp printed the first edition of De Vanitate. The following year, Grapheus produced a partial edition (Book One) of De Occulta Philosophia. It was not until 1523 that this latter text was published. By this time Agrippa was once again living in Cologne.

ON CHOOSING THE REFERENCE POINT

Even though I am suggesting the source of Nostradamus' code is Agrippa's works the task of identifying Nostradamus' coding mechanism isn't as easy as it might now seem. Although it is probable that Nostradamus did rely on ancient Hebraic techniques mentioned by Agrippa this doesn't narrow the choice to any great extent. The reason for this is that the historical authorities are at odds with each other and with themselves and Agrippa mentioned and used many of these authors in his work.

However Agrippa is one of the authorities from which much material on  Cabbalistic techniques  has been developed and I have identified Chapter fourteen in Agrippa's second book on Occult Philosophy as being a likely source for Nostradamus. This chapter gives a table for the 'number twelve and in it he lays out the order of the Zodiac in a conventional manner. In other sections however Agrippa uses a different order. There is a useful table at the end of Book One which sets out the value of the letter that corresponds with each Star-Sign and Planet. Agrippa presents it for The Hebrew and Greek lettering system but the numerology and the celestial assignation is totally different for both systems. Moreover Agrippa's Hebraic system has few links to the Sephir Yetzirah, the traditional source for much cabbalistic insight.

However I am spared the task of identifying which is right for my goal is to find Nostradamus' method. If, as I believe, he has identified a single source, it doesn't matter whether that source differs from others. After all I am looking for meaning supplied by Nostradamus not that applying to ancient or modern interpretations of the Jewish coding schemes. I don't believe Nostradamus used the content and methods from Agrippa but merely used the methods in these books to show the manner of thinking required to understand his method. They are exemplars not coding templates.

Chapter xiiii. Of the Number eleven, and the number twelve; with a double Scale of the Number twelve Cabalisticall, and Orphicall (from Agrippa's Occulta Bk II Part 2)

PLANET REFERENCE POINTS IN AGRIPPA.

Knowing of Nostradamus' allusion to music and its importance as a dating mechanism helps identify two key chapters in Agrippa's Occulta. Both of these generate a means of coding the planets in music and poetry. Agrippa's method is probably not the one used by Nostradamus but it is the clue to how it works.

Agrippa BK II Pt III Chapt xxvi: But understanding now, that of the seven Planets, Saturn, Mars, and the Moon have more of the voice then of the Harmony. Saturn hath sad, hoarse, heavy, and slow words, and sounds, as it were pressed to the Center; but Mars, rough, sharp, threatning [threatening] great and wrathful words: the Moon observeth a mean betwixt these two; but Jupiter, Sol, Venus and Mercury, do possess Harmonies; yet Jupiter hath grave, constant, fixed, sweet, merry, and pleasant Consorts; Sol venerable, settled, pure and sweet, with a certain grace; but Venus lascivious, luxurious, delicate, voluptuous, dissolute and fluent: Mercury hath Harmonies more remiss, and various, merry and pleasant, with a certain boldness: but the Tone of particulars, and proportionated Consorts obeyeth the nine Muses. Jupiter hath the grace of the octave, and also the quinte, viz. the Diapason with the Diapente: Sol obtains the melody of the octave voice, viz. Diapason; in like manner by fifteen Tones, a Disdiapason; Venus keepeth the grace of the quinte or Diapente. Mercury hath diatessaron; viz. the grace of the quarte:

The above passage illustrates how both music and poetry could be used to encode the planets by reversing the process so that these same sounds in a piece of work imply the presence of a planet. However without their location against the heavens it is not particularly useful but Agrippa's fascination with demon's provides a means for he links the names of demons to particular asterisms.

Book III Part 3 Chapter xxviii. How sometimes names of Spirits are taken from those things over which they are set.

 I Finde yet another kinde of names given to the spirits from those things, which they are set over, their names being as it were borrowed from the Stars, or men, or places, or times, or such like things, the divine name being added at the end, thus. The spirit of Saturn is called Sabathiel: the Spirit of Jupiter, Zedekiel: the spirit of Mars, Madimiel: the Spirit of the Sun, Semeliel, or Semeschia; the Spirit of Venus, Nogahel; the spirit of Mercury, Cochabiah, or Cochabiel; the Spirit of the Moon, Jareahel, or Levanael. In like manner also they call the Spirits which are set over the signes by the names of the signes in order; from Aries Teletiel, Suriel, Tomimiel, Sartamiel, Ariel, Betuliel, Masniel, Acrabiel, Chesetiel, Gediel, Deliel, Dagymiel. And if we call them from the latin words, Ariel, Tauriel, Geminiel, Cancriel, Leoniel, Virginiel, Libriel, Scorpiel, Sagittariel, Capriel, Aquariel, Pisciel; and from the Planets, Saturniel, Ioviel, Martiel, Soliah, Veneriel, Mercuriel, Lunael, or Lunaiah.

It is evident that Agrippa can provide the reference needed by Nostradamus and given the contemporary relevance of Agrippa to Nostradamus and his period of writing it forms a credible base for us to explore. This will be my purpose in the remainder of this set of articles on Agrippa. We will be looking at how names and sound-values can be used to create dates in Nostradamus' poetry.

A Quatrain that indicates the nature of this link is C.I Q.42 which talks of Calendars and Demons and in its hidden anagrams ties together Agrippa and Nostradamus' poetry.

C.I Q.42

The anagrams of the second line holds 'Centuries-process managers' scrutinises names while the second has  'In affect'  'feel use fantastic oblique idea'. While the whole last line holds Agrippa's first name within 'Henric sole chant meant  duads (pairs/couplets) spelt or something similar. (First line may suggest pre-Gregorian chant i.e.  Roman chant or plainchant)

It is clear that there are unusual connections here and we will return to see more within this quatrain as I present other verses of relevance. 

I have no doubt that both music and poetry can be encoded to carry a hidden message. All that is needed is that a system of importance be in place for certain values and for both the sender and receiver to be aware of the system. Given this an expert receiver can be capable of receiving and interpreting that which seems impossible to the ordinary person. We know of such skills, Gymnasts, musicians, conjurers, mind-readers and magicians employ them in their craft, creating abilities that bewilder the lay person. There is no magic involved, only knowledge and intensive practice.

However the first task is to show that such a classification is possible enabling Agrippa's writings on planets to be applied to Nostradamus' Prophecies.

There are three dimensions that Agrippa uses to set the planets and these are musical quality (harmony vs voice), letter quality (smoothness vs roughness or hardness of sound), simplicity of sound (letter grouping).

Musical quality: In music harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches (tones, notes) or chords. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic line which provides the "horizontal" aspect. In poetry we are looking at rhyme and equivalence of sounds versus the order of sounds (voice). The following are examples  from the lists I produce using a computer analysis of  all lines in the Prophecies.

Letter quality: The manner in which the prominent consonant sounds are produced determines the smoothness or harshness of the line.

Simplicity quality: The simplest groupings involve a set of regularly alternating single vowels and consonants. Complexity occurs where there is a regular extension or removal of either a consonant or vowel sound.

The above provides the means to use Agrippa's classification of the planets.

In earlier work I have shown that the mysterious verse, Centuries 6, Quatrain 100 holds secrets of the code and that its emphasis is on using music. Its header calls the verse an incantation while its second line contains the hidden message Neat proof trace a num(ber)-valu(e) guest in music. I have also shown previously that Nostradamus states in the documents that preface his prophecies that he set a code into the verses based on the planets. When I realised that Agrippa’s work was Nostradamus source for his coding methodology the certainties stated above alerted me to the import of Agrippa’s section on the planets. Agrippa makes music the major distinguishing feature in sorting the planets into two groups when he says of the seven Planets, Saturn, Mars, and the Moon have more of the voice then of the Harmony… but Jupiter, Sol, Venus and Mercury, do possess Harmonies.

The measurement of Harmony versus Voice.

Using the ideas above I set out to build a program that would distinguish between the voice and the harmony in each verse. It has a very simple basis that is the same as that mentioned in Snorri Sturluson’s Hattatal where the rule of verse is founded on both number and distinction. My method counts the number of letters in a line and also counts the number of unique letters in the line. I use a multiple of the ratio of these two counts as a measure of harmony and voice. The high numbers are harmonious and low numbers are of the voice.

I also analyse the line for repetitions of the consonants in three letter groups in the line to generate another count that is scaled to the same range as the letter ratio (Note consecutive vowels are counted as one letter in my three letter groupings).It is equivalent to the measure of consonance to dissonance to determine the harmonic content of music. There are other possible measures in poetry and we can use the grouping of letters into sound blocks to define these terms. Sounds which are elongated or generated from non-singular combinations of  letters can be considered vertical sounds and equivalent to harmony while those that are plain, simple and formed from singular letters can be considered horizontal or  expressions of the voice.

Distinction between Harmony and Voice. 

Harmony :  C.10 Q.80 L.1 Au regne grand du grand regne regnant
Voice       :  C.10 Q.91 L.4 Qui onc ne feut si maling

The above method allows a value to be given that is free of personal judgement and it is easily determined by a short computer program. Of course such a value system will have its faults but it does allow those lines that are heaviest and lowest in musical content to be quickly identified. It might be argued that the case for harmony given above relies on the repetition of words to generate its outcome but this type of repetition merely exaggerates the harmony score. Lines such as C.1 Q.1. L.2 Seul repose sur la selle d'aerain have no such word repetition but still rate highly on my musical scale. Even lines where there is no three letter group repetition can register as musical because of the letter ratio alone. Such a line is C.1 Q.20 L.4 Fleuues dards Renes terre et mer tremblement.

It might seem that shortness of any line favours it being classed as voiced as in the case given above but although lines of voice tend to be shorter it isn't always so. C.X Q.90 L.3 D'vn gris et noir de la Compagne yssu and C.VII Q7 L.4 Vnique choir d'hault en bas faisant maye, like a great many others, show this variance in length.

I can classify every line in this way and use it in naming the planets according to Agrippa. The test of the usefulness of this method for detecting planetary code in Nostradamus’ Prophecies is whether the final groupings contain separations by meaning for the lines. This provides a valid test as there is nothing in my methods which involves the meaning of words or lines and I believe the work I have performed in this manner tends to show the expected patterning does exist (see later).

 My analysis then involves dividing the lines into three groups of about equal size based on their harmonic value. The high and low value groups form the basis for harmony and voice respectively. In the Harmony group the lines will be assigned to one of four planets ,Jupiter, Sol, Venus or Mercury. While in the second group the assignments will be to one of three planets; Saturn, Mars or the Moon. There is a middle group where the harmony/voice classification is not strong so these are drawn from all seven planets without reference to their musicality. The sorting between the planets is then based in every case on other attributes nominated by Agrippa. The detail of this will be given as I proceed with my presentation.

Nostradamus’ words provide another guideline that directs the settings I use. I adjust the cut-off points for each planet so that about a quarter of the lines favour Saturn, Jupiter and Mars and the remaining quarter is divided amongst the other four and I do this so that the following weighting to the major planets occurs:

All these figures represent the just integration of Holy Scriptures with visible celestial bodies, namely, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and others conjoined, as can be seen at more length in some of the quatrains. Nostradamus in his Epistle to King Henry, 1558.

The musical lettering of the Prophecies

Jupiter- God of Thunder

In ancient Roman religion, Jupiter was the chief of the gods. The name "Jupiter" means "the best and greatest" (Optimus Maximus). He was identified with the Greek god Zeus. Jupiter was the spirit of the sky and worshiped as the god of thunder and lightning. During wartime he was sought to protect in battle and was the 'giver of victory.' During peacetime he was the god of justice and morality. He was believed to be present during the giving of oaths and transactions.

Agrippa states that Jupiter hath grave, constant, fixed, sweet, merry, and pleasant Consorts Agrippa Bk II Part III Chp XXVI. It then seems appropriate that the sounds of Jupiter should be the sounds of thunder, rumbling from a distance and it is this theme that dictates the way I defined my measures for Jupiter.

My program contains two elements that generate my scale of thunder and they measure the growl (fr. grogner) and the rumble (fr. grondement). The growl is found by counting the occurrences in a line of consonant pairs one of which is the letter r and the other a hard consonant (gr br dr tr cr rg rd rt rc). The rumble relies on a count of the letter pairs "mb nn mm mn ng gn nd on om em am nt". Using this measure I can produce a scale that helps in the decision as to whether any line refers to Jupiter. I can’t claim my choice is final and I may well find a need to adjust these letter sets at a later stage. However they do uncover strong evidence of patterning in the words of the lines which is not a result of any bias produced by the above method. Lines which produce the higher scores on my thunder scale and have a high score on the harmony scale include:

• C.1 Q.20 L.4 Fleuues dards Renes terre et mer tremble.             Rivers, darts at Renes, shaking of land & sea.
• C.1. Q.31 L.3 Victoire incerte trois grands couronneront.          An uncertain victory will crown three great ones.
• C.5. Q.63 L.3 Non loing du Tymbre de sang la terre taincte       Not far from the Tymbre the land stained with blood.
• C.8 Q.2 L.4 Fouldre grand gresle mur tombe dans Garone         Lightning, great hail, a wall falls into the Garone
• C.10 Q.87 L.1 Grand roy viendra prendre port pres de Nisse.     A Great King will come to take port near Nisse.

The above lines illustrate the major themes found in the thunder and harmony classification; kingship with reference to a misspelt geographic place , water, blood, objects from the sky. These are the basis of the, metaphors, allegories and kennings   for Jupiter. This class includes the lines in which three royal brothers are found as well as the ideas of prophecy and the stories of scandal, conspiracy and treachery. Although there are frequent hints of war it is not the story of the warriors but of those at  its origin or cessation.

Mars is the Roman god of war and is linked to the Greek god Ares. In early incarnations as Ares , Mars was a fertility god and a protector of cattle but over time his role as an earth god expanded to include death and the underworld, and finally battle and war.  The Romans then bestowed greater honour on their warrior God favouring his strengths over  the more erratic attributes of Ares. The Romans high reverence for Mars is thought to be based on the god’s protective inspiration which they saw as leading them to victories in Africa , Europe and the Middle East .

Agrippa’s description of the symbols for Mars once again sets the frame on which my analysis of Nostradamus’ prophecies is based.  Cornelius says Mars [has] rough, sharp, threatening, great and wrathful words and this statement leads directly to the three elements I use. 

The first element of roughness is measured by the count of the letters "r g k q” in any line while the second element, sharpness, is found by counting the letters “t p c b”. Although these same letters are often involved in defining Jupiter their use for Mars is markedly different in that they those included are singular in nature. The third element I use in determining whether the line refers to Mars relies on a property that is the antithesis of  that used for Jupiter; it uses the relative absence of the letters “m n” to enhance the measure of roughness (non-smoothness).  The difference between the two planets is also emphasised by Mars being more of the voice than of harmony meaning  there are fewer repetitions and a less orderly use of letters. All these aspects result in  the sound being shorter, rougher and sharper than that used for Jupiter  and thereby simulates a staccato rattle (fr. battement) of spears and shields, the brutal noise (fr., bruit) of battle that drives warriors into combat. Below are given two of the the highest ranking examples of lines that are consistent with the sound of Mars.

• C.7 Q.33 L.2 Competiteur aura proche bastard…For his competitor he will have a near bastard.
• C.6. Q.60 L.2 Sera trahy deceu par interprete….. Will be betrayed, deceived by the interpreter

Using the above scheme for Mars a patterning  can once again be seen and these patterns are consistent with the image of this god as given in the first paragraph of this section.  The tales in the lines discovered by the above means are of  war leaders, battles and the conduct of war together with the participants and events of these wars. 

Saturn hath sad, hoarse, heavy, and slow words, and sounds, as it were pressed to the Center.. Cornelius Agrippa

In mythology Saturn’s mother was Terra /Gaia (Mother Earth) and his father was Caelus, the sky . He was the infanticidal father of Jupiter, who having escaped, his father’s evil plans for him, returned to depose Saturn and become the Chief of the Gods. The Romans saw Saturn (Lat: Saturnus) as a god of agriculture and harvest, whose reign was depicted as a golden age of abundance and peace by many Roman authors. In medieval times Saturn was known as the Roman god of dance, agriculture, justice and strength.  These attributes still remain with the emblem of Saturn often shown in the Roman style, holding a sickle or scythe in his left hand and a bundle of wheat in his right. He is also identified with the Greek deity, Cronus, the keeper of time and the mythologies of the two gods are commonly mixed. 

I achieve the Saturn settings for my analysis of  Nostradamus’lines  by finding three measures;  the length of sounds in words, the way in which the lettering is either centre or end biased and by counting the letters used to signify sad sounds.

1. I produce a measure of sound length by counting and summing the non-unitary sequences of vowels and consonants and then dividing this sum by the number of letters in the line.
2. My measure of centred-ness takes each word and measures how close the vowels and consonants are to the ends of the word. The ratio of the sum of the consonants distance to the end of words divided by the sum of the vowels distance creates the basis for the measure that I use.
3. The sounds of sadness are found by counting the occurrence of letter couples from the following string  "SS sS ff ss ch sh th dd dr tr rt rd rn nr ou oo au uu eu ue em on an un om um em en” and once again dividing by the number of letters in the line.

Multiplying each of these by a scaling factor and adding them together I  find a measure from one to thirty for Saturn that approximates Cornelius’ depiction of sad, hoarse, heavy, and slow words, and sounds, as it were pressed to the Center. They are the sounds of destiny; hoarse sounds of  the slowly turning wheel of life. It is the sad sound of death (fr. mort), murder (fr. meurtre) and grief (fr. douleur) waiting to swallow the vigour of youth The following examples typify the structure of lines I believe are dedicated to Saturn.

• C.1 Q.36 L.3  Mais viendra bien a plus hault conSentir...... But he will soon come to agree to far greater things.
• C.6. Q.74 L1  La deSchaSSee au regne tournera………….. She chased out will return to the realm,
• C.10 Q.4 L.2 Se Sauluera Subit eSuanouy………………..... Will save himself, suddenly vanished.

A mathematical formula is never enough to totally define ideas expressed in words but language tends to follow rules of association between the sound of letters and the underlying concept which  allows mathematical formulas to help. This is how I see the results I achieve, a help but not the final answer and it is patterning of word-meaning that shows whether it is of use, especially where meaning and a known purpose (such as that provided by Agrippa) can be compared.  

Mercury- the sounds of travel.

 … while Mercury hath Harmonies more remiss, and various, merry and pleasant, with a certain boldness

Mercury was a messenger of Jupiter, carrying orders from the Master of Gods to earth. He was also looked on as the God of Travellers, guiding them on their journeys. Since most voyages of the time were undertaken for commercial purposes, he became the God of Commerce and the God of lawful and unlawful gain. Mercury, in astrology is associated with communication in all form: letters, messages, mind, intellect and imagination.

My analysis of Mercury is based around two elements, brevity of sound and the repetition of the letter R. It is by this simple means that I can achieve a measure that fulfils Agrippa’s criteria. Additionally they are the sound qualities defined by Mercury, Hermes and courier. But Agrippa makes a special comment that the harmonies are more remiss and this suggests it is not the highest ranking harmony lines that hold the key to Mercury and with this in mind  the planet Mercury is not given a ranking based on harmony or voice but is chosen from amongst the lines that remain. And because of this reference and the one stating Mercury  can be various I assigned all lines which fall outside the filters used for all the other planets thereby ensuring every line is assigned at least one planet.

Below I present the following  lines, chosen on a basis of their rank for Mercury. The lines for Mercury make frequent mention of land, sea and sky  implying that journeys are undertaken but they also talk of movement. Supporting this there are terms such as retrogression, follow, pass, way, course, spread etc. and non-movement (such as seated and stop).  Additional mentions of news, law and deliveries also fit to the the known symbols of Mercury. This filter for Mercury relies only on a single letter (r) and the shortness of sounds and yet the planet Mercury emerges.  It is apparent that once again the filters nominated by Agrippa have the result of identifying lines with a consistent planetary pattern. The implication is surely that Nostradamus did use Agrippa’s ideas to help classify his verse.

• C.VI Q.44 L.4  Par Perigort au toc de la campano....Through Périgord at the peal of the bell.
• C.I Q.11 L.4    De Parpignam courira duc a tende'.....From Perpignan the duke will hasten to Tende.
• C.VI Q.60 L.2  Sera trahy deceu par interprete..........Will be betrayed, deceived by the interpreter:

Sol venerable, settled, pure and sweet, with a certain grace……….. Agrippa Bk II Part III Chp XXVI.

• C.X Q.18 L.2    Le hault mys bas et le bas mys en hault......... The high put low, and the low put high:
• C.VII Q.34 L.3      Pain Sel ne vin eaue venin ne ceruoiSe...........No bread, salt, wine nor water, venom nor ale,
• C.IX Q.49 L.3      Le sel et vin luy Seront a l'enuers....................Salt and wine will overthrow him,
• C.V Q.81 L.1      L'oiseau royal Sur la cite Solaire ....................The royal bird over the city of the Sun,
• C.V Q.24 L.3      La loy et regne par le Soleil leue......................The law and realm raised by the Sun,

 C.I Q.48.

The anagrams found in the second line say NOSTRADAMIEN.PLANETTARIUMS: Animals retained as true harmonic time-ciphers. Alternate anagrams also suggest this is the true talisman. In the fourth line there is further astronomic detail of relevance in interpreting values. Its anagrams state  I complicate time roles Prophet name. There are other complex anagrams as well that suggest  meantime (in) PTOLEMI compactile Solar map a ECTOPLASMIC (spirit) TITLE . Most of these anagrams found in this verse are extremely rare and quite complex with animals the most abundant at six occurrences. And these ideas unite the work of Agrippa with those of the astronomer Ptolemy since both these men used similar ideas of musical harmonies and other associations to explain the movement patterns of the planets against the stars. In his work on planetary movements Agrippa suggests that in the past the ancients substituted names as code for both planets and significant asterisms with such a set of names being that of animals and another  that of demons (See Book III Part 3 Chapter xxviii). And the table for the Orphical scale of twelve holds the names of twelve consecrated beasts (row 5) that can be used to substitute for the signs of the zodiac (row 2). It is not unreasonable to expect that the other rows also play the same semiotic substitutional role for each of the zodiac signs.

Method concealed in Personalised Verses.

There are other obviously personal verses where Nostradamus uses substitution techniques to reveal the nature of his methods. This  no more so than in C.V Q.53.

 C.V Q.53

Once again there are anagrams that are unexpectedly there that reflect and shadow the visible meaning of the verse. The second  line is rich in linear anagram sequences and it contains 'planets prior prophet paper tried' 'inappropriate perils tired Prophet' 'Latin priest appropriate the'  'Psalterion' . (The psalterion is an ancient musical instrument.) And the last line suggests 'epistolaries(documents) named' Psalterion 'Persia's loyal guard'  Polestar personalities.  

The words of the verse make sense when read in the context I have shown throughout my papers. In this setting they say Using the rules (law) of Agrippa (the Sun) and Nostradamus  (Venus) when  trying to work out the Prophecies will give decoders great strife. Neither of us will be understood but the Prophets secret is held by the ciphers of Agrippa. 

But he has added more and in the depths of the verse he once again gives detail of  his semiotic use of music and gives the musical connections to the planets. His wording lets us know that the reference point is a psalm and that it is to be used in its Latin ceremonial form . We also see that this psalm is for the star region of the two bears, the stars that the Persians called the Loyal Guards of Polaris. Further details of this process are given in many other verses as shown in these papers of mine.

This process of substitution is ancient and in it we can see a linking to that used by the Norse poets in their kennings whereby the properties of  an object or person can be used to replace that object or person's name. 

Nostradamus' Expanded reference list.

C.III Quatrain 2

Le diuin verbe donrra a la SubStance Caprins ciel terre or occult au laict myStique Corps ame eSprit ayant toute puiSSance Tant Soubz Ses pieds comme au Siege Celiqu

The divine word will give to the substance, Including heaven, earth, gold hidden in the mystic deed Body, soul, spirit having all power, As much under its feet as the Heavenly see.

This verse is the only one that contains an anagram of Occulta the word used for part of the name of Agrippa's work. Immediately alongside it in the second line there is one of only four anagrams  for 'error' . These rare anagrams continue and in so doing  suggest 'quite mystical' 'Occulta pair-science error ' 'occur'  (mystical occur and pair-science also occur only here).  And this verse's symbols have strong ties to a specific place in Agrippa's work; the scale of four in Bk II Part I Chpt vii. 

Nostradamus like most writers and cryptographers uses several methods to convey his stories. One of the important ones is the nature of his verse and its connections to music through the understanding of sounds. This is the central message that he wished to convey in C.VI Q.100 which holds vital details as to how verses are meant to be heard and takes into account the limited utility of verse or song in chant form when using the unstressed French language. Instead Nostradamus emphasises that the rhythms of quatrains are to be read as though they were in Latin that is meant to be sung in the simple manner of plainchant.

Throughout all his writings he consistently offers clues that specify how his  complex code works. C.I Q.7 for example points the astute reader to the Orphical scale of twelve in Cornelius Agrippa's Books on Occult Philosophy. And Nostradamus' strong allusions to the use of music points to Agrippa's classing of the planets by the nature of their sounds. I have shown much of this technique in my section on Agrippa and concluded that such a coding is is able to be found in the sound patterns in each of Nostradamus' lines.

Nostradamus also uses Agrippa's work as a reference point for his own method of showing the stars against which the planets move. These stars are enciphered via the names of angels and demons in the manner of the Jewish Schemhamphoras as suggested by Agrippa. There are seventy-two three letter names in this ancient device taken from a section in Exodus. Nostradamus relies on something similar for his ciphers with which he covers all stars in the sky. There are seventy-two sound combinations allowing a coverage of all 5-degree separation star locations. These sound combinations are found in one of two ways which employ the end-rhyme and the internal rhyme. The first line (Estant assis de nuict secret estude) of the first verse has the code std while the second line (Seul repose sur la selle d'aerain) has sln.  If each set represents five degrees there are are seventy-two different sets required for any year. Eleven separate letters will generate the complete pattern for a Metonic cycle, that is the cycle covering the nineteen solar years years over which the moon is in a different place on the same date of each year. A code based on eleven or twelve  letters is very practical since there is no reliance needed on infrequent letters that would reveal the presence of code. These letters would be (c/ch/q) d (f/ph) g l m n p r s t (u/v) and although these do not equate to the twelve simple Hebrew letters with which Nostradamus was familiar the concept certainly does. However I have reason to believe Nostradamus's scheme involved fourteen letters. The reason for this I believe is based on his preference for the lunar cycle over the solar cycle and the ease with which the number fourteen can be employed for the lunar based months and weeks and the precession of the poles. These letters do not correspond with the days but with the appearance of the stars separated by 5 degrees upon the horizon at sunset.

Nostradamus provides evidence in his verse that this is his method. The text of the first two lines of Verse C.III Q.79 say The fatal everlasting order through the chain will come to turn through consistent order:  And the hidden words beneath confirm its application as I have suggested. At one level the first line says  After  older chains enter simple parcel.  There is another linear sequence in the same line made up of much more complex words but they too imply the reliance on old but familiar techniques.

C.III Q.79

L'ordre fatal Sempiternel par chaiSne
elord refat alSempitern elparSchai
older after planimeters Seraphical.
After older Seraphical planimeters.

The planimeter is a device for measuring an area of space which is what both these letters and those of the Schemhamphoras were meant to do. The Seraph was the first of the order of angels and the  three letter sets were meant to generate their names. These angelic names are considered as equating the specific asterisms used by ancient people for navigation and determining their calendars and these appear to also be Nostradamus' aspirations .

There are other anagrams in other lines that support these ideas such as 'encoders invented qu' 'rune ordinate' in the second line but there is enough already to show this verse is about the sequence of simple letters providing a guide to the position of the stars.

This is not the only verse on this topic. Many contain a reference to letters in their text while several have it hidden in their anagrams. There is a consistent theme in these verses as they define details of the reasons,  sources and methods of using the letters. I don't intend to set out each in detail but I give a list below with pertinent material from both the text and the hidden anagrams.

For nineteen years the position of the moon in relation to stars at the horizon as the sun sets is different from any other and then the pattern begins again in the same order. These settings can be given by a set of 20 letters to account for the 6940 days of this Metonic Cycle but Nostradamus chose a slightly different method as such a scheme would easily be detected by the overuse of less frequent letters. His method, based on Agrippa's clues, uses the stars called the duodecans which are the ones that appear on every 5th day. Nostradamus lettering advances by two from one asterism to the next (i.e the letter in the third row goes from a to c, b to d etc). This is a system that was used by the Nordic people in their runic -calendar. The Metonic calendar is not totally precise and it requires an extra day to be inserted every 219 years to make up for the difference.

WHAT YOU HEAR IS WHAT YOU SET

If you look at any verse you will notice  a pattern of poetic sounds and this forms the backdrop of the sky against which the planets for each line are found. The planets themselves come from the sounds ascribed by Agrippa to the harmonies and voice for each of them. The use of poetic form as astronomic code is part of an ancient tradition and the indicators continue to be that Nostradamus not only used such a code but detailed its use in the body of his prophecies. In earlier papers I showed Nostradamus' interest in the perfect cycle and showed that cycle to be one of 854 years (see here). This was based on the mathematical oddity of the Sun, Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all having near-complete cycles (i.e. same position in respect to the stars) for any two dates separated by 854 years. In this time the sun has completed 854 cycles, Saturn 29, Jupiter 72, Mars 400 and the Moon-Sun-Metonic 19-year cycle has run its course 45 times. In all of this Jupiter is the near-perfect planet as it completes 99.994% of the 854 sun-cycles and after 25,500 years of the earths precession it will differ by only 0.7 degrees from its starting place. This isn't a product of astrology or numerology but a quirk of the orbital period. But 72, the number of cycles for Jupiter in the perfect cycle, is a number that is much favoured by the ancients and forms a strong part of their coding systems (see the Shemhamphorasch). I believe the lettering of Nostradamus' lines uses this ancient fascination to code the background stars for each of his verses. The Jupiter code number, that which signifies where Jupiter is in the heavens at the start of  each of the seventy-two cycles in an 854 year period is tied to 72 letter combinations. The verses provide additional support for this idea. I have already shown that the anagram of Tetragrammaton exists in  a  setting where it makes sense and that word relates to the same coding practice to which I have alluded above. The power of the Tetragrammaton reference doesn't stand alone but is one of many highly complex, totally unexpected words which support an intelligent rather than random stream and this stream continues. There are many more clues set in the verses and one of great import is found in the verse below where the fourth line holds an anagram for mnemonics, the art of memory through devices such as poetry. The fourth line alludes to where the oracle had its beginning and the sequences of anagrams in this line suggest how this source is to be used. 'Oral Mnemonics cement'  'mementoes Persian replica commence'. Both mnemonics and mementoes only occur in this one line so once again there appearance in a place of relevance is not easily dismissed as chance alone.

Although this reference seems extremely odd it again fits into ancient history and the verse where it is found has a relevant theme. The ancient Persians were Zoroastrian style sun worshippers and in their lands the lunar calendar wasn't used (as implied by Nostradamus' first line). And yet reading the verse we can have no doubt it is an astronomic reference to lunar calendars applied to the art of prophecy.

C.III Q.4 

We can analyse every verse and find its mnemonic picture. The first and second lines of the verse above hold the sounds of Jupiter and the slow rumble of distant thunder. The third line tells of the presence of Mars through threat delivered in staccato style while the fourth has the sounds of Saturn, a hint of harmony based on heavy, slow words with sounds pressed to the centre. And these planets are placed against the lettering of their respective lines. The first line for instance yields the code of oni, the second ldn, the third fri and the fourth mmn. Others may dispute which letters predominate and what they imply but the principle is well illustrated by my selection, there is a repetition from which the trained ear could choose a single pattern and know the place in the sky.

The verses that contribute to this theme hold their own unique details as indicated by the following three. Each tells in its wording that it holds astronomic code and each holds rare anagrammatic ciphers that both confirm and indicate details of their use.

The following verse is relevant to the number of letters in the astronomic code.

C.IV Q.50

There are seven anagrams of calendar/s in Nostradamus Prophecies and of these the following verse stands out as having most importance to Nostradamus. The first and second lines of the verse refer to one who will keep count of the one who was the ornament of his time. this is distinctly an act of dating events or placing them on a calendar. The third line contains one of the anagrams for Calendar and it forms a highly meaningful sequence that belies it being by chance which reads 'Calendar noted Pseudovariant group' 'and located supraordinate.' Additionally the anagrams of the second line imply 'It quotes Meton's completeness-  oriental denotements ornamented (their) quest .' To this topic Meton's nineteen year lunar-solar cycle is obviously relevant butMeton isn't a rare occurrence and may well be just chance. However the first and last lines are not without their own contribution to the significance of the rarer anagrams for the first states 'Computes intoned plans' and the last line holds Consequent cell renders ancestor.  Computes, completeness, denotements, pseudo-variant, supra-ordinate and couplements occur only here while most of the others have less than six occurrences throughout the Prophecies.

C.III Q.94

The last of these three verses leaves little doubt as to the nature of Nostradamus' quest, it is for coding the locations of the planets and their background stars and thus provide Nostradamus' promised date. And the invocation of the verse suggests that his use of fear laden occult wording covers the verses that are the foundation of his work.

C.I Q.21