The Apocryphon (The Book of the Secret of Ormuzed of Ultron)|Nostradamus|Forum|Forum: Apocalypse & Armageddon

At first I did not think this was the correct way to do this. Better, I thought, to place my Nostradamus short story on another "writing" site and then just put in a link here. But right now that would require me purchasing an "upgrade" I otherwise don't need. Unfortunately I can't do it all at once, so I'll do it in byte-sized installments.

The Jewish Apocalyptic writing format is designed to be an allegory about the current Political situation, usually by an oppressive king and priesthood or else an Occupying Nation, like the Babylonians, Greeks or in Jesus' times the Romans, set in the Heavenly Realms with language disguised so that those (in their own time) initiated into its "guarded" language would comprehend the "allegorical message ("Let he who has ears to hear understand what is being spoken to by the Spirit")" being passed along among their own membership, but read like mystical-religious-mumbo jumbo to the Occupying Forces or Authorities. Apocalyptic writing is the message correspondence of the Local Underground movement expressing how if they remain True to their Cause eventually they will Win in The End (Times). Sooner or later all Tyrants die off or Occupying Forces move on to other Political interests, or are chased off by a New Ambitious Empire that local deals may be made with. Apocalyptic writing is how the local underground movement passes along messages of Hope and keeps them from getting arrested by the authorities as nonconformists and undesirables.

Sort of like many nonconformists have kept a very low profile during the Establishment's "War On Drugs" which in reality is there to keep a popular Black-Market-Prohibition in place in order to entrap and punish nonconformists. If the Establishment can charge the nonconformist with a Felony, the nonconformist can no longer Vote against the Establishment's Political or Economic, or Ecological, Policies.

And within my Nostradamus short-story, The Apocryphon, is an "apocalypse," of the current conservative academic and religious paradigms which have been an Occupying Tyrant over the minds of Mankind, as a whole, from moving forward into the promise of the 21st Century in keeping with their 19th Century ideals of economics, monopolies and Empire conquests.
...

...

Once outside Nostredame says to his apprentice, "He is so taken by celebrity or royalty if ol' Alain only knew who you really are he would surely shit his trousers."

Laughing, the boy added, "He would probably have diarrhea if he knew who the Cardinal of Lorraine was." They both chuckled as they headed for the church.

After making some small talk with brother Henri and the sojourner friars, they are led to the visiting cleric's quarters. There they exchange mock cordialities.

Gesturing with a wave of his hand to the denizens, the Cardinal says purposefully, "We must take a walk in this crisp autumn air monsieur Nostredame. There is a message from his Holiness the Pope I am to confer upon you concerning your Almanac."

Nostredame asks, "May the boy come along? It would be a good impression for him to be in the company of such an August presense as your Worshipfulness."

Seeing that the locals have taken the bait, the Cardinal replies, "This boy is your student of medicine, is he not?"

Nostredame sighed, "That is correct."

In mock agreement the cleric turns to Louis and tells him, "The Pontiff's message may then be witnessed by its intended, and his apprentice." With this he waves the local brothers adieu and the trio walk out upon the grounds.

Just before they are out of their voices' carrying distance to any eavesdropment, the Cardinal begins the requisite litany with Nostredame. "You did not think we were to meet before tomorrow. You must tell me of your Mother, and of Caleb."

Now, just out of earshot, but still for young Louis' benefit, Nostredame continues the litany of the secret with the cleric. "He has gone West for the week; why ask you of Caleb?"

The Cardinal's response, "I ask you as a stranger–going to the South."

At that moment three crows fly overhead cawing. Hesitating a moment to watch, Nostredame then breaks the litany and asks Louis, "Have you memorized your lessons?"

Knowing that it is his chance to show off, the boy answers, "I'm pretty sure I have." Then he picks up the next sequential line of the litany of the secret by rote. "From where have you come," he said to the cleric in the proper anastrophe.

Smiling, the Cardinal replies, "From the North." To this he adds, "I am hoping you will give him a message on the square–for the sake of the son of the widow, my mother as well as her children, as well as your own."

Louis' challenge, "Whence came the message?"

The Cardinal's response, "From the spring of the underground stream in Arcadia's blessed Elysian plains," and then casually continued with, "We are the other people, and you are the other people too."

Louis replied with, "I know you and you know me,..." The boy's mind went blank.

Nostredame prompted him by whispering in his ear, "One thing..."

Then Louis remembered, "One thing I can tell you is you have got to be free." He sighed.

Finally the Cardinal ended the litany with, "Yes, he told us that the crux of the Scriptures is the apostrophe." Then giving the boy an affirmative head shake, he said, "Well dear boy, I see you've learned your lessons in the art of memory fairly well."

Nostredame said, "I've taught Louis as my grandfather, Rene's and Peyrot's benefactor, taught them, and as Peyrot taught me."

"Ah yes," said the cleric, "Jean de Saint-Remy was well admired by even Verrocchio."

"Yes Charles," the boy then said to the Cardinal, "Michel has been a very good tutor." Then he asked the cleric, "How is my uncle Ferrante?"

Charles de Guise, Cardinal of Lorraine, and brother of the Duke of Guise, tells the young heir to the dukedom of Nevers, "Ferdinand is well, but the Count of Guastalla is off to Brussels with that Duchess of Gisors," and he shakes his head. Then he put his hand on the boy's head and blessed him, and said, "I'm glad to see your education is in such capable hands."

Then turning to Nostredame, Charles' good nature evaporated into shrewdness. "The Church's past history is, I am sure, well known to all of us who have had the good fortune to be educated in this world. The Pope is again threatening to have his inquisitors enforce the Edict of Chateaubriant.." His brows furrowed, and he said, grimly: "The printing, sale or possession of any deemed heretical literature will once again be punishable–even by death! Informers are to receive a portion of the convicted's properties. The Church, of course, gets the rest.

You know Michel," smiled the Cardinal, "I could turn you in and receive a third of all you own." Then he chuckled, "But it is a third of your library that I'd want–and then I, myself, would be charged with possession," he said thrusting out his lower lip.

He turned and forced a wary look at Louis. "Possession of knowledge, my dear boy, is again to be a felony!"

Nostredame interrupted, reminding a genuinely astonished Louis, "Recall the words of Immanuel, ‘Whensoever one approaches the gods named Ritual and Tradition, be careful to dance to the steps of their subjects; for they are a hanging mob looking for a victim. Once one is beyond the territory of their subjects, these illusionary deities have no power.' "

Then raising an eyebrow, Charles gives Nostredame this warning, "Listen Michel, your books may get you blacklisted. I know you have made some very good connections, but do be careful with what you write–this Pope is a heretic-baiter."

Nostredame was unimpressed... "I will keep that in mind." Then he asked quietly, "Can you get away to my home?"

"No," Charles answered thoughtfully. He felt obliged to explain further, "The friars have reserved my time to hear tales of the grandeur of the Pontiff's talks with God," and he cast a sarcastic look up into the sky, as if to Heaven. "I'm afraid they might suspect something should I forsake my saintly duty of filling their ears with Rome's mythology and propaganda, in order to visit the home of the author of the Almanac. Send the boy here with the new book," he said patting Louis on the shoulder.

Charles then told Louis, "You must tell the Priest and brothers that monsieur Nostredame insisted you give me a personally autographed copy of The Quatrains, to be given as a gift to his August majesty, the Duke of Guise." Then he made the boy repeat the statement three times to insure he had it committed to memory.

"Besides," Charles told Nostredame, "early tomorrow I must be on my way to the Abbey of Orval."

Nostredame sighed and told Charles, "Maybe, with the information I've ciphered into this century of quatrains, Francois will see to it that we are finally rid of that Valois dynasty as the kings of France–and along with them that blind See of Rome."

"Yes," agreed Charles, "If we can only restore the throne to the rightful family..." he paused, and then said, "I have my eye on a young monk, Felice Peretti, to be made the Pontiff. He is one of the Order and is known to the Prophets of Cevennes, the camisards." He continued, "The fact remains, curiously, that men do not wish to recognize that the solution for existing problems will not be forthcoming except through new methods and new men."

Then Charles told his two companions, "Now I must return to the church. As we get within earshot, speak only of your family, and remind me to say a prayer for your mother. The brothers and friars will only remember that we said we would speak of her as we began our walk. Oh yes," he added as the thought occurred to him, "make sure you let them hear you tell me to thank the Pope for his praise of your latest Almanac," he said with a wink of his eye. With this the trio headed back to the church.

After some final small talk, Nostredame and Louis head back across the church grounds taking the scenic path, beyond the village, home.

...

...

Inside they are greeted by Nostredame's wife, Anne, and his other disciple, the former mayor of Beaune, Jean Aymes de Chavigny, whom has come to study both judicial astrology and astronomy. The four have dinner, and afterwards Nostredame informs Anne that "the boys" have their studies to attend to upstairs in his attic study.

Upon entering the study they each put on their felt fez cap, an emblem of a mystic. Nostredame points and tells his students into which pharmacopeial vessels (even though already appropriately labeled) to store his newly acquired medicinal supplies.

Nostredame takes his bag to a table at the center of the room where sits an alembic, lamp, and receiver–apparatus for distillation–among other alchemystic paraphernalia. He puts the amanita muscaria mushroom into an ancient looking urn labeled Cher-amen Agora. Another powder he places in a cruet marked Nightshade-mandrake.

After their simple chores are all finished, Nostredame clears a space on his desk. He takes a good sized pinch from a decanter labeled Nightshade-tobacco, loading it into the large pipe's small bowl, and then lights the Spanish tobacco in his Persian galyan hookah, and taking a puff of the dark, highly aromatic blend, tells Louis, "Fetch the Bible and open it to 4 Ezra 14 and read it to yourself until you get to 14:37 about the writing of the Holy Scriptures. Then read that part aloud to Jean Aymes and I.

It took the boy a couple of minutes to read the two pages of the fourteenth chapter of the Fourth book of Ezra down to where Nostredame had instructed him to then read aloud. This let Nostredame and de Chavigny take a couple of turns relaxing by inhaling the Spanish tobacco smoke from the galyan pipe.

When Louis finishes the first thirty-six verses of 4 Ezra 14 and lowers the book to let them know he has finished, Nostredame tells him, "Okay, now finish reading the rest of that chapter of that book from the Bible to Jean Aymes and I aloud."

Louis reads aloud from the Bible: "I took with me the five men as I had been told, and we went away to the field, and there we stayed. On the next day I heard a voice calling me, which said: 'Ezra, open your mouth and drink what I give you.' So I opened my mouth, and was handed a cup full of what seemed like water, except that its color was the color of fire. I took it and drank, and as soon as I had done so my mind began to pour forth a flood of understanding, and wisdom grew greater and greater within me, for I retained my memory unimpaired. I opened my mouth to speak, and I continued to speak unceasingly. The Most High gave understanding to the five men, who took turns writing down what was said, using characters which they had not known before. They remained at work through the forty days, writing all day, and taking food only at night. But as for me, I spoke all through the day; even at night I was not silent. In the forty days, ninety-four books were written. At the end of the forty days the Most High spoke to me, 'Make public the books you wrote first,' he said, 'to be read by good and bad alike. But the last seventy books are to be kept back, and given to none but the Wise among your people. They contain a stream of Understanding, a Fountain of Wisdom, a Flood of Knowledge.' And I did so."

Nostredame told him, "Get a ribbon and mark that page to later copy into your notebook." Then looking from Louis to de Chavigny told them both, "This is another example where the Author of the Fourth book of Ezra is letting us know that the Ancient Soma drink from India had spread even to Israel and Judah and was known to Jewish metaphysicians for its powers to open up the mind's expanded consciousness for mystical research and heavenly communion."

Then as Nostredame refills the pipe's bowl and relights it, he tells de Chavigny, "Jean Aymes, it is now your turn. Show Louis the lessons of the mnemonics in the Tarot cards."

Jean Aymes fetches a small wooden box from which he takes a hand drawn deck of Tarocco cards that had once belonged to Botticelli. He takes the top twenty-two cards and lays them on the desk in a figure-eight. He says to Louis, "Notice how the cards perfectly form the emblem for infinitude" he emphasized with the inflection of his voice, then continued with, "when laid out in the proper sequence, they form the mnemonics of the Gnostic cycle of learning, the Mystic Seeker's Path.

"Starting with the unnumbered card," Jean Aymes points at a card, "at different times of our lives we are like THE FOOL, whom recognizes there is something he is lacking, but is yet unsure of what he is searching for to give him the meaning of life. Sooner or later in his search he crosses the path of THE MAGICIAN, usually a charlatan," he says as he now points to the next card numbered one, and continues with, "and although not really a man of knowledge himself, is clever enough to inadvertently point The Fool in the right direction.

"But before one can come to real understanding," he goes on, "one must overcome the conservative pedantry of the ruling powers of the status quo, represented by THE HIGH PRIESTESS; THE EMPRESS; THE EMPEROR and THE HIGH PRIEST," he says as he taps his finger on each card in their Order. "Once one perceives the fallaciousness in most public leadership, one can leave one's older political and religious conceptions behind, as if he leaves his Mother, to cleave to another, the Gnosis he seeks, represented by THE LOVERS..

"THE CHARIOT," he tells Louis as he points to the next card in the figure-eight, "is the persona of the seeker that he rides and projects to the world, for he is among the world and the world does not know him."

Then looking to Nostredame and then back to Louis, he tells the boy, "By now the seeker has learned that JUSTICE, ‘Doing unto others as you would have them do unto you,' is a double-edged sword, as you will not always be treated Ethically by others but instead by their expedient Mores. Ethics and morals are not the same thing. For it is a moral act to burn a ‘witch' at the stake, but that it is not Ethical to execute someone just because their Beliefs are different," and here Jean Aymes points out the two-edged sword drawn in the blindfolded lady's hand.

Seeing Louis shake his head in recognition, he points to the next card and says, "Peter, THE HERMIT, is the last card before the crossroads, and shows the seeker turning away from the day-to-day concerns of the world to follow his Path, by land or by sea, by Illumination." Now he points to Peter carrying his veil lamp before him to illuminate his path in the card's illustration.

Jean Aymes smiles as he lifts the top crossing card from off of the bottom crossing card, and says, THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE symbolizes the mid-point on the Seeker's Path where he wonders if the meaning of life is not just a wild ride on the seeming merry-go-round of life's fortunes." He waited until the boy looked up from the crossing card and winked knowingly, and then he laid the top crossing card back upon it."

He poured a cup of water from a pitcher on Nostredame's desk, took a drink, and then began with the first card of the second half-cycle of the card's figure-eight. "By now, the seeker has learned the FORTITUDE to stay on the path of Gnosis. He has learned that it is not God that has punished him with the sufferings that one runs into of everyday life, but that lessons are common to all mankind, everywhere. Thus," he went on, "THE HANGED MAN stands for this reversal in a man of knowledge's description of reality. This brings about the DEATH of childish superstitions."

Jean Aymes points to the next card, and adds, "Now, self-disciplined TEMPERANCE will allow the seeker to control the appetites of the Beast within Man, symbolized by THE DEVIL.

"THE LIGHTNING STRUCK TOWER is the inner illumination that appears to come from above like a flash of light," he says, and then adds, "notice that the lightning bolt has destroyed a church's bell tower?"

"Yes," noted Louis, "we once had a church bell ringer fried by lightning. The Priest always insisted he ring the bell at the beginning of storms as an alarm warning for the congregation."

Hearing this Nostredame almost choked on his last puff of tobacco as he chuckled at the stupidity of sending someone to the highest point in a building to ring a large metal instrument during a thunderstorm.

After they all regained their composure, Jean Aymes continued with the lesson. "THE STAR is the symbol for the minute light that draws itself to the attention of a man surrounded by Darkness. The stars are focusing points of wonder that lead a man of knowledge to recognize that the Earth is located, as it is, itself in the Heavens. Thus," he goes on, "there are greater realities to perceive and comprehend than just our day-to-day existence.

"THE MOON," he said, "symbolizes the madness in an illusionary reflected illumination of a lesser great light. A religion that preaches turning the other cheek, and then burns dissidents at the stake is an example of conception through a lunar illume.

"THE SUN, however, is the true irradiation of a life giving force from somewhere else, outside of the Earth, across the universe–thus the change is made through the agency of the radiant–for the seeker!

"Now," cautions de Chavigny with the lesson, "a man of knowledge must speak with caution, for he will be Judged by others by the JUDGEMENT he makes.

"And lastly," he concludes, "once again the seeker has come to the crossroads." Here he points to the top crossing card in the center of the figure-eight, and says, "In his own reflection he is again facing The Fool. For now The Seeker realizes that he is not really his own projected persona, but is, in reality, a tiny sentient facet of the universe existing in the synchronicity of THE WORLD," he summed, and took a drink of water.

"Well done Jean Aymes," complemented Nostredame clapping his hands. Then he turns to young Louis, and says, "We will have to get you your own Tarocco deck. You must be careful, though, to avoid the superstitions surrounding the precognitive powers of the Tarot," he warns the boy.

"Now Gentlemen," Nostredame tells them, "I have an appointment with Midnight, the navigator through the court of the crimson king. You must now leave me to my studies and see that I am not disturbed. For tonight I must drink the smoke of the lamp."

As de Chavigny and the boy return their fezzes to the rack, Louis consoles Nostredame with, "Surely by your works you will become immortal!"

Nostredame smiles at this, but Jean Aymes, however, reminds him, " ‘For a glimpse of heaven, men have died!' Do be careful Michel. Remember, the Cher-amen Agora turned the Norsemen into Berserkers."

"Well, I hope I know what I'm doing," Nostredame replies lightly. Then changing the subject, he reminds Louis, "Don't forget you still have wood to chop and stack before bedtime." And with their adieus Nostredame is left in the study by himself.

...

...

He returns to the window and looking out sees that Louis has finished his chores. He looks up at the full moon above the tallest peak. Then seats himself, picks up his stylus and begins to write:

The moon is over the high
mountain in the middle of the night.
As if born-again, alone with my mind
have I seen it. Invited by my disciples
to become immortal; my eyes to the south,
my hands upon my breast, and my body in
the fire.

Again he turns and gazes at the flame dancing in the brass bowl and notices that the liquid is becoming cloudy. He writes:

Seated at night in esoteric study.
Alone, it is placed on the brass tripod.
A thin flame leaps out of the solitude
making prosperous that which should
not be believed in vain.

Once again he gets up and looks out the window, this time at the heavens' stars. He notices that the focus of his vision is oscillating between sharp and blurriness. After awhile he turns back towards the desk, and experiences the room expanding and contracting along its horizontal plane with the dilation and contraction of his heartbeat: although everything remains in sharp focus now. All of the shadows in the room have become animated to the flicker of the various lamps in the room. He feels his depth perception. His vision is razor sharp when his head and eyes are still, but movement of either causes multiple images of objects and trails of streaks along the path of his vision until his head and eyes are again still. He recites aloud a verse: "The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and perplexity by the Lord God of Host in the valley of vision; breaking down the Walls and crying to the Mountains."

He takes a deep breath, sighs, and seats himself again. He writes:

The celestial bodies endlessly
visible to the eye cloud the intellect
for their own reason. My body with my
forehead, senses and head feel invisible,
diminishing the sacred prayers.

Then pausing and reflecting, he remembers he'd wanted to write:

The wand in the hand is set in
the middle of the tripod's legs. With
a wave I moisten the hem and foot.

At that instant he is jolted by a voice that comes to him like the blast of a trumpet, commanding, "NOSTRADAMUS!"

To which he drops his stylus while looking up with the startled reply, "Here am I!"

Now standing before him Nostredame sees The Son Of Man. He appears clothed in a white gown that drops to bronze footwear which shines like the molten metal within the furnace. He wears a warriors golden breastplate set with twelve jewels representing the twelve astrological signs. His hair is as white as snow, and his eyes flicker like the flames in a fire. He stands in the midst of twenty-three candlesticks, and is holding twenty-three stars in his right hand.

Nostredame begins trembling in awe, and begins to pray aloud: "Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou Anoint my Mind with Oil; my cup runneth over!" Then, as if pulled, Nostredame fell at The Son Of Man's feet, as if dead.

The Son Of Man looks at Nostredame with a look that burns into his very essence. He lays his right hand upon him, saying with rhetoric as sharp as a double-edged sword, "Fear not! I am your shepherd and navigator. Bow thy head humbly Sicambrian; Revere what thou hast Burned, and Burn what thou hast Revered.

"Fear not! I am the First and the Last; I am Everything from A to Z! I am he that liveth, and was dead; I am The All! I Am that I Am! Behold, I am Alive, I am Eternity, Amen! I have the Keys of Hell and of Death. I am the Cause of the Past, the Present and the Future; for All Things Are Naked and Open!"

Then he told Nostredame, "What you seest, write in a book and seal it up unto the Generation of the Prophecy. Write the things which shall be Hereafter.

As Nostredame nervously gets on his feet to return to his desk and begin writing, he is suddenly dumbstruck by what he sees. He realizes that he is now a separate consciousness Astral Projection Soul staring back at his physical self still sitting at his desk, which has picked up the stylus and is busily writing on his papers:

A voice, awe; I tremble in
my robes. Splendour Divine. The
god stands nearby.

A holographic Nostredame turns around and stares at a knowing Son Of Man, who tells him, "Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."

Nostredame gasps, "Oh Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak to the people, for I am like a child who sees the World as a Dream and is not sure how to describe his visions."

Then The Son Of Man puts forth his right hand and touches Nostredame's mouth, and tells him, "Behold, I have put my Message in thy Mind. Verily I say unto you, whomsoever shall not perceive the Kingdom Of God with the vision of a little child, he shall not enter into it. Verily I say unto you, except you be Turned-around, and be Born-again with the Vision of a little child, ye shall not Enter into the Kingdom Of Heaven. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be Born-again in The Spirit, by the Anointing Oil, he cannot See the Kingdom Of God!

Nostredame tells him, "Then I come to you with my defenses down and with the Trust of the Child in my Eyes."

As the astral Nostredame looks back at his physical self at his desk, The Son Of Man tells him, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." Then Nostredame raises up his holographic hands and stares at the backsides which he sees through, and The Son Of Man tells him, "And that which is Born of The Spirit is Spirit.

"Marvel not, " The Son Of Man goes on, "that I said unto thee, you must be Born-again of the Anointing Oil. The Wind bloweth where it willeth and thou hearest the sound of it, but canst not tell from where it cometh, and where it goeth; so is everyone that is Born of the Spirit; and the Answers Bloweth in the Wind. The Spirit Of The Lord shall Rest upon you, the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding.

"Nostradamus, I shall make you Quick of Understanding in the Awe Of The Lord, and in the Spirit Of Knowledge. To you whom Overcometh I have given to Eat of the Hidden Manna, and will give you a White Stone, and in the Stone a New Name written, which no man knoweth except He that Receiveth It. For you It will be a Sanctuary; but it is a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense to the hypocrites of the World, and it is a trap and a snare to those inhabitants of the Earth. Many among you will stumble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be Taken.

For I Am He that Searcheth the Minds and Hearts; and I will give unto everyone according to Your Works! These things saith he that is Holy, he that is True, he that has the Key to the Doors of Perception, he that Openeth and no man shutteth, and Shutteth and no man openeth."

Again The Son Of Man gives Nostredame a look that sends a chill through his very essence, and said, "Behold, I have set before thee an Open Door, and no man can shut it; for thou hast a little strength, and has kept my word, and hast not denied my name, and hast Anointed thine Eyes with Vision Salve, that thou mayest See. Behold! I Stand at the Door and Knock! If any man Hears My Voice, and Opens the Door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with me. He that has an Ear, let him Hear what the Spirit Saith."

After this, in a vision, Nostredame sees a door open in the walls out to the heavens. He turns to see his corporal self still sitting at his desk, pausing to think for a moment, and then busily writing again. He turns and The Son Of Man is no longer there to be seen. He steps towards the door of his vision, and the walls of the room disappear, being replaced by geometric patterns in dazzling colors. The patterns are made of lines, and as he concentrates on a specific line, he notices that the lines are really constructed of words in strings of sentences. Soon he realizes he is reading before his very eyes, on the lines of the patterns, his own thoughts.

As his thoughts begin to take shape again, he finds himself flying over alien landscapes. He passes over rivers and mountains, until he comes to a certain castle. Here he finds footing on the Watchtower, and feels a sense of deep joy, greater than he has ever known before. He feels Eternity.

Again he hears the voice of The Son Of Man come to him with the brass sound like a trumpet, telling him, "This is the Mystery of the stars which you sawest in my right land, and the golden candlesticks. The stars are the messengers of the hypocritical churches of the Earth; and the candlesticks which you sawest are their temples of vanity, with their idolatrous congregations. This herd ask advice from a statue of plaster, and take their orders from a fetish! They have turned The Message of my book into an Idol to worship, and do not read it. For these people listen and listen, but they do not hear nor understand. They look and look again, but they will never see. These people's wits are dulled, their ears are deafened and their eyes blinded, so that they cannot see with their eyes, nor listen with their ears, nor understand with their hearts, so that they might turn-around and be healed."

Then Nostredame sees all twenty-three stars fall from the sky as one constellation, burning as if a giant torch, and falling into the Sea. The Son Of Man tells him, "The name of the constellation is Wormwood! A third part of the waters will become wormwood; and many men will die of the messengers of the hypocritical churches because The Message is made bitter.

"Because of the arrogance of the herd I shall visit the Earth a Holocaust. Their sin is in not believing that they are all brothers. I will come as a thief in the night to steal away their ignorance. When the Time Arrives for the Removal of Ignorance, My Cause shall be made more Clear. For It is through Their Own Hands I will let Them Prove My Revelations. Before Their very eyes They will see The Thing too late!"

Then The Son Of Man told Nostredame, "Come up Here, and I will show thee the things which must be Hereafter."

Immediately Nostredame feels himself vibrating, as if a change of frequency in his being changes his location, and finds himself floating in the Spirit again. He hears a voice coming from the sky, itself, saying, "Go and take the scroll which is in the hand of the angel Midnight that you see standing in the Sea and on the Earth."

Nostredame looks down and sees a giant figure of The Son Of Man standing with one foot on the beach and the other in the sea. He comes to the figure and says, "Give me the little scroll."

Midnight replies, "Take it, and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth as honey."

Somehow, knowing what the figure meant, Nostredame opens the scroll and devoured its contents by reading it completely. His new understanding of the Eschaton is like honey in his mouth as he mouths the words he reads. But in the pit of his stomach the stupidity of mankind is indeed bitter...

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...suddenly Nostredame finds himself sitting at his desk again. With elbow on desk, hand on chin, and peering upward, it is all coming to him now as a vision of his reverie. The voice of Midnight comes to him saying, "Thou must prophecy again about many peoples, and nations, and languages and kings. For the Stone which the builders refused has become the head of the corner. What you will seest, write in a book, and seal it up unto the Generation of The Prophecy. Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

"For many are Called, but few are Chosen; who has Ears to Hear, let him hear. Bind up the testimony, seal away the Law among the Seekers. For it is This Generation of Seekers that I caused It to be Written: Ask and It shall be given you; Seek, and ye shall find; Knock, and It shall be opened unto you; for everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh It shall be opened–Multitudes, multitudes, in the Valley of Decision; for The Day Of The Lord is Near, in the Valley of Vision!"

With these last words Nostredame no longer hears the voice of The Son Of Man. Now he starts to have disconnected visions about which he scribbles down notes, that later he will format as his Quatrains. The visions becomes dreams as he nods off...

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...Jacob Benjamin woke up with a start. He blinked and twisted his head around a stiff neck and shoulders. He collected his thoughts, and checked his watch. He rubbed his eyes and looked at his humming computer and screen display. The last line he'd written was:

Open your eyes, now, what do you see?

Then Jacob typed in:

Standing at the center of Eternity!

...seeming to pop out from the back of his mind. He now knew where he was going to finish the poem:

From here you may choose any path with heart
For the rest of your life, and then you start,
The Sea of Multitudes' paths to cross
Whom flow and ebb from your life...
...with the current's toss
Leaving only the memories of their footprints
In the Sands of Time, naught a dent
And like the Wind across the sea
It's Message is: to Let It Be!
For when our paths cross once again,
We will walk them together, until its end.

He backed up the display and typed in his newfound title for the poem:

THE WIND ACROSS THE SEA

And with that he ran the poem off on the printer. He folded it up and stuck it in the studio card he was leaving his lady. Then he put them into the envelope and sat it with the cassette tape by the stereo.

He knew it wasn't a great poem; but he also knew she'd love it since it had been written for her. After all–it's the thought that counts.

Now, somehow, he knew he'd be able to catch a couple hours sleep before they had to leave for his flight–in peace.

--END--

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