Soldiers have their sorrows,
The wretched have their rage,
Pray for the aged,
It’s the dawn of another age…
Phil Ochs, “Another Age”
On May 5, 2000, much attention was focused on the grand alignment the six inner planets with the Sun and Moon. Remarkable though it was, this alignment was but the portentous prelude for the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on May 28, 2000. Although Great Conjunctions occur every twenty years, this one was special because it involved a “mutation”. A “mutation” indicates a shift in the Zodiac “element”― Fire, Earth, Air, or Water ― in which a series of Great Conjunctions occurs. For the past 200 years, the Great Conjunctions have occurred in the Earth signs (Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn). The Great Conjunction of May 28, 2000, in Taurus marked a “mutation”, because it was the last in the current Earth‑sign series. Beginning with the Jupiter‑Saturn conjunction of December 21, 2020 in Aquarius, a new series of Air‑sign Great Conjunctions will be inaugurated. The subsequent Great Conjunction on October 31, 2040 will take place in Libra, another Air sign.
While the Great Conjunction of May 28, 2000, took place in the Zodiac sign of Taurus, it actually appeared in the sky within the constellation Aries, quite close to the star Hamal, which marks the “head of the Ram”. Great Conjunctions follow a pattern know as a “trigon”, in which every third conjunction occurs in the same vicinity. In this case, the conjunction of 2000 followed two others ― in 1881 and 1941 ― which transpired in the constellation Aries near the star Hamal. Nostradamus clearly refers to these conjunctions in Century I, Quatrain 51:
Jupiter and Saturn in the head of Aries,
Eternal God, what mutations!
Then for a long age his malignant time returns, …
This particular Quatrain is to be found within a cluster of references to the emergence of Antichrist and the attendant crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. So it is not difficult to infer whose “malignant time” is meant to coincide with the last of these Great Conjunctions in the “head of Aries”. While the Provençal prophet generally shrouds his predictions in ambiguities, here he seems to go out of his way to leave no doubt by identifying the conjunction in question as a “mutation”. Quite deliberately, Nostradamus leaves us room for only one interpretation: The Great Conjunction/ Mutation of 2000 augers the appearance of Antichrist on the World scene. Logically, we might expect this to happen before we reach the other side of this “mutation” ― i.e., before the next Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction on December 21, 2020.
Prior to the current series of Great Conjunctions in the Earth signs, there was a series of such conjunctions in the Fire signs (Aries, Leo and Sagittarius). That series ended with a Great Conjunction in 1782 near the cusp of Sagittarius and Capricorn. Similarly, the next series of Great Conjunctions in the Air signs begins with the conjunction of 2020 right on the cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius. Viewed in its broadest sense, therefore, the current period of Great Conjunctions in the Earth signs can be viewed as spanning about 240 years (1782‑2020), with a 20‑year overlap on either end with the preceding Fire‑sign series (1782‑1802) and the succeeding Air‑sign series (2000‑2020). For this reason, the ancient astrologers considered the period initiated by each mutation as extending for 240 years.
The Great Year
Among the astrologically‑oriented priesthood of the ancient Middle East, these mutations in the Great Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn were used in devising a prophetic calendar for the Great Year. As we know from the tradition embodied in the Six Days of Creation depicted in Genesis, this Great Year comprises a period of six thousand years. Divided into twelve months, the Great Year breaks down into “Great Months” of about 500 years. Since 500 years roughly corresponds to the duration of two mutations, every other mutation represents the transition between one Great Month and the next. The mutations occur in the sequence of Zodiac sign elements Fire‑to‑Earth, Earth‑to‑Air, Air‑to‑Water, and Water‑to‑Fire. Hence, the mutations that divide the Great Months are those that occur between the Earth and Air signs and between the Water and Fire signs.
Because the Great Conjunction of May 28, 2000, marked a mutation between Earth and Air signs, therefore, it also represented the end of a Great Month. This observation, however, begs the question: “Which month?” Jewish tradition as, set down in the Second Century Midrash Seder Olam Rabbah, assigns to the Great Month a duration of 490 years. This is based on Daniel’s prophecy of the “70 weeks” (9:24), which was interpreted to be 70 smittah “weeks” of seven years apiece. The Seder Olam Rabbah considered the “70-week”/ 490-year period to extend from the destruction of the First Temple and the destruction of the Second Temple. Nostradamus likely drew upon this Midrash for his own prophetic chronology, which also specifies a 490-year interval between the destruction of the two Temples (Epistle ¶ 40). Historical records, on the other hand, indicate that this period actually lasted about 150 to 200 years longer. Since the Midrashic dating became the basis of the official Talmudic chronology, the Hebrew calendar has a “shortfall” of the same duration. Hence, while the Great Conjunction of 2000 corresponded to the Hebrew year 5760, it actually transpired somewhere between 5910 and 5960 years after the Fall of Adam ― which is to say, quite close to the end of the Sixth Millennium of human history.
Midrashic tradition also taught that the Messiah was to be born at the beginning of the 8th Great Month ― which was calculated to fall late in the First Century BC or early in the First Century AD. This explains why Messianic anticipation was at such a feverish pitch when Jesus of Nazareth arrived on the scene. Jesus was actually born in 7 BC during a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that took place, appropriately enough, in Pisces, the sign of the Fish. The Great Conjunction of 7 BC was a triple conjunction, extending over a period of about six months. It was also a very tight conjunction, so that Jupiter and Saturn on three occasions seemed to merge into a single, exceedingly bright star, which we know as the “Star of Bethlehem”. The Great Conjunction of the Nativity was the last of its series in the Water signs, with the next Great Conjunction (14 AD) located in Sagittarius, a Fire sign. Thus, the Nativity coincided with the Water‑to‑Fire mutation which launched the 8th Great Month.
By this reckoning, the 9th Great Month would have kicked off with the Earth‑to‑Air mutation associated with the triple conjunction of 411‑412 AD. Interestingly, the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of November 411 was followed in the same month by a conjunction of the two outermost planets, Neptune and Pluto. By an amazing “coincidence”, Neptune-Pluto conjunctions occur at 490-year intervals ― precisely the length of the Midrashic Great Month based on Daniel’s “70 weeks”! Since successive Great Months overlap one another, the 9th Month would have extended from 411 to 829 AD, when a new series of Great Conjunctions commenced in the Fire signs. The 10th month, in turn, lasted from 809 until the next Air‑sign series began in 1246 AD, overlapping for 20 years each with the 9th Month (809‑829) and the 11th month (1226‑1246). Similarly, the 11th month spanned the years 1226 AD to 1623 AD, overlapping with the 12th Month for the interval of the Water‑to‑Fire mutation 1603‑1623.
The beginning of the 12th ― and final ― month of the Great Year was accompanied by remarkable cosmic portents. The Great Conjunction of December 1603 in Sagittarius was followed by a dramatic massing of Mars with Jupiter and Saturn the next year. The Mars-Saturn conjunction of September 26, 1604, was followed by a Mars-Jupiter conjunction on October 9, 1604, which coincided with the appearance of a brilliant Supernova. Blood-red in color, Supernova SN 1604 ― as it was later named ― appeared very close to the three conjoined planets. Astronomer Johannes Kepler observed it in the “right foot” of the “Serpent-Handler” Ophiuchus, a constellation symbolically linked with Antichrist. The Supernova was at the apex of a triangle with Saturn and Mar/Jupiter at the base. Within a few days, SN 1604 ― or “Kepler’s Star”, as it was also known ― outshone the three planets and every other star in the sky. It would continue to dominate the night sky for 17 months, after which it faded away.
“Kepler’s Star” was the last supernova observed in our galaxy up to the present date. This extraordinary celestial phenomenon stimulated a wave of intense apocalyptic speculation which culminated in the emergence of an occult “secret society” that called itself the “Order of the Rosy Cross” ― or “Rosicrucians”. Anonymous Rosicrucian “manifestos” began to appear, proclaiming that the Supernova of 1604 was a heavenly sign signifying the discovery of the tomb of one Christian Rosenkreutz ― whose name means “Christ of the Rosy Cross”. Christian Rosenkreutz was reputed to have been initiated into a something called the “Priory of Solomon”, allegedly founded by the Knights Templar when they occupied the site of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem during the First Crusade.
The Great Translation
Thus began the 12th Great Month, which extends from 1603 to 2020, when the next series of Great Conjunctions will move into the Air signs. The transitional period, during which the 12th Month will overlap the 13th, began on May 28, 2000, with the Great Conjunction in Taurus (22degrees 43 minutes), and ends December 21, 2020, with the Great Conjunction in Aquarius (0 degrees 28 minutes). But what are we to make of the “13th Month”? In most ancient calendars, including the Hebrews’, a 13th “leap” month was periodically added to reconcile the solar year with the lunar month. In Hebrew gematria, moreover, the number 13 equates to the word echad, meaning “one”. So the “13th month” of the past Great Year is simultaneously the “1st month” of the next Great Year: It represents the “renewal of the Age”, so to speak. More ominously, the number 13 recurs repeatedly in the Luciferian occultism of the Knights Templar and their successors.
All of the foregoing symbolism informs what is perhaps the most consequential of all of the prophecies of Nostradamus. As in Century I, Quatrain 51, where he refers to the Great Conjunction of May 28, 2000, marking the beginning of the transition between the 12th and 13th Great Months, so in Century I, Quatrain 16, he clearly points to the Great Conjunction of December 21, 2020, which will signify the end of that transition.
The Scythe joined with the Tin in the Pond toward Sagittarius
At its pinnacle of its exaltation,
Plague, famine, death by military hand,
The Age approaches its renovation.
Since the Scythe and the Tin are the astrological sigils of the planets Saturn and Jupiter, respectively, and the Pond corresponds to the Zodiac sign of Aquarius, the “Water Pourer”, the stanza’s first line describes a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Aquarius. The Great Conjunction of December 21, 2020, will occur in Aquarius (0 degrees, 28 minutes) at the cusp of Capricorn, the Goat. Because it rules both signs, Saturn will be “at the pinnacle of its exaltation” there, as specified in the Quatrain’s second line. In the night sky, this conjunction will appear between the constellations Capricornus and Sagittarius, again in accordance with the first line of the stanza. In fact, it will recreate the “Star of Bethlehem” beneath the Head of the Goat, within eyeshot of the Goat’s malevolent “left eye” – the star Dabih, which is Arabic for the “Butcher”.
In occult symbolism, the Head of the Goat is linked to the satanic Goat of Mendes, also known as Baphomet, the pagan idol worshipped by the Knights Templar. The hidden “Great Work” of occultism throughout the centuries has been to replace the Judeo-Christian-Moslem God – the God of Abraham – with a revived pagan idolatry. And under the reign of Antichrist, they are destined to achieve that goal… for a time.
In the infamous rendering of Baphomet by the 19th Century black-magician Eliphas Levi, we see the idol gesturing toward two crescents depicting lunar and solar eclipses, which always occur in pairs. Not coincidentally, the Great Conjunction of December 21, 2020, will transpire in the wake of two such eclipses, with the “Black Sun” of a total solar eclipse appearing one week before the Conjunction, on December 14, 2020. Occult doctrine associates the “Black Sun” with the star Sirius, which is represented by the Pentagram on the forehead of Levi’s Goat icon above. This star was known as Sothis in ancient Egyptian lore and was often symbolized by the “Eye of Horus”, the “All-Seeing Eye” of Masonic imagery, which dominates the Great Seal of the United States of America.
Horus was the hawk-nosed Egyptian god of the Winter Solstice, which marks the day of the Great Conjunction of December 21, 2020. According to the notorious Luciferian Aleister Crowley, himself an acolyte of Eliphas Levi, mankind is on the threshold of the Aeon of Horus, in which Abrahamic monotheism will be eclipsed. Crowley, who liked to style himself, the “Beast”, looked forward to a “New Age”, ruled by an Egyptian-style High-Priest/King under the aegis of Horus. Notably, in Century V, Quatrain 45, Nostradamus seems to envision the same scenario – at least temporarily – in connection with the Renewal of the Age.
The great Empire will soon be desolated…
And Bronzebeard the Hawk-nose shall reign
In the context of our times, the “great Empire” is clearly the USA, with its military tentacles in some 80 nations worldwide. Its desolation will perhaps come in the guise of the plague and famine promised by Nostradamus’ prophecy concerning the Renewal of the Age – added to which may be a bloody military coup. Into the vacuum left by the collapse of the American Empire will step an incarnation of the Beast who Crowley aspired to be. His name, “Bronzebeard” is a translation of the Latin Aenobarbus, the family name of the Roman Emperor Nero, whose number 666 identifies the Antichrist of Revelation.
Long awaited, he will never return
In Europe, but will appear in Asia:
One of the league issued from the great Hermes,
And he will grow over all the Kings of the East. (Century X, Quatrain 75)
Hermes is the pagan god of the Underworld and Black Magic, the deceiving trickster embraced by the Knights Templar during their reign in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Not coincidentally, perhaps the most sinister modern Templar avatar, founded by arch-Satanist Aleister Crowley, styles itself the Ordo Templi Orientis, or Order of the Temple of the East, abbreviated OTO. The “long awaited” one refers to the legendary return of Emperor Nero, expected to reappear in Persia (modern Iran) at the End of Time. In his Epistle ¶5, Nostradamus sees his advent in the Seventh Millennium coming at a time
… when the adversaries of Jesus Christ and his Church will begin to strongly congregate and forcefully overrun it …
Nostradamus refers to this reborn Nero, whose Scriptural number is 666, as the Antichrist – the last of three he describes in his prophecies. In Epistle ¶23, the Prophet envisions the “great Empire of the Antichrist” emerging from a conflict between the Atlantic powers (NATO) and Persia (Iran), a struggle which will spread to the Ukraine and Russia as well. After the abominable spirit of Nero “effects a transmigration” to possess the Antichrist, he unleashes a war against the Church of Jesus Christ and its lone defender among the nations of the world. As he expounds upon further in the Epistle, this apocalyptic War on Religion results in a persecution of religion unprecedented in history, eclipsing even the Jewish Holocaust of the 20th Century, destroying entire nations and consuming two-thirds of the human race. And all of this horror has its origins in a crossroads of events which Nostradamus calls the “Great Translation”.
In the Old French of the Prophet’s time, the word “translation” had meanings that we no longer commonly assign to it. One of those meanings is a “relocation” or a “realignment”, which is applied in a religious rather than physical context. Thus, three of the great religious translations of the Mediterranean region have occurred with Moses and the Torah, Jesus and the Gospels, and Mohammed and the Koran, engendering the three major Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Great Translation to which Epistle ¶24 refers is one which will suppress the Abrahamic faiths and replace them – for a time – with a strain of Gnostic occultism, with roots in ancient Egyptian rites and the Grail heresies of the Middle Ages.
Saturn Reigns Again
The Great Conjunctions play out against the mythical background of a primordial “Great Translation”, in which the newborn god Jupiter (aka Zeus) overthrew and replaced his aged father Saturn as the supreme pagan god. Since the Hebrew name for Saturn is Sabbatai, denoting the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday, the planet Saturn has long been identified with the Jews and with their emblem, the Star of David. Although the reign of Saturn in Greco-Roman myth was seen as a Golden Age of peace and good will, Saturn also had a dark side, characterized by malevolence, avarice and melancholy. During the Middle Ages, these ambivalent characteristics of Saturn were attributed to the Jews in furtherance of anti-Semitic themes relating to money-lending and the crucifixion of Christ. Saturn’s mythical role as a child-eater was also maliciously ascribed to the Jews to buttress “blood libel” accusations of their ritual murder of Christian children. Analogies were drawn between the pagan religious shift from Saturn to Jupiter and the monotheistic shift from Judaism to Christianity, with the displaced faith in each case seen as harboring a Saturnine vengeful resentment against its successor.
On the Jewish side of this divide, there was a strong association between the promised restoration of Saturn in a renewed Golden Age and the advent of a Messiah, under whom a redeemed Israel would rule over the Gentile nations. Medieval Jewish astrologers – upon whom Nostradamus drew for many of his prophecies – interpreted the Great Conjunctions between Saturn and Jupiter as auguring the emergence of new religions, as had been the case with the birth of Jesus. Since Saturn ruled the zodiac signs Capricorn and Aquarius, these two signs were also identified with Jewish anticipation of a resurgent Israel dominating the Messianic Age. Hence, because these two signs define the cusp where the Great Conjunction of December 21, 2020, will occur, we should expect Israel to play a major part in the religious revolution which the Great Conjunction will portend.
Among the unsavory mythical traits of Saturn are its connection with pandemic disease, such as the historic Black Death. Perhaps this explains why Nostradamus envisions the transition to the new Golden Age under Saturn’s rule as ensuing after decades of plague, famine and war. As we discussed earlier in reference to Century I, Quatrain 16, he views the Winter Solstice Great Conjunction of 2020 against a desolate backdrop of “plague, famine, [and] death by military hand”. And in both prose sections of his prophecies (Preface ¶25-26 and Epistle ¶33), Nostradamus sees two-thirds of humanity perishing during an unprecedented pandemic in the run-up to the revived Golden Age.
Meanwhile, such a plague will arise that more than two thirds of the world will be removed. So that one will be unable to ascertain the true owners of fields and houses, and weeds will grow in the streets of cities higher than the knees.
For according to the celestial signs , the reign of Saturn shall return…the world is approaching a revolution that breaks wholly with the past… the world shall be so diminished by plagues , by extended famines & wars & even more by floods… that no one shall be found willing to work the fields , which shall remain fallow for as long a time as they were subjected to the plow…
The upshot of all this suffering, according to Nostradamus (Epistle ¶24-26), is a desperate human race turning to a false messiah in a period of Tribulation preceding the Millennial Jubilee.
the Holy of Holies will turn to be destroyed by Paganism, and the old and new Testaments discarded and burned, and after that Antichrist will be the infernal prince, again for the last time all the Kingdoms of Christianity will tremble, and also those of the infidels, for the space of twenty-five years, and there will be wars and battles, and towns, cities, castles and all other edifices will be burned, desolated and destroyed, with great effusion of blood of violated vestals, married woman and widows, and sucking children dashed and broken against the walls of towns, an so may evils will be committed by means of Satan, Prince Infernal, that nearly all the world will find itself undone and desolated: and before these events some rare birds will cry in the air: Hui, hui [Today, today], and sometime later will vanish.
And after such times have long endured, there will be almost renewed another reign of Saturn, and golden age: Hearing the affliction of his people, God the Creator will command that Satan be bound and cast into the depths of the bottomless pit: and then a universal peace will commence between God and man, and Satan will remain bound for around a thousand years,…
