The ability to see into the future and to accurately predict events has fascinated and yet frightened man for thousands of years. As far back as 4000 BC, the Sumerians consulted sages who would pronounce on important matters and advise on courses of action. In this riveting, illustrated account, the predictions of the most famous sages and seers from the dawn of civilization are looked at in detail. One of the best known of these visionaries was Nostradamus, and indeed his prophecies, in the form of the original cantos, are analyzed in this book. Discover the prophecies that predicted: • The French Revolution • Pearl Harbor • 9/11 • The Iraq War Nostradamus and Other Prophets and Seers examines the role of astrology, alchemy, and arcane knowledge in prophecy. It tries to answer that age-old question of whether there is such a thing as 'secret knowledge', and whether it is possible for mere mortals to access it.

The ability to see into the future and to accurately predict events has fascinated and yet frightened man for thousands of years. As far back as 4,000 BC the Sumerians consulted sages who would pronounce on important matters and advise on courses of action. In this riveting new account, the predictions of the most famous sages and seers from the dawn of civilization are looked at in detail. One of the best known of these visionaries was Nostradamus, and indeed his prophecies and predictions form the core of this book. Illustrated throughout, Nostradamus & Other Prophets and Seers examines the role of astrology, alchemy and arcane knowledge in prophecy. Most intriguingly, it tries to answer that age-old question of whether there is such a thing as 'secret knowledge' and whether it is possible for mere mortals to access it.

Nostradamus (Michel de Nostradame) was born on December 14, 1503 in St. Remy, Provence, France. Nostradamus came from a long line of Jewish doctors and scholars. He is considered by many as one of the most famous and important writers of history prophecies. He is famous mainly for his book 'The Prophecies, ' consisting of quarantine in rhyme. Supporters of the trustworthiness of these prophecies attribute to Nostradamus the ability to predict an incredible number of events in world history, including the French Revolution, the Atomic bomb, the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the attacks of 11 September 2001. However, no one has ever proved that Nostradamus's quarters can provide reliable data for the foreseeable future. Nostradamus had the visions which he later recorded in verse while staring into water or flame late at night, sometimes aided by herbal stimulants, while sitting on a brass tripod. The resulting quatrains (four line verses) are oblique and elliptical, and use puns, anagrams and allegorical imagery. Most of the quatrains are open to multiple interpretations, and some make no sense whatsoever. Some of them are chilling, literal descriptions of events, giving specific or near-specific names, geographic locations, astrological configurations, and sometimes actual dates. It is this quality of both vagueness and specificity which allows each new generation to reinterpret Nostradamus.

Nostradamus, the most prolific and accurate of all the prophets, is the primary focus of this in-depth look at some of the chillingly accurate prophecies and predictions of catastrophe. Here he is found alongside Mother Shipton, the Brahan Seer, pagan prophecy and police prophets. There is a special focus on three predictions that all too alarmingly came true: the sinking of the Titanic, the 1967 Silver Bridge collapse in West Virginia and the events in New York on 11 September 2002. Consulting psychics is neither as far-fetched nor as rare as it sounds, however reluctant most of us are to admit it. And public interest in prophecy and prophets increases dramatically in times of international tension. In the years leading up to the Second World War, in the months after the Cuban missile crisis, following the first manned landing on the moon, interest in prophecy was at an all time high, as people look for clues to the future. As, indeed, we are still doing today.

The first major literary presentation of Nostradamus's Prophecies, newly translated and edited by prizewinning scholars The mysterious quatrains of the sixteenth-century French astrologer Nostradamus have long proved captivating for their predictions. Nostradamus has been credited with anticipating the Great Fire of London, the rise of Adolf Hitler, and the September 11 terrorist attacks. Today, as the world grapples with financial meltdowns, global terrorism, and environmental disasters—as well as the Mayan prediction of the apocalypse on December 21, 2012—his prophecies of doom have assumed heightened relevance. How has The Prophecies outlasted most books from the Renaissance? This edition considers its legacy in terms of the poetics of the quatrains, published here in a brilliant new translation and with introductory material and notes mapping the cultural, political, and historical forces that resonate throughout Nostradamus's epic, giving it its visionary power. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Since ancient times, fascinating individuals have claimed the power to peer into the beyond using everything from crystal balls, trances, and messages from God to ancient spirits and the stars.