NOSTRADAMUS, ASTROLOGY AND THE BIBLE
substudY "WORLD WAR II"
Nostradamus Profetior med originaltexter
(Salamar, Stockholm, 1940)
- T.W.M. van Berkel -

General information
In this article, the book Nostradamus Profetior med originaltexter i urval, för första gången översatta till svenska, efter 1568 års upplaga is discussed, as far as its contents deal with World War II. The English translation of the title: The prophecies of Nostradamus, with a selection of original texts from an edition, dating from 1568, for the first time translated into Swedish. 
Nostradamus Profetior..., as this book is called in this article, is written by a Century-scholar who used the author's pseudonym Salamar.[1] The selling price, 2,85 Swedish crowns, was printed on the backside.
It is not clear which publishing company published Nostradamus Profetior... On the title page, the name Tryckeri Aktiebolaget Thule is given, seated in Stockholm. This company existed from around 1920 to around 1964. On the backside, the name Tryckeri Effektiv is given, an address (P.O. Box 10102, Stockholm 12) and a bank account (Post Bank 151166). In the study upon which this article is founded, nothing was found about Tryckeri Effektiv. 
Nostradamus Profetior... contains a lot of illustrations, among which a picture of the portrait of Nostradamus which was part of dr. Niel's collection, astrological scenes, pictures of astrologic objects, pictures of paintings of Napoleon during a campaign and the arrest in 1791 of the French king Louis XVI and his wife Marie-Antoinette, a picture of the pages 22 and 23 of a 1568-B.Rigaud-edition of the Centuries which was used as a source text and a picture of the front page of this edition, which is part of the collection of the Royal Swedish Library in Stockholm.[2]

Source text and consulted literature
Nostradamus Profetior... does not contain a bibliography. According to the subtitle, a 1568-edition has been used as a source text. As mentioned above, Nostradamus Profetior... contains pictures of the front page of the edition which was used as a source text, a 1568-B.Rigaud-edition, and the pages 22 and 23. The word permission, printed at the bottom of the front page, is not printed with two long -s- signs, as on the front pages of other 1568-B.Rigaud-editions, but with an ß, a way of printing which is also present on the copy of the 1568-B.Rigaud-edition of the Centuries which, according to the Century-scholar Mario Gregorio, is part of the collection of the Royal Swedish Library in Stockholm.[3]
In Nostradamus Profetior..., the names have been mentioned of a number of Century-scholars: Le Roux, Torné-Chavigny, Le Pelletier, Wöllner and Billenstein. Further, the titles were mentioned of the comments, written by Wöllner and Billenstein (respectively Das Mysterium des Nostradamus and Opklaringen af Nostradamus Profetier).[4] Sometimes in the discussion of the quatrains and other nostradamic predictions, there has been referred to one of these comments. There are also references to non-specified comments of French and German Century-scholars.

Dating of Nostradamus Profetior...
In Nostradamus spådomar om kriget (Stockholm, 1940), the Swedish version of the national-socialist brochure, written in November-December 1939 by Herwarth von Bittenfeld, Bömer and Gutterer, all working at Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda, the translator, baron Staël von Holstein, who used the author's pseudonym Norab, added texts to the original text, which he copied from articles by Salamar on Nostradamus, published in the Swedish weekly Levande Livet.[5] These texts can also be found in Nostradamus Profetior...: 

• According to Nostradamus spådomar om kriget, Salamar heavily relied on a.o. Billerstein, i.e. the Danish Century-scholar Carl Soelberg Billenstein, whose book Opklaringen af Nostradamus Profetier was published in Holte in 1920. The information in Nostradamus spådomar om kriget about Billenstein's ideas corresponds almost word-by-word with the information in Nostradamus Profetior..., which leads to the conclusion that this information in Nostradamus spådomar om kriget was part of Salamar's articles on Nostradamus, published in Levande Livet.[6] 

• In Nostradamus spådomar om kriget, Salamar's comment upon quatrain 05-51 is quoted with a reference to his articles in Levande Livet. In Nostradamus Profetior, this comment can be found in the chapter Vad säger profetian om vår egen tid?.[7] 

• The text of the first paragraph of chapter XVIII in Nostradamus spådomar om kriget looks like a text, written by Staël von Holstein, but it also occurs in Nostradamus Profetior... in the chapter Vad bär framtiden i sitt sköte. This means that this text originates from one of Salamar's articles on Nostradamus, published in Levande Livet.[8]

In Nostradamus spådomar om kriget, Staël von Holstein wrote that Salamar's articles on Nostradamus were published in the issues 19 ff. of Levande Livet, without mentioning their annual volume. Approximately, it can be ascertained when the text of Nostradamus Profetior... was finished. The chapter Vad säger profetian om vår egen tid? contains a reference to September 1940 and Rumania.[9] This is a reference to the abdication in September 1940 of the Rumanian king Carol II as a result of the outcome of the Second Viennese Arbitrage, in which Germany and Italy adjudged the northern part of Transylvania to Hungary and the southern part of Dobrogea to Bulgaria. This means that the text of Nostradamus Profetior... most early has been finished around September 1940 and that Nostradamus Profetior... has been published in the last quarter of 1940.

With Nostradamus Profetior..., Salamar wanted to present the first Swedish translation of the famous predictions by Nostradamus, which value he considered to be irrefutable. The contents of Nostradamus Profetior... is divided into themes which occur in almost all Century-comments: mysteries about Nostradamus, his life and work, the way he was inspired when he wrote the Centuries, the function of astrology, keys which have been derived in the course of the years to grasp the meaning of the Centuries, predictions which were fulfilled in the past four hundred years, scenario's about the future, predictions which deal with the actual situation and predictions which immediately will be fulfilled. 
Frequently in Nostradamus Profetior..., parts of the Epistle to Henry II are discussed. In order to make it possible for the readers to look up these parts, the lines in the Swedish translation of the Epistle with which Nostradamus Profetior... closes, are numbered.. 

Future scenario's, the actual situation and the imminent future
Salamars links between quatrains and the actual situation in his lifetime and his expections about the imminent future corresponded with the future scenario he thought he could derive from the Centuries and Century-comments. He described this scenario in the chapter Vad bär framtiden i sitt skote?.[10] 
In 1920 in Opklaringen af Nostradamus Profetier, Billenstein described a future scenario, based upon the three Antichrists about who Nostradamus was supposed to have made predictions. The First Antichrist was supposed to have appeared during the French Revolution or the Napoleonic wars; the Second Antichrist shortly after World War I. The Third Antichrist would come around 1925 and mark a period in which tremendous revolutions would take place and, as Billenstein concluded from quatrain 08-77 in which the Third Antichrist was mentioned, a war period of 27 years. In 1952, a period of peace for 57 years would come, described in quatrain 10-89, which would last until 2009.
Quatrain 10-72, which is known for its disasters, predicted for 1999, would thus be fulfilled in this 57 year peace period. In the eyes of Salamar, this did not make sense. In 1939-40, he launched the supposition that the 27 year war period did not start in 1925, as Billenstein supposed, looking forward, but in 1914, at the time of the outbreak of World War I. The war which had begun in September 1939, was another manifestation of the Third Antichrist. Counting from 1914, the 27 year war period would end in 1941-42, after which the 57 year peace period would begin, which would end in 1999 with the fulfilment of quatrain 10-72.[11] From 1999, barbarians would attack Europe from the south and the east, black people would unite themselves with Arabs and the "yellow danger", i.e. people from the East.
In the chapter Vad säger profetian om vår egen tid?, Salamar discussed the rise of national-socialism, the outbreak of the war in September 1939 and the course and end he expected..[12] In his discussion of the rise of national-socialism, he referred to a non-specified French Century-comment, in which the quatrains 03-76 and 06-08 were linked to national-socialism, the Ludendorff-movement and the national-socialist organization Kraft-durch-Freude. Moreover, it was stated in this French Century-comment that the "true tithe", mentioned in quatrain 03-76, was an allusion to Hitler's disposal of the Versailles-payments.[13] According to Salamar, the internal affairs in Germany were predicted in quatrain 01-13 and according to the French Century-comment in a part of the Epistle to Henry II in which was dealt with "the second Thrasybulus". The war which had begun in September 1939, was predicted in the quatrains 10-100 and 03-57. In quatrain 10-100, a period of British supremacy was described which was supposed to last for more than 300 years. Salamar supposed that this period began with the coronation in 1603 of Mary Stuart. The end would coincide with the end of a period of 290 years, mentioned in quatrain 03-57, in which there would be seven changes in Great Britain. According to Salamar, that period ran from 1649 to 1939. In 1649, the first change took place: the beheading of the British king Charles I and the foundation of the Republic by Cromwell. The end of this period in 1939 coincided with the beginning of the war. In quatrain 03-57, Nostradamus predicted an extraordinary fateful year for England. In the fourth line (Aries doubte son pole Bastarnan) he pointed towards the fact that Germany (Aries, the zodiacal sign of the Ram), England's mortal enemy, doubted England's ally Poland (Bastarnan).[14] The British-Polish alliance was also supposed to be mentioned in quatrain 05-51, in which was written about cooperation between Bohemia (Czechoslovakia), Dacia (Rumania), England and Poland.
The misery and troubles which England had to face, were predicted in the quatrains 08-37 and 02-68. Quatrain 06-96 might deal with the capitulation of Paris, quatrain 03-93 with the flight of the French government.
In the eyes of Salamar, Mussolini might play a key rol in the end of the war. According to Salamar, Mussolini was the great king, who according to quatrain 04-77 would bring peace to Italy.
In the chapter Originaltexter för första gången översatta till svenska is, with a reference to the previous chapters, a Swedish translation given of seven quatrains regarding France, four quatrains regarding Germany, thirteen quatrains regarding England and four quatrains regarding Italy i.c. "Selin" (Mussolini). Some of these quatrains are commented by means of a remark, made in a footnote. In most cases, no fulfilment data are given. In some cases, a future fulfilment date is given or a period in the past in which a quatrains was supposed to be fulfilled.

The fortune of the Centuries in the early years of World War II
Nostradamus Profetior... contains two stories about in what way was dealt with the Centuries in the early years of World War II, which are worth knowing. In the preface, Salamar wrote about the fact that during the German march to Paris in June 1940, there were rumours about a "sixth column" in France which urged to surrender, since it was clear in the Centuries that Nostradamus had foreseen the fall of France in this war. According to Salamar, even those who would normally laugh about that kind of predictions, could not escape the fact that the influence of the old Nostradamus was present in such a troubled time. In the Goebbels diaries, in a note about May 25, 1940 the "sixth column in France" is also mentioned, as in an article of dr. Theodor Fr. Böttiger in the edition of May 27, 1940 of the Völkischer Beobachter. In an article, published in the edition of June 16, 1940 in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, dr. Elisabeth Noelle wrote about the "Nostradamus column" and mentioned this group of people together with the proverbial "fifth column".[15]
In his comment upon quatrain 03-57 and its linking to the beginning of the war in September 1939, when German troops invaded Poland, Salamar wrote that it was easy to understand that such a quatrain was very popular in Germany. This comments seems to confirm the remark of dr. Hans-Hermann Kritzinger in his conversation in 1961 with the British searcher Ellic Paul Howe about the origins of propaganda, based upon the Centuries. According to Kritzinger, Goebbels got interested in the Centuries because people linked the German invasion in Poland to the comment of his compatriot Carl Loog upon quatrain 03-57, which he, Kritzinger, had quoted in Mysterien von Sonne und Seele (Berlin, 1922). In a conversation with Kritzinger on December 4, 1939, Goebbels raised this comment, which was characterized by Kritzinger as a comment which meanwhile had become well-known.[16]

De Meern, the Netherlands, October 4, 2008
T.W.M. van Berkel

Notes

1. See: www.kb.se. Salamar's real name is not known. [text]   
2. Salamar-1940, p.15. [text] 
3. Gregorio: Répertoire Chronologique Nostradamus (http://www.propheties.it/bibliotheque/1568-1599/index.html, picture 1568-003). [text] 
4. Salamar-1940, p.29. [text]  
5. Norab-1940a, p.47; Van Berkel: Nostradamus spådomar om kriget.
   The weekly Levande Livet was published by Åhlén & Åkerlund in Stockholm from 1931 to 1961 and contained short novels, series and information about fishing, hunting and sports. [text]
6. Norab-1940a, p.47; Salamar-1940, p.58-59. [text] 
7. Norab-1940a, p.48-49; Salamar-1940, p.72-73. [text] 
8. Norab-1940a, p.51; Salamar-1940, p.59. [text]
9. Salamar-1940, p.73. [text]
10. Salamar-1940, p.56-62. [text]
11. In Nostradamus Profetior, quatrain 10-72 is numbered as 09-33 (Salamar-1940, p.56). [text]
12. Salamar-1940, p.62-77. [text]
13. Both De Fontbrune (1939, p.169) and Ruir (1938, p.47) linked quatrain 03-75 to the rise in Germany of national-socialism. None of them commented quatrain 06-08. It seems as if Salamar referred to a different Century-comment than the ones, written by De Fontbrune and Ruir. [text]
14. According to Salamar, the word pole in pole Bastarnan could be read as the Swedish word motpole (ally). [text]
15. - Salamar-1940, p.5,
    - Goebbels: see Richter, p.136;
    - Böttiger: see: Van Berkel: Die Kolonne des Nostradamus;
    - Noelle: see: Van Berkel: Die Prophezeiungen des Nostradamus. [text]
16. - Salamar, p.71;
    - Howe, p.220-221;
    - Van Berkel: Quatrain 03-57 and Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus;
    - Van Berkel: The 1939-fortune of Mysterien von Sonne und Seele. [text]