nostradamus: a life and myth

Over the last 500 years, the sixteenth-century French doctor, Michel de Nostradamus, and his obscure yet compelling prophecies, have cast a spell on generations of readers. Many interpreters of Nostradamus believed that New Year’s Day 2000 would see the end of the world. Does its peaceful passing expose Nostradamus as a charlatan, or has he simply been misunderstood? In this new millennium, with dramatic world events casting new scrutiny on his predictions, the time is ripe for a reassessment of the man and his myth.

Nostradamus was a man destined to lead a double life. Born in 1503 to Jewish parents who had converted to Christianity, Nostradamus became skilled in the forbidden arts of astrology and the occult, and chose the life of a doctor to hide his shadow life from those religiously intolerant times. A Christian physician by day, and an underground Jewish astrologer and Pagan theurgist by night, he risked his life issuing a serialized book of 1,000 predictions on the future, published between 1555 and 1561. It became a bestseller and its purported successes in predicting events of his own time made Nostradamus the talk of the courts of Europe. He attracted both support and enmity from the most powerful people in France, and while the Queen of France bestowed honours, the Justices of the Inquisition cast a dark and threatening shadow.

Celebrating the 500th anniversary of the birth of Nostradamus, John Hogue traces the life and legacy of the French prophet in fascinating and insightful detail, revealing much little-known and original material never before published in English. Nostradamus: A Life and Myth is the first full-bodied biography of one of the most famous and controversial historical figures of the last millennium.

Estimated number of printed pages: 409

“I have known John Hogue for fifteen years. Every year, he predicts on the program [Dreamland] and every year, he proves to be fireproof. He's accurate. Uncannily accurate.”

—Whitley Strieber, author of Communion and The Coming Global Superstorm with Art Bell

John Hogue is author of 700 articles and 40 published books (1,170,000 copies sold) spanning 20 languages. He has predicted the winner of every US Presidential Election since 1968, giving him a remarkable 12 and 0 batting average. Hogue is a world-renowned expert on the prophecies of Nostradamus and other prophetic traditions. He claims to focus on interpreting the world’s ancient-to-modern prophets and prophecies with fresh eyes, seeking to connect readers with the shared and collective visions of terror, wonder and revelation about the future in a conversational narrative style. Hogue says the future is a temporal echo of actions initiated today. He strives to take readers “back to the present” empowering them to create a better destiny through accessing the untapped potentials of free will and meditation.