Welcome to Kala’s Quick Five, where I chat with fascinating authors, artists, teachers and researchers and ask them five questions about their work. My guest today is Peter Lemesurier, a former Cambridge linguist and professional translator whose work has been included in programs including: the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, and the National Geographic Channel. Lemesurier is the author of ten books on Nostradamus, including The Unknown Nostradamus, Nostradamus: The Illustrated Prophecies and the topic of our discussion here, Nostradamus, Bibliomancer — The Man, The Myth, The Truth.

Kala: Peter, Nostradamus was said to have written a great number of prophecies. The one that appears the most accurate, was his quatrain which alluded to King Henry II, being injured and dying by his eye being pierced.  This later happened during a tournament when the King was jousting and is pierced through his eye, resulting in his death days later.  What has your research found in the validity of this prediction?

Peter: As I point out in the book, this is what quatrain I.35 says when translated into English verse:

The younger lion shall the old o’erride
On martial battlefield in single duel.
His eyes he’ll put out in a pit outside -
Two forces joined – and then a death most cruel.

It thus describes (a) a duel between an old and a young lion (b) on a battlefield, involving (c) the engagement of two armies, in the course of which (d) the younger lion puts out the eyes of the older (e) in a cage (Latin cavea: ‘animal enclosure’, ‘pit’, as per the definition of the word in Robert Estienne’s Dictionarium Latinogallicum  of 1552), (f) with d’or simply the result of the compositor’s mishearing of dehors (‘outside’, ‘separate’). Thereafter (g) the older one suffers a cruel death. The death of King Henri II in 1559, by contrast, occurred as a result of (a) a joust (and not a duel) between two knights who, although aged 40 and 29 respectively, had no major connections (heraldic or otherwise) with lions, (b) at court, and (c) not in the presence of two armies, (d) in the course of which no eyes were put out (the fatal splinter from the Comte de Montgomery’s broken lance in fact entered the King’s brain just *above* the eye), (e) on open ground at the Palais des Tournelles, and not in an animal pit at all.

Keen as modern would-be interpreters are to suggest, by way of explanation, that the caige d’or ‘really’ refers to the ‘golden cage’ of the King’s helmet, the fact is that no contemporary illustration of the event suggests any resemblance between it and a cage, let alone a golden one (both helmets were in fact of the peaked visor type). Whence, no doubt, the fact that neither the Queen nor Nostradamus himself had evidently ever heard of the proposed connection between verse and proposed event. Nor, clearly, had the latter’s admiring secretary Chavigny, who published several adulatory books about him in the 1590s listing his claimed successes in great detail, and who would certainly have seized on this supposed prophetic triumph if it had ever occurred to him. In fact, the suggestion didn’t first appear in print until 1614, 55 years after the event and 48 years after the death of Nostradamus. Indeed, he himself, in an open letter to Jean de Vauzelles dated 1562, associated the event instead with a different verse entirely – namely, III.55 – and even then only by retrospectively changing the word ‘grand’ to read ‘grain’, to fit the fact that Montgomery’s family name was ‘de Lorge’ and that, in French, l’orge meant ‘barley’! In short, then, barely one of the details of the prophecy actually fits the proposed event.

But this, naturally, was not good enough for the re-interpreters. Clearly, there were sufficient superficial similarities to encourage them to persist with the proposed association. The main problem, though, was the expression ‘deux classes’ in the last line. In all of Nostradamus’s thirty-eight other uses of the word ‘classe’ in his Propheties, after all, it always carried its then-perfectly-normal meaning of ‘army’ or ‘fleet’, after the Latin ‘classis’. But, for reasons that seemed obvious (to the re-interpreters, at least), this time it had to be different. And so they felt impelled to drag in the Greek word ‘klasis’, which meant
‘fracture’ or ‘breakage’. This might not have fitted the King’s flesh-wound, but might conceivably have applied to the offending lance – whence, no doubt, the subsequent idea that it had split in two places. But then Nostradamus, if he had wished to, would presumably have used the Latinised form ‘clade’, just as he did in quatrain IV.5.

Certainly various editors of the Prophecies from 1668 onwards evidently realized that the argument was a bit thin. And so some of them quite unashamedly changed the word classes to playes (‘wounds’) – as you would. After all, the verse just had to be made to apply to the death of King Henri II, didn’t it? Meanwhile the fact that the verse actually referred to a vision seen in the clouds over Switzerland in 1547 that  was even illustrated in a near-contemporary book by Lycosthenes completely passed them by. The case, then, carries some salutary lessons.

Kala: As the quatrains of Nostradamus have grown more popular, it is said that his prophecies describe World War II and Hitler, referring to him as Hister as well as current events including 9/11 and the towers and an end of days prophecy for December 2012.  What can you tell us about these prophecies?

Peter: As with the French Revolution and the First World War, there is absolutely no specific reference in the ‘Propheties’ to any World War, let alone a second one. At best, there are references to a variety of individual events that could have been part of any major conflict, and often demonstrably were. Frequently, indeed, they had already taken place across the same familiar battlefields, or had been anticipated by long-familiar sets of prophecies such as those of the anonymous ‘Mirabilis liber ‘of 1522/3, one of Nostradamus’s prime sources, which nevertheless majors on quite another conflict (namely an anticipated major Arab invasion of Europe, evidently based on the original Muslim expansion of the seventh century). What is particularly striking, though, is the way in which late 20th-century interpreters have seen far more associations with this more recent conflict than with its predecessors – a characteristic piece of retrospective myopia that is an almost inevitable result of the lack of temporal perspective with which we as humans tend to see history and consequently to twist the words of Nostradamus.

The reason for the widespread suggestions that Nostradamus predicted Hitler is simple: five of his predictions (II.24, IV.68, V.29, and Presages 15, 31) contain the name ‘Hister’, spelt with the old ‘long s’ or (in the associated collection of predictions taken from Nostradamus’s annual Almanachs known as the Presages) ‘Ister’. On the other hand, in his Almanach for 1554 Nostradamus himself explains that the word is simply another name for the River Danube. It was in fact first the Greek, and then the Roman name for the lower part of the river, only the upper part having been called Danubius. Which no doubt explains the fact that in two of the above it is coupled with the word ‘Rin’ or ‘Ryn’ (meaning ‘Rhine’, and not ‘nothing’!) – the Rhine having formed, with the Danube, the north-eastern frontier of the ancient Roman Empire whose history and cultural achievements were always in the forefront of the Renaissance seer’s mind.

As for 9/11, this one was inevitable. Surely Nostradamus, given that he allegedly always predicted whatever has just happened, must have predicted this most cataclysmic of events – most cataclysmic, at least, for Americans? Yet it has to be said that nowhere in his prophecies does he ever mention the United States of America, which didn’t exist in his day (even though he and his contemporaries were of course well aware of recent discoveries in the New World). Ignoring the ridiculous Anglophone spoofs that were put about at the time, quatrain I.87 merely says the following:

I.87. Original 1555 text Read as modern French:
Ennosigée feu du centre de terre   Poseidon [gr. Ennosigaios,  'ébranleur du sol']
Fera trembler au tour de cité neufve:  autour de Naples
Deux grands rochiers long temps feront la guerre  Deux nobles ‘feront la guerre aux rochers’
Puis Arethusa rougira nouveau fluve. Puis Arethuse fera  jaillir un nouveau fleuve rouge

Now it has to be said at once that Nostradamus just loved to break down classical place-names into their component bits. Thus, ‘cité neufve’, or ‘New City’, is much more likely to mean a town whose name means precisely that in Greek or Latin than merely any old city with ‘new’ in its name such as New York or New Orleans, while the ‘feu du centre de terre’ of the first line and the earthquakes of the second (to say nothing of the presence of Poseidon) immediately suggest a volcano (‘from the middle of the world’ would instead have been ‘du centre du monde’). In the third line, ‘deux grands’ is perfectly normal contemporary French for ‘two nobles’, and ‘faire la guerre aux ochers’ (‘to make war on the rocks’) is simply a standard idiom for ‘to struggle fruitlessly’. As for Arethusa, she was of course a Greek nymph of springs (there is, for example, a well-known ‘spring of Arethusa’ in Syracuse, Sicily), and not (as some have naturally suggested!) an English anagram of ‘the USA’, and if she sends forth a ‘new, red river’ it is presumably because the volcano is emitting a flow of lava. This suggests the verse-translation:

Earth-shaking flames from the world’s centre roar
And make the earth around ‘New City’ quiver.
Long shall two nobles wage a fruitless war
And Arethusa redden a new river.

The source thus seems to be the ‘Annales Cassini’ (the annals for the years 1000 to 1212 of the major Benedictine abbey and library of Monte Cassino, which had already served as a source for Dante’s ‘Divina Commedia’). These recorded the first known lava eruption in 1036 of Mount Vesuvius overlooking Naples (Greek Neapolis = ‘New City’), at a time when the Lombards of Capua and the Byzantine dukes of Naples were constantly at war over the city prior to the decisive intervention of the Normans. For the year 968, similarly, Leo Marsicanus had reported in the same annals that ‘Mount Vesuvius exploded into flames and sent out huge quantities of sticky, sulphurous matter that formed a river rushing down to the sea.’

Nostradamus, then, is evidently projecting the eruption into the future as an omen of an imminent civil war that will, like the volcano, produce a ‘red river’, this time presumably of blood. But of New York or the 9/11 tragedy he is clearly saying nothing. Much the same applies to the other verse often mentioned in this connection, namely VI.97, which actually mentions the Normans in question:

VI.97. Original September 1557 text  Read as modern French:
Cinq & quarante degrés ciel bruslera, Cinq. (cinquante)
Feu approucher de la grand cité neufve,
Instant grand flamme esparse saultera, Avec violence/véhémence [lat. instanter]
Quant on vouldra des Normans faire preuve :

A suitable English verse-translation of this might be:

Latitude five and forty, sky shall burn:
To great ‘New City’ shall the fire draw nigh.
With violence those flames shall spread and churn
When they conclusions with the Normans try.

Here, once again, Nostradamus refers to a ‘cité neufve’ (presumably the same one), and specifies its latitude as ‘cinq & quarante degrés’. This is not, as is often claimed, the latitude of New York City, even though the state itself does extend that far north. But then neither, strictly, is it that of Naples (Greek Neapolis = ‘New City’). For that, the rather strange expression would have to be read as an abbreviation of ‘cinq[ante minutes] & quarante degrés’ – there ought, in other words, to be a dot after the first word, so as to signify anabbreviation – which, of course, is not unusual in Nostradamus, and would certainly be correct. The burning sky, the bursting forth of flames at a time when the Normans are being put to the test – all this is redolent of the Norman capture of Naples in 1139, the very year when the Annales Cassini also record an explosive eruption of nearby Vesuvius for 1-8 June, when ashes covered Salerno, Benevento, Capua and Naples. There is thus no need for the usual tortured and notably unconvincing explanations to the effect that the ‘Normans’ are somehow really’ the notably multi-racial inhabitants of New York.

And 2012? In his Prophecies Nostradamus mentions neither the End of the World nor the date 2012. This misconception is due almost entirely to the History Channel’s misidentification of a painted collection of prophetic papal emblems from long before Nostradamus’s time, known as the ‘Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus’, as what it suggestively called ‘The Lost Book of Nostradamus’, assimilated to a widespread misunderstanding of the next significant date from the Mayan calendar. In fact, under the terms of Mayan cosmology, the end of the current world is not due (according to Schele and Freidel’s
authoritative ‘A Forest of Kings’) until day 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.
13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0 after the theoretical end of the previous world in 3114 BC (an ‘end of the world’ totally unknown either to history or to archaeology!) – which, with each column equal to twenty times its predecessor, lies some 41,341,050,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years in the future, and not in 2012.  So we all have time for a cup of coffee yet!

Kala: In your new book on Nostradamus, you share that you believe Nostradamus made his predictions using the “Janus principle’.  Janus was the Roman god with two faces, representing beginnings and endings. The month of January is named for Janus, celebrating the new year.  How did Nostradamus use the Janus principle in his predictions?

Peter: The ‘Janus principle’ is named after the two-faced Roman god of ends and beginnings after whom January is named and whose archetype we still celebrate at the year’s end by looking back at the old year and forward to the new. It is the age-old principle which states that only by looking back into the past can we can learn what is likely to happen in the future. The approach goes right back to classical times and beyond, and not merely to Cicero. The associated idea that there is no such thing as the future, but only a repetition of the past, consequently has an equally long pedigree. As Cicero’s brother puts it in the De Divinatione (I.lvi.127), ‘Things that are to come do not suddenly spring into existence, but the evolution of time is like the unwinding of a cable: it creates nothing new and merely unfolds each event in turn.’ Or as Nostradamus himself neatly puts it in verse III.79,

The sempiternal order of fate’s chain
Shall thereby in such order come again.

The idea can even be found in the Old Testament, in the form ‘Whatever is has been already, and whatever is to come has been already, and God recalls each event in its turn’ (Ecclesiastes 3:15). Among classical historians, and notably Plutarch, the argument was that, since humans create history, and human nature doesn’t change, history can only repeat itself. Plutarch demonstrated the idea in his ‘Parallel Lives’ by comparing the lives of a whole range of figures from Greek and Roman history respectively, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar – under the terms of which Caesar could consequently be described as ‘another Alexander’.

And, paradoxically, there is ample evidence for the suggestion in the writings of that supposed futurologist whom we know as Nostradamus, and not only in verse III.79. In his royal dedication he refers, rather after Cicero’s analogy, to having ‘reckoned and calculated the present prophecies entirely according to the order of the chain that contains its own revolution [i.e. periodic recurrence]‘. Moreover, not only does he constantly call up reports of ancient omens by classical writers such as Julius Obsequens, but he refers specifically to future figures called ‘Anibal’ and ‘Neron’ in a way which demands that we read them as ‘another Hannibal’ and ‘another Nero’. In his annual Almanachs he mentions and ‘brings to life again’ a whole range of such ancient figures, often preceded by the words ‘a new’ (or other indications to that effect) – among them (in no particular order) Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Pompey, Augustus Caesar, Mark Antony, Lepidus, Marius, Achilles, Hippocrates, Hieron of Syracuse, Brennus, Thrasybulus, Democritus, Jason, Leonidas, Dionysius of Syracuse, Sylla, Themistocles, Ataxerxes, Zoroaster (together with ‘a repetition of the Persian age’), the Carthaginians generally, Scipio, Hannibal, Fabius, Marcellus, Aristides, Caligula, Cato, Claudius, Nero, Ogmius, Palamedes, Pyrrhus, Hippolytus, Parmenion, Trajan, Tiberius, Harmodius and Aristogiton, to mention only a number of classical examples. All of which should of course remind us that the very Renaissance in which Nostradamus was such a prominent, if controversial figure was specifically based on the idea of historical recapitulation – and notably that of resurrecting the arts and culture of ancient Greece and Rome in contemporary Europe so that, as the poet Petrarch famously put it as early as 1338, ‘our grandsons shall be able to walk back into the pure radiance of the past.’

Thus, it could almost be said that Nostradamus, paradoxically, didn’t believe in the future – or at least not in one that had not already been prophesied or foreshadowed on the basis of past events. Indeed, of the 942 verse-predictions in Nostradamus’s seminal book, ‘The Prophecies’, no less than 653 have been traced back with a high degree of probability to earlier events or ancient prophecies, and in many cases to specific historical accounts of the former – accounts which are therefore referred to by some scholars as Nostradamus’s ‘hypotexts’.

Kala: You also discuss the technique of bibliomancy. I’ve played with bibliomancy myself at times with books and even with a deck of cards. Describe how Nostradamus may have used bibliomancy in his work…

Peter: Nostradamus, clearly, was passionately interested in divination of all kinds, as his evident study of Cicero’s ‘De divinatione’ confirms, and so it is reasonable to suppose that even his choice of books and source-texts may have taken some kind of divinatory form.

Was there, then, such a technique available to him? In the event, there was. It was a very ancient divinatory technique, practised (especially among the religious) almost since the dawn of time – or of literary time, at least. It was practised among the ancient Hindus, the Hebrews and the Greeks, and was well known to Christians, too, right up until Nostradamus’s time. Some people still indulge in it today. Among the Romans it was a state-sanctioned technique known as the ‘sortes virgilianae’, and was practised, as the name implies, on the basis of the supposedly prophetic works of the poet Virgil (which Nostradamus himself knew and imitated, calling their author the ‘Prince of Poets’). The Emperors Hadrian, Alexander Severus, Gordian II and Claudius II are all known to have practised it. Even St Augustine of Hippo is said to have identified his future vocation by applying the technique to the text of St Paul’s letter to the Romans.

This technique was and is called ‘bibliomancy’, and it is inconceivable that a man as fascinated by ancient divinatory techniques as Nostradamus was should not have heard of it. Basically, it involves

1. randomly selecting a book from a bookshelf,
2. letting it fall open of itself at any page at random,
   and then
   
3. randomly selecting a passage or passages from that page as a source of guidance.

This final phase can be based either on (as it were) selecting a passage with a pin, possibly while wearing a blindfold (which might be called the ‘strict’ method), or on simply seeing which passage jumps out at the eye (which might be called the ‘psychic’ method). Knowing Nostradamus’s personal proclivities, the latter approach seems more likely to have appealed to him as being more in keeping with his role as an esotericist.

Kala: There is some dispute as to whether Nostradamus was a doctor, an astrologer and a prophet. What has your research shown in this regard?

Peter: I’m afraid I have to report that Nostradamus was almost certainly ‘none of the above’. Not only was he expelled from medical college (we still have the handwritten documents to prove it), but he himself never claimed to be a doctor, and is reported as having on one occasion specifically denied it. His astrology was truly awful (he was constantly putting planets in the wrong houses or signs, for example), and his horoscopes turned out to be almost entirely wrong. And he himself wrote on several occasions that he wasn’t a prophet. You can’t say fairer than that, can you?

Kala: Peter, thank you for joining me here on Kala’s Quick Five. Peter’s book on Nostradamus can be found on Amazon.

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Welcome to Kala’s Quick Five, where I chat with fascinating authors, artists, teachers and researchers and ask them five questions about their work. My guest today is Merry Street, owner of Zenspiration Gardens, a floral design company which has been featured on tv, in magazines and boasts a noteworthy celebrity client list.

Kala: Merry, your spiritual journey began when you faced a life-threatening illness and made a promise ‘…to do God’s will, should you survive’. Two years later after your health returned, you built a spiritual floral practice named Zenspiration Gardens. Share with us about your journey and what occurred during this time…

Merry: From 2003-2005 I was chronically ill. The doctors were perplexed. I was a runner, outrigger paddler and healthy on all levels. I had already been through every test, seen every specialist and still no correct diagnosis. I resisted surgery because I was fearful it would not be a success.  As time went on, my hospital visits became more and more frequent and for longer periods of time. It got so bad that after a while, that I told my husband to stay at home with my son and I would drive myself to the emergency room and park my car knowing that I would be there for days, or in some cases, weeks. I knew every ER doctor and most of the nurses for I had been admitted to every ER wing. Still the answer was silence. I started to become increasingly hopeless and depressed.

At the end of 2004, I was admitted to the hospital for what I honestly thought was the last time. The doctor wanted me back in the hospital as he noticed I my weight was still dropping. At that point I had already lost 15% of my body mass. I held out to see my son celebrate his 21st birthday. In the end, I knew my doctor was right. As I left my house that day, I remember thinking this is probably the last time I would see all the people I love. I said my silent goodbyes and wondered what would become of me. Instinctively, I knew my body was shutting down and my life force was leaving me. I was promptly intubated to empty whatever was left in my stomach because I could no longer process food or water. No amount of denial could save me now. I finally felt it was critical. I was dying.

At this time, I had no real spiritual path. I thought that by going to Church –I was raised Catholic — and memorizing and reciting rote prayer, that was meant by being a spiritual/religious person. Believe me when I tell you that 99.9% of us WILL try to find a spiritual presence in your life when you feel your energy leaving you. I had to live. My son needed a kidney transplant in the future and I needed to be here for him. Don’t ask my why but I knew that I would be important part of that process.

In the hospital I started to “see” ugly, horrible demons coming out of the walls. They would come snarling and snatching for me at all times of the days. As I did when I was younger, I would ask Archangel Michael to sit with me. I could feel his presence calm me and the demons left but they always reappeared. Then I started to have dreams. The most vivid dream I had was of an old, 1800s funeral wagon pulling up to my mother’s home. She came to the stoop and the footman told her how sorry he was to hear the news. Apparently, I was in the back of the caisson. I couldn’t believe that the dream was about me. I honestly thought it was about my hospital roommate who was very ill and possibly dying. When I asked a very good friend and psychic about the dream, she said the dream was about me. I was terrified.  I prayed. I prayed that if God helped me through this and allowed me to live long enough to help my son, that I would devote the rest of my life to him and help him in whatever way he found necessary. I lived.

After my recovery, I realized that I had missed so much of my childhood. I was raised by two, alcoholic parents and I grew up fast. So much of my time was spent in the survival/peacemaker mode that I didn’t know what was normal. Well, I guess I did. Normal was having the police at the house frequently. I lived in a lot shame and secrecy. Now, God had gifted me with another chance so I made the decision to live my life as abundantly as possible. That meant I had to do the work of forgiving and moving on.

One night, and I specifically remember sitting up in bed, turning to my husband and saying that I was returning to floral school. Luckily, I was led to a wonderful floral school in Anaheim, CA and had a very spiritual instructor. I absorbed not only technical information about flowers but about the spiritual aspect of them as well. One day my instructor shared a book with the class by Dr. Emoto. This moment changed my life. I thought, “I will be using his theory to create my work.”

Next, I learned about a man by the name of Cleve Backster. Cleve had experimented with plants and recorded their feelings. He is probably the one responsible for many people “talking” to their plants. It just so happened that a close friend of ours personally knew Cleve and asked me if I wanted to meet him. Excitedly, I said yes. When I finally did meet him 2 weeks later, Cleve had in his hand a signed copy of his book, “The Backster Effect.” From that point, it seemed that every random book I picked up referenced Cleve Backster. The signs were all around me.  It was also at this time that I remembered what my friend had predicted about 10 years earlier. She said, “Your grandmother is here and she is showing me a box with flowers and things inside it.” I had no clue what she meant. Unfortunately, neither did she.

It was also around this time that my clairaudience clicked in. I was already experiencing clairvoyance and clairalience, but the voices in my head would not go away. I was skeptical at first and then the messages started up daily and would not stop. Then I started to channel and moved into automatic writing. They kept asking me to make the flowers. Finally after experiencing my kundalini rise during Deeksha, the visions of the Ascended Masters became more pronounced. It was during this time that I also had a 13th Octave LaHo Chi healing. It was then that I received the energetic vibration necessary to start my work. Finally after realizing that maybe this what was meant by the “promise,” I started to take notice.

Kala: Describe the evolution of Zenspiration Gardens… how has your work blossomed and expanded over the years.

Merry: First of all I have to say that I to begin with I was a complete skeptic regarding the messages that I received regarding the gardens. The voices, the visions, the automatic writing – I didn’t trust any of it. It was finally in a moment of their complete nagging that I surrendered. Then, signs started to appear that made me start to trust in the process.

The first Zenspiration Garden I made was for my neighbor who had been recently diagnosed with cancer. This was a man who was old school and I just took a chance and went with it. I was just moved to gift him with a garden. The concept was so new to me that I hardly had anything to put in it but what I did add, he appreciate immensely. When I visited him a few days later, he was wearing the bracelet. He also mentioned that he was moved to share the pocket stones with his own doctor who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. From that act of kindness I saw the future of the gardens.

The next garden I created was for a total stranger. While in a shop where I knew the owner, I was pulled to a certain jewelry line. She happened to mention that the jewelry designer had breast cancer as did the designer’s sister and mother. For some reason I could not shake her from my mind. I called the shop owner and asked if she was going to see the designer anytime soon and told her that I had been inspired to created a garden for the jewelry designer. She told me that although the designer hardly came to the shop, she was coming by the next day.

That day I created the most beautiful garden with the help of the Mother Mary. She came to me in channeled essence and directed me to purchase and place light pink roses, a pink rose quartz bracelet with St. Agatha’s medal attached and white candles in the garden. She was specific as to these items only. Needless to say, I followed her instructions to the letter. I then channeled a message for the family from the Mother. I later came to find out from an internet search that to invoke St. Agatha, the patron saint of breast cancer, you place pink roses on an altar with white candles. I was blown away. After that I was convinced that this was to be my life’s work.

From that point on, I experienced the aches and pains of any new business and profound spiritual growth. Since I had no model to follow I was basically out there on my own and it was a very lonely time for me. As I started open up and share the gardens with people, people didn’t get it. I knew that education was going to have to be a bigger part of the process. Eventually I needed to come up with a title since the first question that continually came up was, “What do you do?” I then coined the term “Spiritual Florist” for in fact, that is what I am.

The gardens, have over time, proven themselves as true messengers of the Divine. Time and time again, clients would call me questioning my choice of flowers or the placement of a butterfly or dragonfly in their gardens as the item was significant to the recipient. It was indeed confirmation that the combination of my intuition and the flowers were “carriers” of Divine energy and love and I knew that Dr. Emoto’s and Cleve Backster’s theories were working through the flowers. From that point, the flowers seemed to take on a life of their own.

The affect of the gardens on people have never ceased to amaze me. I have been privileged to be a part of many people’s journey. Along the way, spirits of loved ones started to pop in. They would often visit when I would be creating a garden in memorandum. Once in a while when creating a garden for someone who was very ill, I would be given a timeline when they would pass. The garden would then act as a glimpse into the heavens and provide comfort to those in their final days. When the client did pass, family members would tell me that the garden played a significant part in their loved one’s journey and that many times they kept the gardens near their bed so as to glimpse their beauty. I was humbled to know that the gardens had a small part in one’s journey through the veil.

An interesting phenomenon regarding the gardens has been how long the flowers last. Since they are fresh flowers, they are expected to last maybe two weeks at the most. In many cases, the flowers lasted past their prime. One client told me that his lasted 8 weeks. That is very unusual considering they are ephemeral in nature. I have to believe that the infusion of a blessing into the flowers has something to do with this.

One of the most significant and challenging parts of creating the gardens has been the awakening of my psychic abilities. For me, I believe that my working and creating intuitively on a day-to-day basis has had a huge role in the expansion of my psychic ability not only with the gardens but with creating in general. As I surrendered and progressed, this awakening led to trance channeling and reading for clients. It was a seamless transition.

The biggest challenge came when I had to accept and own what was given to me. It did not come with out risk but then anything worthwhile never does. I was scared to death to approach my husband about my psychic abilities. I was afraid he would leave me or be angry with me and I prayed to the Universe for help. I was getting so depressed and I just didn’t know how to approach him with all of this. Well, the Universe did help me and he simply shrugged it off. Looking back, I have to laugh when I think about the times I would sit in the cemetery for hours and do readings in my car! I was afraid of what others would think and the fact that I was raised a Catholic, and at one point wanted to become a nun, made it even harder for me. I have now moved into acceptance and understand that people and things fall away.

I believe that we are gifted in this lifetime all that we need as far as pertains to the psychic arts. As I’ve explained to students, we are not given what we think we need. As we use our abilities more will be given, if and when necessary, to facilitate our spiritual growth. It is a process; don’t rush it. We have to wake up to the challenges that the abilities bring us. An analogy would be like learning how to walk. First you crawl, then pull yourself up, next come the baby steps and then we take off running. If we are patient, it is amazing to see how far we can go.

Kala: I’m an esoteric wisdom mystery school teacher and I see that you offer intuitive readings which include Esoteric Numerology. I think numerology and the power of names are very important. My name Kala (pronounced Kay-la) was given to my mother in a series of recurring dreams where she was told that this was my name. It’s sanskrit as well as recognized in many other languages and definitely suits me. Your name, Merry Street, couldn’t be more adorable and endearing. Can you share with our readers how esoteric numerology works and how you use it in your work.

Merry: When I first started to read professionally for clients I would give clients in-depth intuitive information regarding their past, present and future. But over time, I felt like each reading fell a bit short. I can’t explain it other than to say that the readings felt slightly off. It was as if something was missing. Soon, I found it no longer acceptable to “just” give a reading. I found myself constantly and consistently wishing that I could help clients utilize the information that was given them so that it would have a lasting and profound effect on their lives. Soon after experiencing another life-changing event, this drive became increasingly stronger. I knew it was time to re-evaluate my life’s work and devise a better plan.

As they say, the teacher will appear when the student is ready. One day while meditating on how to improve my readings, two answers came to me: One was EFT, or Emotional Freedom Techniques, and the other was Esoteric Numerology. Finally after months of searching, I felt as if something clicked. Combining all three methods made sense to me. I guess you could call it my spiritual “ahh” moment!

Regarding numerology. Even as a child I have always been intrigued by things that are metaphysical or esoteric in nature. Numerology was one of the things that I was naturally drawn to. It made immediate sense to me. As I studied it further, I soon realized that numerology was MORE than a name that becomes us. It is truly the vibrational quality that people recall and for a reason. Your name is your calling card to the universe. Like a shoe, it must fit you.

Esoteric numerology, or spiritual numerology, is the science of numeric vibration. It is a language whereby every word or name vibrates to a number and every number and letter holds its own sacred value and meaning. Spoken word is especially powerful as it brings forth thought and thought brings forth manifestation. That is why when we first introduce ourselves to others we leave our impression or personal energy with someone and that may or may not be favorable.

I would have to say that working with my own numbers has been, by far, my greatest teacher of numerology. I can sit here and tell you that we are all drawn to sound but I have had the opportunity to experience first hand the vibrational quality and draw of my current name in action. From what I have witnessed time and time again, I can tell you that the name you carry through life does matter! Fortunately through marriage, I have acquired a fantastic, current name, Merry Street. Not only is it highly auspicious but easy to remember. I’ve lost track of the number of times people have commented on my name. Not only do people make comments about my name but they also pause to analysis it, they repeat it… out loud… several times. This happens almost on a daily basis and I don’t believe it is coincidental.

I believe that the combination of intuitive readings, EFT and numerology are invaluable tools in awakening our vast spiritual potential. Each method builds on each other and as a result, the combination of all three modalities holds in great detail, information about your life’s mission, destiny and the calling of your soul. In other words, they open us up to our vast potential. Using this method, I have witnessed remarkable changes in client’s lives. This type of reading has the ability to answer questions such as:

• 1 What is the deeper purpose for my life?
  2 What am I here to learn?
  3 Am I living in alignment with my highest potential?
  4 Where am I holding myself back from living my highest potential?
  5 What is my priority to focus or work on now?
  6 What can I do now to find peace and healing for myself?
  7 Is there anything I’m doing now to block divine connection?
  8 Is there anything I can do to expand my gifts or experience here?
  9 What am I to learn from this specific problem or block that I’m having now?

Kala: Mala-inspired jewelry is set to make a big comeback. Earlier this year, I had several dreams about beads and mala’s made for Mantras and how helpful they will be for people. You create mala’s called Power Mantra’s. How were you led to create the jewelry and what are the pieces designed for?

Merry: I have been making and selling jewelry for a little over 3 years now. I started creating jewelry during a very stressful time in my life. My son’s kidneys were failing and it helped me to channel my energy in a resourceful way.

As far as creating the actual pieces, it usually comes to me in waves and in different themes. Just like the gardens, I find myself being pulled to create mostly within the spiritual genre. Much of the jewelry I create, such as my Shine Jewelry line, has an icon or spiritual image attached to it and jewelry has been just as much a part of my journey as the gardens. Since I rely heavily on my intuition when creating a piece, I usually start with meditation, ask what is needed to be created with the materials at hand and then the pieces seem to evolve.

Interestingly enough, the Power Mantra line came to me one day when I was sitting out in my studio in meditation. It felt like at the time and I still do believe to this day that it was Ganesha that was pushing me to make the mala jewelry line. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why today? Why not two years ago or even two months ago? It wasn’t until I overheard that the book “Eat, Pray, Love” was being made into a movie, that I understood. At least, that is what I took away from it. Since I have not had any experience with malas other than using them for mantra I was a bit confused. I didn’t want people to see the malas and feel that I was being insensitive to their spiritual purpose, so instead of creating a conventional mala, I was inspired to create mala-inspired jewelry.

Again, just like the gardens, this product has many layers to it. I wanted the malas not only to look like a beautiful piece of jewelry but I wanted them to have substance to them. That is why I include with each Power Mantra piece, information on the stones, the Meru or Summit bead, and the Mantra. Also, I want to invite people to use their Power Mantra Jewelry for mantra if it so inspired them. That was the inspiration behind the CD recording of the actual power mantra. I believe that hearing the mantra aloud helps one connect to the mantra in such a way that they are actually in the process of doing. When we are doing, we are taking responsibility for our own empowerment and making a commitment to our spiritual evolution.
Once I committed to creating the line, the production flowed effortlessly. I kid you not… the web site design took me 2 hours and within 2 days time I had sold 2 custom pieces. I took it as a clear sign. From then on, the Power Mantra Jewelry line has done well. I am getting ready to place them into a local yoga studio and hopefully introduce them to larger audience.

I would have to add that connecting with mala in this way has made me have a deeper connection with mantra practice than before. It has really shifted something within me and it inspires me to create new pieces. I truly believe in the power of mantra and believe it creates vast amounts of unseen positive energy and good in the world.

Kala: Merry, looking back at your life now in review, what changed the most for you when you experienced the illness and made a contractual agreement with the Divine to do your spiritual highest and best. Have you been surprised by the journey along the way?

Merry: All of the processing and the experiences I have encountered have changed my entire life in the biggest, most challenging and positive way. I have found life is easier when you forgive, trust and are open to possibilities. I think that learning to trust has been the biggest hurdle for me. Again, this was a survivor mechanism I learned as a child so un-doing what I’ve learned has been a difficult yet necessary step in my spiritual process.

Also, it takes a lot of guts to admit who you are instead of living a secretive life. I am a totally new person. It’s amazing to look back to the beginning and to see how much has fallen away and to see what has taken its place. One thing that I have learned is to be aware of the signs we are given and the entirety of life taking place around you.  The most surprising change for me occurred when I decided to become a kidney donor. Again, the old Merry would have not approached Children’s Hospital in hopes of procuring a kidney for my son via the Paired Donation Alliance. Again, things were set in motion and within 5 months all four of us, 2 donors and 2 recipients, were in surgery.  When I was recovering from my illness, I often wondered “why” I was kept here. As with a lot of things we question, there wasn’t a lot of clarity. Now I know why and I am grateful to have been in a good place at this time in my life.

Kala: Merry, thank you for joining me here on Kala’s Quick Five. Read more about Merry and her Zenspiration Gardens.

More about Kala Ambrose: Kala Ambrose is an award winning author, intuitive and talk show host of the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show. Her thought-provoking interviews entice listeners to tune in around the globe! Described by her guests and listeners as discerning, empowering and inspiring, she speaks with world renowned authors, artists, teachers and researchers delving into metaphysical, holistic and paranormal topics. Kala’s book, 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled delves into the mysteries of ancient Egyptian mystery schools and explains their wisdom teachings. Kala Ambrose is a highly interactive teacher on a mission to educate, entertain and inspire. She lectures on the Ancient Wisdom Teachings of Egypt and the Mystery Schools, Developing Business Intuition, Working with Auras, Chakras and Energy Fields, and Wise Woman Wisdom. More about Kala at: www.ExploreYourSpirit.com and readings and consultations.

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I’ve been in the field of metaphysics for most of my life, spending a good portion in exploration and contemplation of the greater mysteries and the remainder of that time teaching to others.  It’s what I would describe as my calling. Each of us has hidden inside, a “calling” which stays with us throughout our lifetime. We may choose to pursue this calling or we may choose to ignore it, pushing it deep inside trying to forget that it exists, as we succumb to our fears of not measuring up or failing or being rejected by our peers.  We’ve all struggled with this at one point or another in our lifetimes.

After wrestling with this dilemma for a few minutes, including the fact that I had never tried to prove to anyone my track record of how many of my dreams came true, I let my fear go as my love and concern for my friend and her mother far outweighed anything I could imagine happening to me.  I picked up the phone, called my friend and told her my dream. To my surprise, she dismissed me. I pleaded with her, explaining that my dreams had come to pass many times before.  However, my having kept silent all these years, never sharing my experiences, left her little to go on in order to believe my dream.  She said she would see me at school and hung up.  Not giving up without a fight, I called her home again, but this time no one answered.

Later that day, my friend approached me in tears explaining that her father had called the school and that her mother had been in an accident exactly as I had described.  With tears in my eyes, I told her how very sorry I was. She turned to me, and I thought she was going to say that she wished she had warned her mother when I called that morning. Instead her eyes grew cold and she said, “What is wrong with you”? I said, “ I don’t understand, what do you mean”? And she screamed, “Something’s wrong with you, you made this happen!”  I reeled back in shock, stunned that my friend, whom I had been so close with all these years, would think that I could wish for something like this to happen to her mother. Yet she did. Nothing I could say to her at that time would comfort her and nothing would change her mind. She drifted away from me after that experience and our friendship grew to an end.

I’m not the only person to share an interest in both fields of science and spirituality. As Albert Einstein wrote, “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind”.