THE MAGIC MIRROR OF NOSTRADAMUS
Many magicians, among them Nostradamus, worked wonders for Catherine of Medici in a laboratory that she had specially built in the discreet castle of Chaumont-sur-Loire. After her husband King Henry II was killed in a joust, as foreseen by Nostradamus, the Queen and the astrologer held sessions in Chaumont invoking Anael to reveal the destiny of her children and of the crown.

I translate from Eugene Defrance’s account of the famous divination mirror of Chaumont:

After preparing a rectangular plate of shiny steel, well-polished and slightly concave, Nostradamus wrote on the four corners of this mirror, with the blood of a male pigeon, the following names:

Then he placed the mirror in a new cloth, very white. And one evening at the beginning of the year 1560, while the new moon slowly rose above the woods of Chaumont, at the first hour that follows the sunset, Nostradamus approached the window of the laboratory, opened it and, looking to heaven with great devotion said:

Eternal Lord! Eternal King! God who have created all things for the love of me, and by the hidden plan that you have for the well-being of mankind, look at me, Nostradamus your unworthy servant, and consider my pure intention. Deign to send me your angel Anael over this mirror, to mandate, command and order his companions that are also your subjects and whom you have created, Oh Almighty, You who have been, who are and who will be forever. That by your name the spirits may pray and act in righteousness to instruct and to show me what I will ask them.

Then Nostradamus threw saffron, which is the appropriate perfume for Anael, over burning coals in an iron censer, and always praying, he added:
In this (saffron), by this (saffron) and with this (saffron) that I offer before your face, O mon Dieu! Who are tri-une, who are good and you who from the most sublime elevation sees far beyond the cherubs and the seraphs and you who will judge the centuries by fire, hear me.

In pronouncing these sacramental words, Nostradamus perfumed the mirror, holding it in his right hand over the burner from where it raised the fragrant saffron smoke and repeated three times the previous oratio to the Eternal Lord.

After the prayer, the magician blew three times on the mirror and said, again: Come, ANAEL, come ANAEL, come and may it be your pleasure to be with me by your own will in the name of the Almighty Father, in the name of the Son, most wise, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, most kind. Come, ANAEL, in the name of terrible Jehovah! Come, Anael, by the virtue of immortal ELOHIM. Come, Anael, by the arm of all mighty MITTATRON! Come to me, Nostradamus, and order your spirits and subjects that with love, joy and peace, they shall make my eyes see things that are hidden from me. Amen.

Then he returned to the window, raised his eyes again to the starry sky and pronounced this supreme conjuration:

Lord Almighty, who moves whatever pleases you, hear my prayer, and may that which I desire be agreeable to you. Please, Lord, look at this mirror and bless it, so that ANAEL, one of your subjects, may descend over it with his companions to satisfy Nostradamus, your poor and wretched servant. Oh God you are the most blessed and most exalted of all celestial spirits, you who lives and reigns in the eternity of the good. So be it.

Slowly, Nostradamus made the sign of the cross over his chest and over the mirror, a sign that he repeated for forty-five days, every night at the same crepuscular hour.

Finally, on the forty fifth day at nightfall, the angel Anael appeared to the magician under the form of a beautiful blond child who greeted him and announced that he and his spirit companions were ready to obey the orders of Nostradamus.

The latter thanked the vision, and asked it to appear in the mirror or to make appear, every time that he expressed his desire, personalities, evocative shapes and forms.

The day after, around midnight, Catherine of Medici was finally admitted in the laboratory. With the help of a blessed wooden cross, carbonized to great extreme, Nostradamus had traced on the floor the double magic circle, in accordance to the data contained in the grimoire of Pope Honorius, and arranged on this geometrical figure: a human skull, a tibia, one lamp with a pale flame and a sleeping cat in a magnetic slumber.

The mirror had been placed on the mantle of a fireplace where logs, sprinkled with Oriental saffron, were burning. Crouching in the middle of the double circle, wand in the right hand, Nostradamus made the summoning call:

In the name of Almighty God in whom we live, we move and we have our being, I humbly supplicate the Angel, guardian of this mirror, to appear!
These words pronounced with extreme energy, the angel Anael appeared. Catherine of Medici told the Angel all that she expected from him and Nostradamus added to her words:

I humbly beseech the spirit of the mirror to grant me the favor of a vision that is relevant to me and is instructive.

Attentive, Catherine looked in the mirror. At first the polished steel plate only revealed a mysterious interior, of dark and imprecise corners. Then, the vague contours of three ghosts were outlined in a thick fog. With gesture and with words, Nostradamus, touching the mirror with his wand, restarted the conjuration and threw again oriental saffron into the fireplace. Then there was a sudden change on the metal plate. The lines of the personages were accentuated, the thick vapors tore and Catherine of Medici recognized her three sons. Moving within the mirror, each shadow completed a number of rounds along the walls of the phantasmagorical hall. Francis II walked around only once, Charles IX fourteen times and Henry III fifteen times.

But suddenly Catherine flinched when she recognized Henri of Bourbon, her son in law, who twenty one times went around the hall. Nostradamus told the frightened queen that her third son would die murdered and that Henri de Bourbon would succeed the last of the Valois for a period of twenty one years. This came to be.

After that the shadows disappeared and Nicolas Pasquier tells that after this everything became invisible and the queen mother did not want to see any more.

The mirror became once more empty and clean, Nostradamus uttered three times the dismissing formula:

In the name of God Almighty, I dismiss from this mirror all the spirits who have descended upon it; and that peace of God be forever between them and me.

Catherine was satisfied. She knew that she will remain attached to the crown of France and in power for thirty more years. As predicted, each of her three sons became king and died, but also as predicted, her bloodline survived through her daughter Margaret de Valois, spouse of Henry IV King of France.

The mirror of Chaumont is not for the faint of heart. It is an interesting invocation and we learn from reading it even if we have no intention of re-enacting the ritual in its full form. Note that Nostradamus specifically invoked Anael and his companions and not any other mirror-spirits. The spirits that Nostradamus asked the Archangel to bring into the mirror are neither Angels nor demons but they may be difficult to handle without Anael, the Grace of God.

In the region beyond the mirror also dwell nasty entities, trapped souls and demons. Any entity can come through the mirror when the portal is opened without purification and guardians.

Bones are powerful protectors and human bones are the most powerful of all. Human bones are used in many traditions; the Tibetan lamas drink from a skull cup and Catholics display the miraculous bones of the saints. A human skull and a tibia are not difficult to obtain but the spirit will bring great misfortune when not handled properly. To care for such things is extremely laborious. In all rituals I use a simulacrum instead of human bones.

You may use a crystal skull or a colorful crafted Mexican Catrina or a plastic skull or a hand drawing of a skull and bones. Invoke upon the simulacrum the spirits of your ancestors and not the spirits of the dead in general. The blood of a male pigeon may be substituted with red ink and it is easy to master the skill of placing a cat in a magnetic slumber, if you like cats.