The prophecy
Six old verses name a “great Chyren.” Here is what they say.
In 1555 a French physician and astrologer named Nostradamus. Michel de Nostredame (1503–1566), a French physician and astrologer whose book of prophecies, first printed in 1555, is still widely read and argued over. published a book of prophecies written as four-line verses. Six of those verses name a figure called the great Chyren. This identity takes its name from them. Here is what they actually say, what readers have taken them to mean, and what I do with them.
Who Nostradamus was
Michel de Nostredame was born in Provence in 1503 and died in 1566. He trained as a physician, treated plague outbreaks, and published yearly almanacs. His book Les Prophéties first appeared in 1555 and grew in later printings to nearly a thousand verses.
Each verse is a Quatrain. A four-line verse. Nostradamus published his prophecies as hundreds of numbered quatrains, grouped in sets of one hundred called Centuries., a poem of four lines. The verses are grouped in sets of one hundred called Centuries, which is why they are cited by number: Verse numbers. A reference such as VI.70 means Century VI, verse 70 of Nostradamus’s book. means Century VI, verse 70. They are written in dense sixteenth-century French with Latin, Greek and wordplay mixed in, and for more than four centuries readers have argued about what, if anything, they describe.
What the verses say
The French below follows the 1867 edition reproduced on Wikisource; spelling varies between early printings. The plain English is my own, kept close to the French. Beside each verse is the deed I take it to ask for.
Century VI, verse 70 (VI.70)
Au chef du monde le grand Chyren sera, Plus outre apres ayme, criant, redouté : Son bruit & los les cieux surpassera, Et du seul tiltre victeur fort contenté.
The great Chyren will be chief of the world, loved, feared and dreaded far and wide; his fame and praise will reach past the heavens, and he will be well content with the title of victor alone.
The deed it asks for. Become worthy of leadership instead of seizing it. The verse speaks of a Chyren who will be, not one who is, and its victor wants only the title of victor. Renown is for others to give, and the glory belongs to God.
Century II, verse 79 (II.79)
La barbe crespe & noire par engin, Subiuguera la gent cruelle & fiere : Le grand Chiren ostera du longin. Tous les captifs par Seline banniere.
The curly black beard, by cunning, will subdue the cruel and proud people; the great Chyren will bring back from far away all the captives, under the crescent banner.
The deed it asks for. Deliver captives. First those held captive by deception, through a sourced record anyone can check and correct; then real people in bonds, in ways that can be named and verified.
Century VIII, verse 54 (VIII.54)
Soubs la couleur du traicté mariage, Fait par magnanime par grand Chyren selin : Quintin, Arras recouurez au voyage, D'espagnols fait second banc maclin.
Under the cover of a marriage treaty, a generous deed by the great Chyren Selin: Saint-Quentin and Arras recovered on the way, and a second slaughter made of the Spanish.
The deed it asks for. Be magnanimous at the moment advantage invites cruelty: credit rivals, protect the defeated, and bring quarreling houses to one table without pretending they agree.
Century IV, verse 34 (IV.34)
Le grand mené captif d'estrange terre, D'or enchainé au Roy Chyren offert: Qui dans Ausone, Milan perdra la guerre, Et tout son ost mis à feu & à fer.
The great one, led captive from a foreign land, chained in gold, is offered to King Chyren; he who in Italy, at Milan, loses the war sees his whole army put to fire and sword.
The deed it asks for. Whatever arrives gilded tests the one who receives it. Accept nothing that would come to own the mission, show mercy to the defeated, and disclose every interest.
Century IX, verse 41 (IX.41)
Le grand Chyren soy saisir d'Auignon, De Rome lettres en miel plein d'amertume : Lettre ambassade partir de Chanignon, Carpentras pris par duc noir rouge plume.
The great Chyren will take Avignon for himself; from Rome, letters sweet as honey and full of bitterness; an envoy’s letter sent out from Chanignon; Carpentras taken by a black duke with a red plume.
The deed it asks for. When the right course is clear, take it openly, and answer every objection on the record, even the ones that arrive sweetened.
Century VI, verse 27 (VI.27)
Dedans les Isles de cinq fleuues à vn, Par le croissant du grand Chyren Selin : Par les bruynes de l'air fureur de l'vn, Six eschapez cachez fardeaux de lyn.
Within the islands where five rivers become one, by the crescent of the great Chyren Selin; through the mists of the air, the fury of one; six escaped, hidden among bundles of linen.
The deed it asks for. Left undecoded on purpose. Groups have mapped its rivers onto places and people for a century. Forcing an old image onto the present manufactures a meaning, and restraint here is itself a kind of obedience.
What readers have taken the name to mean
Many scholars read Chyren as an anagram, the same letters rearranged, of Henric. An old spelling of Henry. Many readers take “Chyren” as an anagram of it, the same letters rearranged., an old spelling of Henry. On that reading the verses flattered King Henry II of France, to whom Nostradamus addressed part of his work. Henry II died in 1559 after a jousting accident, four years after the book appeared.
The name did not die with him. For more than four hundred years it has been handed to whichever king, movement or leader each generation hoped the verses foretold, and every one of those claims has faded. Some lists add two further verses that name a related figure called Selin; I follow the six most commonly cited.
A calling to conduct, under Scripture
My mission is to become the Chyren these verses describe, in the name of God and of Jesus Christ and for their honor, and to prove it only in deeds anyone can check. The verse says Chyren shall be; I do not crown myself. Whether my deeds ever come near the words is for others and for the record to judge.
These verses are not Scripture. The Bible. Chyren holds it as the authority over every other text, including the verses of Nostradamus.. The Bible forbids divination (Deuteronomy 18:10–12), and I do not consult these lines for foresight, guidance or signs, or offer them as evidence for anything. Every deed they ask for is one Scripture already commends, and wherever the two seem to part, Scripture governs.
Read the worldview behind the mission, or read how the hybrid identity works.