Nostradamus C1 Q21: The astral ciphers that arise from rhetoric labels
Copyright: Allan Webber, December 2015. Feb 2023

The text of  Centuries 1 Quatrain 21 is extremely enigmatic even for Nostradamus.  This property underpins the pairing of this verse with C9 Q32.  

Compare the first line of the current verse which says The rock holds in its depths white clay with the first line in its paired verse A deep column of fine porphyry is found. It is evident that both relate to the properties of valuable minerals or cornerstone ideas that are extremely well hidden. And each verse's anagrams binds that hidden resource to Nostradamus' codes.  

This verse has anagrams for cipher,  proof and  reading_label  in its first line while the first line of C9 Q32 has anagrams for codon  and proof.

Also important is that other anagrams in the first lines of these paired verses offer detail about the nature of Nostradamus' media for code.  

In this verse there is define_prop  and uurote_on_ll while in C9 Q32  there is rhetoric and our_channel. However they differ in that one pays attention to mechanisms used in N's poetry  linking his lettering to astronomic objects while the other relates to genetic code mechanisms.

Yet this current verse and its paired verse hint at their own resolution through the use of wording in their last two lines. In this verse we have Needlessly troubled people daren't touch it, unaware the earth's foundation is of clay.

The contents of the anagrams clarify the metaphor since they offer an explanation along the lines that the rock (his prophecies) contain much clearer material (white clay) which comes out even whiter via a cleft (anagrams). It then implies his work is written this way to protect readers who would be damaged by their own inability to cope with or understand the real message in his prophecies.

There are other anagrams such as nitrogenases (e Ignorans eſ) and organ features (gnorae  /  estre auf ) that tie this verse to  the modern language and specialisations of codon science and the nucleotides that are a foundation for nitrogen based enzymes. Nitrogenase is a complex, bacterial enzyme.

The anagrams also bring a more physical meaning to the wording in the text since ‘actinic materials' queues (acticin  /  a me iſtra l  / euſe Qu )’ refer to radioactive minerals while other anagrams such as ‘igneous (uſe Igno)’ relate to rocks in which such minerals are often found. The verse becomes a duad in its meaning with one aimed at explaining the mechanisms by which his work can be interpreted and the other telling of the response of people in our century to nuclear threats.