This is the "prophecy" baba is referring to:

At forty-five degrees, the sky will burn,
Fire approaches the great new city,
Immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up,
When they want to have verification from the Normans.

Not exactly very telling.

China and India are already economic giants because of their huge size.

Nostradamus was a bum

Not really. He was, in fact, physician-in-ordinary to the Queen (Mother) Catherine de Medici, which meant a few extra $ every so often. (All this in spite of the fact that he did NOT complete Med school at Montpelier.)

Not to mention his successful publishing enterprises... plus all the money he was raking in as a pharmacist at Salon. The guy was definitely not looking for hand-outs. He left his wife and kids well provided for after his death c.1564 (IIRC).

As for his prophecies... well, they weren't actually his at all. He was actually rewriting a rather astonishing book that his father had a hand in publishing back in the 1520s!

(Truth IS stranger than fiction.)

BTW: He was also one of the Grand Masters of Sion (see The Da Vinci Code for details)

Thats not what I heard.

I have found interesting links between the Order de Sion and the Carmelites. St. Berthold, the founder of the Carmelites, also originated from Calabria. Fra Lippi, a tutor of Botticelli, who is listed as a PoS GM, lived in Calabria and was known as "The Carmelite". Crotone in Calabria was the home of the Pythagorean school, and Pythagoras is said by Iamblichus to have visited Mount Carmel. Calabria was the "stomping grounds" of Joachim of Fiore and Giordano Bruno. Most interestingly, recent archaeological articles suggest the Essenes had encampments on both Mount Carmel and Mount Zion. St. Therese of Liseux turns up in a number of "PoS churches", and she took her name both from Theresa of Avila, a Discalced Carmelite and mystic, and Therese of Lidoine, a Carmelite nun who was murdered by the Revolutionary Terror in Compeigne.

The Abbey of Orval's web site says only that mysterious monks from Calabria came there in 1070, although little is known about their identity, and they were welcomed there by Count Arnould de Chiny. These "pioneers" moved out after forty years, i.e. around 1110. The legend of Orval claims that it was named by Mathilda de Tuscany, who after finding a lost ring declared the place "a Valley of Gold" (Val D'Or.) That name will turn up again... recent research also suggests that Nostradamus may have found some "Templar" materials at the Abbey of Orval.

What I have found quite interesting about this Order is their choice of real estate. According to a recent (1990) issue of Biblical Archaeology magazine, Mt. Sion seems to have been the "HQ" of the Ebionites of Jerusalem - those "Judaizing" followers of Jesus who looked to his brother James, rather than the "Apostle" Paul, for leadership. Pauline Christians, in fact, avoided the place until the Byzantine period (7th century). It looks like some of these followers even made an abortive attempt to build a 3rd Temple of Solomon on the site after the Great Revolt of 70 CE, using the ruins of the destroyed Herodian templeÖ an effort that seems to have come to an end with the decisive defeat of the Messiah Bar Kochba in 135 CE. This choice does not appear arbitrary: the Old Testament says that Solomon's Temple sat on Mt. Zion, which although identified with Mt. Moriah for many centuries, by the 2nd Temple period was once again recognized as a mountain outside the existing Jerusalem city walls. I believe their choice of Mt. Sion for their Abbey displays an obvious "Ebionite" outlook on their part.

January 17th: This seems to be a "red-letter" day for the PoS. The reason why seems to be that it is the saints' day for three "PoS" saints: Sulpicius of Bourges, Anthony the Hermit, and Roseline de Villeneuve. Sulpicius, who Saint-Sulpice is named after, was the hagiogapher of St. Martin of Tours, a saint who one guidebook says "is frequently associated with places of sacred toponymical significance," as well as pagan tree-cults. St. Anthony is invoked to help heal people suffering from St. Anthony's Fire, a syndrome caused by consuming ergot (which contains LSD); in the Middle Ages, Crusaders brought his body back to the Dauphin region of France. Roseline de Villeneuve was a Carthusian nun, associated with a "rose miracle," who was so saintly that her body remained incorrupt after her death. King Louis is said to have checked if she was still alive, by putting a needle through her eye.

Marie de Negre (d'Ables, d'Hautpoul) is also said to have died on January 17th, 1781, the date on her tombstone. Nicholas Flamel was said to have achieved the Great Work of alchemy on Jan 17th, 1381. It is also claimed that Sigisbert "IV", the son of Dagobert II, arrived in RlC on January 17th, 681 CE. The "priory documents" claim that a new class of "Brethren," the "Children of St. Vincent" or "Free Brothers", were created on January 17th, 1681, in Blois. As you will also see, this group has a fascination with 81s and reversals. Pierre Plantard claims he became grand master in 1981, and in 1891 Sauniere wrote in his diary "excavated a tomb. It rained." Later he would carve 'MISSION 1891" on a pillar.

Another "red letter" day for the PoS seems to be December 23rd... the day that Dagobert II was killed near Stenay in the Ardennes, and also the day that Henri, duc de Guise, was killed in Blois. The PoS apparently has its "convents" in Blois, according to Ean Begg.

They said that in a few decades the E.U would overtake America as the top superpower in the world.