(14 December 1503 or 21 December 1503 – 2 July 1566), usually Latinised to Nostradamus, was a French apothecary (chemist/doctor) and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous world-wide. He is best known for his book Les Propheties, the first edition of which appeared in 1555. Since the publication of this book, which has rarely been out of print since his death, Nostradamus has attracted an enthusiastic following who, along with the popular press, credit him with predicting many major world events.

In contrast, most academic sources maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus's quatrains are largely the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate) or else are so tenuous as to render them useless as evidence of any genuine predictive power. Moreover, none of the sources listed offers any evidence that anyone has ever interpreted any of Nostradamus's quatrains specifically enough to allow a clear identification of any event in advance

Nevertheless, interest in the work of this prominent figure of the French Renaissance is still considerable, especially in the media and in popular culture, and the prophecies have in some cases been assimilated to the results of applying the alleged Bible Code, as well as to other purported prophetic works.

I feel that I have to put a certain theory or should I say acceptability through the wringer before my head explodes with trying to answer the question of 'Predictability' . For over 30 years, people have asked me the question, how can using Tarot cards produce the answers to the future, tell fortunes, be able to predict the future. The only answer I can give is, "To be honest, I don't know, but it does seem to work". And the same goes for any other form of divination except Astrology, which is not a predictive tool but a system that identifies all aspects of our lives which relate to the planets influences which in turn affects our day-to-day actions and thoughts. Most Astrologers would probably explain the fact that we, (that is, us humans) have what's called, 'Freewill', and so are able to choose how wish to live our lives and ignore the influences the planets offer.

Chaos theory has been around for many years and has been used by many Scientists, Physicists, etc, to work with all sorts of mathematical equations and scientific theory's in the past and present and so I have no qualms of its existence. Chaos Theory does exist. So lets move on, to the next part of this article and that is, Prediction. But before I do, I would just like to add some outside information, which follows......

In experimental physics, there are always observational errors determining variables such as positions and velocities. So perfect prediction is practically impossible. Moreover, in modern quantum mechanics,Werner Heisenberg's indeterminacy principle puts limits on the accuracy with which such quantities can be known. So such perfect predictability is also theoretically impossible. This paragraph is taken from Wikipedia on Predictability.

So, should I pack up my faithful Tarot cards and disappear into the wilderness because some physicists have proved that prediction is impossible or take the stance of, Freewill, and carry on dealing my cards to anyone who ask me to read for them. Well that has to be my decision and no one else's. If I believe that divination works, to some extent, then why shouldn't I carry on reading the Tarot and help others to understand the effects what Tarot cards can have on their future. I also believe that, without Chaos there can be no Order and that gives me the strength to carry on reading my Tarot cards so at least I can assimilate some kind of order from the chaos my clients bring to me in their questions.

As I sit here shuffling my Tarot cards and wondering if I can predict the lottery numbers this week for £170 million I know deep down, that is all it is, a lottery. So how can I predict the exact 7 numbers from possibly a randomly generated sequence of several hundred millions to one. To be that accurate every week, would be either pure luck or simply amazing and unnatural. Yet some people win, how do they do it? Simple, they play the same numbers, week in and week out and by some coincidence they match the winning numbers. That is NOT predicting, it is pure luck on their behalf. There are hundreds of examples like that associated with gambling, maybe thousands. I will keep reading Tarot cards and writing about divination systems but that doesn't say I can predict the future or maybe I can, it's just that people don't always tell me when I am accurately correct.