§731 The age of re-innovation is at hand (the first year of the 20th century): I-16.

I-16 (§731):

Scythe to the pond joined toward Sagittarius
In its high APSIDE of the exaltation,
Plague, famine, death from military hand:
The age of renovation is at hand.

(Faulx a l'estang joinct vers le Sagitaire
En son hault A V G E de l'exaltation,
Peste, famine, mort de main militaire:
Le siecle approche de renovation.)

NOTES: [This article supposes the preceding ones of mine: §8, §9, §10, §11, §12, §13, §14 and §15 of A l’Entrée des Prophéties, first published on line in 2009.]

AVGE: = APSIDE (apsis). « auge, s.f., syn. d’apside (synonym of apsis).» (Godefroy); « AUGE, s. f. - Astron. Auges s’emploie quelquefois comme synonyme d’apsides (AUGE, Astronomy. Auges is used sometimes as synonym of apsides).» (Landais); « APSIDES, subst. mas. plur. t. d’astron., les deux points de l’orbite d’une planète dans lesquels elle se trouve à la plus grande ou à la plus petite distance du soleil ou de la terre. - Apsides exprime proprement les deux sommets d’une courbe (APSIDES, term of astronomy, the two points of the orbit of a planet where its distance from the Sun or the Earth is either the greatest or the smallest).» (Landais).

Hault AVGE: = high apsis = aphelion; « apsis, n. (pl. apsides pr. -dēz), aphelion or perihelion of planet, apogee or perigee of satellite.» (Sykes); « apsis - n. (pl. apsides) the extremities of the major axis of an elliptic orbit, generic term for apogee and perigee: the higher apsis aphelion (of a planet); apogee (of the Moon)/ the lower apsis perihelion (of a planet); perigee (of the Moon).» (Koine); « aphelion, n., that point of the orbit of a celestial body which is farthest from the sun (astron.). - Grecized from Modern Latin aphēlium, which was coined by Kepler on analogy of apogaeum (see apogee) from Greek ἀπό (see apo-) and ἥλιος, 'sun'.» (Klein). The new concept of 'aphelion', inherent in an ellipse and absent in the traditional astrology, was due to a new astronomer Johann Kepler (1571-1630) who discovered the elliptic orbit of planets in 1609.   

Son hault AVGE: = the aphelion of Saturn.

Thus the first hemistich seems to concern an astronomical event as the astronomical terms of Sagittarius and APSIS suggest it. And in this context, scythe (faulx) refers « to Saturn, who (in astrological symbolism) carries a scythe.  The implement is a throwback to the origins of this planetary god as an agricultural deity, and as a descendant of the Greek time-god, Chronos. (The scythe-bearing ‘Father Time’ of modern imagery is cognate with this Saturn.).» (Ovason, 1997, p.91).

Estang: The original meaning of this French word is « a pond », but it has no astronomical connotation. If it has any meaning of the genre, it must be something of a planet because it is in conjunction with Saturn and what is in conjunction with a planet is itself another planet.  Here one can call for the so-called Latinism in Nostradamus, who sometimes seems to employ Latin words or etymologies in the guise of French usages. Then, « a pond (estang = étang) » in Latin is stāgnum (Walde-Hofmann, s.v.), though the latter is not in fact the etymology of the former**, and « tin (étain) » in Latin is stagnum (Walde-Hofmann, s.v.), which is in fact the etymology of étain. Therefore,  estang = stāgnum as homograph of stagnum in Latin may suggest that the word estang (étang, pond) stands in reality for étain (tin) in the prophetic framework of Nostradamus. ** The etymology of étang is either a French verb étancher, to stop [the water current] (Bloch & Wartburg, s. v. ÉTANCHER) or a type of popular Latin stancum (thence the Low Latin verb stancare, Fr. étancher) (Scheler, p.65-66).

This procedure of interpretation, very reasonable in the field of studying Nostradamus because the Prophet has a mastery of mixed, multilingual, sometimes intelligently distorted  expressions, does render useless the illegitimate effort of P. Brind'Amour who considers that all the editions are faulty and proposes his conjecture “estaing (étain)” in place of estang (Brind'Amour, 1996, p.69; 1993, p.212). But the word estaing does not exist in French.  However, the alternative way of thinking will have been able to admet the legitimate variant estain for estang because « in truth stancum should have been able to give estain as well as stagnum.» (Scheler, p.65-66). For « we see the [Latin] sound a replaced by ai in a large number of words where this vowel is followed by a complex of consonants whose first element is a simple or nasal guttural (g, c, ng, nc). Exemples: Pax = pacs) paix, tractus trait, sanctus saint, ...» (id., p.62-63). If stancum did not give  in fact estain, « it is, in all probablility, to elude the homonymy.» (id., p.66).

Now, as traditional astrology admets the respective correspondence of seven planets to seven principal metals as follows: the Sun = gold, the Moon = silver, Mercury = mercury, Venus = copper, Mars = iron, Jupiter = tin, Saturn = lead (Brind'Amour, 1993, p.162), the phrase “ Scythe to the pond joined ” concerns without doubt the conjunction of Saturn (scythe) with Jupiter (pond), i.e. a grand conjunction (cf. Brind'Amour, 1993, p.199). In fact, the French verb joindre à (to join to) forms a construction as follows: « Joignez cette pièce au dossier (Join this piece to the file). Joindre le geste à la parole (Join the practice to the word).» (Petit Robert).  Then, the interpretation of étang (pond) as « the sign of Aquarius (le signe du Verseau » (Ionescu, 1976, p.799; 1987, p.511; Wöllner, 1926, p.44; Centurio, 1953, p.34; Leoni, 1982, p.137; Cheetham, 1981, p.28; Dufresne, 1989, p.103), as « the aquatic zodiacal sign, Pisces » (Ovason, 1997, p.91) or as « Scorpio » (Lamont, 1944, p.330; Hogue, 1997, p.80; Fontbrune, 1999, p.219) is not pertinent in principle.

And  the sign where this conjunction occurs is Capricorn because it is the exaltation of Saturn here. For the astrological term « exaltation » means «  the sign where a planet has the most virtue (le signe où une planète a le plus de vertu).» (Landais), and when it is in its exaltation, it is with dignity: « Dignity (Dignité), - In a term of astrology, situation of a planet in the sign where it has the most influence (En t. d’astrol., situation d’une planète dans le signe où elle a le plus d’influence).» (id.).  And as a traditonal rule Saturn has two exaltations, namely Capricorn and Aquarius (see below), of which the former well fits in with the context of the quatrain in question because it is where Saturn can take a certain move toward Sagittarius (vers le Sagitaire) in the narrowest sense of the term toward. Moreover, the move of Saturn in Capricorn toward Sagittarius must be, of course, its retrogradation, the latter preceding the former in the cycle of the zodiac. And with this Jupiter is conidered to be in retrogradation according to the same qualifying phrase toward Sagittarius, Saturn and Jupiter following the same AHEAD-BACK-AHEAD movement with a little time lag from the viewpoint on the Earth.

The traditional doctrine of the exaltations of Seven Planets: « The thema mundi, the horoscope of the world, was very ancient. It is normally introduced to explain why Aries is regarded as the ‘beginning’ of the zodiac, although a circle has of course no beginning. So Macrobius (I-21, 23ff) says that: ‘when that day began which was the first of all and is therefore rightly called the world’s birthday, Aries was in the Midheaven; and because the Midheaven is as it were the vertex of the world, Aries was therefore held to be the first among them all, the one which appeared like the head of the world at the beginning of light. And they add the reason why these twelve signs are assigned to the powers of different gods. For they say that in that same birth-chart of the world, Aries being as we have said in the Midheaven, the horoscopus [ascendant] of the world coming to birth was Cancer, bringing forth at that moment the Moon. The Sun was rising next with Leo, Virgo with Mercury, Libra with Venus, Mars was in Scorpio, Sagittarius had Jupiter and Saturn was wandering in Capricorn. So it came about that each was said to be the lord of that sign in which it was believed to be when the world was being born. To the two luminaries antiquity alloted only the signs, one to each, in which they had been then, Cancer to the Moon and Leo to the Sun. To the other five stars, however, besides those signs in which they then had been, ancient times so added the other five as to begin the new series at the end of the first. We said earlier that Saturn, last of all, was in Capricorn; so the second set of attributions made the previous last one first, and Aquarius, which follows Capricorn, was given to Saturn. To Jupiter, who preceded Saturn, Pisces was allocated’, and so on, thus explaining the ‘planetary houses’. All of which is found in other authorities; ... » (Tester, 1987, p.119-120); « Traditionally, they hold that each planet is the strongest in the sign it rules and the weakest in its opposite sign.» (Ishikawa, 1988, p.69).

At last, it is clear that in order to identify the date of the astronomical event predicted in this quatrain during the period of 1555 to 2000, the span which we suppose to be assigned by Nostradamus for the historical realization of his Prophecies, we should converge the following three conditions:

a) the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn [Scythe to the pond joined],

b) the retrogdadation of Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn toward Sagittarius [toward Sagittarius] and

c) Saturn at its aphelion in Capricorn [Scythe at its high APSIDE of the exaltation].

Among these three, the most pertinent shall be the condition c), for the chronological change of the aphelion of Saturn is very slow, but with rapid and unexpected perturbations, which may allow us the chance of dating this event with more precision and facility during the period  relatively long.

a) The exact conjunctions [the congruence of their longitudes] of Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn during the years 1555-2000.

During the period from 1555 to 2000 A.D., there are 23 exact conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter, the so-called grand conjunctions as follows. N.B. These astronomic calculations have been done by means of the softwares: AstroArts Inc., StellaNavigator: Hyperreal astronomic simulation, ASCII Corp., Tokyo, 1993 and Tomas Kubec – OrionSoft, StarFisher, free astrology software, 2006-2011 (http://www.starfisher.cz/starfisher/EN/download.htm ).

Table §731a: Exact conjunctions of Saturn with Jupiter.

№	Year	Month	Day	LMT at Paris: 2º.4 E, 48º.9 N	Longitude of conjunction
1	1563	8	25	17:00	119º 10ʹ
2	1583	5	2	22:00	350º 10ʹ
3	1603	12	18	05:00	248º 18ʹ
4	1623	7	16	20:00	126º 35ʹ
5	1643	2	24	22:00	355º 06ʹ
6	1663	10	16	22:00	252º 57ʹ
7	1683	5	18	00:00	134º 29ʹ
8	1702	5	21	20:00	6º 36ʹ
9	1723	1	5	13:00	263º 18ʹ
10	1742	8	30	18:00	147º 08ʹ
11	1762	3	18	14:00	12º 20ʹ
12	1782	11	5	07:00	268º 06ʹ
13	1802	7	17	21:00	155º 07ʹ
14	1821	6	19	14:00	24º 38ʹ
15	1842	1	26	03:00	278º 53ʹ
16	1861	10	21	10:00	168º 21ʹ
17	1881	4	18	12:00	31º 35ʹ
18	1901	11	28	15:00	283º 59ʹ
19	1921	9	10	01:00	176º 34ʹ
20	1941	2	15	05:00	39º 07ʹ
21	1961	2	18	21:17	295º 11ʹ
22	1980	12	31	14:00	189º 29ʹ
23	2000	5	28	15:00	52º 43ʹ

Of these 23, only 3 (cells in gray) are found to be in Capricorn (the longitude of Capricorn is from 270º to 300º):
№15. 26 January 1842 03:00, 278º 53ʹ;
№18. 28 November 1901 15:00, 283º 59ʹ;
№21. 18 February 1961 21:17, 295º 11ʹ.

But, these are all off the following three periods of common retrogradation of Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn (see the table §731b below):
10 May 1842 18:10 – 9 September 1842 6:18,
1st May 1901 01:27 – 30 August 1901 22:59 and
12 August 1961 10:47 – 23 September 1961 15:37.

We then consider their conjunctions in a large sense, or loose conjunctions, namely conjunctions with indulgence (orbs of elongation) of ± 5°, i.e. 10° in sum (cf. Ishikawa, Genkou [石川源晃], Introduction to astrology: Practice, [実習占星学入門],  Hirakawashuppan [平河出版社], Tokyo, 1988. p.89).  

b) The common retrogradation of Saturn and Jupiter, in loose conjunction in Capricorn, toward Sagittarius during the period concerned.

Table §731b: Retrogradations of Saturn and Jupiter.

Year-Month -Day	Longitude of Saturn	Elong- ation of Saturn from Jupiter			Remarks
Hour: LMT at Paris (2.4º E, 48.9º N)	Longitude of Jupiter
1842-1-26	278º 53ʹ	0º 00ʹ			Exact conjunction in progress
3:00	278º 53ʹ
1842-4-23	284º 25ʹ	7º 48ʹ			* Saturn starting to retrograde (*)
21:34	292° 13ʹ
1842-5-10	284º 12ʹ	8° 28ʹ			*# Jupiter starting to retrograde (#)
18:10	292° 40ʹ
1842-6-15	282º 27ʹ	8° 21ʹ			*#
0:00	290° 48ʹ
1842-7-20	279º 57ʹ	6° 37ʹ			*#
0:00	286° 34ʹ
1842-9-2	277º 54ʹ	5° 00ʹ			*#
13:10	282° 54ʹ
1842-9-9	277º 50ʹ	5° 00ʹ			*# Jupiter finishing to retrograde
6:18	282° 50ʹ
1842-9-12	277º 49ʹ	5º 02ʹ			* Saturn finishing to retrograde
6:08	282º 51ʹ
1901-4-26	286º 24ʹ	3º 23ʹ			* Saturn starting to retrograde
4:44	283º 01ʹ
1901-5-1	286º 22ʹ	3º 19ʹ			*# Jupiter starting to retrograde
1:27	283º 03ʹ
1901-6-1	285º 24ʹ	3º 49ʹ			*#
0:00	281º 35ʹ
1901-8-19	280º 20ʹ	6º 53ʹ			*#
2:00	273º 27ʹ
1901-8-30	279º 57ʹ	6º 44ʹ			*# Jupiter finishing to retrograde
22:59	273º 13ʹ
1901-9-7	279º 50ʹ	6º 32ʹ			*
0:00	273º 18ʹ
1901-9-14	279º 47ʹ	6º 13ʹ			* Saturn finishing to retrograde
14:19	273º 34ʹ
1901-11-28	283º 59ʹ	0º 00ʹ			Exact conjunction in progress
15:00	283º 59ʹ
1961-1-5	290º 05ʹ	5º 00ʹ
5:42	285º 05ʹ
1961-2-18	295º 11ʹ	0º 00ʹ			Exact conjunction in progress
21:17	295º 11ʹ
1961-3-15	297º 28ʹ	2º 32ʹ			Jupiter leaving Capricorn into Aquarius
7:04	300º 00ʹ
1961-5-9	299º 51ʹ	n/a			* Saturn starting to retrograde
16:31	306º 45ʹ
1961-5-25	299º 39ʹ	n/a			* Jupiter starting to retrograde
18:45	307º 09ʹ
1961-8-12	294º 51ʹ	5º 09ʹ			*# Jupiter back into Capricorn
10:47	300º 00ʹ
1961-9-23	293º 15ʹ	4º 04ʹ			*# Jupiter finishing to retrograde
15:37	297º 19ʹ
1961-9-27	293º 14ʹ	4º 07ʹ			* Saturn finishing to retrograde
19:41	297º 21ʹ

It is evident through this table §731b that Saturn and Jupiter in loose conjunction (the elongations of Saturn from Jupiter under 10°) in Capricorn retrograde together during the following periods (cells in dark gray of the table §731b):
10 May 1842 18:10 – 9 September 1842 6:18,
1st May 1901 01:27 – 30 August 1901 22:59 and
12 August 1961 10:47 – 23 September 1961 15:37.
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