There is no need to even discuss the impact Nostradamus has had on the seer mythos. His book, “The Prophecies” has
been in print since the 1500s and is still read to this day. Few people realize that Nostradamus wasn't always a seer and that his beginnings were not unlike anyone else living that time.
He was born in December of 1503 to Reyniere de Saint-Remy and Jaume de Nostradame. He has and at least eight brothers and sisters. Yeah, they had big families back in those days. There is little else know about his childhood, but he was no seeing the future as a child. At least, he wasn't writing it down.
He entered the university of Avignon at the age of 25 and studied the usual courses of grammar, rhetoric and logic. He had to leave after only a year because of an outbreak of the plague. The university shut its doors when the students started dropping like flies.
He traveled for about eight years after that avoiding the plague and learning about local folk cures for a variety of illnesses and became a rather accomplished apothecary. He tried to get a doctorate in medicine, but was expelled when it came to light he had practiced as a apothecary. He supposedly created a rose colored pill that could protect people against the plague, but the efficacy of such medicine was never determined.
In the mid 16th century, Nostradamus began to lean towards the occult and away from mundane medicine. He became known as Nostradamus and began his career as a seer.