Nostradamus Prophecies - Background of a "Prophet"
Nostradamus was born Michel de Nostredame in St. Remy, France on December 14, 1503. As a youth, he spent a great deal of time with his grandfather learning languages, mathematics, astronomy and astrology. He majored in liberal arts at the University of Avignon, and graduated from the medical school at the University of Montpellier. He practiced medicine and was known for successfully treating plague victims in the areas surrounding Montpellier. In 1534, Nostradamus married his first wife and had two children. Shortly thereafter, he lost his entire family to the plague, and traveled Europe for the next six years. In 1554, Nostradamus settled in Salon, France, where he married his second wife and had six children.
In 1555, at the age of 52, Nostradamus wrote his first set of prophecies, a collection of 100 "quatrains" known as a "century." (A quatrain is simply a poem with four lines.) In 1564, Nostradamus was appointed as Royal Physician to King Charles IX. During the next several years, until his death in 1566, Nostradamus wrote ten centuries of prophecies.
Nostradamus Prophecies - Some Famous Examples
The “prophecies” of Nostradamus were written primarily in French, although he threw in some Latin, Greek and Italian to murk some meanings. He also used other devices to obscure his quatrains, including symbols, metaphors and purposely-misspelled words.
Prophet and astrologer Nostradamus has captivated the imaginations of many generations through his cryptic predictions that seem to have an uncanny accuracy.
Nostradamus is credited by many people with predicting such things as the rise of Adolf Hitler, World War II, and even the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy.
Typically, the predictions require some stretches. For example, here is a verse that people say points to the Kennedy assassination:
"The great man will be struck down in the day by a thunderbolt.
An evil deed, foretold by the bearer of a petition.
According to the prediction, another falls at night time."
Another passage has been cited as evidence that Nostradamus not only knew of the assassination, but was aware of the mysterious "second assassin" some have postulated fired from the "grassy knoll" in Dallas when John F. Kennedy was shot.
"The ancient work will be accomplished,
and from the roof evil ruin will fall on to the great man.
Being dead, they will accuse an innocent of the deed,
the guilty one hidden in the misty woods."
Fascinating stuff, but hardly the same as if Nostradamus had named Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald hundreds of years ago.
Shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks in the U.S., a large number of alleged Nostradamus prophecies began circulating the Internet and news media. Here are a few of them:
"In the year of the new century and nine months, From the sky will come a great King of Terror... The sky will burn at forty-five degrees. Fire approaches the great new city..."
"In the city of York there will be a great collapse, two twin brothers torn apart by chaos while the fortress falls the great leader will succumb third big war will begin when the big city is burning"
"It has been foreseen that exactly three hundred and fifty years into the future, silver phoenixes shall strike down the twin brothers of oppression That carried the king's nation, which shall bring upon the apocalypse. In the City of God there will be a great thunder, two brothers torn apart by chaos"
So, did Nostradamus predict the attacks against the Twin Towers in New York? No, Nostradamus didn't write these quatrains - they were tweaked and twisted to somewhat match the event. For example, the first one says "In the year of the new century and nine months," but Nostradamus' original quatrain reads, "In the year 1999 and seven months, from the skies shall come an alarming powerful king" (Century 10:72). Neither is there a mention of "twin brothers" being "torn apart." The quatrain actually says, "Two royal brothers shall war so much one against the other" (Century 3:97). Finally, as for collapsing in the city of York and the sky burning, this is as close as he gets: "The heaven shall burn at five and forty degrees, the fire shall come near the great new city... when they shall make a trial of the Normans" (Century 6:97). Nostradamus never even mentioned the words "fortress" or "big war."
Did Nostradamus predict the end of the world?
Many people are asking, "Did Nostradamus predict the end of the world?" The very short answer to this question is no. His 'so called' prophesies and predictions have been extracted from the approximately 1000 letters he wrote in 4-line (quatrains) and 6-line (sixains) verses. In one of the letters, he clearly states (in plain French) that his predictions will go on for thousands of years, out to the year 3797. This is not a prediction for the end of the world, rather a statement about how far his projections would extend.
His astrological bent had a great deal to do with the content of his writings. Astrological authorities believed that history inevitably repeats itself. In one of his pieces, he wrote: "But the certainty of things past and present gives us confidence in things to come." Nostradamus had only to look back at the ancient chronicles, in particular those regarding 'omens', to find an abundance of material for his quatrains, and sixains. This he did to great effect.
Nostradamus Prophecies - Why do we care so much?
After the 911 attacks, Nostradamus prophecies were everywhere. Nostradamus made the BBC News and his prophecies were written about in books on Amazon.com's bestseller list. Dramatically, "Nostradamus" even displaced "sex" from the Internet's top-fifty list for a short period of time. Obviously, people love the notion of prophecy. The tabloids are a testament to that. The problem with the “prophecies” of Nostradamus is that they are mostly vague and usually erroneous. But some have, seemingly come true, also! Hence the mystery – could Nostradamus really see into the future? Can we anticipate future events by studying his writings? You decide.
The last laugh...
Nostradamus is said to have predicted his own death. When his assistant wished him goodnight on July 1, 1566, Nostradamus reputedly pronounced, "You will not find me alive at sunrise." He was found dead on July 2, 1566.
Nostradamus was interred standing upright in the Church of the Cordeliers of Salon. However, his story does not end there; he was disinterred twice, once on purpose and once maliciously.
In 1700, his body was moved by the city to a more prominent crypt. When a necklace was found on his skeleton bearing the date '1700', his body was hurriedly reinterred.
During the French Revolution, in 1791, some drunken soldiers broke into his tomb. The mayor quickly placated the mob by describing how Nostradamus had predicted the revolution, and they replaced the bones in the crypt.
However, Nostradamus had the last laugh. In Century 9, Quatrain 7, he had written:
"The man who opens the tomb when it is found
And who does not close it immediately,
Evil will come to him
That no one will be able to prove."
Reputedly, the soldiers who desecrated his tomb for the final time were ambushed on their way back to base and killed to the last man.
