Michel de Nostredame, commonly known as Nostradamus,
was born on either 14 or 21 December 1503,
and he passed away on 2 July 1566.
He is probably the world’s most well-known
seer of the future, sometimes called a soothsayer,
or prophet, who from a young age supposedly
had visions of future events.
He wrote down his visions in the form of “quatrains”,
which are four-line poems.
These can be difficult to decipher, and it
is their very vague nature that skeptics say
discount their meaningfulness.
The French physician put down most of his
quatrains in a book called “Les Propheties”,
which has 942 of them in total – many of
them predicting future despots, disasters
and disputes.
Did he really see the future, or are we vainly
trying to find meaning in someone’s puzzling
ramblings?
That’s what we’ll look at today, in this
episode of the Infographics Show, Prophecies
of Nostradamus.
We will first give you the translation of
the prophecy, and then give you the possible
meaning.
9/11
“Earthshaking fire from the center of the
Earth
Will cause tremors around the New City.
Two great rocks will war for a long time,
Then Arethusa will redden a new river.”
This is one we can all relate to, as many
of the predictions happened a long time ago.
Center of the Earth doesn’t make much sense
unless you think 9/11 was an inside job, in
that the explosions came from within the building.
It might also mean that the USA is arguably
the most powerful nation, the center of the
Earth.
The New City, New York, experiencing tremors
makes sense as does two great rocks, The Twin
Towers.
But they don’t war for a long time, so was
he talking about Islamic terrorism and the
USA?
Arethusa was a Greek nymph and we can’t
relate that to the disaster but redden a new
river could be a river of blood.
In another quatrain he supposedly wrote:
"Two steel birds will fall from the sky on
the Metropolis,
The sky will burn at forty-five degrees latitude.”
We don’t need to explain steal birds, and
New York lies at 40 degrees North.
Although, there is evidence to suggest that
the first part was made up, and the quatrain
actually went like this:
“The sky will burn at forty-five degrees
latitude,
Fire approaches the great new city.”
All those quatrains you might find talking
about the ninth month are also fake, so really
the main things we can take are two rocks,
40 degrees and the New City, as well as fire
and blood, but Nostradamus wasn’t exactly
sparing with his fire and blood prophecies.
The rise of Hitler
“From the depths of the West of Europe,
A young child will be born of poor people,
He who by his tongue will seduce a great troop;
His fame will increase towards the realm of
the East.”
Two lines from another quatrain read:
“Beasts ferocious with hunger will cross
the rivers,
The greater part of the battlefield will be
against Hister.”
By west Europe we can say Germany.
Hitler wasn’t born poor but experienced
poverty in his early life and was homeless
for a while.
His populist policies were also meant to support
the downtrodden.
He was a great orator who got most of the
country behind him and certainly seduced a
great troop.
His fame, or infamy, did indeed increase.
In the other lines the beasts that cross rivers
could be Germany invading countries and of
course Hister could be Hitler, although it’s
thought Nostradamus was using it as a name
for the Danube River.
The French Revolution
“From the enslaved populace, songs,
Chants and demands
While princes and lords are held captive in
prisons.
These will in the future by headless idiots
Be received as divine prayers.”
We might look at the enslaved populace as
what was known as the Third Estate, the common
people of France who for the most part had
been subjected to poverty and inequities.
They banded together with chants and demands
and stormed the Bastille.
Indeed, many of the noble people were imprisoned
by the tides of the mob.
As for headless, we give you the guillotine.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing
“Near the gates and within two cities
There will be scourges the like of which was
never seen,
Famine within plague, people put out by steel,
Crying to the great immortal God for relief.”
The two cities makes sense and a scourge never
seen was the dropping of the first atomic
bomb on a populace.
Famine and plague could be radiation poisoning
and those sufferers left crying for relief.
The Great Fire of London
“The blood of the just will commit a fault
at London
Burnt through lightning of twenty threes the
six:
The ancient lady will fall from her high place
Several of the same sect will be killed.”
The ‘fault’ was possibly a fire that started
at a bakery owned by a man called Thomas Farriner.
That was in London and the great fire happened
in 1666.
Three times 20 equals 60 and plus the 6 you
have 66.
London could be the ancient lady and indeed
London was at that time in a very high place.
The city didn’t fall, but the destruction
was vast.
The BBC reports that the city had to be virtually
rebuilt.
As for the same sect, was he talking about
religious people or the mostly poor that died?
The Moon Landings
“He will come to travel to the corner of
Luna,
where he will be captured and put in a strange
land,
The unripe fruits to be subject of great scandal,
great blame, to one, great praise.”
He, the astronauts, will travel to Luna (Latin
for moon or goddess of the moon).
Captured could mean put on TV and of course
space was a strange land.
The unripe fruits some people think could
be the beginnings of space travel and the
cost, accidents, even moon-landing deniers,
could all be scandal.
Depending on where you stand on the space
race, you might blame or praise it.
JFK and RFK being assassinated
"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.
Conflict at Reims, London and a pestilence
in Tuscany."
A great man in JFK is struck down not by thunderbolt
but by gunshot.
This deed was indeed forecasted as he had
received many death threats (petitions).
Another falls, could be RFK who at nighttime
(he was killed at 12.15 am) was assassinated.
And as for the last part it’s a long shot,
but these murders reverberated around the
world.
Napoleon
"PAU, NAY, LORON will be more of fire than
of the blood,
To swim in praise,the great one to flee to
the confluence.
He will refuse entry to the Piuses,
The depraved ones and the Durance will keep
them imprisoned.”
Nostradamus doesn’t mention France explicitly,
but Pau, Nay, Loron are three towns in the
southern part of the country.
Rearrange these words and you get Napaulon
Roy.
In French, roy (spelled Roi) means king, so
you’ve Napoleon the King.
He certainly swam in praise and perhaps by
confluence it could mean how he battled throughout
Europe.
Some people think the mention of Pius relates
to Popes Pius VI and Pius VII, who were both
imprisoned by Napoleon as is said in the last
line.
Louis Pasteur
"The lost thing is discovered, hidden for
many centuries.
Pasteur will be celebrated almost as a God-like
figure.
This is when the moon completes her great
cycle,
But by other rumors he shall be dishonored."
Pasteur was the great French biologist, microbiologist
and chemist, and if you don’t already know
it was he who created the pasteurization process
– hence the name.
He is also responsible for creating vaccines.
He was in fact quite the demigod due to how
many lives he has saved, he’s one of the
most important people in history.
It seems he did mention Pasteur by name as
the French reads “Sera Pasteur demi-Dieu
honore.”
The thing discovered may be the way to destroy
bacteria by heating beverages and allowing
them to cool, among other discoveries he made.
But then it says after a while he will be
dishonored, which Pasteur was many years later
in 1995.
That was when Gerald Lynn Geison published
his biography of Pasteur “The Private Science
of Louis Pasteur” that leaves him in a less
heroic light.
Even a reviewer said the book asks us to question
our heroes, and so perhaps Pasteur did indeed
become less God-like.
Then again, that’s what happens to most
of our mythical heroes when they are deconstructed.
We might add that there are a lot of dubious
translations floating around the Internet
and some outright lies and even the supposed
valid facts are highly controversial.
Scholars refute many of the claims and tell
us many people are not able to understand
the French that Nostradamus used.
The debunked prophecies we have obviously
left out.
Thanks for watching, and tell us what you
think about these prophecies in the comments,
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