Nostradamus

What if I could tell you that a prophet had predicted the rise and fall of Hitler, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and maybe even the horrifying attack of the World Trade Center on September 11? How would you feel? I’m here to tell you about a sixteenth-century prophet and astrologer by the name of Nostradamus, and his fascinating, yet frightening prophecies.

Before I go into the content of Nostradamus’ prophecies, I want to tell you about his own background. The name Nostradamus is the Latinized form of Michel de Nostredame. He was born on December 14, 1503 at Saint-Remy in Provence, France (Cohen 61). He was born into a well-educated family. Nostradamus in his early years studied to be a physician. He actually did not show much interest in astrology and prophecy until a plague hit parts of France and killed his wife and children (Cohen 62). When he did start committing himself to seeing the future, he wrote in prophetic verses in forms of quatrains. These verses were organized into 10 book, which were called the Centuries and was fully published in the year 1557 (Cohen 64). The books seem to predict events up to year 3797. That is about 1792 years for now. The language that the book was written in was extremely hard to decipher. It was a complex language comprised of archaic French, Latin, and mysterious anagrams. The way that Nostradamus prophesied is said to be by looking into a bowl of water and actually seeing the visions of the future. This was also called scrying (Cohen 65). All of this biographical information can be found in Daniel Cohen’s book, Prophets of Doom. Now, since we know a little about Nostradamus as a person and his method of prophesying, let’s see about his actual prophecies.

Part of Century 2, Quatrain 24: “Beasts ferocious with hunger will cross the rivers. The greater part of the battlefield will be against Hister (Harris 5).” In Mysterious World of Prophets, Seers of the Future, a TV documentary, it tells that the name “Hister” that Nostradamus is referring in the quatrain to is actually Adolf Hitler. Although he was one letter off, it is very close for a person living in the 16th century. Don’t you think so? There are also more quatrains referring to the man named “Hister”. Skeptics believe that this prophecy came out of incorrect translation or pure coincidence. Nostradamus followers believe the fact that the prophet may indeed have meant the infamous dictator, Adolf Hitler. Most of the information about the prophecies of Hitler can be found at Tom Harris’ article, “How Nostradamus Works”.

Furthermore, let’s talk about the prophecies regarding September 11. There is said to be 2 quatrains about the terrorist attack on New York.

Translation of Century 10, Quatrain 72:

The year 1999 seven months

From the sky will come the Great King of Terror.

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