A common complaint about Nostradamus and his predictions are they haven’t been used to predict an event before it actually happened. They are always interpreted after the fact. This is essentially true, but there are times when people get close to figuring out an event beforehand. Let us consider this quatrain below, Century 4, quatrain 67.
Century IV, Quatrain 67
The year that Saturn and Mars are equal fiery,
The air is very dry, a long meteor:
Through secret fires a great place blazing from heat,
Little rain, hot wind, wars, incursions.
Erika Cheetham, a noted Nostradamus author, had this to say about this quatrain in her book from the early 1970s, The Prophecies of Nostradamus:
“The configuration of Saturn and Mars is a common one, so further information is needed to understand this quatrain. The dating of the comet or meteor is probably the key.”
Erika Cheetham was very close with this; she had the dating right before her. Saturn and Mars were in conjunction on Feb. 18, 1986. Halley’s Comet was at its closest point to Earth on April 11 for the 1986 visit. Both of these dates were predictable, if only someone connected those dots beforehand. The quatrain said something dramatic with fire would happen in 1986. What happened?
On April 26, 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear accident happened. “From secret fires a great place blazing from heat” could easily represent the “secret fires” of the Chernobyl explosion. The line “little rain, hot wind, wars, incursions” could mean the Soviet’s desert war in Afghanistan that was going on at the time (the Soviet Union withdrew its troops in 1988). Russian and the Soviet Union seem be a prime topic for Nostradamus.
There are a number of significant predictions for the future where Nostradamus mentions comets. Whenever I hear about a new comet in the news, I pull out my old worn copy of the quatrains and revisit them. I would like to think for once someone could use these quatrains to actually predict something before it happens. Maybe one day.
December 28th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
No one will ever predict anything with a credibility from Nostradamus’ cryptic quatrains. Even those linked to events after the fact are always wrong. He didn’t predict Lady Diana’s death, the quatrain is about the Feast of Diana the huntress goddess. Nor did Nostradamus predict 911 in verse or watercolor. The watercolors are not his work at all.
December 28th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Hi Real 2012,
Nostradamus was off on a lot of his predictions, no doubt. His famous 1999 prediction was a big goose egg. Yet, I feel he actually did have his moments of clairvoyance. Not always, but sometimes. For instance, his predictions about air travel (CI – 63 & 64) were truly visionary if not prophetic. Even if a handful of his predictions are real I feel his words are worth considering, if not swallowed whole. But I’d totally disregard any predictions about celebrities. Anybody could come up with some Michael Jackson interpretations if they wanted to.
Dave