OCCULT VIEW

Nostradamus is viewed with skepticism by most people.  The skeptics have a point when they insist his predictions are so vague they can be applied to multiple situations.  Is there anything in his writings that pass for clear cut evidence Nostradamus predicted the future?  I will offer one example, a quatrain that reads like gibberish at first, but in reality is an uncanny prophecy, one of his greatest predictions:

           Century I, Quatrain 64
At night they will think they have seen the sun,
when they see the half pig man:
Noise, screams, battles seen fought in the skies.
The brute beasts will be heard to speak.

At first glance this seems nonsensical…the sun at night, half pig men and talking beasts.  Rubbish!  Bullcrap!  Nobody could understand this quatrain until the 20th century. The key is the third line.  This prediction might be a genuine prophetic vision containing sight and sound, clairvoyance and clairaudience.

Aerial warfare obviously did not exist during the time of Nostradamus in the 1500s.   It reads like Nostradamus uncomprehendingly tried to describe what he witnessed in words that made sense to him, describing a dogfight or a nighttime bombing raid.  Imagine if Nostradamus watched a news reel of the WWII Battle of Britain.  How would he describe it in four lines?

BRUTE BEASTS

“At night they will think they have seen the sun” is describing the spotlights trying to pinpoint the fighter aircraft and bombers in the sky.  Imagine the experience of the pilot suddenly getting hit with a searchlight.  The “half pig man” describes the appearance of an aviator wearing a flying helmet and oxygen mask.  “Noise, screams, battles seen fought in the skies” is the sound of aerial warfare, the shriek and roar of planes, bombs dropping, and anti-aircraft gunfire.  “The brute beasts will be heard to speak” is the radio communication in the cockpit or the aviators themselves inside the aircraft (beasts). 

It is remarkable how well this prediction conveys the experience of actually witnessing the event, trying to describe it in words that are insufficient to the task. If we still doubt Nostradamus predicted air travel, consider the quatrain that immediately preceded Quatrain 64:

           Century I, Quatrain 63
Pestilences extinguished, the world becomes smaller,
for a long time the lands will be inhabited peacefully.
People will travel safely through the sky (over) land and seas:
then wars will start up again.

The world was made smaller by modern air travel.  These two predictions were on target.

On January 12 we had one of the most horrendous earthquakes of our time, the earthquake in Haiti.  Watching the new coverage, I felt helpless as the poor people of Haiti were struggling for survival. 

Then on January 15 there was news about an annular eclipse that passed through Africa and Asia, appearing as a ring of fire in the sky.

Nostradamus often used celestial omens like comets as guideposts to identify his predictions.  Since this widely visible eclipse immediately followed the Haiti earthquake disaster, I revisited Nostradamus’ quatrains.  Did he have any predictions concerning an eclipse and an earthquake? 

He did have a prediction concerning an eclipse below:

            Century 3, Quatrain 34
When the eclipse of the Sun will then be,
The monster (omen) will be seen in full day:
Quite otherwise will one interpret it,
High price unguarded: none will have foreseen it.

Could this prediction have anything to do with foretelling the Haiti earthquake?  The first line of Century 3, quatrain 34 mentions an eclipse. 

The second line mentions a monster that will be seen in full day.  The term “monster” was usually a term representing an omen of disaster.   In Nostradamus’ day, if an animal was born with two heads, or a child was born with unusual abnormalities, these were considered bad omens, monsters.  Yes, superstition, but that was what people back then thought.  Comets were also considered to be fearful monsters, omens of fate.  Perhaps the eclipse, which looked like a great fiery ring in the sky, was the monster/omen.

The third line, “Quite otherwise will one interpret it” is vague.  Perhaps because the eclipse came after the earthquake and not right before it, nobody viewed the eclipse as an omen.  Imagine what people would’ve said if the eclipse came first followed by the earthquake a few days later.  Then people might widely view it as a bad omen.

Also, this eclipse was visible through the center of Africa.  The eclipse began in Africa, passing through Chad, Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia before crossing the Indian Ocean and reaching Asia.  A curious coincidence was that the African region where the eclipse was visible was long ago also victimized by the colonial slave trade.  Watching the eclipse in the sky January 15 were relatives of those taken into slavery to the New World, including Haiti, centuries ago.

2010 eclipse path and the slave trade paths

The last line “High price unguarded: none will have foreseen it” may refer to the earthquake.  There is a terribly tragic, high price being paid by Haiti.  Haiti was ill prepared (unguarded) for an earthquake.  Their economic and political resources were ill equipped to handle this disaster.  Because of Haiti’s poverty they did not have the building standards or emergency equipment to mitigate the effects of the earthquake. 

I don’t know if this prediction of Nostradamus concerns the tragedy in Haiti.  We can read too much into these, but it does make me wonder.  I hope the world can help Haiti in this time of need.

Haiti Earthquake

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.

Was Nostradamus ever able to actually predict the future?  Was he a true clairvoyant or a faker?  Nostradamus is controversial for sure.  His predictions are murky, subject to multiple interpretations.  But he was specific with one of his most famous predictions below:

X-72
The year 1999, seventh month,
From the sky will come a great King of Terror:
To bring back to life the great King of the Mongols,
Before and after Mars to reign by good luck.

This prediction above is maybe Nostradamus’ greatest failure. This is one of his few quatrains where he put an actual date on a prediction…1999. He should have stuck with being vague and non-specific. We’d be still on the lookout for the King of the Mongols today! With many of Nostradamus’ predictions, he lays an egg or no egg at all. His predictions are vague enough that people can read whatever they want in them.

Yet, at the same time there are predictions that seem on target. There are enough of these that it seems he just might have had true glimpses of the future, even if it was hit or miss. Some of Nostradamus’ predictions are indeed uncanny and suggest genuine clairvoyance.  Before we totally dismiss Nostradamus as bogus…below is a verse that might be a “hit”.

Century IV, quatrain 50
Libra will see the Hesperias govern,
Holding the monarchy of heaven and earth:
No one will see the forces of Asia perished,
Only seven hold the hierarchy in order.

Commentators recognized the first two lines.  Libra is the sign of the zodiac symbolized by the scales, or balance. Hesperia means “West”. So the first line suggests that there will be balance in the world when the West governs, holding rule over the land and sky (foreshadowing air power in the 20th century). Very good, the global balance of power.

ASIA

However commentators misinterpreted the last two lines, thinking they referred to China and the predicted King of the Mongols from verse X-72. Not so. Instead they are a part of Nostradamus’ series of successful predictions about the rise and fall of communism. This quatrain has already occurred.

What do the last two lines mean? The forces/power of Asia will not perish until seven have ruled in order? The “forces of Asia” being referred to is not China, but the former Soviet Union. The majority of the landmass of the Soviet Union was Asian, and at the time it was a world superpower. The “only seven hold the hierarchy in order” refers to the seven communist rulers who ruled the Soviet Union before it collapsed, or “perished”:

1. Vladmir Lenin (1917-1922) the beginning of communist Soviet Union
2. Joseph Stalin (1922-1953)
3. Nikita Krushchev (1953-1964)
4, Leonid Brezhnev (1964-1982).
5. Yuri Andropov (1082-1984)
6. Konstantin Cherneko (1984-1985)
7. Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1991) the end of communist Soviet Union.

The world power of Soviet communism perished after it’s seven communist rulers held rule in sequence. Maybe a handful of Nostradamus’ predictions are genuine. The problem is we don’t know beforehand which is the real deal, and which are not.