Prophecies

Greetings Dear Reader!

To start with, this blog has turned one month old. I take the opportunity to thank all the readers who have been visiting this blog regularly and it is only because of your continuous appreciation that this blog has hit 1000 page views in its first month! Keep motivating me by your comments and I promise to keep you entertained.

Let me now start with the discussion of the day.

A famous astrologer of the 16th century makes about 353 predictions regarding not only the near future but also the centuries to follow. Have these predictions really come true? Who was this astrologer? Read on to know the story of this French astrologer.

Michael Nostradamus

His name was Michael Nostradamus.  He once wrote the following verse-

"At forty-five degrees the sky will burn,

Fire to approach the great new city;

In an instant a great scattered flame will leap up,

When one will want to demand proof of the Normans."

Can you guess what these verse-like lines point at? Nearly 450 years ago, French astrologer Nostradamus spoke of a new and huge city in these verse-like lines. This city situated at 45º latitude. In the city, a colossal fire breaks out suddenly and huge flares of fire leap towards the sky. The proof of these events will be finally given by the Normans when they are going to be asked for it. After four-and-a-half centuries, on September 11, 2001, when the twin towers of the World Trade Center in the USA were attacked by the terrorists, Nostradamus' lines given above were flashed on to the internet within seconds and gained attention worldwide. People started believing that Nostradamus had foreseen the destruction of the Twin Towers 450 years ago.

If we try to fit the words of Nostradamus' prediction with the event that actually happened on September 11, 2001, the first thing is that the Towers were situated in New York City, which was termed as 'Great New' city by Nostradamus. However, New York's geographical location is not 45º latitude but 40º 5' North latitude. Thus the first two lines of the prediction seem to fit exactly and when the two airplanes of the hijackers strike the twin towers one after the other, huge flares of fire reached the sky.

The 9/11 attack at the World Trade Center (WTC)

Even if the World Trade Center isn't situated at 45º latitude, the hijackers' Boeing-757 that crashed into the northern tower of the WTC came exactly at an angle of 45º. To support this theory, people have come up with the explanation that geologist Ptolemy had made about 8000 dots on a haphazard map of Earth and chalked out various latitudes and longitudes in 150 B.C. During those days, the word 'latitude' meant 'angle'. People who had faith in Nostradamus' farsightedness found the connection between the Normans and the WTC (which was not known earlier as 'Norman' relates to the Viking people that inhabited in Norway, who settled down on French coast about 1500 years ago and they had no connection with the WTC). They considered Normans as French. The French spy federation had complete information about the attack a day earlier. They had sent the information across the USA's intelligence agency FBI but even so they paid no heed.

There is a separate section of people who believe that Nostradamus could accurately predict the future. The believers say that predictions up to the year 3797 A.D. have been made by Nostradamus who was born in 1503, and are considered authentic even today. Predictions for the next 1782 years have already been made. 

Most of his fame did not come from the books in which he wrote predictions which helped the people get a trailer of the distant future, but from the verbal prophecies he made. He published books named Centuries 2, 3 and 4 after his first book named Century 1. The last book had only 53 predictions unlike the usual 100. Thus the total number of predictions was 353 while the aim of Nostradamus was to take the score up to 1000.

The book of prophecies made by Nostradamus called 'Centuries'

Once the French Queen Catharine heard of him. She sent for his book and read it. She gleaned some meaning of a prediction and sent for Nostradamus and invited him to Paris. When he arrived, Catharine held quatrain number 35 in front of him which read:

"The younger lion will overcome the older,
In single combat, on the field of war;
His eyes will be pierced in their golden helm,
Two wounds become one and he dies a cruel death."

Catharine feared that these lines could have been written for King Henry. Nostradamus returned to Solon after making many predictions in the queen's presence, and whatever explanation of the above verse was given to her is not known to anyone. Catharine alerted King Henry about the prediction. But even so, on July 10, 1558, the king who was fond of the sport of fencing, fought a duel with the commander-in-chief of his body guards, Count Montgomery, in a tournament. According to the rules of the game, both were wearing a 'helm' (helmet). In Henry's case, the metal used for the head gear was gold. During the duel, an accident which rarely takes place occurred and the point of the count's sword pierced King Henry's left eye right up to his brain. There were two wounds- the eye was lost and the brain too was injured and so after suffering a lot for 10 days, Henry finally passed away.

As time passed, people felt that many of Nostradamus' predictions were coming true. Each and every event could be likened to one or the other prediction. The rising of Hitler to power, the commencement of the Second World War, the dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the assassination of American President Kennedy, Saddam's anti-American revolt, etc. nothing was left out.

Thinking on the lines of science, logic and intelligence, read each and every event hereafter with a steady and unbiased mind. Though Nostradamus has predicted many events, yet he has not given the date, year or even century of any of the future events. Though he has written that the events will happen, but there is absolutely no clue when these events will take place. A total of 353 predictions has been made by Nostradamus and during the 450 years that have passed, almost all types of incidents have happened. Therefore, everyone just finds something to match his/her shape or size and according to the law of probability, it is not difficult to relate some or the other words written by Nostradamus to some event or the other.

Here are some facts about the predictions made by Nostradamus-

• The language used by Nostradamus is so confusing that one cannot find thread of the events that he has predicted. No one understands even a word. The believers scan the books written by him after the event had happened and then whichever verse resembles the event is made famous- and then wait for some other big incident to relate it with one more prediction. This process will continue till 3797 A.D.

• Many of the predictions can be interpreted in more than one ways. Consider the prediction concerning the WTC where he used the word 'ville neuve' in his original writing. Literally, translating the phrase from French to English, it means 'new city'. Not only does a city with the exact same name exist near Paris in France, but its geographical location is also 45º latitude. This new (neuve) city (ville) had gone up in flames during the war Napoleon had waged against England and in the Second World War, German fighter planes had bombarded it. Thus 'a great scattered flame will leap up' holds true and so does the whole verse.

• Nostradamus has played quite a lot with the words. As a result it is easy for the believers to twist and turn the words according to their whims and give whatever meaning they want to his predictions. For instance, in the prediction about a gruesome war, the last line is "Mabus then will die." But the name of the fierce battle is not mentioned. One cannot tell who is Mabus, he could be anyone. Can it be Saddam Hussain? If the name does not match, ask a Nostradamus' believer and they will tell you that one should write his name as 'Sudam' according to the pronunciation and then hold it up in front of a mirror. Have a go with this experiment. The names are not going to match even after the experiment. Have another go. Play with the name of the terrorist 'Osama Bin Laden'. Firstly, replace O with U. Now take away 'in' and write only B. Lastly, arrange all the letters in such a way that Nostradamus' prediction comes true. Write the capital letters U and B in small case u and b; simultaneously capitalizing m to M. Have you got the word 'Mabus'?

• Many of the predictions that have been attributed to Nostradamus have not been mentioned in any of his books 'Centuries'. There are about 50 such predictions that are famous since they were made after the events took place and have been relegated to Nostradamus.

Thus, Nostradamus who died in 1556 has become immortal and each of his predictions are considered evergreen even today. Even if the predictions have no connections whatsoever with science, logic and intelligence, Nostradamus is going to stay with us with his prophecies until year 3797 A.D. 1782 years from today, people may forget who Albert Einstein was, but they will certainly remember Nostradamus.

Calling it a day, it's time to reveal the topic of discussion for the next post. The next post will be dedicated to the lost city of Atlantis. Until we meet next, keep sharing the link to the post and drop your feedback/suggestions in comments below. Bye! :)