? Essay, Research Paper
Did Nostradamus really predict New York attack?
By Geert De Clercq
SINGAPORE, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Internet chat rooms are abuzz with talk that 16th century French astrologer Nostradamus forecast the attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
Thousands of people have received e-mails containing this prophecy, often with a second part forecasting that the attack on the twin towers will mark the beginning of World War III.
Several versions are doing the rounds. This is one of them:
“In the year of the new century and nine months
From the sky will come a great King of Terror
The sky will burn at forty-five degrees
Fire approaches the new city.”
The text corresponds roughly to a verse in Nostradamus’s Century (section) Six, Quatrain 97. Several books on Nostradamus have speculated that this quatrain’s first line refers to September 2001, the ninth month in the first year of the new century, while the 45 degrees is interpreted as the latitude of the city of New York.
But New York lies just below 41 degrees latitude and Nostradamus’s verse does not mention a great war, contrary to what several e-mails say. In many e-mails, the verse comes with a second part, which seems harder to link to Nostradamus:
“In the city of York there will be a great collapse
Two twin brothers torn apart by chaos
While the fortress falls the great leader will succumb
Third big war will begin when the big city is burning.”
HOAXSTRADAMUS?
“(This second quatrain) is NOT by Nostradamus,” read a statement on www.nostradamus-repository.org, a Web site for Nostradamus study.
Hoax or not, various versions of the verse are being forwarded by the thousands every day.
“Initially, I was really sceptical, but I went to the web to look up something on (Nostradamus). Some prophecies have come true,” Agnes Ng, a 23-year old Singaporean accountancy student, told Reuters on Thursday.
She received one of the prophecies in an e-mail from a friend. Before forwarding the message to her contacts, she posted a copy on Usenet newsgroup alt.prophecies.nostradamus. The e-mail she received was even more specific, forecasting that:
“The big war will begin when the big city is burning
on the 11th day of the 9th month that…
two metal birds would crash into two tall statues
in the new city and the world will end soon after.”
One of the newsgroup contributors who goes by the e-mail moniker of “Justaguy” said this was a fake.
“It has been posted ad nauseam,” he said.
Nostradamus prophecies surface after nearly every major news event. False or real, they struck a chord in Singapore.
Bookstore salespeople told Reuters there had been strong demand for books on Nostradamus since Tuesday’s attacks.
An Internet Hoax
“Come the millennium, month 12
In the home of greatest power
The village idiot will come forth
To be acclaimed the leader.”
Shortly after the US Supreme Court selected George W. Bush as president in 2000, this quatrain made the Internet Rounds. After receiving many e-mail messages asking whether it had truly been written by Nostradamus, I used this site’s Nostradamus Search Engine to investigate. The following quatrain, which refers to an “Idiot Heir” — not “Village Idiot” — is perhaps the origin of the hoax. Scroll farther down this page to read comments made by John Hogue, author of many fine books concerning Nostradamus and his prophecies.
In the New York Post, you can reed :
XMAS GREETINGS OF THE RICH & FAMOUS
“Come the Millennium, month 12,
in the home of the greatest power,
the village idiot will come forth
to be acclaimed the leader.”
A doubtful one will not come far from the realm,
The greater part will want to support him:
A Capitol, will not want him to rule at all,
His great burden he will not be able to maintain.
This “doubtful one” could stand for the intellectually lightweight George W. Bush. The “doubt” could imply some ongoing suspicion throughout his presidency that Bush cheated Al Gore (who won the majority of the popular national vote) out of the popular vote in Florida by shady tactics. A fraud in the Florida vote count effectively gave Bush the necessary electoral votes to “legally” win the election. Nostradamus’ use of “doubtful one” could also indicate that with time an ever larger shadow of illegitimacy will cast itself across a Bush presidency.
The second line might describe a period of attempted healing during the aftermath of the election. A time when a majority of the people of America will try to rally around their “doubtful” new president.
Line three may hint to us who President Bush’s real political enemies are. By the way, it may not be the Democrats in the deadlocked Congress. My sense is it will be the right wing elements of his own Republican Party. But the obstacles do not end there. Those who “will not want him to rule” could be those men behind the scenes that may have put this maleable man into office to be their rehearsed puppet spokesman for their agenda.
How could those who put him there turn against him?
Looking at Bush’s natal astrological chart I see the potential for great self-delusion and a predilection for substance abuse. The abuse in this case comes from the drug called “power.”
At some time in his presidency Bush will rebel against his handlers. As his presidency becomes more besieged with problems and [lack of] credibility, he might strive to be his own man and cease to listen to his advisers, causing even greater problems and greater strains upon himself. The last line, therefore, may describe what I fear is some nervous breakdown or health problem coming from the overwhelming pressures put upon a basically good, yet emotionally and intellectually immature man.
Now, with this interpretation said, I wish to caution you all that there is an even stronger application for this quatrain for an earlier Republican president; one respected by the French people. It must be remembered that Nostradamus saw the future through the perception of a Frenchman. If foreigners come into his vision it is because they are in some way appreciative of, or are influencing the future of, France. We do not know how the French will ultimately regard Bush. Indeed the early signs point to present day and future ridicule. Be that as it may, on page 448 of my book Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies, I applied this prophecy to Richard Nixon back in 1997. Here is what I said:
“This is [about] Nixon. Nostradamus would not overlook a man who did so much to change the course of 20th-century history. But our prophet, ever the pessimist, had Nixon to “kick around” long before the controversial American president was born.
“In line 1 Nixon is the “doubltful one” who is regarded warmly in France. Even the querulous Charles De Gaulle was an admirer. After Nixon’s fall following the Watergate scandal, he could still find respect and honors during his visits to the “realm” of France. Perhaps Nostradamus is saying that Nixon is “not far” from bein
Time and events will tell whether Nostradamus’ Quatrain 13 of Century 6 describes the tragedy of a president past, or president future.
This is credited to Nostradamus, in 1555. We picked it up off the Internet, so it might be a hoax. Still, it has amusing currency . . .
Juste un rigolo ! (Just a joker !)
+ The words “village”, “idiot”, “mill nium”, “mill naire” exist in french, but they don’t exist in the Nostradamus predictions.
+ Nostradamus has never put the word “month” at the side of “twelve”.
+ The year 1999 is the last exact date that Nostradamus specify. So, if you are looking for “Nostradamus 2001″, be careful.
Prophecies of the (Near) future?
(From the Epistle to Henry II)
“Then the great empire of the Antichrist will begin where Attila and Xerxes descended (Central Asia and Persia/Iran) — in numbers great and countless, so many that the coming of the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the 48th degree will make a transmigration, driving out the abomination of the Antichrist [who is] making war against the Royal who will be the great Vicar of Jesus Christ, and against his Church, and his reign for a time and to the end of time.”
“And this will be preceded by a solar eclipse more dark than any since the creation of the world…, and there shall be in the month of October some great movement and transference and it will be such that one will think that the Earth has lots its natural movement, and that it will be plunged into the abyss of perpetual darkness; there will be initial omens in the spring, and extraordinary changes in rapid succession thereafter, reversals of kingdoms and mighty earthquakes, with the increase of the new Babylon…, augmented by the abomination of the first Holocaust, and it will last no less than 73 years and 7 months…”
“And then great peace will be established, union and concord between the children of the frontiers who have been gathered and separated by diverse reigns…”
Century 1, Quatrain 17
For forty years the rainbow will not appear;
For forty years it will be seen every day:
The arid earth will grow more dry,
And great floods when it will be seen.
Century 1, Quatrain 56
You will see, sooner and later, great changes made,
Extreme horrors and vengeances:
For as the moon is thus led by its angel,
The heavens draw near to the reckoning.
Century 1, Quatrain 63
Pestilences extinguished, the world becomes smaller,
For a long time the lands will be inhabited in peace:
People will travel safely through the sky (over) land and wave:
Then wars will start anew.
Century 1, Quatrain 91
The gods will make it appear to the humans,
That they will be the authors of a great conflict:
Sword and lance before heaven is observed as serene,
So that on the left hand there will be great affliction.
Century 2, Quatrain 45
Too much the heavens weep for the Androgyne procreation,
Near the heavens human blood shed:
Because of death too late a great people re-created,
Late and soon comes the awaited help
Century 3, Quatrain 34
When the eclipse of the Sun will then be,
The monster (divine omen) will be seen in plain daylight:
Quite otherwise will one interpret it,
High price unguarded: none will have provided for it.
Century 9, Quatrain 31
The trembling of the earth at Mortara,
The tin islands of St. George half sunk;
Drowsy with peace, war will arise,At Easter in the temple abysses opened.
Century 9, Quatrain 9
When the lamp burning with an inextinguishable fire,
Will be found in the temple of the Vestals,
Infant found fire, water passing through the sieve,
Nimes, Toulouse perish [in] water, the market to collapse.
Century 9, Quatrain 99
Northern wind will cause the siege to be raised,
Over the walls to throw ashes, lime chalk and dust,
Through rain afterwards, which will do them much harm,
Meanest assistance against their frontier.
Century 9, Quatrain 66
There will be peace, union and change,
Estates and offices low [are] high, those high [made] very low:
To prepare for a journey torments the first offspring,
War to cease, civil processes, debates.
Century 10, Quatrain 42
The human realm of Angelic offspring,
Will cause its realm to hold in peace and union:
War captive halfway inside its enclosure,
For a long time peace will be maintained for them.
Century 10, Quatrain 74
The year the great seventh number is accomplished,
Appearing at the time of the great games of slaughter:
Not far from the age of the great millennium,
When the dead will come out of their graves.
Books
Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies by John Hogue (hardcover)
Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies by John Hogue (paperback)
Nostradamus: Countdown to Apocalypse by Jean-Charles De Fontbrune
Nostradamus: The Final Reckoning by Peter Lemesurier
Nostradamus: The New Revelations by John Hogue
The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus by Henry C. Roberts
1000 for 2000: Prophecies for the New Millennium by John Hogue
The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus by Erika Cheetham
Nostradamus by Knut Boese
The Keys to the Predictions of Nostradamus by Bardo Kidogo (Note: This is a novel.)
The Nostradamus Code by Ottavio Ramotti
Nostradamus: Prophecies Fulfilled and Predictions for the Millennium and Beyond by Skinner and King
Nostradamus 1999: Who Will Survive? by Stefan Paulus
Nostradamus: The Next 50 Years by Peter Lemesurier
The Millennium Book of Prophecy by John Hogue
The Nostradamus Encyclopedia by Peter Lesurier
Nostradamus: Prophecies for Women by Manuela Dunn Mascetti
Mammoth Book of Nostradamus and Other Prophets by Damon Wilson
Nostradamus: The Man Who Saw Through Time by Lee McCann
Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus by Various Contributors
Nostradamus: Predictions for the 21st Century by Manfred Dimde
When the Comet Runs by Tom Kay