Nostradamus And His Bleak Predictions For The World To Come

Although they were composed in the 1500s, Nostradamus’s prophecies have been seemingly quite similar to unfolding historical events all over the world. After centuries, they still ring true.

It can be challenging to remain optimistic after all the events shared by the world in recent years. Civilization as we know it has become a playground for destruction and greed. It’s sometimes hard to imagine things will ever be better again—but we must have hope.

Michel de Nostredame was born in Southern France in December 1503. Remarkably, his birthplace still exists to this day. However, this old stone structure in Saint-Rémy-De-Provence underwent reconstruction after an earthquake hit the town in 1909.

Not long after his enrollment as an apothecary, he was accused of smearing the reputation of local doctors and was banned from the practice. But some of those who knew Nostradamus still occasionally referred to him as “doctor,” and the nickname stuck. 

Nostradamus continued practicing as an apothecary, perhaps to find the cure for the plague, which had taken the lives of those he loved. But his interest in the mystical and supernatural continued to grow. He studied several subjects and published his first almanac in 1550.

The predictions made in Les Prophéties are not straightforward, direct statements about the future. They require a little interpretation. But why did he write his predictions this way? Was it an attempt to cover himself if events didn’t quite unfold in a specific way?

His work did not go without its fair share of criticism. After all, Nostradamus dared to predict major events in the future, an act that some might consider an act of blasphemy or witchcraft. Many accused him of communicating with the devil and doing evil work to stir up fear.  

How Nostradamus came upon his predictions became a subject of controversy. The seer claimed that his predictions were made through astrological assessments by comparing future planetary alignments with past events in relation to the earth’s position in the universe.

Academics and open-minded thinkers alike continue to look through data about Nostradamus’s prophecies. Many continue to wonder how his oracle work still holds up. It’s as if Nostradamus had a window to the modern world from his study back in the 1500s. 

One of the seer’s most chilling predictions is King Henry II’s last day. Written as if he were present in the room, Nostradamus describes in his usual poetic style how the king of France would breathe his last breath. He speaks of an older lion being conquered by a youthful one, of his eyes being pierced through a “golden cage.”

Before any of the technology we take for granted today came around—such as the thermometer, camera, or flushing toilet—Nostradamus was writing about things that were far beyond anyone’s imagination. Through isolation, studying stellar bodies, the popular writer predicted the world’s future mode of travel. 

Triggered by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria, nations all over the world were plunged into turmoil during the Great War in 1914. As hard as it is to believe, it seems that Nostradamus had already seen this coming, as evidenced by this passage: “The Dreadful War Which Prepared in the West…”

In a poetic way, the French seer told of the birth of the German dictator Adolf Hitler. At least, that’s what many believe. He said that a child of a poor background should be born from the “depths of Western Europe,” attributing to him the name “Hisler,” whose rise to power and ambition to rule the world would take the lives of millions. 

From within the confines of his study, Nostradamus looked up to the planets and the earth’s position and somehow correctly assessed that one day two cities (presumably Hiroshima and Nagasaki) will experience a blow so severe that the whole world would be shocked. 

For generations, researchers have been baffled by Nostradamus’ predictions as they continue to describe modern world events. Not only do many of his writings correctly predict future occurrences, like JFK’s assassination, but they also accurately describe certain details surrounding them too. 

The concept of air travel was mentioned in Nostradamus’s prophecies, which shows how far ahead the French diviner could see. But this takes it another step further as some scholars believe that one poem points to the September 11th World Trade Center attacks.

In one of his poems, there is a reference to “the blood of the just that commits a fault in London.” Scholars have interpreted this to be a prediction of 1666, the year The Great Fire of London took place. However, the poem reveals details that are quite different from the historical record.

It seems that Nostradamus’s name appears someplace or another each time the world finds itself in trouble. People scour his work for a glint of evidence that might serve as a confirmation that indeed this seer had predicted each catastrophe. So when he wrote of the great plague that befell the maritime city, many were quick to link it to the most recent pandemic. 

In a newer translation by Erika Cheetham on the prophecies, a line is highlighted as being exceptionally curious, raising the possibility that Nostradamus may have indeed predicted the Covid-19 pandemic. “In the feeble lists, great calamity through America and Lombardy.” 

Due to the mode in which his prophecies were written, mere translations are not enough to decode their true messages. Finding the truth encoded in his four-line poems can be a tricky business. Researchers believe that when Nostradamus spoke of Mercury in Sagittarius, he was referring to December 2019.

Things would have been different had Nostradamus not been threatened by arrest or execution by the Inquisition, who kept accusing him of heresy. His writings could have been made clearer and his warnings more transparent. That would have made things easier, to say the least.

The eventuality of a zombie apocalypse happening in our lifetime is unlikely. It’s an idea plucked from any number of Hollywood horror movies. This far-reaching idea of it might be too much to take for the practical-minded. But one poem mentions the “half-dead” and great evils to come in our collective future. 

Doomsdayers are interested by another of Nostradamus’ end-of-the-world prophecies. This time he describes a world in which a great sea shall be frozen. It is the Ice Age repeated, where vast lands become unproductive and planted crops fail to grow. People will either die of cold or starvation. 

If a solar flare were to affect the earth once again, as 1859’s Carrington Event did, its damage to our modern infrastructure would be huge. These geomagnetic storms will return one day. Nostradamus predicted it would light up the night sky as if it were day.  

The world is doomed. There is no hope—this must have been the message Nostradamus was trying to convey, albeit coded in his mysterious writing style. So we are left to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. With the great wars, solar flares, or the zombie apocalypse— the future doesn’t sound all that optimistic.

Nostradamus claims to have forseen a bleak comet lighting up the future sky, making it as bright as the sun. Many believe this could be the Comet Ison. According to Nostradamus, this is a signal that the world is ending. 

According to Nostradamus, the catholic church will attempt to regain its influence on the world, but the passing of its last pope is something they won’t be able to overcome. The institution will possibly implode after its innermost secrets are revealed—secrets such as corruption and jealousy among its members in their desire for power.

Gazing up in the sky, calculating how worldly events might unfold based on the influence of astronomical experience, Nostradamus also concluded that a rogue asteroid would skip from its belt and get on a collision course with our planet. Today’s scientists probably would not argue against the possibility of this happening either.

Nostradamus envisioned the mother of all earthquakes that would pulverize the west. The quake would fall on the month of May. Destruction will be inevitable at such a magnitude. Bridges would fall, and buildings would crumble to the ground. There will be a lingering stench of destruction in every corner of the area. Could this perhaps be in reference to California? 

Much speculation has been made over the identity of the third antichrist that Nostradamus forecasts will bring the apocalypse. Following the footsteps of the first two—whom scholars believe were Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler—the third will have studied and learned from the mistakes of their predecessors. 

Even Nostradamus’ skeptics must be secretly praying that he was a phony who enjoyed making others fear the future. Perhaps he was a nobody who was hungry for attention and became addicted to this new power of using words to become the talk of the town. However, it is hard to dismiss all of his prophecies—from the death of King Henry II, whom he befriended, to the atomic disasters of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

In the 1500s, it’s hard to imagine society thinking of things like data strings, cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, online investments, or cold wallets. But from a time when only the privileged few had flushing toilets, Nostradamus, some scholars say, predicted the collapse of the powerful US dollar.