Michel de Nostredame
The Prophet

On May 17th 1791, the casket of Nostradamus was unearthed and opened by three grave robbers. It was said that whoever should drink wine from the skull of the great prophet would inherit his gift of future sight. But whoever should disturb his grave would die. The men should have been stunned and concerned when they opened the casket, 200 years after it was laid to rest, and found a plaque lying on the inhabitants chest inscribed with "May 1791". Undaunted in their desire to "be like Mike", one of the men removed the skull poured wine into the empty shell and drank from it. Within moments a stray bullet from a nearby skirmish of the French Revolution found it's way into the grave yard and killed the man. Once again, a Nostradamus prophecy came true. As a young child, Michel wrote later in his life, he could see fragments of events that had not yet occurred. Within a few days or months, the fragments would play out for real and Michel would know the outcome of the event before it was concluded. He considered this a great gift bestowed upon him by the Divine God. For what reason, he wasn't sure; but he would grow to understand the meanings and purposes of his gift later in his life. One of his earliest visions reportedly involved a chance meeting with a Franciscan fryer in Italy. Michel watched the fryer enter a small courtyard and approach a well for a drink. Michel walked up to the religious man and fell to his knees, kissing the hem of the fryers robe. When asked why he was paying such homage to a fryer, Nostradamus replied, "I must honor his holiness the pope". After the death of Nostradamus, the young fryer from the courtyard, Felice Peretti, was elected the Holy Pope of Rome taking on the name Sixtus the V. Michel didn't receive great fame and recognition until he settled in Salon and began writing his annual almanacs. His accuracy became well known and respected, even amongst the circles of higher and royal society. He even took on clients and provided them with personal readings, as indicated by hundreds of correspondence found in his office after his death. Michel then set out to create his books of prophecy. The first books were published in 1566, as The Prophecies of Nostradamus. They were not written in chronological order, or categorized by event. Rather they were written in a four line rhyming verse, called quatrains, in groups of 100 called centuries. He wrote most of the quatrains in his native French tongue, but he included Latin and Greek to protect himself from the superstitious and witch hunters of the day. His son wrote that Nostradamus would sit in his study gazing into a bowl of water and then quickly scribble notes or phrases on paper. He would use these notes to write the quatrains we know today. So was this man a quack, or is there something to his gift and visions? Decided for yourself. Here are a few of his more popular quatrains that scholars believe have come to pass. The Death of King Henry II The young lion will overcome the old one On the battlefield in single combat; In a cage of gold, his eyes will be put out Two wounds in one, then to die a cruel death.   The reigning king of France, Henry II summoned Nostradamus to his court and asked the prophet to explain this vision. Nostradamus explained the King will be killed in a jousting tournament. Henry laughed at the idea. He would never participate in such a tournament. But the King did joust in a tournament against the Count Gabriel Montgomery. During the match, the Count's jousting staff slipped off the Kings chest of armor and embedded itself in his eyes, through an armored helmet made of gold. Unfortunately for Henry, it took several hours for the King to finally expire. Definitely a cruel death. This quatrains officially branded Nostradamus as a prophet.   The French Revolution It is estimated that Nostradamus wrote 30 quatrains about the French Revolution, which began in 1789.   The husband, alone afflicted, will be mitered; Conflict will take place at the tile works by 500. One betrayer will be titled.   In this quatrain, Nostradamus writes of a place he could not have even known of. The Twilleries was the palace of King Louis. But this palace did not even exist in Nostradamus' day. In 1791 a gang of angry Frenchmen calling themselves the Marsi'es, meaning 500, attacked King Louis' palace.   By night he will come to the forest of Reines, A devious rout, the white Queen of stone And the gray King, to Varennes.   Scholars suggest this quatrain refers to the flight of King Louis and his Queen Marie Antoinette. Taking the odd route through the Forest of Reines, the king was dressed in a gray cloak posing as a monk. The two royals attempted their escape by carriage to Varennes.   The government taken over, will convict the king. A new king invites guests to a wedding, but others plot the lady's death, as well as that of his mistress.   The people of France did convict King Louis and sentenced him to death. The Queen was tried by a jury chosen by lot and was also sentenced to death along with the King's mistress. The royals were taken to a square in Paris and beheaded at the guillotine.   The Anti-Christs ~ Napoleon Nostradamus writes of three anti-christs. Three men that would lead their people through reigns of terror after promises of prosperity and greatness. The first of these Nostradamus declares as Napoleon.   An emperor will be born near Italy. One who will cost his empire quite a high price. Among his supporters, he will be found less a prince than a butcher.   Napoleon was an emperor of France, not a king. He was born near Italy on the island of Corsica, an unlikely place for a ruler of France to come from. During his reign, he was seen as both a prince and a butcher.   From a simple soldier he will attain to empire, through a short robe he will attain the long. Great swarms of bees will arise.   Napoleon adopted the beehive as his royal crest. He moved quickly from the short coat of a soldier to the long robe of emperor. Nostradamus predicted the Emperor would reign for 14 years. Indeed, Napoleon's reign of terror began when he seized power in November 9th 1799, to the time he was exiled to Elba April 13, 1814; was 14 years and 5 months.   A great troop shall come through Russia, The destroyer shall ruin a city.   Napoleon in Greek means the New Destroyer invaded Russia in 1812. His troops invaded and conquered Moscow. But Napoleon over extended his army, another prediction of Nostradamus, and was forced to retreat through the frozen Russian high lands. Nostradamus called those frozen lands the white territory.   The great empire will soon be exchanged for a small place. in which he will come to lay down his scepter. A small place of tiny area it will soon begin to grow.   Napoleon was indeed exiled to the small island of Elba, where the Emperor was forced to lay down his royal title. But the French leader would soon plot his way back into the leadership of France and escape his island prison. Only to find failure once more at Waterloo.   The Anti-Christs ~ Hitler From the Aryan height, there shall arise one who is elevated and obscure. of him who rules from the most horrible thrown ever known.   Out of the deepest part of the west of Europe, of poor people, a young child shall be born. Who with his tongue shall seduce many people.   While screams are heard in the Mediterranean, leaders from North Africa and Asia Minor meet near Venice, representing the Rhine and Danube respectively.   A young Nero burns pages alive but eventually three of his own family have him killed.   These first two versus describe the rise to power of Adolf Hitler. He was an obscure solder who used his slick tongue to win or mind-wash the citizens of Germany. While screams of terror from the Jewish Holocaust are heard, Hitler and Mussolini meet and plan to conquer Europe. The last verse refers to the book burnings in Berlin, and a plot against Hitler's life in July 1932.   There are versus that describe the furnaces in the concentration camps, the brutal murders of innocent Jews, the separation of children from their parents, the Jewish slave labor spread across the German occupied territory and more, much more.   The Germans and their neighbors will be in a war. For the control of regions of the clouds.   In the island shall be such horrible tumonts that nothing should be heard by war like surprise. So great shall be the assault of the robbers that the people shall hide themselves under the great line.   The battle of Britain began one of the greatest air battles ever recorded. Hitler committed his entire force to breaking the back of Britain. The second verse describes the island's, Britain, reaction to the attack. The "nothing should be heard" refers to the air raid sirens to warn the people of an oncoming attack. Indeed the people did hide themselves under the great line, a great description of the London Underground, or subway.   Magda Goebbels, wife of the Nazi Germany's propaganda minister, studied the Nostradamus prophecies. She was elated to find so many versus pertaining to the rise of the Third Reich and the successes that lay before Hitler and his armies.   The United Kingdom and America retaliated in kind, publishing their own versus that described the fall of the German Empire and triumph of free world. MGM even created several short documentaries as moral boosters for the citizens back home. These shorts called "Nostradamus Says So!" were played in theaters across the nation before every feature presentation.   The chosen protector of the great country For endless years will hold the famed torch. It will serve to guide this great people, And in its name they will struggle and triumph.   The great country of America can often times be symbolized by the Statue of Liberty, which serves as a guide to the people. In the name of freedom America struggled many times, and triumphed many times as well.   Saturn of gold will be changed into iron. The contrary of the positive ray shall exterminate all. Fire from the color of gold from Heaven to Earth shall be seen. Great murder of mankind, great loss of infants.   Scholars believe this verse describes the reaction of nuclear fission, as well as, the gold fire which fills the familiar mushroom cloud that stretches from heaven to earth after destination. Nostradamus used this verse and others to describe the fall of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II.   America The west shall be free from the British isles. About a country not yet born, 2000 miles away. The American revolutionary war.   The eldest sister of the Britannic Island shall be born fifteen years before her brother. By what is promised her and by help of truth, She shall succeed in the Kingdom of balance.   America, the eldest sister, found her independence in 1776, 15 years before her brother, France in 1791. Scholars suggest the latter part of this verse predicts the influence America shall acquire throughout the world.   A conspired death shall come to a decent. A charge given and a journey to death. Elected created received by his own defeated. Blood of innocence before by remorse.   President Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theater. A murder that was indeed a vast conspiracy organized by those he defeated during the American Civil War.   The great man falls by lightening in the day, an evil foretold by the postulant one.   The ancient work will be accomplished from the roof, evil ruin shall fall on the great man. Dyeing, dead, they will accuse an innocent of the deed. The guilty one hidden in the misty woods.   Here in these two quatrains, Nostradamus predicts the assassination of another great man. This time there is a modern day prophet who tries to warn the great man. Could this quatrains be the murder of John F. Kennedy and the prediction of Jeanne Dixon, the modern day psychic? Many Nostradamus scholars think so.   Lee Harvey Oswald was accused, supposedly shooting the President from the top windows of the Book Depository. The controversy surrounding Oswald's innocence and the conspiracy to kill the president has long been a topic of interest to Americans. The "misty woods" could even be a reference to the small area that lay to the right of the President's parade route, called the grassy knoll. Was there a second gun man hidden in shrubbery?   Technology He shall go out in an iron fish, by lightening the arch of gold and silver melted. The fleet can swim under water, it shall be as a bomb under the sea.   The eye of the sea watches like a greedy dog.   In an iron fish he will make war.   In these versus, Nostradamus foretells of submarines, the iron fish. Some see the "bomb under the sea" as either the capability of torpedo launches, or submarines powered by nuclear reactors. The eye of the sea can be connected to periscopes and man has indeed wagged war in both iron submarines and iron navy ships.   After a great human change another is at hand, the great engine renewith with the ages. In the heaven shall be seen a running fire with long sparks.   He will come to take himself to the corner of Luna where he will be taken and placed on a strange land.   Scholars suggest these two quatrains describe man's travel into space. The first, prophecy of space rockets, as they take off leaving behind them a long trail of fire. The second clearly indicates mans travel and landing on the moon.   Nine humans are set apart and on their own, their fate sealed, and "K", "Th" and "L" banished.   Some scholars believe these "Nine" set apart is a description of the American Supreme court, whose members are appointed for life, therefore their fate is sealed. The latter part of the verse however could mean many things, from case law to meaning actual people are banished from the bench. Other scholars suggest this foretells the NASA Challenger disaster, the last line would then represent the letters of names, potentially the NASA officials who were dismissed during the subsequent investigation of the disaster.   Modern Day Conflicts and Events Rain, famine, war in Persia having not ceased, Too great a faith shall betray the monarch. Being ended there, it shall commence in France, A secret omen to one that he shall die.   In Nostradamus's time Iran was called Persia. Scholars believe this verse describes the over throw of the Shah of Iran. The last lines in this verse suggest the plot begins in France. Indeed it did, as the Ayatollah began his plans to retake Iran and return it to a land of great faith.   An infamous, villainous tyrant of Iraq, in league with the Great Whore moves in, leaving the land horrid and black.   Great bloodshed, hunger, and astmosheric pollution afflict the region adjoining Iraq.   Because "Alus" cannot assure his safety overseas, an Iraqi leader cowers before an army and a "Furious Black" subdues him.   1991 The Gulf War. The tyrant, Saddam Hussein, believed he asked permission from the U.S. to invade Kuwait prior to moving in on that nation. In this case, the U.S. could be seen as the Great Whore who has a tendency to use other nations for her own benefit. The invasion did indeed leave the land horrid and black with oil fires. Those fires caused a great deal of astmospheric pollution in the region. However, the Iraqi leader was subdued by the unified forces of the world. Some scholars believe the "furious black" could be an indication of General Colin Powell's participation in planning and directing the U.S. attacks on Iraqi.   Fire from the center of the earth; The great Earthquake shall be in the month of May. Saturn, Capricorn, Jupiter, Mercury in Taurus, Venus, also Cancer, Mars in Zero.   Fire from the center of the earth, Shall make an earthquake in the New City.   Astrologers suggest the conjunction of Saturn, Capricorn, Jupiter and Mercury occurred in 1998. In this verse Nostradamus foretells of a great earthquake in May of 1998. In the latter verse Nostradamus tries to define where the earthquake will occur, the new city. Scholars of Nostradamus explain that when he used "new city" he was referring to new cities in the new world, America.   The war begins in greater Arabia, the sun, mars and Venus in Aquarius.   The conjunction of the Sun, Mars and Venus in Aquarius occurred in 1994. Some scholars believe this could have been a prophecy of the Gulf War, while others suggest the timing doesn't coincide with the 1991 war. Nostradamus was not usually off by this amount of time and therefore this verse may pertain to Saddam's stock piling conventional and chemical weapons. Preparing for his next uprising. Nostradamus, Index Page The Life and Times of Nostradamus Nostradamus, The Prophet The Millennium Prophecies Nostradamus Resources

Sources: 1, o23, o24, N4