The "Prophetic" Nostradamus

Michel de Nostredame is a man whose words have spread across the world like a blazing fire. Like a fire sometimes he and his words are at full power and at other times they are not more than a flame on a candle. He was a man highly skilled at deceiving people and getting them to believe in what he said. He knew that some times humans just need someone or something to fall back on, and he was providing that for the world. He and his prophecies have sparked many controversies. One safe thing to say about him is that he was like no other person who came before him. Simply, Michel de Nostredame was a deceptive and cunning man who gained fame by claiming that he could see the future.

Michel de Nostredame, or commonly referred to as Nostradamus, was an articulate conman who deceived the masses by stringing together vague phrases that could fit into many situations. Nostradamus writes in a very vague style. This vagueness can be copied by people and seem to be as if it was the words of Nostradamus. This quote is one of the best known prophesies dealing with the attacks on September 11, 2001...

"In the City of God there will be a great thunder,
Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures,
the great leader will succumb,
The third big war will begin when the big city is burning."

This quote came to be in the wake of the 9/11 tragedies. At this point in time many people turned to Nostradamus. So a man by the name of Neil Marshall wrote an article dealing with Nostradamus's lack of credibility. This quote was his work. "My point in writing the above [quatrain] was to highlight that some Nostradamus quatrains are so vague as to be open to any interpretation after the fact." Many people who knew about Nostradamus have read this quatrain, a four lines prophesy, and falsely believed this to be his work; that is how convincing this vague group of words is. This misconception occurred because all of Nostradamus's quatrains are this vague and hard to interpret. If a person searches hard enough in any of Nostradamus's prophesies they will find whatever it is that they are looking for. If 9/11 is what is on their mind, than the odds of finding a prophesy about it are great. The fact is that if a man from Nostradamus's time and a man from today's world read the same exact quatrain they would have different interpretations of the text; this is due to the fact that they would be looking for different things related to their time period. This is a constant with humans; we see what we want to see.

It is human nature to turn to religion or a higher power in times of crisis. September 11, 2001 was one of the, if not the most, tragic events in US History. This huge crisis was no different, many people turned to religion and many turned to Nostradamus's works. People turned to him back in his time and they still do today. The only difference is that back then he exploited others for money now people are exploiting his "prophesies" to make money for themselves. "On Friday, four days after the attacks on New York and Washington, the bestselling book on Amazon.com was "Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies." People turned to him by buying his books and writing mass amounts of interpretations on his prophecies. Nostradamus is just a man who people turned to in times of trouble. To some his words offer comfort, to others his words offer a window into the future. No matter what the reason is Nostradamus is a well known man in history.

Many people believed and believe in things that are pure coincidence. If two things are placed next to each other, then people will find similarities in them. Similarly, if one of Nostradamus's quatrains is read by a man who has 9/11 on his mind, he will draw similarities between the two. "The date of the attack: 9/11 - 9 + 1 + 1 = 11, September 11th is the 254th day of the year: 2 + 5 + 4 = 11. After September 11th there are 111 days left to the end of the year. 119 is the area code to Iraq/Iran. 1 + 1 + 9 = 11." This is more humorous than reasoning for the attacks. The fact that people will believe that these mere coincidences are some sort of predestination to the attacks. This exactly what looking at one of Nostradamus's quatrains is like, people see something that slightly resembles 9/11 or any other situation and people naturally put them together. Nostradamus understood the timeless constant and put it to work in his own life. He strung together a few vague lines and sold them to the world. The world in return gave him money and made meaning of his quatrains. Nostradamus shows cunning by taking advantage of people in this manner.

Nostradamus understood the people were naturally curious about future events, so he exploited that and gained fame by claiming to be some kind of a prophet or a "seer". Nostradamus wrote about a thousand prophesies compiled in ten books that he called centuries, each containing about one hundred quatrains. In other words he wrote around a thousand vague prophecies. He had these books printed and sold around the region. Prophets would have had a want and desire to spread the word about there revelations. A man widely accepted to be a prophet of God, Isaiah (of the Bible) spreads his message for no charge but out of a want to do so. A man accepted as a prophet of Allah, Muhammad (of the Qur'an), does the same. True in their prophecies or not, neither of these men sought any monetary gain. All they wanted was to spread the word of God/Allah respectively. Nostradamus on the other hand sought riches and charged for his prophesies. He exploited the fact that humans have a strong urge to know that which is unknown. He could not have been a prophet; a prophet of a "good" side anyway.

The credibility of Nostradamus being a true prophet is highly improbable. He sought the aid of drugs to enable him to "see the future". "He sought out inspiration [of angelic spirits] through various forms of meditation... possibly while under the influence of mild hallucinogens." He was most likely using something mild like nutmeg. None the less a hallucinogen is a hallucinogen. A hallucinogen is any substances that results in hallucinations. Religious or not people will agree that there is a big bold line between a divine vision and a hallucination. For all we know his perception of a bird flying could have been altered and he may have thought he saw something that would resemble a modern airplane. This "plane" may have perched itself on a tree. Under the influence of drugs a bird perching on a tree may have seem like a plane crashing into a building, 9/11? Most likely the drugs enabled him to write every day events in a vague and mysterious manner. If Nostradamus's works were the result of drug induces hallucinations that they are null and void. They have no validity to them, assuming they did at one time.

Lastly if Nostradamus was truly a prophet, he was nothing like those who came before him. Nostradamus using hallucinogens as well as how he conducted his "future seeing" sessions are far outside the norm. This, his second quatrain, tells us what methods he used to see the future...

"The rod in the hands placed in the middle of Branches
With the wave he moistens and the hem and the foot :
A fear and voice trembling from the handles :
Divine splendour. The divine is seated nearby."

A translation of this is... "The divining rod in hand is placed in the middle of the tripod's brass legs. With water he anoints the hem of his robe and foot; Fear. A voice is heard. He trembles in His Robes, Divine splendor. The divine one Sits nearby." This resembles a form of ancient divination that can be traced back to the time of the Babylonians. This form of divination has been strictly banned from the major religions of the time. The reason that this method of "communicating with Divine beings" was banned was because many people believed that it was a practice of the dark arts. It was also thought to be sorcery. The combination of a drug and this divination method shows that Nostradamus's life was far from normal.

Nostradamus, using this banned divination method, must have had contact with an evil spirit. In cases of the Bible, God always reviles his name to those who he spoke to. In the case of the Qur'an, Allah reviles to Muhammad who he is. Nostradamus must have known the name of this being because he receives and prints around a thousand prophesies. Why would Nostradamus not revile the name of this "Divine being"? There are two possible answers; he was hiding the name of the being, or he really did not have any ties to a "Divine being". If he was hiding the name of this "Divine being" it could have been because it was Satan, or any other evil power. If this was the case, the church, or the head of whatever religion, would have had Nostradamus put to death. This is very likely because fear of death is something that most people have. A true prophet would have not minded dying. They would have known that they would be with the Divine being who gave them prophesies. He could have also suppressed the name so he did not have to ally himself with any specific religion. If he did not say the name of a religion specific deity, than he would not have got himself into any religious controversies that could potently leading to his death. Clearly Nostradamus knew what he was doing, and how to take advantage of people.

Once more the credibility of Nostradamus being a true prophet is unlikely. A prophet would be able to see future events and not have to guess things. This is a now famous quatrain that some believe to be related to the attacks on September of 2001...

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.

If he was truly a prophet, than why did Nostradamus say July of 1999 instead of September of 2001? Why would he put in that piece of information if he did not truly know the date of the occurrence? What he probably did was pick a random date that was far outside of his lifespan, to prevent persecution, and say something would happen on that date. People will argue that he was extremely close to the date. The thing is that only the first, and loosely the second, line of this quatrain could have a slight relation to 9/11. Even if the King of Terror is an airplane that struck one of the twin towers, there is nothing to justify the rest of it. Who is this King of Mongols, and what does this have to do with 9/11? Mongols are people of Mongolia; they had no relation to 9/11. The last line is too vague to interpret; Martians will be lucky and manage to rule over the Earth? Going back to what was said earlier; people see what they want to see. People looked for a Nostradamus prophesy dealing with 9/11 and found one, or a part of one, that vaguely seems like it. With this big date mistake there is no way that Nostradamus could be a credible prophet.

Nostradamus claimed to be a prophet or a "seer", but most of the facts show that he was nothing more that a man who wanted money. His vague phrasing in his quatrains could be in hope that we sort them out and make meaning of them. He understands that people love knowing things like the future, so he exploited them by writing some vague words and selling books containing them. On the off chance that he was a prophet, he must have been in line with evil spirits because his methods are highly controversial. Prophet of not Michel de Nostredame was a cunning and deceptive man who got what he wanted, money and fame.

Work Sited

Brown, Janelle. "Nostradamus Called It!" [paragraph 1&5]. http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/09/17/kooks accessed on April 14, 2008).

Harris, Tom. How Nostradamus Works" [page 4, paragraph 2]. http://science.howstuffworks.com/nostradamus3.htm (accessed April 19, 2008).

Marshall, Neil. "A Critical Analysis of Nostradamus" [paragraph3&4]. http://web.archive.org/web/20041112224015 (accessed April 19,2008).

Nostredame, Michel de. "The works of Nostradamus" [century I, quatrain II]. http://www.indepthinfo.com/nostradamus/century1.shtml (accessed April 19, 2008).

Nostredame, Michel de. "World War III" [paragraph 6].

http://ww-iii.tripod.com/sequence.htm#1074 (accessed April 19, 2008).

(Author Unknown). "Century I Quatrain II." http://www.satansrapture.com/foundnostclock.htm (accessed April 19, 2008).