It’s that time again. Break out the moldy bones of 16th-century French prophet Nostradamus, dust them off, and see what they have to say.
I mean, what are the odds? No sooner had Russian troops begun their incursion into Ukraine, “scholars” of the seer’s quatrains began trotting out his writings, shoehorning them to fit the current conflagration.
For those of you not familiar, French-born Michel de Nostradamus was a physician who wrote a series of predictions in a book titled, “Les Prophéties,” which was published in 1555.
The tome contained 942 four-lined poems, or quatrains, which many people claim predict the future for yesterday, today and beyond. Take the rise of Hitler, for example. Here is the quatrain that proports to foresee the rise of the Third Reich:
“In the place very near not far from Venus,
The two greatest ones of Asia and of Africa,
From the Rhine and Hister they will be said to have come,
Cries, tears at Malta and the Ligurian side.”
This passage, according to “scholars,” is alleged to describe Adolph Hitler (Hister) meeting with Mussolini. Forget that in the time of Nostradamus, “Hister” was a word used to describe the Danube River.
Consider this quatrain that is supposed to predict the events of 9/11:
“Volcanic fire from the center of the earth
will cause trembling around the new city:
Two great rocks will make war for a long time.
Then Arethusa will redden a new river.”
If you look online, you can find a zillion versions of this quatrain, tweaked to make it seem as though the prediction of the Twin Towers attack was assured. Serious scholars generally agree the passage refers to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Now back to the current world event at hand.
But I started off tying the Russia-Ukraine war with the prophesies of Nostradamus. The lines, “Blue-head shall white-head harm in such degree, As France’s good to both shall e’er amount,” are being cited in reference to the current actions, as well as the possible breakout of World War III.
We’ll get to see in real-time how this prognostication plays out. But we will not have been warned by “scholars” who proclaim they know the secret to the Nostradamus Code.
It seems like every accurate prediction made by the Frenchman are brought to light after the fact. There were no claxons blaring in advance of September 11th. As there weren’t any before Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine.
It’s like the movie “Back to the Future,” when Biff Tannen gets hold of Gray’s Sports Almanac 1950-2000 and goes to the past, using the information in the book to bet on games, making himself rich. Except, of course, that Nostradamians don’t have a book of accurate future predictions. They only pop up after the fact.
The late magician and skeptic James Randi famously offered a million dollars to anyone who could demonstrate a supernatural ability under scientific testing criteria agreed to by both sides.
All you need to know about psychics and supposed diviners of the future is that Randi’s million dollars was never claimed.
