Nostradamus
NostradamusNostradamus
Once, while passing through Italy, Nostradamus bowed before a young
Franciscan monk, addressing him as "His Holiness." Others around him
did understand his strange behavior and the reasons as to why someone
would call a mere monk by such a title. However, years later, and after
Nostradamus' death, that monk became Pope Sixtus V. This was just
one of the hundreds of prophecies, or visions of the future, that the
fifteenth-century prophet made during his lifetime.
Nostradamus, born in the year of 1503 in France, spent his childhood
under the guidance of his two grandfathers. After going to the
University of Montpelier for three years, he received a bachelor's degree in
the study of medicine. Around this time, there was an outbreak of the
plague in various parts of France, and he quickly earned a good reputation
with the use of his medicine. However, Nostradamus' "medicines" were not
ordinary, as they consisted of psychological guidance and homemade
formulas. Using these methods, he cured many victims of the plague who
were previously labeled incurable. He later went back to Montpelier to
earn his doctoral degree in medicine.
Although Nostradamus was very interested in medicine, he began
reading books about the occult and took a fancy to predicting the future.
In 1550, he published his first book which contained prophecies for the
coming year. The almanac proved so successful and accurate that he began
publishing them annually. After several years, Nostradamus developed the
idea of writing a complete almanac, entitled Centuries. This book came to
consist of prophecies ranging in time from his present to the end of the
world. In Centuries there were one thousand quatrains, or verses of four
lines each. One which was particularly amazing was this:
A Captain of great Germany,
Shall come to yield himself by stimulating help,
To the Kings of Kings with the help of Hungary,
So that his revolt shall cause great bloodshed.
This quatrain has been interpreted, in modern day, to mean that
Hitler shall involve Hungary in a great battle with much killing. Many
believe that it is simply luck that Nostradamus had in predicting the future
because his prophecies are generalized and not exact. However, one of his
writings contained the man "Hister" who was to be very powerful in a
revolt. This obviously bears much resemble to Hitler, and if this is true,
Nostradamus clearly predicted someone that was not to be born until
more than three centuries after his own death.
Nostradamus had over a thousand predictions in various almanacs,
most of them in Centuries. However, not all of these prophecies are
supposed to have happened. Perhaps the most recent prediction he made
lies in this quatrain:
In the year 1999 and seven months,
From the skies shall come an alarmingly powerful king,
To raise again the great King of the Jacquerie,
Before and after, Mars shall reign at will.
A tremendous world revolution is foretold to take place in the year
of 1999, with world-wide wars. Although this prophesy hasn�t been
fulfilled, only time will tell if Nostradamus was once again successful at his
prophecies.