Nostradamus
He told of weapons the like of which the world had never seen before and ‘machines of flying fire’, referring to bombers and the early Versions of weapons. He also foresaw Hitler’s treatment of the Jews in concentration camps and their death in the infamous ovens: ‘The exiles that were carried into the Isles, At the whim of a most cruel monarch [Hitler] Shall be murdered, and put in the sparks of fire …’
For once Nostradamus leaves the subject of man’s infinite capacity for self-destruction when he speaks of a romance which caused a king to lose his throne the abdication of Edward VIII, brought about because of his love for the divorced American Mrs Wallis Simpson. In one verse he says: ‘For not wanting to consent to the divorce, Which afterwards will be recognized as unworthy, the King of the islands will be forced to flee And one put in his place who has no sign of kingship.’ The last line refers to the Duke of York, who, though he had no training or experience, took over his brother’s throne and become George VI when Edward and Mrs Simpson slipped quietly into exile in France: ‘A kingdom in dispute and divided between the brothers To take the arms and the Britannic name, And the English title. He shall advise himself late Surprised in the night and carried into the French air.’
There seems to be no part of our history about which Nostradamus did not have some glimmer of knowledge. Returning to our own part of the 20th century, he foretold not only great conflict between Arabs and Jews but between Islam and the West. Some interpreters believe he referred to the conflict in Northern Ireland in a verse which begins ‘Before the coming of the ruin of the Celts’, and that he foresaw the Falklands War in a prophecy which reads: ‘After a naval combat, England will know her greatest alarm. Then the Soviet adversary will pale with fear Having sown terror in the Atlantic (or the Atlantic Alliance)’ Nostradamus predicted great social upheaval before the end of our century in which all the old orders would be changed. He prophesied that the reappearance of Halley’s Comet in 1985 would bring profound changes in human destiny. But for those of us who survive into the twenty first century there is, he promises, a thousand years of peace, a Utopian world in which man will forsake aggression and war.
The prophet predicted his own death in 1566, and before it happened he went to an engraver in Salon asking him to engrave a date on a small metal plate, and instructing him that it should be placed in his coffin. In 1700 it was decided to move the coffin from the grave where it had laid for 134 years and move it to a more prominent site. Before it was lowered into the earth for the rest of eternity, those present decided to open the coffin. All that was left of Nostradamus was his skeleton, but on his chest lay the metal plate. The date engraved was 1700.
Tags: Abdication, Atlantic Alliance, Conflict In Northern Ireland, Duke Of York, Edward And Mrs Simpson, Edward Viii, Falklands War, French Air, George Vi, Infinite Capacity, Islam And The West, Jews In Concentration Camps, Mrs Wallis Simpson, Naval Combat, Nostradamus, Seers, Self Destruction, Social Upheaval, Soviet Adversary, Wallis Simpson