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Opposing Viewpoint; Nostradamus and His Prophecies For America

a look at both sides of the Nostradamus argument

By: Sam Little

This is the first of what we hope to be an ongoing chain of articles that look at the subject from both the view of the believer and that of the skeptic. We try to do just that in all of our articles but will go beyond the call of duty in regards to this series of articles. The first subject we decided to tackle came to me in a dream.... OK so I was cleaning my library and found a book called "Nostradamus Prophecies for America" by David Ovason. That book was acquired for the heaping sum of $1.00 at my local Dollar General Store about three years ago. I set down and read a little and in all honesty my views of Nostradamus still remained the same. I am what one might call an "I'm not sure" when it comes to this matter. Maybe he really was a great prophecies or maybe he was a generalize. I can't say for sure.

That being said I want to look at some of the quatrains that he compiled that many scholars assume to be for the United States. These quatrains have been looked at no doubt millions of times and surely many ideas exist in regards to what event Nostradamus was referring to. So with that out of the way, let's look at these testaments to a great and mysterious man.

First let's look at the verse that was said to shock the world when it came to pass. Verse 97 roughly translated is:

Five and forty degrees the sky will burn
Fire to approach the great new city
within an instant a great flame will leap like lightning
when one would wish the normans to give trial

Now of course this has been interpreted in many ways. The most upsetting is in regards t6o the tragedy of 9-11. In the first two lines we see the sky burning and the phrase new city. New city could easily be New York and the burning sky is an image still fresh as we looked up at the burning trade center. Pretty convincing but what about the degrees given. Could this not be a direction of some sort, perhaps similar to latitude and longitude. If so this rules New York out very clearly. But if we lose the 5 and keep just the forty than we have New York. Interesting but could it be accurate or just a clever guess.

Some have even speculated this to be the arrival of aliens and the fire in the sky is a symbol of their starships. The new city is just that, a city that had not previously existed. So many options exist for this quatrain that we really cannot say one way or the other if this truly predicted the 9-11 event or if this event has yet to come. This is a prime example that skeptics have used for ages. His quatrains are so open to interpretation and generalization that it is very difficult to really grasp them.

Let's look at verse II.81 which loosely translates to :

The city almost burned from fire from the sky
Urna menaces once more Ceucalion
Sardinia vexed by Carthaginian sail
after which libra will drop her phaethon

This is quite puzzling to say the least and very hard to understand. The first line once again could represent New York in the wake of 9.11 but also any city that had been under war or siege would fall right into that category as well. The second line is one that comes from Greek mythology which is were a great deal of Nostradamus' quatrains seem to originate. Urna is Latin for the zodiac sign of Aquarius. This could represent a person with a birthday falling in that sign or even water itself. Now we can combine these two lines to make yet another assumption. The city burning under menace of Aquarius could basically be New Orleans destroyed by the wrath of Katrina. Now we have turned what was thought to be New York and 9-11 into New Orleans and yet the quatrain still could be both, or it could be something else entirely different. The third line mentioned an island in the Mediterranean, Sardinia. This now once again has us looking toward water for this verse. This quatrain seems to reference the beginning of Sardania by the travels of the Carthaginians. We now must look to the last line for help. Libra of course is a zodiac symbol as well as Aquarius. Now this could be referencing an individual with a birth day in that sign or perhaps justice as libra is represented with the scales. Perhaps justice will intervene somewhere or we could even assume a weight will be lifted. Once again another example of how we can use Nostradamus' writings to reflect a variety of views.

The next quatrain IX:47 may be in regards to our early history in the US.

The signers of delivery from an unworthy situation
The legal consequences will have contrary opinions
change monarch put in equal clarity
those kept in a cage they will see themselves face to face

Now we are dealing with some heavy stuff. Could the first line reference the declaration of independence? Perhaps but could it not also be in reference to a treaty or act of war. We can look at the change of monarch which in the time of the quatrains writing that was a way to address leaders. Could we then say this is in regards to the war in Iraq and the downfall of Sadan Hussein. Now he sets in a cage of steel while Bush a cage of moral dilemma. These two may come face to face sooner or later. Once again I have been able to put a modern event to one of these quatrains without much effort. I am sure an event came to your mind as well. Yet another example of how these prophecies seem to be open to interpretation.

Moving on to IV:96.

The eldest sister of the British Isle
will have her birth fifteen years before her brother
by his promise made under tested conditions
she will continue to the reign of balance

Not as clear cut as the others seemed to be so let's look at how Mr. Ovason tackled this one. The British isles may be in fact England so that would make the eldest sister in a sense the US. The brother could be the other revolutionary country which is France. Now we have the family aspect. Is this a discussion of the war yet to come or a unity between the two countries. After all France is joining the New York stock exchange and a universal world order seems close at hand. Is this what Nostradamus is referencing in this quatrain.

Moving on to I:87

The thunderer Poseidon fire from the center of the earth
will make tremble the environs of the new city
two great rocks will make war for a long time
then Arethusa will redden the waters of the new river.

Once again a mention to the new city. Once again this could be assumed the 9-11 events. The war between two rocks could be the planes themselves which are as hard as stone. This also explains the thundering. Many died so waters would be reddened but at the same time we may be approaching this wrongly. What about a volcano? Could this not reference two going off at the same time and causing great death or even reddening the sea with lava? Another example for just how easy it is to get lost in these quatrains.

Now there are many more which we will not go into as I only wanted to cover a few for example reasons. Looking at these and the different ways I translated their meanings we are left with a stern fact. Nostradamus may have predicted the future or he may have generalized as many astrologers and fortune tellers do. It is impossible to say, one thing we can say without question is it always seems that the events explained are not detected until after they happen, which really brings up the point of how many times has specific quatrains been used to explain an event. It is probably safe to say the same quatrain has been used a number of times for that reason. Don't get me wrong some of the work in these prophecies are amazing like when the name Hister is mentioned in regards to Germany and it's history. That name could very well have meant Hitler, but other examples such as the ones I have given you serve to make many skeptic of the work of Nostradamus. In honesty it is a personal question as it can neither be proven or disproven that his works were in fact predictions that have come to pass or will come to pass. We cannot know that because we know so little about why he wrote them. Now you have looked at this from a variety of levels and I trust you can make at least a small degree of decision as to how you feel about Nostradamus. Happy Hunting.

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