Over 400 years since it was published, the sales for Nostradamus’s Les Prophéties are soaring, following the supposed prediction of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II's death and the future of the British monarchy.
Though his predictions have been a matter of serious contention over the years, we explore the ‘seer’s’ many pieces of foresight over the course of history, and whether or not his projections for the events of the future hold fast.
Before that, here is a quick brief about the seer:
However, academic sources reject the notion that Nostradamus had any genuine supernatural prophetic abilities and maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus's poetic verses are the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations.
Many also argue that Nostradamus's predictions are characteristically vague, meaning they could be applied to virtually anything, and are useless for determining whether the poet had any real prophetic powers.
Research suggests that much of his prophetic work paraphrases collections of ancient end-of-the-world prophecies, such as those in the Bible, and supplements them with references to historical events and anthologies of omen reports before surplanting them with events of the future.
Nostradamus claimed to base his published predictions on judicial astrology - the astrological 'judgment', or assessment, of the 'quality' of events such as births, weddings, coronations etc - but was heavily criticised by professional astrologers of the day for incompetence and for assuming that "comparative horoscopy" could actually predict what would happen in the future.
A good portion of Nostradmus’s prophecies have held their ground in terms of accuracy so far, which is why a glimpse at his predictions for the future paint a bleak, chilling picture of what is in store for the world.
Here are some of the potential predictions that Nostradamus may have had for the future of the world:
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, people have flocked to Les Prophéties in an attempt to decipher truths from his predictions. One specific piece of foresight is particularly telling regarding the future of the British Crown…
Those in question could very well be a reference to the current King of England, Charles III, who according to the predictions may soon abdicate or be forced out of the throne. He will b replaced with someone least expected, which in all likelihood sounds like Prince Harry at the moment.
Yet, despite the many instances of proven accuracy, all of the above seems speculatory and based on vague assumptions. The truth behind Nostradamus’s apparent gift of foresight remains open to interpretation.
After all, Nostradamus still pales in comparison to the REAL prophets of the ages, from the little town of Springfield…