Some Thoughts on Nostradamus and Prophecy

 By Dennis Lantz

When it comes to prophecy, I have a pretty good bull---t meter.

I’ve always been fascinated with the idea that one can predict the future. I don’t understand how it works… and I don’t even know if it is beneficial. Many interpreted prophecies amuse me. I’m not saying I disbelieve, but I will claim that much of it is nonsense.

Biblical prophecy was the first encounter I had with prognostication. It seemed that much of the New Testament was written to show that Old Testament prophecy had already come true. To me, prophecies that have already been fulfilled are boring. I’m much more interested in things yet to come.

While I realize that symbolism is the language of visions and dreams, I think that prophecies filled with vague utterances are a waste of time. Ambiguous references leave me skeptical. I like my prophets to have substance.

I studied books about Edgar Cayce and Nostradamus and admit that I was often puzzled by the interpretations of the writers.

Nostradamus is the perfect example of mixing symbology with arcane words and references… much of what he wrote wasn’t even understood at the time he lived.

Of course, he had a good reason for being arcane. He didn’t want to die at the hands of the church and Inquisition, or the monarchy. He mentioned both in his prophecies… a lot. It only makes sense that he would obscure some of the details.

Nostradamus wrote in four-line verses called quatrains. He mixed archaic French, Latin and other languages. He devised anagrams and used phonetically similar words to represent something else. When I read some of his quatrains (translated into English), I wonder if he was able to see movies and newscasts from the future… and then he had to interpret them into his own language, with limited understanding of what he saw. How would you describe some futuristic weapon or device that you didn’t understand? 

I recently found an old favorite on my bookshelf. The Further Prophecies of Nostradamus by Erika Cheetham. She was the premier Nostradamus expert when I was studying in the 1980s and 1990s. Like most interpreters of prophecy, she couldn’t foresee the vast changes in our life that came with the new millennium. That doesn’t make her work any less interesting, but it does lessen the belief factor about such endeavors.

Many authors claim that Nostradamus successfully envisioned a vast array of future events and people, including Napoleon and Hitler. I can’t say that I believe all of it, but there are certainly astonishing possibilities.

The following Nostradamus quatrains (that Erika Cheetham translated into English) are some of the ones that interest me today. I admit that I do not think they prove Nostradamus predicted the pandemic and subsequent authoritarianism that has sprung from it. But they arouse curiosity. She thinks they are about Russia and Marxism… and the League of Nations. She may be right. But what if…?

Before long everything will be organized; we await a very evil century. The state of the masked and the solitary ones being greatly changed, few will find that they wish to retain their rank.

She believes ‘masks’ is an anagram for Marx and that this quatrain concerns the fall of Soviet Russia. How would she know when she wrote this that L’estat des masques et des seuls bien change’ might be far more relevant today?

I personally believe we have begun a very evil century… but it is certain that many have had that same thought since the beginning of humankind.

Maybe the prophecy does have to do with Marxist ideology, but not from the Russians as she believed. Some today make a philosophical connection between masks and Marxism… one is bringing on the other. I won’t argue the point here.

If ‘organized’ means controlled or watched… our society currently fits the picture. Only a fool would doubt that we are in the throes of an evil period. Lies and corruption. Destruction of the foundations of our country and heritage. The devaluation of life and liberty. The power-hungry ‘ruling class’ shows no mercy because it is not in them.

If retaining ‘rank’ means continuing to keep their position in society… then this is also accurate. Many people are stepping away from their jobs because they refuse to go along with illogical mandates. The employment situation has been turned on its head. There appears to be a general dissatisfaction with life. If ‘rank’ signifies a military position, then it could mean that military leaders will no longer wish to serve. A coming revolution or rebellion would assure such. I’m not saying that is going to happen. I am just offering thoughts.

Do you see what I have done? I’ve interpreted this quatrain to fit my narrative. I didn’t write the original words, but I gave them meaning. Am I wrong?

No matter what was intended, I would say that masks and forced solitude have greatly changed us.

…

In the Cyclades, Perinthius and Larissa, in Sparta and all the Peloponnesus: a very great famine, plague through false (man-made) dust. It will last nine months throughout the whole peninsula.

The places in this quatrain mean nothing to me, but I am intrigued by the idea of plague through false (man-made) dust. It’s been wreaking havoc for more than nine months.

…

The strictures from Lake Geneva will annoy- from days they will be dragged out into weeks, then months, then years, then all will fail. The magistrates will damn their useless laws.

Our laws are failing. The pandemic response started out as days and weeks… obey us to flatten the curve. That turned into months… and now it is going into years. All will fail. Our supply chains and lines of commerce are already failing. Our justice system is failing. Our magistrates are damning our useless laws… because they are being abandoned by the very ones who should uphold them.

I don’t know if this has anything to do with the League of Nations as Erika Cheetham opined. But the strictures of the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control and worldwide government entities have certainly annoyed many… and they have failed.

…

The great Senate will see the parade for one who afterward will be driven out, vanquished. His followers will be there at the sound of his triumph (trumpet), their possessions for sale, enemies driven out.

Erika Cheetham thought this was about President Nixon. I could argue that it might, instead, be about former President Donald Trump. I did not vote for Trump, but I certainly would prefer his policies over the current White House resident. The name Trump always amused me because it is like a shortened version of ‘trumpet’. Many prophecies in the Bible mention the ‘trumpet of the Lord’. And with Pence… it was Trump-Pence. The Trump-Pence of the Lord? Coincidence? If God uses the extremes, the sinners and malcontents to accomplish His will, then this almost makes sense… right? I told you this could be amusing.

The (not-so) great Senate acquitted President Trump (twice) and he was subsequently vanquished. His followers certainly have been there for him and will be again. Will they heed his call to bring him back? Will they drive out the enemies?

See what I mean? I can make my own interpretations. Amusing. Or is it?

…

Back around the same time I was reading Erika Cheetham, I occasionally watched television personality Jack Van Impe rattle on about all sorts of Biblical prophesies being fulfilled every single day. To me, he sounded like a nutcase. I watched him because I thought there might be some sort of illumination. I never saw it. Later, my mother watched him too. I told her he was absurd. I wasn’t downplaying or disparaging her religious beliefs. I was expressing my opinion about a particular charlatan.

I generally watched his show to be amused. When world leaders changed, his earlier words became useless. I remember his declaration that Gorbachev was the anti-Christ because he had the red birthmark on his head. Of course, when the political upheaval of the Soviet Union occurred, others took his place. How can the anti-Christ become irrelevant? Too much rambling for me.

Curiously, I’m still conflicted about prophecy. I like to think we have free-will… but I also believe that some aspects of life are pre-ordained. We’re fated. We have a purpose… even though we don’t always fulfill it. Just like many prophecies. Do prophets simply see possibilities? And if they don’t come true, is it because choices were made that changed the outcome?

That made me think about my own prophetic abilities. I don’t claim to be a prophet. But I write science fiction and some of my stories have themes and devices that very well may become reality. And even though I can foresee our culture and society going through serious upheaval, I don’t think that makes me a prophet. It just means that I am paying attention. There is always oppression and misery.

The control exerted today by Big Tech, Big Pharma and their legion of corporate sycophants will be like nothing in the months and years to come.

America has fallen. We should have paid closer attention to Benjamin Franklin. After the Constitutional Convention in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, he was asked about the type of government they had just approved. “A Republic," he replied, "if you can keep it."

Was he a prophet?

I’m still an optimist. While I see humanity going through a very difficult time, I know that the seeds of liberty are buried abundantly. It will sprout again. America may never attain its potential greatness, but freedom will return.

If I were to write that in prophetic language it would be this:

There will come a time when freedom, democracy and liberty are suppressed by many tyrants. Not all authoritarian dictates will come from state leaders. But the seeds from the tree of liberty have been sewn and they will sprout all around the globe. America will rise again in the hearts and souls of humanity.

That’s not really amusing. But I believe it.

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