It’s that time of year when news organizations publish long lists of Nostradamus predictions for the coming months.
Last year, predictions included everything from famine and humans feeding on other humans to the robot revolution and the extinction of humanity. Well, we somehow managed to avoid those devastating events, but we shouldn’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet. This year we will have all the events that did not materialize last year, a so-called disaster on Mars and… the Antichrist.
Some publications have claimed that Nostradamus predicted the coming of the Antichrist sometime around 2023, who will then declare war on the unbelievers.
“The Light on Mars That Will Go Out”
“The Antichrist soon annihilates the three. His war will last 27 years. Infidels are dead, captives or exiles. The earth will be covered with blood, human corpses, water and red hail”. The New York Post reported that this prediction could be connected to Vladimir Putin, the American publication trying its best to associate global events with the sayings of Nostradamus.
Among Nostradamus’s more outlandish predictions is “the light on Mars that will go out.” Some have suggested that this means that a Martian mission will fail, rather than Nostradamus predicting the existence of Martians, a power grid on the Red Planet, or a blackout on Mars.
“A royal edifice” struck by an asteroid and engulfed in flames
Some publications reported that Nostradamus predicted that Buckingham Palace would be hit by an asteroid and go up in flames. That passage, written long before Buckingham Palace was built, refers only to a “heavenly fire (comprising) a royal edifice”, so no direct reference to the British royal family.
Another passage shows that food prices rise so much that people end up eating each other. “Honey will cost more than candle wax. The price of wheat will be so high that man will be driven to eat his neighbor in desperation.” This forecast was also valid last year, but it did not happen. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen in 2023 either.
After all, what did Nostradamus actually predict? As usual, the answer is “a big nothing.”
Nostradamus was rather good at “aftervisions”
Those who have read enough passages from Nostradamus will already know that the Frenchman was rather good at “postvisions”, that is, conceiving several predictions that can be associated with various global events after they have already happened, it shows IFLScience.
There is a clear and simple reason why Nostradamus could not warn us that in 2022 a lad named Putin will bring despair and pain: the future cannot be predicted. But Nostradamus wrote a few vague lines about a warmonger, and some people may say “ah, he probably meant Putin”.
For example, another passage is considered by many to be a prediction for the rise of Adolf Hitler. “From the depths of Western Europe, a young child born of poor people will seduce a great crowd with his speech; his fame will rise to the lands of the East.”
So what did Nostradamus actually predict for the year 2023?
Leaving aside the fact that all the children are young, you may notice that this passage could refer to almost anyone who is well-spoken and famous all over the world. These are not the main details about Hitler. You will notice that Nostradamus did not write anything about the Holocaust or World War II, but some people insisted after the dictator’s death that his life was predicted by Nostradamus.
So what did Nostradamus actually predict for the year 2023? Nothing. But perhaps in another 20 years, other people will have been able to find associations between future events and the passages mentioned above.