Hi, stressedmum !
As you are probably aware, Nostradamus wrote in medieval French, and
apart from the fact that he was being intentionally obscure, it is not
quite the same as modern French. So what we read in English is in
translation, and open to interpretation. Likewise, his concept of
geography was limited to the world as it was known in his own day, and
to Biblical references.
The prophecy you mention is drawn from several different verses.
An excellent site by Peter Lemesurier, a Nostradamus scholar,
addresses part of your question at:
http://www.nostradamus500.com/
Scroll right down the page to see what he says under "Question of the
Week".
"Q. Does Nostradamus say anything about a war with Iraq?
A. The principal scenario proposed by Nostradamus across many of his
quatrains, and luridly confirmed by his main source, the Mirabilis
liber of 1522 -- ..... -- is that a huge Muslim/Arab army, led by an
Antichrist from Babylon (Iraq), is destined to invade Europe and lay
it waste. After some years of brutal occupation, a French 'Great
Monarch' will then arise and even more brutally chase them back to the
Middle East, where the Muslim survivors will eventually convert to
Christianity (!!). Somehow I don't see this relating to the present
situation, do you? Unless, of course, Bush's policies were to stir up
the whole Middle East to such an extent as actually to bring it
about...
The site promotes Lemesurier's book upcoming "Nostradamus: The
Illustrated Prophecies
The complete, authoritative translation and analysis" so you may want
to watch out for that.
He has a "Contact Me" button on the left of the screen if you want to
email him.
Clicking on the FAQS and Misconceptions buttons brings you to very
well presented discussions of various questions about the prophecies
and the difficulties involved in making accurate assumptions from
them.
For example:
"17. Isn't there good evidence in Nostradamus that World War III was
due to start on July 4th 1999?
A. No, this idea is based on a well-known but quite disgraceful
interpretation of I.58 (can't trace whose it is!) which fails to
recognise that 'Alquilloye' - described in line 3 as celebrating its
festival - refers to the Italian city of Aquileia, and instead insists
(wrongly) that it means 'eagle'...which, of course, has to mean the
USA (rather than all the dozens of other countries, naturally, that
have the eagle as their symbol!!)...which in turn has to mean that the
reference is to 4th July!!
In fact the verse merely states that the birth of a set of Siamese
twins by Caesarean section will mark the submission by Fossano and/or
Turin in Italy to the leader of Ferrara on Aquileia's feast-day.
As a direct result of the above travesty, the whole of Japan (where
Nostradamus is inordinately popular) was in a state of almost
apocalyptic panic about it during 1999 - to an extent which could
actually have had practical effects on such things as the stock
exchange..."
Lemesurier recommends several Nostradamus links, including "Prophesies
Online" which is at:
http://go.to/prophecies
Here the actual prophecies can be found by clicking on "Nostradamus"
on the left menu and following the links through "Works" and
"Centuries" to the verses, which are in both French and English side
by side. Note that a "Century" is simply a group of verses, usually
100.
The site also contains a range of other prophecies which are not by
Nostradamus and some of which seem very odd.
Facsimiles of original editions can be found at:
http://www.propheties.it/no/nostradamus.html
A summary of the prophecies supposedly leading to World War III is at:
http://santanu.virtualave.net/HTML/prophecy.html
This also briefly discusses the "Great Peace" you mention. The
original French is not given. Much of what is presented here is
challenged on Peter Lemesurier's site. Century IX Verse 55 is
prevented as referring to the current situation. I have difficulty
taking seriously a commentator who considers "D'Arton" to be an
anagram of "NATO" (II.22) - what happened to the other two letters?
There's also a twistround of II.62 which attempts to identify the name
"Mabus" with "Usama" while at least two other people are more probable
(the former US ambassador to Riyadh, Raymond E Mabus and16th century
painter Jan Gossaert de Mabuse). A search under "Mabus" will reveal
some other theories, including both Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush.
Or maybe even Joel Mabus the pop singer?
Another site at:
http://isc.faqs.org/faqs/nostradamus/part7/
cites 1-69, II-19, II-22,V!-24 and VII-14 as referring to the peace
following World War III.
although I cannot find the author of the site, the references seem to
be based on the books of Dolores Cannon, (discussed by Lemesurier,)
who claims to have "channelled" Nostradamus. Comparing these analyses
side by side with the actual verses and translations at Prophecies
Online (open your Browser twice, to get two windows) makes the
interpretations seem tenuous to say the least.
Have fun following these up - it's certainly a fascinating study - but
don't take it too seriously. I've seen some of these same verses
fitted to several different events over the years. thank you for an
interesting question.
Search strategy:
Nostradamus
Nostradamus peace
Mabus |
