• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / International / Featured Global

Did Nostradamus Predict a World War Starting in Ukraine?

02/19/2022Massimo Introvigne |

Some try to persuade us that the French 16th-century astrologer predicted World War III and widespread religious persecution. A look at the “Nostradamologists.”

by Massimo Introvigne

Nostradamus in a 19th-century print. Credits.
Nostradamus in a 19th-century print. Credits.

Will the events in Ukraine trigger a World War III? Yes, some prophecy buffs tell us, based on predictions by Michel de Nostredame, the French astrologer still known today by the Latinized name of Nostradamus (1503–1566). Some may even find here an opportunity to make some money. The publicity on Amazon for an old book on Nostradamus’ and other prophecies has been quickly updated to state that “The current and gathering crisis pitting the United States and the European Union against the Russian Federation over Ukraine may have rewound the doomsday clock and started it ticking out… That time is today.”

But did Nostradamus really predict that World War III is now at hand and will start in Ukraine? Those who answer yes point out to several predictions about devastating wars (yet to come) and a conflict between “three kings,” whom they identify in Putin, Biden, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (perhaps because the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is a “queen,” a woman). Of course, none of these characters is really a king.

The “Prophecies” of Nostradamus are divided into “centuries,” and in the eighth one we find references to “three kings” and also to “three brothers.” That “brothers” and “kings” are the same is already a matter of interpretation. We read in 8:17 that “Par les trois frères le monde mis en trouble. Cité marine saisiront ennemis. Fain, feu, sang, peste, et de tous maux le double,” “Through the three brothers the world will get into trouble. The enemies will take a maritime city. Hunger, fire, blood, plague, and a double dose of all disasters.”

The “maritime city” would be Odessa, Ukraine, taken by the Russians, and the “double dose of all disasters” (including a new outbreak of the “plague,” identified with COVID-19) is interpreted as World War III. Of interest to readers of Bitter Winter, Nostradamus there also predicts widespread, religious persecution that would even compel the Vatican to “move to another place.”

The first, incomplete edition, of Nostradamus’ prophecies (1555). Credits.
The first, incomplete edition, of Nostradamus’ prophecies (1555). Credits.

This interpretation, however, points to general problems about Nostradamus. Many have heard his name; few really know anything about him. Michel de Nostredame was an esteemed physician, who became advisor to the French Kings Henry II (1519–1559) and Charles IX (1550–1574). Passionate about astrology, starting in 1555 he published his “Centuries,” each composed of one hundred quatrains, except the seventh, which includes only 42.

In 1559, one of these was read as an exact prediction of the death of King Henry II for the consequences of a wound he received during a jousting match, and the doctor-astrologer became very famous. Even the prediction of his own death “on his return from an embassy, near a bed and a bench (banc)” seemed to come true. Nostradamus died at home on the night of July 1, 1566, he was returning from having represented his city, Salon-de-Provence, in Arles, and although he had no bench in his room, he used a “bench” (banc) to climb on his bed.

Everything else is much more uncertain. He is supposed to have prophesied the French Revolution, World War II, and many other events. But to believe it you should lend faith to this or that “Nostradamologist,” who offers interpretations of the quatrains, which in themselves are rather obscure and open to a plurality of different meanings.

Another 19th-century portrait of Nostradamus. Credits.
Another 19th-century portrait of Nostradamus. Credits.

Today there is only an embarrassment of choice. Thousands of Internet sites, hundreds of books, magazines, movies, and even cartoons and comics are dedicated to Nostradamus. The latter come often from Japan, the country where the Nostradamus craze is strongest. The Provençal seer is the subject of a much more copious literary production in Japan than in his native France. There are, by now, many different Nostradamus: and a map is necessary to orient oneself.

First, there is the academic Nostradamus. A few academic-level historical studies of Nostradamus do exist. There is, however, a difference between specialists of sixteenth-century history and local scholars of Provence, on the one hand, and academics who are themselves enthusiasts of esotericism or who approach Nostradamus with curiosity coming from different fields of study.

The two parties confronted each other at several conferences in Salon-de-Provence, the city where Nostradamus died and which hosts a museum dedicated to him. From these conferences emerged in 1992 the volume edited by Robert Amadou (1924–2006) L’astrologie de Nostradamus (Poissy: ARRC). It remains an important reference, although Amadou was a typical scholar-cum-esotericist.

Historians urge that Nostradamus be read as a character of his own century. They believe that most of his predictions had precise references to characters and events of his era, which may easily escape the modern reader. Some esotericists and scholars from other fields, including philologist Georges Dumézil (1898–1986), on the other hand, believe that Nostradamus represents a genuine case of prediction of the future through astrology.

Second, there is a Nostradamus of magicians. Professional soothsayers and psychics, not to be confused with scholars of esotericism, often use Nostradamus to predict in detail their clients’ future and even the broader future of politics and economy. Every time an international crisis breaks out, there is also a battle among magicians, each of whom claims that “I interpret Nostradamus better than anyone else.” The claims sometimes border on the ridiculous but delight a certain popular press.

Until 2014, when she died, prominent in these battles was Dolores Cannon (1931–2014), a hypnologist from Arkansas who claimed not to need interpretations because, through her hypnotized patients, the spirit of Nostradamus himself explained the Centuries to her.

Dolores Cannon. From Facebook.
Dolores Cannon. From Facebook.

Third, the skeptics’ Nostradamus. In a difficult battle against the believers and the gullible, the professional skeptics and apologists for modern science try to convince us that Nostradamus never got anything right. Their bible is the book where Nostradamus was demolished as a charlatan by the stage magician and “professional skeptic” James Randi (1928–2020: The Mask of Nostradamus, Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1993). Their followers, in these postmodern times of the return of the marvelous, are not that many.

Fourth, let’s not forget the Catholic Nostradamus. An old book, constantly reprinted and still popular in circles interested in Marian apparitions and private revelations, was written by Raoul Auclair (1906–1997), who in his old age joined the Canadian new religious movement Army of Mary. Auclair’s book Les Centuries de Nostradamus ou le dixième Livre Sibyllin (Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Latines, 1975) combined Nostradamus with the Marian apparitions of Fatima and La Salette, and various Catholic prophecies of 19th-century France.

The historical reconstruction was adventurous, but perhaps Nostradamus would not have protested. His orthodoxy might have been dubious but he wanted to call himself a Catholic, and the Church put his prophecies on its Index of forbidden books only in 1781.

Fifth, there is the commercial Nostradamus. Both in the United States and in Japan there have been attempts at copyrighting the image, or one image, often derived from comics, of Nostradamus and sell it for commercial purposes. Some of these ventures fared quite well.

Lupin III, one of the most famous characters of Japanese comics, also looked for the “real” prophecies of Nostradamus. From Twitter.
Lupin III, one of the most famous characters of Japanese comics, also looked for the “real” prophecies of Nostradamus. From Twitter.

There is also a sixth, anticlerical Nostradamus, a more recent invention of German novelist Manfred Böckl. He claimed that the Centuries should be read as metaphors cleverly hiding, to escape prosecution, a denunciation of the evil and even Satanic character of the Catholic clergy and the French aristocrats who supported the Church. In fact, however, bishops and aristocrats were Nostradamus’ most generous patrons.

The seventh, more interesting, character is the Nostradamus of the new religious movements. Shoko Asahara (1955–2018), the leader of the Japanese movement Aum Shinrikyo, who was executed in 2018 for the nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway in March 1995, did not base his apocalyptic predictions on the end of the world only on esoteric Buddhism.

He had a public controversy, followed at that time with great interest in Japan, with Ryuho Okawa, the leader of another Japanese new religion, Kofuku no Kagaku. Both of them believed Nostradamus, correctly interpreted, supported their claims. Nostradamus or not, to his credit Okawa also predicted that Asahara would be implicated in criminal activities and would not end up well. Of course, mobilizing Nostradamus on behalf of the claims of new religious movements does not happen in Japan only.

Nostradamus speaks about what will happen in 2022 through Ryuho Okawa. From Twitter.
Nostradamus speaks about what will happen in 2022 through Ryuho Okawa. From Twitter.

Who is right? The question is misplaced. By its nature, the text of Nostradamus lends itself to the game that Umberto Eco (1932–2016) called the “infinite interpretation.” It is a game where interpretation is much more important than any original reality of the text. Perhaps here lies the most interesting aspect of Nostradamus. All interpret him as they wish, and he regularly comes back into fashion whenever events make anxieties about the future stronger. Of course, scholars can search for a “Nostradamus of history.” But in the collective imagination today, Nostradamus is not so much a historical figure. He is a cultural icon, a mirror that reflects our anxieties and magnifies our fears.

Tagged With: Prophecies

Massimo Introvigne
Massimo Introvigne

Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio.  From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.

www.cesnur.org/

Related articles

  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 6. Montage, Color, Integration

    L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 6. Montage, Color, Integration

  • Spanish Supreme Court: Political Parties Cannot Exclude “Cult” Devotees as Candidates

    Spanish Supreme Court: Political Parties Cannot Exclude “Cult” Devotees as Candidates

  • Baba Vanga: Did the Bulgarian Seer Predict Putin’s Victory in Ukraine?

    Baba Vanga: Did the Bulgarian Seer Predict Putin’s Victory in Ukraine?

  • Japan Religious Donations Law. 4. The Return of Brainwashing

    Japan Religious Donations Law. 4. The Return of Brainwashing

Keep Reading

  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 5. Professionals vs. Amateurs
    L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 5. Professionals vs. Amateurs

    One becomes a professional artist by skillfully using the “ideal scene” and the “memory library,” two concepts typical of Hubbard.

  • Communist Parties and Religion: The Japanese Communist Party’s “Final War” Against the Unification Church
    Communist Parties and Religion: The Japanese Communist Party’s “Final War” Against the Unification Church

    Communist parties in democratic countries have a devious way to attack religions. What is happening in Japan is just the most recent chapter of a long story.

  • The Anti-Unification Church Campaign in Japan: The Shadow of the Communist Party
    The Anti-Unification Church Campaign in Japan: The Shadow of the Communist Party

    An explosive journalistic report claims Japanese Communists played a key role in fueling hostility against the anti-Communist religious group.

  • Japan’s Religious Donations Law. 2. “Fear” and Religious Fraud
    Japan’s Religious Donations Law. 2. “Fear” and Religious Fraud

    The new law, by prohibiting donations based on “fear” of misfortunes in this or in the next life and on trust in “inspired” teachers, in fact looks with suspicion at all religions.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • France Joins China and Russia by Introducing Special Police Techniques Against “Cults” by Massimo Introvigne
  • “Socialist Spiritual Civilization”: The Great Comeback of an Old CCP Concept by Hu Zimo
  • The Fate of Tibet After the Inevitable: A Tibetan Opinion by Ugyen Gyalpo
  • Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan: Massive Re-Education to Prevent Tibetan Self-Immolations by Lopsang Gurung
  • Wang Hai: Miao Christian Pastor Still Harassed and Investigated by Mo Yuan
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 7. The Scientologist as Artist by Massimo Introvigne
  • Mark Fino: No Asylum in Japan for Evangelist Threatened in Bangladesh by Tom Eskildsen

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY