NATURAL CATASTROPHES

Earthquakes on earth (Galloping Globe Gallery)

These Times and Regions refer to the abounding natural disasters of the Centuries. It seems that the seer repeated the same events a great number of times, thus stressing their importance. The most frequently stated catastrophes are earthquakes, floods and hail. The punishment of men by the convulsions of nature is common to all prophecies. It establishes the infinite power of God over all things as well as the risks incurred by not following the sacred alliance. In fact, nearly all religions practice some rites that aim to soften their God(s) temper and moderate his interventions through the natural elements.

The cataclysms refer to past and future events alike. The Pompeii destruction of the year 62 AD is described. So is the cataclysm that devastated the Italic peninsula a few centuries later. A future earthquake will shake the Western World on the very day of the death of the "very old pontiff". This reminds of the signs described in the Bible to come before a period of tribulations that precedes the day of doom.

Sorcerer or Meteorologist

Nostradamus' Almanacs released in the 1650s contain some weather forecasts (quatrains numbered A+yymm), which the 16th Century peasants found to be accurate. However, the difference between a seer and a sorcerer should be stressed here. The first one simply predicts the future while the second invokes some supernatural powers to influence an outcome. The author of the Centuries would have used a very old spell book that he split in pairs of verses and dissimulated them in the rest of his poetry.

A recent experiment showed that some verses recomposed to their supposed original form and read aloud with conviction induced some catastrophes in the local weather. Maybe it was pure chance! However, the experiment was conducted over several weeks and provoked every time some very unlikely and unforeseeable effects of hurricanes and tempest at the very place named in advance. First unbelieving, the solid bunch of experimenters, horrified by so many disasters, self dissolved and decided not to publish anything more precise than what's already there. Nostradamia chose not to censor the existing texts that refer to it.

Enjoy.