Nostradamus’ Predictions For 2021 Will Leave You Shaken Up

So, maybe we should be worried. According to a lot of folks, Nostradamus has been right on the money for more than four centuries. There are even claims that he foretold the pandemic and the unprecedented outcomes that followed. And, apparently, the future-predicting Frenchman saw more even more turbulent events in 2021.

Now, of course, Nostradamus didn’t specifically say “there will be a global pandemic in 2020” or “climate change will be a real problem.” No, he scribbled down poems that, to be honest, are open to interpretation. Even more confusingly, he didn’t actually write some of the predictions that are credited to him.

But perhaps that’s all down to the way in which Nostradamus penned his prophecies: in verses with four lines called “quatrains.” He spent 63 years on this Earth, and until he passed in 1566, he whiled away the hours making these poetic predictions. Interpreters have since claimed that he correctly forecasted, among other events, the French Revolution and the atomic bomb. Quite a feat for a man who lived 500 years ago.

So, what did Nostradamus tell us to expect in 2021? Well, although 2020 wasn’t great, the French oracle supposedly warned that 2021 would be even worse! And it’s not just because of the ongoing pandemic or any problems with the economy. Oh no, there’s an especially freaky future in store if the revered man is to be believed.

Just who was this mystical prophet, though? Well, Nostradamus was a descendant of a Jewish man who, 50 years before the seer’s birth, had switched to Catholicism to avoid the long hand of the Inquisition. And while he grew up in a big family with eight siblings, he wasn’t raised in poverty. It’s said that his dad made a good living trading cereal crops.

The future prophet grew to be a man of medicine. At the time, plague was ravaging Europe, and Nostradamus didn’t just sit back and watch it. He journeyed around Italy and France, urging good hygiene and doses of rosehips (a source of vitamin C) rather than the more elaborate – and useless – remedies that other doctors tried. The method was decently successful too, curing many.

But Nostradamus eventually shifted away from medicine into darker realms of inquiry. As he started to get into the occult, his behavior became a little strange. He’d while away the night sitting deep in meditation, his only companion a container of water infused with an unspecified assortment of herbs. This strange habit induced trance-like states and with them – yes, you guessed correctly – “visions”.

Luckily for us, Nostradamus wrote these strange perceptions down and used them as the basis of his almanac. These popular writings were all the rage in the mid-1500s, filled with information but also with tidbits of folk wisdom and the occasional augury for the upcoming year. And when Nostradamus joined this thriving market, people gobbled his work up.

After a few years of peddling almanacs, Nostradamus developed a more ambitious plan. He would write a ten-volume epic with 100 predictions in each and covering the next two millennia. So by 1555 he was able to produce Les Prophéties – The Prophecies – which was a compendium of his visions of the future.

Perhaps because Nostradamus feared that the religious authorities would not appreciate his soothsaying, he hid the prophecies in poetry. He also deployed a mix of languages. He need not have worried, though: the Church liked him. Probably because he didn’t write about doing magic, but maybe just because he was a huge celebrity.

But precisely how did Nostradamus come up with his prophecies? Well, we’ve mentioned the herb infusions… He also claimed, though, that his predictions were the result of astrological calculations: put simply, the forecasted position of stars and planets in the future. Still, his work clearly includes lots of bits and pieces from historians and chroniclers. Some think he used ancient predictions and simply recast them using stellar calculations. Mind you, other “professional” astrologers of his time thought that he was a fraud.

Whatever method Nostradamus used, he certainly came up with a huge body of predictions. And people have put in a lot of effort trying to figure out exactly what he was prophesying ever since! It’s hard to be sure given his weird writing, of course, but do people think he got much right?

Well, there are tons of catastrophes in The Prophecies – and human history has not been short of those. So when Nostradamus predicts wars or plagues, murders or famines without being too specific, you can often find a corresponding one. Some of the predictions seem to be eerily accurate, though, such as the rise of dictators, revolutions and assassinations.

One quatrain apparently predicted the demise of King Henry II of France with uncanny accuracy. The poem said that the killer would “pierce his eyes through a golden cage,” and in fact the king was slain by complications from a lance splinter entering his helmet. Yet Nostradamus predicted Henry’s end would come “on the field of combat in a single battle,” but it was in fact a terrible accident that happened during a jousting tournament.

Supposedly, Nostradamus also predicted the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of his quatrains ominously read, “Within two cities there will be scourges the like of which was never seen.” Furthermore, it described “famine within plague” and “people put out by iron.” Does this describe bombs falling on cities? Maybe and maybe not; it all depends on your interpretation and your willingness to give it credence.

Whether you’re a believer or a skeptic, though, the quatrain that predicted the Great Fire of London was undeniably intriguing. It went, “The blood of the just will commit a fault at London, Burnt through lightning of 20 threes the six: The ancient lady will fall from her high place, Several of the same sect will be killed.” Now, “20 threes the six” could be “66,” and the blaze of course occurred in 1666. But an untended fire, not lightning, was the cause. Pot-ay-to pot-ah-to? Or proof that it’s all hokum?

Turning to more recent tragedies, one poem is said to have predicted the 9/11 attacks. Ominously, it reads, “Two steel birds will fall from the sky on the metropolis.” But there are significant clues in this text, often attributed to the seer, that not only is this not an accurate prophecy, but it’s not even one written by Nostradamus. How? Well, just for starters, according to the website Live Science, steel wasn’t invented until more than 200 years after he was supposed to have penned it.

But there are prophecies that Nostradamus certainly did write that apply to 2021. And some modern readers interpret them in a very dark light. For instance, according to British newspaper the Daily Express, “Twice put up and twice cast down, The East will also weaken the West. Its adversary after several battles chased by sea will fail at time of need” could be a chilling prediction of World War III.

If that’s not bad enough, perhaps the world war we mentioned will be fought by American half-human robots? The writers at Yearly Horoscope claim Nostradamus predicted some striking advances in military technology in 2021 when he wrote, “The newly made one will lead the army, Almost cut off up to near the bank: Help from the Milanais elite straining, The Duke deprived of his eyes in Milan in an iron cage.” Although quite what Milan has to do with things, we don’t know.

Or how about a zombie apocalypse? According to the website Yearly Horoscope one quatrain predicts a Russian genius will make a virus that will turn everyone into a member of the walking dead. It reads, “Few young people: half-dead to give a start. Dead through spite, he will cause the others to shine.”

If war or zombies don’t get us, a biblical famine might just do it. The Yearly Horoscope article claims that Nostradamus believed hunger would swamp us, along with epidemics, illnesses, and earthquakes, which are all part of our lives today. The outlook for 2021 included, “After great trouble for humanity, a greater one is prepared, The Great Mover renews the ages: Rain, blood, milk, famine, iron, and plague, In the heavens fire seen, a long spark running.” Yikes.

The Daily Express didn’t stop at World War III, though. Their article also claimed that Nostradamus predicted a strike on Earth from a solar flare. Yes, this what the paper made of, “Condom and Auch and around Mirande, I see fire from the sky which encompasses them. Sun and Mars conjoined in Leo, then at Marmande, Lightning, great hail, a wall falls into the Garonne.”

Solar flares are not unheard of, although they’re not everyday occurrences. Back in 1859 the Earth was indeed ravaged by such a phenomenon. Dubbed the Carrington Event, it set off a geomagnetic tempest that destroyed the cabling for telegraph systems and lit up the skies with fiery auroras. Should a similar scenario occur today it would heavily disrupt our communication and power networks.

As it turns out, we actually had a lucky escape not that long ago. In 2012 the Sun fired off a huge burst of mass from its outer atmosphere – known as its corona – that headed towards Earth. It didn’t hit us, obviously. But University of Colorado boffin Dr. Daniel Baker expressed how fortunate that was, saying in 2014, “If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces.”

Never fear, though, because according to Nostradamus if the Sun doesn’t get us, maybe an asteroid will. As already quoted earlier, he wrote, “In the heavens fire seen, a long spark running.” Now some have taken this as evidence of impending disaster; death and destruction at the hands of a massive meteorite on a collision course with Earth. But presumably NASA doesn’t use bowls of herbs to come up with its predictions. And indeed, internet searches have revealed no such doom-mongering from its boffins to date.

If that’s not bad enough, Nostradamus apparently has still more grim tidings for some poor souls. It’s just not hugely clear precisely who’ll be suffering. According to some, the verse starting, “The sloping park, great calamity” means there’s a massive earthquake due in November. But in terms of the location of the quake, the seer is typically vague, simply saying, “To be done through Hesperia and Insubria.” So frankly, your guess is as good as ours when it comes to assessing what this particular disaster is, or where it will strike.

It’s not all flame and ruin, though. At least, you’d hope that Brexit doesn’t involve either. But the Daily Express suggested that Nostradamus even had a thing or two to say about the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union. He wrote, “Peace and plenty for a long time the place will praise: Throughout his realm the fleur-de-lis deserted: Bodies dead by water, land one will bring there, Vainly awaiting the good fortune to be buried there.” Gulp.

Of course, the U.K. being out of the E.U. may make very little difference in the long run, at least as far as Yearly Horoscope is concerned. It says that Nostradamus claimed the Muslim faith would eventually dominate Europe and indeed the world. Although this process would take “decades” the site alleges that the start of such a demographic shift was apparent in 2021. The original Nostradamus quatrain reads “Because of French discord and negligence, An opening shall be given to the Mohammedans. The land and sea of Siena will be soaked in blood, And the port of Marseilles covered with ships and sails.”

With all those troubles awaiting us, it’s perhaps no surprise that Nostradamus seemingly predicted a resurgence in the Catholic religion, led by Pope Francis – that is, if you go along with the interpretation delivered by Facebook site The Whistleblower in December 2020. It believes that the seer said the pontiff will help the Church provide a “lifeboat” for those afflicted by solar flares, famine and war. The Church’s view on zombies is not clear, though.

All in all, Nostradamus wrote more than 6,000 predictions, and some people believe many have come true. Lucky for them, his prophecies go all the way to the year 3797 so there are plenty more to enjoy. You might even take some comfort in the idea that the seer thought the world would exist until at least then! Other people, of course, are resolutely skeptical about his ability to see the future, maintaining that the gullible simply fit the facts to the prophecies after they’ve happened.

Skeptoid podcaster Brian Dunning is one of the doubters. In fact, he told the Daily Express that no prediction of Nostradamus had ever come true. He said, “Michel de Nostredame was truly one of the brilliant lights of his day, but to subscribe to false stories and urban legends is to disrespect who the man actually was.”

Dunning doesn’t entirely discount Nostradamus’ life’s work, though, at least not the more down-to-earth elements of it. He said, “Appreciate his contributions to medicine and Renaissance literature, and don’t trivialize his good works in favor of a pretended history of paranormal magical powers.” But the enduring popularity of the 16th-century seer proves that there’s plenty of appetite for prophecy.

Indeed, the Daily Express website itself provided evidence for that when they called in psychic Craig Hamilton-Parker to give his opinions on what would happen in 2021. The medium didn’t quite match Nostradamus for alarming predictions, claiming, “Britain will become a world leader in quantum computing and artificial intelligence.” He added that there are also free trade zones to lure the big tech companies and pharmaceutical factories in the pipeline. So, things look bright for the U.K.

More alarming was an American counterpart, Pastor Paul Begley. In October 2020 he claimed that the end of the world was nigh. The Indiana preacher saw portents that echoed the Book of Isaiah, which reads, “The earth will be completely laid to waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word.”

Begley painted this picture of destruction for his YouTube followers, who number more than 300,000. And the “popularity” – if that’s the right word – of Begley’s message has led to him appearing on TV each week talking about the impending apocalypse. Rather than making a close reading of Nostradamus, though, he finds his predictions in the Bible.

For instance, the second book of Peter talks about fire flooding the Earth in the End Days, and this is echoed in the Book of Revelation, which reads, “And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.” So perhaps we’re in for a busy year.

Naturally, Christian prophets are not alone in predicting the end of the world. The Mayans are supposed to have suggested the apocalypse would come in 2012. The idea gripped people at the time. According to the BBC, 10 percent of people asked were worried that the end was nigh. The fever over the Mayan calendar even gripped Hollywood, with the film 2012 appearing a few years before the date. Of course, December 21, 2012, came and went, and the Earth is still here.

So, one thing we can conclude is that prophecy is a tough game. Nostradamus shared his own views on it when he wrote to son Cesar. He penned, “A prophet is properly speaking one, who sees distant things through a natural knowledge of all creatures. And it can happen that the prophet bringing about the perfect light of prophecy may make manifest things both human and divine.” Let’s hope that he was wrong about 2021, then.