If something has happened, there’s a good chance that Nostradamus predicted it 500 years ago.
Michel de Nostradame was a 16th-century French doctor who wrote hundreds of vague prophetical poems in his 1555 book, Les Prophéties.
As much as Nostradamus lived a quiet life, he’s seen now as a mystic who predicted, among other earthshaking events, Napoleon’s rise, Hitler’s fall, World Wars, Hiroshima, Princess Diana’s death, September 11 and the creation of crypto.
But one passage seems apt, to say the least, after astronomers said on Tuesday that an asteroid has a 3.1% chance of hitting the Earth in 2032.
Space officials said last month the chance of the space rock, 2024 YR4, crashing into Earth on December 22 of that year was 1.33%.
Nostradamus wrote of an asteroid smashing into the Earth in quatrain I:69, according to the psychic’s followers.
The passage reads: ‘The great mountain encompasses seven stadia. After peace, war, famine, flooding. Shall spread far, sinking many countries. Even the ancient landscapes to their foundations.’
Les Prophéties, or ‘The Prophecies’ in English, was written in a jumbled mix of French, Latin, Greek, and Provençal, meaning translations can vary.
But many translators interpret the text as Nostradamus describing a colossal rock that will ‘drown’ parts of the world.
‘Stadia’ is an ancient Greek unit of length that, while historians aren’t sure of the exact measurement, is roughly 210m. Seven stadia is 1,470m.
This is a fair bit larger than 2024 YR4. First detected in December, the asteroid is still too far away for scientists to know for sure, but they believe it’s between 40 to 90 metres long.
Doomsayers have also read another quatrain, VIII:16, as predicting an asteroid striking Earth in the distant future.
‘At the place where Jason has his ship built, So great a flood shall come so suddenly,’ he wrote, referring to the Jason of Greek myth who built the ship Argo on Mount Olympus, Greece.
‘One shall not have place or land to attach. The wave shall mount to Olympic Fesulan.’
Most of 2024 YR4′ estimated collision track – if it does collide with us, that is – passes over empty ocean.
Should it impact there, scientists don’t expect any waves to reach land. A splashdown next to the coast, however, could cause a tsunami.
India’s Mumbai, Nigeria’s Lagos and Bogotá in Colombia are possible city impact sites; nowhere in Greece, however, is.
Critics say that Nostramuds wasn’t better at predicting things than The Simpsons. Rather, you can read almost anything into his cryptic verse that don’t tend to give exact dates when the events will occur.
His book is rammed with outdated French terms that can be twisted to fit various readings, sceptics say.
One quatrains’s use of ‘Hister’ has been seen by some to mean Hitler, others argue it just refers to a place near the Danube River.
Nostradamus wrote in the preface to his book that his prophecies extend ‘from now to the year 3797’.
So, if you’re reading this in 1,772 years time, it’s safe to say a mountain didn’t fall on us and cause countries to sink and a massive wave in Greece.
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