OLD PROPHESIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 181, 3 July 1940, Page 3

OLD PROPHESIES

SEER WHO PREDICTED WAR IN 1940 A CATASTROPHIC PERIOD Maly years ago an old man too'k; bundle of manuscripts to the print er, "I will print your book, Mojn sieur le Docteur," said the printer "because it is the most amazins thing I have ever seen, and peoph like to read such things.*' "You d< not believe my prophecies," sait the old man. "Decidedly not." T'h< old man smiled, and said: "Som< day you Avill." Just at the moment with many of his prophecies coming true, the strange prophetic quat rains which this old man wrote ar< of particular interest. For this man. Michael Nostradamus, was an historian who wrot< history that had not -yet been made He insisted that he had received ;a birth certain astral aspects whicl predisposed him to this Avork. Afte: a somewhat unhappy early life Nostradamus was strolling tlirougl Milan. He encountered a youni Franciscan friar, the son of an im poverished villager named Peretti Nostradamus genuflected: "Why d( you do that?" asked the friar. "Be cause," said Nostradamus, "I mus bow and kneel before His Holiness.' Brother Peretti became Pope Sixtu V in 1585, many years later. Proofs of History. One can only judge prophecy b] subsequent history. Most prophet refrain from writing down wha they foresee. Those readers who can to do so may acquire "The Centuries and True Prophecies of Masfe Michael Nostradamus," or they ma: read about his prophecies. §bm< are cryptic and have never been un derstood. Others are almost tot clear. One quatrain, dedicated t< the King that he would be blindet in a duel, and he would die pain fully. Catherine de Medici, the king': wife, sent' for this prophet. Shi was indeed J eply anxious aboui the future of her three sons. A royal coach brought him to the pal ace. What he saw in store for the three sons so horrified Nostradamus he could not speak of it. He assured her, however, that all three would ascend thrones. Indeed, one after the other, the three sons ruled France, and one after the other diec The king himself did fight a duel he was blinded, and he died shortly after. "The Great Empire of England,' wrote Nostradamus, in the sixtesntl: century, "will be all-powerful fbi over three centuries." Nostradamus foretold the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon in a series ol quatrains which read more like a history after the event. Coming nearer to modern times, Nostradamus predicted the Great War. After it he stated the world would be divided into two camps. We have reached that stage. Republican GermanyNostradamus foretold, the overthrow of Republican Germany b$ a dictator not German by birth. He mentions the conflict between the Church and paganism in Germany/ the Rome-Berlin axis, the armament '-ace, the Pope's disapproval of Fascism and Communism, and ultimate 'y he predicted war. The Commune ist upheaval, Nostradamus stated, would not spare Spain. It would infect France. The Communist chief, however, would abandon "his plans to coinmunise the world. He predicted the persecution of the Jews and the Spanish Civil War. In 1938, he said, the world would tremble on the brink of world war. but war would not came until 1940. So said Nostradamus 400 years ago. The quatrains, written 400 years ago by Nostradamus on the problems that beset us to-day, occupy the space of a newspaper. Indeed,, he treated cur present time wi'Ji some little detail. Speaking of 19°.-i he said: "In Germanj- Avil lspring up different s:cts approaching nearly a loose paganism—a neAV set of philosophers, despising death, gold, honour and riches, they Avill not b? confined to the mountains of Germany., they Avill have the support of Press and public. Death-Detling Air Monsters. He speaks of huge death-dealing air monsters who swoop from the skies to rain doAvn destruction. Nostradamus has proved fairly accurate in his predictions. In some cases, his prophecies have been proved incorrect, but, on the Avliole. he has been 80 per ccut correct. Just how corrcct the unfolding of the immediate future is going to be is soon to be proved. Nostradamus, anyway, predicted that in 1940 the civilised World Avould enter a. catastrophic period AA'hich would last until 1944.