Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

On October 28th at 9pm/8C the History Channel is having a world premiere of the film “The Lost Book of Nostradamus”. I have received an advanced copy of it and I have watched it. Here are some of my thoughts.

First off I would like to say that as I logged in to work this morning I quickly scanned the news and here are todays big headlines:

Wildfires force massive evacuations
Turkish Troops amass on Iraq border

Is it undeniable that there is some crazy stuff going on in the world? The climate, the war, the global conflict and strife, global warming, climate instability, political and religous instability.

Doesn’t it seem like we are teeter-tottering on the brink of something? Iran is out of control, Russia is threatinging to retailiate if we strike Iran, Iran is threatening Jerusalem, Turkey is threateting Iraq. And this is just the stuff we know about. If there ever was a big handbasket it looks like we are in it. 

Ok, now all of this stuff brings me to to History Channel special about the lost book of Nostradamus.

One of the most famous things about Nostradamus was that he said that his biggest stuff would not be revealed until 500 years after his death. And for a long time scholars have been wondering exactly what he meant and have been poring over his work trying to understand what he meant. Now all of a sudden (it’s 500 years after his death) a lost book is discovered; it has his name on it and it contains some really spooky stuff.

I had to watch this premiere twice. It was that spooky and compelling. And this isn’t some 1-800 psychic hotline that looked into the issue of the lost book. This is the History Channel. They check their facts, interview the experts, and present the case in a balanced way. They are right there with the book as the scholars look at it and examine it.

So, is this lost book really the work of Nostradamus and what does it say?

I am not going to give away everything and you should really make time to watch the world premiere but here are some of my thoughts on it.

I think it is penned by Nostradamus because it still has all of that same “open to interpretation” feel that all of  his work has. You know, he doesn’t come out and say “the apocalypse will happen on such and such day”. It’s hidden in pictures that are open to interpretation. And it always seems that the stuff is chillingly accurate enough to be possibly believable.

As an example of this he predicted three anti-christ’s would bring terror to the world. The first is Napoleon, the second is hitler and the third supposedly is alive today. Nostradamus comes right out and names the second anti-christ as “hisler” which for my money is close enough to be spooky.

What about September 11?

Here is a one of Nostradamus’ most famous quatrains:

Earth shaking fires from the worlds center
Around New City is the earth a quiver
Two Nobles long shall wage a fruitless war
The nymph of spring pour forth a new red river

Doesn’t that just prove my point? It is very spooky and the references to New City and World’s center are very ominous. But of course it leaves you wondering what the rest of the quatrain means. And is it close enough to be believable? Dunno.

The lost book supposedly has another reference to 9/11 in the shape of a picture of a burning tower. And the picture is very spooky. It is a very tall, square tower that is all aflame. And it would be easy to interpret this as the world trade center but… I don’t think this is a correct interpretation.

The world trade center is two buildings, two towers, and the image of these two towers burning and coming down is an event that is burned into our collective unconscious. I don’t think Nostradamus would have missed this. He would have made it two towers and not just one. So this particular image doesn’t represent 9/11 in my mind. I think the scholars got this part wrong.

So, where do I go from here? I gotta tell you that this stuff is very very spooky and if in the near future there is some calamity that brings down one very big tower in a ball of flame then I am done. I’m gonna build a bomb shelter and start hoarding food. That will be enough proof for me. And I will know exactly when the apocalypse is coming because they point this out in the film.

Go to the History Channel to learn more about the film and to view information and videos The Lost Book of Nostradamus on the History Channel