So Supernatural - MYSTICAL: Nostradamus

Episode Date: June 9, 2021

When tragedies occur, the world often points to Nostradamus as a soothsayer of grim times, but both his legacy and his predictions are a bit more complicated than history has let on...

Most of us embrace the idea of fate in one way or another. From horoscopes to fortune cookies, it feels nice to hear that we're destined to have a good day. And if something bad happens, it feels nice to have an excuse. It's not your fault. It was bound to happen anyway. In the 16th century, though, astrology wasn't just a fun little party trick. It was basically considered a branch of medicine. And one of the best-known practitioners was Nostradamus. Nostradamus wasn't just an astrologer.

Some claimed he was a prophet. And they may have been right. His Book of Prophecies is still wildly popular today for one mind-blowing reason. For the past four centuries, the poems he wrote have been coming true. This is Supernatural. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. This week, I'm looking at Nostradamus, physician turned astrologer turned larger-than-life enigma. Over the past 400 years, his book of prophecies may have forecasted countless major world events, including World War II and JFK's assassination. And there's still hundreds more waiting to happen. All that and more is coming up. Stay with us.

Let's go back in time to the year 1529. A newly graduated young physician named Nostradamus is traveling around Europe, healing the masses. Now, back in these days, the med school curriculum is weird. It's based on the mystical as much as the rational. It's common for doctors to use astrology as a tool to help diagnose their patients, and Nostradamus in particular is fascinated by the occult. He's thought to have spent a good chunk of his childhood learning mystical practices, including an ancient Jewish tradition known as Kabbalah. Before he got his medical degree, he worked as an apothecary,

basically an old- school pharmacist. He traveled around France prescribing herbal potions and at-home remedies. And more than anything else, he's obsessed with astrology. So as a physician, Nostradamus uses some techniques that are a little out there. Like he's using star charts and rose pills to treat the bubonic plague. Is it effective? I don't know, but tons of people start lining up to see him. He earns a reputation as sort of a miracle healer. By 1547, Nostradamus is 44 years old, and his two decades of constant traveling have probably worn him out. So he settles into a more permanent practice in his two decades of constant traveling have probably worn him out. So he settles into a more permanent practice in his home country of France.

This is when his reputation really starts to take off. Over the next decade, a slew of visitors come to see Nostradamus, not just regular everyday patients, powerful people like politicians and noblemen. But most aren't coming for his medical advice. What they really want are his predictions, which essentially come in the form of horoscopes. They're not much different from horoscopes today, but Nostradamus' are a little more involved. A typical visit to his office would go something like this. You enter his home. There's lots of vials, books, herbs, candles.

Nostradamus sits you down and starts asking a ton of questions. Where do you live? What's your birthday? Where were you born? What time of day was it? Do you have a lot of vial and phlegm? Once he has all of the information he needs, he sends you away, rolls up his sleeves, and really gets to work. He prepares a ton of

complicated calculations using astrological charts. If he really needs to dig deep, he may even start scrying, which is basically sitting and staring into a pool of water through the flame of a candle. Apparently it helps summon visions. Pulling together your personal info, your star charts, and whatever visions he saw in the water, Nostradamus writes out your horoscope. Then he seals the parchment in wax, adds his signature, and sends it out for delivery. Now, Nostradamus's predictions are elaborate. They're pages long and filled with some pretty heady language. He studied classical arts before med school, so he likes to incorporate elements of history, philosophy, and mythology. And what's interesting is Nostradamus will do this for anyone. His clientele includes everyone from peasants to princes.

At the time, there really isn't anyone else in the field who's so popular all over the social spectrum. In 1550, Nostradamus takes his fame one step further. He brings his predictions to the masses by writing almanacs, pamphlets that are meant to predict the weather and major world events. The almanacs are actually so successful that he compiles all of his predictions into a massive book called The Prophecies. It's filled with some 950 four-line poems called quatrains, and each one is a different prediction. The Prophecies spreads around France like wildfire. It even makes its way into the hands of the queen, Catherine de

Medici. Catherine's heard whispers about France's most popular soothsayer. She's curious what he has to say about the future of the royal family. So Catherine calls Nostradamus to a meeting and he has some predictions. But they're not exactly good news. Nostradamus warns Catherine that she's going to outlive nearly all of her sons. And he says that her husband, King Henry II, is going to die a brutal death. Specifically, he has a quatrain that reads, the young lion will overcome the older one on the field of combat in a single battle. He will pierce his eyes through a golden cage, two wounds made one, then he dies a cruel death. Now, obviously, Catherine is worried after her chat with Nostradamus,

but King Henry's not concerned. He doesn't buy into astrology. To him, it's all nonsense. Unfortunately, it didn't matter whether the king believed it or not. Nostradamus's words were about to come to life. In 1559, King Henry makes plans to do what he loves most, joust. He holds this big royal tournament to celebrate France's recent peace accord with Spain. It's a big deal. Everyone is invited. Come game day, the crowd is packed with lords and ladies, and everything seems to be going off without a hitch. No injuries, no reasons to worry.

But at some point, the king gets a little cocky. At the end of the day, with adrenaline still pumping through his body, he insists on jousting against this guy, Count Gabriel of Montgomery. It's a bad idea. Everyone thinks so. Even Count Montgomery is desperately trying to convince the king to quit while he's ahead. But it doesn't work, and Montgomery and Henry saddle up for one last round. They get into position, and they charge. Montgomery's lance goes through the king's

helmet. A splinter of wood pierces his eye and enters the king's brain. He's carried out of the arena, bleeding and weak. They try to get help, but there is nothing that can be done, and Henry dies 10 days later. Now, Catherine is obviously distraught by her husband's unexpected death, but she's like, was it actually unexpected? Because she can't get Nostradamus's prediction out of her mind. Breaking it down line by line, it all adds up. The young lion will overcome the older one. Henry was 11 years older than Count Montgomery, so check. On the field of combat in a single battle. Check. He will pierce his eyes through a golden cage. I honestly don't know if Henry's helmet was gold, but still, check.

Two wounds made one, then he dies a cruel death. One splinter through the eye and brain. And ten days of suffering? Sounds pretty cruel to me. It's eerie to the point where Catherine decides she wants Nostradamus to stick around the royal court. Maybe she thinks that by hearing more of his predictions, she can somehow prevent other tragedies from happening. So she puts him on payroll as sort of a physician and advisor. Nostradamus's new relationship with the queen gives him even more exposure. His prophecies continue to circulate around France, from high society to the outer

fringes. They even start to appear in other countries. But as his prophecies gain more traction throughout Europe, Nostradamus's health takes a turn for the worse. He develops gout and becomes frail with arthritis. By 1566, he can barely leave his bed. One day, Nostradamus calls upon his lawyer to draw up his final will and testament. Shortly after that, he summons his personal assistant and apparently tells him, quote, you will not find me alive at sunrise. And that's it. His assistant is sort of like, so this is goodbye then? Like he literally can't tell if Nostradamus is making some morbid joke

or if he's actually using his last breath to give one final prediction. Turns out it's the latter. The next morning, Nostradamus is found dead on the floor of his bedroom. As grim as it is, Nostradamus' life ended with him doing what he was famous for, predicting the future. This wasn't the first of his prophecies to come true. And it wouldn't be the last. Coming up, Nostradamus predicts wars, revolutions, and terrorist attacks. Now back to the story.

After his death, Nostradamus' fame starts to decline. He maintains some lingering popularity in France, but for the most part, the world moves on. And over the centuries, people forget about Nostradamus the man, and he becomes sort of this mythic figure. He's remembered as an all-seeing prophet who might have even had magical powers. Which is understandable because as time passes, more of his predictions seem to be springing to life in absolutely devastating ways. Take this quatrain. From the enslaved populace, songs, chants, and demands,

while princes and lords are held captive in prisons. These will, in the future, by headless idiots, be received as divine prayers. In 1789, more than 200 years after Nostradamus wrote this poem, France enters a period of enormous upheaval. Tired of being treated like indentured servants, French workers wanted out with the wasteful monarchy and in with democracy. So they take to the streets, demanding change. As they do, they chant and sing. Like the French national anthem gets written in this period. Its lyrics call the working class of France to rise up and water their fields with the blood of nobility and bourgeoisie.

The revolutionaries also kidnap nobles and officials, holding them captive. And of course, they execute traitors with a little device called the guillotine, which, as you know, made people headless. About 150 years later, another prediction seems to come true. From the depths of the west of Europe, a young child will be born of poor people. He who by his tongue will seduce a great troop. His fame will increase towards the realm of the east. Sound eerily familiar?

In the early 1900s, there is an Austrian-born German who rose to power in Western Europe. His father died young, so he grew up pretty poor and received little formal education. In the 1920s, this young leader starts giving these impassioned, racist speeches, which are, unfortunately, effective. Seductive, even. So seductive that people start to wonder whether there's a supernatural quality to the words rolling off his tongue because they appear to hypnotize people. Obviously, I'm talking about Hitler. And he amasses a great deal of Nazi troops, many of which he sent to the East, famously invading Poland and later attacking the Soviet Union. After World War II breaks out, Nostradamus' books really start flying off the shelves.

A bookstore in Paris sells 3,000 copies in a single month. Everyone's looking for clues as to what might happen next. And one quatrain has them terrified. Beasts ferocious with hunger will cross the rivers. The greater part of the battlefield will be against Hister. Into a cage of iron will the Great One be drawn, when the child of Germany observes nothing. At this point, the German army is heading east in tanks, which are basically cages of iron. To get there, they need to cross mountains, valleys, and rivers, including the Danube River, which flows from southern Germany into eastern Europe.

And guess what the old name of the Danube River is? Hister. And a child of Germany who observes nothing sounds like a pretty good description of a ruthless, ignorant dictator. That's not the last prophecy of the war. As you probably know, at the end of World War II, the United States drops atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nearly 400 years earlier, Nostradamus wrote,

Near the gates and within two cities, there will be scourges the like of which was never seen. Famine within plague, people put out by steel, crying to the great immortal God for relief. And the eerie coincidences just keep rolling. Two decades later, people start claiming that a quatrain about a great man falling predicted John and Bobby Kennedy's assassinations in 1963 and 68.

Almost 30 years after that, people are wondering whether Nostradamus predicted Princess Diana's death in a quatrain that can be translated to, The last son of the man with the prophet's name will bring Diana to her day of rest. They wander far in frenzied grief, delivering a great people from subjugation. Diana was killed in a car crash on a Sunday, the day of rest, alongside a man named Dodi Fayyad. Dodi's father is named Muhammad, which is the name of arguably the most famous prophet of all time. Four years later, after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Nostradamus' book starts flying off the shelves again. One Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn has 20 customers asking for the prophecies in a single day. Why are people freaking out? All because of this poem. At 45 degrees, the sky

will burn. Fire approaches the great new city. Immediately, a huge scattered flame leaps up when they want to have verification from the Normans. New York City's latitude is 40 degrees, but New City is pretty darn close to New York City. So yeah, there does seem to be a lot of evidence that Nostradamus was this miraculous soothsayer. I don't even have time to get into the rest of his predictions, like the Great Fire of London and the rise of Napoleon, Louis Pasteur, and Charles de Gaulle.

But before you buy his books to see what tomorrow might have in store, it might be good to ask, if no one makes the connection until after the fact, can it really be called a prophecy? Coming up, I'll take a closer look at Nostradamus' legacy. Now, back to the story. September 11th is said to be one of Nostradamus' most dire predictions. And yes, obviously, it was a scary, tragic event where people needed answers for what was happening. But looking back at the supposed prophecy, there are some very apparent holes.

The quatrain itself is undeniably vague. All he says is that there will be a fire in the great new city. Since Nostradamus was writing this more than 400 years ago, any city in the U.S. could be called a new city, and fires happen every day. And the other lines of the quatrain don't have anything to do with 9-11. Like, they want to have verification from the Normans? I have no idea what the medieval Normans have to do with this. Conspiracy theorists got around the problem by just removing the line entirely. The versions of the poem that went around after 9-11 were totally different from the original. There were added lines like, in the city of York, there will be a great collapse, and two metal birds will crash into two tall statues. And sure, a little bit of fakery doesn't mean the actual poems are fraud too,

but this speaks to a larger problem. The fact is, Nostradamus intentionally kept his quatrains vague. He wanted to keep it general so it would appeal to everyone. And while that ambiguity obviously worked, since we're obviously still talking about his prophecies today, it also means that his predictions are meant to make coincidences seem like fate. Looking at all the times where it seems like Nostradamus predicted the future, there's a common factor. There are almost always times of widespread public uncertainty, which fits with a trend. When life is unstable, doomsday predictions tend to get more popular. It's the same reason why conspiracy theories tend to pop up after major tragedies. It's a way to make sense out of the senseless. I mean, think about it. Isn't it hard to accept that terrible things just happen at random for no reason?

Doesn't it feel better to believe that there's some grand plan four centuries in the making? That all of the suffering and destruction around you is at least leading to something? And that if you dig deep enough, you can figure out when and where the next tragedy will happen and how to avoid it. No matter how far-fetched it seems, though, even if we know in our minds that Nostradamus' prophecies aren't true, it's really hard not to buy into them. His poems are kind of like inkblot tests. Once you see a picture in the chaos, you can't force your mind to stop seeing it. And even if Nostradamus's most popular predictions are just confirmation bias,

that doesn't mean we can close the books on him entirely. In fact, the best evidence for him as a seer of sorts doesn't have anything to do with his written prophecies. It's just an average story from when he was alive. Back when Nostradamus was a doctor in France, he was invited to a dinner party at a lord's house. The host knew of his reputation and thought he could prove Nostradamus was a fraud with a little trap. The lord asked Nostradamus before the meal which of two pigs they would eat that evening. Nostradamus said, the black one. The Lord then told his cook, in secret obviously, to kill and roast the white pig. Cut to later during dinner, the Lord smugly asks Nostradamus which pig they were eating. Nostradamus answered calmly, the black one. But when the Lord called in his

cook to reveal the white pig had been roasted, the cook was sheepish. He went on to admit that he couldn't prepare the white one as the Lord asked, so he killed and cooked the black one instead. Nostradamus was right. Now, I don't know about you, but that type of specificity is hard to totally ignore. And maybe those smaller little blips that survive from Nostradamus, the man, have earned Nostradamus the legend a place in the present. I love you. Thanks for listening. I'll be back next week with another episode. To hear more stories hosted by me, check out Crime Junkie and all AudioChuck originals.