THE SECRETS OF NOSTRADAMUS

Fans of The Bible Code, read on.

Sixteenth-century prophet Nostradamus left behind a set of complicated and at times scary predictions. Here, Ovason (The Secret Architecture of Our Nation’s Capital, p. 863) untangles them for us, claiming that Nostradamus employed an elaborate code, the so-called Green Language. Nostradamus supposedly forecast a great many events that came to pass: the execution of Charles I in 1649, London’s Great Fire of 1666. Did he come out and say these things? Of course not. He used his code. Here, for example, is the quatrain that predicted the fire: “The blood of the just at London will be a mistake, Burned by thunderbolt the twenty three the sixes; The antique lady will fall from a high place, From among the same sect several will be killed.” The first line tells us we’re in London, declares Ovason, the second that there is a fire, and that somehow the number 666 is involved. (Incidentally, this is one of Nostradamus’ most lucid predictions.) The prophet also foresaw the London plague, the flight of James I, the election of William, Prince of Orange, to the English throne, and almost every detail of the French Revolution. Turning to the 19th century, Nostradamus predicted Napoleon and several earthquakes. In the 20th: Hitler, the decline of Islam in Turkey, the Spanish Civil War, the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Di (but apparently not the latter’s death) . . . and don’t forget the spate of UFOs that visited Earth. Perhaps wisely, when it comes to interpreting the verses concerning the 21st century and beyond, Ovason speaks only in generalities—none of which, by the way, include a great stock-market crash.

Laughable, but oddly chilling.