Did Nostradamus predict the WTC disaster?

By J.B. Hare

The following is an email exchange I had recently. I encourage you to make up your own mind as to the significance of this. - J.B. Hare

Note: After I posted this essay (which got a tremendous number of hits and continues to do so) I received a torrent of email which I was unable to respond to individually.

Among these responses, several readers pointed out that the place name translated 'tower of Aiguesmortes' (in the French version Tour d'Aignes), is actually the name of a former seaport in the south of France from which ships left for the Crusades. Incidentally, the seashore has now retreated several kilometers at this point so it is no longer a seaport.

So maybe the reference to a tower is just accidental. I stand by my original gut feeling about this quatrain, nonetheless.

The point of my essay is: why make up bogus Nostradamus when the real text is so much more interesting?

Note: In 20/20 hindsight the 'Little ones for great ones' may refer to the passengers in the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania. Many readers have pointed this out, there is no need to write me about it. --January 8th, 2004.

Read an in-depth analysis of the quatrain XII 52 by one of our readers who is familiar with 16th Century French language and culture. He concludes that the quatrain refers to an unrelated event (which may or may not have happened) and does not have anythying to do with the tragedy of 9/11.

A reader wrote me a couple of days after the World Trade Center attack:

I recieved this e-mail regarding a prophecy from Nostradamus.  I was skeptical of the validity of this.  Could you verify if this, in fact, is one of his prophecies?

Nostradamus' prediction on WW3:
>
> "In the year of the new century and nine months,
> From the sky will come a great King of Terror...
> The sky will burn at forty-five degrees.
> Fire approaches the great new city..."
> "In the city of york there will be a great collapse,
> 2 twin brothers torn apart by chaos
> while the fortress falls the great leader will succumb
> third big war will begin when the big city is burning"
>
> - NOSTRADAMUS

Here's my reply:

The actual quatrain which this appears to be a riff on is:
 

X 72

L'an mil neuf cens nonante neuf sept mois
Du ciel viendra vn grand Roy d'effrayeur
Resusciter le grand Roy d'Angolmois,
Auant apres Mars regner par bon heur.

The year 1999, seventh month,
From the sky will come a great King of Terror:
To bring back to life the great King of the Mongols,
Before and after Mars to reign by good luck.

It looks like someone pieced together several different quatrains (what you have has pieces of some other actual ones); Nostradamus is never that specific!
This is not a valid use of the Nostradamus material, to say the least.

True prophecies are never explicit; they are usually either ambiguous, have cloaked meanings, or incorrect portions.

This is one of the few Nostradamus Quatrains to actually mention a month and year, and the arrival of this date has long been held in dread by believers in the quatrains; however, nothing of the sort happened in July of 1999, as far as I know.  Sometimes the quatrains are duds, that's prophecy biz.

However, no need to make stuff up!

This is an actual quatrain which I turned up two days ago just after the disaster occurred, which had the correct resonance; you can tell when you find one because they make the hair stand up on the back of your neck (like Robert Graves said about true poetry). This is much more in keeping with the general tenor of a Nostradamus prophecy which has come true:
 

XII 52 *

Two bodies, one head, fields divided in two,
And then to reply to four unheard ones:
Little ones for great ones, clear evel for them,
Lightning at the tower of Aiguesmortes, worse for "Eussouis"

Here's my interpretation in 20/20 hindsight.

The two bodies, one head, fields divided in two seems to be a vision of the twin towers.

The four unheard ones could represent the four airliners.

Little ones for great ones: This has a couple of interpretations; This could refer to the passengers who took it on themselves to take back the airliner which crashed in Pennsylvania; or it could refer to the hijackers themselves, the line is suggestive but it doesn't add a lot to the interpretation of the quatrain. In either case the end was fatal (clear evel).

Aiguesmortes looks like a combination of two French words "sharp", and  "deaths"; this certainly appears to be very apropos.  This was the key phrase which made me think this was a hit. And even more suggestively, Eussouis (which might be pronounced 'yew-swas', with a silent s on the end) might be a garbled version of 'USA', of course the USA didn't exist when he wrote; it's not an actual French word as far as anyone knows; sometimes Nostradamus will introduce nonsense words that in retrospect make sense, e.g. 'Hisler'.
 

J.B. Hare
 

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