As the year draws to a close, it’s time to talk doomsday, my babies — and no one grips us with grim quite like Nostradamus.
Nostradamus, Nos if you’re nasty, was a 16th-century astrologer, plague doctor, accused heretic and bearded seer who has been credited with foretelling the Great Fire of London, Hitler’s rise to power, the Sept. 11 attacks, the COVID-19 pandemic, and last year’s New Years Day earthquake, to name a few.
Referred to as the “prophet of doom,” Nostradamus’ bleak worldview is believed to have been shaped by heavy doses of the Old Testament and the trauma of losing his wife and young children to illness, presumably the plague. Unable to cure the ones he loved most, it seems he set out to forewarn the rest of us through his revelations of ruin.
Sometimes right on the money but more often than not missing the mark, our man’s prophecies lean towards conflagration and catastrophe.
With the publication of his famed book “Les Prophéties” in 1555, Nostradamus gifted the world and its future generations a quasi-poetic tome that predicts wars, pestilence, natural disasters, civil unrest, political assassinations and other such lighthearted fare.
Heavy on language like “blood rain,” the book is an enduring classic, and with 2025 on the horizon, we’re looking at what fury and hellfire lay in store.
But first, a look back.
When have Nostradamus’ predictions come true?
The Frenchman was credited with forecasting the powerful earthquake that rocked Japan this past New Year’s.
Outlining his predictions for 2024, the oracle wrote, “The dry Earth will become more parched and there will be great floods.”
The psychic’s followers reckoned that he could’ve been referring to the 7.5 magnitude tremor that struck the nation’s Western coast, killing 48 people, toppling buildings, and sparking 3-foot-high tsunamis.
Nostradamus’ predictions for 2024 also included the abdication of King Charles, war with China, a new pope — and the world edging ever closer to a climate apocalypse.
How’d he do?
Both the Pope and King Chuck are still sitting pretty on their respective royal and papal thrones, though the latter recently stopped paying an allowance to his embattled brother Andrew.
In June, United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told security officials that war with China was “neither imminent nor unavoidable” so we’ll call that a draw. The same goes for climate change which is killing us slowly but not without vigor.
While Nostradamus did not predict Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential win, American political historian Allen Lichtman, known as the “Nostradamus” of elections, erroneously assured us that Harris would be the victor.
Nostradamus predictions for 2025
With a bone toothpick in hand and a weary eye on the year ahead, read on for our overview of Nostradamus’ predictions for 2025.
A potential end to the Ukraine conflict
Nos predicted that financial ruin and exhausted resources could spell the end of an ongoing armed conflict which many assume is a reference to the current war between Russia and Ukraine. He wrote:
Through long war all the army exhausted,so that they do not find money for the soldiers; instead of gold or silver, they will come to coin leather, Gallic brass, and the crescent sign of the Moon.
The mention of Gallic brass and the crescent sign of the Moon suggests intervention from the French and/or Turkish. Both nations have supported Ukraine and could potentially play a part in brokering peace or orchestrating victory.
Plague and more war
Far from promising peace, Nos writes that England will be beset by “cruel wars” and will face an “ancient plague” that will be “worse than enemies.”
Perhaps his insights refer to the infighting betwixt members of the royal family. As many can attest, familial dynamics are indeed a fouler pestilence than any foe.
Or maybe our man was casting a psychic eye toward this death-dealing mystery disease.
Explosions in the sky
Nostradamus also predicted that in the dark days to come, the trajectory of a gigantic asteroid with the emo handle ‘Harbinger of Fate’ will get dangerously close to colliding with Earth.
“From the cosmos, a fireball will rise, A harbinger of fate, the world pleads. Science and fate in a cosmic dance, The fate of the Earth, a second chance.”
Given our deplorable and continuous pillage and plunder of our natural resources, it could be that the Earth’s “second chance” will come as a result of human extinction.
Natural disaster in Brazil
In an eerie piece of prose, Nos imparts:
Garden of the world near the new city, In the path of the hollow mountains: It will be seized and plunged into the Tub, Forced to drink waters poisoned by sulfur.
Some believe the ‘garden of the world’ is the Amazon rainforest. The nasty bits about plunging into a Tub with a capital T and sipping sulfur suggest flooding and volcanic activity.
Rise of ‘Aquatic Empire’
Perhaps those apocalyptic tides will give rise to the Aquatic Empire that Nos also predicted would come to water power in 2025:
“From the depths, a ruler will rise, In the midst of floods reaching to the skies. Empires will fall, and new waves will reign, The Aquatic Empire, from the realm of the ocean.”
Mile high floods? Fallen empires? Surf’s up, people.
Astrology 101: Your guide to the star
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture, and personal experience. To book a reading, visit her website.
Read the full article here
