“The present time, together with the past, shall be judged by a great jovialist.” — Nostradamus

Will it be wine and roses, or milk and honey?

Back when TVs and phones sprouted rotary dials and hearses grew tail fins, Marshall McLuhan observed: We look at the present through a rear-view mirror, march backwards into the future.
What kind of future are we backing into at present? For answers, a great jovialist consults a prophet of doom.

“For a long time, I have been making many predictions, far in advance of events since come to pass, naming the particular locality. I acknowledge all to have been accomplished through divine power and inspiration.”

— Nostradamus

“Because of the vulgar advent, I decided to give way and, by dark and cryptic sentences, tell of the causes of the future mutation of mankind; especially the most urgent ones, and the ones I perceived, and in a manner that would not upset their fragile sentiments.”

— Nostradamus

“Events of human origin are uncertain, but all is regulated and governed by the incalculable power of God, inspiring us not through drunken fury nor by frantic movement, but through the influences of the stars.”

— Nostradamus

“In the city that the wolf enters, enemies will be close by. An alien force will sack a great country. Allies will cross the mountains and the borders.”

— Nostradamus

“The inflated imitations of gold and silver, which after the rapture are thrown into the fire, all is exhausted and dissipated by the debt. All scrips and bonds are wiped out. At the fourth pillar dedicated to Saturn, split by earthquake and flood: vexing everyone, an urn of gold is found and then restored.”

— Nostradamus

“There will be a great loss of learning before the moon’s full cycle is completed. Fire and floods will be fomented by ignorant rulers; much time will go by before it is rectified.”

— Nostradamus

“In the third month, the sun rising, the Boar and the Leopard on the field of Mars to fight; The tired Leopard raises its eye to the heavens, sees an eagle playing around the sun.”

— Nostradamus

“Sooner and later you will see great changes made, dreadful horrors and vengeances. For as the Moon is thus led by its angel, the heavens draw near to the Balance.”

— Nostradamus

“The religion of the name of the seas will triumph against the sect of the son of Adaluncatif; The obstinate, lamented sect will be fearful of the two wounded by Aleph and Aleph.”

— Nostradamus

“Indeed, the hereditary gift of prophecy will go to the grave with me.”

— Nostradamus

“That which neither weapon nor flame could accomplish will be achieved by a sweet speaking tongue in council.”

— Nostradamus

“Earthshaking fire from the center of the Earth will cause tremors around the New City. Two great rocks will war for a long time, then Arethusa will redden a new river.”

— Nostradamus

“Despite all the silver of Diana and Mercury, their images will be found on the lake. For the sculptor looking for new clay, he and his people will be flooded with gold.”

— Nostradamus

Nostradamus was physician-apothecary-astrologist to the French crown, and author of bestselling prophecies since 1555.

An annotated, 1685 English translation of his “true prophecies and prognostications” is on the University of Michigan Library website. The reader is well advised by the translator and commentator, Theophilvus de Garencieres, in his “Preface to the reader.”

The Nostradamus quotes in this post are from BrainyQuotes.com.