This quatrain was interpreted in July 2009
Century III, Quatrain 34
Then when the eclipse of the sun will be in broad daylight the monster will be seen. It will be interpreted quite differently; they will not care about expense, none will have provided for it.
Interpretation with Explanatory Remarks
This quatrain does not give us any specific chronological reference point. However, the quatrain does give us two critical after-the-fact hints (reactions). Even though neither of these two “hints” is specific, they imply that the people who live during the period of this eclipse will have the technical competence to avert, or possibly mitigate, the impact of this “monster”.
In view of the above, it could be assumed that Nostradamus refers to the longest solar eclipse of this century, which took place on July 22, 2009, and that “monster” is a metaphor for global warming. The follow-on break-down of the quatrain may shed further light.
General Comment:
Since there is no concrete information to tie this quatrain to our period, we will decompose the prediction into its parts and see if we can reach any concrete conclusions:
a. “Then when the eclipse of the sun will be in broad daylight”: The solar eclipse of July 22, 2009 did take place in broad daylight. The CNN website cited “The total eclipse started in India on Wednesday morning and moved eastward across Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Vietnam, China and parts of the Pacific. Day turned into night, temperatures turned cooler in cities and villages teemed with amateur stargazers.” An article in the Economist magazine said, “On July 22 the moon’s shadow fell across China’s industrial heartland in the longest total solar eclipse the 21st century will witness. Never before, have so many people lived under an eclipse’s path.”
b. “…the monster will be seen”: The word “monster” implies that the event we will face will be huge, but what could it be? This statement by itself does not give us enough information to determine if is should be interpreted literally or metaphorically. The only supporting information Nostradamus gives us is the next sentence “It will be interpreted quite differently”. But this sentence does not tell us if Nostradamus refers to objective or subjective interpretations; nor does he clarify whether these “interpretations” he refers to are factual, or are based on religious predispositions or superstitions. However, if we assume “monster” is a metaphor for a sudden increase of global warming, let’s say, a sudden increase in the rate of sea elevation, wouldn’t we then have a variety of scientific solutions to reverse or mitigate the problem? Under such circumstances, do we really believe that there would be a unanimous scientific solution? Of course not. We would be facing pandemonium, a cacophony of contradicting and irreconcilable scientific solutions. Every scientist will be expounding his personal opinion and solution to the problem.
c. “They will not care about expense”: This statement insinuates that the event we will be facing (referred to as monster) is something that can, or could have been taken care of, if sufficient funds are/were allocated. In other words, Nostradamus implies that this “monster” is something that we consider it to be “fixable”, and
d. “None will have provided for it”: This statement implies that the people of this period were aware of the possibility that this “monster” could materialize, but didn’t bother to do anything about it. Doesn’t this statement accurately describe our current apathetic and hypocritical attitude vis-à-vis global warming which we are already experiencing? How effective has the Kyoto Protocol been all these years? Finally, the last two afore-mentioned statements (c and d) imply that this monster will affect everyone on earth. It is not a local or regional event. It is a global event.
To validate the above observations and suppositions even further, let us now consider other Nostradamus predictions (by association) in other quatrains, which relate to our period and to the same subject-matter, and at the same time, let us consider our current experiences with global warming:
First, let us recognize that Nostradamus uses the incident of the eclipse as a timing reference. When he says “the monster will be seen”, it does not mean that immediately after the eclipse we will see the monster. Nostradamus lived five hundred-plus years ago, and a few years after the eclipse is a very brief time-period relative to the lengthy time span his predictions cover. Therefore, the appearance of the “monster” may take place a few years later, but close enough to the timing of the eclipse, so it could be used as a chronological reference.
Second, in other quatrains pertaining to this period, he talks extensively of a destructive war, a world-wide famine, climate change, the elevation of the sea level, and global warming. Furthermore, he tells us that global warming will take place after the millennium, after other specific events have transpired. In fact, he is very specific about the chronological order of these events. They are all described in other postings of this website.
Third, in other quatrains Nostradamus has predicted that soon after the millennium the people of the northern hemisphere will migrate to the southern hemisphere. This quatrain explains why they will do so. If the permafrost ice below the Arctic were to start melting, it would release high concentrations of carbon dioxide emissions which would exacerbate the warming rate. Furthermore, the melting of the ice would reduce the salinity of sea water, which in-turn would affect the movement of oceanic streams. For example, the Gulf stream which currently warms the British Islands and Western Europe would cease to do so. The temperature in those areas would plummet, thus forcing people to migrate. Similar situations would be repeated elsewhere.
Fourth, we are already aware of global warming. We are already experiencing the melting of icebergs, climate change, and the gradual elevation of the sea. Global warming has now become almost a daily subject in the news media. What Nostradamus is telling us in this quatrain is that the pace of warming will accelerate much sooner than what our weather scientists are telling us. The metaphorical use of the word “monster” is indeed most appropriate. It would be a monstrous problem.
Fifth, even though we have been aware for quite sometime of the potential catastrophe of global warming, we have done nothing substantive to reverse it, and
Sixth, if in the near future our scientists were to report that the Arctic permafrost and Greenland’s glaciers were melting at a much faster rate than previously thought of, with imminent rise of the sea level by several feet, wouldn’t that induce us to start spending money to reverse the proliferation of carbon dioxide emissions? We sure would. We would suddenly be willing to try every possible solution. Money would no longer be a problem, no matter how broke we may be, no matter how high our national deficit is. We would suddenly become frantic in our efforts. Our politicians would no longer have any excuses to play their hypocritical games and be financially controlled by special interests. And, wouldn’t an imminent inundation of habitable lands and world-wide famine be seen as a monster? It sure would. Incidentally, Nostradamus has predicted that global warming will take place and it will be devastating for mankind.
