Did Nostradamus Predict 9-11?
An Interview with Richard Smoley, author of The Essential Nostradamus
by Samuel F. Reynolds
Richard Smoley
Photo: Edward Judice
As we approach the anniversary of 9-11-01, one name that's bandied about almost as much as Osama Bin Laden or George W. Bush is Michel Nostradamus. Many believe that one of his famous quatrains predicted 9-11 and the Fall of the Twin Towers. I'm a natural skeptic, so I went to friend and teacher, Richard Smoley. Let me tell you a little something about Richard first. Richard Smoley is one of the world’s most distinguished authorities on
the mystical and esoteric teachings of Western civilization.
Educated at Harvard and Oxford universities, he worked at a wide range of journalistic positions before becoming editor of Gnosis,
the award-winning journal of Western spiritual traditions, in 1990, a
position he held up to 1999. He is the coauthor (with Jay Kinney) of Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions (Penguin Arkana, 1999; revised edition to be published by Quest Books in June 2006), and of Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition (Shambhala, 2002).
This year, Richard came out with a new book, The Essential Nostradamus, where he explores many of the issues surrounding Nostradamus and his work. Richard was kind enough to give "The Seeker" a few minutes to discuss his findings about Michel Nostradamus.
Do you believe Nostradamus predicted 9/11? If not, why?
No, I don’t believe he did. But judge for yourself. Here’s the verse that supposedly predicted it:
Forty-five degrees, the sky will burn,
Fire to approach the great new city.
Instantly a great scattered flame will leap up,
When one will want to make proof of the Normans.
(Century 6.97)
You’ll see various other versions circulating on the Web, but they’re
mostly just mangled versions of this one. The idea is that the “new
city,” supposedly New York, is near 45 degrees north latitude.
(Actually, it’s 42 degrees) “Proof of the Normans” supposedly refers to
the French, whose help in the aftermath was considered by some to be
disappointing.
As a matter of fact, Nostradamus left out the Americas from the places
mentioned in his prophecies, so if you take his own word for it, nothing in
his prophecies is about America. He probably thought of America the way
we today think of, say, Antarctica. He knew it existed, but it wasn’t
of much concern to him.
I myself tend to think of this prophecy as relating to Naples, whose
original name, Neapolis, means “new city” in Greek, and which was near
Mount Vesuvius, an active volcano. So he may have been predicting a
volcanic eruption that would reach Naples. On the other hand, Naples is
only at the 40th parallel, so in reality Nostradamus is probably
thinking of some French city named Villeneuve—”new city” in French.
There are actually a large number of towns in France called Villeneuve,
most of them between the 44th and 50th parallels, so this isn’t much
help.
In all fairness, however, I have to admit that well before the 9/11
disaster, various interpreters of Nostradamus claimed that this verse
referred to an aerial attack on New York. Make of that what you will.
How does the oracular tradition work in the West, and how could it work best or better?
All in all, prophecy hasn’t worked terribly well. The vast majority of
prophecies simply haven’t come true, even from the most elevated
sources. We know, for example, from 1 Thessalonians—the first book of
the New Testament to have been written—that Christ’s disciples were
expecting him to come back very soon: 1 Thessalonians is written to
various followers of Paul’s who were worried about their loved ones who
died before Jesus returned. So this prophecy—whether made by Christ or
by his disciples—didn’t come true either.
The theory behind oracles in general holds that there is a world of
images—the Kabbalists call it Yetzirah, “the world of formation,” but
there are other names for it as well. This world is made up of thoughts
and images just as our world is made up of matter. This Yetziratic
world certainly exists; it’s where our entire inner life takes place.
The theory is, however, that events manifest in this world of forms before they
manifest in the physical world. Oracles of all sorts are meant to take
readings of this world of forms, as it were, as a way of predicting
what will happen.
Unfortunately, the world of forms contains everything, as it were—all
the psychic residues and rubbish of mankind as well as the glimmerings
of events to come. So how can you be sure you aren’t picking up on some
collective images of fear and hatred, for example, when you’re tempted
to make a prophecy of doom? Or on some grandiose piece of wishful
thinking when you’re foretelling a rosy future?
Of course, there’s a lot more to it that that, and I talk about it at
length in the last chapter of my book. This chapter is called
“Nostradamus and the Uses of Prophecy,” and to me it was the most
fascinating part of the book to write.
Why is the difference between prophecy and prediction important these days?
Let’s say prophecy works in an occult or mystical fashion, as I’ve
suggested above. Prediction, on the other hand, works by means of
reason, from facts and figures. An energy industry analyst could make a
prediction of oil prices one year from now based on supply, demand, and
a host of other factors. We’d tend to call that prediction; we wouldn’t
call it prophecy.
There are serious problems with both approaches. Prediction, in the
sense I’ve outlined above, can only work by assuming continuing trends
will continue. But the one thing we know from the past is that present
trends don’t continue. There are sudden breaks and gaps and upheavals—like 9/11, for instance.
The prophet, on the other hand, has an interest in making the wildest
forecasts possible. If he prophesied that things would continue more or
less as they are now, who would pay attention to him? Unfortunately for
most prophets, their imaginings, however vivid, usually don’t have much
connection with what eventually happens.
Why are you, a scholar who studies the inner meaning of
Christianity, concerned with the work of an astrologer and psychic,
Nostradamus?
There are lots of reasons. One is the uses that have been made of
Nostradamus’s prophecies over the years. The cause of his perennial
popularity is that, although he was apparently of middling ability in
most of the areas he worked—his astrological contemporaries said he
didn’t know how to cast a chart—in his way he was a superb surrealist
poet. There is something haunting and evocative in his verses, a
continuation of the great apocalyptic tradition of Christianity and,
before it, Judaism. These traditions are powerful, not as actual
prophecies, but as glimpses into the collective storehouse of images,
in which all of us, like it or not, share.
I don’t believe that Nostradamus was able to predict the future in any
real or precise sense. Rather, through his own strange genius, he was
able to produce a series of verses that could then be readily applied
to all sorts of future events that he never foresaw.
By the way, when Nostradamus did try to forecast something specifically, he was usually wrong.
What's your next project and what excites you about it?
I’m currently writing a book on love. I wanted to write it because I
think there is an intense dynamic at play between transactional love
and what we might call unconditional love, and people are not at all
clear about the difference. They frequently imagine that they love
someone unconditionally when in fact they’re doing nothing of the kind.
Romantic love is highly transactional, as you no doubt know; so is
friendship; so is family love. I’m not deprecating these versions of
love, but I think we need to see them sharply and clearly compared to
what Christianity calls agape. The dynamic is fascinating, and I don’t think it’s been well covered in recent times.
For more on Richard Smoley, click here.
If you're interested in purchasing copies of Richard's book, The Essential Nostradamus, click here.