Which Nostradamus predictions for 2022 came true?
The 16th century astrologer continues to be read and many claim that his writings foretell major global events.
Famed astrologer Michel de Nostradame, known more commonly as Nostradamus, published his famous work ‘Les Prophéties’ in 1555. This collection of 942 poetc quatrains claimed to foretell the future and is still read to this day.
More than 450 years later readers are able to draw links between what the 16th century fortune-teller predicted and real-world events, although Nostradamus’ claims are slightly, understandably, vague.
However the astrologer did have some pretty significant predictions for 2022 that came true, sparking new interest in his work.
The Queen’s death
Earlier this year Queen Elizabeth II passed away at the age of 96. While there was no direct mention of the monarch’s passing in Nostradamus’ writing, a recent interpretation predicted that this would be the year in which the Queen died.
Mario Reading’s 2006 book ‘Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies for the Future’, claimed to have found a prediction in Nostradamus’ original book that others had missed.
He claimed that quatrain 10/22 – supposedly relating to the tenth month of 2022 – forecasted the Queen’s death. It read:
“Because they disapproved of his divorce / A man who later they considered unworthy / The People will force out the King of the islands / A Man will replace who never expected to be king.”
In his book, Reading wrote, “Queen Elizabeth will die, circa 2022, at the age of around 96.” He added that the passage relates to a further prediction that the new King Charles will quickly abdicate from the throne, due to “resentments held against him by a certain proportion of the British population, following his divorce from Diana, Princess of Wales”.
This prediction then is, at best, only half right as it stands. However the accuracy of the prediction of the Queen’s death in the autumn of 2022 sparked fresh interest in Reading’s book. In the week before she died only five copies were sold; before selling close to 8,000 copies in the week that followed.
Inflation
One of the defining economic stories of 2022 has been the sharp inflation felt in countries across the world. This, a consequence of post-pandemic reopening and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was also supposedly foretold in Nostradamus’ work.
One passage reads:
“No abbots, monks, no novices to learn;
“Honey shall cost far more than candle-wax”
“So high the price of wheat,
“That man is stirred
“His fellow man to eat in his despair”
This grisly prediction starts by predicting that the price of various essentials will rise, before taking a dark turn into cannibalism in the final line. Another that is, at best, half true, but the myth of Nostradamus will live on into 2023 as we grapple for meaning in an increasingly unpredictable age.