This Is How Nostradamus Predicted The End Of The World

Nostradamus was born Michel de Notredame in 1503 in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France. It's fair to say Nostradamus didn't have a boring life. He originally worked as an apothecary, then attended the University of Montpelier to pursue a medical degree. Along the way, he was expelled for practicing a "manual trade" (the use of herbal remedies), which was considered "too low" for a doctor (via Biography).

The jury is out as to whether he eventually went back to school and received a medical license, but Biography points out he did work as a physician during the plague outbreak in Italy and France. In fact, he became a bit of a "celebrity" plague doctor for his progressive methods (for the time) in treating the plague, which included herbal mixes, hygiene, and removing corpses from cities to slow down the spread of the disease.

He eventually focused on writing almanacs and became an astrologer. His work was so popular that powerful figures of the time hired him to "read the stars" for them. One example was the Italian noblewoman Catherine de' Medici, who wanted to have horoscopes written for her children. Eventually she made him Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to her husband, King Henri II of France

Above all, however, Nostradamus is best known for his 942 poetic quatrains (four-line poems), which are supposed to predict a number of future events — some of them well into the future, according to Biography.

Because Nostradamus' prophecies are written in poem form, they can be very vague. In fact, you could use the same exact poem to "predict" several incidents throughout history, some of them centuries apart. There have been instances, however, where some of his predictions seem very specific. For example:

"The young lion will overcome the older one / On the field of combat in a single battle / He will pierce his eyes through a golden cage / Two wounds made one, then he dies a cruel death" has been interpreted as a prediction of the death of King Henry II of France, who died in a jousting tournament when a younger opponent hit his face and caused a massive wound. The king died after 11 days of extreme pain (per Insider).

Another famous prophecy that appeared to come true referred to the devastating London fire of 1666: "The blood of the just will be demanded of London / Burnt by fire in the year '66 / The ancient Lady will fall from her high place / And many of the same sect will be killed." However, the poem seems to indicate the fire was caused by lightning, when in reality it started inside a bakery (via Insider).

Some of his prophecies were definitely wrong, though. For example, he predicted that in "The year one thousand nine ninety-nine seven month /  From the sky shall come a great King of terror." But nothing particularly terrible happened in September 1999 (per Biography).

Nostradamus had a lot of terrible things to say about 2021. For this year alone, he predicted zombies, asteroids, and a plague, all with grim results. The predictions start pretty dark: "After great trouble for humanity, a greater one is prepared, / The Great Mover renews the ages: / Rain, blood, milk, famine, steel, and plague, / Is the heavens fire seen, a long spark running" (via 7News).

Experts believe the "great trouble" could refer to the COVID pandemic that started in 2020, with "a greater one" meaning the continuation of the virus into 2021. As for the "heaven's fire," turns out the massive Asteroid 2021 KT1 flew by Earth at 40,000 mph in early June, according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (via USA Today). But since it missed and Earth is still intact, we can safely say at least this part of the prediction has failed so far.

For 2021, Nostradamus also warns us of "Few young people: half-dead to give a start," which seems to allude to some sort of zombie apocalypse (the half-dead) taking over the world. While we don't have (so far) any information of zombies taking over the planet, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is helping us get ready for it with their Zombie Preparedness Guide, just in case.

Despite the grim predictions for 2021, Nostradamus' prophecies continue until the year 3797. So if we make it through potential asteroid crashes, famines, the plague, and a zombie apocalypse, humanity might survive an extra 1,500 years or so. Still, between 2021 and the end of times, Nostradamus predicted a lot of terrible things: wars, the coming of three Antichrists, and many plagues and pestilences, as related by The Sunday Post of Glasgow.

Many of these will leave the world in worse shape than it was before them, but not necessarily end it. At some point, Nostradamus predicted the third Antichrist will "rise over all the kings of the east" and trigger World War III. This won't be pretty and will last up to three decades, resulting in a lot of death and destruction. However, this won't be the end, either. 

According to The Sun, the true end is what Nostradamus called the "final conflagration," a series of extinction level events that might include super volcanoes, "fire from the sky," and what some believe could refer to a massive solar flare. While he doesn't give a date for the end of the world, the fact that his predictions end at a specific time (the year 3797) could be a sign that he believes this is when the end will come.