The year 1999 and September month
From the sky will come the great King of Terror,
He will awaken the great king of the Angolmois
Before and after Mars to reign by good luck.

                                    ~   Nostradamus. X.72

This ominous sounding four lined prophecy is probably the most famous and the most controversial of almost 1000 prophecies that Nostradamus wrote in his book "The Centuries" in French, about 500 years ago. This quatrain, along with others in his book, indicate devastating  wars, probably another world war, anytime during the period 2000 - 2007 - 2012. Every new conflict and every tragedy in the world evokes fear that the terrible happenings in the world  that Nostradamus predicted is going to be a reality.

Initially, all of us thought that Nostradamus tried to foretell in this prophecy that sometime before July/August 1999 wars would start and will continue even after that period. That during July/August 1999 a powerful person will come into the scene and strike terror as "The Great King of the Mongols" - Genghis Khan did centuries back. There are many other prophecies of Nostradamus which elaborate on this theme, supposedly pertaining to World War III. It is obvious that this particular quatrain did not come true "as interpreted". But then, probably every line of this quatrain has been interpreted in many different ways.

On September 11, 2001 this ominous prophecy seems to have come true, but in what a way! It is really tough to interpret Nostradamus and like I mentioned in this page a long time back, one can fully understand his quatrains and the sequence of events only after the events actually take place. The "King of Terror" is not a person but the ultimate and most severe act of Terrorism that this world has ever seen - the Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center twin towers and on the Pentagon. And the terror indeed came from the sky. The CNN headline screamed that day - "Terror from the Sky".

In view of these events, we obviously have to re-interpret the quatrain. In many books one would find that sept month has been interpreted as either September or the 7th Month, i.e. July  and Angolmois as Mongol. It seems that "sept month" is September, and "King of Terror" is not a person but THE ultimate Terrorism that has come from the sky! I also feel that Angolmois is not an anagram of Mongol or Chinese as many author says, but means America (maybe the word 'Anglo' is there and in his book he has referred to America as the "England of the west". So it means that the King of America will be awakened (George Bush, in one of his speeches said that 9/11 has awakened the American Giant) as a result of this "King of Terror" and will start an attack / war as evident from the last line, in which he will have good luck. Regarding the date of 1999 - Nostradamus have been slightly off the mark many times - maybe intentionally or by mistake - like Hitler had been mentioned as Hister in a quatrain. Take into consideration the fact that during his time the Julian Calendar, not the present Gregorian Calendar (he predicated this change also) was used ... this might account for a slight difference although it does not explain the two years difference. The theories of prophecy also say that timing of prophesized events vary due to collective human actions and free will. In any case, this is a momentous event worth reporting by Nostradamus, particularly if this is the precursor to WW-III and a turning point in history.

In continuation of X.72, it would seem that the victory in the war against Iraq in 2003 has once again brought good luck in war to the United States of America. So, the "war on terror" continues. Who will be next? Will it be Iran or will it be Syria? And how long will this continue before it brings a severe retaliation against USA by the terrorists? Consider these two quatrains -

The sky will burn at 5 and 40 degrees, fire approaches the great New City. Immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up when they want to have proof of the Normans ~ Nostradamus VI.97

Garden of the World near the New City, in the road of the hollow mountains. It will be seized and plunged in the tank, forced to drink water poisoned with sulphur~ Nostradamus X.49

To many, the above two quatrains seem to indicate another terror attack on New York, this time with WMDs. The Seer of Waldviertel (a.k.a. The Farmer of Krems (b. 1939) from Austria, who is still alive) seems to agree. In no uncertain terms does he predict a terror attack on NY -

... New York is destroyed unexpectedly before this time of war (World War-III) by small explosive devices, that explode very low in the air. The image grows more vivid, becoming like houses blasted apart from a violent storm. In the explosion inferno (the explosion's epicenter or "ground zero"), I saw nothing left standing. It would seem to have occurred around noon (local time). If one considers however, that, in the early summer, it becomes light very early, that could be also in the morning hours. I saw all details clearly and with extraordinary clarity. Here (in Austria), there was yet no war at the time. When news of the destruction was being broadcast on the radio for the first time, I wanted to eat just a trifle (lunch). At the close of the news report, it appeared to be an especially clever act carried out by psychopathic enemies ...

Is this where all these brouhaha on the "War on Terror" leads to?  ... to more terrorism? According to the seer, who is presently 64, this event will take place during his lifetime and before the WW-III.

To be frank, most of the prophecies of Nostradamus are vague, indirect, without any clear reference to the time or place of their occurrence and are open to varied interpretations. However, there are those prophecies which seem to predict specific events - even specifying the time and place of occurrence, which mention names of kings and leaders, which refers to modern day mode of travel, warfare and lifestyle so accurately that these have evoked keen interest all through the world. Volumes of commentaries and interpretations have been written on his prophecies, so much so that his prophecies have never been out of print during the last five hundred years.

The nature of these prophecies are such that most of these can be tallied with actual events only after the event has occurred. But the fun of it is speculating beforehand (with intelligent analysis of course) the turn of events from these prophecies although sometimes the events turn out to be stranger than our imagination. There are literally thousands of websites dedicated to these prophecies. This site makes an effort to understand the events supposed to happen between the years 1999 and 2012 by focusing on the relevant quatrains of Nostradamus and trying to interpret these in the light of similar prophecies available throughout the world. In reality, the specific events may eventually turn out to be very different although we may have a fair idea of the general trends.