These Were Nostradamus’ Predictions For 2022 — And The Ways He Was Right

Nostradamus didn't have much hope for 2022. But then this is the man, some believe, who prophesied the events that brought the entire world to a standstill in 2020. That’s due to the quatrain that reads,

“Near the gates and within two cities

There will be two scourges the like of which was never seen

Famine within plague, people put out by steel

Crying to the great immortal God for relief.”

It’s not surprising, then, that the interpretations of Nostradamus’ 2022 predictions are very much of the deeply pessimistic variety. According to the Frenchman, things were only going to get worse... and he wasn't wrong about that. But we're more interested in specific predictions, here, and not broad generalizations. And while he got some things wrong, he did sometimes hit the nail on the head.

First off, Nostradamus predicted that 2022 would see an asteroid hit Earth. Or, at least, this is a common interpretation of the passage,

“Fire do I see that from the sky shall fall.”

Obviously, this didn't come to pass. Although astronomers did discover an asteroid big enough to kill the planet in 2022. Fortunately for us, this asteroid — 2022 AP7 — had "no chance" of hitting the Earth on its current course.

So we don’t appear to be looking at the kind of world-ending scenario that has made Netflix’s Don’t Look Up such a talked-about movie. But could the fire that Nostradamus predicted be something of a much less interstellar nature? Some people have put forward the theory that it could instead be a threat that’s entirely man-made. This would fit with some of Nostradamus' other predictions.

A recurring feature of Nostradamus’ prophecies for the past 50 years has been man’s over-reliance on technology. This was allegedly predicted by the quatrain,

“The Moon in the full of night over the high mountain

The new sage with a lone brain sees it

By his disciples invited to be immortal

Eyes to the south, hands in bosoms, bodies in the fire.”

Did he think 2022 would be the year that the robots took over? With artificial intelligence a staple in self-driving vehicles and smart speakers — to name but two things — you could argue that to some extent they already have. Nostradamus might not have been able to pinpoint these exact examples, but according to this interpretation, he appears to have been well ahead of the subject.

Nostradamus was wrong about his apparent prediction that World War III would break out in 2021. And he also seemed to think that there would be an invasion of France in 2022. This particular theory is based on the passage that reads,

“Blue-head shall white-head

Harm in such degree

As France’s good to both shall e’er amount.”

An Eastern threat to the West has often been spoken about in Nostradamus’ previous prophecies. But some have pointed out that the vagueness of the quatrain means that it could be applied just as easily to France’s progress in the World Cup as an impending war. And the French — the "blue-head" — did end up losing to Argentina, whose kit has a lot of white in it...

Climate change isn’t only a modern concern. Nostradamus was seemingly discussing the harmful impact of the sea’s rising temperatures back in 1555. See the verse,

“Like the Sun the head shall sear the shining sea

The Black Sea’s living fish shall all but boil

When Rhodes and Genoa/Half-starved shall be

The local folk to cut them up shall toil.”

Nearly five centuries on and the situation has inevitably got much worse. We now also have problems in the food chain and ever-rising world temperatures to deal with. Sure, we might not be at the point of seeing the sea boil fish alive yet. But few were surprised when 2022 entered the environmental record books for all the wrong reasons.

Then there’s the quatrain,

“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.”

According to one interpretation, this refers to the high inflation rates and subsequent hunger of those not fortunate enough to be able to deal with them.

A global outbreak of disease, the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union, and turmoil in world politics are just some of the factors that have contributed to a scary rise in inflation in recent times. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the inflation rate was 6.5 percent in December 2022. But this actually represented a slow down in the rising rate compared to previous months.

Floods, droughts, and basically any natural disaster that could be described as biblical are also a mainstay of Nostradamus’ predictions. And those for 2022 were no exception. See the verse,

“For 40 years the rainbow will not be seen

For 40 years it will be seen every day

The dry earth will grow more parched

And there will be great floods when it is seen.”

Considering 2021 brought us severe droughts in both Chile and the United States, this prophecy was certainly not beyond the realms of possibility. And he UN Food and Agriculture Organization said that global droughts were part of the reason why food prices were at record highs throughout 2022. The war in Ukraine was a large part of the problem, too.

Could Nostradamus have even predicted the phenomenon of cryptocurrency? Just take a look at the French-language passage, translated by Yearly-Horoscope, that reads,

“The copies of gold and silver inflated

Which after the theft were thrown into the lake

At the discovery that all is exhausted and dissipated by the debt

All scripts and bonds will be wiped out.”

The New York Post put forward an interesting theory about the gold in the passage above. Could it refer to the rise in the price of the precious metal or the number of startups dealing in the world of bitcoins — or both? 2022 was, at one point, looking set to be the year of the non-fungible token (NFT)... until there was a bitcoin crash.

Mario Reading, who published the book Nostradamus: Complete Prophecies for the Future in 2005, interpreted one of Nostradamus’ prophecies as correctly predicting the date of the late Queen’s passing. He wrote in the book, taking note of the “wide implications” of it all, “Queen Elizabeth II will die, circa 2022, at the age of around 96.” And that’s exactly what happened.

The next part was rather damning for Charles. Part of Nostradamus' prediction 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 him who never expected to be King.”

Could that have been a reference to his divorce from Diana?

Reading wrote in his book that he thought Nostradamus was saying that after Elizabeth’s passing, “Charles will be crowned in her stead, and become ‘King of the Islands’, the implication here being that he is no longer king of the other regions in the world over which his mother reigned — Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc — which will have, in the interim, become republics.”

However, this part of the prediction, and Reading’s take on it, is more tricky. Charles is actually still the monarch of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, although it’s true that many nations either have or plan to become republics. Barbados cut ties with the monarchy in 2021; in time countries including Jamaica, Belize, and the Bahamas may well follow suit.

Interpreting Nostradamus’ prophesy, Reading predicted in the book, “Charles will be 74 years old in 2022 when he takes over the throne, but the resentments held against him by a certain proportion of the British population, following his divorce from Diana, Princess of Wales, still persist.” And it’s doubtless true that some people have never forgiven his infamous affair.

Reading predicted that after Charles got his crown, things would take a turn for the worse, writing, “The pressure on him is so great, and his age so much against him, that Charles agrees to abdicate in favor of his son.” And indeed the prospect of the royals “skipping a generation” had been talked about even before Elizabeth passed away.

But what about the next part of the prophecy? Reading posed the question, based on Nostradamus’ “never expected to be King” line, “Does this mean that Prince William, who would have expected to succeed his father, is no longer in the picture? And that Prince Harry, by process of default, becomes King in his stead? That would make him King Henry IX, aged just 38.” Based on what we know now, this seems very unlikely.

But what if Nostradamus’ prophecy wasn’t referring to Harry at all? After all, it doesn’t mention any names, just “a man will replace him who never expected to be King.” And there’s one person out there who’s willing to believe he’s actually the man in question. If the name Simon Dorante-Day doesn't mean anything to you, prepare to have your mind blown.

The British-born Australian has long claimed he’s the secret son of Charles and Camilla. According to him, his adoptive grandparents once worked in the royal household under Elizabeth, and his grandmother told him outright that he was Charles and Camilla’s child. There’s no cast-iron proof, though. But now Dorante-Day thinks the Nostradamus prophecy might be about him.

He told the Australian news website 7news in 2022, “I’ve had five people approach me in a few hours, sending me over this page from the book. It’s certainly food for thought because the prediction makes it clear that someone out of left field would replace Charles as King. I can see why some people would think I fit the bill.”

Dorante-Day went on, “I believe I am the son of Charles and Camilla and I’m looking forward to my day in court to prove this. Maybe Nostradamus has the same understanding that I do, that all this will come out one day.” Dorante-Day went public with his claims decades ago, in the 1990s, but Charles and Camilla have never responded. But if they're keeping an eye on Nostradamus, they may want to watch out.

Nostradamus' prophetic journey began with an alleged psychic awakening he experienced while traveling across several countries in the Mediterranean. After one particular meeting in Italy, Nostradamus predicted the rise of Felice Peretti from Franciscan monk to Pope Sixtus V. And in 1550 he published what he saw in an astrological almanac that became popular in his native France.

Nostradamus certainly wasn’t limited in his scope, either. In 1554 he revealed plans to write an all-consuming tome featuring no fewer than 100 predictions that would cover two entire millennia. A year later his most notable were compiled in a collection titled Les Prophéties. But you often had to be fluent in several languages to understand them.

Afraid of being persecuted for his beliefs, Nostradamus would write his predictions in everything from Latin to southern French dialects. Just to make things still more enigmatic, his four-lined prophecies would also be rhymed in a style known as quatrains. These tactics worked, and Nostradamus established himself as one of the most important figures of his day. 

Even royalty subscribed to Nostradamus’ way of thinking. King Henri II of France’s wife, Catherine de Medici, was a particular fan and asked the astrologer to provide her offspring with horoscopes. She later appointed him as Physician-in-Ordinary and an advisor to her husband’s court. Sadly, Nostradamus’ bleakest prediction about the royal family ended up coming true. 

That’s right: one prediction referred to an “older lion” whose eye would be pierced by a younger one in battle. Despite being warned of this prophecy, King Henri continued to partake in jousting contests. And in 1559 he died a slow, agonizing death after an opponent’s lance penetrated his helmet’s eye-guard and plunged into his skull.

As well as drawing upon his meditative visions, Nostradamus also based his prophecies on calculations involving Earth and the rest of the Solar System. This drew criticism from the period’s astrologers, who argued that the Frenchman was misusing such information. Some detractors also believed that Nostradamus had borrowed some of his more apocalyptic predictions from the Bible.

So why is Nostradamus still considered to be the ultimate prophet? Well, there’s the fact that his multi-lingual and rhyming writings are often difficult to clearly decipher. This means that they’re open to numerous interpretations, at least one of which can usually be applied to a situation retrospectively.

As a result, Nostradamus has been credited with predicting everything from Napoleon’s rise to power to the creation of nuclear weapons in the several centuries since his death. So it’s fair to say that the Frenchman wasn’t the biggest of optimists. Pretty much every single one of his prophecies revolved around disasters, diseases, or deaths. You can look at his predictions for 2021 as an example.

Did Nostradamus get anything right? Well, he did appear to predict that there would be a massive earthquake in November 2021. And in actual fact, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 on the moment magnitude scale hit northern Peru that month. Two people died as a direct result of the natural disaster, and 126 more were wounded. Ten people also died in a bus crash in the aftermath of the event.

Many believe that Nostradamus also warned about the fallout from Brexit. They’ve interpreted that from the lines,

“Throughout his realm the fleur-de-lis deserted

Bodies dead by water, land one will bring there

Vainly awaiting the good fortune to be buried there.”

And it’s fair to say that the United Kingdom, particularly its economy, suffered from its European Union exit.

There was also some truth in the interpretation of,

“Condom and Auch and around Mirande,

I see fire from the sky which encompasses them.

Sun and Mars conjoined in Leo, then at Marmande,

Lightning, great hail, a wall falls into the Garonne.”

Luckily, the solar material that struck Earth in October 2021 wasn’t of the world-ending variety. Scientists judged that the disturbance it caused to the planet’s magnetic field was only moderate.

And then there was the interpretation of military technology from the prophecy,

“The newly made one will lead the army

Almost cut off up to near the bank

Help from the Milanais elite straining

The Duke deprived of his eyes in Milan in an iron cage.”

After all, barely a week went by in 2021 without news of a country’s army being supplied with some form of a new robot.

Nostradamus also appeared to warn us all of an asteroid with the passage that included,

“In the heavens fire seen, a long spark running.”

Thankfully, we didn’t end up living a real-life Deep Impact or Armageddon scenario. But then NASA said a meteor roughly the size of the Eiffel Tower very nearly struck the planet at the end of 2021.

Of course, there were also some interpretations that definitely proved to be well wide of the mark. For example, take the prophecy that reads,

“Twice put up and twice cast down,

The East will also weaken the West.

Its adversary after several battles chased by sea,

Will fail at time of need.”

We're still waiting for this to happen, though.