Quatrain X-74

Entry for March 17, 2009

I had a question on my other blog about the quatrain numbered X - 74, which is somewhat commonly known as the "Games of Slaughter" quatrain. I believe the person posing the question is in his 20s (perhaps late teens), because he saw this quatrain in a modern light, one of video games. He did not sound old enough to have known about the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, where members of the Palestinian freedom fighters-terrorists killed eleven members of the Israeli team, with themselves being killed by German military-police-SWAT.

While those were REAL Games of Slaughter, the person made a good point about how today's video games have become gorier and gorier. He, as a seasoned player, stated he was being appalled at how bloody they have become; and he saw where other translators have read the last line of that quatrain to say, "When the dead will come out of their grave."

From ads I have seen on television, the dead coming out of their grave seems normal in a shoot-em-up, hack-em-up, kick some alien butt, re-live the carnage of World War II on your XBox / Wii / whatever the latest is video-computer gadget game is. Is it still the same as it was with Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo, back in 1988-1990? If you die, do you get another life and keep playing? I imagine that would act like the dead coming out of their grave. It could seem like Nostradamus might be watching kids playing those games of slaughter when he wrote that quatrain.

There could be a parallel, certainly; but Nostradamus was referring to the '72 Summer Olympics in line two of this quatrain. There can be no doubt of that, if you know what was really stated. And, line four does not say, "When the dead will come out of their grave." That is just another bit of evidence of how I mean it when I say, "Everything you think you know about Nostradamus is wrong." You cannot look up a Nostradamus quatrain on the Internet and just take it as the whole truth. Half-truths maybe, but not the whole truth.

Lines one and two state: Year revolved to the great number seventh / Will appear at the time Games of Slaughter.

The question made me take another look at this quatrain. I'm glad I did. It always amazes me to see something new in something I have looked at before and thought I was amazed then. Two thing I missed in line one was the key verb, "revolved" (revolu) and the noun, "number" (nombre). I was looking at "Year" and "seventh", and seeing the "seventh" decade of the 20th Century. One "Year", the first even "number" "Year", the first "Year" of an Olympics in the "seventh" decade. I saw that as a tight fit for the 1972 Olympics.

While it is some good evidence, it is not "seal a deal" evidence, especially when trying to convince a doubter (I know you're out there) that Nostradamus was a Prophet of God, with nothing but truth to tell. The "revolved" word has been translated by many as "accomplished". This is incorrect. In Old French, "revolu" is said to translate as, "revolved; rounded or turned wholly, past or gone fully about." As far as idioms go, the French phrase, "L'an revolu" means, "The year fully ended." Unfortunately, Nostradamus did not write a book of idioms, or we would all know precisely what Nostradamus meant long ago. The word "revolu" best translates as "revolved", with the modern usage meaning simply, "past".

When we find we are looking for an important "Year" (capitalized word), one that has "revolved", meaning an important "Year past" that has come full circle to an important "Year" presently "revolved" to again, we are not looking for the "number seventh", as the "seventh Year", but the "number" of other important "Years past", which makes the "revolved number" the "seventh". The "seventh" decade has nothing to do with the meaning of "number seventh" yet. That is found in line two.

Line two states, "Will appear at the time Games of Slaughter." This is stating that the important "Year" is "the time" of reference. It is a "time" when a "Year revolves", or repeats. A Leap "Year" is "revolved" every four years; and so too is an Olympics "Year" likewise "revolved". We find out we are talking about an Olympics (capitalized word) because "at the time will appear Games" (capitalized word). Big G "Games" are none other than the Olympics, at least since the Olympics restarted at the turn of the 19th Century to the 20th Century (the Modern Olympics [revolved Games] began in 1896). Thus, we are looking for the important "Year" when the "Games" "Will appear" again "revolved", this time to a "Year" of the "seventh number", like the "seventh" decade of the renewed "Games", which would be in the 1970s. This is when "Will appear" (capitalized word, in this case emphasizing a sudden appearance seen from the past) "Games of Slaughter". That would be the 1972 Munich Olympics.

However, the key words are still "revolved" and "seventh". Munich is in Germany. The "Year" of 1972 stood as an important "Year". It was the first "time" Germany had hosted the "Games" since Adolph Hitler was Chancellor, during the "Games" of Berlin, in 1936. So, the "Games" had "revolved" back to Germany. Now, if one subtracts 1936 from 1972, one gets 36. Divide 36 by 4 and you get 9. Thus, there were nine sets of "Games" scheduled to appear (not capitalized) in the revolution back to Germany. Unfortunately due to some great "Slaughter" (capitalized word) between 1939 and 1945, in and around Germany, only six Olympics had been held between 1936 and 1968 (1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, and 1968). This means the 1972 Munich Olympics "Will appear" (capitalized word) as the "seventh" in a "number" of Olympic "Games", which represented the cycle of "Games" that had "revolved" them back to Germany. That is nothing short of amazing. I had not seen any of this detail before, because it was so obvious to me that the "Games of Slaughter" were the 1972 Olympics of death.

There is much more to see in this quatrain, including the reality of what line four says. But, I will leave that for another time and another place.