PRECOGNITION 273
tory interpretations. The quatrains of Nostradamus, for example, are
so general that one can read almost anything into them (and people
have). One quatrain reads:
Earth-shaking fires from the world's center roar:
Around "New City" is the Earth a-quiver
Two nobles long shall wage a fruitless war
The nymph of springs pour forth a new, red river.
Some have claimed that this quatrain proved that Nostradamus
foresaw the burning of the Twin Towers in New York on September 11,
2001.
Yet over the centuries scores of other interpretations have been
given to this same quatrain. The images are so vague that many interpretations are possible.
Precognition is also a favorite device of playwrights who write of
the impending doom of kings and the fall of empires. In Shakespeare's
Macbeth, precognition is central to the theme of the play and to the ambitions of Macbeth, who encounters three witches who foresee his rise
to become Ring of Scotland. With his murderous ambitions fired up by
the witches' prophesy, he begins a bloody and grisly campaign to wipe
out his enemies, including killing the innocent wife and children of his
rival Macduff.
After committing a series of hideous deeds to seize the crown,
Macbeth learns from the witches that he cannot be defeated in battle
or "vanquish'd be until great Birnam Wood to high (Dunsinane Hills)
shall come against him," and that "none of woman born shall harm
Macbeth." Macbeth takes comfort in this prophecy, since a forest cannot move, and all men are born of women. But the Great Birnam forest does move, as the troops of Macduff camouflaging themselves
beneath twigs from the Great Birnam forest, advance on Macbeth, and
Macduff himself was born via cesarean.
Although prophecies from the past have so many alternative interpretations, and hence are impossible to test, one set of prophecies is
easy to analyze: predictions of the precise date of the end of the EarthDoomsday. Ever since the last chapter of the Bible, Revelations, laid out
in graphic detail the final days of the Earth, when chaos and destruc-
tory interpretations. The quatrains of Nostradamus, for example, are
so general that one can read almost anything into them (and people
have). One quatrain reads:
Earth-shaking fires from the world's center roar:
Around "New City" is the Earth a-quiver
Two nobles long shall wage a fruitless war
The nymph of springs pour forth a new, red river.
Some have claimed that this quatrain proved that Nostradamus
foresaw the burning of the Twin Towers in New York on September 11,
2001.
Yet over the centuries scores of other interpretations have been
given to this same quatrain. The images are so vague that many interpretations are possible.
Precognition is also a favorite device of playwrights who write of
the impending doom of kings and the fall of empires. In Shakespeare's
Macbeth, precognition is central to the theme of the play and to the ambitions of Macbeth, who encounters three witches who foresee his rise
to become Ring of Scotland. With his murderous ambitions fired up by
the witches' prophesy, he begins a bloody and grisly campaign to wipe
out his enemies, including killing the innocent wife and children of his
rival Macduff.
After committing a series of hideous deeds to seize the crown,
Macbeth learns from the witches that he cannot be defeated in battle
or "vanquish'd be until great Birnam Wood to high (Dunsinane Hills)
shall come against him," and that "none of woman born shall harm
Macbeth." Macbeth takes comfort in this prophecy, since a forest cannot move, and all men are born of women. But the Great Birnam forest does move, as the troops of Macduff camouflaging themselves
beneath twigs from the Great Birnam forest, advance on Macbeth, and
Macduff himself was born via cesarean.
Although prophecies from the past have so many alternative interpretations, and hence are impossible to test, one set of prophecies is
easy to analyze: predictions of the precise date of the end of the EarthDoomsday. Ever since the last chapter of the Bible, Revelations, laid out
in graphic detail the final days of the Earth, when chaos and destruc-