Nostradamus: Mabus, The Third Antichrist

Century 2, Quatrain 62

Mabus then will soon die, there will come
A horrible undoing of people and animals:
At once vengeance one will see vengeance,
One hundred hands, thirst, famine, when the comet will run.


John Hogue's Interpretation

Nostradamus’ Third Antichrist has yet to be positively identified. In contrast with his certainty about Napoleon and Hitler, Nostradamus is less clear who this third tyrant is. Perhaps this is an example of his prophetic myopia that enabled him to be clearest about events of local or European history. When contemplating future events in more distant lands, the prophet’s vision tends to be cloudier. What does come through clearly is the fact that this Third and final Antichrist is not a prominent European leader. He may even be a minor player in a future conflict, an insignificant terrorist such as Gavrilo Princip, the Serbian nationalist who assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, triggering World War I.
The man we know as Mabus may be some obscure future terrorist who, if he is not identified and restrained in time, will trigger World War III and the extinction of civilization as we have known it.

The time we have left to positively decode who or what Mabus is, and how to prevent the foretold terrible destiny, may already have passed. The final line could date the beginning of his legacy of terror around the time of the appearance of Halley’s Comet (1985-86), the collision of the comet Shoemaker-Levi (1994), or the comet Hale-Bopp (1997), which appeared right at the millennium of the Jewish lunar calendar.

Mabus could be a cryptogram for Thurbo Majus, the classical Roman name given to the infernal god of Hannibal, or a cryptogram for Megabyzus, one of several conspirators who overthrew a Zoroastrian priest who had usurped the throne of Persia.

An argument could be made that upon this classical foundation, Nostradamus is building a prophecy for the near-future debacle of Saddam Hussein from within, by a Persian (Iranian) ally.

Try this experiment: Take a piece of paper and write "SAddAM." Hold it in front of a mirror.

The mysterious Mabus could be one of dozens of Saddam Hussein’s more sophisticated Al Abbas versions of his Scud missiles. Mabus therefore becomes a weapon launched by the Antichrist in a surprise attack. It "will soon die" in the flames of its own successful explosion after its supersonic journey.


Erika Cheetham's Interpretation

Nostradamus mentions a comet together with destruction and war. The "hundred hands" is evocative of the many refugee camps all over the world, where people are suffering from thirst and hunger. When Halley’s Comet passed in 1986 there were famines in Africa, the Far East and South America. Is Mabus the name, possible an anagram, of the Third Antichrist to come? Ms. Cheetham believes it more likely that he is envisaged as a forerunner, so the time of the Antichrist is still awaited.