Mother Shipton
This week, I’ll be telling you the story of an individual who lived in North Yorkshire, England. Her birthplace is only an hour or two from me and she is know as England’s most famous seer/prophetess. She foretold many things, including: the Great Fire of London in 1666 and Queen Elizabeth I’s triumph over the Spanish Armada, as well as the invention of metal ships. She made her way by telling people’s fortunes, but always gave a warning to her customers about having knowledge of what was to come. (Sometimes knowing the future isn’t always a good thing. Believe me; I know of that burden.) Starting with just one tiny premonition, she practiced and over time her visions grew to something far more powerful.
Ursula Southeil was brought into the world by teenage orphan, Agatha, in North Yorkshire, 1488. Her surname has had many spelling variations, including ‘Soothtell’, after her reputation as a prophetess solidified. It is said that her birth was ‘dramatic’ and Agatha refused to reveal the identity of her child’s father, even after been taken before the magistrate. As the legend of her daughter grew, superstitions burned through the community like wildfire about Agatha’s child being the spawn of Satan and that she herself was a witch. (I swear, back then, if you so much as sneezed in the wrong way it meant you had something to do with bloody Satan! *face palms and shakes head*)
Shunned by her community and with nowhere else to go, Agatha fled to a cave near to the town of Knaresborough, where she gave birth during a raging storm. That cave is where mother and daughter lived for the following few years, until an abbot took pity on them. He placed baby Ursula with a foster family and sent Agatha to a convent. That was the last time Agatha saw her child.
Now, we all know of the classic ‘wicked witch’ imagery: long crooked nose, slight hunched back and large beady eyes. This is how Ursula was described, even as a young girl. One source is quoted to say that her appearance was ‘a thing so strange in an infant, that no age can parallel’.
Her behaviour was also said to have been strange and (according to rumour and legend) one day, when her foster mother got home, the woman was greeted by the sound of ‘a thousand cats wailing’, but also the sight of a naked Ursula clung to the wall above the mantle, ‘cackling demonically’. (My cackle has been described in many ways over the years, but never as demonic. Makes me wonder if I should up my game or try harder to quell it…)
Ursula wasn’t treated very kindly by the local people, who began calling her ‘hag face’, so she started to seek solace in the woodland near to the place of her birth (the cave). With all her time spent surrounded by nature, she developed a vast knowledge of local plants and herbs. She became a healer and herbalist, mingling more with her community and also gaining a little respect. When she was 24yrs old, she met and married Tobias Shipton (much to everyone’s surprise and many were convinced she’d spelled him). He was a carpenter from the city of York.
Sadly, Ursula’s husband passed away a few years after they were married, which set off a ton of rumours about the circumstances. Many people believed that Ursula had a hand in his death. After been ostracised – again – by everyone, she went to live in the woods. Continuing her work as a healer and herbalist, she was regularly visited by people who wanted her medicinal remedies. She also became known as a powerful seer.
It was during this time that the legend of Mother Shipton really took off. Her reputation grew to such heights, she caught the attention of King Henry VIII. In a letter he wrote to the Duke of Norfolk in 1537, Henry made reference to a ‘Witch of York’, who is thought to be Ursula – the mysterious forest-dwelling seer in Knaresborough.
After a long life, she died in 1561, aged 73. Her legend still lives on to this day and her home is England’s oldest tourist attraction, which was opened in 1630. There’s a lot of myth surrounding Mother Shipton and I’m sceptical about certain parts of the legend, (crawling up walls is a little far-fetched) but her prophecies read as strongly as those of Nostradamus.
She didn’t have an easy life, but she made her way. I often wonder about her prolonged isolation and if that is how she manged to summon such powerful visions. She evidently had a profound connection to the natural world and its energies. Her deep connection with Mother Nature and lack of people could well have helped her power grow. Just my opinion.
Below are some of her prophecies. What do you make of them?
Predictions
Henry VIII’s 1513 victory over France in the Battle of the Spurs and the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
The destruction of Trinity Church, which would “fall in the night, till the highest stone in the church be the lowest stone of the bridge”. Not long after, a major storm fell upon Yorkshire, destroying the steeple of the Church and causing it to land on the bridge.
Her predictions would extend to some of the most important people in the land including King Henry VIII himself and his right-hand man at the time, Thomas Wolsey.
She refers to Thomas Wolsey as ‘the mitred peacock’s lofty cry shall to his master be a guide’. This is in reference to Wolsey’s lower class background as the son of a butcher, before he rose to become a chief advisor to Henry VIII. Also, she predicted Wolsey’s death. Although he died from natural causes on a trip to York, Ursula stated that he wouldn’t reach his destination.
Other Prophecies
Carriages without horses shall go
And accidents fill the world with woe:
(true about auto accidents)
Around the world thoughts shall fly
In the twinkling of an eye:
(telegraph and radio)
Water shall yet more wonders do,
Now strange but shall be true.
(producing electricity)
The world upside down shall be
And gold be found at the root of a tree:
(conditions now)
Through lands man shall ride,
And no horse nor ass be at his side:
(railroad and auto)
Under water man shall walk,
Shall ride, shall sleep, shall talk:
(fulfilled by the submarine)
In the air man shall be seen,
In white, in black and green:
(note colours of airplanes)
Iron in the water shall float
As easy as a wooden boat:
(ships of iron and steel support this)
Gold shall be found and shown
In a land that is not yet known:
(California, Alaska and Australia)
Fire and water shall wonders do,
England at last shall admit a Jew:
(steam power indicated; England has Jews in high governmental positions)
The world to an end will come
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one.
All England's sons that plough the land
Shall oft be seen with book in hand
(predicting the printing press)
A house of glass shall come to pass
In England, but alas, alas
(Crystal palace)
A war shall follow with the work
Where dwells the Pagan and the Turk
(Crimean War)
The states shall lock in fiercest strife
And seek to take each other's life
(Civil War)
When north shall thus divide the south
The eagle build in lion's mouth
Then tax and blood and cruel war
Shall come to every humble door
And now a word in uncaught rhyme
Of what shall be in future time
For in those wondrous far off days
The women shall adopt a craze
And cut off all their locks of hair
To dress like men and trousers wear
They'll ride astride with brazen brow
As witches do on broomsticks now
Then love shall die and marriage cease
And nations wane as babes decrease
The wives shall fondle cats and dogs
And man live much the same as hogs
Build houses light of straw and sticks.
In nineteen hundred and twenty-six
For then shall mighty wars be planned
And fire and sword shall sweep the land
But those who live the century through
In fear and trembling this will do:
Flee to the mountains and the dens
To bog and forest and wild fens _
For storms will rage and oceans roar
When Gabriel stands on sea and shore.
And as he blows his wondrous horn
Old worlds shall die and new be born.
And as he blows his wondrous horn
Old worlds shall die and new be born.
That’s it for this week, my darlings. It’s nice to write about things close to home, sometimes. Join me next week for more legendary individuals.
Love and light to you all.
Blessed be xxx