Copyright © 2020 by Tamara Von Forslun.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Cover photograph of Lord Raymond ‘Robat’ Buckland with permission from photographer Gregory C. Ford.

All interior photos taken by me or with permission from elders or owners of the rights to the photos.

Rev. date: 11/07/2020

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CONTENTS

About The Author

Thank You To All The Elders!

What Is A Pagan Or Witch Elder?

13th Century

Angela De La Barthe

Dame Alice Kyteler

14th-15th Century

Abramelon The Mage

Jeanne d’Arc

Agatha Southeil

Ursula ‘Mother’ Shipton

Cornelius Agrippa

16th Century

Agnes Waterhouse

Agnes Sampson

Dr. John Dee

Johannes Weyer

Sir Edward Kelley (Talbot)

17th Century

Catherine Monvoisin

Maret Jonsdotter (Big Maret)

Isobel Gowdie

Moll (Mary) Dyer

18th Century

Sir Francis Barrett

Joan Wytte

Tamsin Blight

Marie Catherine Laveau

19th Century

Eliphas Levi

George Pickingill

Charles Godfrey Leland

Sir James George Fraser

Arthur E. Waite

Dr. Margaret Alice Murray

Aleister Crowley

Gerald B. Gardner

Dion Fortune

Adrian Reinman

Lady Margaret De Lille Quinn

20th-21st Century

Ross ‘Nuinn’ Nichols

Dr. Frederick LaMotte ‘Merlin’ Santee

Israel (Regudy) Regardie

Cecil Williamson

Eleanor Ray Bone, Lady Artemis

William G. Gray

Stewart Farrar

Rosaleen Norton

Lady Olivia Melian Durdin - Robertson

Sybil Lady Sybilla Leek

Lady Sheba

Lord Lawrence Durdin-Robertson

Doreen ‘Lady Ameth’ Valiente

Monique ‘Lady Olwen’ Wilson

Francis X. King

Idries Shah

Vivienne Crowley

Rhiannon Ryall

Alex ‘Verbius’ Sanders

Madge Worthington

Patricia ‘Lady Thelema’ Crowther

Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki

Carl Llewellyn Weschcke

Leo Martello

Grandmother Elspeth Odbert

Frederic ‘Robert’ Lamond

Donata ‘Mama’ Ahern

Laurie Cabot

Raymond ‘Robat’ Buckland

Nybor

Jack L ‘Dafo’ Bracelin

Rt. Rev. Pete Pathfinder Davis

Marylyn ‘Motherbear’ Scott

Nelson White

Marion Weinstein

Michael York

H. R. Giger

Oberon Zell-Ravenheart

Nicki Scully

Richard Lance Christie

Abby Willowroot

Rev. Paul Beyerl

Mama Donna Henes

Margot Adler

Maxine Sanders

Rev. Dr Jacqueline ‘Omi’ Zaleski Mackenzie

Amber K

Rev. Robert Lee ‘Skip’ Ellison

Zsuzsanna Budapest

Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart

Selena Fox

Isaac Bonewits

Andras Corban Arthen

Carol Garr

Janet Farrar

H. E. Rev. Patrick McCollum

John ‘Apollonius’ Opsopaus

Kat Tigner

Raven Grimassi

Starhawk

Donald Michael Kraig

Simon Goodman

Ellen Evert Hopman

Morgana Sythova

Professor Jack Montgomery

Professor Ronald Hutton

Pete Cropley

Jesse ‘Wolf’ Hardin

Sallie Anne Glassman

Rev. Velvet Reith

Phyllis Curott

Sam Webster

Dorothy Morrison

Tamara Von Forslun

Scott Cunningham

Silver Ravenwolf

Edain McCoy

Melissa ‘Rose’ Anderson

Patricia Telesco

Rev. ‘Mama Vic’ Wright

Talyn Songdog

Gavin Bone

Lady Belladonna Laveau

Christopher A. LaFond

Peter Brabyn

Utu Witchdoctor

Christian Day

Kristoffer Hughes

Toni Rotonda

Laura Gonzalez

Jason Mankey

Alfred Willowhawk

Brian Cain

Adam ‘Tarquin’ Barralet

Kat McDonald

Shane Orthmann

Annie Waters

Sama Morningstar

Deirdre Pulgram Arthen

Eric Leventhal Arthen

Moira Ashleigh

Lady Elizabeth ‘Ea’ Paterson

Katlyn Breene And Bob Gratrix

Christopher Penczak

Luisah Teish

Jeff McBride

Antonio ‘Papa Tony’ Battistessa

Rebecca ‘Kundra’ MacNess

Pagan Elders Past And Present

Dates Of Elders To Remember

Merry Meet, Merry Part, And Merry Meet Again!

https://tamaravonforslun.com

www.witchofoz.com

www.Facebook.com/tamaravonforslun

www.Facebook.com/PaganAuthors&Elders

www.Facebook.com/ClanofBoskednan

www.Facebook.com/SpiritTalkAustraliaRadio

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TAMARA VON FORSLUN

The Witch of Oz

Tamara Von Forslun in Egypt

T amara Von Forslun, dubbed by Raymond Buckland ‘The Witch of Oz’ in the early 1980s has been involved in the craft since the 1970s and teaching Wicca and witchcraft for over fifty years. She is considered one of the world’s respected pagan and witch elders and is the founder and creator of Australia’s first legal neopagan church, the Church of Wicca (Australia, August 1989), arch-priestess of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church in Australia (1991), traditional initiated witch of the Coven of Draconis (1970), an Alexandrian high priestess (1973), high priestess elder of the Clan of Boskednan International since 1978. She was ordained high priestess of the Fellowship of Isis by Lady Olivia and Lord Lawrence Durdin-Robertson (1981), accepted as elder of the Grey Council of Wizards and Sages (2019). She is an international author and lecturer, teacher, naturopath and herbalist, traditional witchcraft ritualist, oracle high priestess, Wiccan marriage and funeral celebrant.

Tamara has travelled the world and met with many of our elders. Along the way, all that she has learnt she has passed on freely to those who would listen and learn. Tamara, now at the end of her earthly cycle, still being a teacher, travels the world continuously and has revealed all she has ever learnt as a student of magic, witchcraft, shamanism, Wicca, Tarot, Australian Aboriginal magic, the Goddess, and herbal medicine in her books, also being lucky to have been born in an age where she has met with and befriended many of today’s elders of the pagan community.

What is needed now, more than ever, is leadership that

steers us away from fear and fosters greater confidence

in the inherent goodness and ingenuity of humanity!

US president Jimmy Carter

THANK YOU TO ALL

THE ELDERS!

May our ancestors bless you all as you have blessed us!

I am ever so lucky to have been born in an era that since the 1950s, the majority of our elders have stepped forward to forge a pathway for the seekers, to make it easier stepping out of the shadows in their endeavour and sacred calling to seek their truth. Alas, many of our elders have also passed from this realm into the Summerland and now remain the Shining Ones of our traditions. Many who are still with us constantly walk the Dragon/Serpent Paths (ley lines) of our paths, meeting and greeting all the new Seekers of the twenty-first century, and many of them I am lucky to be able to call my friends, brothers, and sisters.

I would like to thank all my dear friends and fellow elders of the world that have helped me in putting together this remarkable book on who is who in the community, Pagan and Witch Elders of the World, Past and Present. Hopefully, it honours all the elders of our history, past and present. Some are famous, some infamous, and some not very well known at all, as they have done or do their work behind the Shadows and closed doors and seek no notoriety for their immense work. Although I have over 500 names mentioned in this book, I only really had room to cover 150 elders in more detail, and even that detail is limited by the space. As a book can only contain so much information and many of our elders have their own bio books out or plan to, if you are interested in finding out more about a certain elder and/or their tradition, you can look them up and find out more, or visit their websites. Hopefully this gives you a chance to get to know your elders whilst they are still with us, and show them your honour and respect for all they have done, as many are now in their sixties, seventies, eighties, and even nineties and many are still going strong with the heart of the gods, and the faith and assistance of the pagan community worldwide.

I hope that this book becomes a legacy where new seekers of the old ways acknowledge, honour, remember, and know the pagan and witch elders. This book contains a fraction of the vast lives and works of our elders, the great people of our traditions that gave their hearts and souls to clearing the way for the millions of Seekers who claim to be a part of the world of magic in the eclectic traditions of the occult, magic, ceremonial magick, paganism, neopaganism, witchcraft, Wicca, Voudoun, heathenism, shamanism, Druidism, Hellenics, Kemetics, Baltics, Afro-Caribbeans, eclecticism, and all the other New Age terms that people have adopted as an ancient insight and awakening into a new world of pagan and occult traditions in the twenty-first century. I have not mentioned many of their personal negatives as I feel that detracts from who they really are; we all have our secrets and our pitfalls that caused negativity and some harm. Let us not judge others as the religions of the one god have done. This is not what I am concentrating on, ‘and it harm none!’

In Australia, those that acknowledge they have an Earth-centred religion (paganism) have grown since 2006–2019 by 28 per cent, and it is now one of the top five religious paths for Australians. In the US, the movement has moved forward in leaps and bounds and grown so incredibly, again with thanks to the elders. It is estimated that in 1990 there were a total of 680,000 neopagans, including Wiccans, where that number skyrocketed to 1.5 million. ReligionLink compared data from the 2008 ARIS survey with that of the 2001 survey. They state,

Specifically, the number of Wiccans more than doubled from 2001 to 2008, from 134,000 to 342,000, and the Pagans in the United States in 2008.

Based on this and subsequent surveys, Religioustolerance.org provides a more current estimate. Oddly, however, they conflate all modern pagans under the generic category of Wicca rather than paganism, as should be the case. Thanks to Oberon Zell, who shared these facts from the US with me. Here are the figures from these surveys. Below are displayed in a line graph, with a projection for next year.

US Pagan Census Growth Chart

• 1990        16,000

• 2001        274,000

• 2008        682,000

• 2014        1,500,000

• 2015        2,000,000

• 2018        3,000,000

• 2020        3,600,000 (projection)

Now imagine how many there are of us worldwide; maybe it is time for a world census.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/estimated-number-of-wiccans-in-the-united-states-7.htm

This is the reason why we need to honour our mentors and elders and thank them for everything that they have done, especially through times that were 100 per cent harder than they are today in the twenty-first century. All religions have their mentors who are acknowledged in a way as martyrs, saints, leaders of inspiration, gurus, enlighteners, and spiritual mentors. We too have them, and many are still alive today.

So let’s start the legacy to honour and acknowledge all of our elders; let us band together with all our differences as a large fellowship, all on a different path but with the end goal in mind and being at one with the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine. Let us form a panel to select an elder to become the world elder of that year; my vote for the year has to be my dear friend and sister Selena Fox, for all the hard work she has done over fifty years, and to my brother Oberon Zell Ravenheart for fifty years of service to our community.

By going with the statistics at three million practitioners as of 2018, modern paganism (including Wicca) is now the second-largest religion in America (70.6 million in 2014) after Christianity, which is declining by one percentage point per year, and the fastest growing in terms of percentage! By comparison, in 2014, there were 1.9 million Jews, 0.9 million Muslims, 0.7 million Buddhists, and 0.4 million Hindus in the US. The growth and acknowledgement of our pagan traditions have grown exponentially thanks to the dedication of the elders of our world that have forged forward and cleared the way for all the Seekers up to the twenty-first century and for those that follow.

As Oberon Zell states in his ‘2020 Vision’, ‘Just about every sixty years over the past few centuries at least, there has occurred a cultural renaissance in Western civilisations. Each of these periods has seen a similar flowering of the arts, poetry, music, drama, literature, culture, sciences, social movements, and utopian communities. Those who come of age in their teens and twenties during one cycle become wise elders/wizards/sages in their seventies and eighties next time around, tasked with mentoring of the next generation of young heroes - as in the stories.’

The amount of support I have received has been astronomical, with so many friends and elders who are so busy themselves (well, those that are still alive, with many having one foot in the tomb and the other still in the womb) who gave their time and support to help me in the creating of this book with as many of the world pagan elders as I could possibly fit within its pages. The elders who are alive range in ages from 60 to 97 years, with a few young up-and-coming elders (eldlings as I call them, or tweenagers) who are from the ages of 30–50, who have taken the lead as young teachers and guides for our community. There will be many who did not get a mention in these pages because of not receiving permission or contact from them or not knowing of them, but if there are elders out there who have helped in making a difference, please forward their names and bios to me, so when I revise this book in five years (Goddess willing) or on my website, they can also be added to this book of acknowledged elders whom we must all honour no matter what their differences, for the courage and hard work that they have achieved to awaken our truth and keep it alive, helping others to realise their truth as pagans, and to bring the ancient knowledge to the seekers of the ancient world into the light of the twenty-first century.

I shall endeavour to set up a website for the Council of Pagan Elders International so more can be added throughout time and keep it updated even after I am gone from this beautiful world. Through this Facebook page, we can endorse elders and eventually nominate and vote the Pagan Elder of the Year Award as stated before. This way, our larger community can see where we are changing and growing and know whom to acknowledge and thank. It will also give you contacts that may be in your area of living or interest that you may want to touch base with the elders to assist you in your journey.

Thank you for all the hard work and for the constant fight that has been done with the establishment and the many barriers that were put up by ignorance and lack of true knowledge and understanding that you all helped to knock down. Thank you to all pagan and witch elders of the world, past and present, whether they have passed on (as we have lost many in the last few years and undoubtedly will lose many more over the next decade) or they are still present in this world, and if you get the chance to meet one of these special elders, even the new younger eldlings of tomorrow, please walk up to them and hold out your hand and thank them, or better still, give them a big healing hug, as they need this acknowledgement and a little of your energy, for they did more and are still doing more than you will ever truly realise, as much of the elders’ work is done behind the scenes. Honour them whilst they are still alive and honour them also through remembrance when they have left this mortal world, knowing that they will return.

None greater than the Elders of the world.

Merry we Meet, and Merry we Part,

and Merry we Meet again!

To find out more about the 2020 Vision, put on all your posts

# Iampaganandivote, or for contact, go to

www.2020VisionAwakening.com or www.

facebook.com/2020-Vision

WHAT IS A PAGAN OR

WITCH ELDER?

S o, what is a pagan elder?

Dictionary definition:

• One who is older than another or others, an elderly person

• A forefather/foremother, a predecessor, one of a former generation in the same family, class, or community

• An honorific title earned by a person who has years of experience and training, and connection with experience, age, intuition, and intuitiveness, who can transmit this knowledge to the younger generations, the Seekers of the same knowledge, given with the wisdom of the elder.

Since the dawn of time, there has always been some form of paganism, although it may not have been known by that title. We have through history heard terms like pagan, neopagan, wizard, shaman, cunning craft, shamanka, sorcerer, sage, magus, magician, witch, Wiccan, Druid, heathen, Hellenic, Kemetic, Baltic, Afro-Caribbean, eclectic, enchantress, and many more New Age terms that I have not yet understood or know. Pagan traditions also include anyone from all cultures and countries that choose an Earth-centred tradition as their faith or religion. These are each differently a study of the Invisible within the Visible and working with the electromagnetic energies of the unseen world to make changes in the physical, mental, astral, psychic, and spiritual planes. Witchcraft (originally and correctly written as wicchecraft) is not just a tradition of the world but has been in every walk of life worldwide since the beginning of mankind.

Originally, there were never any covens, as this was a wording that the Roman Catholic Church connected with witches to meet the quota of a group of people that can be persecuted. Covens did come into effect in the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries because of the growth of the pagan movement. Traditionally there was only a solitary witch or shaman who was a selected child from the village, who was adopted by the witch or shaman of the village and trained their whole life to take over from the existing elder, who was the spiritual clan mother or clan father; this child was usually someone who was rejected by the community because of having either disfigurement or dwarfism or being highly gifted.

They were taught everything that was needed to help and aid their village and the people of the village. They had to learn and understand the changing of the seasons, the movement of insects or birds, the magic and medicine of all plants as good or bad medicine, the magic and ritual of planetary and lunar cycles, and much more, as their communities lives depended on this knowledge. This training did not take just a few years as though going to university; it took a lifetime to learn, remember, study, and master, to discover new medicines and magic that the old shamans and witches of old did not find themselves during their lifetime.

They could listen in the stillness and understand what all of nature was telling them; this gave them a power over the people and set them apart as the wise one, sage, magus, and medicine man or woman, the witch of the village or tribe.

As humanity changed and villages grew, the patriarchal side of mankind began to despise all the power that these pagans and witches held, and so took it upon themselves to fight this ancient way of life and bring their science and knowledge into the future as false and evil. They then created schools and colleges of study that were only accessible to men, and all women were forbidden. The male establishment became so patriarchal that women were pushed aside of their skills and made to step backwards, allowing men to take the lead on everything in life. Where women had the compassion, some men had the ego and misogynistic views that eventually brought the world to a destructive evolutionary world of industrial contamination without the true essence of nature being the provider of all that is healing and beneficial; men had turned their backs on nature because of greed and ignorance.

When this great change occurred, and things began to become dark and less connected from the emotions of life, to the greed of having more or being better than the neighbour, the pat on the cigar-smoking back of the bully became acceptable and a new step in man’s evolution. But they too wanted some magic in their lives and so religion was formed out of the controlling desires to spread and touch the world; where armies may have failed, religion conquered, especially when conjoined with the armies. They later formed great secret societies and lodges such as the Freemasons, the White Brotherhood, the Golden Dawn, and more. But these ritualistic orders were nothing more than modern versions of the ancient schools and teachings that were strongly associated with nature.

When the Roman Army came to power and formed their very own Roman Catholic Church, this is when the world changed for the worse. The Roman Catholic Church took control of everything and anything, and if it was not in compliance with the church’s wishes, then it was heretical and evil and had to be either destroyed or converted. The first plan of attack was to try and convert the heads of state, the kings and queens of the countries that they had to conquer. Usually when the heads of state were converted, hopefully their people also followed in their faith even when it was detrimental to their own way of life.

First was the attack from the medical society, on women and their herbal knowledge and more natural forms of healing, and then the church following in a wave of destruction of over 600 years of destroying all cultures, faiths, and traditions of the ancient pagan world that they had come into contact with, and if you did not bend a knee to their ways and renounce your past pagan ways, you and nearly everyone associated with you (whom they saw as also being tarnished with your sin) was taken, tortured, and murdered in some barbaric method by the Inquisitors.

With over 600 years of torture and murder of over nine million men, women, and children, the Roman Catholic Church has now grown to one of the most financial formidable institutions (businesses) in the known world, because of every soul who was ever persecuted, lost their lands and belongings that were confiscated by the church and the courts. This was the foundation of the Catholic Church’s wealth and its misogynistic ways that devastated the world and built its foundation of wealth from the blood of millions of innocent victims through bigotry, misogyny, lies, deceit, conquest, and fear.

It is through this constant persecution that the magical side of the world became so hidden and secretive, because of the fear for one’s life and the lives of those around them. We were no longer free to honour and worship our true ancient and pagan deities as our ancestors and everyone’s ancestors did for thousands of years. Laws against witchcraft were so severe and unchallenged, until the law against witchcraft was repealed in England in 1951. This was the incredible time that everyone came out of the broom closet (so to speak) and began exploring their spirituality as they deemed fit, for themselves and their truth. It was slow at first, but the floodgates had opened and all forms of new and ancient styles of religious freedom began to emerge all over the world. It was an explosion of freedom and awakening excitement; it was magical!

The tradition known as witchcraft came out as well, and they wanted to defend and protect themselves, so cautiously they called their religion Wicca, taken from the Anglo-Saxon word wicche, and slowly the covens of the world were formed and opened up their doors to the public, and to those they felt were of genuine interest in returning to the ancient ways of their ancestors.

The pagan and witch elders of the world are the ones who stood out front in the public eye and were ridiculed and mocked by the general public and by their own, who felt they were nothing but egotistical people wanting their own grandiose lives as demigods and goddesses to their people. The truth is that the elders had to have a strong form of ego to be able to come out and confront the establishment and the laws, sacrificing much in their lives. It took courage and much determination to fight this battle and, with the grace and strength of the gods and goddesses, become a shining beacon to the masses who were also being called by the light of the ancient deities and the path of old, the shamans and witches of old, as they are our Shining Ones.

All our elders need to be honoured and respected by the pagan, Wiccan, or witch world for all they have offered and given in sacrifice to bring forth this ancient knowledge into the new world of the twenty-first century; they should not be judged with a Christian mentality, but looked up to for their valued efforts forging forward with courage and determination, putting themselves out there as a target to the nonbelievers as well as the believers. If it were not for them, the craft would not have thrived into the massive faith that it has become today. The sad thing is that some seekers are lazy and do not wish to study the old ways, but just sit back and read books and believe everything that is on the Internet as ancient and true. The Internet is a wonderful source for information, but none of us can get out of a book or a webpage what we can gain from the fellowship of a spiritual family who are dedicated in working together as a covenstead/clan/church/fellowship and led by a truly trained and knowledgeable elder who can teach us directly.

Many of the pagan, Wiccan, and witchcraft community may never have even heard of some of these elders, as their work and deeds have been done behind the shadows so as to not gain much attention to themselves but for their very mission and goal at that time. They all need due respect for their efforts and the dedication. I have also added those I feel may be the elders of our future (young eldlings as I call them, or tweenagers), those that we can still look forward to because of their dedication and knowledge in stepping forward and taking the lead, as they often share to any who ask. Many of our twentieth-century elders have died or are preparing for their last magical walk on Mother Earth. Let us honour all elders now and give them the respect that they are due, as they are the mentors and Shining Ones of our paths, traditions, and circles.

I have placed all the elders in this book by their dates of birth, not the importance of each elder in order, as they will each mean something different to each one of us; they consist of the last 700 years up to the twenty-first century. We owe everything, including our religious freedom, to these people who fought, and many are still fighting for that religious freedom and equality that is being offered today. Honour all elders, even the fools, for even the foolish among mankind may possess a truth that we sometimes cannot see or understand.

May the pagan and witch elders of the world, past, present, and future, watch over us and guide us as our Shining Ones, none greater!

ANGELA DE

LA BARTHE

Witch

1230–1275

Medieval Portrait of

Angela de la Barthe

A ngela de la Barthe was born in 1230 in Toulouse, France, where many of the locals of the time said that she was a simple woman, but with a strong character. Angela always stood her ground for what she believed in; she was not afraid of a fight, and she always said what she thought and believed. Through my studies and research, I have found that she was never probably a witch, nor was she associated with any of the arts such as herbal medicine, spells, or psychic involvement either. She gets a mention here as one of the first to suffer in history from the Inquisition.

It seems as though she was just another poor soul who was falsely accused of being in league with the devil, as a witch. The Inquisitor Hugues de Beniols, who was the supreme chief of the Toulouse Inquisition, targeted her. In her trial records, she was accused of having sexual intercourse constantly with the devil and, at the age of 16, giving birth to a monster child with a wolf’s head and a serpent’s tail; this baby fed on the lives of other babies that were supposedly slain by Angela. The Inquisition records also state that some babies were dug up from their graves and fed to her demon child.

Under extreme and lengthy torture, Angela unwillingly confessed to all that she was accused of (to stop the consistent torture). She also added to her statement that she met regularly with the devil and attended his evil Sabbats, just to rub salt into the wound. Angela was found guilty of being a witch in league with the devil and was put to death at the pyre, and was burned to death by all the town who came to witness (as they had to attend, for if not in attendance could be seen as a show of guilt as also being in league with the devil). She left this world engulfed in flames at Saint Stephen’s Church in Toulouse, France. Most of her story was very doubtful as it was later found out that because she had shunned advances from a local scholar who had then claimed that she was in fact a witch.

The fact is that witches, real wicches were not of the Christian persuasion and thereby had no belief in a devil or demon, and only honoured the living Earth as their mother, the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine.

DAME ALICE

KYTELER

Accused Witch

1280–1325

Portrait of Dame Alice Kyteler

D ame Alice Kyteler was a lady of influence and wealth and was born in Alice’s House in County Kilkenny, Ireland, as the only child of a wealthy Flemish family of merchants who had settled in Ireland in 1274. Alice was sadly the first person recorded in Ireland who was accused and condemned for witchcraft. During this accusation, she fled the country and went to England, leaving behind much of her fortune and taking only what she could carry with her to escape the atrocities of the Inquisition. In her quick leaving, her housemaid, Petronilla de Meath, was flogged and burnt to death as a co-conspirator at the stake on 3 November 1324.

Dame Kyteler had quite a name for herself as she was married four times.

• William Outlaw 1280–1285, who was also a merchant and moneylender, as the son of the mayor of Kilkenny. Together they had a daughter, Rose.

• Adam Blund 1302–1308, they lived in Callan and he was also a moneylender.

• Richard Valle 1309–1316, who was a great landowner of County Tipperary. He mysteriously died in 1316, after which Dame Kyteler took legal proceedings against her stepson, Richard, for the recovery of her widow’s dowry.

• John le Poer 1316–1324.

In 1302, Dame Kyteler and her second husband Adam Blund were briefly accused of murdering her first husband. She received a great deal of resentment from the locals, but because of her acquired vast wealth that she had accumulated and her skills as a moneylender, her charges were eventually dismissed. But again, when her fourth husband John le Poer fell ill in 1324, he expressed the suspicion to his family and friends that he was being poisoned by her. After his death, his children together with the children of her previous three husbands banded together and accused her publicly of using poison and sorcery to murder them and of taking extreme favouritism of her firstborn son, William Outlaw.

Dame Kyteler was also accused along with her supposed followers of

• Denying the faith of the Christ and the Church

• Sacrificing animals to devils and demons at crossroads

• Holding sabbaticals at night-time in churchyards and performing black masses and honouring Satan, all in use to overpower the Church

• Using and making potions to kill or control Christians

• The possessing of familiar Robin Artison, who was a lesser demon of Satan

• Poisoning and murder of four husbands.

The new bishop of Ossory, Richard de Ledrede, was a fanatic and was obsessed with the laws of the Church as he wanted to be higher than a bishop, and he was filled with Christian morality. When Dame Kyteler’s case was brought before him in 1324, he seized the opportunity to try and make a spectacle of her, being a lady of influence and standing, to confront the issues of witchcraft. So, he issued her arrest but Dame Kyteler had powerful friends and asked for their assistance. The bishop himself was then jailed and questioned by Sir Arnold le Poer (her first husband’s brother), the seneschal of Kilkenny. On the bishop’s release, Alice found that she had an enemy, who again took it as his mission to use church law to have Dame Kyteler arrested and tried again. The chancellor insisted that she be excommunicated forty days prior to her arrest, which gave her sufficient time to flee to Roger Utlagh, whereas the chancellor was accused of harbouring heretics.

In the bishop’s retelling of her maidservant’s confession, he writes:

On one of these occasions, by the crossroads outside the city, she had made an offering of three cocks to a certain demon whom she called Robert, son of Art [Robertum filium Artis] from the depths of the underworld. She had poured out the cocks’ blood, cut the animals into pieces, and mixed the intestines with spiders and other black worms like scorpions, with a herb called milfoil as well as with other herbs and horrible worms. She had boiled this mixture in a pot with the brains and clothes of a boy who had died without baptism and with the head of a robber who had been decapitated … Petronella said she had, several times at Alice’s instigation and once in her presence, consulted demons and received answers. She had consented to a pact whereby she would be the medium between Alice and the said Robert, her friend. In public, she said that with her own eyes she had seen the aforesaid demon as three shapes [praedictus daemon tertius], in the form of three black men [aethiopum] each carrying an iron rod in the hand. This apparition happened by daylight [de die] before the said Dame Alice, and while Petronella herself was watching, the apparition had intercourse with Alice. After this disgraceful act, with her own hand, she [Alice?] wiped clean the disgusting place with sheets [kanevacio] from her own bed.

Dame Alice Kyteler fled to England, which saved her life, and she was not heard of again as she lived a quiet life with no contemporary records about her. The bishop did keep the trial going, and those that did not have the means to flee (twenty-seven supposed co-conspirators) were all tortured and put to death by the bishop of Ossory.

ABRAMELON

THE MAGE

Magician and Alchemist

Fourteenth to Fifteenth Century

Fifteenth-Century Sketch

of Abramelon the Mage

D uring the fourteenth to the fifteenth centuries, the Middle East abounded in esoteric and occult teachings, and the greatest of these teachers was a mage known as Abramelon. He, through his travels, combined religions and occult teachings of ancient Babylon, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, Britain, and Syria, which also made it quite confusing for the conventional reader. Through this intermingling, he formulated ancient and sacred texts of training, which spread throughout the then known world.

His masterpiece grimoire, known as The Book of Abramelon the Mage, was created as an epistolary novel where he speaks of the passing of his divine knowledge of the Kabbalah and magic from Abraham, who passed it