132 | The Eclipse and a Glimpse into Bedfordshire’s Dark Witch History

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You're listening to The Crystal Bar Podcast, where crystals,
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astrology and aligned living meet the cycles of the moon and year.
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I'm Clare and each week I bring guidance and stories to inspire you to live
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with clarity, connection and purpose.
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So take a deep breath, make this time.
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I know so many of you love a long podcast and I'm not going to dilly dally today.
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I'm going to get straight into it because I've been writing a lot of notes.
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But firstly though, just quickly, I hope you're all good. Hope you're all well.
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Hope the last week has treated you with the uttermost respect and brought you
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lots of joy and happiness and abundance into your life. And if it hasn't,
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two fingers up to that and just know that you are stronger than you could ever realise.
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The greatest days may have tested you however the even bigger and better days are ahead of you,
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Arnie and Ivy are good. I often get messages. I've been sharing a few little
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posts with our subscribers about that.
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But they're all good. They're currently sleeping in the usual spots.
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There's no weather reports there as such because it's just hot.
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35 degrees. Hot.
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But I hope you're well. And in all truthfulness, I'm really excited to record today's episode.
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I always am but this one started with a very simple question and,
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sitting here in Potton knowing that today the 12th of August we have our new
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moon in Leo and a solar eclipse I wanted to do something a little bit witchy.
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I wondered what might be hiding in the history of the place where I live where,
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there are stories but were there any actual witches?
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Were there any wise women accused of witchcraft in the villages surrounding us?
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Were there old tales that had something to do with witchcraft or any of that
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magical space that I love to get, oh well I kind of get involved on witch talk.
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Yeah, I don't get involved, but I love to get deep into it. I don't comment
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because there's so much toxicity on that. I don't know if you're aware of that.
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However, I love to get really in depth and find out stories about local legends.
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And that's really arched something in me this week. It really has.
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And I really started thinking about, are there witches in Potterne?
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Are there witches or women accused of witchcraft, or men of course,
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accused of witchcraft in the towns and the villages around me, surrounding me,
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And are there old tales that had somehow become lost as the centuries passed?
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And I thought I might find a little piece of folklore. But what I actually found,
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was a thread leading from this tiny corner of Bedfordshire into something very extraordinary.
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Dark moments, if you will, in the history of English witchcraft,
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including a direct connection between our neighbouring village,
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which I can actually see from where I live.
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I can see it, the fields and the hamlet and the village.
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There's a judge whose decisions were associated with the deaths of nine women
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accused of being witches.
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So today, I don't really want to tell you a story about witches.
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I want to tell you about the women who were called witches because those are
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two very different things.
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It feels particularly poignant to do that beneath an eclipse.
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Astronomically, a solar eclipse occurs around a new moon when the moon passes
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between the earth and the sun and it's temporarily obscuring some of all,
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some or all of the sun, get my words out.
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And this of course depends where you are in the world. Here in Britain,
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we're experiencing today's eclipse as a partial eclipse whilst other parts of
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the world lie within the path of totality.
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So if you're going to watch it, please remember that proper eclipse eye protection is essential.
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Ordinary sunglasses are definitely not enough.
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But astrologically, eclipses have long become associated with turning points,
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revelations and beginnings and endings, and moments when something previously hidden,
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can become impossible to ignore.
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I've shared lots about this particular, I can't speak today,
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I'm so excited, but about this eclipse, what it means and how it may affect
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your sign over on my Instagram and my Facebook and my YouTube.
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So please head over there, have a little look-see rather than me repeating all of that today.
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Instead, I want to borrow the symbolism of this eclipse for the women we're about to meet.
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For a little while, the light disappears behind a shadow and the light isn't gone.
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Perhaps today we can then bring some women who disappeared into the shadows
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of history back into the light.
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But before we do, I want to make one thing really clear.
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When historical records describe a woman as a witch, it doesn't mean that she
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actually practiced witchcraft.
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Some people certainly practised folk magic, healing, charms,
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herbal traditions and customs that existed somewhere between medicine, religion and magic.
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That an accusation of witchcraft was something entirely different.
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Women could become suspected following illness or misfortune or arguments,
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unexplained deaths or simply because fear and gossip had attached themselves to them.
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I don't want to romanticise these women by deciding that they must have all
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secretly been healers or wise women gathering herbs beneath the moon.
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We simply don't know. But what we do know is that there were human beings first,
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and sometimes the word witch was enough to destroy everything that came afterwards.
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The judge just down the road from where I live. Literally within my eyesight,
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I could see where they lived.
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This is the discovery that really stopped me in my tracks.
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If you're local, you'll know Everton in Bedfordshire. It sits immediately beside Potterne.
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And it's somewhere many of us drive through without giving it a 17th century
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history second thought.
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Yet, in 1615, the Manor of Everton was conveyed to Sir Humphrey Winch.
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He was a lawyer, a senior judge, who became a justice of the King's Bench.
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And when I first started looking into this, I wondered whether there might be
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some connection with Matthew Hopkins, the infamous man who styled himself as
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the Witchfinder General.
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There isn't one that I can actually substantiate around Potter and it's important
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that we don't blur the two stories together because Hopkins belongs,
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primarily to the terrible East Anglian witch hunts of the 1640s and Humphrey Winch.
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His story happened nearly 30 years earlier, and he wasn't a self-appointed witch finder.
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He was a senior representative of the law, which perhaps makes what happened,
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next even more unsettling.
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If you can hear those crows, hopefully my editor hasn't removed them.
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They are crowing really loud.
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But just one year after acquiring the manor of Everton, Winch was one of the
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judges involved in the notorious Leicester witchcraft proceedings of 1616.
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At the centre of those accusations was a young boy called John Smith,
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who claimed that he was being supernaturally tormented and began identifying
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women whom he said were responsible.
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To understand how something like this could happen, we've got to put ourselves into the world of 1616.
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Witchcraft itself wasn't regarded simply as folklore.
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English law recognised it as a crime. Educated people debated its reality.
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Clergymen preached about it. and King James I himself had written about witchcraft and demons.
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Illness appeared that, sorry apologies, I thought I was going to sneeze there.
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Illnesses appeared that medicine couldn't explain.
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Children passed away, animals became sick and harvests failed.
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And when frightening things happened, can you hear these crows?
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Please say that this hasn't cut it out. I hope the noise hasn't been cut out.
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But when frightening things happened, people desperately searched for reasons
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and sometimes that reason became another person.
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John Smith's accusations were believed and nine women were convicted and executed.
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And this is where the story becomes devastating because afterwards,
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the boy became a legend in his own right and he came before King James himself.
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King James questioned him, became suspicious, and the boy's claims unraveled.
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Other accused people who might otherwise have met the same fate were thankfully spared.
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But for those nine women, the truth arrived too late.
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And when I began researching this episode.
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Desperately, desperately wanted their names. I thought that if we were going
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to talk about these women more than 400 years later, surely the very least we
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could do is speak their names aloud.
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But this is where history requires us to be careful. Other Leicestershire witchcraft
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cases from around this period have become tangled with this story online,
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and names belonging to different accused women are sometimes presented as though
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they belong to these nine.
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I cannot verify those names strongly enough from this historical record,
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and I would rather leave a space for their real names than to fill it with somebody else's.
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And there is something incredibly poignant about that. We know Sir Humphrey Winch's name.
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We know his career. We know the name of the boy whose accusations helped bring
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these women before the court.
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We know the king who eventually questioned him. We can trace the manor Winch
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acquired and even find his memorial today in Everton Church,
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just down the road from where I live.
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Yet the women who actually went to their deaths can disappear into history simply as nine witches.
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But they weren't nine witches. They were nine women. Each had a name that somebody once knew.
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Each had a life before anybody accused her of witchcraft.
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Each had people, places, memories that belonged to her.
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And whatever any of them believed, their lives were infinity.
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They were infinitely bigger as well than the accusations that eventually consumed them.
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The connection comes even closer because historical records also connect Winch
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directly with the town I live.
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In 1618, the Advalson of Potton Church, essentially a legal right associated
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with appointing the parish clergyman, came into his hands.
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So we don't need to invent a mysterious Potton witch finder or force Matthew
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Hopkins into our local history.
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The genuine connection is extraordinary enough.
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A man involved in the proceedings, that sent nine women accused of witchcraft
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to their deaths, held interests in Everton and Potten, and his memorial remains
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in the next village, today.
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This powerful man, if you will, this so-called powerful man's name survived in stone,
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but the women's names disappeared, and that is precisely why today's story belongs
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to them. We remember them.
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But the women of Bedfordshire, once I'd discovered the Everton connection,
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I wanted to know what had been happening here in Bedfordshire itself.
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Were local women also being accused of witchcraft while all of this was taking place? They were.
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Bedfordshire's historical records
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contain references to women accused of witchcraft across the county.
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Suddenly this wasn't a distant story belonging to Pendle or Essex or some famous place for witch trials.
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These were women living amongst the villages and countryside of Bedfordshire.
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One particularly haunting case predates Winch's Leicester trial.
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Sorry, I'm going to sneeze. I'm so sorry. Okay, let's refocus.
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One particularly haunting case predates the Leicester trial In,
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1612 Mary Sutton and her mother Remembered in the surviving material as Mother
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Sutton Were accused of witchcraft at Milton Ernest Which is slightly north of Bedford,
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The women had apparently lived within their community for many years Before
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the accusations developed And eventually those suspicions carried them into the courtroom.
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Mary was subjected to the notorious practice of swimming a suspected witch.
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The belief behind this cruel ordeal was that water associated with Christian
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baptism would reject a witch, a person's body,
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could be bound and placed in the water, sinking might be interpreted as innocence,
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although of course she could drown.
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While floating could be regarded as proof of guilt, it created an impossible
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situation in which an accused woman could barely demonstrate her innocence without risking her life.
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And Mary Sutton and her mother were eventually tried at Bedford in March of
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1612, and both were convicted and executed.
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And again we see the way women can disappear inside the language of history.
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We know Mary Sutton's name, but her mother's first name has been lost from the
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account available to us.
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She simply became Mother Sutton.
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Yet she had a first name. Somebody knew it. Somebody would once have called her by it.
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So today we remember Mary Sutton, and we remember her mother too.
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Even though history hasn't allowed us to say her whole name, we remember them.
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Emma Saunders, the woman who walked home. Not every accusation ended at the
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gallows, however, and one of the stories that stayed with me most strongly,
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they all did, but this comes from Little Stoughton, much closer to this part of Bedfordshire.
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Because on the 3rd of October, 1653, Emma Saunders, the wife of Robert Saunders,
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a carpenter, appeared before the Bedford Quarter Sessions of Cue...
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This is just crazy. Accused of feloniously bewitching William Holland.
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The court considered them...
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Gosh, I'm so sorry. It's just so sad.
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However, okay. The court considered
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the matter serious enough to send the case onward to the Assizes.
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Knowing what happened to other women, you also expect Emma's name to disappear at this point.
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But it doesn't. The parish records allow us to find her again.
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Emma had been born Emma Ball. She survived the accusation. She outlived her
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husband and remained in Little Stoughton until her death in March 1670.
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There is something about Emma's story that I absolutely love because it reminds
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us that historical women weren't merely victims waiting for their final sentence. Some did survive.
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She went home. Some continued living
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for years after somebody had publicly accused them of being a witch.
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We don't know what happened when Emma returned to her community,
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and I don't want to invent it.
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But we can't know whether her neighbours apologised, whether people continued
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whispering about her, or whether others had defended her through the accusations.
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But we do know that the word witch doesn't become the final word written beside Emma Saunders' name.
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She lived, and more than three and a half centuries later, we can still say
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her name. We remember her.
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When fear became evidence, because, sorry, this is quite emotionally overwhelming, actually.
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Very overwhelming, to be honest. Very emotionally overwhelming.
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Right, let's get back to this. Perhaps the most important thing to understand
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about these cases is that we cannot automatically look at an accused woman and
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assume she practiced witchcraft.
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That can be strangely tempting today because the word witch has been reclaimed
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by many people as something empowering and spiritual.
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And modern witchcraft can encompass relationships with nature and herbs,
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lunar cycles, divination, ritual and countless other traditions. I'm a proud witch.
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And there is something wonderful about people being free to explore these practices openly today.
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But that isn't necessarily the word these women inhabited.
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You don't have to practice witchcraft to be called a witch.
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Sometimes something inexplicable happened after an argument.
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A child may have become ill, an animal died, a harvest failed.
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Somebody muttered something in anger and later misfortune followed.
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In a society without our modern understanding of disease and psychology,
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weather or coincidence, one frightening event could have become connected to another.
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One suspicion attached itself to a particular woman. Almost anything could reinforce it.
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Her behavior could have become suspicious. Her words could become threatening.
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Her poverty, independence, age or reputation might suddenly acquire another meaning.
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And this is what makes the history frightening to me.
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It isn't really about magic. It's about what fear can persuade human beings to do to one another.
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The unnamed woman of Oakley. And if we imagine that this fear disappeared once
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the great witch trials began fading away, a Bedfordshire story from Oakley in
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1735 tells us otherwise.
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An older woman described as being over 60 had apparently lived for years beneath
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the suspicion that she practiced witchcraft.
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Her name isn't given in the account. I've been not able to verify a name but
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one extraordinary detail about her has survived,
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she was so desperate to clear both herself and her children of the accusation
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that she agreed to undergo a witch test,
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her hands and her feet were tied a rope was fastened around her body and she
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was put into the river Great Ooze.
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She floated, although her head was beneath the water, and she was reportedly
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close to death when she was removed.
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Instead of recognising a terrified older woman struggling in the water,
00:21:16.601 --> 00:21:22.244
people watching apparently interpreted her floating as evidence that she was a witch.
00:21:23.015 --> 00:21:25.778
She was subjected to the ordeal again.
00:21:26.722 --> 00:21:30.975
Eventually, she was taken from the water in a dreadful condition.
00:21:31.538 --> 00:21:35.857
Yet even then, another supposed test was proposed.
00:21:36.689 --> 00:21:42.364
She would be weighed against the parish Bible, because there existed a belief
00:21:42.364 --> 00:21:45.693
that a witch would weigh less than the sacred book.
00:21:46.537 --> 00:21:51.668
But of course, she weighed more. But a part of the story that stays with me,
00:21:52.144 --> 00:21:55.453
isn't how ridiculous the test sounds to modern ears.
00:21:56.086 --> 00:21:59.360
It's why this woman was apparently willing to endure it.
00:22:00.069 --> 00:22:02.162
She wanted to clear her children.
00:22:02.950 --> 00:22:06.799
Behind the supernatural accusation is something completely human.
00:22:07.362 --> 00:22:13.242
A mother who knew that a reputation attached to her might also follow her family.
00:22:13.835 --> 00:22:18.294
Her name may have disappeared from the surviving account, but perhaps today
00:22:18.294 --> 00:22:23.959
we can give her something back simply by refusing to call her the Oakley Witch.
00:22:24.574 --> 00:22:29.305
She was a woman. She was a mother. And she had a name.
00:22:29.741 --> 00:22:34.977
Even if we no longer know it, but we remember her. We remember her.
00:22:38.436 --> 00:22:44.306
When the witch became folklore. Thankfully, Bedfordshire also gives us a witch
00:22:44.306 --> 00:22:47.128
story that doesn't end in a courtroom or river.
00:22:47.738 --> 00:22:52.190
At Conger Hill in Toddington, I love this place. I've actually been here.
00:22:52.701 --> 00:22:56.533
Yeah, I have. I love this place. If you know it, you know it.
00:22:56.707 --> 00:22:58.541
That's all I'm going to say. Okay.
00:22:59.319 --> 00:23:02.136
And I've actually heard this from people who live around there,
00:23:02.136 --> 00:23:05.246
but I just wanted to tell you the story. Okay. Are you ready?
00:23:05.858 --> 00:23:10.636
Okay. At Conger Hill in Toddington, Generations of local children took part
00:23:10.636 --> 00:23:14.218
in a wonderfully strange Shrove Tuesday tradition.
00:23:14.822 --> 00:23:20.026
They would go to the hill, lie down and their ears against the ground and listen
00:23:20.026 --> 00:23:25.066
for a witch who was supposedly living underneath it making pancakes.
00:23:25.066 --> 00:23:30.414
And I absolutely love that everything we've just discussed, after everything we've just discussed.
00:23:31.063 --> 00:23:35.896
Bedfordshire also gives us a subterranean pancake making witch.
00:23:37.041 --> 00:23:41.400
And wonderfully the tradition isn't simply a modern internet story.
00:23:42.048 --> 00:23:47.746
Bedfordshire Archives and my friends preserves evidence of children participating
00:23:47.746 --> 00:23:51.946
in it and the custom survived well into the 20th century.
00:23:52.695 --> 00:23:57.385
It just shows us something fascinating about the evolution of the witch in our culture.
00:23:57.757 --> 00:24:02.796
The terrifying figure that could once send a community into panic gradually
00:24:02.796 --> 00:24:08.276
became part of folklore and the folklore became tradition and eventually children
00:24:08.276 --> 00:24:11.642
could lie giggling on a hill listening for her pancakes.
00:24:12.194 --> 00:24:15.445
The witch survived, but she changed a bit.
00:24:19.756 --> 00:24:23.458
So beneath today's eclipse, let's give their memories light.
00:24:24.323 --> 00:24:28.956
It brings me back to Potton and to the extraordinary sky above us today.
00:24:29.821 --> 00:24:33.436
When I began looking into this episode, I thought I was searching for a spook,
00:24:33.436 --> 00:24:38.326
no, not a spook, just a woman who deserved memories.
00:24:38.326 --> 00:24:43.046
And I did want a bit of a spookiness. I was hoping for some like witchy tales
00:24:43.046 --> 00:24:46.741
from around Potton. We've got the Potton Poisoner, which I can tell you in another one.
00:24:47.171 --> 00:24:51.296
Just something that's you know come through us through the ages and stories
00:24:51.296 --> 00:24:57.346
but I couldn't find it not to make jest or mock or belittle any woman that came
00:24:57.346 --> 00:24:59.277
before us I just thought there'd be something,
00:24:59.869 --> 00:25:04.856
not exciting or fun that's not the word but something a little bit more folklorish
00:25:04.856 --> 00:25:09.326
yeah just something that's come through and where and I wanted to then look
00:25:09.326 --> 00:25:14.373
back into the history and see whether it was true or not which is why I discovered what I did.
00:25:16.889 --> 00:25:22.457
Yeah. So as I say, when I began looking into this episode, I thought I was searching
00:25:22.457 --> 00:25:23.777
for this local witch story.
00:25:23.777 --> 00:25:28.337
Instead, as I said, I found something much more meaningful, but that just down
00:25:28.337 --> 00:25:32.997
the road at Everton is the memorial of this judge associated with proceedings
00:25:32.997 --> 00:25:36.986
that sent nine poor women accused of witchcraft to their deaths.
00:25:37.671 --> 00:25:42.117
Across Bedfordshire, I found women whose names survived in court and parish records.
00:25:42.460 --> 00:25:46.227
Women who were accused and tested and sometimes executed.
00:25:46.616 --> 00:25:51.717
I found Emma Saunders who survived. I found Mary Sutton and her mother who unfortunately
00:25:51.717 --> 00:25:57.152
didn't. And I found an older mother at Oakley whose name seems to have disappeared completely.
00:25:57.686 --> 00:26:01.640
Perhaps today's eclipse gives us a beautiful opportunity to remember them.
00:26:02.145 --> 00:26:07.867
Not as witches unless that's something they themselves would have chosen because,
00:26:08.327 --> 00:26:10.426
unfortunately we can't know that.
00:26:11.198 --> 00:26:17.915
But let's remember them as amazing women, incredibly powerful women, aligned women.
00:26:18.645 --> 00:26:22.686
And if you're doing something around the eclipse today, perhaps light a candle for them.
00:26:23.167 --> 00:26:28.856
It doesn't need to be complicated. We're not trying to connect or contact or summon anybody.
00:26:29.199 --> 00:26:31.799
This is simply an act of remembrance.
00:26:32.557 --> 00:26:36.167
Think of Mary Sutton and her mother, think of Emma Saunders,
00:26:36.167 --> 00:26:40.475
think of the unnamed woman of Oakley, think of the nine women of 1616,
00:26:40.782 --> 00:26:45.124
think of every single woman throughout history across the world,
00:26:45.836 --> 00:26:47.902
across the UK, across America.
00:26:48.717 --> 00:26:52.875
Who has unfortunately perished due to witchcraft.
00:26:54.136 --> 00:27:02.546
Due to believing in something, in nature, due to being accused or wrongly accused, or rightly accused.
00:27:02.546 --> 00:27:09.534
Perhaps they were incredible women who could summon and could work with nature and heal and protect.
00:27:10.565 --> 00:27:14.658
And then they were punished for being caring and healing.
00:27:15.584 --> 00:27:19.299
Let's remember them all. We give them light, we give them energy.
00:27:21.554 --> 00:27:24.445
Because they all looked at the same moon that we look at.
00:27:25.050 --> 00:27:29.466
They knew the changing seasons across the same countryside. They walked through
00:27:29.466 --> 00:27:33.866
a world that would have felt completely ordinary to them just as ours falls
00:27:33.866 --> 00:27:39.249
ordinary to us and today centuries later we're saying that they mattered.
00:27:39.881 --> 00:27:45.336
The man's name was carved into stone. Some of the women's names disappeared.
00:27:45.336 --> 00:27:49.596
Thankfully in spaces and places their names are being carved into stone right
00:27:49.596 --> 00:27:54.096
now, they're being remembered. But we remember everyone, the silent ones that
00:27:54.096 --> 00:27:55.351
never got acknowledged.
00:27:56.157 --> 00:28:02.634
Today, we've turned our attention away from the judge and placed it back where I think it belongs.
00:28:03.284 --> 00:28:05.525
With them, we remember them.
00:28:09.251 --> 00:28:13.191
And today, before I leave you, I wanted to gently bring us back from the past
00:28:13.191 --> 00:28:17.212
into the present because using my own intuitive gifts,
00:28:17.827 --> 00:28:22.781
I want to tune into the collective energy around us and give you a little spiritual
00:28:22.781 --> 00:28:24.468
guidance for the days ahead.
00:28:25.273 --> 00:28:29.481
What comes through most strongly for me is the voice. After everything we've
00:28:29.481 --> 00:28:32.309
spoken about today, perhaps that isn't surprising.
00:28:32.732 --> 00:28:36.921
I feel like the coming days aren't about forcing enormous changes or feeling
00:28:36.921 --> 00:28:40.517
that you have to completely reinvent yourself because we've had an eclipse.
00:28:41.225 --> 00:28:45.602
Instead, pay attention to the moments when you catch yourself knowing something,
00:28:46.345 --> 00:28:48.452
before you allowed yourself to admit it.
00:28:49.138 --> 00:28:52.411
There's a very strong feeling of trusting your own judgment again,
00:28:52.411 --> 00:28:57.811
particularly around something you may have been questioning or waiting for somebody else to validate.
00:28:58.487 --> 00:29:02.295
I also feel like we need to allow a little space after this eclipse.
00:29:02.841 --> 00:29:07.925
We are often seen to be keen to manifest.
00:29:09.089 --> 00:29:13.448
Make the decision, set the intention and work out exactly where we're going.
00:29:13.843 --> 00:29:19.294
Do we forget that clarity sometimes arrives when we stop demanding an immediate answer?
00:29:19.982 --> 00:29:25.409
Watch what unfolds over the coming days. Notice which conversations stay with
00:29:25.409 --> 00:29:32.190
you, which ideas keep returning and which things suddenly don't feel quite as important as they did.
00:29:32.950 --> 00:29:37.165
You don't need to turn every realization into an action immediately.
00:29:37.664 --> 00:29:41.675
Sometimes recognising what's changed within you is enough.
00:29:42.345 --> 00:29:45.639
There is also a lovely confidence building underneath this energy.
00:29:45.639 --> 00:29:50.019
The Leo energy is building. It doesn't feel loud or performative.
00:29:50.019 --> 00:29:55.453
It feels more like returning to yourself and saying what you mean a little more often.
00:29:55.981 --> 00:29:59.609
So stop automatically minimising the things that matter to you.
00:30:00.155 --> 00:30:03.659
If something excites you, allow yourself to be excited about it.
00:30:04.049 --> 00:30:08.259
If you know that something needs to change, don't keep convincing yourself that
00:30:08.259 --> 00:30:13.139
you're imagining it, because your intuition doesn't have to shout before it
00:30:13.139 --> 00:30:14.666
deserves your attention.
00:30:15.032 --> 00:30:19.148
And perhaps after telling the stories of women whose voices were ignored,
00:30:19.531 --> 00:30:24.839
distorted or completely lost, there is something especially beautiful about
00:30:24.839 --> 00:30:29.279
remembering that you are allowed to use yours.
00:30:32.918 --> 00:30:36.027
The crystals I would keep close over the next few days.
00:30:36.671 --> 00:30:42.383
I actually wouldn't overload yourself with lots of intensely energetic crystals.
00:30:43.092 --> 00:30:47.643
We already have powerful astrology around us, so I would concentrate on grounding,
00:30:48.008 --> 00:30:53.378
clarity and trusting yourself. Now, I would say sunstone, citrine and carnelian
00:30:53.378 --> 00:30:57.221
are three powerful crystals that I would have by your side if you wanted to.
00:30:57.598 --> 00:31:01.511
But my favorites right now in today's energy are black obsidian.
00:31:02.285 --> 00:31:06.738
It feels particularly appropriate. It's traditionally worked with crystal for
00:31:06.738 --> 00:31:12.008
protection and grounding and truth and recognizing what we are ready to release
00:31:12.008 --> 00:31:13.837
and I love it around this eclipse
00:31:14.220 --> 00:31:17.517
because it isn't about forcing something new into your life.
00:31:18.005 --> 00:31:22.478
It can simply be a companion while you're becoming clearer about what you no
00:31:22.478 --> 00:31:24.379
longer want to carry forward.
00:31:25.171 --> 00:31:30.968
I'd also choose clear quotes, particularly if your thoughts feel busy or you
00:31:30.968 --> 00:31:33.192
have decisions beginning to form.
00:31:33.855 --> 00:31:38.448
Work with it for clarity and intention rather than feeling you need to know
00:31:38.448 --> 00:31:40.217
every answer immediately.
00:31:40.693 --> 00:31:45.888
Hold it when you're journaling, keep it beside you while you sit quietly or
00:31:45.888 --> 00:31:51.398
simply use it as a physical reminder to come back to you and what you actually
00:31:51.398 --> 00:31:54.728
think rather than all the noise around you.
00:31:54.728 --> 00:31:58.259
And finally, I'm going to actually put Carnelian in the mix, actually.
00:31:58.916 --> 00:32:04.488
It's singing to me. It's like flashing at me because it feels so beautiful for
00:32:04.488 --> 00:32:06.282
the days that are going to follow today.
00:32:06.915 --> 00:32:10.398
Because once we're grounded ourselves, allowed time for clarity,
00:32:10.688 --> 00:32:15.918
Carnelian brings us back into confidence, into creativity and action.
00:32:16.698 --> 00:32:21.208
This isn't rushed action though, but that wonderful feeling of right,
00:32:21.208 --> 00:32:23.043
I think I'm ready for now action.
00:32:23.848 --> 00:32:27.445
And if there is something you've been making yourself smaller around,
00:32:27.764 --> 00:32:32.698
something creative you've been frightened to share, or simply a part of yourself
00:32:32.698 --> 00:32:34.522
that you've lucked away from.
00:32:35.664 --> 00:32:38.624
And put away in a box for too long.
00:32:39.319 --> 00:32:43.307
Carnelian feels like a lovely crystal to bring that spark forward again.
00:32:43.789 --> 00:32:46.914
So perhaps this is our little journey for the days ahead.
00:32:46.914 --> 00:32:51.184
Ground yourself, allow clarity to come, and then move when it feels right.
00:32:51.184 --> 00:32:56.654
And if you would like much more information about today's new moon in Leo and
00:32:56.654 --> 00:33:00.508
solar eclipse, please do head over to my Instagram, have a little look-see,
00:33:00.943 --> 00:33:02.591
because I've shared lots for you there.
00:33:02.863 --> 00:33:09.024
And please also remember if you're viewing the eclipse please do safely there's
00:33:09.024 --> 00:33:13.004
lots of information online just search how to look at it safely there'll be
00:33:13.424 --> 00:33:15.189
different ideas and ways.
00:33:16.071 --> 00:33:21.964
But for now I am going to leave you here in Bedfordshire where an innocent question
00:33:21.964 --> 00:33:26.763
about whether there were any witchy stories around Potten led us into 400 years
00:33:27.117 --> 00:33:29.543
of extraordinary ordinary local history.
00:33:30.055 --> 00:33:33.978
Perhaps next time you drive through Everton, you'll think about those nine women.
00:33:34.338 --> 00:33:38.291
Perhaps when you pass through Little Stoughton, you'll remember Emma Sanders.
00:33:38.646 --> 00:33:42.824
Perhaps tonight when the excitement of the eclipse has passed and everything
00:33:42.824 --> 00:33:49.240
becomes ordinary again, you'll light one little candle and give the women a thought.
00:33:49.849 --> 00:33:53.982
Those women whose lives became hidden behind that one word, witch.
00:33:54.660 --> 00:33:58.294
Some of those names survived, some didn't, but they were here.
00:33:58.932 --> 00:34:02.386
And today, we give their memories a little light.
00:34:03.007 --> 00:34:06.304
Lots of love, my lovelies. Take care of yourselves over the coming days.
00:34:06.304 --> 00:34:08.167
I'll speak to you again very soon.
00:34:08.562 --> 00:34:11.430
And remember, the right crystal will always.
00:34:22.071 --> 00:34:27.521
Before you go, I have a very special discount code for you, especially for those
00:34:27.521 --> 00:34:29.266
of you who love buying crystals.
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So the code is podcast crystal.
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If you use this at checkout at the crystal bar.co.uk, you will get a very secret discount.
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And yes, it is a secret because I changed the value of the code throughout the year.
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So who knows what discount you will receive.
00:34:51.197 --> 00:34:55.521
But I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. I hope you found it beneficial.
00:34:55.871 --> 00:35:00.937
And if you have, I'd be really grateful if you could just leave a comment, leave a review.
00:35:01.234 --> 00:35:05.495
And of course, if you have a friend who loves crystals just like us,
00:35:05.831 --> 00:35:07.527
please do share it with them.
00:35:07.967 --> 00:35:12.531
Sending you love, sending you light. Have a great week because honestly,
00:35:12.531 --> 00:35:14.990
my lovelies, you really do deserve it.
00:35:15.298 --> 00:35:20.789
And as I said earlier, remember, the right crystal will always find you.