Is Mother Shipton a Myth?

"A Legendary Myth or a Legendary Woman?" 

~ Susan Larison Danz, creator of MotherShipton.com 

 

 

Mother Shipton is quite regularly described as “legendary”, and while that designation is accurate, using it without further analysis skirts around the most pivotal question:  Did Mother Shipton ever exist at all?  

 A legendary figure can be real or imaginary.  

In an attempt to once again reawaken this blog, which is taking its time in reawakening, this post is the first in a series that will step through the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the MotherShipton.com website, the partner site of this blog (as MotherShipton.com was previously ShiptonProphecy.com before the namesake site miraculously fell into my hands).  The MotherShipton.com History page, more detailed than the FAQs or what can be conveyed in this post*,  begins with this question: “A Legendary Myth or a Legendary Woman?”.  

An award-winning professor and researcher who is unfortunately rarely mentioned in most explorations of Mother Shipton is Dr. Arnold Kellett (1926-2009).  Dr. Kellett often wrote about the area where Mother Shipton was said to have lived, as this was his home.  He invested many years and significant effort in locating evidence of her existence.  His explorations were successful, as he did indeed surface evidence persuasively pointing in the direction that she was real.  This evidence had very little to do with the mythological stories repeatedly told about her.
 

I had hoped to communicate with Dr. Kellett while he was still living, but he passed away before I had a chance.  It is a privilege to recognize him on MotherShipton.com, the site bearing her name.



* Even with the detailed information it already provides, the MotherShipton.com History page has much more expanding to do.  

 

 

Mother Shipton: A Glimpse of the Truth

"On page after page after page regarding Mother Shipton, you will find repeated 'facts' from a very early account of her life created at a time when all sorts of fantastic stories were being concocted about 'witches'. Unfortunately, these things have been repeated for so very long that their dubious origins have been obscured." 

~ Susan Larison Danz, creator of MotherShipton.com

 

 

What do we really know about legendary 16th century prophetess Mother Shipton? Why are so many inaccurate stories propagated about her?  

In a recent episode of The Frontier Beyond Fear broadcast, host Susan Larison Danz shared some of her research from her 15+ year The Prophetess Legacy project and viewable on her website MotherShipton.com.  

Listen to the episode Mother Shipton: A Glimpse of the Truth on your favorite podcasting platform: 

Blog Talk Radio

iHeartRadio

Spotify

Apple Podcasts

Audacy 

 

Historical Mother Shipton drawing in the Public Domain.

 

Repetition is Not Verification

“A lie can travel half way around the world 

 while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

 ~ Mark Twain

 

 

As this blog reawakens, perhaps there is no more important topic than addressing the repetition of information about Mother Shipton, information which is not verifiable - and even patently false.  Often this is unintentional, as so much unverifiable information about Mother Shipton has been propagating for centuries, it is very difficult to discern with accuracy.  This started well before the internet era, though the time in which we live exacerbates the problem.

The website MotherShipton.com (originally ShiptonProphecy.com) exists to approach the questions we must face in as balanced a fashion as possible, using the most reliable sources available.  It has also become its own research endeavor in the nearly 15 years it has existed, exploring new ideas based on the clues that can be observed.

Many stories about Mother Shipton are highly entertaining to share, and that is why they have been repeated, the repetition gifting them with the appearance of authenticity.  Many of these stories originated in the days when people enjoyed reading fantastic stories about "witches".  Is that where you would like to place your trust?  The only authentic aspect of these stories (which have many variations) is people have chosen to share and (sometimes) believe them.  Some of these stories are fun, and it's OK to share fun stories, but if we really want to know what might be true, that is a different focus.

The FAQs page on MotherShipton.com is a helpful place to start.

This post contains a historic drawing associated with stories about Mother Shipton.

This Blog is Awakening . . .

After many years, with content directed instead to MotherShipton.com, this blog is coming to life.  

More soon . . .

Lighting the Path

Feeling the utterly unnecessary urge to explain the huge stack of books in my arms, I told the librarian at the counter last summer that I was writing a book.  I hoped to finish by Winter.

Obviously accustomed to warding off the locals, she whipped out a mantra about not being able to take most new books into her little library, even from authors nearby.  I hadn't asked.  I didn't care.  I told her it really didn't matter to me. 

And then she said something rather unexpected and deep, a knowing look in her eyes:  "Have you fallen out of love with your book yet?"

Speechless, I can't remember what I said in response.

Yet the weight of her words remained.  Long after the weight of those books.  I carried the weight of those words for several weeks.  I carry their weight in this moment.

As anyone stopping by this blog knows, this project has been a long time in development, with many promises and pauses in between.

Have I fallen out of love?  Obviously...yes...

I used to only talk about Mother Shipton at events (and not about other prophetesses)...until I began to realize much of what has been written about her is false (see Facing the Forgeries).

As I said months ago, I finally had to come to terms with the truth.

Fallen out of love?  I'd say so.  I all but omitted Mother Shipton from my Expo presentations when I used to dedicate the entire hour.

And then it happened last summer.  An unannounced gift, the web domain name MotherShipton.com magically fell into my hands.  So did all the related names (.org, .net, .info, you name it).  They all came to me effortlessly, without even asking, without even looking, without even giving it a thought.  And of course they arrived by Design.

And so I have a responsibility.

I must be true to the words I choose to write...for her sake...for the memory of the real Mother Shipton...as truthful, open and balanced as I can possibly be, on the very site that bears her name.

Meanwhile, it's not the first roadblock I've encountered, as "The Prophetess Legacy" project goes far beyond Mother Shipton.

"Have you fallen out of love with your book yet?"  The words hang upon my heart.

Yes, I have fallen out of love.  I have fallen out of love with the darkness.

When you take it upon yourself to study prophecy, you had better be prepared (I wasn't).  It is brutal.  It is bloody.  It is graphic. It is death, destruction and damnation in just about every imaginable way. 

Do I want to write a book filled with blood and death?  Obviously...No.

I would call that definitely falling out of love with a book, a book so very heavy it fell into the abyss.

But what about the Love?  And the Light?  Ah, yes, they do exist in prophecy.  And in fact, perhaps that is precisely the point.

So what kind of book exactly is re-emerging in my hands?  What kind of web site and blog?  Let me just say none of it will be what I expected...

And I'm writing here, right now, in this very moment.  That's a good sign.

My last Expo presentation a few weeks ago had the most raptly attentive audience yet.  I didn't focus on the darkness at all.  I focused on the Light.

Yes, I'd say that's a sign I'm falling back into Love.

Perhaps soon I'll take you with me...

Facing the Forgeries

The delay in getting more information out about Mother Shipton is not just about my busy schedule. The true delay has to do with coming to terms with the probable conclusion that many of the most popular and intriguing prophecies attributed to Mother Shipton are likely forgeries.

This does not negate the existence of Mother Shipton, which I feel was proven quite convincingly by historian Arnold Kellett (see the History section of ShiptonProphecy.com), but it does require intellectual integrity to honestly evaluate the likely forgery of what are some of the most fascinating words attributed to her.

Many of the prophecies in question were published in a 1995 edition of Nexus magazine (referenced here), with a statement that they were carefully transcribed 30 years previously by a woman who said she discovered them in what is now the State Library of New South Wales in Australia. Some of the prophecies published in Nexus had been previously released in the 1800's by Charles Hindley, with many new additions given in Nexus.

Historian Arnold Kellett insists the Nexus prophecies originated in "a tract issued by an extreme fundamentalist and puritanical sect in the U.S.A." in the 1930's, and I do place credence in Dr. Kellett's research. I will say, however, that if they were all written in the 1930's, then they exhibit some interesting prophetic qualities of their own, a possible case of prophetic gifts inspired by Mother Shipton, but not necessarily originating with Mother Shipton herself.

What we know with certainty is that none of these prophecies have been referenced in print prior to the 1930's, and even the tract Dr. Kellett mentions is not findable, leaving Nexus as the only source for now. Just because they have been repeated far and wide all over the internet, even on "The History Channel", doesn't mean they have been proven to be authentic. Dr. Kellett expressed his dismay at their repetition in his book Mother Shipton: Witch and Prophetess.

The likely forgeries discuss women wearing pants and cutting their hair, references to occurrences in 1926 (making it even more likely at least some were written in the 1930's), moving pictures, submarines and airplanes, and a rather detailed series of brutal End Times catastrophes (wars, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes) after Gabriel "blows his wondrous horn". They also include intriguing prophetic references to what could be meteorites, solar flares, UFOs, Indigo children and a Golden Age.

It is these latter references which make these prophecies particularly interesting if indeed they were written in the 1930's as Dr. Kellett claims. Without being able to find the evangelical tract to which Dr. Kellett refers, something I very much would like to locate, we don't yet know if what was published in Nexus contains any additions from the tract. The book Mother Shiption: The Missing Prophecies suggests that some may have originated with Miss Frances Yule in the early 1980's, who wrote other prophecies of her own as well.

I will be analyzing the mystery surrounding some of these prophecies soon in more detail on ShiptonProphecy.com, including how they relate to some interesting occurrences in history and today, as promised in my last blog entry. I will also be updating some of my conclusions regarding the Charles Hindley prophecies from the 1800's, yet another set that show a fascinating prescience, yet must be called into question as authentic Mother Shipton prophecies.

The Nexus prophecies end with Mother Shipton's alleged prediction of some day being burned at the stake. There is no record of such a death, and it's very possible she lived to a contented old age, loved and respected by her neighbors, a rare prophetess they chose to heed instead of burn.

Preview of things to come...

I know I have been seriously remiss in updating both this blog and the web site ShiptonProphecy.com. But I also have faith everything happens in perfect timing.

Did Mother Shipton (or someone forging prophecies on her behalf) predict comets or other near-Earth objects? How about earthquakes, solar flares, tsunamis and nuclear emergencies?

Could it be Mother Shipton foresaw enlightened children of the New Earth (often called Indigo, Crystal or Rainbow children)? And what was the "silver serpent" spoken of carrying an enlightened race of otherworldly visitors?

Did some of these prophecies originate from Australia, where descendants of Mother Shipton are said to have migrated? Or did they originate from a U.S. Christian group in the 1930's, as at least one historian says?

Going back in time, why was Mother Shipton revered for many years in England? Is there proof she accurately predicted the Fire of London and the Siege of York? What about other historical events?

All this and more coming soon!