Alice Kyteler and the Devil
In 1324, the Bishop of Ossory, Richard de Ledrede, declared his diocese full of devil worshippers, and blamed all their misfortunes on this dark conspiracy, creating widespread panic among the diocesans. This declaration went on to have dire consequences for Alice Kyteler, a wealthy woman from a Flemish merchant family. She had been married and widowed four times and was said to have accumulated massive wealth with each inheritance. On the death of her last husband, Sir John le Poer, Alice's stepchildren accused her of using poison and sorcery to kill him. They brought their case before Bishop de Ledrede in the hope that their stepmother would be arrested and that they would gain her fortune. Bishop de Ledrede investigated these accusations by visiting Alice and speaking to her stepchildren. According to the Bishop, Alice and her followers rejected the Christian faith. He claimed that they dismembered animals at crossroads and offered the pieces to demons. He also accused them of making witches' brews, which included the entrails of roosters, worms, dead men's fingernails, and children, which they cooked in the skull of a thief.
The bishop wrote to the Chancellor of Ireland, Roger Outlawe, to have Alice arrested. This backfired, as the Chancellor was one of Alice's brother-in-laws and would do no harm against her. de Ledrede himself was then imprisoned by Sir Arnold le Poer, the seneschal of Kilkenny - another brother-in-law of Alice's.
After seventeen days in prison, the bishop was released and carried on with his mission to have Alice tried for heresy. Alice and some of her accomplices were tried and convicted of heresy and witchcraft. Alice used her wealth to flee from Ireland and was never heard from again. Her alleged co-conspirators were rounded up and arrested using a papal decree. Only the poorest of these, one of Alice’s maids, Petronilla de Meath, was burnt at the stake on November 3rd, 1324, as the others were released on payment of sureties. This was one of the first cases of a person being charged with witchcraft in Europe, and Petronella was the first person in Ireland to be burned at the stake for heresy.
XV The Devil
In contemporary Western esoteric traditions, the concept of a devil has been used as a metaphor for inner psychological processes – our ‘inner demons’. The Devil card asks us to face the darker nature of ourselves and try to understand our shadow selves – or we run the risk of projecting our shadows onto others. It suggests we may need to heal the pain that causes us to act out or behave in negative ways. When life feels unmanageable, it asks us to re-examine our choices and reminds us we can choose again, differently. Useful questions to ask ourselves when we draw this card can be: what prejudices do we have that need to be faced? What excuses do we make for our bad behaviour? What traumas need to be healed? We aren’t expected to do this work alone; we can reach out to community, and choose to connect to the sacred – whatever that looks like to us – for support.
Sources
Ronald Hutton ‘The Witch A History of Fear from Ancient Times to the Present’