Mother Shipton (1488-1561) a review

I first read Mother Shipton's prophecies decades ago and was impressed that in the 1500's this woman was writing about so many things that were unheard of in her day even recent trends such as sexual equality. Following the outbreak of coronavirus I thought I would share it because of her prediction of an ague (malaria or another illness involving fever and shivering) coming from China and which she claimed would be worse than leprosy.

The first publication of Mother Shipton’s prophecies appeared in 1641 (eighty years after her death) and contained a number of mainly regional predictions, but only two prophetic verses -- neither of which foretold the End of the World, despite widespread assumptions to that effect.

A later edition was published in 1684, it states that she was born in Knaresborough Yorkshire, in a cave now known as Mother Shipton's Cave, and was reputed to be hideously ugly. Her maiden name was thought to be Ursula Southill or Ursula Soothtel. The book also claims that she married Toby Shipton, a local carpenter, near York in 1512 and told fortunes and made predictions throughout her life. This timing would have made her a contemporary of Nostradamus (1503-1566).

It is recorded in the diaries of Samuel Pepys that whilst surveying the damage to London caused by the Great Fire of 1666 in the company of the Royal Family they were heard to discuss Mother Shipton's prophecy of the event. This was also an event that had been predicted by Nostradamus. The prophecies were widely circulated during the 1800s and some reviewers claimed that is when they were written. This ignores the earlier editions but even if that had been true the predictions relating to the modern era are still astounding.

And now a word, in uncouth rhyme
Of what shall be in future time

Then upside down the world shall be
And gold found at the root of tree.

All England's sons that plough the land
Shall oft be seen with Book in hand
The poor shall now great wisdom know
Great houses stand in far flung vale
All covered o'er with snow and hail.

This prediction indicates that Mother Shipton was aware of the increase in education where even those of poor families begin to read, this became more common after the publication of the King James Bible (1775). It also appears that she was predicting the “little ice age” period of the 1600s and 1700s.

A carriage without horse will go
Disaster fill the world with woe.
In London, Primrose Hill shall be
In centre hold a Bishop's See.

Horseless carriages are the most common means of transport in many countries today. The Primrose Hill comment is interesting because the church there was built in 1824 as an Anglican Chapel that later (in 1948) became a Greek Orthodox Cathedral, home to the Bishop.

Around the world men's thoughts will fly
Quick as the twinkling of an eye.
And water shall great wonders do
How strange. And yet it shall come true.

It appears that Mother Shipton foresaw radio or the Internet; the reference to water could be the steam powered machinery of the early industrial age or later hydraulics, hydroelectric power or even the use of heavy water nuclear reactors.

Through towering hills proud men shall ride,
No horse or ass moves by his side.
Beneath the water, men shall walk
Shall ride, shall sleep, shall even talk.

Another reference to horseless travel either motor car or motorcycle, also travel beneath water either submarines or tunnels beneath rivers or seas.

And in the air men shall be seen
In white and black and even green

A great man then shall come and go
For prophecy declares it so.

Flying implies that she perceived aircraft and the “great man” is not adequately described for there have been many but she may have seen Einstein or even Newton (1647-1727). The verse implies that the great man is seen after air travel is developed.

In water, iron, then shall float
As easy as a wooden boat
Gold shall be seen in stream and stone
In land that is yet unknown.

Ships of iron are no surprise today and the gold in a land unknown, the Americas had already been discovered but she may have foreseen the Australian, or New Zealand gold rushes; as neither of these countries were known.

And England shall admit a Jew
You think this strange, but it is true
The Jew that once was held in scorn
Shall of a Christian then be born.

This is probably a reference to Disraeli, it would have seemed strange at the time of Mother Shipton because Jews had been expelled from Britain in the 1200s and those who had returned were not permitted to vote or enter politics. It was not uncommon for Anglo-orthodox Jews to have their children baptised in order to gain citizenship and still follow their Jewish traditions, a source of great chagrin to some of Disraeli’s contemporaries.

A house of glass shall come to pass
In England. But Alas, alas
A war will follow with the work
Where dwells the Pagan and the Turk

These states will lock in fiercest strife
And seek to take each other's life.

When North shall thus divide, the south
And Eagle build in Lions mouth.

The house of glass appears to refer to the Chrystal Palace the war may refer to Crimea or WW1. The eagle and lion may refer to the USA and Britain and the fact that America adopted English as the official language.

Then tax and blood and cruel war
Shall come to every humble door.

Three times shall lovely sunny France
Be led to play a bloody dance.

Three wars for France would probably be the Napoleonic war and two world wars.

Before the people shall be free
Three tyrant rulers shall she see.

Three rulers in succession be
Each springs from different dynasty.

This indicates that the war time French rulers were not of the royal house.

Then when the fiercest strife is done
England and France shall be as one.

The British olive shall next then twine
In marriage with a German vine.

An apparent reference to the marriage of Victoria and Albert, England and France as one could refer to the European Union or simply an earlier peace treaty.

Men walk beneath and over streams;
Fulfilled shall be their wondrous dreams.

For in those wondrous far off days
The women shall adopt a craze.

To dress like men, and trousers wear,
And to cut off their locks of hair
They'll ride astride with brazen brow
As witches do on broomstick now.

Mother Shipton appears less than impressed with the way women’s fashion has progressed since WW2.

And roaring monsters with man atop
Does seem to eat the verdant crop
And men shall fly as birds do now
And give away the horse and plough.

It appears she predicted combine harvesters as well as aircraft or even ultra-light or hang glider models.

There'll be a sign for all to see
Be sure that it will certain be.
Then love shall die and marriage cease
And nations wane as babes decrease

Could she have imagined birth control pills and the number of couples who live together without marrying?

And wives shall fondle cats and dogs
And men live much the same as hogs.

In nineteen hundred and twenty six
Build houses light of straw and sticks.

The idea of timber homes also appears to have met with disapproval as do the manners of men.

For then shall mighty wars be planned
And fire and sword shall sweep the land.

When pictures seem alive with movements free
When boats like fishes swim beneath the sea,
When men like birds shall scour the sky
Then half the world, deep drenched in blood shall die.

This seems to predict a number of things that link with world wars; moving pictures, submarines and aircraft.

For those who live the century through
In fear and trembling this shall do.
Flee to the mountains and the dens
To bog and forest and wild fens.

For storms will rage and oceans roar
When Gabriel stands on sea and shore
And as he blows his wondrous horn
Old worlds die and new be born.

Within a century of the end of the war will be storms, tsunamis and earthquakes leading to worrying times.

A fiery dragon will cross the sky
Six times before this earth shall die
Mankind will tremble and frightened be
for the sixth heralds in this prophecy.

A fiery dragon seems to indicate a comet, meteor or even a nova, visible for six days that herald the prophecy.

For seven days and seven nights
Man will watch this awesome sight.
The tides will rise beyond their ken
To bite away the shores and then

Visible for seven days it will have a severe effect on the weather

The mountains will begin to roar
And earthquakes split the plain to shore.

And flooding waters, rushing in
Will flood the lands with such a din

More devastation and earthquakes

That mankind cowers in muddy fen
And snarls about his fellow men.

He bares his teeth and fights and kills
And secrets food in secret hills

And ugly in his fear, he lies
To kill marauders, thieves and spies.

Man flees in terror from the floods
And kills, and rapes and lies in blood

Anarchy reigns as law and order are abandoned and people fight over meagre supplies.

And spilling blood by mankind's hands
Will stain and bitter many lands

And when the dragon's tail is gone,
Man forgets, and smiles, and carries on
To apply himself - too late, too late
For mankind has earned deserved fate.

His masked smile - his false grandeur,
Will serve the Gods their anger stir.

The “dragon” has a tail, implying a comet

And they will send the Dragon back
To light the sky - his tail will crack
Upon the earth and rend the earth
And man shall flee, King, Lord, and serf.

But slowly they are routed out
To seek diminishing water spout
And men will die of thirst before
The oceans rise to mount the shore.

The disruption will cause a shortage of drinkable water

And lands will crack and rend anew
You think it strange. It will come true.

And in some far off distant land
Some men - oh such a tiny band

Will have to leave their solid mount
And span the earth, those few to count,
Who survives this (unreadable) and then
Begin the human race again.

A small group of survivors will gather the rest together to rebuild society

But not on land already there
But on ocean beds, stark, dry and bare
Not every soul on Earth will die
As the Dragons tail goes sweeping by.

Not every land on earth will sink
But these will wallow in stench and stink
Of rotting bodies of beast and man
Of vegetation crisped on land.

But the land that rises from the sea
Will be dry and clean and soft and free
Of mankind's dirt and therefore be
The source of man's new dynasty.

And those that live will ever fear
The dragon's tail for many year
But time erases memory
You think it strange. But it will be.

And before the race is built anew
A silver serpent comes to view
And spew out men of like unknown
To mingle with the earth now grown
Cold from its heat and these men can
Enlighten the minds of future man.

To intermingle and show them how

To live and love and thus endow
The children with the second sight.
A natural thing so that they might
Grow graceful, humble and when they do

The Golden Age will start anew.

The dragon’s tail is but a sign
For mankind's fall and man's decline.
And before this prophecy is done

I shall be burned at the stake, at one
My body singed and my soul set free
You think I utter blasphemy
You're wrong. These things have come to me.
This prophecy will come to be.

Maybe Mother Shipton was reading her Bible as she predicts a new world that is reminiscent of Biblical predictions of the world following the apocalypse.

I know I go - I know I'm free
I know that this will come to be.
Secreted this - for this will be
Found by later dynasty

These verses were on the outer wrapping of the scrolls.

A dairy maid, a bonny lass
Shall kick this tome as she does pass
And five generations she shall breed
Before one male child does learn to read.

This is then held year by year
Till an iron monster trembling fear
eats parchment, words and quill and ink
And mankind is given time to think.

And only when this comes to be
Will mankind read this prophecy
But one mans sweet’s another's bane

So I shall not have burned in vain.

Mother Shipton

The record was held by some who could not read, thus explaining why it was published well after her death.

  

This section was kept apart from the other and it appears to have been written together yet was in a separate jar.

The signs will be there for all to read
When man shall do most heinous deed
Man will ruin kinder lives
By taking them as to their wives.

And murder foul and brutal deed
When man will only think of greed.
And man shall walk as if asleep
He does not look - he may not peep

And iron men the tail shall do
And iron cart and carriage too.

The kings shall false promise make
And talk just for talking sake

And nations plan horrific war
The like as never seen before
And taxes rise and lively down
And nations wear perpetual frown.

Yet greater sign there be to see
As man nears latter century
Three sleeping mountains gather breath

And spew out mud, and ice and death.

And earthquakes swallow town and town,
In lands as yet to me unknown.

And Christian one fights Christian two
And nations sigh; yet nothing do

And yellow men great power gain
From mighty bear with whom they've lain.

These mighty tyrants will fail to do
They fail to split the world in two.

But from their acts, a danger bred
An ague - leaving many dead.
And physics find no remedy
For this is worse than leprosy.

Oh many signs for all to see
The truth of this true prophecy.

It appears that Mother Shipton expects China and Russia (the Bear) to use biological warfare. Her vision of the future is very bleak with natural disasters and man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. False promises, murder, battles between those who should be allies and volcanic eruptions predict difficult times before the promised golden age.

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