This story was brought to our attention by Jeff, who thought it might be of interest to us. He was right! It seems to be another instance where creativity provides a springboard for a complex synchronicity.
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Dame Alice Kyteler was born around 1280 in Kilkenny, Ireland, an only child of Norman lords. She reputedly married four times and outlived all four husbands, who may have been poisoned by Alice. When her fourth husband died, the children of the husbands accused her of poisoning the men and using sorcery against them. They also accused Alice and her followers of “denying the faith” – in other words, they were pagans – and of sacrificing animals to demons.
Well, since this was the really dark ages, it’s no surprise that Alice was arrested for witchcraft. On the night before she was to be burned at the stake, she supposedly fled for England. She was thought to have escaped and disappeared because of her supernatural powers.
Skip ahead to 2003. In the U.S. Midwest, artist Paddy Shaw paints a portrait of Alice after reading about her in a library. In 2009, he was clearing out his studio and decided it was time to send Alice home. He gave the painting to a woman at Kyteler’s Inn on St. Kiernan Street in Kilkenny city. The pub stands where Alice once lived.
The painting was brought to the attention of Pat Nolan, a well known geneologist, who was floored when he saw it. He said the resemblance to his daughter, Claire, was “uncanny” and that he “nearly fell over from shock.” He called Claire and she visited that weekend of see the painting. She was “physically shocked” and said it was like “looking at myself in the mirror – the eyes, face, posture, body shape, everything was like me, except for the malevolent look on Alice’s face.”
Now here’s where this story slams into synchronistic overdrive. In 2008, Claire Nolan, who didn’t know Paddy Shaw, had written a book called The Stone about the life of Alice Kyteler.
This is Claire Nolan. There’s an eerie physical similarity, for sure, between her and Alice in the painting above.
good…./
cure of black magic
https://blackmagicremoveswithquran.blogspot.com/
Far Out!! Maybe this shows us about the power of art, writing — creating!
Great story and Synchronicity. 😀
Finally got online where we're staying. I was struck by this story when I first read it. The idea that some painter creates a portrait of a witch way back when that bears an eerie similarity to a woman who wrote a book about this witch is just too strange!
wonderfully intriguing story and post – layers and layers of life – great post!
Well better she be a Witch than ever branded a Wiccan of which the asses continue still in distorting the truth that Wicca holds little antiquity.
wow.. there is a resemblance….And she was drawn to her life story…and witchcraft it seems too……..though noone really knows what she looked like..the painting was from the painters imagination..makes you wonder….