Joan of Arc - Witch, Warrior Shaman , Psychic or Saint
On or around this day, 26th August in 1429, 585 years ago, Joan of Arc entered Paris, which subsequently let to her execution by burning accused of ‘heresay’. Probaganda leant to believe she was a witch and therefore was burnt as such. She was just 19 years old.
“They did not kill a witch, they killed a martyr for political reasons”, Pope Callixtus III stated twenty-four years after her death.
Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d’Arc ), nicknamed “The Maid of Orleans” is a folk heroine of France and a Roman Catholic Saint. She was born around 1412 and died around May of 1431.
Joan was 13 when she started hearing “voices.” The first of these voices spoke to her from her father’s garden, and was accompanied by a blinding white light. Joan claimed that the voices were angels and saints. Joan said they always spoke in French. Although frightened of them at first, eventually she came to terms with the voices, even claiming to beckon them at will. Increasingly, these voices must have become a large part of the way Joan processed and perceived reality.
Claiming to have received this divine guidance, she proceeded to lead the French army to multiple victories against England in the Hundred Years’ War.
Joan of Arc showed many characteristics of a shaman. She even used many of the techniques of a shaman, such as the dancing under the birch tree or the solitary confinement of a chapel or shrine in the wilderness. Her charismatic abilities won over the political leaders and the people of France. In fact, she became such a great shaman that she threatened the kingdom of England
In later years, as Joan’s legend grew, the executioner would claim that Joan’s heart had resisted the flames, and had been found intact among the ashes. The same executioner was said to have confessed to his friends and family that he feared he was eternally damned for burning a holy woman.
Whatever gifts Joan had, she was truly a remarkable woman!
