"Mrs Satans" of the Western World

I'm now going to deal with the global and the local, the historical and the present, and to demonstrate how these are extricably linked.

In my local history centre is a black book which in gold lettering bears the title "Mrs Satan". This is not some antiquarian occult treatise, but the true story of a lady who in her earlier life stood for President of the United States on something of a "free love" platform, and in middle age (when things had also got a bit too "hot" back home"), married, and moved to rural Worcestershire. Here, in the first part of the last century, she led the relatively quiet life of an English country lady, punctuated, by all accounts, with regular seances.

I was reminded of "Mrs Satan" by Hilary Clinton's current campaign to become the Democrat candidate for the next United States Presidency. A member of the US "Christian Right" was on BBC Radio 4 a few days ago, with the message - and I paraphrase - that if Mrs Clinton is succesful in standing for president this would galvanise his colleagues as much as if the devil himself had won the nomination. Although in my earlier blog I expressed some scepticism about the affairs of her husband, on this occasion I wish Mrs Clinton every success.

The subject of Hilary Clinton brings me to another Democrat supporter and "Mrs Satan" who also now enjoys the life of an English Country lady, albeit in Wiltshire. I'm thinking of Madonna, whose most recent concert tour, by all acounts, upset quite a number of Christian clerics, notwithstanding that the pop singer and performance artist has herself taken on quite a spiritual turn in recent years. Could it be that she too was a US presidential candidate in a previous incarnation ? One never knows.

For anyone intrigued by the life of the "original Mrs Satan", fear not I shall return to her, and other "Wicked Witches of the West" in future blogs.