Image: “Self-Portrait,” by Alice B. Clagett, 21 June 2024, CC BY-SA 4.0 International, from “Awakening with Planet Earth,” https://awakeningwithplanetearth.com ..
Image: “Self-Portrait,” by Alice B. Clagett, 21 June 2024, CC BY-SA 4.0 International, from “Awakening with Planet Earth,” https://awakeningwithplanetearth.com ..
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- INTRODUCTION
- VIDEO BY ALICE
- SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO
- VIDEO CREDITS
INTRODUCTION
Dear Ones,
Here is a critique … from the point of view of women … of the “Ballad of James Harris,” otherwise known as “The Demon Love” and “The House Carpenter.”
There is an edited Summary after the video …
VIDEO BY ALICE
SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO
The Ballad of James Harris – aka The Demon Lover – a Critique from the Point of View of Women
By Alice B. Clagett
Hello, Dear Ones, It’s Alice. I Am of the Stars.
I have some comments today on a ballad variously known as “The House Carpenter,” and “The Ballad of James Harris,” and “The Daemon Lover.”
These are comments to do with men rather than with women. In the past “The Daemon Lover” was meant to be a warning for married women not to stray. I feel that is important, especially if they have children.
But more important to me … because I have run into it many times amongst men … is the Soul wounding exhibited by men who were once in love with a woman and then are spurned by her … and then she takes up with another man, and what happens if she goes back to the original lover. Or even this: What happens if she leaves a man and then goes back to him?
This has to do with some very gnarly energies in the noosphere … in the astral realm here on planet Earth.
I am using a public domain version of the Ballad from the Internet Archive. The source is Pepys Ballads.
Link: “Pepys Ballads, IV, 101 ; from a copy in Percy’s papers” … https://archive.org/stream/englishandscopt204chiluoft/englishandscopt204chiluoft_djvu.txt ..
It starts off with an overview of how the whole thing started, which goes like this …
1 THERE dwelt a fair maid in the West,
Of worthy birth and fame,
Neer unto Plimouth, stately town,
Jane Reynolds was her name.
2 This damsel dearly was belovd
By many a proper youth,
And what of her is to be said
Is known for very truth.
3 Among the rest …
[that is, among the rest of her suitors]
… a seaman brave
Unto her a wooing came;
A comely proper youth he was,
James Harris calld by name.
So this man is a sailor (a ‘seaman’). And amongst all the men that Jane Reynolds knew … all the suitors that loved her fondly … the one that she decided upon … the one that she ‘set her cap upon’ … was named James Harris. And he was a sailor.
Now in those days a man and a woman would become betrothed, and that was a sacred trust. If that resulted in offspring before marriage, then there was a law called “Breach of Promise” that held the man to his former word.
So ‘becoming betrothed’ was an extremely important concept at that time. And even to agree that they would soon marry was equivalent to betrothal. And that pertains to this next stanza …
4 The maid and young man was agreed,
As time did them allow,
And to each other secretly
They made a solemn vow,
5 That they would ever faithfull be
Whilst Heaven afforded life ;
He was to be her husband kind,
And she his faithfull wife.
6 A day appointed was also
When they was to be married ;
But before these things were brought to pass
Matters were strangely carried.
So that is the ‘setup’. They secretly agreed that they would be married, and a day was appointed for the marriage. But then something happened … something really bad.
Now begins the Ballad proper, which is Number 243, called “James Harris (The Daemon Lover).”
7 All you that faithfull lovers be
Give ear and hearken well,
And what of them became at last
I will directly tell.
8 The young man he was prest to sea, …
[That means he was forced to go to sea.]
And forced was to go ;
His sweet-heart she must stay behind,
Whether she would or no.
9 And after he was from her gone
She three years for him staid,
Expecting of his comeing home,
And kept herself a maid.
[‘Maid’ means ‘maiden’. It means never having experienced romantic love.]
10 At last news came that he was dead
Within a forraign land,
And how that he was buried
She well did understand,
11 For whose sweet sake the maiden she
Lamented many a day,
And never was she’ known at all
The wanton for to play.
So in all that time when she was dealing with the grief that she felt for her lost beloved, she never fooled around; she never had a lover. She was true to his memory.
Ok now …
12 A carpenter that livd hard by,
When he heard of the same,
Like as the other had done before,
To her a wooing came.
[So he went to her house as a suitor.]
13 But when that he had gained her love …
[That is, through courtship]
… They married were with speed, …
[It is not the drug; this means they were quickly married]
And four years space, being man and wife,
They loveingly agreed.
[So for four years they agreed to be loving man and wife together.]
14 Three pritty children in this time
This loving couple had,
Which made their father’s heart rejoyce,
And mother wondrous glad.
15 But as occasion servd, one time
The good man took his way
Some three days journey from his home,
Intending not to stay.
[So the husband went away from home for three days and left the mother with their three children there.]
16 But, whilst that he was gone away,
A spirit in the night
Came to the window of his wife,
And did her sorely fright.
[That means a ghost or Spirit or astral being made an apparition, or appeared in her home while the husband was away … which is the time that a woman is most vulnerable. The spirit frightened her; it “did her sorely fright.”]
So now the Spirit speaks …
17 Which spirit spake like to a man,
And unto her did say,
‘My dear and onely love,’ quoth he,
‘Prepare and come away.
[He is asking her to go away with him.]
You may recall the name of Jane Reynolds’ first suitor … the one she really loved so greatly was James Harris.
Have you been listening to the Songbirds? Just here they are objecting to the sadness expressed in the poem.
It sounds to me as if the little birds have been ‘taken over’ or ‘obsessed’ by two Shamans who are power-over men trying to force their will upon me. This is weird in the extreme. Who could these Shamans be, I wonder?
The Shamans are causing the Songbirds to speak very rudely. They are talking so loudly I can barely make myself heard.
So now to continue …
18 ‘ James Harris is my name,’ quoth he,
‘Whom thou didst love so dear,
And I have traveld for thy sake
At least this seven year.
[He is saying he was looking for her for seven years.]
19 ‘And now I am returnd again,
To take thee to my wife,
And thou with me shalt go to sea,
To end all further strife.’
[He is suggesting that she should go to sea with him to prevent the husband from fighting with her or with James Harris.]
20 ‘O tempt me not, sweet James,’ quoth she,
‘ With thee to go …
There is a big fight going on with the Songbirds. The fight was so loud that I misspake the stanza and had to repeat it.
Mr. Raven wonders what in heaven’s name is going on here. Can you hear him?
I say to the birds: Please, please! Please don’t do that!
20 ‘O tempt me not, sweet James,’ quoth she,
‘ With thee away to go ;
If I should leave my children small,
Alas! what would they do?
21 ‘My husband is a carpenter,
A carpenter of great fame ;
I would not for five hundred pounds
That he should know the same.’
So now, she says no. She says she cannot do it; that her husband is a famous carpenter, and that she loves her children, and that she cannot imagine what would happen to them if she left them.
Now it is the Daemon Lover’s chance to respond. He says …
22 ‘I might have had a king’s daughter,
And she would have married me;
But I forsook her golden crown,
And for the love of thee.
This is spoken very forcefully, is it not?
23 ‘Therefore, if thou ‘It thy husband forsake,
And thy children three also,
I will forgive the[e] what is past,
If thou wilt with me go.’
And she says …
24 ‘If I forsake my husband and
My little children three,
What means hast thou to bring me to,
If I should go with thee?’
She is saying: Where would I find myself? What do you have to offer me if I should agree with this?
Now I am going to move on to Ballad 243G, which is a different version of the same Daemon Lover ballad …
Citation: Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 93.
The lady is asking the apparition … the ghost: What have you in store for me? What property do you have? What could you offer me if I were to go away with you? And the Daemon Lover says …
1 ‘I HAVE seven ships upon the sea,
Laden with the finest gold,
And mariners to wait us upon ;
All these you may behold.
2 ‘And I have shoes for my love’s feet,
Beaten of the purest gold,
And lined wi the velvet soft,
To keep my love’s feet from the cold.
Then, I am presuming, they get on the ship. And he says to her …
3 ‘O how do you love the ship ?’ he said,
‘Or how do you love the sea ?
And how do you love the bold mariners
That wait upon thee and me ? ‘
And she says …
4: ‘O I do love the ship,’ she said,
1 And I do love the sea ;
But woe be to the dim mariners,
That nowhere I can see ! ‘
So she is on the ship with the apparition. It may be a ghost ship. He proposes that there are sailors on board the ship, but she cannot see any. So already there is trouble.
5 They had not sailed a mile awa,
Never a mile but one,
When she began to weep and mourn,
And to think on her little wee son [her very small son].
Now it is the Daemon Lover’s turn. He says …
6 ‘O hold your tongue, my dear,’ he said,
‘And let all your weeping abee,
For I’ll soon show to you how the lilies grow
On the banks of Italy.’
7 They had not sailed a mile awa,
Never a mile but two,
Until she espied his cloven foot,
From his gay robes sticking thro,
Ok, there is something wrong. The man that she used to know is not the same as he used to be. In fact, he has a diabolical aspect to him.
So what is this that happened when she loved a man, and the man went away and deserted her … and then she finally married someone else and had children.
And then he returns, if only in her mind … and begins a campaign that she should love him and not this new person. In other words, the apparition is jealous of her happy married life.
Or even it could be, I feel, that a man who once loved a woman might feel, telepathically, that she might find someone else that loves her, and then becomes, in aspect and demeanor, something like this Daemon Lover. He becomes enraged. He does whatever he can to destroy her.
Ok, there is just a little bit more to this …
8 They had not sailed a mile awa,
Never a mile but three,
When dark, dark, grew his eerie looks,
And raging grew the sea.
He was in a rage. He was an enraged, jealous man. Many men descend to this after leaving a woman, instead of moving on to new love … to perfect their ability to have a loving relationship … they cannot release themselves from that old vow. They cannot move on to someone new.
Consequently they destroy the life of the person they once loved and their own life as well. Do you know what I mean? Very bad things can happen when a man does not allow a woman to move on … when he cannot stop stalking her new husband; when he cannot stop trying to destroy her love for him. You see?
Ok, the last stanza …
9 They had not sailed a mile awa,
Never a mile but four,
When the little wee ship ran round about,
And never was seen more.
It could have been one of those upside-down tornadoes that sink the ships into the sea, you know?
Jealousy is the dark opposite of love. It can happen in a woman too. But in this case what you have is a woman who adjusted to the loss of a man and the man who comes back and haunts her telepathically, and brings her to ruin because he himself has turned Dark and sour.
You know, many men think this is just how it is, when a man is spurned or when a man deserts a woman, that the man will feel cruel to the end of his days and injure the woman before all with whom he speaks.
But I do not feel that way.
I think many men adopt a very useful attitude towards women they once loved, and pick out all the good things that happened at that time, and look forward to those things in a new relationship. That is what I think.
There is always trouble amongst women about men stalking them, and men trying to rape them, and men trying to kill them … and all this awful stuff … simply because we have a lot of heart energy, and the men think that they can take advantage of us for that reason.
It is a terrible situation, here in the third dimension, that all of us women have to face. Men can be protectors, but when they become jealous … when they become enraged … they can take the strength with which God endowed them and use it against us too.
Well, I wish the best for the women of Earth because without us … without our children and without our nurturing and educating abilities … there would be no human life on Earth.
I hope the men will understand that we have great value, we women on Earth. Men are not the only valuable people on Earth.
I am asking you men not to be arrogant, simply because you are strong. Strength is only half of the ingredient. The other half is the grace and love that women bring into a man’s life.
Well. That is the sober last of it, regarding this Ballad of the Daemon Lover, otherwise known as the Ballad of James Harris or The House Carpenter.
The interesting thing is that, in years past … in the ancient days … this Ballad was purported to be a warning to women not to leave their husbands. And so you have that side of the issue … the male side of the issue … and now you have the women’s side of the issue. Maybe those two will make a copacetic whole.
The Source
These versions of the Ballad came from …
Link: Pepys Ballads, IV, 101; from a copy in Percy’s papers. And I got them from the Internet Archive … https://archive.org ..
Why Have I Not Just Moved On?
Someone asked me on the psychic plane why I did not just move on and find someone else. Sometimes after a relationship ends is that a man … while not himself stalking and so forth … has a negative attitude that he conveys to his friends.
And his friends take it upon themselves to give a woman ‘her just deserts’. So a man who is well liked, and has lots of male friends, can enlist a hundred strong, self-willed, arrogant … I have to say … men on his side to take up for him in terms of …
[sound of a weedwhacker] … You know, there is a lot of Dark Interference today …
… to take up for him in terms of stalking and harassing and raping. And if it does not happen on the physical plane, it can happen on the astral plane. You know? This is something that women have to deal with all the time.
I heard of a case where a man was so unforgiving that every time his ex-wife would marry, he would go and harass the new husband that she had, until that man would leave because he was afraid to stay with the woman. And that this happened many times.
I would not want that to happen to me, or to any man that I liked.
A person has to consider the greatest good for the greatest number of people. If two people … I and my new friend … would be suffering because of my action of becoming romantically involved again … instead of just me suffering because I do not have that romance in my life, what should I do? I try to pick the thing that is the least damaging to the most number of people.
That is why I am steering clear of men: I don’t want that crap to happen to them … that crap that may have happened to someone else. It is really gruesome, when you come right down to it. That is the story.
The Downside of the Shamanic Practice of Entering the Bodies of Animals
I would like to interject right here why it is that I spoke sternly to the Songbird. It seems to me that the behavior of that particular Songbird was not typical of a Songbird.
It is possible that, if a Songbird were very upset over the tenor and the emotions of a person talking, it might speak like that. But I do not feel it would go on and on like that.
There have been numerous incidents of Shamans … I do not know who … walking into animals with whom I have talked in the last few weeks. I think that is what may have happened with the Songbird.
I am really against Shamans taking control of Songbirds and of Ravens and of Hawks. I think it is a very stupid idea to do that.
For one thing, every time that you enter a being that is not a human being, your Soul matter becomes more similar to theirs, and less similar to that of other humans. If you continue with that, at the end of your lifetime you are likely to be reincarnated as that animal, rather than in human form.
Many people long for human form because of the degree of Free Will they enjoy when in that form. So most people … if they stop to think … would not try that walking into the form and skin of beings that are not human for that reason: Because it degrades our human Soul matter.
In recent days I have found that many, many animals do have free will, and that it is only human hubris or pride that prevents us from realizing this. So it might not be that bad, if you do not mind being incorporated as a Songbird in your next incarnation.
It is bad for the birds, though, because you are trying to rule over their free spirits by doing that. It is as bad as if you did that to a human being. Trying to mind control and leap into the skin of a Songbird is a bad thing to do, from that perspective: from the perspective of wanting to retain your own Free Will, you see?
In this lifetime you have a chance to develop your Free Will, and to allow other people to develop their Free Will too. If there is nothing but Power Over in the world, there is no such thing as Free Will. You have none, and other people have none either.
Help us to create a world that is good for everyone. Don’t be a Shaman who jumps into animals and controls them; or into human beings.
. . . . .
This is just a little excursion into what happened at that very moment when the Songbirds were fiercely and uncustomarily arguing with each other.
God bless you all,
And keep you safe,
And be with you
Through all your days.
In love, light and joy
This is Alice B. Clagett.
I Am of the Stars … and so are you!
Filmed and published on 21 June 2024; youtube transcription edited on 21 January 2026
VIDEO CREDITS
“The Ballad of James Harris – aka The Demon Lover – a Critique from the Point of View of Women”
by Alice B. Clagett
Filmed and produced on 21 June 2024
Location: San Fernando Valley, CA
CC BY-SA 4.0 International
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). Attribution: By Alice B. Clagett.
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