Death by Water

Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations.
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.

T S Elliot. The Wasteland.

Stuff has posted the Judge’s sentencing notes for the Janet Moses exorcism killing; they are weirdly horribly fascinating. The lead-up to the exorcism and the rite itself sounds like something from the thirteenth century (a stolen lion statue and a family pilgrimage to return it, a priest who claimed to see lion claws in the victims stomach, so much water in the room to ‘cleanse the demons’ they drilled a hole in the floor to let it drain out). It leaves me feeling more ambivalent about the sentence – many of the guilty have not conciled themselves to the fact that they are responsible for a death – but it does seem like a very considered decision.