Curated category
History of magic
- Thomas AquinasIn the year 1244, a young man named Thomas Aquinas sat bound in the stone tower of Monte San Giovanni Campano. He was nineteen years old and dressed in the…
- ShamanismThe Modern English word shamanism derives from the Russian word shamán, which itself comes from a Tungusic language. This root likely originates from the…
- WitchcraftBelief in witchcraft stretches back to ancient Mesopotamia, where clay tablets from the Maqlû ritual outline anti-witchcraft practices dating to the first…
- Magic in the Greco-Roman worldIn 13 BCE, the Roman emperor Augustus ordered the burning of 2,000 magical scrolls. This act of destruction highlights a central tension in the ancient…
- Augustine of HippoIn 354, Augustine was born in the small North African town of Thagaste. His mother Monica was a devout Christian who prayed constantly for his conversion.
- Greek Magical PapyriIn 1827, a man calling himself Jean d'Anastasi sold about half a dozen papyri to major European collections. He claimed these items came from Thebes, now…
- Natural History (Pliny)In the year 79, a cloud shaped like an umbrella pine rose from Mount Vesuvius. Pliny the Elder steered his fleet toward that strange formation to investigate.
- John DeeJohn Dee was born in the Tower Ward of London on the 13th of July 1527. His father Rowland Dee served as a mercer and courtier to Henry VIII.
- ApuleiusApuleius was born in Madauros, a colonia on the North African coast bordering Gaetulia. He described himself as half-Numidian and half-Gaetulian.
- Book of the DeadThe first funerary texts appeared on the walls of King Unas's pyramid around 2400 BC. These Pyramid Texts were carved into stone and reserved exclusively for…