Myths & mysteries
Discover facts about myths & mysteries. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Myths & mysteries
Grimoires were mostly copied from bad translations
Many medieval grimoires were repeatedly copied by poorly educated scribes, whose mistakes garbled Arabic and Greek passages; some supposed demonic languages…
Discover more
Levitation tricks relied on really strong corsets
The apparent levitations were staged with hidden mechanical harnesses under the mediums' voluminous clothes, lifted by accomplices in the dark.
Discover more
Members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn threw literal magical temper tantrums at each other when they weren't busy trying to decode the secrets of the universe.
Members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn threw literal magical temper tantrums at each other when they weren't busy trying to decode the secrets of…
Discover more
John Dee served as Queen Elizabeth I’s personal astrologer and spent his later years trying to chat with angels using a shiny piece of black stone.
John Dee served as Queen Elizabeth I’s personal astrologer and spent his later years trying to chat with angels using a shiny piece of black stone. The stone…
Discover more
Aleister Crowley dubbed himself the Great Beast 666 and became the most notorious occultist of the twentieth century, but his mystical career was mostly defined by him being an absolutely unbearable houseguest.
Aleister Crowley dubbed himself the Great Beast 666 and became the most notorious occultist of the twentieth century, but his mystical career was mostly…
Discover more
Heinrich Himmler built a Nazi witch research division
Himmler established the H-Sonderkommando to search medieval records for evidence that the Spanish Inquisition was a Jewish plot against Aryan witches.
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
Seventeenth-century alchemist Hennig Brand was so convinced he could create the Philosopher's Stone to turn lead into gold that he boiled down 1,500 gallons of human urine in his basement.
Seventeenth-century alchemist Hennig Brand was so convinced he could create the Philosopher's Stone to turn lead into gold that he boiled down 1,500 gallons…
Discover more
Mystics spent decades claiming that thirteen ancient Mesoamerican crystal skulls held massive psychic energy, could cure cancer, and were possibly dropped off by hyper-advanced alien tourists.
Mystics spent decades claiming that thirteen ancient Mesoamerican crystal skulls held massive psychic energy, could cure cancer, and were possibly dropped off…
Discover more
Sixteenth-century French astrologer Nostradamus is world-famous for writing vague, mystical quatrains that conspiracy theorists constantly twist to predict modern historical disasters.
Sixteenth-century French astrologer Nostradamus is world-famous for writing vague, mystical quatrains that conspiracy theorists constantly twist to predict…
Discover more
Aleister Crowley wrote a mystical poem to summon the god Pan that required a participant to have asthma
Crowley’s ritual instructed a participant to recite the poem until breathlessness triggered an asthma attack as part of an elaborate invocation of Pan.
Discover more
Mormonism founder Joseph Smith translated mystical golden plates by staring intensely at a rock inside his hat
Before the translation, Smith had used a seer stone to search unsuccessfully for buried treasure. He later dictated the text with the stone in a hat, without…
Discover more
Initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries participated in the most famous secret religious rites of ancient Greece by drinking a barley beverage called kykeon that was likely contaminated with psychoactive ergot.
Initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries participated in the most famous secret religious rites of ancient Greece by drinking a barley beverage called kykeon…
Discover more
Freemasons based their rituals on medieval guilds
Their square and compass were everyday tools of medieval stonecutters, and Masonic rituals drew on the traditions of craft guilds.
Discover more
Plato believed souls picked their next life
His myth has souls choose their next lives, making them responsible for what follows—even when they choose a tyrant's life.
Discover more
Palm readers insist that having a clear letter M on your palm indicates you are a psychic master with deep intuition
The major lines of the palm can form an M on many ordinary hands, so the shape alone isn’t evidence of psychic ability.
Discover more
Roman physicians instructed patients to wear amulets carved with the word abracadabra to magically cure lethal malaria
In the second century, physician Serenus Sammonicus prescribed writing “abracadabra” on parchment in a descending triangle and wearing it around the neck. He…
Discover more
Onychomancy predicts your doomed future via fingernails
Onychomancy reads the sun’s reflection in an oiled fingernail; some mystics used it to predict whether someone would die in a plague.
Discover more
Book of Soyga supposedly kills anyone who reads it
The death curse says deciphering the Book of Soyga brings death within two and a half years, but several scholars have decoded it and survived.
Discover more
Gef the talking mongoose was an infamous 1930s poltergeist
A family on the Isle of Man told the press that Gef could sing, complain about food, and throw rocks. They described the mongoose as an extra-dimensional…
Discover more
Ancient Egyptian amulets featured magic pillows for the dead
These tiny headrest amulets were meant to give the deceased a place to rest their head in the afterlife.
Discover more
Margaretta and Kate Fox inadvertently launched the massive Modern Spiritualism movement in 1848 by claiming they were communicating with a murdered peddler's ghost through mysterious knocking sounds in their farmhouse.
Margaretta and Kate Fox inadvertently launched the massive Modern Spiritualism movement in 1848 by claiming they were communicating with a murdered peddler's…
Discover more
Helena Blavatsky co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 by claiming she received telepathic messages from secret Mahatmas living in Tibet who were guiding the spiritual evolution of humanity.
Helena Blavatsky co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 by claiming she received telepathic messages from secret Mahatmas living in Tibet who were…
Discover more
Heinrich Kramer wrote the Malleus Maleficarum in 1486 as a comprehensive guidebook for identifying, torturing, and executing witches, heavily focusing on the supposed ability of witches to magically steal men's genitals.
Heinrich Kramer wrote the Malleus Maleficarum in 1486 as a comprehensive guidebook for identifying, torturing, and executing witches, heavily focusing on the…
Discover more
Grigori Rasputin gained immense political power in the Russian Empire by convincing Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra that his mystical prayers could cure their son's hemophilia.
Grigori Rasputin gained immense political power in the Russian Empire by convincing Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra that his mystical prayers could…
Discover more