Myths & mysteries
Discover facts about myths & mysteries. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Myths & mysteries
Hovering hands over bodies cures invisible ails
Practitioners hold their hands just above a client's body, believing they can channel universal energy without touching them.
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Peregrine bodies wander without purpose
In astrology, a peregrine planet has no essential dignity in the sign it occupies, so it is treated as having no particular strength or weakness there.
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Icelandic sorcerers historically crafted magical wealth-bringing pants out of flayed human corpse skin
The wearer needed a dead friend's permission to exhume the body and remove the skin in one piece; a stolen coin placed in the scrotum was said to bring…
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Pluto actively forces deeply buried secrets out
In astrology, Pluto is associated with bringing hidden truths and buried secrets to the surface.
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Jupiter returns happen on exact schedules
In astrology, a Jupiter return happens about every 12 years, when Jupiter returns to its position at your birth. Astrologers treat it as a time of growth and…
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Aggressively clapping clears a messy room
In some energy-clearing practices, clapping loudly in a room’s corners is said to break up stagnant energy—though your neighbors may think you’re applauding…
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Florence Cook convinced a highly famous chemist that she could somehow materialize a full ghost named Katie King
During séances, Cook sat in a dark cabinet while a figure in a white sheet emerged as Katie King; critics noted the ghost looked like Cook. Chemist William…
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Practitioners own an unreasonable amount of glass jars
They’re kept for dried leaves, twigs, and powders whose purpose may eventually be forgotten.
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Stationary direct days trick you into security
In astrology, a planet’s station—the point when it appears to pause before moving forward—is thought to intensify its influence. That can make a direct…
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Reading folded paper slips with closed eyes
The performer is supposed to answer a folded, unseen question through divine insight; the trick’s premise leaves room for sleight of hand.
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Ancient Tibetan singing bowls were actually invented by clever western tourists in the late twentieth century
There’s no known historical evidence of Tibetan monks using singing bowls for meditation before the 1970s. Travelers began playing ordinary local food bowls…
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Capricorn is represented by a mythical sea-goat because ancient Sumerians loved weird hybrids
Sumerians associated their winter god Enki with a half-goat, half-fish hybrid, an image that carried into Capricorn’s sea-goat symbol.
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Apples supposedly concentrate pure fruitful energy
In astrological traditions, apples are associated with fruitful energy and manifestation, so eating one can be seen as taking in that energy.
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Reading prophecy in handfuls of scattered barley
Some ancient divination rituals fed enchanted barley to suspects, believing the guilty would choke on it.
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Agate is essentially just banded dirt
Its colorful bands come from layers of silica deposited by groundwater.
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Prelest is a delusion where you think you are highly holy
The term warns that spiritual pride can masquerade as holiness, turning a little meditation into an inflated sense of spiritual achievement.
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Collective unconscious links every single human brain
Jung proposed that people share an invisible store of ancestral memories, which he thought explained why similar monsters appear across cultures.
Discover moreMata Amritanandamayi funds a massive medical hospital
Her charitable trust operates a 1,300-bed hospital in India, equipped with scalpels and MRI machines.
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Spiritualist mediums routinely employed literal magicians to design their fake ghost cabinets
Some mediums hired stage illusionists to design spirit cabinets, using hidden compartments and trapdoors to make ghosts or “ectoplasm” appear.
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Cured meats perfectly align with Capricorn rigidity
Dry-curing keeps meat from spoiling for a long time. In the Capricorn joke, that becomes a metaphor for guarding your joy until the fun is gone.
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East point acts as an auxiliary rising
Astrologers treat the East Point as a secondary rising point, adding another layer to how a person is thought to present themselves.
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British royals secretly employed a mystic who claimed she could heal ailments with vibrations
Lilian Bailey, a trance medium, was a favored client of King George VI and the Queen Mother, who also entertained radionics practitioners. These healers…
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Worshipping a simulation based on an action movie
Adherents of the Matrix-inspired religion treat the film's ideas about illusion and truth as a spiritual framework for real life.
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Part of Fortune promises false luck
Despite its name, this calculated point in astrology is said to mark only a modest advantage—not a promise of good fortune.
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