How Mary the Jewess Helped Your Hollandaise
"One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the One as the fourth.” That’s the most famous axiom attributed to Mary the Jewess, who, it’s said, is the first known alchemist of the ...
8 Mar 202221min
Dee, John Dee: Codename 007?
John Dee: scientist, or sorceror? Much evidence suggests he inspired Marlowe’s Faustus, Shakespeare’s Prospero, and Ben Johnson’s The Alchemist. He spent much of his life studying alchemy, divination,...
1 Mar 202228min
Theoris of Lemnos, and the Criminalization of Magic
The idea of magic wasn’t strange in ancient Greece. But it has a noticeable overlap with what we’d consider science or religion today – with a dash of superstition thrown in for flavor. Magic, it was ...
22 Feb 202223min
Did Mother Shipton Predict the Internet?
Her real name was Ursula Southeil, but she was known about town as Mother Shipton (and also “Hag Face”). She was believed to be the love child of a 15-year-old girl and the devil, himself. She was kno...
15 Feb 202225min
The Tale of William Butler and the Fake Philosopher’s Stone
Eccentric alchemist Dr. William Butler is described as being a "well-known alchemist, the pretended discoverer of the philosopher's stone and of a powder for bringing the dead to life.” In this episod...
8 Feb 202223min
The Extreme and Brutal Pappenheimer Witch Trial
The Pappenheimers were an itinerant family from Bavaria. Accused of murder and practicing black magic by just one person, a known thief, the family was tried and executed for having been instruments o...
1 Feb 202223min
Georg Honauer and the Counterfeit Gold
Georg Honauer was maybe a scientist. He was maybe a goldsmith. He was definitely, a fraudulent alchemist in the service of Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg. And when he couldn't fulfill the sensationa...
25 Jan 202223min
Matteuccia di Francesco: The Woman Who Could Fly
Imagine one day your local pharmacist is arrested and accused of drinking the blood of infants and flying on the back of a goat to an orgy involving the devil. From the 14th through the 18th century, ...
18 Jan 202222min
