Throughout time, religious ideology and belief in the supernatural have both helped and terrified human beings. As prehistoric cave paintings have demonstrated, the belief in forces beyond our control and comprehension predates agriculture, civilization, alphabets, and other aspects of human life, which came about when the hunter-gatherers first tamed the land and the animals.

For all the fear that Christianity has bestowed upon occultism, the practice itself isn’t exactly harmful. In fact, it often serves as a spiritual experience for its practitioners, much like the belief in unorthodox deities such as Satan. Here are 10 strange and unusual occult practices from history.

10 Seances

Seances are occult practices conducted by mediums, almost always intending to contact the dead or persons who’ve crossed over to another plane. The French word “seance” translates to “sitting” in English, where practitioners would “sit” with spirits from another world.

Usually, practitioners sit in a circle of six to eight people, hold hands, and attempt to diminish any distractions which may hinder their desired result of summoning the dead. Sometimes, mediums report hearing otherworldly voices along with seeing ghosts manifest from another world.

At times, it is believed that the ghost speaks through the medium. Reportedly, ghosts have also used instruments to write, such as the famed Ouija board or pens or pencils that inscribe some communication on an object.

As the focal point of the seance, the medium is believed to make otherworldly contact with the dead. Some reports claim that a medium levitated in the air during a seance. However, it’s doubtful that modern science has developed any concrete evidence of such an event actually happening.^[1]

So what is it? Does a seance manifest real supernatural powers? Or is it just another case of people believing what they want at the expense of their reason?

9 Symbology

In the occult, symbolism carries a lot of meaning, whether to connect us to hidden worlds or to awaken things that are unconscious. The pentagram, one of the more popular symbols in our culture today, has a rich history that dates back to ancient Babylon. The star represented the pattern that Venus seemingly made in the sky as well as various beliefs. It has evolved to mean different things to different people.

Sigils are basically signatures of various deities, other angels, or demons. They are inscribed to manifest certain properties of those entities. This is one way that practitioners reach out to these powers for guidance or strength that they normally would not possess.

And then there is Baphomet, one of the best-known occult symbols, which dates to heresy and witchcraft trials of medieval times. It started with The Order in 1118 and served as a protective symbol for Christians when traveling in the Middle East.

Baphomet is the well-known goat with the pentagram on his head. Once The Order and the various Christian groups which subscribed to Baphomet became large enough to be considered a political threat to the Church, the symbol changed hands and was banned from the Church through a series of political maneuvers.^[2]

In time, this became a symbol of torture at the hands of the Church, which was administered to heretics.

8 Necropants

Necropants are an extremely odd bit of occultism stemming from Iceland. They consist of the skin of the legs and feet of the dead and are worn by the living. In fact, the Icelandic people of the 17th century were infatuated with rituals using the bodies of the dead, taking ribs here, skin from sheep there, and mixing it all together into these nightmarish, hodgepodge creatures that are left over to mortify us today.

When it came to necropants, a sorcerer had to get permission to use that person’s skin as pants for it to be the right thing to do. This would apparently bring the wearer greatness, good fortune, and even wealth, supposing they could stomach the macabre ritual.^[3]

At first, necropants were believed to be things of myth. But many of them have turned up and now reside in museums.

7 Divination

Divination is the attempt to gain foresight and knowledge about the future through various methods—from fortune-tellers to Magic 8 Balls to chance readings of a tea leaf or your palm. Psychics and tarot cards also fall under this category.

Sometimes, practitioners turn to crystal gazing. Other times, they stare into candlelight or even pools of water. These latter practices involve using the practitioner’s guidance and intuition to let the necessary messages come through and gain some sense of spiritual understanding about future events.

These practices have a long, dark history of bloodshed and oppression at the hands of the Church, which still sees divination as an evil incarnation of Satan. However, the occultist doesn’t see it that way.

Dating to St. Augustine of Hippo in the fifth century AD, who stated that any pagan traditions and religious practices were of the Devil, the Christian Church became increasingly brutal in its punishments of these practices. By the 13th century AD, any divination or attempt to understand future events was considered demon worship.^[4]

Between 1450 and 1600, the active period of punishing divination and similar practices, the Christian Church was responsible for the death, torture, and mutilation of tens of thousands of supposed “witches.”

6 Satanism

Although Satanism and the occult aren’t the same thing, both practices have borrowed heavily from one another throughout the centuries. The origins of true Satanism are quite mysterious as the Church has destroyed these cults rapidly wherever they popped up. But Satanic cults have been officially documented in Europe and North America as far back as the 17th century.

Satanism finds at least some of its roots in dark figures who were also synonymous with the occult throughout the centuries. Examples would be Hades, the ancient Greek god of the underworld, and Marduk. Thousands of years of worship of these figures have linked Satanism to occult practices because these figures are technically pagan gods and not Satan himself.

By the 20th century, Satanism was in full swing. The Satanic Church was established in America in the 1960s. Small cults have also sprung up worldwide. While the members of these groups don’t number in the millions like those of other religions, the strange and sometimes violent practices—like murder or suicide—by Satanic cults make it a well-known movement.

Despite their differences, Satanism and the occult are one and the same in the eyes of the Christian Church.^[5]

5 Human Sacrifice

Human sacrifice has occurred in some occult practices even to this day. In 1995, a 15-year-old girl named Elyse Pahler was lured to a eucalyptus grove and murdered. Her body was discovered eight months later. The suspects were 17-year-old Royce Casey, 14-year-old Joseph Fiorella, and 16-year-old Jacob Delashmutt.

This murder had all the hallmarks of an occultist or even a Satanic rape and killing. The teens returned to have sex with Pahler’s dead body over the ensuing weeks. When Casey confessed, he said that the rape and murder were sacrificial and for Satan. To the authorities, this was definitely an occult human sacrifice, not too unlike ancient times.^[6]

Many such instances have popped up worldwide. There was a media frenzy about these types of murders in the 1990s in the United States. A notable one was the Vampire Cult, led by Rod Ferrell, and its ritualistic and sacrificial killing of a Florida family. Ferrell was only 16 years old at the time of the murders.

The teens in this cult took drugs, performed blood and sex rituals, and eventually traveled from Kentucky to Florida to kill Naomi Ruth Queen and Richard Wendorf. Though rare, human sacrifice has definitely found its way into today’s society, often as an exercise in occultism.

4 Magick

Magick (alternate spelling to distinguish “magic” from “sleight-of-hand” or “stage” magic) in occultism entails efforts to call on extra-sensory forces to know and rule the “spirit” world and even control humans and inanimate objects. The term itself is an Early Modern English spelling for magic, used in works such as the 1651 translation of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s De Occulta Philosophia, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, or Of Magick. Aleister Crowley defines magick as the “Science of understanding oneself and one’s conditions. It is the Art of applying that understanding in action.”^[7]

Magick ceremonies and those who practice them are seen as channels through which supernatural power affects change in human events and conditions. Those who practice “white magick” seek to produce positive or favorable outcomes. “Black magick” practitioners intend harm and evil results. Aspects of ritual in magick include banishing, invocation, evocation, purification, consecration, and divination (already discussed in this list).

Magick is as old as humanity and had its beginnings in humankind’s attempts to control one’s environment, survival, and destiny, either by controlling natural forces or appealing to higher powers for help. Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski defined magic as having three functions and three elements. The three functions are to produce, to protect, or to destroy. The three elements are spells and incantations, rites or procedures, and altered states of consciousness accomplished through fasting, meditating, chanting, visualizing symbols, sleep deprivation, dancing, staring into flames, inhaling fumes, taking drugs, and so forth. Magick is practiced universally by skilled individuals who are either born into their powers or train themselves to acquire their abilities.

3 Demonism

With demonism, a practitioner seeks to summon the power of actual demons to bend to their will. According to Christianity and some occultist practices, demons are fallen angels sworn to subvert all good things and to carry out only evil in the world.

The Christian religion dating back to the times of the Holy Bible and the first teachings of the early Christians speaks of these dark figures, and they have been a consistent theme in much of recorded history. Some dark figures, like Santa Muerte, Our Lady of Holy Death, an actual death saint, even appear outside of the Christian doctrine, dating back tens of thousands of years.

John Milton’s Paradise Lost, which was published in 1667, describes these fallen demons cast out of Heaven in the Christian doctrine.^[8] After having been thrown into the dark, fiery abyss, Satan speaks to the demons thus:

Fall’n Cherube, to be weak is miserable
Doing or Suffering: but of this be sure,
To do ought good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight,
As being the contrary to his high will
Whom we resist. If then his Providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil.

Since ancient times, occultists have believed that they can harness these dark spirits to do evil. The practitioners have used ritualistic incantations to summon different demons for various purposes in many cultures throughout history—starting from Satan, the leader of all demons, to Ukobach, the demon in Hell, which attends to the flames.

Ihrinwe (aka “The Lord of Blood”) is believed to be responsible for humanity’s most violent acts. Serial killers and brutal dictators have been thought to be under the control of this demonic influence, perhaps even causing most of humanity’s atrocities.

2 Old Moore’s Almanac

Dating all the way back to 1697 in Ireland, Old Moore’s Almanac is a fun little occult publication with apparent prophecies of the future. It’s one of the oldest continual publications which contain horoscopes and other such means for people to supposedly dictate their futures.

What was once an anonymous publication is now a magazine complete with an interactive website and plenty for anyone who wishes to see what occult wisdom has in store for them. It also gave weather forecasts.

In time, it spawned numerous replicas and fakes. By 1851, an Irish man named John Francis Nugent created a spin-off called Nugent’s Old Moore’s Almanac. He didn’t hide the fact that it was plainly a rip-off, even though the original publication had already been around for over a century.

Both almanacs were competitors until Nugent died in 1866. The editor for Old Moore’s Almanac also signed up to be the editor for Nugent’s Old Moore’s Almanac and worked for both publications for years.^[9]

1 Hermeticism

Hermeticism is the ancient practice of esoteric wisdom overall and contains a lot of texts and ideas under its umbrella. It is one of the oldest occult practices of all time, beginning with the intermingling of the Greco-Roman and Egyptian cultures and philosophy meeting mysticism.

While “popular” Hermeticism is the practice of more common things like astrology, “learned” Hermeticism is a bit deeper and more in tune with the modern concept of Gnosticism. The main goal was to gain a true understanding of God’s knowledge and make the natural out of the supernatural through understanding.

In a very real way, this fundamental concept was the obscure, humble beginnings of our scientific advancements today by taming the unknown and making it known. Alchemists, Freemasons, and Gnostics all fall under the branch of Hermeticism.

Scholars have suggested that alchemy was never about creating gold but about the lessons learned along the way. Mixing metals to forge gold was never intended to be a realistic possibility. Instead, it was symbolic of the pursuit of knowledge and the futility of attaining material things like gold and wealth.

Considering that Hermeticism comes from Pythagoreanism, which is based on mystical teachings of natural harmony, this is a good possibility. Pythagoras was obsessed with finding the secret fundamental substance of the cosmos, which is in line with the goals of all occultism. Alchemy grew out of this tradition.

However, Hermeticism differs from science in its aims. Where science seeks to study the natural world, Hermetics seeks to study the supernatural realm in hopes of gaining an understanding from that which isn’t readily apparent or intuitive. Ancient religions aside, Hermeticism is the all-encompassing concept of the search for a deeper, more fundamental knowledge that is the foundation of all occultism.^[10]

I like to write about dark stuff, history, and philosophy. Here’s a fun little bit telling the history of some of the more dark and esoteric occult practices.

When you picture an occultist, the typical image that comes to mind is a wizened sixteenth-century figure pouring over mysterious runes and ancient scrolls. But the dark magicians of today are more likely to found hunched over a MacBook, tweeting their favorite herbal recipes and live streaming to their online coven.

In this technological age, supernatural forces have found enormous popularity on social media, especially under quarantine. In fact, for many practitioners, online witchcraft is a lucrative business. Over the past five years the US psychic services industry has grown to the value of $2 billion dollars.^[1]

Gone are the levitating broomsticks and ill-fated familiars. The new generation of keyboard mystics peddle their wares on Instagram, link up over Zoom and are even able to cast spells using emojis. These are ten of the ways that dark magic is infiltrating social media.

Top 10 Films With Creepy Links To The Occult

10 Anti-Trump Witches Hex The US Election

The 2020 presidential election has been one of the most controversial and divisive in US history. Joe Biden’s victory has been met with delight and fury in equal measure, along with accusations of voter fraud from Donald Trump and many of his supporters. But was there more to Biden’s triumph than meets the eye? Was there, perhaps, some kind of magical intervention?

It sounds bizarre, but occultists across the US believe their political incantations helped swing the vote in Biden’s favor. On Halloween, three days before the election, magical activist Michael M. Hughes encouraged thousands of witches to convene online for a ritual that he said would rid the country of President Trump. Participants were instructed to chant cleansing spells, light politically-decorated candles, and cover maps in blue paint, all beneath the glow of a full blue moon.

Together, Hughes claims, he and his followers were able to invoke the power of their ancestral spirits and raise “a mighty blue wave” to propel Biden into the White House. There, they say, he will “wash away the corruption and injustice and wickedness of Donald Trump and the Republican Party in a peaceful transition of power.”^[2]

Political magic might sound like a relatively modern invention, but its origins date back centuries. During the Second World War, some Britons called on magical intervention to protect themselves from Nazi invasion. And in the US, a feminist group known as W.I.T.C.H. first descended on Wall Street in protest in the 1960s, and are still protesting against capitalism to this day.^[3]

9 Casting Spells With Emoji Magic

Runes and symbols are valuable tools in the world of black magic. For years, witches and wizards have used pictorial sorcery to conjure up their needs and desires. In fact, image-based magic – known as sigil magick – is a longstanding tradition whose origins date back to medieval times. But now, in the age of social media, casting spells with Gothic runes feels a little old hat. So, tech-savvy sorcerers found a way to give sigil magick a modern-day face lift, using an icon of the 21st century: the emoji.

With emoji spells, a new generation of witches and wizards are said to be able to produce incantations from the comfort of their cell phones. The key, sigil experts claim, is to be direct when casting the spell. Visualize your intentions clearly, then translate them into emoji and send them out into cyberspace. So if you are searching for your keys, for example, you might cast a magnifying glass emoji, followed by an image of keys. Or, for something more substantial, to find a romantic partner it is recommended that you send a series of love heart emojis, interspersed with images that represent the personality traits you find most attractive.

Emoji magic might seem like complete nonsense, but experts claim that weirdness is actually part of their power. “After all,” as one Californian witch explained to Vice magazine, “being silly and strange is part of being a witch.”^[4]

8 Black Magic Healers On Instagram

The black magic renaissance is taking root across the globe. In recent years, the West African customs known as juju have seen a huge resurgence. Renowned figures like British musician J Hus have helped bring the dark arts into vogue, and some spiritualists are racking up hundreds of thousands of followers online.

West African spiritual leaders, or babalawos as they are known locally, are now taking on the role of relationship therapists. Through stylish Instagram accounts, customers now have access to all kinds of black magic artifacts. An eligible young woman, for example, might splash out on herbal medicine, hoping it might help her attract a wealthy lover or two. On the other hand, a jilted wife with an unfaithful partner might find herself in need of a blue eye bracelet to bring her husband back home.

As the popularity of juju grows, its ethics are increasingly called into question. Skeptics doubt the morality of using ritual magic to manipulate a partner. In 2019, one woman was lambasted online after she admitted to sneaking some of her menstrual blood into her lover’s meals. Nonetheless, regardless of its ethics, the juju revival lives on.^[5]

7 Romania’s Supernatural Revolution

In areas of Eastern Europe, sorceresses and healers are highly revered. Girls are brought up from a young age to be in tune with the supernatural, their mothers passing down ancient rituals and spiritual customs. But in Romania, some of these young women are breaking with tradition. A new generation of witches – or vrajitoare – have discovered that the internet gives them access to a much wider audience of clients, and the potential to make a lot more money.

The vrajitoare’s internet success, however, has not gone unnoticed. Over the last decade, the Romanian government has brought in tighter regulations on online magical activity. In 2011, then-president Basescu made the historic decision to introduce an income tax for witchcraft. The new tax split opinions among witches. Some embraced the decision, believing it would cement the vrajitoare as respectable businesswomen in Romanian society. Others, it was reported, stomped up to the banks of the Danube and starting hurling poisonous mandrake into the river.^[6]

6 School Of Black Magic

Occultists are people of tradition. Magic and the dark arts are passed down through the ages, generation to generation, the old educating the young. Previously if a budding occultist wanted to study techniques for Chinese divination or astral projection they would need to seek out an expert in the dark arts. But now, you can learn almost all of it from the comfort of your computer, courtesy of an eccentric magician called Jason Louv.

Louv’s career path is an interesting one to say the least. Throughout his life he has helped develop artificial intelligence at Google, worked on Buzz Aldrin’s project to colonize Mars, and written a number of books with the late Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle. Now he dedicates his time to running the only online school of the dark arts: magick.me. At Louv’s school, students can learn all manner of mystic subjects, from neuro-linguistic programming to psychic protection. He even teaches pupils how to meditate like Aleister Crowley – the English occultist known for being “the wickedest man in the world.”^[7]

10 Unsolved Murders With Strange Links To The Occult

5 TikTok Witches Curse The Moon

TikTok might seem like an endless blur of novelty dance crazes and cringe worthy lip-syncing, but the video app has a strange occult underbelly. The social media app is home to a vast network of magical practitioners, astrologers and niche spiritualists, all of whom exist online in relative harmony. Or at least that was the case, until summer 2020 when it emerged that a small group of amateur witches had tried to place a curse on the moon. Then people started to lose their minds.

Of course, as if it even needed pointing out, their actions had no effect on the moon. All of the celestial bodies came out of this completely unscathed. But, for people who believe in the existence of magic, the moon is a sanctified object. To even attempt to place a curse on it is seen as grossly offensive, and when the news came out people were understandably outraged.^[8]

4 Haunted Items For Sale On eBay

Hundreds of years ago, if two dark magicians wanted to trade haunted items they might do so at a discrete midnight rendezvous. Under the cover of darkness, far for the prying eyes of any lynch mobs or witchfinder generals, the occultists would go about their shadowy business. These days, the buying and selling of macabre trinkets is much less clandestine. Fancy treating yourself to a haunted figurine, or maybe a possessed marionette? No bother, just look on eBay.

The e-commerce site might seem fairly innocuous, but beneath the surface lies an entire industry dedicated to the sale of haunted items, predominantly dolls. For the right price you might be able to bag yourself Polly, a wide-eyed figurine who is apparently able to mess with the temperature of the room. Or perhaps Charles, a woolly-haired clown, who is said to be fond of banging doors and letting out the occasional howl. These paranormal collectibles retail at anywhere from a few tens of dollars to the best part of $7,000. The suppliers, however, insist they have no interest in profit; their only aim is to help the spirits inside the dolls find peace.^[9]

3 Coven Meetings On Zoom

Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble. The archetypal witches’ coven is the one set out by William Shakespeare in his classic 17th century play Macbeth. Lurking malevolently in the shadows, the weird sisters conjure up all manner of twister incantations to wreak havoc over the Scottish King and his associates. But imagine the Bard were born four hundred years later, and decided to write his play in the year 2020. Under quarantine his witches would meet, not in thunder, lightning, or in rain, but sat in front of a laptop screen conversing over Zoom.

It sounds ridiculous, but the covid-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of modern life, and ritual magic is no exception. Witches from across the world have been forced to stop convening face-to-face and take their meetings online. But the covens are using the time productively, teaching each other to read tarot cards, practicing occult writing, and sharing readings from books and scriptures, all via the power of online video conferencing. In fact, when one shop in Michigan decided to celebrate the Spring Equinox on Facebook Live, they received a record turnout, with some 4,000 people choosing to participate.^[10]

2 WitchBlr

The online dark arts boom has attracted people from all walks of life, and that includes multi-platinum musicians. In 2017, Lana Del Rey revealed herself to be “a bit of a mystic at heart” and announced her intentions to place a curse on Donald Trump. Del Rey’s proclamation was met with rapturous enthusiasm, especially on Tumblr, where occult practices have been flourishing over the last few years.

Tumblr’s witchcraft community – or WitchBlr as they describe themselves – is a thriving subculture. Across the site, wannabe mystics can learn a vast range of occult traditions, from crystals and candles to curses and palm reading. WitchBlr is a highly-stylized mix of cultural teachings, discussions, and wholesome means. Now, with the endorsement of “pagan pop star” Lana Del Rey, these young enthusiastic occultists hope their community will reach an even wider audience in years to come.^[11]

1 Church of Kek

As seen earlier in this article, witchcraft and sorcery have found huge popularity among the Biden-supporting liberals of the United States. But the Democrats are not the only ones who are now enamored with the supernatural. The dark arts renaissance is gripping people across the political spectrum, from the anti-capitalists of the far-left to the internet-loving alt-right.

In fact, many of the alt-right have begun to create their own quasi-religion, a Pepe The Frog-inspired craze known as the Cult Of Kek. Although the Cult Of Kek is undeniably a child of the internet, its roots stretch back to ancient Egypt. In the age of pyramids and sphinxes, people believed in a mischievous deity known as Kek, who ripped through the country causing mayhem and had the head of a frog.

For the Pepe-obsessed alt-right, a god that combines both mischief and frogs seemed too perfect to resist. Hence the Cult Of Kek was born, the semi-ironic online movement whose power is said to lie in the strength of meme magic. Followers of the cult, which one member described as “very funny and at the same time very serious”, are said to use trolling as a form of incantation. Back in 2016, Kek-followers inundated their social media feeds with endless Donald Trump Pepe memes in an attempt to sway the US elections.

“By saturating the web with these images of Pepe, they were trying to somehow make reality reflect the net,” explained Gary Lachman, an expert in modern mysticism. “It wouldn’t be the first time that extreme right conservative groups have employed the supernatural. The Nazis did exactly that. Creating a narrative and associated belief system has always been used as propaganda.”^[12]

10 Modern Attempts To Police The Occult

Nowadays, matters of alchemy and the occult are largely regarded as pseudoscience, but in the past, supernatural practices were taken more seriously. For example, the idea of a philosopher’s stone that could turn base metals into gold and grant immortality goes back to at least ancient Greece. Throughout the centuries, many people sought (and failed) to prove its existence. The occult was also a hot topic during the Renaissance; astrology was sometimes studied as a science, while the fear of dark magic led to feverish witch hunts. Here are 10 royals, historical and modern, who have dabbled in the occult.

10 Queen Elizabeth I

In 1555, John Dee was arrested for witchcraft after casting the horoscopes of Queen Mary I of England and Princess Elizabeth. However, he was exonerated and, a few years later, found favor with Elizabeth once she became queen. She even trusted him to select an auspicious coronation date for her, which was January 15, 1559, based on his astrological calculations. In 1564, he was “appointed Royal Advisor in mystic secrets,” and as her court astrologer, he also advised her on matters of state and science.

Elizabeth’s interest in mysticism seemed to stretch no further than astrology, while Dee delved deeper into the supernatural, believing he could communicate with angels through a medium. Dee fell out of favor when James I took the throne. He was once again accused of conjuring, and the new king refused to clear his name. James hated the occult and witchcraft so much that he published an entire book, Daemonologie (1599), devoted to the subject.^[1]

9 Queen Victoria

It has been speculated that Queen Victoria of England took part in séances, but nothing has ever been officially verified. This may be because the queen never actually had any interest in the occult. Or it could be because, after her death, her journals and letters were censored by her daughter, Princess Beatrice.

There is speculation that in 1846, Georgiana Elizabeth Eagle, a child clairvoyant, performed before Victoria and her husband, Albert, at Osborne House. Then in 1861, after Albert’s death that year, it is rumored that a teenage medium named Robert James Lees fell into a trance during a séance and channeled the departed spirit of Albert. Lees may then have conducted séances for Victoria to speak to her dead husband.

It has also been claimed that John Brown, Victoria’s favorite and long-rumored lover, acted as a medium to channel Albert. Still, there is no historical record of these conversations taking place.^[2]

8 Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

Alexandra Feodorovna was Queen Victoria’s favorite granddaughter and became a part of the Russian Romanov family when she married Emperor Nicholas II in 1894. Their son Alexei was born in 1904 and suffered from hemophilia, a condition where the blood does not clot properly. Alexandra believed in the occult, participating in séances and speaking with clairvoyants, and she sought the aid of Grigori Rasputin, now known as one of the world’s most famous mystics.

Alexandra and Nicholas brought Rasputin into their inner circle to heal their son, although some were riled by this, regarding him as a charlatan. But the couple were convinced of his magical powers, believing he could stop Alexei’s excessive bleeding. Some modern historians now think that it was actually Rasputin’s insistence that the boy not be treated with aspirin (which thins the blood) that caused his seemingly miraculous healing.^[3]

7 Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II

As well as juggling his many political responsibilities as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Croatia, King of Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria, Rudolf II was also deeply involved in researching the occult. While matters of dark magic and witchcraft were criminalized during the Renaissance, astrology and alchemy were often regarded as legitimate scientific fields. When Rudolf moved the royal court to Prague Castle, the city became a center for the practice of alchemy.

Notable alchemists who visited his court include John Dee, Elizabeth I’s astrologer, and his companion-cum-medium, Edward Kelley. Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel also gained an audience with Rudolf, where the two discussed Kabbala, the Jewish mystic interpretation of the Bible. Rudolf is also the earliest known owner of the Voynich manuscript, one of the most famous texts written in a code or unknown language that remains undeciphered to this day. It is thought that he may have purchased the cryptic manuscript from Dee, but its history is unclear.^[4]

6 Queen Catherine de’ Medici

Catherine de’ Medici was born in Italy and became Queen of France in 1547 through her marriage to King Henry II. She was also the mother of the French kings Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III, and thus occupied a position of power for many years. Soon after the untimely death of Charles in 1574, a pamphlet circulated accusing her of witchcraft, which led to her becoming known as the Black Queen. It claimed that “through the wave of her wand and bewitching potions, she had changed us into wild beasts and torn out our humanity.”

More fuel was thrown on this fire when Jean Bodin’s book De la démonomanie des sorciers or On the Demon-Mania of Witches (1580) alleged that she had participated in a Black Mass during which a child was sacrificed. While there is no actual evidence of Catherine practicing (or, rather, attempting to practice) dark magic, she was certainly interested in astrology.

Cosimo Ruggeri served as her advisor and astrologer, and in 1555, she invited the seer Nostradamus to court after reading his predictions in Les Prophéties (1555). She had him draw up horoscopes for her children and, in the following years, made him Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to the young King Charles.^[5]

5 Emperor Yongzheng

Many historical Chinese emperors took alchemical elixirs in an effort to achieve immortality. Although the danger of these potions and pills was not unknown, numerous emperors succumbed to mercury poisoning in their quest for eternal life. The first Chinese emperor to die in this way was actually China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, who died in 210 BC. The last to die via a so-called elixir of life was Emperor Yongzheng, and it was surprisingly recent, occurring in 1735.

At the time, officials said that Yongzheng died from exhaustion caused by overwork. A rumor then spread that he had been assassinated by Lü Siniang, who was seeking revenge for the execution of Lü Liuliang, her father or grandfather (accounts vary). Based on court records, it is now generally accepted that he died from mercury poisoning. The true cause of his death may have been concealed at the time because few people still believed in immortality-granting elixirs, and officials did not want to bring shame to Yongzheng’s name.^[6]

4 King Philip II

As well as greatly expanding Spain’s influence across the globe, Philip II of Spain was also a dedicated patron of the arts and sciences, including alchemy. In 1584, the magnificent royal palace of El Escorial was completed, containing within its walls a church, college, library, and even alchemical distillation laboratories. It became a center of knowledge, with Philip furnishing the library with great works of history, science, and literature and inviting alchemists to work in the labs.

In 1591, for instance, Philip brought Irish alchemist Richard Stanihurst to his court after hearing that he had concocted a panacea (a cure-all potion). However, Stanihurst’s experiments with the medicine failed to come to anything. Philip was also interested in transmutation and had people attempting to turn base metals into gold. These experiments likewise failed to produce results. Although panaceas and transmutation are now known to belong to mythology, Philip II’s interest in alchemy stemmed from scientific exploration rather than a preoccupation with the supernatural.^[7]

3 Crown Princess Hwi

In the early 1400s, during King Sejong’s rule of Joseon, now modern-day Korea, Crown Prince Munjong married Lady Kim, making her Crown Princess Hwi. Their marriage lasted just a couple of years because Hwi was deposed for practicing witchcraft, or in the words of King Sejong, using “the sorcery of yin and yang manipulation to obtain the favor” of her husband.

The princess had appealed to her lady-in-waiting, Hocho, for help in gaining the prince’s love. Hocho told the princess to do two things: first, to burn the shoes of her romantic rivals and mix the ashes into Munjong’s wine to make him reject them; second, to rub snake sperm onto a piece of cloth and wear it on her body to win his affection. Sundeok, another lady-in-waiting, found leftover pieces of shoe leather from the ritual and raised her suspicions with King Sejong. He questioned the crown princess, and she confessed to everything. Hocho was subsequently executed, and Hwi was stripped of her title and banished from the palace.^[8]

2 King Frederick William II

Rosicrucianism, a spiritual movement that began in the early 17th century and sought out esoteric knowledge, counted Frederick William II, King of Prussia, within its ranks. When he was still prince, Frederick William was a member of the Masons, but he yearned for more mysticism than the Masons could offer. He believed that he could hear the voices of ghosts and occasionally held séances to communicate with them. He met a man named Johann Rudolf von Bischoffswerder during the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–79), and when he fell ill, Bischoffswerder cured him with an esoteric Rosicrucian elixir.

The experience left its mark, and in 1781, Frederick William was officially initiated into the Rosicrucian brotherhood by Johann Christoph von Wöllner. When he became king in 1786, both Wöllner and Bischoffswerder were placed in positions of power. Bischoffswerder had a machine that could supposedly summon spirits, and during one séance held at Charlottenburg Palace, the ghost of Frederick William’s namesake, Frederick William, “The Great Elector,” apparently appeared and told the king to stop seeing his mistress.^[9]

1 Princess Märtha Louise

Not all royals who were interested in the occult are long dead and buried. Princess Märtha Louise is currently fourth in line to the Norwegian throne and makes her living working as a clairvoyant. In 2002, she withdrew from the royal household, giving up her official “Her Royal Highness” title and her annual $1 million allowance. She has since made a career from her supposed clairvoyant abilities. She is a motivational speaker and, for a number of years, ran an “angel school,” where she taught clients how to speak to angels and the dead.

In 2019, she faced controversy for using her royal title for financial gain after titling a seminar series, “The Princess and the Shaman,” which she ran with her self-proclaimed shaman fiancé, Durek Verrett. She agreed to stop using the title and, as of November 2022, has officially withdrawn from all royal duties. Still, the couple continues to be criticized by the press for spreading pseudoscience. Verrett has claimed that he can cure illnesses (including cancer) and rotate the atoms in a person’s body to make them younger and that he’s not a regular human but rather a hybrid of “a reptile and Andromeda.”^[10]