Enchanted: The History of Magic & Witchcraft

Each autumn for more than a thousand years, pilgrims from across the Greek and Roman world walked the Sacred Way to Eleusis to witness secret rites that promised a better fate in the world below. At the heart of those rites was the story of a maiden seized from a flowering meadow by the lord of the dead, a grieving mother whose sorrow brought the world to the brink of famine, and a single pomegranate seed that set the seasons turning. This episode brings you the story of Persephone, from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and Ovid’s retellings to the Eleusinian Mysteries, and how her descent went on to inspire modern Pagan celebrations of the autumnal equinox and the Broadway hit Hadestown.

Content note: This episode centers on a story of abduction and forced marriage. Listener discretion is advised.

Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.

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He talked his way into the court of Louis XV, unsettled Casanova over dinner, and dabbled in alchemy and diplomatic intrigue. He’s an eighteenth-century con artist, alchemist, spy, and, depending who you ask, an immortal ascended master still hiking Mount Shasta today. This episode brings you the many lives, real and invented, of the Comte de Saint-Germain, the man Voltaire called “one who never dies, and who knows everything.”

Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.

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The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is one of the oldest divination texts in the world and one of the strangest survival stories in the history of magic. This episode brings you the 3,000-year story of the I Ching, the world's most reinvented book of divination, from Bronze Age turtle-shell pyromancy to Carl Jung's couch and modern computing.

Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.

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Antitheatrical writers in early modern England compared the actor’s transformation into a character to a kind of illicit magic. In response, playwrights like William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson created a body of plays that treated the conjuror’s circle as a mirror of the theater. This episode brings you a story of magicians, witches, and the spectacles they conjured: the story of magic on the early modern English stage.

Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.

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How did a sixteenth-century criminal record give rise to one of Scotland’s most famous legends? Whether an enchanter, a prophet, or a hero who spoke truth to power, his story would be remembered and retold, transforming the real man into a mythic figure. This episode brings you the story of Highland second sight, the historical "Dark Kenneth" (Coinneach Odhar), and the legend of the Brahan Seer.

Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.

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Death wasn’t the end for ancient Egyptians; it was a gauntlet. The soul faced guardians, gods, the weighing of the heart against the feather of Ma’at, and the ever-present threat of Ammit waiting to devour the unworthy, with only magic to guide the soul to the Field of Reeds. This episode brings you the story of the afterlife, the Duat, and the most sophisticated collection of funerary spells the ancient world ever produced: the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.

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In an early medieval Constantinople filled with pagan artifacts and dark histories, one man's writings would reveal a world in which sorcery, religion, and politics were inextricably intertwined. This episode brings you the story of a scholar, bishop, and savvy political survivor in an era of iconoclasm: the story of Ignatios the Deacon.

Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.

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In the sixteenth century, witch trials were a fact of life. Women were being hauled before courts across Europe. Confessions were extracted under torture. Executions followed. Into this world stepped Johann Weyer, who looked at all of it—the confessions, the trials, the executions—and said that these women are sick, not sinful. They are patients, not criminals. And the men putting them on trial ought to know better. This episode brings you a story of religious belief and scientific inquiry at the dawn of the modern era, the story of Johann Weyer.

Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.

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Albertus Magnus, the thirteenth-century polymath known as the Universal Doctor, had a problem. To some, he was the greatest natural philosopher of his age. To others, he was a dangerous sorcerer who built talking automatons, disguised himself as a midwife to learn forbidden secrets, and wrote books on summoning demons. Was Albertus Magnus a saint, or was he a sorcerer? The answer to this question would help define the very boundary between science and magic. In this episode, I bring you the story of Albertus Magnus and the Mirror of Astronomy.

Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.

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In 1785, a scandal broke that would captivate all of Europe, destroy reputations, and help light the fuse of revolution. At its center stood three remarkable figures: an ambitious con artist who claimed royal blood, a desperate prince of the church, and a flamboyant mystic. This episode brings you the story of Count Alessandro di Cagliostro and the Affair of the Diamond Necklace.

Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.

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