History and legend sometimes become intertwined, particularly with renowned kings, warriors, and sorcerers.
Joan of Arc
By age 13, Joan of Arc claimed she could hear voices from saints and angels. Joan’s visions led her to believe God wanted her to save France in its war with England. Seen as a holy vision or personal belief, the claims took a peasant girl with no formal education and put her in charge of France’s armies. Many at the time felt she was either divinely guided or foully possessed.
John Dee
John Dee was one of Elizabethan England’s greatest minds. To many of his contemporaries, he was far stranger than that. In addition to mathematics and astronomy, Dee spent years trying to talk to angels. He conducted lengthy crystal-gazing sessions with a medium. Dee claimed they communicated with him in an angelic language, which is now called Enochian. To some he was a spiritual philosopher, and to others a sorcerer.
Paracelsus
Paracelsus was a Swiss physician who transformed medicine and was not afraid to admit his studies of alchemy and mysticism. He maintained that disease could be cured by specially prepared minerals instead of following the standard medical doctrine.
While his experimentation earned him renown, his interest in astrology, secret energies, and altering matter caused some to view him as both alchemist and sorcerer.
Nostradamus
The French physician Nostradamus gained renown by publishing cryptic prophetic verses titled Centuries. Royals and nobility consulted him as they believed he truly knew of the future.
He wrote his predictions in symbols so each generation could view them differently. Whether he was a prophet or a master wordsmith, Nostradamus lived as one of Europe’s most illustrious mystics.
Count of St. Germain
It’s rare to find someone throughout history who attracted more rumors during their life than the Count of St. Germain. He mysteriously showed up in European royal courts fluent in many languages. He seemed to know a vast amount about the world and events hundreds of years past.
Some say he found the secret to eternal life and refused to age like normal humans. Even those who didn’t believe these rumors had to concede there was something oddly uncanny about him.
Aleister Crowley
To admirers, Aleister Crowley was a mystic seeking higher enlightenment. To newspapers, he was “the wickedest man in the world.” Crowley publicly performed ceremonial magic, developed the religious philosophy of Thelema, and staged bizarre occult ceremonies that titillated and disgusted the masses.
Girolamo Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola, a Florentine preacher, said he received visions from God and preached about impending divine wrath. Savonarola predicted political rebellion, spoke against corruption, and persuaded thousands that God had selected the city of Florence for reform.
Thousands revered him as a prophetic messenger from God; others saw him as an instigator and madman. His perceived supernatural powers influenced Italian politics decades before his death.
Alessandro Cagliostro
Count Alessandro Cagliostro was an adventurer who toured Europe performing miraculous healings and peddling alchemy and occult initiation. He sold lavish rituals to nobles and convinced them he had knowledge from Egypt. Many people believed he had magical powers. Others consider him history’s most infamous fraud. Regardless of his true abilities, his mystical image made him one of Europe’s most recognizable figures during the 1700s.
Padre Pio
Even before his canonization by the Catholic Church, thousands flocked to him, whom many claimed could miraculously heal the ill, read souls, or appear in two places at once through bilocation. Stories of Padre Pio receiving the stigmata (wounds resembling those of Christ) caused his monastery to become one of Europe’s most visited pilgrimage sites.
Elizabeth Báthory
Elizabeth Báthory found herself enveloped in horrific myths that far exceeded her recorded crimes. People began to spread stories of witchcraft, occult deals, and bathing in the blood of virgins to maintain her youth. While the infamous blood bath story expanded greatly after her death, myths about her being supernatural were circulating during her lifetime. Terror seemed to morph the Hungarian noblewoman into something monstrous.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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