Crazy Alchemist
Crazy Alchemist
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Bologna: The City That Taught Magic, Buried Its Canals, and Built 666 Arches to Heaven
Bologna gave the world its oldest university and then used it to teach astrology as a formal academic subject. A cobbler searching for the Philosopher’s Stone on a nearby hill accidentally discovered…
The Real Mythology of Middle-earth: What Tolkien Built and Where He Found It
J.R.R. Tolkien set out to build a mythology for England and ended up drawing from Iceland, Finland, ancient Greece, the Hebrew Bible, and medieval Catholic theology. Almost nothing in Middle-earth…
Prava mitologija Srednje zemlje: šta je Tolkin izgradio i odakle je to uzeo
Dž. R. R. Tolkin je krenuo da izgradi mitologiju za Englesku, a završio tako što je crpeo iz Islanda, Finske, antičke Grčke, hebrejske Biblije i srednjovekovne katoličke teologije. Gotovo ništa u…
Die wahre Mythologie Mittelerdes: Was Tolkien erschuf und woher er es nahm
J.R.R. Tolkien wollte eine Mythologie für England schaffen und griff dabei auf Island, Finnland, das antike Griechenland, die hebräische Bibel und die mittelalterliche katholische Theologie zurück.…
The Winchester Mystery House: Architecture as Exorcism
Sarah Winchester inherited a rifle fortune and spent 38 years building a mansion that makes no architectural sense. 161 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows. Stairs that end at ceilings. Doors that…
When Breath Became Soul: How Old Is the Idea of the Soul?
In Sumerian, the word for soul was zi, meaning breath, throat, the thing that stops when you die. In Egyptian, ba. In Sanskrit, atman. In Hebrew, nephesh. In Greek, psyche. In Latin, anima. Every one…
Als Atem zur Seele wurde: Wie alt ist die Idee der Seele?
Im Sumerischen hieß das Wort für Seele zi und bedeutete Atem, Kehle, das, was aufhört, wenn man stirbt. Im Ägyptischen ba. Im Sanskrit atman. Im Hebräischen nephesh. Im Griechischen psyche. Im…
Kada je dah postao duša: Koliko je stara ideja o duši?
Na sumerskom je reč za dušu bila zi, što znači dah, grlo, ono što prestaje kada umreš. Na egipatskom ba. Na sanskrtu atman. Na hebrejskom nephesh. Na grčkom psyche. Na latinskom anima. Svaka od tih…
The Amulet Trade: Sacred Objects or History's Longest-Running Fraud?
The oldest amulet factories date to Tell el-Amarna, where Petrie found approximately 5,000 clay molds for mass-producing faience charms in the fourteenth century BCE. Pliny called magic the most…
The Pale Ones: How Rare Genes Built Fairy Mythologies
In the Kuna islands of Panama, children born with albinism are sacred. In Tanzania, they are hunted for their body parts. In Polynesia, their features became the template for an entire race of fairy…
The Eleusinian Mysteries: What Happened Inside the Telesterion
For roughly two millennia, from the Mycenaean Bronze Age to the sack by Alaric’s Visigoths in 395 CE, the Eleusinian Mysteries initiated tens of thousands of people into something that changed them.…
Before Easter: Five Thousand Years of Dying Gods and Painted Eggs
On March 25 in ancient Rome, priests of Cybele announced that their god Attis had risen from death. The celebration was called the Hilaria, the Day of Joy. Two centuries later, Christians in the same…
Red: The Oldest Idea in the World
Three hundred thousand years ago, someone heated yellow earth and watched it turn red. That transformation, the first a human ever controlled, became the foundation of burial ritual, sacred art, and…
The Body's Oldest Drug: How Ritual Dance Rewires the Brain
Chimpanzees dance at waterfalls. Manakin birds rehearse choreography for years. Humans who move in sync release endorphins that bind to the same receptors as morphine. The body contains a built-in…
Turin: The Only City Where White and Black Magic Meet
Turin is the only city said to belong to both the white and black magic triangles. Behind that claim lies a 400-year Savoy dynasty project to build a sacred city outside Catholic control, a Roman…
Giambattista della Porta: The Professor of Secrets
In 1558, a 23-year-old Neapolitan published a recipe that could have stopped the witch burnings across Europe. It proved the Witches’ Sabbath was a drug trip, not a demonic pact. The Church made him…
Acoustic Archaeology: When Stone Was Tuned to Sing
Under Malta, a 5,000-year-old chamber carved from limestone amplifies a man’s voice through an entire underground complex. A woman’s voice produces no effect. At Chichen Itza, a handclap returns as…
Vervain: The Herb of Every Altar
No plant in European history has been sacred to more traditions at once. Romans swept Jupiter’s altar with it. Their peace envoys carried it as a sign of diplomatic immunity. Christians renamed it…
The Roman Strix: The Original Vampire-Witch
Before Dracula, before the medieval witch, there was the strix. A Roman nocturnal creature, half-owl, half-demon, that fed on the blood of infants. Its name survives in Italian (strega), Romanian…
Beneath St. Peter's: The Pagan Dead Under Christianity's Holiest Floor
Twelve meters below St. Peter’s Basilica, Roman dead sleep in painted mausolea decorated with Horus, Dionysus, and Persephone. A 3rd-century mosaic shows Christ riding the sun god’s chariot. The…
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Crazy Alchemist has published 32 episodes since June 2023, covering topics in History, Philosophy.
Crazy Alchemist is currently moderate with new episodes every few days. Average episode length is 16m.
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