Hello, friend, and welcome back to the Renaissance English History Podcast, a part of the

Agora podcast network, and the original Tudor history Podcast, telling stories of Tudor England since 2009.

I am your host, Heather, and I am delighted that you are here with me. Today, we're going to talk

about something a little bit different. We are going to talk about mysticism and spirituality

in Tudor England. So picture this. A tall bearded man

sits alone in a candlelit study, ink-stained fingers hovering over a velvet journal. Before him,

a polished obsidian mirror gleams in the low light and beside it a crystal orb catches

the flicker of the flame. The man is muttering in Latin, occasionally pausing to peer into the mirror

as if expecting someone or something to answer back. This would be Dr. John D., astrologrologer, alchemist, mathematician, sometime advisor to Queen

Elizabeth I, and the owner of the largest library in Europe. He is waiting for an angel to speak to him.

Welcome to Tudor England, where magic wasn't just the stuff of village gossip or fairy tale nonsense. It was woven into the very fabric of courtly life and scholarly inquiry. You could be a learned physician, a pious housewife, or even the Queen of England herself, and still consult the stars before making a decision. So in this episode, we are going to dive into the

world of Tudor mysticism, alchemy, astrology, angel summoning, and everyday folk magic. We will

meet characters who straddled the line between genius and charlatan, learn how prophecies could

shake the throne, and discover the wise women who offered love

potions and healing charms to their neighbors. So let's get started. It's hard for us today,

living in a world of lab reports and weather apps, to imagine just how porous the line was between

science, religion, and magic in the pre-modern time.

That's something I think about a lot because I really kind of feel like we've lost a lot of that

magic of everyday life after the Enlightenment, when everything now has an answer and everything

can be explained through science. In the 16th century, it wasn't strange to believe both in angels

and astronomy to say your prayers and your incantations. The spiritual and the supernatural were not

at odds. They were cousins. A devout Christian might seek the help of a local cunning woman

...