With the golden glow of the candlelight kissing his cheeks, he hovered over a spirit mirror, a flat, exquisitely lustrous “shew-stone” fashioned out of raven-black obsidian. Gazing intently upon his reflection in the dark volcanic glass, he chanted in hushed tones as he ran his fingers across the engravings on the oat-colored wax wheel next to him, the Sigilla iEmeth, which featured a septogram and runic carvings and symbols in minuscule print. This was none other than John Dee, one of the greatest scientific minds of his time, but also one of the most controversial. He was a learned man in fields as varied as mathematics and astronomy, centuries before they became formalized fields of study, but he is better remembered for performing magic and alchemy. Instead of astronomy, he became renowned across England for astrology, and he was one of the country’s most notorious occult writers during his life.

The world has never had its shortage of legends surrounding the lives of supposed mystics, visionaries, and prophets. But few have ever grabbed a hold on pop culture quite like that of Grigori Rasputin, one of the most shadowy and mysterious figures in Russian history. Naturally, what makes Rasputin one of the 20th century’s most colorful and memorable figures is what we do not know. Some contemporaries considered him a saintly mystic, psychic, healer and prophet, while others considered him a debauched heretic. The extent to which he beguiled the ruling Romanovs, and how he did so, remain mysterious as well.

It’s hard to kill a legend, and that has literally been the case with Rasputin, whose death remains the most legendary aspect of his life. Perhaps the best known part of the Rasputin story is that his murderers practically had to kill him 10 times to finish him off, using everything from poison to bullets to drowning. Naturally, exactly how Rasputin actually died remains a source of controversy as well.

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