/u/paperchampionpicture's posts in /r/AskHistorians

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I’m writing a 15th century grimoire, how am I determining the process for a magical ritual? How do I have such detailed instructions if magic doesn’t actually work? It can’t be trial and error like cooking.

146 upvotes

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Would the Native Americans in North America have heard about what happened to the Aztecs?

53 upvotes

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How did people deal with their finger and toe nails before nail clippers were invented?

30 upvotes

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Did Native Americans not have alcohol prior to 1492?

24 upvotes

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How were occult rituals such as The Sacred Magic of Abramelin developed? Without actual, real magic, how would a practitioner determine the process or success of any given ritual?

11 upvotes

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Why did it take so long for the West to discover Australia?

10 upvotes

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How do we know when the wheel was invented? Is there any record of it? And how do we know whether or not it existed prior?

7 upvotes

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Why wouldn’t have western culture/Europeans have at least suspected that there might be a huge landmass across the Atlantic? Were there never any rumors or myths? Did it seriously take until the 1490s until someone in Europe decided to go take a look?

3 upvotes

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Did the Holocaust have a measurable genetic effect on European Jews?

2 upvotes

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How did police run license plates or potential criminal records before computers?

1 upvotes

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Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
I’m writing a 15th century grimoire, how am I determining the process for a magical ritual? How do I have such detailed instructions if magic doesn’t actually work? It can’t be trial and error like cooking.	146
Would the Native Americans in North America have heard about what happened to the Aztecs?	53
How did people deal with their finger and toe nails before nail clippers were invented?	30
Did Native Americans not have alcohol prior to 1492?	24
How were occult rituals such as The Sacred Magic of Abramelin developed? Without actual, real magic, how would a practitioner determine the process or success of any given ritual?	11
Why did it take so long for the West to discover Australia?	10
How do we know when the wheel was invented? Is there any record of it? And how do we know whether or not it existed prior?	7
Why wouldn’t have western culture/Europeans have at least suspected that there might be a huge landmass across the Atlantic? Were there never any rumors or myths? Did it seriously take until the 1490s until someone in Europe decided to go take a look?	3
Did the Holocaust have a measurable genetic effect on European Jews?	2
How did police run license plates or potential criminal records before computers?	1