A “spirit mirror” believed to have been used by Queen Elizabeth I’s famed political advisor John Dee was crafted in Aztec Mexico around 500 years ago, researchers have discovered. The find, published today in the journal Antiquity, strengthens the idea that the mirror was used by the Elizabethan occultist in his attempts to communicate with angels.

Dee was an advisor in the court of the 16th-century queen, as well as an accomplished alchemist, astrologer, cartographer and mathematician. It’s thought he may have been the model for Prospero, the magician in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Tales abound of Dee’s occult exploits, including his practice of skrying, or conjuring angels and spirits through clairvoyant tools