Before we knew anything about how they work how did people view their spooky behaviour? How have magnets been utilised across different cultures throughout history?
The pre-Socratic philosopher Thales of Miletus seems to have believed that magnets contained souls because they can move and be moved without any apparent outside force. This was a result of his belief that the soul was a cause of motion.
However, our information is all second hand and it's nearly impossible to separate Thales' actual beliefs from the ones merely ascribed to him. So there's that.
Source: Aristotle, De Anima 405a19-21