MAGIC SQUARE OF SATURN
Magic square series 1/?
Sometime during the early Italian Renaissance, a pseudepigraphical grimoire was published by an unknown author. Called the Key of Solomon, it contains obscure occult information concerning how to summon spirits of different sorts through carefully constructed rituals. Among its information provided, are discussions regarding what are known as ‘planetary magic squares,’ which are illustrated squares with smaller squares within that vary in number by any given celestial body. The magic square of Saturn has nine squares in three rows and columns, essentially making it a 3x3 square. This square can cross in a single linear direction in eight different ways: three horizontal, three vertical, and two diagonals. The numbers traveled in each direction will come to 15. Since each square in it has numbers ranging from 1 to 9, all the numbers in this square add up to 45, a number that is identified in the Key of Solomon as the corresponding value of two ruling spirits of Saturn, Agiel and Zazel via the ancient cipher system of gematria. The former is beneficent, whilst the latter is malevolent, a theme of duality that ties in with the mythos of Saturn as a wrathful god, judge of souls, and benefactor of civilization in many different civilizations.
While most of these mysterious planetary magic squares are credited as esoteric Hebrew developments, their true origins are shrouded in the remote mists of antiquity. Going far back to the ancient Chinese period, an archaic 3x3 square known as Lo Shu posits itself as one of the earliest appearances of magic squares used in mathematics, dating to sometime in the 7th century BC. However, it is uncertain whether this is the earliest appearance of magic squares. Via an ancient trading route known as the Silk Road, many ideas from different cultures were transferred from distant lands to others, and this resulted in the synchronization of many different ideas, contributing to the collective development of human thought. This ancient road led from China, where ancient folklore (and still survives today) told of a primeval man named Fuxi who is credited with the invention of language, civilization, agriculture, among many other aspects of civilized society, including mathematics and practices that may seem today like occultism. For instance, he is credited as the inventor of the eight trigrams that served as the basis of the later I Ching, a divination text with obscure origins, but is reputed to have been thought to date to sometime in the 10th century BC, making it older than the Lo Shu by several hundred years. Beyond the earliest appearance of the I Ching, the days when Fuxi lived in and the origins of the eight trigrams are even more obscure and for all we know, may stretch far back into the remote mists of time. The true origins of the practice of magic squares are ambiguous and is questionable whether the concept was first developed in the Far East or if it originated elsewhere in a remote epoch.
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