Mathematics, Magick, and Meaning

Lessons in the Language of Symbol

S. L. Mastros Summer, 2001

May 23rd
Lesson Zero: The Empty Game
Cipher and Symbol
The sanscrit word sunya, meaning void, made its way into the arabic as sifra. Latinized versions were introduced into Europe in the thirteenth century and developed into the english words cipher and zero. What is the underlying significance of emptiness and symbol? How are the two concepts linked? What does this say about the occult? What does it say about mathematics?

Lesson One: Achilles, a Tortoise, and the Pope all walk into a bar...
On the Infinite
Zeno struggled with infinty 2800 years ago. It is still a central topic in the philosophy of mathematics (my speciality, for example). What does it really mean to be infinite? How did the developing concept of infinity mirror the development of western magickal and religious archetypes? What is Cantor's continuum hypothesis? How are the concepts of Ain Soph and the Kabbalistic demiurge tied up in it? What parallels can we draw between the formalization of the infinite and the symbology of the western mystery traditon?

Lesson Two: The Forbidden and John 1:1
Why Pythagoras rocks my world
The Pythagoreans built their whole cosmology around Number. They discovered in mathematics truths they were willing to kill to keep secret. Once, only the inner circle of a secret mystic cult knew these truths. You learned them in high school. Surprised? This will be a fun class. It covers some of my favorite material.

Lesson Three: More and More of Less and Less
Calculus is Latin for 'pebble'
When Newton (and/or Leibniz) developed calclus, there were huge holes in the theory. It worked, and that was a god-send for the new, rapidly-developing physics, but for centuries no one could explain exactly why and how it worked. But, I can. And I can tell you what it has to do with kabbalah, parapsychology, and hermeticism.
More lessons coming soon.