Between Magic and Science: Numerical Magic Squares

Uncanny Exchanges: The Possibilities and Failures of ‘Making Change’ with Alternative Monetary Forms

“…A magic square consists of rows and columns of numbers arranged so that carrying out the same arithmetic operation across the rows and down the columns results in the same number. Christian, Jewish, and Muslim mystics used magic squares to demonstrate miracles to the heathen in order to convert them, to deduce and manipulate the flows of divine knowledge in the world, and to marvel at the unity of creation (see Falkener, 1961Falkener, [1892; Karpenko, 1993). Number here did not describe countable objects or phenomena in the world; rather, number was a marvel, and was understood not to reference preexisting objects in the world, but to have been, from the cosmic beginning, evidentiary for God's design.…”