A strange relationship between mathematics and the occult began early on in Western history, and some of the most advanced intellectual minds fostered the study of numbers primarily as a stepping stone for understanding hidden truths about the physical world. This tendancy goes as far back as Pythagoras, but flourished notably in Early Modern Europe. John Napier (d. 1617), the Scottish intellectual called the “Marvellous Merchiston” by his contemporaries, is one such example. He played a key role in developing logarithms and decimals, enabling complicated calculations to be performed far more swiftly. In fact, tables stemming from his ideas were used by math students until the 1970’s when calculators became available. On the other hand, he attached great importance to a black rooster that was known as his familiar, and always kept a black spider with him in an expensive ivory box. In fact, Napier thought his most important work was his _A Plaine Discoverie of the Whole revelation of St John_, where he employed his mathematical prowess to compute the end of the world, which he thought was either going to be in 1688 or 1700. Why did so many mathematicians follow the occult paths? Perhaps it has something to do with the ways the manipulation of numbers can be performed independently of any physical connection to the world . . . What do you think?
Source(s): Engraving by John Beugo (1759-1841). Julian Havil has written a biography of John Napier (2014).
