 |
|
Absent Fathers and Missing Camels: Notes on Sudanese Sand Divination |
It is well documented that Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa , a forerunner of modern western steganography (along with Al-Kindi ) studied Ilm al-raml - an Arabic term that translates to "science of the sand" and refers to an ancient divination practice that involves drawing lines and diagrams on the ground to foretell the future.
Trithemius introduced Agrippa to advanced cryptographic techniques and mystical mathematical systems which got him into trouble with the Catholic Church . Agrippa aimed to bring about a renewal of religion, culture, and society through rejection of false, oppressive medieval traditions and authorities and through recovery of a heritage of (supposedly) ancient wisdom that included occult texts. He advocated for recovering "prisca theologia" - ancient theological wisdom predating Christian orthodoxy.
The ‘science of the sand’ that Agrippa’s mentor Johann Heidenberg (Johannes Trithemius) studied follows in a long tradition of geomancy or ‘divination by earth’ referring to an ancient system of divination of likely African origin.
Emanating from older African traditions, Arabic geomantic knowledge found its way into Europe through the translation of Arabic treatises into Latin. Geomancy became the ‘go-to’ divinatory procedure for literate scholars of occult philosophy throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Studying non-European, (primarily Afro-asiatic) texts enabled the mathematicians to explore indigenous information systems that predated the Church as well as provided them with the means to ‘encrypt’ their correspondences on the subject matter.
Scholarly Sources:
- Molefi Kete Asante's "Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge"
- Yosef Ben-Jochannan's "African Origins of Major Western Religions"
Critical Comparative Research:
- Mathematical transmission routes:
- Ancient Egyptian numerical systems
- Hieroglyphic computational frameworks
- Astronomical/geometrical encoding methods
Significant Researchers:
- René Schwaller de Lubicz (studied Egyptian sacred mathematics)
- Anthony Browder (architectural-mathematical connections)
- Cheikh Anta Diop (mathematical-cultural transmission theories)
Geomantic Transmission Pathways:
- Berber mathematical traditions
- Trans-Saharan knowledge exchange
- Arabic mathematical intermediaries
Recommended Deep Research Sources:
- "Sacred Science" - R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz
- "Civilization or Barbarism" - Cheikh Anta Diop
- "African Origins of Dialectical Thinking" - Ortigues & Ortigues