What is it????

Fascinating thread.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

It's been many years and I don't have good memory of what I've read nor do I have the reference books I once owned BUT; Has anyone checked out "magical squares" - looks like that area might be fruitful for understanding what the symbolism means.

Kabbalism might give an indication of what kind of meaning various numbers may have but probably will not be useful for explaining the patterns used - why and their meaning. For that It might be best to research Alchemy Masonic symbolism and 17th-18th century numerology as used in magical practice.

 

Kabalistic medal

I bought a silver version of this medal at the New York International just a couple months ago. The magic square is simple (all row, columns,and main diagonals have the same sum), misfit (is not composed to the digits 1 through 16), associated (every skewed pair = 8), which causes it to be semi-pandiagonal (the broken diagonals of lengths 2 and 2 also add up to 16). Half of the overlapping 2x2 squares add up to 16.

I find it fascinating that Albert Wiss created a 16 square (4x4) grid where all the digits add up to 16. I quickly came up with a 9 square where all the digits add up to 9 (I think the center square must be 3 for this to work). The histogram of the square and star are both as flat as they can be. With 9 possible digits (since each pair adds up to 8, you can only use 0 through 8 unless you allow negative integers), you have to use all but one pair twice, and both use 0 and 8 once and 1 through 7 twice.

You've also noted that the dates' integers all add up to 16: 1942, 1492, 1861.
To make 1776 add up to 16, he added the day and month 7/4/1776 = 32 = 16 + 16.

If the medal was to be used to find significant years, you leave out much of the 20th Century and most of the 21st because 1960 is the last year until 2059 where all digits add up to 16. I guess you have to add in the day and year like he did with Independence Day. I would note that 9.11.2001 adds up to 14 (23 if you count 11 as a number and not two digits that sum to 2), so he missed the boat on that one. And 7.20.1969 = 34 (52) which is not a multiple of 16.

I am a practicing Kabalist. I've even studied the Zohar in Aramaic. So it seems likely the 10 stars refer to the 10 sefirot, which are God's emanations. These, along with many other elements of Jewish and Christian Kabala, have been adopted by the Masons and Theosophists. Henry Cornelius Agrippa's "Occult Philosophy" of 1531 (copied by Barret in 1801 as "The Magus") includes a section on magic squares where a different sized square is associated with a different ancient planet (including the sun and moon). However, those squares were all perfect (included all integers from 1 to N^2 where N is the length of each row or column). So magic squares have been in Christian Kabala since about the beginning (it started around 1480 in northern Italy). The 3x3 magic square has been noticed by Jewish mystics because the central value 5 is represented by heh, the same letter that stands for God (HaShem), while each row/column/diagonal adds up to 15, the value of yud heh (another name of God), and the whole square adds up to 45, the value of mem heh (mah = who?, a name of God used in the Zohar). I've seen 3x3 squares on "pure" Hebrew amulets, but when the other squares appear in Hebrew, they were clearly adopted from the Christian Kabalists. BTW, even in Israel, people use the word "Kabalist(ic)" simply to mean something they don't understand. Technically, to be Kabalistic it has to be based on the ten sefirot or the Shekhina as God's feminine presence on earth, or at least based on quotes from a book that describes those (e.g., "The Magus").

What I have been unable to decipher from the medal are the letters surrounding the square. Obviously they are in ascending order and unique, and of course, there are 16 of them. However, rather strange ones are skipped. If it is used to decode, you might actually want to use B, F, and T. Now the English letters are the great-grandchildren of the Phoenecian/Hebrew, and many of them are related. So you many not need a separate I and J, because they both came from yud (and this medal has only I). However, F, U, V, and W all come from vov, yet this medal shows three of the four. If it was used for decoding, you'd think they'd double letters up like the telephone pad triples them up.

 

Now that is what I call an answer happylion!... Mystery solved!

 

Thanks happylion! Great answer. I m still on it to find more information.
Greetings from Belgium !!!

 

I think someone should call the " Antique Road Show" or maybe " Pawn Stars" and then we can see what they say lol. Great coins.....Now I want one

 

Thanks for the answer happylion.

Still curious as to why they were created in such quantities (obviously made the rounds world wide) yet no one knows their true purpose or to whom they were originally given and why.

 

if any one is still interested th numbers 31,461538 is a location in Pfluger Tx. USA
checked in gooogle maps
maybe buried treasure? lol

 

anybody has any updated info? i too have a silver version of this coin/medal