The Math Behind the Magic: Hacking History for Thriller Fiction
When I set out to write a thriller, I knew I wanted to explore the intersection of ancient magic and modern technology. But I didn’t want to invent a magic system out of thin air. I wanted to use something real, something buried in the dusty archives of human history.
That search led me to the Ars Goetia.
For those unfamiliar, the Ars Goetia is the first section of a 17th-century grimoire known as The Lesser Key of Solomon. Historically, it was used as a catalog of demons, detailing their ranks, their specific seals, and the exact incantations required to summon and bind them. For centuries, mainstream history dismissed these texts as the superstitious ramblings of the Dark Ages.
But as I researched the grimoire, I noticed something fascinating. The text wasn’t chaotic. It was incredibly rigid. It relied on precise geometric seals, highly specific phrasing, and strict conditional rules. If a practitioner drew a line at the wrong angle or mispronounced a syllable, the “spell” failed.
To my modern eyes, this didn’t look like witchcraft. It looked exactly like computer programming.
Think about it: What is coding? It is the use of a highly specific, complex language (like C++ or Python) that most of the population doesn’t understand, used to manipulate the invisible architecture of our world. If a coder misses a single semicolon, the entire program crashes.
I realized that the ancient occultists weren’t just waving wands in the dark. They were attempting to write the source code of reality.
This historical revelation became the engine for my fiction. What if those ancient, forbidden geometries were actually a flawless mathematical language? And what if a modern, traumatized MIT hacker finally figured out how to compile that ancient math into a modern digital architecture?
Suddenly, magic wasn’t just mystical—it was a weaponized virus.
Writing historical thrillers requires you to look at the past through a different lens. History is rarely as neat or as boring as the textbooks claim. Our ancestors were brilliant, driven, and often terrifyingly ambitious. When we, as writers, take the time to dust off those forgotten ledgers and view them through the framework of the modern world, we don’t just find inspiration for our stories. We realize that the line between ancient magic and modern science is razor-thin, just waiting for someone brave enough to cross it.
