The Ezekiel Light

In 1842, William Hamilton first described quarterions, a mathematical idea that describes mechanical operations in three-dimensional space. He was mulling over this idea with his wife as they were walking to the Royal Irish Academy. Struck by inspiration, he carved the formula into the stone of Brougham Bridge so that they would not be late for an appointment.

In a letter to John Graves, Hamilton describes a "vision or fever dream of a curious spirit". He described the spirit as a bright white spherical luminaire of a water lily. The water lily appeared to be spinning in a wheel inside a larger wheel. Graves would later call this spirit, "the Ezekiel Light".

Hamilton describes the conversation as a series of questions in several different languages including Arabic, Sanskrit, and Malay. When the discussion moved to Ionic Greek, he asked the spirit if he could name him Archimedes to which the spirit responded that Archimedes was a splendid conversationalist when he wasn't tinkering about.

Hamilton remembered little else about this conversation, but credited the spirit and Graves as instrumental in refining quaternion theory. He closed his letter with a request to meet soon.

Graves derided his friend Hamilton over the vision of this bizarre light and vision. He inquired on Hamilton's health and choice of drink. Graves remarked that Hamilton was a great poet or a great mathematician, but the attempt of both would be his undoing. This may be why the other visits of the Ezekiel Light were not discovered until years after his death. Amongst his papers, a folio entitled "A Dialogue with Polyhymnia" described his encounters with the spirit and their discussions of "mathematics, languages, and meter". It was published posthumously in 1881.

Late 19th century mystics would create the "Celestial Numerology" from the ideas in this work along with ideas of Arthur Eddington and Nathan Löb David Zimmer. Graves would write about his concept of octonions (which he named octaves) but also wrote to friends later in life about his own visit from the Ezekiel Light. In that conversation, the spirit asked, "If 8 is greater than 4, is not 16 greater than 8?" This would haunt Graves and mysticism for decades. 

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