3 research outputs found
simiya sudduth 2025
No full textThe Confluence Tarot is a decolonial reinterpretation of the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck, rooted in the cultural and ecological landscapes of the Mississippi River Valley. As a mixed-race Black and Indigenous, queer, femme, neurodivergent mother and artist, I created this project to critique exclusionary narratives in traditional tarot and to center communities historically erased from its imagery.
Through a developing body of illustrated cards and an accompanying playlist, the work combines visual art, sound, and public practice to create an immersive tool for reflection, divination, and healing. The imagery draws on archival, historical, and contemporary sources to embed local histories, ancestral symbols, and lived experiences into the visual language of the deck. The playlist, spanning hip hop, soul, jazz, R&B, and experimental sound, extends each archetype into the sonic realm, inviting a multisensory engagement with the cards.
Emerging from my transdisciplinary practice in public art, sound healing, and community care, The Confluence Tarot operates as both a spiritual tool and a cultural critique. It challenges systems of white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy, and ableism, while affirming practices of joy, rest, and collective liberation. This thesis documents the project’s development and theoretical grounding, positioning The Confluence Tarot as an offering of reclamation, resistance, and transformation
An esoteric interpretation of the Basmala in the Kitab shajarat al-yaqin
No full textThe study analyzes the basmala according to the Isma‘ilism, in particular to the formulation adopted in a Qarmatian Isma‘ili. treatise, Kitab šajarat al-yaqin (IV/X sec.). The theory represents an interesting example of Isma‘ili attitude to the basmala, that is considered the only and adequate way to speak of God. Particularly striking is that, in conformity with the Isma‘ili doctrine, the author reads the basmala as a metaphorical representation of three systems, the cosmological, the epistemological and the imamic. Thus, it is displayed the intrinsic unity of all the levels of reality recognized within the Isma‘ilism. On the other hand, this symbolic exegesis of the basmala can be related to the simiya, the esoteric science of letters which was considered by the Isma‘ili groups with philosophical tendencies to be the most and universal kind of knowledge. In so doing, the application of the simiya to the basmala becomes the sign of the intrinsic unity of the Universe and of its perfection
La sîmîâ en Al-Andalus
No full textS.miy.�f es una palabra arabe que en los diccionarios al uso suele traducirse
como �emagia blanca�f o �emagia natural�f. En efecto, la llamada �gciencia de la s.miy.�f�h (�eilm al-s.miy.�f)
es un tipo de magia bien conocida en el mundo arabe desde la Edad Media hasta nuestros
dias. Tras discutir brevemente las etimologias propuestas para el termino, repasaremos
las definiciones que han dado de esta ciencia medieval autores clasicos como .hih.b al-D.n
al-Qar.f. (s. XIII), Ibn Jald.n (s. XIV) o H.y.. Jal.fa (s. XVII), subrayando sus divergencias.
Tambien comentaremos su practica tal como se expone en algunos textos de ciencias ocultas
antiguos.
Tras ello, analizaremos el significado, conceptos basicos y practica de la s.miy.�f en al-
Andalus, basandonos principalmente en la obra del autor sufi Muhammad b. �eAl. b. T.mart
al-Andalus. (s. XIII - XIV) titulada Kanz al-�eul.m wa-l-durr al-manz.m (�gEl Tesoro de las ciencias
y la Perla ensartada�h), donde dedica un breve capitulo a dicha ciencia, lo que nos llevara a
relacionar el sufismo con la practica de las ciencias ocultas en el mundo islamico.S.miy.�f is an Arabic word that uses to be translated as �ewhite magic�f or
�enatural magic�f. In fact, the so-called �gscience of al-S.miy.�f�h is a kind of magic well known
in the Arab world since the Middle Ages. In this paper, after a short revision of the different
etymologies suggested for this word, we discuss the definitions given to the this magical
science by classic authors, namely .hih.b al-D.n al-Qar.f. (s. XIII), Ibn Jald.n (s. XIV) and
H.y.. Jal.fa (s. XVII), remarking the differences in their definitions. After that, we analyze the meaning, basic concepts and practice of the simiya� in al-
Andalus, as exposed in the book entitled Kanz al-�ulum wa-l-durr al-manzum, written by the
sufi author Muhammad b. �Ali Ibn Tumart al-Andalusi (s. XIII- XIV), what lead us to relate
sufism with the practice of occult sciences in the Islamic world
