Ancient magicians as innovation consultants

The Codex Justinianus (534 AD), being the book of law for ancient Rome at that time, banned magicians and, in doing so, itemised the types:

  • A haruspex is one who prognosticates from sacrificed animals and their internal organs;
  • a mathematicus, one who reads the course of the stars;
  • a hariolus, a soothsayer, inhaling vapors, as at Delphi;
  • augurs, who read the future by the flight and sound of birds;
  • a vates, an inspired person - prophet;
  • chaldeans and magus are general names for magicians;
  • maleficus means an enchanter or poisoner.

I happen to have spent my career in a number of fields that promise to have some kind of claim to supernatural powers: design, innovation, startups…

It’s not hard to run through a few archetypes of the people in those worlds, and map them onto types of ancient magician.

  • Those like Steve Jobs (with his famous Reality Distortion Field) who can convincingly tell a story of the future, and by doing so, bring it about by getting others to follow them – prophets.
  • Inhaling the vapours and pronouncing gnomic truths? You’ll find all the thought leaders you want in Delphi, sorry, on LinkedIn.
  • Those with a good intuition about the future who bring it to life with theatre, and putting people in a state of great excitement so they respond – ad planners. Haruspex.
  • Those who have the golden mane of charisma: enchanters. Startup founders.
  • People with a great aptitude for systems and numbers, who can tell by intuition what will happen, from systems that stump the rest of us. We call them analysts now. MBAs. Perhaps the same aptitude drew them to read the stars before? Mathematicus.
  1. ​Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview​