The same square is to be found in the Alchemical-Kabbalistic text Aesch Mezareph and is called me-zahav, it is the square for the ‘water of gold’. Unfortunately the original Hebrew text of this book is lost and perhaps casts further doubt on the Hebrew usage as you point out. Still as with all proper magic squares the sum of the various lines must add up to the same figure in order for the square to be ‘magic’ and the change in Hebrew letters you propose would negate the intrinsic nature of the square.

The blind copying of manuscripts, with all the errors that such copying can bring does not bode well for the preservation of a tradition, but it must be realized that there are different traditions to be preserved, which may or may not fit into contemporary views. In the case of esotericism one often encounters a synthesis of various traditions a trait consistent with its own approach.

I wish I could attend this artshow, it looks like great fun!

“Even today, alchemy is still widely misunderstood. The popular images are of crazy old men boiling up potions to turn lead to gold, or charlatans getting rich by convincing gullible kings that they can perform this transformation. Some alchemy was like this, but much of it is more aptly regarded as pre-scientific chemical technology. The Italian craftsman Cennino Cennini wrote a craftsman’s manual around 1390 describing the many pigments then available and how they might be obtained, made and used. He mentions alchemy frequently – but not as an esoteric or mystical art. Instead, he regards it simply as a convenient manufacturing method for his colours.

It is no coincidence that alchemists were making colours for artists. Colour is central to alchemy. To make the Philosopher’s Stone, the substance that could allegedly transform base metals to gold, one had to conduct chemical reactions that would take the raw materials through a specified sequence of colour changes. So it is not surprising that the alchemists tended to focus their attention on the substances that offered a wide range of different colours. These turned out to be many of the same materials that artists were using as pigment”

The Alchemy of the Artist – C. Fisher

For years they sought to transubstantiate
Those Wizened Old Men whose hearts had
Hardened into that substance they sought to alter.

The Alchemists puttered and fretted about
In their dank and dusty laboratories
Hiding their secrets and revealing no mysteries.

They tightened their grips on Nature bending Her,
Twisting Her, but never really understanding Her
Or taking time to revel in Her delights.

They were no magicians, only charlatans with
Solid work ethics and even more demanding
Ethics of Brotherhood.

Meanwhile . . .

In the attics and in streets, in poverty
In plain sight, hid the true wizards
And they danced and sang and drank and drugged.

They were imps and fools, thieves and adulterers,
But they were full of magic, of that most uncanny ability
And so it was with every pencil stroke that artists

Turned lead into gold.