VMs: Re: John Dee's "Tuba Veneris"...?

["Phil Legard" <philip.legard@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry that this post is so late - I've just moved house and it took ages to
get the phone connected...

> I posted the rest of Tuba Veneris for those who are interested.  The
reason
> I speculated that it might be an example of Ars Steganographiae is that
the
> invocations do not seem consistent with other magical texts I've examined,
> and seem more like those of Trithemius in Steganographia.  Plus the fact
> that Dee was a cryptographer, and was very excited when he finally secured
a
> copy of Steganographia.  I don't have anything more concrete than that,
and
> am not aware of anyone testing the theory.

I tried testing the conjurations with the ciphers laid out in Steganographia
I & II, but to no avail, although like yourself, I'm also of the opinion
that the words are hiding something. The group may find the following post,
by myself, to the ritual-magic Yahoo group of interest, it contains my
initial thoughts on the text. I wrote it in March, so I've probably changed
my mind about a few things. As I say below, I'm no good at Latin  and fell
for the 9th of June thing too - and probably a whole host of subtle and
not-so-subtle things as well. However, I now find myself living with two
classics scholars who I'm sure will help me with the text... As for the
forthcoming English translation I mention, I know some chaps involved with
the translator and editor and it's been 'in the works' since 1998 at least,
so I'm not holding my breath!

Regards,
Phil

Posted March 1st to ritual-magic
----------------------------------------------------

Hello - at last! ;o)

Recently I've been doing a little bit of research into a magical text known
as De Tuba Veneris (The Trumpet of Venus) attributed to John Dee. I'd like
to share a few of my thoughts on the text with the group. Note that I'm no
expert in Latin, so there may be a few fallacies in
what follows, but I believe that I have the gist of it...

The manuscript is in Latin and headed "Libellus Veneri Nigro Sacer" (Book
Sacred to the Black
Venus), beneath which is a drawing of the 'Black Venus' standing upon some
grass.

She has a black robe draped about her and is holding in one hand a roll of
parchment
with her sigils and in the other hand a (green coloured) horn - the trumpet
of Venus. Beneath is
a brief verse about the contents of the book. The book proper begins with a
brief description of what
each chapter contains and is signed "Joannes Dee Amatoribus Artis Magicae
S.P.D." and later we are
told that the work reached it's final form in London, June 1580. There now
follows a brief
description of the work.

The first chapter introduces us to the sigil of Venus which is to be
engraved on a hexagonal copper
plate. Copper being the metal of Venus and according to the system of number
symbolism attributed
to the Pythagoreans six was the number of Venus, as Agrippa writes:

"The number six, which consists of two threes, as
a Commixtion of both sexes, is by the Pythagorians
ascribed to generation, and marriage, and belongs
to Venus, and Juno."
(Occult Philosophy, Book II, Cap. xxi)
(see also "A Treatise on Angel Magic" p.105 and the ms. quoted in C.J.S.
Thompson's "Mysteries and
secrets of Magic" p.178 among others)

That is to say that six is the union of the first 'masculine' number (three)
and the first 'feminine' number (two). Note that in Agrippa's exposition 3
is also attributed to Juno and three to Venus. The author of the text was
obviously using Pythagorean symbolism as opposed to the more mainstream
Cabalistic symbolism in which the number of Venus is seven.

The seal of Venus itself has various Cabalistic signs on it, being the
astrological sigils of Venus, Taurus, Libra, part of Anael's seal and three
Geomantic symbols associated with

Venus (Amissio - Venus+Libra, Puella - Venus+Libra, Conjunctio - or Amissio
miscopied?).
There is also a large, complex figure which can be found in The Magical
Calendar published
by Adam McLean and is part of a sequence of sigils which become
progressively more complex
from Saturn to Luna. The seal is to be engraved in the day and hour of Venus
and fumigated with Verbane (herb of Taurus and Venus, see Agrippa I.xxxii),
"puscia" and "musco" (musk? moss? possibly mugwort, the herb of Libra? See
Agrippa).

Chapter two discusses the making of the trumpet of Venus. The process
involves taking a horn cut
from a live bull (e.g. the animal of Taurus) and preparing it with "vitriol"
(?) and vinegar at the prescribed time, after which the sigils are engraved
upon it. On one side are the astrological sigil of Venus, Anael, Libra,
Puella, on the other are the sigils of the six daemons of Venus.

The third chapter introduces us to the circle which is to be made of virgin
cloth or paper, six foot in
diameter, the inner circles three fingers in from each other. The
composition of the names is also to be done at the time of Venus. The names
in the circles are:

1. +Mi+chael+AGLA+Uri+el+ALPHA+Gabriel+OMEGA+Raph+ael+ON
2. +Joan+nes+JESUS+Lu+case+NAZ+RENUS+Ma+thew+REX+Mar+cus+JUDEORUM
(e.g. "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews", or I.N.R.I.)
3. +TETRAGRAMMATON+JEHOVA+ELOHIM+ADONAY

Chapter four introduces the six daemons, giving their names, conjurations
and sigils. The sigils are to
be engraved on tablets of beeswax mixed with soot of around an inch in
diameter, at the hour of Venus.

Note that it appears each spirit's name has three syllables - the numbers 2,
3 and 6 seem to play a
large part in the symbolism of the text. The conjurations are in a strange
barbarous tongue reminiscent of the type used in Trithemius' Steganographia
or Dee's Enochian language (although none of the words seem to be Enochian).
The sigils appear to incorporate stylisations of the sigils appearing in the
main sigil of Venus. The first is a stylised version of the astrological
glyph of  Venus, which the second also incorporates. The third contains one
of the geomantic symbols  connected to a rectangular shape, in the fourth
spirit's sigil the sign of Libra is incorporated. The fifth gives us the
glyph of Venus once more and the sixth incorporates the sign of Taurus.
Where the other elements of the spirits sigils come from I've yet to find
out.

The book of the spirits (Liber Spirituum) is then discussed. It should be
made from new parchment, a
page being allocated for each spirit upon which the name, seal and
conjuration should be written. The book should be entitled "Libellus Veneri
Nigrae Sacer". Once the book is finished it should be fumigated along with
the other items on the day and hour of Venus on a new moon with the prayer
of consecration being recited. The prayer is very well written compared to
those in other texts. It flows beautifully, seemingly written in the format
of three triple meters and a duple in the first three lines, one
triple and one duple to the last (although knowing little of poetry I could
not tell you the exact mode
used...) For example:

O Magne.Princeps An.aël Ol.ympi!
Te rogo.supplex ro.bora Vo.lumen
tuo qui.perenni.semper ho.nori
fonte la.vatur.

Chapter five gives us the prepearations and performance of the operation.
Essentially it is thus: at the allotted time the operators take their
implements to some secret or deserted place, having beforehand mentally (and
physically one presumes) purified themselves.
Having fumigated the area and recited the evocation of the spirits the
trumpet is blown to herald the
spirit. (?)

The welcome to the spirit is then recited, during which the spirit's sigil
is shown forth. The book closes
with some other notes and observations for the practitioners to follow
should the sprits lead the
magicians to treasure (which seems to be their main purpose), such as how to
remove it from the place and so on.

Whether or not De Tuba Veneris is a bona fide Dee text I believe it is an
important document of Renaissence "Trithemian" or "Agrippan" magic for many
reasons. For one it explains and shows the use of the Liber Spirituum. It
also shows how the magician would have employed the various tables and
correspondences such as de Bry's "Magical Calendar" published by Adam
McLean. It seems that the author was a Christian magician who like many of
the more intellectual magi of the age was fond of classical mythology and
literature (hence the use of Pythagorean symbolism and what  seems to be a
reference to "the gods of the underworld" in the consecration). However, one
of the big  mysteries about the text is - why the black Venus? Could it be a
reference to Isis? The black Maria?
One reference to the black Venus which I have come across is in Godfrey
Higgins' Anacalypsis (1833), a work which seemingly draws on many sources
that would have been available
to the Renaissence magus, such as the Orphic Hymns or would possibly have
contained some knowledge known to the author (such as Kircher's Oedipus
AEgypticus, 1652). He writes:

"The generative principle is considered to have
existed before light, and to be the mother of both
gods and men, as the generative source of all things.
In this character she is the black Venus of Orpheus,
(Orph. Hymn. Lxxxiii. 5, ii. 1, 2; Faber, Pag. Idol.
Vol. III p.49.) and the black Maia or Maria of Italy,
the Regina Coeli, Regina Stellarum, &c."
(p.313)

Unfortunately I have not been able to find a reference to a black Venus in
my copies of the Orphic
hymns, although I have found some references to black statues of Venus in
classical sources (to be detailed in a follow up post...)

I don't know much about the life of John Dee and I am trying to research
what he was doing around the  time of the books alleged composition. Could
De Tuba Veneris be Dee's treasure hunting book? I gather that he was living
in London and working with one Roger Cook around  1579-1581 after which he
started the Heptarchic work - does anyone have any insights?

A final note, De Tuba Veneris is at the moment only available in German
translation or in Latin on Joe
Petersen's Twilit Grotto archive CD, although an English translation is
apparently in the works.

Phil