RE: A Note on Numbers (was: Re: VMs: Random Text Generation)

["GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxx>]

Nick wrote:

(re: folio 49v)

> Because the set you point to has (what looks to me)
> more like a period of 7
> and repeats a few times, might I suggest that it's more
> likely to be the
> initials of the days of the week? This is a construct
> I've seen a number of
> times in medieval calendars, in various languages.
>
> Others (of a more astrological and/or numerological
> orientation) might
> point to this perhaps being linked with the 7
> traditional planets: but the
> loop makes it seem more likely to be calendrical (to me).


Having stared at this page long and hard over time, and comparing
it to known constructs in almanacs and other zodiacal literature,
I had come to the conclusion that the would-be decipher's
numbering (1-5) was not too far out of line, but that they are not
numbers, more of an expected order.

*IF* our decipherer is correct, and the first character is ignored
for the first section, that leaves 12 symbols, sets of 7 in an
order.  Apply the same logic to section two and we have another
set of 12 symbols in an order.  I also assume the number 7 refers
to planetary influence.

This matches a couple of known constructs - Either we have a 24
hour planetary influence chart here, or more likely, a 12 month
calendar of planetary influences, divided in two.  This would be
the positive and negative aspects, the "light and dark", much like
the divided zodiac drawings in the VMS, and to me the most logical
of choices.

That these symbols may stand for planetary signs does not mean
these symbols do not also equate to numbers in the cipher scheme,
but *may* indicate something of the construction of the cipher.  I
say this because I've also spent a great deal of time
contemplating the numerous repetitions of 17.  If the son and the
moon are the two halves, the "light and dark", then 17 is the 12
signs of the zodiac and the 5 lesser planets.  This is not a
wholly unknown scheme, since somewhere in my studies I've run
across a similar scheme that dealt with the 17 consonants in a
system devoid of vowels.  A separate mechanism was used to
determine transmutation of vowels, which allowed for a cipher text
to be generated that resembled the angel names of Trithemius, or
the "Enochian" of Dr. John Dee.  The VMS text isn't very far
afield of these two.

It's been a couple of years and a lot has happened to fog my
memory since then, but I believe my source was an understanding of
Agrippa's Second Book, coupled with information gleaned from the
spurious Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy.  If memory serves me,
most if not all of this work was available from
http://www.esotericarchives.com/esoteric.htm.  (Very good site - I
bought his CD for quick reference.)

GC

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