RE: VMs: Finding_02

["GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxx>]

I really like this, reminds me of old times.  Several years ago I
worked on a publishing project with an extremely well-known Native
American artist.  Sitting in his lavish house, I often observed
that his childish drawings were born through extreme effort.  Not
the effort of a great man struggling to express himself, but the
effort of a simple man fighting a major hangover to meet a
deadline.  This was the state of art then, and even now, I assume.

What never ceased to amaze me was that his art steadily
depreciated in line with his health, but the talk was never-ending
on how he had "simplified a form", or some other endless dribble
about his genious.  People crawled out from under every rock to
praise and edify the failings of a doomed man, a man whose talent
faded with his health and his drinking.

I knew the man, not the art, and the man suffered because his art
was not what his mind expected it to be.  There are always those
that look for endless levels of meaning in a mustard seed, but
could it just be that the only meaning there is what is visible?
Just ignore this.

GC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:owner-vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx]On
> Behalf Of Larry Roux
> Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2003 10:37 PM
> To: vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: VMs: Finding_02
>
>
> You are right.  You have peaked my interest in f86.
>
> And here is what I interperet from what I have seen...
> I was looking at f86 SE - particularly the circle with
> the "mountain, square object and stars" and realized
> that the mountain is not a mountain at all.  It is made
> up of what I thought were seperators in other pages.
>
> Now I think the lines with the intermittant 3 lines are
> paths.  The "scales" may be tomb stones.  So the souls
> of the dead are rising, passing through the strange
> square where some appear to line up as if joining an
> army and others pass into the night sky.  That made me
> look at the other f86 pages:
>
> f86r2 - Sun in the Center with 4 winds blowing out.  Life?
> f86v4 - Moon in the Center.  Surrounded by graves.
> Death.  Is the catholic person on the West throwing
> holy water on the graves?  Interestingly, the second
> word in the outer circle [Sheody] closely matches what
> I "see" when I look at it: 'Deceda'.  Sounds like a
> word for death or dead.  Does that make the second word
> in f86r2 [otedy] life?
>
> The last words on f86v4 can be thought of as numbers as
> well.  From earlier pages where dates seemed to work -
> and using Teague numbers this could read 15 ?month?
> 1533  (I know Francisco Pizarro entered Cuzco, Peru on
> 15 November 1533...though I would bet the month is July.)
>
> hmmmmm.....There are ever so many possibilities...
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ******************************
> Larry Roux
> Syracuse University
> lroux@xxxxxxx
> *******************************
> >>> jorvms@xxxxxxxxxxxx 06/05/03 17:35 PM >>>
> Hi everybody:
>
> My former post proposing the identification of folio 86
> from the Voynich
> manuscript as an early rendition of the kabbalistic
> Sephirotic tree seems to
> have attracted some renewed interest to that folio.
> Prior to posting that
> understanding as a "finding" I checked the VMS email
> list archives for the
> last 10 years and found no reference to an equivalent
> identification. I was
> kindly informed yesterday by Jim Gillogly that a brief
> reference to that
> possibility had been made once, in an off-and and less
> explicit way, as :
> "Perhaps this diagram is an attempt to draw the
> mysterious device described
> in the Cabal, or the apocalyptic vision of Ezra, or
> Heron's hydraulic
> gadgets, or..." and by Rene Zandbergen about an email
> chat with Gabriel on
> the same grounds.  That makes me feel glad that I
> pointed at such
> possibility in earnest and in extended detail, as I am
> strongly convinced
> that folio 86 holds a notable significance to the VMS
> as a whole. That
> conclusion can perhaps be achieved simply from the very
> size and amount of
> work needed to manufacture folio 86. It is a cumbersome
> piece, and  required
> as much vellum as six standard folios and a lot of time
> to sketch; its value
> to the whole document should be more than simply that of another
> illustration.
>
> The Sephirotic tree is an ancient and most respected
> representation. Please
> forgive me for repeating that it is traditionally
> regarded in its context of
> belief  as a model for the universe and the process of
> divine creation and
> transmutation. That is what I suppose --to be truthful,
> I feel positively
> sure-- that the VMS is all about: The first section
> should contain a
> cosmological view of botanics, where plants exist and
> develop in accordance
> to a set of universal rules. Peculiarities of several
> plants and the
> structure of their  processes are highlighted in this
> first section.
> Follows a study on bodily processes and another on
> astrological frameworks,
> according to the *same universal rules*. Finally, there
> is a medical science
> herbal section where properties derived from those
> universal rules,
> associated to the plants as displayed in the first
> section, are applied to
> healing recipes. Folio 86 becomes then a
> "plant-contaminated-like"
> rendition of the universe and the Sephirotic tree.  In
> support of that
> assumption please notice that two out of any
> three-in-a-line spheres in
> folio 86 are intently, even coercively portrayed  with
> a flower-kernel-like
> center or rim, with exception of the diagonals.
>
> The universal rules of creation and transmutation
> appearing throughout the
> VMS should probably be grounded on relationships such
> as: symmetry, 2
> (duality),  3(trinity), 2x2, 3x2, 3x3, 3x3+1 3x2x2,
> 6+1=7,  11+1=12,
> 12+1=13, etc. The concept of duality and derived models
> (2, 2x2, 2^n...) is
> virtually universal and aeons-old; the trinity appeared
> a little later in
> history (3, 3x3...); elaborate models like the  Zodiac
> combine those two
> views in a 2x3...x2...x3... modeling of reality. The
> VMS is oddly permeated
> with symmetrical compositions and particular counts of
> leaves and flowers.
> Those who feel interested by this statement might take
> a resolute look at
> many of the more bizarre plant drawings in VMS and
> realize that what I am
> trying to expose here becomes more evident.
>
> In that respect I suggest strongly: f17r, f17v, f33v,
> f36v, f37v, f40v,
> f47v, f52r and also: f9v, f10v, f11r, f13v, f14v, f16v,
> f18v, f22v, f24v,
> f31v, f34r, f39v, f43r, f45v, f54v, f93r. In the
> biological section: f78r,
> f81r, v83v, f84r. Remarkable also are the rigorously
> alternating dark/white
> little flowers at f106r. All those pictures with
> exception of f86 appear in
> the huge but rewarding 23Mb pdf file available for
> download at Bacon Books:
> http://www.baconbooks.net/   . My offer of a jpg file
> of f86 showing all the
> 9 rosettes in a single b&w picture to possibly
> interested members of VMS
> email list. is still standing.
>
> The  pictures of the Sephirotic Tree that I had the
> opportunity to examine
> until now contained 10 sephiroth and a variable number
> of paths or
> connections between them, usually 32 from 17th century
> on, and less than
> that in earlier versions. The number of paths being 32
> derives from
> 3+7+12+10; the initial summation of 22 letters is
> accounted for in the
> jewish ancient mystical book Sepher Yetzirah. The
> universal creative process
> is zealously and repeatedly described in the Sepher
> Yetzirah as being
> triadic and up-down, originated by the divine Spirit
> through three essences
> that are associated to the "motherly" first three
> letters of Hebrew
> alphabet: Aleph, Mem and Shin. The number of  sephirot
> being 10 derives
> clearly from 3 triads +1, that is the reason why I believe that
> Malkhut-kingdom the tenth sephirah was established for
> reasons of "perfect
> summation" and does not takes part in the triadic
> process of creation and
> transmutation. Folio 86 would then possibly be the
> earliest pictorial
> rendition of the Sephirothic tree in "recent" times.
>
> I hold the view that the Sephirotic tree was originally
> conceived  as a
> 3+3x2 process: the upper three "mother" essences
> originated  by the Spirit
> yield a lower worldly process that is accomplished
> through three oppositions
> or dilemmas. From the Sepher Yetzirah itself, in the
> translation by William
> Wynn Westcott: "The Three Mothers... are a great
> Mystery, very admirable and
> most recondite, and sealed as with six rings; and from
> them proceed Air,
> Fire and Water, which divide into active and passive
> forces...", "The Three
> are One, and that One stands above. The Seven are
> divided; three are over
> against three, and one(Malkhut-kingdom?) stands between
> the triads" One may
> arrive to that conclusion also by analysis of the
> contrasting, opposite
> character of the names of the six lower sephiroth.
>
> Please allow me to make an attempt to demonstrate my
> understanding of folio
> 86, of the way the universe is portrayed in it and in
> other renditions of
> the Sephirotic tree. Please be aware that I simply try
> to interpret here, as
> straightforwardly and objectively as possible,  the
> pictorial view of  a
> mediaeval man of study in relation to the philosophical
> meanings embodied in
> an ancient repository of mystical tradition.
>
> > Left-up concrete mother essence Binah, intelligence,
> water, Mem,  emanates
> subtle worldly dilemma below:
> Gevurah opposite to Hod,
> a sphere containing an orderly irradiating structure
> opposite to a
> jewel-like decorated one,
> justice  opposite to glory,
> severity opposite to celebration,
> austerity opposite to rejoice.
>
> > Middle-up abstract "first mother" essence Kether,
> crown, air, Aleph,
> emanates abstract worldly dilemma below:
> Tipheret opposite to Yesod,
> the supremely luxurious sphere opposite to a sphere
> that is a simplified
> version of the upper mother of this dilemma,
> beauty as opposite to fundament,
> variety as opposite to simplicity,
> plenty as opposite to essential.
>
> > Right-up subtle mother essence  Hokhmah, wisdom,
> fire, Shin emanates
> concrete worldly dilemma below:
> Hesed opposite to Netsah,
> a quite discrete and moderate  sphere opposite  to a
> opulent sphere
> containing structures like "buildings?" and "crops?",
> mercy as opposite to victory,
> kindness as opposite to conquest,
> benevolence as opposite to command.
>
> When I first recognized the economical  --Malkhut
> excluded and just basic
> paths-- shape of the Sephirotic tree on folio 86, I was
> startled, even
> amazed, to see that  the VMS rendering is coincident,
> almost (but not quite)
> identical, to a holistic structure that  sprouted
> amidst an independent
> study centered on psychology, philosophy, systems
> analysis and the structure
> of reality that I developed some time ago, much before
> I had acquired any
> knowledge about the existence of the VMS and folio 86.
> According to the
> understanding detailed in that study, the Sephirotic
> tree should illustrate
> a 3+3x2 process, that is, the evolutionary process of
> the triad as
> accomplished through a triad of dilemmas of everyday
> existence. Many of the
> central aspects of that study are displayed in an
> article by myself that was
> published at The Jung Page:
> http://www.cgjungpage.org/articles/javconsciousness.html
> One of the article's structural pictures:
> http://www.cgjungpage.org/graphics/japic2.html
>
> ==================================
> This post is already too long, it should  be looking
> more as the draft of an
> essay that I am forcing upon the VMS list, however I
> still need to add
> specific appreciation and replies to some list members:
>
> GC:
> Thanks for the friendly welcome message and  the
> availability of a valuable
> resource on the VMS.
>
> Jim Gillogly:
> Thanks for the welcome and for that precise and
> complete reference to the
> small bit on the Cabal and folio 86. I probably would
> never have located
> that alone.
>
> Rene Zandbergen:
> You built a very good site. The tripartite sectioning
> (Short/Long/Analysis)
> is somewhat confusing, though, with the "empty blocks"
> in some sections.
> Thanks for your commentary. In regards of the
> sephiroth, I think that it is
> better to stick to the original names, there are too
> many confusing
> accretions; I hope that the explanation above makes
> clearer my point of view
> in regards of a universal process comprising the 9
> sephiroth. The four
> external symbols could be perhaps a representation of
> the world according to
> a 2x2 system, which is older than the triadic or
> combination systems. The
> Egyptian sphinx is a 2x2 symbol. I can evaluate that
> better when I get a
> look at it, as my copy of f86 shows only a blurred SW "clock".
>
> Nick Pelling
> Thanks for your extended commentary on my former post.
> If folio 86 is indeed
> a representation of the Tree of Life, and perhaps its
> structure even
> permeates all of the VMS, then one could possibly
> search for keys to
> decipher it with approaches deriving from the old
> jewish techniques of
> gematria, notaricon and temura and also within hebrew
> language besides
> latin, that keeps being the most likely. Also, a
> general proposition in VMS
> would have been recognized to aid the deciphering.
>
> Gordon Rugg
> Thanks for your question. I do not qualify to speculate
> on that issue,
> though. I suppose that 1470 would be a nice guess for
> an earliest than the
> oldest already known picture of the Sephirotic tree.
> The oldest version that
> I know of is from Portae Lucis by Paulus Ricius, from 1516. See:
> http://www.billheidrick.com/tlc1998/tlcplg.htm
>
> Thank you all, for your attention and your patience,
>
> Jorge Aveleira
>
>
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