Re: VMs: A Possible Interpretation of the Four Figures, one with an Egg

[Nick Pelling <nickpelling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

At 12:57 08/09/2004 -0700, Eric wrote:
> For similar drawings in the VMS, please look at the
> images on folio 85r2 and 86v4. One set of four,
> probably male, figures around the sun. One set of
> four, probably female, figures around the moon. Lots
> of objects being held - eggs, cups, bowls, wheat or
> straw, flower, chain, cane, etc. (all up for debate).
> One female figure points away from the viewer. Raw
> images and some clean up I have done are at:
>
> http://www.rebelconcept.com/voynich/male_female.htm
>
> While these don't have the rings of letters around
> them like f57v, they are surrounded by copy and have
> possibly richer content in their illustration. In any
> case, they are the most similar diagrams to the
> figures on f57v.

While I'm happy with the cosmological / astrological / zodiacal / strega / 
agricultural / calendrical interpretation of Quires 9-11, the 
above-mentioned set of three circular diagrams seem to be playing a 
different role - carrying a different kind of information.

FWIW, my current train of thought on this particular set of pages was 
prompted by Eric's take on f86r2 and f86v4: as much of my work has gone 
into trying to read the visual languages in the VMs, the idea that the 
female/moon page was deliberately obscured by the rows of "tombstones" - 
apparently some kind of steganography - is particularly interesting. Take 
away the obscuring tombstones and what remains on the page? Perhaps the 
answer is simply "a magic circle".

ATM I'm carefully re-reading Richard Kieckhefer's excellent "Forbidden 
Rites", which describes Clm 849 (a 15th century necromancer's 
manual/compilation from Munich) in detail: there, magic circles tend to 
accompany what Kieckhefer classifies as "illusionist" demonic magic - many 
of those rites involve drawing out a circle (sometimes with the blood of a 
hoopoe, etc), and invoking various sets of demonic spirits representing the 
four main compass directions (which I've mentioned before in the context of 
f57v). Perhaps that specifically is what we're looking at (through  some 
kind of visual steganographic filter) here: it would seem a fairly good 
candidate.

Finally, Kieckhefer briefly mentions some late Byzantine demonic magic in 
one footnote, and that might also be an interesting tradition to look at in 
this context. Just a thought! :-)

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 


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