09-05-2020, 05:09 PM
I've come with an intriguing idea. No sure if I'm the first one with it, because it now looks to me self-evident to propose this view. Anyway.
I'm leaving out the two Zodiac diagrams, of course, they are evidently part of the Zodiac cycle which continues further in the VMS.
What I'm speaking of are four circular diagrams arranged in sequence starting from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and ending on f70r2.
Notably, all of them are situated on a single bifolio. I mean that a single large bifolio was taken to draw these diagrams (and when space was left in the end, it was just used to hold two Zodiac diagrams). This loosely suggests that the four diagrams may be part of the same topic or even a set of homogenous ("equal rank") subtopics. (It's an interesting question whether the same can be said about Q9, but it's off-topic here).
The whole set is depicted by Rene here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (you can refer to that for pictures as well)
So, four supposedly "homogenous" diagrams, if considered from the astrological viewpoint, immediately suggest the four Elements.
If so, which is which? The one in f70r1 looks like Water, because the whole stuff looks like water indeed. The next (and the last) one, f70r2, has the unambigous Sun in the centre. The fact that the Voynich author(s) took no trouble to disguise the Sun in their drawings does them a really bad service. Sun governs Fire, as it's widely known. The pattern surrounding the Sun in f70r2 does not self-evidently look like fire. Maybe without the blue paint it may have passed for fire, but the blue paint is really out of place here. But let's suppose there was no other paint at hand. If this is one of the Elements, it just has to be Fire, because of the Sun.
What we deduce next is that if the Ruler of Fire (the Sun) is depicted in the centre of Fire, then what is depicted in the centres of other Elements must be their respective Rulers. I referred to this You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. for information about Rulers. The matter is complicated by that there are three sets of Rulers: Day Rulers, Night Rulers and Participating Rulers. So, each Element has three Rulers, one for day, another for night, and yet another to participate I don't know in what. If even participating Rulers are not used in all systems (as Wikipedia reports), then each Element has two Rulers still. Interestingly, the Sun occurs only once in the table of 12 Rulers - that is, as the Day Ruler for Fire. This additionally strengthens the grounds for f70r2 to be Fire, since no other Element is ever ruled by the Sun. This, further, means that the Rulers in these diagrams are Day Rulers specifically, because the Sun is never a Night or Participating Ruler. So we can limit the search space to Day Rulers.
Moving back to the supposed Water in f70r1, we find from the Wikipedia table that the Day Ruler of Water is Venus. Hence, the six-pointed star has to be Venus. But the six-pointed star is also depicted in the centre of f69r, which means that Venus must be the Day Ruler for two Elements at once. And indeed it is!! According to the table, Venus also is the Day Ruler for Earth. I leave it out of consideration for now what may be the connection of the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. pattern to Earth, and what those tubes (?) might be (in fact, I have no ready ideas). It's worth mentioning that the supposed Venus in Earth has three stripes in each of its rays while the supposed Venus in Water has not. In other respects, the two are similar.
The one Element left is f69v, the diagram which I personally describe as the "Voynich pipes". By way of exclusion, it has to be Air. This is not bad, I vaguely remember that in the "Voynich Pipes" thread or elsewhere somebody suggested those pipes to represent winds. This is, I think, not impossible, because a pipe is something that can be blown in, and thus it has some association or allegory to the wind. And, according to the table of the Rulers, the Day Ruler of Wind is Saturn. So the eight-pointed star has to be Saturn.
Now, if all this holds true, this brings out unprecedented opportunities for further contextual analysis.
The graphical patterns of the Elements to be found and their context to be analysed elsewhere in the VMS.
Same thing for six- and eight-pointed stars (large ones, of course, and not those in Q20 or held by the nymphs). f67r2 and f68v2 immediately come to mind.
Non-six-or-eight-pointed stars (if any out there, potentially f67v2) to be identified as celestial bodies by way of exclusion.
Astrological notions associated with Elements, such as Zodiacal constellations/triplicities, seasons, conditions etc. to be searched for in diagrams and texts of Q10.
I'm leaving out the two Zodiac diagrams, of course, they are evidently part of the Zodiac cycle which continues further in the VMS.
What I'm speaking of are four circular diagrams arranged in sequence starting from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and ending on f70r2.
Notably, all of them are situated on a single bifolio. I mean that a single large bifolio was taken to draw these diagrams (and when space was left in the end, it was just used to hold two Zodiac diagrams). This loosely suggests that the four diagrams may be part of the same topic or even a set of homogenous ("equal rank") subtopics. (It's an interesting question whether the same can be said about Q9, but it's off-topic here).
The whole set is depicted by Rene here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (you can refer to that for pictures as well)
So, four supposedly "homogenous" diagrams, if considered from the astrological viewpoint, immediately suggest the four Elements.
If so, which is which? The one in f70r1 looks like Water, because the whole stuff looks like water indeed. The next (and the last) one, f70r2, has the unambigous Sun in the centre. The fact that the Voynich author(s) took no trouble to disguise the Sun in their drawings does them a really bad service. Sun governs Fire, as it's widely known. The pattern surrounding the Sun in f70r2 does not self-evidently look like fire. Maybe without the blue paint it may have passed for fire, but the blue paint is really out of place here. But let's suppose there was no other paint at hand. If this is one of the Elements, it just has to be Fire, because of the Sun.
What we deduce next is that if the Ruler of Fire (the Sun) is depicted in the centre of Fire, then what is depicted in the centres of other Elements must be their respective Rulers. I referred to this You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. for information about Rulers. The matter is complicated by that there are three sets of Rulers: Day Rulers, Night Rulers and Participating Rulers. So, each Element has three Rulers, one for day, another for night, and yet another to participate I don't know in what. If even participating Rulers are not used in all systems (as Wikipedia reports), then each Element has two Rulers still. Interestingly, the Sun occurs only once in the table of 12 Rulers - that is, as the Day Ruler for Fire. This additionally strengthens the grounds for f70r2 to be Fire, since no other Element is ever ruled by the Sun. This, further, means that the Rulers in these diagrams are Day Rulers specifically, because the Sun is never a Night or Participating Ruler. So we can limit the search space to Day Rulers.
Moving back to the supposed Water in f70r1, we find from the Wikipedia table that the Day Ruler of Water is Venus. Hence, the six-pointed star has to be Venus. But the six-pointed star is also depicted in the centre of f69r, which means that Venus must be the Day Ruler for two Elements at once. And indeed it is!! According to the table, Venus also is the Day Ruler for Earth. I leave it out of consideration for now what may be the connection of the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. pattern to Earth, and what those tubes (?) might be (in fact, I have no ready ideas). It's worth mentioning that the supposed Venus in Earth has three stripes in each of its rays while the supposed Venus in Water has not. In other respects, the two are similar.
The one Element left is f69v, the diagram which I personally describe as the "Voynich pipes". By way of exclusion, it has to be Air. This is not bad, I vaguely remember that in the "Voynich Pipes" thread or elsewhere somebody suggested those pipes to represent winds. This is, I think, not impossible, because a pipe is something that can be blown in, and thus it has some association or allegory to the wind. And, according to the table of the Rulers, the Day Ruler of Wind is Saturn. So the eight-pointed star has to be Saturn.
Now, if all this holds true, this brings out unprecedented opportunities for further contextual analysis.
The graphical patterns of the Elements to be found and their context to be analysed elsewhere in the VMS.
Same thing for six- and eight-pointed stars (large ones, of course, and not those in Q20 or held by the nymphs). f67r2 and f68v2 immediately come to mind.
Non-six-or-eight-pointed stars (if any out there, potentially f67v2) to be identified as celestial bodies by way of exclusion.
Astrological notions associated with Elements, such as Zodiacal constellations/triplicities, seasons, conditions etc. to be searched for in diagrams and texts of Q10.
