The Voynich Ninja

And why are there fish drawn on folio f70v2? This is the constellation of Pisces. The Moon's path in the sky follows the ecliptic (the plane of the Earth's orbit). The constellation Pisces lies directly on this path.

(27-05-2026, 03:16 PM)Radim Dobeš Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.And why are there fish drawn on folio f70v2? This is the constellation of Pisces. The Moon's path in the sky follows the ecliptic (the plane of the Earth's orbit). The constellation Pisces lies directly on this path.

Pisces is a sign of the Zodiac, so of course it should appear in that section which is about the Zodiac. 

I believe you are wasting your time by trying to interpret the details of the drawings.  All of them are almost certainly decoration provided by the Scribe, with no significant contents.  The only meaningful information in each Zodiac diagram, provided by the Author in his draft, is likely to be just the rings of text, the list of 30 labels, and which sign of the Western Zodiac the diagram is supposed to be about. The sign icons in the center were probably copied by the Scribe from other books. The nymphs and stars too are likely to be his attempt at imitating similar diagrams in other books.

The overlap between the two barrels/baskets/pipes on the Pisces diagram can be explained simply by sloppiness of the Scribe (which he demonstrated in countless other drawings).

Here is what I think  happened.  The Scribe did not know hoe to divide a circle into a given number of equal parts, so he never planned the space for the nymphs.  He just started drawing the outer (last) ring of nymphs at ~11::00 o'clock and moved clockwise.  When he got at the end he found that he did not have enough space for one more nymph like the others, so he flipped it and put her barrel partly behind that of the first one.  Even so he was short of one nymph; that is why there are 29 nymphs.  Maybe he did not even notice.  When he drew the stars he miscounted and thought that he was missing two stars (actually only one), so he drew two stars in the central medallion; that is why there are 29 stars next to the nymphs but 31 in total.  Then he wrote the labels, which were provided by the Author in his draft; and after labeling the nymphs he still had one label to write, so he wrote it in the central medallion too. That is why there are 30 labels.

And the month names and the color paints are almost certainly additions by some later owner, so they are not sgnificant either.

All the best, --stolfi

(28-05-2026, 02:40 AM)Jorge_Stolfi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(27-05-2026, 03:16 PM)Radim Dobeš Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.And why are there fish drawn on folio f70v2? This is the constellation of Pisces. The Moon's path in the sky follows the ecliptic (the plane of the Earth's orbit). The constellation Pisces lies directly on this path.

Pisces is a sign of the Zodiac, so of course it should appear in that section which is about the Zodiac. 

I believe you are wasting your time by trying to interpret the details of the drawings.  All of them are almost certainly decoration provided by the Scribe, with no significant contents.  The only meaningful information in each Zodiac diagram, provided by the Author in his draft, is likely to be just the rings of text, the list of 30 labels, and which sign of the Western Zodiac the diagram is supposed to be about. The sign icons in the center were probably copied by the Scribe from other books. The nymphs and stars too are likely to be his attempt at imitating similar diagrams in other books.

The overlap between the two barrels/baskets/pipes on the Pisces diagram can be explained simply by sloppiness of the Scribe (which he demonstrated in countless other drawings).

Here is what I think  happened.  The Scribe did not know hoe to divide a circle into a given number of equal parts, so he never planned the space for the nymphs.  He just started drawing the outer (last) ring of nymphs at ~11::00 o'clock and moved clockwise.  When he got at the end he found that he did not have enough space for one more nymph like the others, so he flipped it and put her barrel partly behind that of the first one.  Even so he was short of one nymph; that is why there are 29 nymphs.  Maybe he did not even notice.  When he drew the stars he miscounted and thought that he was missing two stars (actually only one), so he drew two stars in the central medallion; that is why there are 29 stars next to the nymphs but 31 in total.  Then he wrote the labels, which were provided by the Author in his draft; and after labeling the nymphs he still had one label to write, so he wrote it in the central medallion too. That is why there are 30 labels.

And the month names and the color paints are almost certainly additions by some later owner, so they are not sgnificant either.

All the best, --stolfi

Thank you for the comment, but at the moment I will continue to stick consistently to my interpretation and the Book of Enoch. These are not errors and the geometry is well thought out. This is a diagram describing the properties of the moon. There are several layers here, all according to the astronomical Book of Enoch. As I wrote, the lunar month is 29 days, the figures in the inner circle are the phases of the moon, on the outer circle there are 19 figures, which is again a statement from Enoch: "And the moon has a sevenfold intercalation, and a period of revolution of 19 years. And she begins once again from the start.", which is the Metonic cycle. It is very well thought out and the geometry is precise. The Marian symbol represents the moon as a reflection of light. The new moon and full moon occur in the constellation of Pisces. The circle with symbols separates the earth from the sky. I apologize, but I will keep this in my theory for now.

(27-05-2026, 12:57 PM)Jorge_Stolfi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(27-05-2026, 08:20 AM)Radim Dobeš Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Pagumē can also be found in the VMS on diagrams. Folio f69f, Ros.

I don't see why You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. could be a representation of the Ethiopian calendar.  here is a description of that diagram:

The inner medallion is divided into six sectors by a six-pointed star.

The main part of the diagram is has 45 thin radial "stalks", each ending with a "cup".  

The 45 sectors defined by the cup stalks are alternately "empty" and filled with 22 radial lines of text,  reading outwards. This leaves two adjacent empty sectors at position 02:00 o'clock.  The first of these two empty sectors (going clockwise) is cut by an extra radial line that passes between the two cup cups and extends all the way to the outer circle. The clockwise half of this sector (which you claim represents Pagumē) is decorated with bands of cross-hatches alternating with dots.

The space between the "ring of cups" and the outer circle is divided into sixteen sectors by another set of radial lines, thin and wavy. These lines divide the outer band of text into sixteen  phrases, each containing a few whole words. One of these lines is the extra radial line at 02:00, that defined the decorated band.  The other fifteen lines start at the ring of cups, either between two adjacent cups (13 cases) or at the middle of a cup (2  cases). These lines thus divide the ring of cups too into  sections, which, clockwise from the "start marker" line, contain

    2, 2, 2.5, 3.5, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3.5, 3.5, 3, 3, 2, 3

cups.

So the number of elements and sectors seen in that diagram are 6, 45, 46, 22, 16.  These numbers do not seem to match any numbers in the Ethiopian (or Enochian) calendar, like the four quadrants or the 12 or 13 months.

There are 12 painted stripes in some of the sectors, but all dark paint in the VMS is believed to be not original.  Anyway these stripes are not regularly spaced, like the En/Eth months.  The eight blue ones come in four pairs, each pair being separated by two "stalks", pointing N,S,E,W.  The four green stripes point NE, NW, SE, SW and are separated from the blue ones by  4, 5, or 6 "stalks".  If those stripes are supposed to be month boundaries, the decorated sector that is supposed to represent Pagumē lies right in the middle of a "month".

All the best, --stolfi

These are diagrams describing the weather and God's influence on events on the planet according to the astronomical book of Enoch. I am attaching again parts of older posts where I addressed this. in Ethiopia this is partly included in the AWDA NAGAST system.

(28-05-2026, 06:54 AM)Radim Dobeš Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.These are not errors and the geometry is well thought out.

If you look critically at all the diagrams, you must conclude the opposite.  The Scribe who drew them could not even divide a circle into four equal parts.  The spacing of the nymphs around each diagram is quite uneven; he typically used too much space between nymphs, rays, etc. at the beginning of each ring and then had to squeeze them at the end of the ring.  In later diagrams he gave up and just drew on top of the diagram the nymphs that did not fit inside it.

On page f6r, the reason for that special decorated sector (that you interpreted as Pagume) is almost certainly that the did not count the "cups" with thin "stems", and ended up with an odd number of them.  So when he next wrote a label in every other sector, he found that at the end he had two empty sectors next to each other.  To fix that he drew an extra line dividing one of the sectors in two parts.  But since he had no text, or the newly created middle sector was too narrow, he instead filled it with decorative hatching.

Incompetence is also the simplest explanation for why those "cups" are divided by the thin lines in the outer band into groups of varying sizes -- 2, 3, or (at 10:30) 3.5 "cups".  There most probably 
were meant to be 48 cups (not 45) and 48 sectors (not 46) with 24 (not 22) radial labels, divided into 16 groups of 3 cups...

Quote:This is a diagram describing the properties of the moon.[...] the lunar month is 29 days

But then why do all the other diagrams have 30 nymphs?  And, again, that diagram has 29 nymphs, 30 labels, and 31 stars.  Which number is the meaningful one?

Quote: I apologize, but I will keep this in my theory for now.

No need to apologize.  I am not asking you to do anything -- just warning you that you are probably wasting your time by assuming that the details of the drawings are meaningful, and that the color paints are original.

All the best, --stolfi

(28-05-2026, 10:39 AM)Jorge_Stolfi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(28-05-2026, 06:54 AM)Radim Dobeš Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.These are not errors and the geometry is well thought out.

If you look critically at all the diagrams, you must conclude the opposite.  The Scribe who drew them could not even divide a circle into four equal parts.  The spacing of the nymphs around each diagram is quite uneven; he typically used too much space between nymphs, rays, etc. at the beginning of each ring and then had to squeeze them at the end of the ring.  In later diagrams he gave up and just drew on top of the diagram the nymphs that did not fit inside it.

On page f6r, the reason for that special decorated sector (that you interpreted as Pagume) is almost certainly that the did not count the "cups" with thin "stems", and ended up with an odd number of them.  So when he next wrote a label in every other sector, he found that at the end he had two empty sectors next to each other.  To fix that he drew an extra line dividing one of the sectors in two parts.  But since he had no text, or the newly created middle sector was too narrow, he instead filled it with decorative hatching.

Incompetence is also the simplest explanation for why those "cups" are divided by the thin lines in the outer band into groups of varying sizes -- 2, 3, or (at 10:30) 3.5 "cups".  There most probably 
were meant to be 48 cups (not 45) and 48 sectors (not 46) with 24 (not 22) radial labels, divided into 16 groups of 3 cups...

Quote:This is a diagram describing the properties of the moon.[...] the lunar month is 29 days

But then why do all the other diagrams have 30 nymphs?  And, again, that diagram has 29 nymphs, 30 labels, and 31 stars.  Which number is the meaningful one?

Quote: I apologize, but I will keep this in my theory for now.

No need to apologize.  I am not asking you to do anything -- just warning you that you are probably wasting your time by assuming that the details of the drawings are meaningful, and that the color paints are original.

All the best, --stolfi

That's fine. Just for inspiration in research. These Ethiopian diagrams could have served visually and possibly inspired the author of VM. However, they contain completely different. And to the question why 29 is the answer lunar month, and to the question why 30 is the answer solar month. Each diagram shows something different.

(28-05-2026, 11:11 AM)Radim Dobeš Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.And to the question why 29 is the answer lunar month, and to the question why 30 is the answer solar month. Each diagram shows something different.

But why does only one of the diagrams have 29 nymphs, while the others have 30 each? And why do they have signs of the Western Zodiac drawn in the center?

Nevertheless, I find those images you posted fascinating, as they show an artistic and schematic tradition quite different from the Medieval European and even Arabic, Turkish, Persian, etc.   See for example those images of Mary and baby Jesus sitting in pools with spouts.  That the VMS Scribe may have drawn "inspiration" from Ethiopian books (besides the European ones that have been identified) is an intriguing possibility... Thank you for that!

All the best, --stolfi

(28-05-2026, 11:11 AM)Radim Dobeš Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.[..]
These Ethiopian diagrams could have served visually and possibly inspired the author of VM. However, they contain completely different.[..]

As far as I can see here:

[attachment=15801]
these images show circles separated by 17 (left) and 16 (right).

Would be helpful to tell what we see here, better:
the source and origin of these folios.

(28-05-2026, 01:04 PM)Stefan Wirtz_2 Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(28-05-2026, 11:11 AM)Radim Dobeš Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.[..]
These Ethiopian diagrams could have served visually and possibly inspired the author of VM. However, they contain completely different.[..]

As far as I can see here:


these images show circles separated by 17 (left) and 16 (right).

Would be helpful to tell what we see here, better:
the source and origin of these folios.

Princeton University Library, Ethiopic Manuscript No. 42, fol. 47v. The Cycle of Kings (Awədä Nägäśət), Collection of Divination Texts. Image via You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

(28-05-2026, 02:28 PM)DG97EEB Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Princeton University Library, Ethiopic Manuscript No. 42, fol. 47v. The Cycle of Kings (Awədä Nägäśət), Collection of Divination Texts. Image via You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

ok, thanks. 
Says „created 1788-1800“ (our kind of years…)
So at least 350 years younger than VMS, surely not an inspiration for that.

Maybe even more an incidence, that coptic/ethiopian manuscripts are back for some centuries, regarding technique and style.
Not very helpful.