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Rosettes as a ... magic altar - Printable Version

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Rosettes as a ... magic altar - Rafal - 01-10-2026

I made some research and couldn't find any detailed similar discussion. Sorry, if it was suggested before.

How do you find the idea that the Rosettes "map" is actually a kind of portable altar used for contacting the spirits?

As you may know from my previous posts I like the idea that Voynich Manuscript was once a bunch of loose pages used by some wandering charlatan. So "contacting the spirits" wouldn't be real, it would be a show for some silly folks willing to throw a few pfennigs into charlatan's bowl for it. He would "reveal the future" for them or get some blessing from the spirits.

There is something as almadel ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ) which is exactly such an altar. It isn't the same as Rosettes but it gives some vibes:
   

In such altar there was a central place, sometimes called locus (place, point) where you put a crystal ball to contact the spirits. That would be "Heavenly Jerusalem" part of the Rosettes.

[Image: ded0427d28ffca0d2ba964de634ecc7e.jpg]
[Image: Voynich_rosettes11.jpg]

In these altars  the central point is surrounded by other points that may symbolize planets, angels, or some "points of power" responsible for different areas like health, love, prosperity, luck etc.

There were many similar diagrams which could work as well as altars in magical grimoires. I include some examples below which all are a bit Rosettes like for me. The modern stuff in the pictures was made according to much older sources like Lesser Key of Solomon.
   

These pictures are not the same as Rosettes but it isn't a big problem for me. There weren't big magical traditions and standards in Medieval Ages. Magical treatises could exist only in one copy or at most few copies. When authorities got their hands on them, they happily burnt them. Not many of them survived. So when you compare grimoires they differ a lot, give very different lists of angels and demons, desribe different ceremonies and have different imagery.

And don't forget that the Voynich artist could know they won't be really summoning spirits but rather cheating people so he could be a bit freestyling and doing it his own way.

I may write a bit more later. But as for now, how do you like the magic altar idea?

RE: Rosettes as a ... magic altar - JustAnotherTheory - 01-10-2026

I fully support this hypothesis, and thank you for bringing it up. I've seen parallels to the Key of Solomon in the VMS, although they are not obvious. 

I think there are definitely elements of "angelic magic" as they say, in the manuscript. To me, the charms on the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. are Jewish/Chaldean incantations: the names of angels in 13th-14th-15th century Solomonic magic scripts, often ended with "-ton", "-iton", "-as", "-bas", and so on. 

And no, this does not mean that the VMS has anything to do with John Dee, like some have hypothesised. The Key of Solomon, and the Ars Notoria, were already well known and copied around the time of the beginning of the 15th century.

RE: Rosettes as a ... magic altar - JustAnotherTheory - 01-10-2026

Let me add a few more details. Take a look at the Solomonic magic (Ars Notoria) text BSB Clm 276 from the 14th century:

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Therre are several parallels to the VMS:

   

   

   

   

I tried to look for "michiton" and "oladabas" in this manuscript, but no luck.

A few words about the Ars Notoria: the reader/practitioner was supposed to learn how to achieve a greater understanding of things very quickly. Like a tutorial for learning and memory, for people who didn't have access to riches and libraries.

One of the ways the Ars Notoria did this, was to memorize large swathes of unintelligible text, like hundreds of names of angels. This is a kind of glossolalia, called Voces Mysticae or Magicae:

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Is the VMS perhaps, a type of Voces Magicae? If so, it would be some kind of "magical speaking in tongues", with no purposeful meaning in a specific language. It could also explain why we cannot decipher it. It might not be a language or a cipher, after all.

Having said that, the issue with the Solomonic magic theory is that it has not much to do with plants. Especially not hundreds of imaginary herbs with weird roots. Plus we don't have an example of a fully encoded Ars Notoria to compare it to. The naked nymphs also do not seem to make sense within this hypothesis.

RE: Rosettes as a ... magic altar - Rafal - 01-10-2026

Some comment to what @JustAnotherTheory said:

Quote:And no, this does not mean that the VMS has anything to do with John Dee, like some have hypothesised.
For me the carbon dating pointing to 1400s is a definitive proof that Dee hasn't done it. But if he had seen it, he would probably recognize magical elements at once and get very excited as it was his favourite area. But like anyone else he couldn't read it. So while he hasn't done it, he could be involved in finding it, recognizing its value and selling it to emperor Rudolf.

Quote:Having said that, the issue with the Solomonic magic theory is that it has not much to do with plants.
I agree. But I would say Voynich Manuscript is possibly an "interdisciplinary work" and a composite manuscript. These parts are independent. Zodiac part is possibly about fortune telling, Rosettes are about contacting spirits and plants are well, about healing plants that you could purchase as ointments from our charlatan.

And remember: before you say that things like Lesser Key of Solomon ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) are much younger that Voynich Manuscript, take into account that it was made from materials several centuries older, just like Wikipedia says. Most of these materials didn't survive till today and don't exist anymore but they existed when Voynich Manuscript was created.

RE: Rosettes as a ... magic altar - Rafal - 01-10-2026

And let me show more possibly related things.

The related thing to almadel is magic circle which was also used to contact the spirits. They are usually quite symmetrical, just like the Rosettes
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[Image: Circletriangle.gif]

I also see some similarities to this well known form of horoscope
   

I put Rosettes image over such horoscope and that's what you get:
   

Quite fitting, isn't it?  Wink It requires some comment however.

In such horoscopes corners and vertices aren't important. The triangles are important. There are 12 triangles which represent 12 astrological houses/mansions (domus in Latin, Haus in German):
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They have probably different interpretations in different works but they are generally responsible for different areas of your life. Wikipedia mentions stuff like Home and Family, Pleasure, Health, Balance or Transformation etc.

Voynich Rosettes don't have triangles so maybe the Rosettes themselves work something like astrological houses???

Notice that we have several Suns in Rosettes which is similar to these horoscopes as they contain a lot of planet and Zodiac signs symbols.

RE: Rosettes as a ... magic altar - JustAnotherTheory - 01-10-2026

That's interesting @Rafal, because I recently noted in the Fastnachtspiele theory (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) the following detail:

   

Which is on the bottom left side of the Rosettes.

RE: Rosettes as a ... magic altar - gerrydelasel - 01-10-2026

Someone has been watching the Esoterica channel on youtube!

(01-10-2026, 04:23 PM)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.That's interesting @Rafal, because I recently noted in the Fastnachtspiele theory (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) the following detail:
Which is on the bottom left side of the Rosettes.

That symbol really bugs me too. I can't decide if it's the constellation of Deltoton/Triangulum, the letter Resh in the Malachim alphabet, a sundial, and unknown angel sigil, or something else!

RE: Rosettes as a ... magic altar - pjburkshire - 01-10-2026

You have not convinced me to abandon my interpretation of the Rosettes Page.  I am currently exploring the idea that the "broken clock" could represent the Two Paths of the Clergy; the Contemplative Life (Vita Contemplativa, focused on prayer and isolation) and the Active Life (Vita Activa, focused on missionary work, preaching, and charity).

RE: Rosettes as a ... magic altar - JustAnotherTheory - 01-10-2026

Quote:That symbol really bugs me too. I can't decide if it's the constellation of Deltoton/Triangulum, the letter Resh in the Malachim alphabet, a sundial, and unknown angel sigil, or something else!

The VMS is truly a mirror of the soul.

How can a single manuscript create so much confusion, including among experts, in an era where thousands of manuscripts are digitized and readily available for free?

RE: Rosettes as a ... magic altar - pjburkshire - 01-10-2026

(01-10-2026, 05:38 PM)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
The VMS is truly a mirror of the soul.


Maybe it is the ultimate Rorschach test.