Counting on stars

[Aga Tentakulus]

Memory aid:
Has the date correction been taken into account ?

Pisces and Scorpio belong to the element of water.
Virgo to the earth. Here, too, there is no correspondence as far as the star is concerned.

[R. Sale]

In the matter of actual Zodiac stars being absent in the VMs medallions, in addition to Aldebaran in Taurus, there is obviously the classical pairing of the stars, Castor and Pollux in Gemini, and there is also Regulus in Leo. After that the relative significance falls off rather quickly. Anyone for Alphery or Hamal? Not all constellations in the Zodiac have these most significant stars.

Strangely, perhaps, there is a pattern in these VMs stars inside medallions, there is one pair in Pisces and there are two singles - Virgo and Scorpio.

This pattern of internal medallion stars seems to be reflective of the pattern of the most significant of the actual stars that are *not* included in a VMs medallion. There is a pair of real stars in Gemini and there are significant two singles - Taurus and Leo. For some reason these four major stars are omitted, however the pattern seems to be subtly mirrored.

Another set of patterns, based on pairings, can be found in the occupants of the medallions, for the first five houses of the VMs zodiac sequence. It starts with the paired fish of Pisces.

VMs Pisces is the introduction to the the pairing paradigm. The pairing of medallion stars starts with Pisces. The pairing of medallion occupants (for five houses) starts with Pisces. The pairing of heraldic patterns 'placed' on nymphs' tubs starts with Pisces.

While the sequential placement of Pisces has several potential explanations, the absence of VMs f74 can be seen with the browser.

[MarcoP]

Isn't there a conflict between the signs of the Zodiac in what might be something we would call astrology on the one hand, and named fixed stars on the other?

Not necessarily. The star catalogue of Ptolemy expressed one of the two position coordinates of a star (namely its longitude) as the combination: zodiac sign + degrees inside the zodiac sign (0-30).
This means that in works we would now call astronomical, the zodiac signs played an important role.
On the other hand, these works would not restrict themselves to the zodiac constellations. The medallions in the Voynich MS may be assumed to be more of astrological nature (in the modern sense).

I would add that, though the role of fixed stars in ancient astrology was not as extensive as that of the zodiac signs or the planets, they did play a role in astrological magic.

In You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. Ptolemy discusses the brightest single stars and groups of stars and "their special powers" by matching them to specific planets. For instance, about the stars in the Scorpio constellation:

"Of the stars in the body of Scorpio, the bright stars on the forehead act in the same way as does Mars and in some degree as does Saturn; the three in the body, the middle one of which is tawny and rather bright and is called Antares, the same as Mars and, in some degree, Jupiter; those in the joints, the same as Saturn and, in some degree, Venus; those in the sting, the same as Mercury and Mars; and the so‑called cloud-like cluster, the same as Mars and the moon."

Similar paragraphs are provided for the stars in all constellations (not only the 12 in the zodiac).


Also, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (whose wheels are so similar to the Voynich zodiac) is based on the fixed  stars. Each degree of the zodiac is associated with both a stone and a single star or asterism (again, not limited to the zodiac constellations).
For instance, the XIII degree of Scorpio is associated with "the stone that appears on the sea when Mars sets" and Antares (Scorpion's heart).

The paragraph lists the powers of the stone and ends with these words:

Y aún ha otra virtud, que quien la trae consigo en el verano, no siente calentura. Y si de ella bebieren un poco los que han las grandes fiebres sanan. Y la estrella mediana de las tres lucientes que son en el cuerpo de Escorpión, y es el corazón de él, ha poder en esta piedra, y de ella recibe su virtud. Y cuando es en el ascendente, muestra esta piedra más cumplidamente sus obras.

It has one more virtue: if one takes it with himself in the summer, he feels no heat. And those who have a strong fever will be healed by drinking a little of it. And the bright star in the middle of the three that are in the body of the Scorpion, and which is its heart, has power upon this stone, which receives its virtue from that [star]. When it is in the ascendant, the stone shows its works more fully.