The Zodiac section: 79 (80?) human figures in the tubes.

[Linda]

Hi!
Linda, of course, I can't answer all your questions above! I just tried to understand what those 79 successive tubes can mean therefore searched for any similar number in a particular context to understand what they may imply. It doesn't look accidental, I mean, this sequence.

I agree, it should have meaning, but i cannot see how it would be if the time periods of the zodiacs are months. I am not saying it isnt but it is difficult, when i try to come up with an explanation it just ends up with more questiions. 

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 The rest of the Zodiac contains only 4 tubes in two different places, in particular, two of them are under human's feet and another two are behind men. So, on my opinion, the place of tubes can't be accidental a priori. Could it be architecture, cities, etc? I don't know, but, as for me, it also hardly can be explained, at least, it seems not be easier.

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For me the ages explanation works, in that they know many civilizations have come before them, even before those outlined in the Bible. The knocked down tubs the people stand on could be undergound caves, or excavations of items found buried in the ground. Where the are behind the people, perhaps it means abandonned. If you look at pisces, which would be the current age both then and now, it looks like they are showing floods knocking down the tubs, the green colouring makes me think sea water. I am not sure if this was a premonition or whether such things were occurring at the time, but being in the middle, it seems that is the first half of the age, just as in taurus the first half of the second part is where the clothing disappears. So i see the premonition being that humanity recovers from the flooding or whatever analogy that might stand for. It is our time that is shown around the outside ring. 

I gathered all I found in my post, but you likely imagine that I'm inclined to consider alchemical context. You are right that men and women in different clothes are hardly associated with the time of impurity and purification for a woman. Although different men and women could be something like at this picture below, I after all doubt. But who knows!
 

That is interesting, i see the commonalities with the zodiac people.

Different look and gender of human figures can mean many different things, to identify them, we need to find exact match, and I'm not sure we will get it soon, although it would be great. 

Yes i am not sure it will be possible but there do seem to be hints. I wonder if they would have been recognizeable at the time or whether they are literary references, or just vague analogies like people from all walks of life.

Talking about alchemical context, I'd consider it more possible. Unfortunately, alchemy is not so easy thing, and it never was depicted so detailed, day by day. I must confess that all this is pretty interesting from that angle. Although we can see some men in the Zodiacal diagrams, we must note that in general the VMs, including the Quire 13 have pronounced feminine spirit. The zodiacal circles are not an exclusion. Pisces is feminine sign, 80 days refers rather to female in any sense (religious or alchemical). The story about Gabricus and Beya discribes an alchemical process which lasts 80 days, and this process is the feminine (Lunar) stage of the Great work. It includes blackness and whiteness (putrefaction and purification), the intermediate stage between them - peacock's tail. Beya ruled in that stage as she absorbed the groom to death in her embraces but due to this Gabricus was purified and became perfect. Clothes can mean a material shell which covers a soul, and then a soul purifies and gets away from it. Pay attention that almost always souls are depicted naked, for example,
Giovanni di Paolo - Divina Commedia, about 1444-50, detail from f.130


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I did think that as well, within the context of the ages, these unclothed nymphs would be civilizations no longer extant. I am not sure if that is the same for quire 13, i think they show the contemporary cultures there, even though they are unclothed, but more for the reason as to remove local custom from the equation, treat them all the same.

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So, those 79 tubes may mean only first stage but the rest is another next stages, remeber about three crowns, to the point. No doubt, all this are only guesses anyway but all the pecularities, as I think, must not be unnoticed. Containers must contain something. If there would be tubes in september, octomber and further, I'd think about vine (barrels of vine) 

You are right, picking out the peculiarities and trying to explain them may lead us to better understanding, and even if the interpretation is incorrect, it still points out the peculiarities for someone else to consider in their interpretation.

To me they could be wells that hold water, since any city must have access to water for its population, and in many cases if the original water supply system can be identified, it can show how and where the community began to form. That the people are in them is just a duplicate use as architecture, since shelter is the next thing they will need.

If there were also clothed people in the containers in the fall, i could understand it to be related to agriculture, but for now if it not zodiac ages, i dont understand what is implied. All we can do is keep thinking about it.