13-07-2021, 04:00 AM
Hi Searcher, thanks, I read your blog with interest. For me, I'm not overly concerned with the directions of the rosette because I don't really consider the page a physical map, but a conceptual one. It would be nice to figure out the directions, of course, as helpful for interpretation, but I don't consider them crucial. As for the abyss, yes of course it could be that! Good catch. I'm attached to the idea it represents some form of underworld, a place of judgment, and more importantly separation, dissolution, death, but the exact underworld it represents is likely not too important. Medieval peoples considered hell an actual topographical fiery place.
If you look at the centre sphere, the cosmos, and the starry lake the temples surround: many illustrations of the time have the city of Jerusalem directly atop an abyss into Sheol or Hell. So while the lake reflects the celestial, and is encircled by a nimbus denoting draconis/corpus mundi, if you plunged into it, it would lead you straight to hell or the underworld. My interpretation - for now!
If you look at the centre sphere, the cosmos, and the starry lake the temples surround: many illustrations of the time have the city of Jerusalem directly atop an abyss into Sheol or Hell. So while the lake reflects the celestial, and is encircled by a nimbus denoting draconis/corpus mundi, if you plunged into it, it would lead you straight to hell or the underworld. My interpretation - for now!