[Blog Post] Rings of the Nymphs

[Hermes777]

These things have been under investigation discussion, disputation for years - for years before this forum started. There is no shortage of opinions. I would simply add that over that time, a few bits of new evidence have been added, and that this has sometimes guided, confirmed or shifted the interpretation. In those lucky instances, I am at least hopeful that the revised interpretation is preferable to its predecessors.

In the case of the VMs critter, there is a nice illustration of Aries with a great cloud band, So, this is a valid interpretation, although I don't recall the presence of any droplets. However, the Agnus Dei illustration in BNF Fr. 13096 has the same three-part structural correspondence and an interesting provenance. Cloud symbolism derives from the nebuly line - etymologically.

Is the woman with the spindle just a woman with a spindle? Is the spindle just a spindle? In the VMs drawing, note the fine markings on the side of the spindle - which represent the planets. Therefore, it is a representation of the cosmic spindle. Who gets to hold the cosmic spindle today? Is it Annette or Barbara? If it is the cosmic spindle, then there is only one choice as to who holds it. That is Ananke, Lady Necessity - unless you've found evidence to the contrary.

We should ask Admin to move these discussions to the relevant thread:

I follow your argument. The allusion to Agnus Dei in the Voynich illustrations is very oblique, though, and it raises the question of whether the symbolism is not, in the first instance, preChristian. I can find instances of the Agnus Dei being used as axial symbolism, but the wool/cloud symbolism may be Platonic and only loosely Christianized here. Nor do I think the fact the nymph holds the Cosmic Spindle makes her Ananke, necessarily. It only indicates that she is axial; by my reading, a nymph of the mountain peak.