f69r circle

[magnesium]

It's not clear to me what the main division of this circle is though (in the VM). There are:

•  the 16 outer segments (16= a circle halved 4 times)
  
• some 45 outer circles 
  
• 12 colored bars
  
• 22 bars with text
  
• 6 inner sections marked by 6 star points 
  

And none of these layers mesh well with one another.

Totally fair. A few scattershot thoughts, in no particular order:

• To your general point, the fact that the layers are so messy points to a loose at best resemblance between the two figures. This is one of the reasons why I speculate that the diagram was designed by someone with no knowledge of geomancy looking at something like the Cod. Sang. 756 figure and then modifying it to their own ends.
  
• Given the signs that at least some parts of the VMS were colored in just before it was rebound (and seemingly some time after the original writing), I'm not putting too much weight on the coloration patterns here.
  
• Among the internal bars, there is a uniquely dotted-and-dashed bar at approximately 2:00. I have to wonder whether that could serve as a marker for what constitutes the beginning/end of a single message interspersed among the 22 internal bars with text (e.g., start at the dotted-and-dashed bar and read clockwise).
  
• Clockwise strikes me as the favorable reading direction because if read out clockwise from 12:00, the 6 inner sections' glyphs connect to form the grammatically reasonable VMS word type dolsedy, with the ed and y being the most helpful pair to distinguish direction.