The Astrological Faces

Since the astrological systems in the Voynich ms. are frustratingly unfamiliar, it is important to find a foothold from which we can understand the broader scheme. It is all perplexing, but page 57v offers us a key. 

It is widely agreed that page 57v is of great significance. It presents Voynich characters and glyphs - along with some rare ones - in a circular arrangement that offers a set of correspondences - if only we could work them out. 

For the most part, studies of this page count four sequences of 17 glyphs. But this is mistaken. One of the glyphs is doubled - two glyphs cojoined into a single gallows-like form. This should be counted as two characters, not one. It is not clear why these glyphs are joined, but in the sequence they count for two spaces.

What we see on this page, therefore, is a circle of 4 x 18 glyphs, or glyph spaces. 

This is astrologically cogent: 4 x 18 = 72 x 5 = 360. 

In astrological symbolism these numbers refer to the FACES, divisions of the zodiac by five degrees. 

This provides us with the foothold we need. Evidently, the astrology of the Voynich ms. is a development of the doctrine and symbolism of the zodiacal FACES. 

Specifically - and this is a matter of crucial importance - the system of zodiacal FACES accommodates the nymphs in the Voynich system. The nymphs are the zodiacal FACES. Traditionally, the FACES are described as various figures for mnemonic purposes. Here they are conceived of as celestial nymphs. 

There is little that is new in Voynich research, and this observation has been made before, but not given enough import. 

Further notes:

The FACES (5 degree divisions of the zodiac) are completely lost in modern astrology. In 19th C. astrology the whole doctrine had degenerated into prognostications about the facial features of the native revealed in a horoscope. 

The division of the circle into 72 recalls all the attending symbolism of that number, and especially the Kabbalistic Seventy-Two Angels of the Shemhamphorash - the Divine Name of 72 letters.

Note the diagram of figures in the centre of page 57v. Their positions concern FACES. Two of the figures are looking away and we cannot see their faces. That, in the first instance, is the meaning of that illustration. It indicates that during the year some FACES are turned towards us and some away.