But by my own account of the work, there must be another dimension to this. On my reading, the work concerns the ALPENGLOW, which is a phenomenon of light. I present the nymphs as nymphs of the mountains and streams, water nymphs – as they are depicted – but I also want to say they are agents of the Alpenglow, the sacred (healing) light of the mountains.
In fact, these two symbolisms – water and light – must overlap.
This is a truism of premodern Christian vitalism, but it is an order of ideas completely foreign to the modern worldview.
To grasp the idea, let us ask the simple, primordial question:
What is it that comes from the heavens?
1. Light
2. Water – rain and snow.
It is no great leap in a world more sensitive to poetry than science - in the folk imagination - to analogize and identify these two things.
More specifically, water is conceived as a condensation of light. Both are transparent. One is rare; one is dense.
The parallel hardly needs to be argued in a Christian context: it is utterly pervasive in the symbolism of baptism.
It is timely to note here that the Voynich manuscript is a work of Christian vitalism and should be considered in that broader tradition. In my view it is a significant failing of Voynich research that this is rarely done, or rarely done with any insight.
It is a central consideration in my overall reading of the manuscript. The work is not ecclesiastical, and it is not resoundingly Christian, but it is certainly Christian nonetheless. More particularly, it is quite plainly a work of Christian vitalism; late medieval, early Renaissance Christian vitalism.
On my reading, as developed in these pages, the central concern of this vitalism is the ALPENGLOW: the phenomenon by which alpine mountains are lit up like candles by the rising sun.
We see both light (alpenglow) symbolism, and water symbolism, in such illustrations as the one below:
The crucifix marks the mountaintop illuminated by the sacred light of the alpenglow. But the mountaintops are also bathed in rain, as shown here.
The artist (painter) wants to convey the idea of heavy rain, lots of rain.
The nymphs are shown bathing in the resulting mountain waters - like the concubines of Solomon -, but importantly they are also shown wreathed. The wreaths here represent the light of the alpenglow. Their rosy cheeks and golden hair also have the same signification, but in this illustration we see them wreathed.
Wreathed, rosy-cheeked, golden haired nymphs in a mountain pool: the vitalistic synergy of light and water symbolism.
They personify the powers of the mountains which are bathed in rain and illuminated by light, the alpenglow.
I am tempted to stylize this distinction to my general thesis:
*the celestial nymphs concern light, and
* * *
It is timely to note here that the Voynich manuscript is a work of Christian vitalism and should be considered in that broader tradition. In my view it is a significant failing of Voynich research that this is rarely done, or rarely done with any insight.
It is a central consideration in my overall reading of the manuscript. The work is not ecclesiastical, and it is not resoundingly Christian, but it is certainly Christian nonetheless. More particularly, it is quite plainly a work of Christian vitalism; late medieval, early Renaissance Christian vitalism.
On my reading, as developed in these pages, the central concern of this vitalism is the ALPENGLOW: the phenomenon by which alpine mountains are lit up like candles by the rising sun.
We see both light (alpenglow) symbolism, and water symbolism, in such illustrations as the one below:
The artist (painter) wants to convey the idea of heavy rain, lots of rain.
The nymphs are shown bathing in the resulting mountain waters - like the concubines of Solomon -, but importantly they are also shown wreathed. The wreaths here represent the light of the alpenglow. Their rosy cheeks and golden hair also have the same signification, but in this illustration we see them wreathed.
Wreathed, rosy-cheeked, golden haired nymphs in a mountain pool: the vitalistic synergy of light and water symbolism.
They personify the powers of the mountains which are bathed in rain and illuminated by light, the alpenglow.
* * *
I am tempted to stylize this distinction to my general thesis:
*the celestial nymphs concern light, and
*the terrestrial nymphs concern water.
What is light in the celestial world condenses to water (rain) in the sublunary world.
The celestial nymphs are to the terrestrial nymphs what light is to water.
Condensation. This is like what we see in the glyph [ch], the initial glyph of our verbum potentiae, CHOLDAIIN.
Visually, [ch] is like a condensation of the two [e] in QOKEEDY. We might view it as a condensed form of double [e]. The ligature signifies “condensation”, contraction.
By extension, perhaps [ee] signifies LIGHT and [ch] signifies WATER – i.e. water as light condensed into its sublunary, terrestrial form, liquid light.
It is necessary to let medieval parallelisms hold sway if we are to imagine the text as fluvial.
What is light in the celestial world condenses to water (rain) in the sublunary world.
The celestial nymphs are to the terrestrial nymphs what light is to water.
* * *
Visually, [ch] is like a condensation of the two [e] in QOKEEDY. We might view it as a condensed form of double [e]. The ligature signifies “condensation”, contraction.
By extension, perhaps [ee] signifies LIGHT and [ch] signifies WATER – i.e. water as light condensed into its sublunary, terrestrial form, liquid light.
It is necessary to let medieval parallelisms hold sway if we are to imagine the text as fluvial.
R. B.
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