Update Note

For some time now I’ve been kept busy with personal business to the neglect of my Voynich research and this blog.

Looking through it and reacquainting myself I see that a number of the folios are out of date with my work, so I’m going to update things as I can. I can’t really give a timetable, as other things still have my attention, but soon, I hope.

I’ve added pages for three Astro folios I have not yet studied.

Housecleaning

At some point in the near future I will be cleaning out the MediaFire folder, removing outdated and incorrect files. I am trying to develop a consistant format and look for my works, which may promote understanding.

So if there is something in the folder you’ve been meaning to get, better do it soon.

My “Whole Voynich” Theory

What follows does not account for every detail and folio, and is subject to change without notice.

The Voynich Manuscript is a private work encompassing the Author’s ideas of Life, the Universe, and Everything. It is encoded because he felt he had found a Great Truth, and wanted it kept to himself.

The Rosettes foldout, f86, is the centerpiece, a map showing places and things of importance.

It is oriented with East at the top, as indicated by the right-side-up (rising) sun in the upper left, and the upside-down (setting) sun in the lower right. A T-O map in the upper right corner confirms the orientation. T-O maps are also used for orientation on folios f67v2 and f68v3.

The top center, middle left and right, and bottom middle circles are astronomical, while the remaining outside circles are terrestrial. The middle circle is the access to the Biological Section.

The upper right circle has a castle, some other buildings, and a beach between them and the waves crashing in.

The lower right circle has a field and jars from the Pharmaceutical section. This is where the plants in the Herbal section are grown and processed.

The Biological Section, i.e. the Bathing Nymphs, encompasses the sciences of Meteorology, Hydrology and the metascience of Alchemy.

At the top of folios f75r, f78r, and f79v is the earth’s surface, with water running off underground where the Nymphs renew it and send it out again, as envisioned by the system of pipes around them and on the Rosettes foldout.

Rain is falling at the top of f84v, and is controlled and directed by Nymphs, as seen on f79v, f80v, f83r and f83v.

Folio f85r2 shows the cycle of time; birth, life, death, renewal.

Folio f68v3 shows how the Universe rotates around the earth.

The Astronomical section shows two comets, a total solar eclipse, four planetary conjunctions, a supernova (anomalous to the dating of the other events), and an important conjunction of the moon with stars in the Aries/Taurus region.

 The Zodiac section lays out those events against the signs using a graphical coding. The Zodiac starts with Pisces because that sign is involved with the events, and it would be inconvenient to have it at the other end of the section. Aries and Taurus are split to allow more room for the events depicted.

The Recipes section is an Almanac, as suggested by Glen Claston.

Does the VMs Protect Itself?

Now for a short foray into insanity before I get into my next subject.

I’m starting to think that the book has a spell on it protecting its secrets from the general public. The experiences I’ve had are subjective, but that’s what they add up to.

Robert Firth’s Notes Part 15, An Account of a Curious Dream Concerning the Voynich Manuscript was the first indication that might be the case. (The Notes can be accessed through Elmar Vogt’s blog. Well worth reading for early research.)

I’ve had success cracking labels in the Astro section (and a few elsewhere). Nothing happens while I’m working, but whenever I try to communicate the method to others, emails don’t go through or are delayed, files are corrupted or missing, or something crops up that distracts.

Once posted, the proposal gets little response, and what others do say focuses on something other than what I am saying, or what is important. I compound the problem by getting annoyed and frustrated and letting it show. Not because it isn’t immediately accepted and praised by all, but because I write fiction that gets good reviews, and am a professional story editor, so I know I can write clearly. And yet no matter how carefully, simply, and completely I explain, it is misunderstood. The fault may be entirely mine, but I have trouble believing it.

I had my own Voynich-related dream some months ago.

In a nutshell, I was visiting an old, 3-story red brick school I had attended. I wandered around reminiscing, then heard a particular person I wanted to see again.was still there. I went to his room but it was locked and I was told that if he wanted to see me, he would come out.

He did so, and took the form of a (real) favorite teacher in high school who taught biology. We talked about the Voynich for a while, then he asked if I wanted to read it. He handed me a copy, and we walked to the cafeteria and sat down. I leafed through it, saw the missing folios, and everything was in the English alphabet. Unfortunately, you can’t read in a dream, so I learned nothing new. I handed it back and he left. Later I wanted to talk to him again, but he wouldn’t see me.

There is one physical thing that happens. I wear a jade Chinese dragon my wife bought me for good luck. It dangles from a short loop on a thick cord around my neck. I’m right-handed, so I use that hand to open the clasp when I put it on.

But sometimes when I’m preparing to share my Voynich work, I find the loop has gotten tangled in the clasp. When I take it off to untangle it, the cord has somehow reversed itself, and I have to open it with my left hand. The cord won’t go over my head, so that shouldn’t be possible.

If those Entities from Firth and my dreams are responsible, maybe I should take a hint.

Tools Update

Okay, so I did the work and have added links to the freeware I use as a separate category.

In addition, I’m uploading to my MediaFire folder HP Calc, a Hewlett-Packard math program for Win 3.1 that has a very easy to use equation editor. I wish I could change that hideous green it has, though.

Also AnaGraph, a simple graphing program no longer available online (that I could find, anyway).

Actually, I’ve never used either of them in my VMs work, but they are very useful for a different hobby– Long Delayed Radio Echoes.

My Research Tools

The Voynich Manuscript folder on my desktop is divided into subfolders, one for each section. These contain subfolders for each folio, plus one for General Files.

Other folders are General Files, Folio Scans, Transcriptions, Papers, Uploads and Current Research Files.

I use MS Word 6, and Open Office 3 if I’m on my notebook.

WordFind 3.3 handles word lists, palandromes, and anagrams. Other lexicon files can be added, and it returns results in several optional formats.

For graphics file viewing I use IrfanView, which will handle just about any format, including .sid, which is the format for the high-res VMs scans.

For graphics creation I use Paint.NET, an art program that is simple to use, has lots of support, and many useful plugins.

For astronomy and astroarchaeology I have Starry Night Pro 4, long since superseded, but perfect for my work. It handles precession, as well as being able to add objects like comets and asteroids. It handles the 1582 calendar change by deleting those eleven days.

For astrology I use StarFisher 0.8. It’s not a subject I know much about, but since at the time of the VMs astronomy and astrology were the same science, it has proven to be useful on occasion. It does not address the calendar change, which makes the results confusing if I forget.

IrfanView, StarFisher, WordFind, Open Office and Paint.NET are all freeware. I don’t have links handy, but they are easily found.

File Availability

I’ve added to the sidebar a link to my MediaFire account so others can access the files I discuss here. There’s nothing in it right now, but expect that to change soon.

This is necessary since WordPress doesn’t appear to handle tables or other fonts well.
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