BAG passes from Crowley’s 1911 opalescent angel and wheel to a sapphire whose minute writing cannot be deciphered midway through the twenty-eighth Aethyr.
- Aethyr number
- 28 of 30
- Earthly-part positions
- 82–84
- Crowley’s 1911 chapter
- Printed pp. 11–15
Dee’s Liber Scientiae is the earlier manuscript setting. The Equinox I:8 (1912) supplies the spelling and number used here. Crowley’s Vision and the Voice (1911) supplies the much later vision described below.
Where BAG sits in the earlier scheme
The Equinox I:8 places BAG at number twenty-eight. Whitby describes the first twenty-nine names in Dee’s Liber Scientiae as holding three earthly parts each. BAG consequently corresponds to ordinal positions 82–84. The positions are a calculation from the stated grouping, not a transcription of the three historical place labels or evidence that the later warden appears in Dee’s place columns.
The British Library catalogues the Liber Scientiae folios within Sloane MS 3191. That earlier record, the 1912 printed order, and the 1911 Vision and the Voice answer different questions. The individual name comes from the ordered list; the wheel, warden, sapphire, and speech below come from Crowley’s report.
Sources: The Equinox I:8 (1912), p. 125 ↗ · Whitby, John Dee’s Actions with Spirits, vol. 1, pp. 141–142 ↗ · British Library, Sloane MS 3191 catalogue ↗
BAG governor names: ordinals 82–84
The Equinox I:7 (1912) groups three names under BAG on printed page 242. These are the spellings in that later table; the comparison labels below identify only forms that differ in a modern Great Table reconstruction.
- 82 LABNIXPSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 83 POCISNI2010 comparison form: FOCISNI
- 84 OXLOPARSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
The wheel and the unread sapphire
On printed page 11 an angel appears in opalescent garments, with a scarlet flail and a many-spoked wheel before it. When the wheel breaks away, the body becomes a composite of fish-like belly, dark and light wings, numerous legs, and scorpion-like tail. The figure speaks as a warden. The scene is not a conventional portrait of an angel with stable anatomy.
The seer discovers an egg-sized sapphire in its breast. A small sigil is printed in the 1911 edition on page 12, while tiny characters elsewhere on the stone remain unreadable to him. This limitation matters: reproducing the 1911 sigil as an image of the episode would require an item-level image decision, and inventing the unread characters would falsify the source. The text’s own uncertainty is the sounder guide.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 11–15 ↗
Four watchtowers and the limits of a warden
The warden says the opened sapphire would reveal four elephants carrying castles called watchtowers. That image alludes to other Enochian material within Crowley’s visionary speech. It does not make the four elemental Watchtowers physically enclosed in a gemstone or provide a diagram of Dee’s Great Table. The chapter moves from such claims toward a confrontation over the “word of the abyss.”
When pressed, the warden says it lacks power over some questions and warns against mistaking symbols and letters for understanding. It also contrasts three angels of this Aethyr with four in the thirtieth. Crowley’s printed date line is Aumale, Algeria, November 23, 1909. This discourse belongs to his later interpretation; Whitby’s ninety-one-part arithmetic should be read independently of it.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 11–15 ↗ · Whitby, John Dee’s Actions with Spirits, vol. 1, pp. 141–142 ↗
Source editions and page locators
- The Equinox I:8 (1912), p. 125 ↗
- Whitby, John Dee’s Actions with Spirits, vol. 1, pp. 141–142 ↗
- British Library, Sloane MS 3191 catalogue ↗
- The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 11–15 ↗
The 1911 link opens a scan of the original supplement at PDF page 13, corresponding to printed page 11. The 1912 issue link is a modern reconstruction. This page paraphrases the original printing and does not treat the visionary report as independently verified.
Continue reading the Aethyrs
- 27. ZAA A woman with moon emblems, a changing rose in a cauldron, and a dragon that ends the seer’s stable view.
- 29. RII Four directions, several speaking figures, and a printed chronology that deserves careful reading.
- 26. DES A dark, dazzling angel changes into an eagle before a red veil gives way to Crowley’s Thelemic imagery.
- 30. TEX The exceptional four-part Aethyr in Dee’s scheme becomes a cube, four archangels, and sealed books in Crowley’s later vision.
- 25. VTI A visionary lion and its strange tail, followed by a printed note about the difference between heard speech and perceived meaning.
- 24. NIA A warrior becomes a blue rose; a later visionary speech and a lettered wheel belong to Crowley’s account.