KHR culminates in Crowley’s forty-ninefold wheel, intricate and simple at once; the twentieth Aethyr ends by admitting that speech, memory, and sight cannot be retained together.
- Aethyr number
- 20 of 30
- Earthly-part positions
- 58–60
- Crowley’s 1911 chapter
- Printed pp. 41–47
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.
KHR in the earlier sequence
The Equinox I:8 lists KHR as the twentieth name, between POP and ASP. On Whitby’s account of the thirty Aethyrs and ninety-one earthly parts, positions 58–60 fall beneath it. These are ordinal part numbers derived from 19 preceding groups of three, not a location map or a manuscript definition of the wheel.
The British Library catalogues Dee’s Liber Scientiae within Sloane MS 3191. That provides the earlier book context; the exact 1912 spelling is a printed witness; and the visual sequence discussed below is Crowley’s 1911 publication. Keeping these dates distinct prevents a later vision from being presented as Dee’s explanation of KHR.
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 ↗
KHR governor names: ordinals 58–60
The Equinox I:7 (1912) groups three names under KHR (printed as CHR in I:7) on printed page 241. These are the spellings in that later table; the comparison labels below identify only forms that differ in a modern Great Table reconstruction.
- 58 ZILDRONSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 59 PARZIBASame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 60 TOTOCANSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
From peacock to forty-nine wheels
In the 1911 chapter, a peacock fills the stone and then dissolves into white angels. Trumpeting archangels introduce so many simultaneous images that the narrator calls the scene confused. The images gather into a luminous turning wheel: forty-nine wheels at angles forming a sphere, each with forty-nine spokes and concentric rings.
A much larger hand seems to spin it for amusement. The account compares some figures on the wheel to familiar tarot emblems and then rejects that reading. It instead reports a lamb with a flag above a wolf and raven, while describing all three as darker stains on the wheel. The narrator’s correction should not be erased by a convenient tarot label.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 41–47 ↗
The vision’s stated limits
The lamb speaks as a deceiving figure, after which light from the wheel draws the seer into an intense encounter. He reports being pushed back repeatedly and says that the person who sees cannot fully communicate with the person who speaks. He then explicitly calls the vision imperfect because preserving speech and memory limits what can be experienced.
The chapter closes in exhaustion, with a Bou Saâda date line of November 30, 1909. Its forty-ninefold wheel is an image in this later account, not proof that the earlier Angelical system contains forty-nine Calls. For that separate counting question, compare the 48 Keys, nineteen verbal forms, and thirty Aethyr applications in the Calls guide.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 41–47 ↗ · 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. 41–47 ↗
The 1911 link opens a scan of the original supplement at PDF page 43, corresponding to printed page 41. 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
- 19. POP An arch of dagger-shaped letters gives way to an abandoned threshold, a battlefield, and a dazzling book.
- 21. ASP The older name and earthly-part position beside a later report of wind, a throne, and speech that the seer cannot reliably hear.
- 18. ZEN A later vision moves from a disturbing opening image to a crystal mountain and a chamber whose centre cannot be seen.
- 22. LIN A luminous tablet, a musician-angel, and a striking example of why visionary number claims need their own source label.
- 17. TAN A reported encounter with Madimi introduces weighing and justice, while its specific symbols remain Crowley’s later account.
- 23. TOR A changing sequence of figures in Crowley’s vision, kept separate from Dee’s name and earthly-part structure.