Crowley’s OXO condenses scarlet fire, four coloured pillars, and a dancer into a forty-nine-petal rose. Those visions do not come from Dee’s bare fifteenth three-letter name.
- Aethyr number
- 15 of 30
- Earthly-part positions
- 43–45
- Crowley’s 1911 chapter
- Printed pp. 65–71
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.
The fifteenth order and its part positions
The Equinox I:8 places OXO at number fifteen, after UTA and before LEA. Whitby’s account of the first twenty-nine Aethyrs as groups of three earthly parts yields positions 43–45. This arithmetic explains the table position, but it does not identify current countries or connect a particular flower to those earthly parts.
The British Library catalogues the older Liber Scientiae in Sloane MS 3191. The printed 1912 list supplies this page’s spelling and ordinal, while Crowley’s 1911 supplement supplies its elaborate visionary imagery. Reading those witnesses in date and genre keeps a manuscript arrangement from becoming an invented source for a twentieth-century scene.
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 ↗
OXO governor names: ordinals 43–45
The Equinox I:7 (1912) groups three names under OXO 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.
- 43 TAHAMDO2010 comparison form: TAHANDO
- 44 NOCIABISame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 45 TASTOXOSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
From scarlet dancer to rose amphitheatre
A fiery dancer whirls among four inscribed pillars, which then become part of a crimson rose of forty-nine petals. The rose expands into a seven-tiered amphitheatre, each tier containing seven partitions. At its centre stands an emerald altar; a veiled figure above it is named Pan. The spectators’ successive modes of adoration shift from human and animal forms toward no form at all.
Crowley identifies a twelvefold table in the moving light and distinguishes a silent source from the speech reflected by the amphitheatre. The passage links this table with a sevenfold one and the Book of Enoch. It is tempting to combine every named table into one neat diagram, but the narrative repeatedly changes vantage, form, and kind of perception.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 65–71 ↗
Letters as stars and an ending in light
Adept figures emerge from the tiers and examine the seer. The table then becomes a universe of letters and stars. The text names individual stars and suggests correspondences, but also says that a letter cannot express the whole nature of a star. The narrator later reports that some information comes neither as voice nor writing, leaving only the table’s brilliance.
The rose is finally seen against a black pyramid. An angel scatters coloured disks that become turning wheels, and the vision closes with a return to the body at Bou Saâda on December 3, 1909. OXO’s rose and tables are Crowley’s later interpretation. The 1912 roster and Dee’s earlier manuscript establish the historical name and arrangement, not the truth of the reported encounter.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 65–71 ↗ · The Equinox I:8 (1912), p. 125 ↗
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. 65–71 ↗
The 1911 link opens a scan of the original supplement at PDF page 67, corresponding to printed page 65. 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
- 14. UTA The 1911 heading spells UTI; the later roster spells UTA. Both point to the fourteenth order discussed here.
- 16. LEA The earlier Aethyr name and three earthly-part positions beside a later vision of displaced kingship and a returning woman.
- 13. ZIM A peaceful garden appears, but the account asks what unseen work sustains it and who can interpret the vision.
- 17. TAN A reported encounter with Madimi introduces weighing and justice, while its specific symbols remain Crowley’s later account.
- 12. LOE The intense light of a cup fills the scene until six children cover it and the Aethyr darkens.
- 18. ZEN A later vision moves from a disturbing opening image to a crystal mountain and a chamber whose centre cannot be seen.