RII fractures its chronology: Crowley’s 1911 Destiny vision ends on 17 November 1900, while a later note places its Mexican reception in August; the 1912 roster calls it twenty-ninth.
- Aethyr number
- 29 of 30
- Earthly-part positions
- 85–87
- Crowley’s 1911 chapter
- Printed pp. 6–10
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.
RII at the edge of the numbered list
The Equinox I:8 prints RII at number twenty-nine, directly before TEX. Whitby’s description of the Liber Scientiae scheme makes it the last of twenty-nine groups of three, with ordinal earthly-part positions 85–87. TEX then differs by holding four parts, 88–91. This arrangement explains the arithmetic without claiming that Crowley’s lion or eagle was written against a particular place name by Dee.
The earlier Liber Scientiae belongs to Sloane MS 3191 in the British Library’s catalogue. The exact RII spelling used on this page follows the 1912 printed witness. Its 1911 chapter is a separate report whose images and theological language are Crowley’s, even when the three-letter title comes from the inherited Aethyr sequence.
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 ↗
RII governor names: ordinals 85–87
The Equinox I:7 (1912) groups three names under RII 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.
- 85 VASTRIMSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 86 ODRAXTISame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 87 GOMZIAMSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
A directional sequence of speakers
On printed pages 6–8, stars appear against green darkness. An immense eagle-angel speaks, followed by a wounded lion in the south. In the west a white bull with differently coloured horns cuts through the sky, and in the north a stern rider holds scourge and balances. Each figure changes the language and viewpoint. No one animal exhausts the content of RII.
The northern rider directs the seer to look below. He sees a dark funnel containing towns, trees, souls, and other material forms drawn downward. A voice from the abyss speaks of destiny; an explosion shatters the scene, and a further voice invokes eternity. These events are reported as a vision and cannot establish a physical geography of the twenty-ninth Aethyr.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 6–10 ↗
The printed date and the later note
The RII chapter closes on printed page 10 with a date line reading November 17, 1900. Immediately afterward, a note dated in 1909 says Crowley had received the twenty-ninth and thirtieth Aethyr visions in Mexico in August 1900 before attempting the rest. Those two dates do not say the same thing. This guide reports both as printed rather than silently harmonising them into one event date.
The note also overlays the Aethyrs with a later Sephirothic scheme and says the final orders have ten attributed angels. That is evidence for Crowley’s interpretive apparatus, not a substitute for the thirty-name and ninety-one-part manuscript account. RII is therefore best read as both a named position in Dee’s inherited system and a distinctive 1900-era Crowley text.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 6–10 ↗ · 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. 6–10 ↗
The 1911 link opens a scan of the original supplement at PDF page 8, corresponding to printed page 6. 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
- 28. BAG A many-limbed warden hides a sapphire and admits limits to what its words and symbols can reveal.
- 30. TEX The exceptional four-part Aethyr in Dee’s scheme becomes a cube, four archangels, and sealed books in Crowley’s later vision.
- 27. ZAA A woman with moon emblems, a changing rose in a cauldron, and a dragon that ends the seer’s stable view.
- 26. DES A dark, dazzling angel changes into an eagle before a red veil gives way to Crowley’s Thelemic imagery.
- 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.