TEX alone contains four earthly parts rather than three; Crowley’s separate 1911 vision answers with a crystal cube and four archangels at the close of the thirty-Aethyr list.
- Aethyr number
- 30 of 30
- Earthly-part positions
- 88–91
- Crowley’s 1911 chapter
- Printed pp. 3–6
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.
Why TEX has four earthly parts
The Equinox I:8 prints TEX as the thirtieth and final name. Whitby describes twenty-nine three-part groups and one final four-part group in Dee’s Liber Scientiae. After positions 1–87, TEX therefore covers ordinal positions 88–91. This is the unusual case that makes the total ninety-one rather than ninety. These are positions within an older earthly-part structure, not four modern places inferred from Crowley’s cube.
The British Library catalogues the Liber Scientiae in Sloane MS 3191. The 1912 table is the spelling witness used here, while the 1911 special supplement supplies the later narrative. TEX is sometimes presented as the starting point of an “outer-to-inner” visionary journey; that describes the order of Crowley’s publication, which begins with the thirtieth Aire, not the numbering of the earlier list.
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 ↗
TEX governor names: ordinals 88–91
The Equinox I:7 (1912) groups four names under TEX on printed page 243. These are the spellings in that later table; the comparison labels below identify only forms that differ in a modern Great Table reconstruction.
- 88 TAOAGLASame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 89 GEMNIMBSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 90 ADVORPTSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 91 DOZINALSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
Crystal cube and four books
The 1911 chapter opens on printed page 3 inside a vast crystal cube associated by the seer with Harpocrates. A sphere surrounds it, and four archangels stand about it in black and white armour. The angel of the north bears a book marked with Enochian characters. The east later bears another book, red with blue letters, which grows to fill the sky.
The seer turns to other directions, and the books frame declarations, prohibitions, a winged sign, and an image of a cold fiery scorpion. These are features of Crowley’s scene as printed; the 1912 name list itself contains no cube or four book-bearing portraits. Readers should resist collapsing the four angels of this vision into Dee’s four earthly-part positions merely because both counts are four.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 3–6 ↗
A voice orders the return
The chapter’s speech shifts between judgment, darkness, love, and fear. A historical hooked-cross image is printed beside one passage; as a symbol in a 1911 occult source it requires its own context and is not needed to explain the Aethyr’s name. Near the end, the seer hears a command to return, after which the narrator says the voice of TEX goes no further.
Unlike RII, the TEX chapter in this printing has no separate closing place-and-date line. A note after RII says Crowley received the twenty-ninth and thirtieth visions in Mexico in August 1900. That is his retrospective statement, not a date printed at the end of TEX. The distinction is useful for anyone comparing original editions with later retellings of the Vision and the Voice.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 3–6 ↗ · 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. 3–6 ↗
The 1911 link opens a scan of the original supplement at PDF page 5, corresponding to printed page 3. 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
- 29. RII Four directions, several speaking figures, and a printed chronology that deserves careful reading.
- 28. BAG A many-limbed warden hides a sapphire and admits limits to what its words and symbols can reveal.
- 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.