A winged angel carries a pitcher through VTI before a lion consumes the scene; Crowley closes the twenty-fifth vision by questioning how reported speech became perceived meaning.
- Aethyr number
- 25 of 30
- Earthly-part positions
- 73–75
- Crowley’s 1911 chapter
- Printed pp. 21–25
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.
VTI in the earlier sequence
The Equinox I:8 prints VTI after NIA and before DES. Its position at number twenty-five corresponds to ordinal earthly-part positions 73–75 under Whitby’s account of the Liber Scientiae grouping. That arithmetic locates VTI in a system of thirty orders and ninety-one parts; it does not supply a modern territory map or a definition of the lion image.
The British Library catalogue identifies Liber Scientiae as part of Sloane MS 3191. The manuscript setting precedes Crowley’s Algerian work by centuries. References to a Rosy Cross, a lion’s speech, and the seer’s ordeal in this guide are attributed to the 1911 Equinox supplement, not to Dee’s folios.
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 ↗
VTI governor names: ordinals 73–75
The Equinox I:7 (1912) groups three names under VTI 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.
- 73 MIRZINDSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 74 OBUAORSSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 75 RANGLAMSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
How the lion takes over the vision
On printed page 21 a bright-winged angel appears with a pitcher; another figure rides a white horse, another a black bull. A lion swallows the latter two. The first angel closes its mouth, but after trumpets and a blue, silver-speckled wind the lion becomes a raging flame and speaks in a language the seer says he does not know.
The narrative later passes from the lion’s body to its tail. Hairs carry houses, planets, towns, fields, temples, and cities, while its tuft becomes a comet-like new universe with streams resembling Milky Ways. A stern figure with sword and balances briefly appears. A one-line “VTI lion” gloss would miss this expansive, changing scale and the closing silence.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 21–25 ↗
The printed note on speech and meaning
The chapter is dated Ain el Hajel, November 25, 1909, in the printed supplement. After that line, a parenthetical note says the Cry involved two voices: an audible roar that seemed articulate but could not be understood word for word, and a silent transmission of ideas. It even leaves open whether the blows experienced by the seer were those sounds and ideas.
That note is evidence about the report’s own limits. The long declarations assigned to the lion are the publication’s interpreted rendering, not a verbatim translation of an independently recorded Angelical speech. The distinction keeps the visionary episode separate from the earlier name list and gives readers a better answer to “what does VTI mean?” than a fixed keyword.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 21–25 ↗ · 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. 21–25 ↗
The 1911 link opens a scan of the original supplement at PDF page 23, corresponding to printed page 21. 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
- 24. NIA A warrior becomes a blue rose; a later visionary speech and a lettered wheel belong to Crowley’s account.
- 23. TOR A changing sequence of figures in Crowley’s vision, kept separate from Dee’s name and earthly-part structure.
- 22. LIN A luminous tablet, a musician-angel, and a striking example of why visionary number claims need their own source label.
- 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.
- 10. ZAX How the famous Choronzon episode entered the later literature of the tenth Aethyr.
- 2. ARN A long vision with false starts, biblical speculation, a white rose, and a late burst of images.