Golden water and battling giants dissolve into ZIM’s garden, where Crowley turns the thirteenth Aethyr toward an extended conversation on NEMO.
- Aethyr number
- 13 of 30
- Earthly-part positions
- 37–39
- Crowley’s 1911 chapter
- Printed pp. 76–81
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 thirteenth name and its part positions
The Equinox I:8 puts ZIM between UTA and LOE in its numbered list. Whitby’s reading of the thirty Aethyrs and ninety-one earthly parts yields positions 37–39 for this thirteenth order. The span is arithmetic from the manuscript grouping, not a claim that the garden belongs to three modern regions.
Sloane MS 3191 preserves Dee’s Liber Scientiae in catalogued folio ranges. Its earlier setting is relevant to the Aethyr structure, while the water, giants, and NEMO garden described here come from Crowley’s 1911 publication. The printed chapter is a record of what that author said he experienced, with no independent verification of the event.
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 ↗
ZIM governor names: ordinals 37–39
The Equinox I:7 (1912) groups three names under ZIM 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.
- 37 GECAONDSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 38 LAPARINSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
- 39 DOCEPAXSame spelling in the 2010 comparison appendix
Golden water, falling giants, and flowers
The later account opens with bright water above a gold floor, beautiful but somehow fruitless. A pale-gold angel walks upon it. A veil opens to reveal two black giants locked in conflict; a small bird’s wingbeat breaks their strength. The scene shifts again to a castle terrace with fountains, where pale young women and flowers interchange.
A voice calls the water the water of death, which NEMO has used to fill the garden’s springs. Crowley then asks who NEMO is. The answer begins in riddling images and number play, before a white-robed figure explains the care of a garden. The sequence moves from spectacle to interpretation, rather than delivering a fixed lexical meaning for ZIM.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 76–81 ↗
What tending the garden costs
The white-robed guide shows several very different gardens, including an oasis, a northern-looking landscape, and an old blind writer at a desk. Beneath the garden, a veiled worker cuts, burns, and treats roots. The visible beauty is set against difficult hidden labour. The worker does not know which flower will fulfil the hoped-for future, and is told to tend all of them.
Near the end, the narrator asks whether vision belongs to the Aethyr or to the seer. The reply joins the two and claims that a person called NEMO is needed to see a certain range. That is a statement made within Crowley’s reported vision, not a rule established by Dee’s manuscript. The chapter closes near Bou Saâda on December 4, 1909.
Sources: The Equinox I:5 supplement (1911), printed pp. 76–81 ↗ · 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. 76–81 ↗
The 1911 link opens a scan of the original supplement at PDF page 78, corresponding to printed page 76. 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
- 12. LOE The intense light of a cup fills the scene until six children cover it and the Aethyr darkens.
- 14. UTA The 1911 heading spells UTI; the later roster spells UTA. Both point to the fourteenth order discussed here.
- 11. ICH An armed but motionless host guards nine towers; the later narrative ends before the Abyss.
- 15. OXO A dancing figure becomes a rose-shaped amphitheatre, followed by layered tables and a vision that resists simple transcription.
- 10. ZAX How the famous Choronzon episode entered the later literature of the tenth Aethyr.
- 16. LEA The earlier Aethyr name and three earthly-part positions beside a later vision of displaced kingship and a returning woman.