The third lunar caption assigns the figure to protection on journeys, especially against night attacks and water danger.
- Planetary group
- ☽ Moon
- Mathers figure
- 51
- Printed plate
- XII
- Text anchor
- Psalm 40:13
Mathers assigns silver and silver to this planetary group. The crop documents his printed linework; it does not reproduce the color or material described elsewhere in the edition.
What Mathers’s caption claims
The third lunar caption assigns the figure to protection on journeys, especially against night attacks and water danger.
Within the Moon collection, this places figure 51 among themes of opening, water, night journeys, herbs and stones, dreams, and rain.
Inscription, names, and script
Psalm 40:13: Be pleased, O IHVH, to deliver me; O IHVH, make haste to help me.
The hand points toward the names Aub and Vevaphel.
How the diagram is organized
The visible core is a pointing hand entering from the left. Around it, Aub and Vevaphel sit on the gesture’s horizontal axis. At the edge, the plea for quick deliverance surrounds the field.
Mathers plate and witness differences
Mathers supplies two proper names while the psalm contributes urgency. Neither the hand nor verse specifies travel; the journey setting is an additional layer supplied by the caption.
Plate XII is an artifact of Mathers’s 1889 arrangement. His preface and final note say that he compared differing manuscripts and restored difficult Hebrew and magical characters. Sloane 2731 and Lansdowne 1203 remain distinct manuscript objects; this printed crop should not stand in for either one.
WORKED EXAMPLE
A diagram reading of figure 51
Compare Moon 3 directly with Moon 2. The same pointing-hand grammar identifies a different name pair, while a new verse shifts from trust to urgent rescue. Repetition makes textual substitution visible.
View this figure in sequence
The Moon collection contains 6 figures, numbered 49–54 in the 1889 edition.