The caption associates the gold figure with release from imprisonment and iron bonds.
- Planetary group
- ☉ Sun
- Mathers figure
- 38
- Printed plate
- IX
- Text anchor
- Psalm 116:16–17
Mathers assigns yellow or gold and gold 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 caption associates the gold figure with release from imprisonment and iron bonds.
Within the Sun collection, this places figure 38 among themes of authority, visibility, movement, concealment, and release.
Inscription, names, and script
Psalm 116:16–17: Thou hast broken my bonds in sunder; I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon IHVH.
Chasan, Arel, Phorlakh, and Taliahad name elemental angels; Ariel, Seraph, Tharshis, and Cherub name rulers.
How the diagram is organized
The visible core is a small cross-centered intersection. Around it, four broad arms separate two sets of elemental names. At the edge, the broken-bonds verse encloses the cross.
Mathers plate and witness differences
Mathers distinguishes angels of the elements from rulers of the elements. A transcription that merges the eight names into one list loses the two-tier structure expressed by their placement.
Plate IX 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 38
Read one cross arm from center outward and compare its inner and outer name positions. The verse describes bonds breaking, yet the diagram remains tightly quadrated; release is expressed by the text crossing a disciplined elemental frame.
View this figure in sequence
The Sun collection contains 7 figures, numbered 32–38 in the 1889 edition.