Unlocking the Voynich Manuscript: The Stars

The Sun in the Center

This is a Voynich manuscript picture of a sun inside an eight-pointed star or octagram.

The Voynich manuscript with its heliocentric star charts was written 105 years before Copernicus’ publication that posited the sun in the center, causing the Copernican Revolution. In what context outside of classical astronomy might a sun appear at the center of a chart of heavenly bodies?

Here are more heliocentric star charts in the Voynich manuscript.

Notice anything?

They are all female.

Taarka Setu - Portrait by Toomas Kuusing

The suns and the stars depicted in the Voynich in fact have little if anything to do with astronomy.

Muhu Island Handicrafts

Rather, they represent some core elements of north European mythologies that can be found in Scandinavian, Finno-Ugric, north Germanic, and even to some extent Celtic traditional belief systems. These belief systems go back thousands of years, yet traces of them remain to this day.

To become acquainted with these largely forgotten belief systems, let us take a look at an excerpt from FOREST MYTHS: A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF IDEOLOGIES BEFORE ST. STEFAN by Pavel F. Limerov.

In other words, for the peoples of North-Eurasia, the mythological fertility does not have an earthly origin, but descends from the heavenly spheres. In the Finno-Ugric mythology, it is represented by the motif of the descent of heavenly goddesses or animals to the earthly world. Such is the Finnish world maiden Ilmatar, who entered to the waters of primordial ocean to give birth to the future creator of world Väinämöinen; such is the Ob-Ugrian Kaltash, the giver of life, who was pushed down from the sky by Torum and gave birth to Mir-Susne-Hum in the air, between heaven and earth (among the Karelians Kaltas-san-taaram – Kaltas is the heavenly mother, quoted in Ignatov 2004: 101); such is the Mordvin Ange-Patjaj, who resides in heaven and gives life on the ground. The myth about a heavenly maiden is known in the mythology of the Sami, Estonians, Mari, Komi-Permyaks, where the idea of fertility is probably less pronounced. As to North Siberia, there are a number of goddesses – the Old Women of Life, who reside in the heavenly world somewhere in the south: the Selkup Yljunda Kotta, the Nganasan Ninulemy Mou njamy, the Ket Tomam, and the Evenk Bugady Enityn. All these divine characters give fertility of earth but reside in heaven. Next to the mentioned female deities, there are also others, including the Earth Mother, but the functions of all of them are secondary.

And here is an excerpt from Anssi Alhonen's Notes on the Finnish Tradition:

The upper world is located in the skies and also to the south. The great birch tree (or in Finnish tradition, the giant oak) grows there. At the roots of the tree, a spring flows and marks the source of the world river. Near the tree and spring there is a warm lake, or 'sea of life', where water birds and human souls are renewed. In the Finnish folk religion this upper world became a warm and light world located in the south called Lintukoto (or 'home of the birds') and the sea of life became a body of warm water surrounding the Lintukoto. This upper world is ruled by an old woman, the ruler of all life, protector of childbirth, motherhood and water birds.

She is the sender of souls and the mother of the gods. In Finnish mythology a mysterious virgin by the name of Iro is said to have given birth to the three divine brothers at the beginning of times. In Finnish folk religion, the divine mother is the Virgin Mary (or 'Maaria' in Finnish) and she is remembered in songs and spells as a spiritual mother, healer, helper and protector of motherhood.

True to this sort of cultural tradition, the women in the center of the Voynich star charts are depicted as the sun.

One such deity is the Alpine Austrian Perchta, early Germanic for "bright." Her German counterpart is Holda. These deities are usually shown in either their wintery crone aspect or as the sun (shown below).

There is also the Sami Beaivi.

Many Sami drums have the symbol of the sun in the center. Beaivi (above is her symbol) is the spring and sun goddess of fertility and sanity. She was worshiped by the Sami, one of the indigenous peoples of Fennoscandia. ...She travels with her daughter Beaivi-nieida through the sky in an enclosure covered by reindeer bones, bringing green plants back to the winter earth for the reindeer to eat. More about Beaivi here, and more about the Sami here.

Celestial Bodies in the Voynich

Laplander (Sami) people worshipping in front of a prayer banner. Picture by Olaus Magnus 1555:

There are not too many cultural traditions out there that would depict the sun as female or vice versa, but there is also the Japanese sun goddess, Amaterasu.

Well and good, but nothing else about the Voynich manuscript is remotely suggesting a Japanese origin, whereas the torcs, drop spindle, distaff, ceremonial spoons, headdresses, embroidery-style of drawing, wheel of the year, cosmological terrain, trochees, runic symbols, and root base of proto-Finnic and proto-Norse do point to northern Europe.

Disir: Sun and Stars as Symbols of Ancestry and Progeny

The woman in the center of each star chart is the deified ancestor of a north European clan. In Germanic mythology, an idis (Old Saxon, plural idisi) is a divine female being. Idis is cognate to Old High German itis and Old English ides, meaning 'well-respected and dignified woman.' Connections have been assumed or theorized between the idisi and the North Germanic dísir; female beings associated with fate, as well as the amended place name Idistaviso.

The Disir are often depicted as the spirits of dead female ancestors. You may ask, who are the Disir? Here's the wiki:

In Norse mythology, a dís ("lady", plural dísir) is a ghost, spirit or deity associated with fate who can be both benevolent and antagonistic towards mortal people. Dísir may act as protective spirits of Norse clans. Their original function was possibly that of fertility goddesses who were the object of both private and official worship called dísablót, and their veneration may derive from the worship of the spirits of the dead. The dísir, like the valkyries, norns, and vættir, are almost always referred to collectively. The North Germanic dísir and West Germanic Idisi are believed by some scholars to be related due to linguistic and mythological similarities, but the direct evidence of Anglo-Saxon and Continental German mythology is limited. The dísir play roles in Norse texts that resemble those of fylgjur, valkyries, and norns, so that some have suggested dísir is a broad term including the other beings.

The disir are explicitly called dead women in Atlamál 28 and a secondary belief that the disir were the souls of dead women (see fylgjur) also underlies the landdísir of Icelandic folklore. Wiki

Below is a border with the Finnish star from Karelian mittens created in the 19th c. Underneath is part of a zodiac chart from the Voynich mss. Notice that these three women have different numbers of points on their stars. Now, you could say that these women are acting like some Renaissance version of Vanna White and being a display prop. OR you could wonder if the number of points on their stars has to do with the women, themselves. Is the 8-point a grandmother, the 7 a mother, and the 6 still single? Or do they show stages in some sort of initiation or education? Or do they have to do with their ages? I don't know, but that sort of inquiry might get us further in understanding the VM.

Those women whose stars made it to eight points may be the figureheads of entire clans. They represent the Disir, and they get their own genealogical chart. Then the stars would represent descendants of the woman whose face is in the middle. As the risku or solde brooch signifies, they would be, then, the sun from which future generations emanate.

We do similar charts

with balloons, leaves, hearts, flowers signifying posterity.

Setu brooch

Brooches (solde, solju, risku) like the one above are found from Norway to Setumaa, Estonia, where only those women could wear the big brooch who were able to give birth to a child. When a girl was wearing a heaped brooch this signified the onset of menstruation and women who were not wearing brooches anymore had already passed their menopause. At least for the Sami, the risku represents the sun. Now look again at this star chart with the woman in the center, with light radiating from her.

Stars and Csepesz

What is actually the csepesz? The Hungarian Ethnographic Lexicon cap based on a heading of the head, which "was first made felkontyolt woman's head on the night of the wedding party enjoyed only piece of clothing women, the married woman symbolizing the head cover (...)."

The cap all the old folk wear accessories, and function the same, which is different from the shape, material and decoration. The different versions, however, depend on ethnic, geographic and socio distinctness.

Csepesz-made by the owner himself as the bride could not meet, as the latest piece was made around 1913 and is the oldest in the 1730s. Thus, the interpretation of the symbols that appear on them inherited from their ancestors of the owners asked about the reports. From these two interpretations, I quote here:

"The circles of solidarity, signs of együvétartozás, like the rings of yellow circle.. The sun, family warmth radiation, which is located in the middle of the day with geometric figures. Two four nations of interconnection, also the solidarity symbol of the lowest circle up in the middle of an ancient emblem can be seen, some Turkish military means, and in it the star that led the way. At the rear of the tree of life can be seen, which has two branches, the man and the woman are connected, is the fruit of effort. The életfától right also to the left and two flower it is tulip ".

From above the sun, the symbol of the universal world, of the universe solar system. Inside a small sun or a star. This is repeated for the outer ring of stars: twelve stars, that is, the twelve-month period which is symbolic symbol....

Eight-pointed star is also viewed by the mid-and repeated several times around her motives, as the folk art image reading system allows for multiple forms of representation with respect to same. The eight-pointed star olvasataként evening star appearing in many areas of popular culture, that is, the thought of Venus. The wedding ceremony wedding of fertility, prevent the state is a fertile Moon, Venus state of the bride, the girl will miss.

The star wreaths twelve year system of fixed stars in the circuit refers to the entire state of popularity, stars and planetary systems condenses week involves continuous movement of life.

If we look at these csepszeket by the seven villages Csango women, and compared to day knowledge from other areas of the ancient folk culture, we make sure that the preparation of the common roots nourished, the all-embracing organic literacy components as is the entire unit. Seemingly trifling pieces are held by the owners, but if you know what they are kept, then their value will be invaluable, even if a little moth-eaten rag is a piece. From Seven Village