[Author’s note: Page numbers are referenced as they appear in the actual manuscript as per The Voynich Manuscript,Yale Books, not this PDF. Link to PDF of the Voynich Manuscript, holybooks.com. Feel free to peruse before reading.]
Nature is nurture, is art, is patience, is medicine.
When night flowers and thistles whisper in the breeze listen to their secrets and ask what you can grow in your imagination.
Botanical spas were popular during the Renaissance and imagery shows women and men bathing together, yet in the Voynich the narrative is female.
Ten nymph-women bathe, in a viridescent, brew, beneath what appears to be a medieval tent (p76a). Look closer: it has a ‘chicory’ canopy, symbolising the cosmic-plant energy of the astrological medicine wheel. Apotropaic magic rains on the bathers. Wavy petals, code for Alkaid’s power, fringe the ‘canopy’ and decorate a tubular ‘plant stem’ rising to the cosmos – a conduit for star magic. The ‘tent poles’ are ‘plant stems’ delivering divine and cerebral energy to the bather’s crown chakras. There are two ‘chicory canopies’, beneath which six women face four women, seemingly in conversation. Above the six, a crucifix. Above the four – none. Does this image show women in conversation, talking Christian and Pagan beliefs?
“Whosoever counts these Lays as fable, may be assured that I am not of his mind.” – Marie de France. – “Marie de France Quotes.” BrainyQuote.com.
Women “languish in the footnotes” of medieval history but the poetry of Marie de France (born 1160) implies some enjoyed sexual and intellectual freedom, contrary to church orthodoxy.
“Rosemary is the jewel of the Mediterranean and in Italy it’s said that rosemary grows near homes filled with strong women.” – Paige Vanderbeck, Green Witchcraft: A Practical Guide to Discovering the Magic of Plants, Herbs, Crystals and Beyond.
Prick of nettle, thorn of rose, women’s hands blister and bleed foraging for magic. Blood drops on the white, lacy ‘wild carrot’ flower symbolise plant wisdom passing from fingertip to fingertip.
Beyond the bathtub the conversation is female. Umbilical cords link bathtub to bathtub, describing a lineage of womb spaces – a matrix of ancestral plant wisdom in flow, incubated by the sisterhood (pp 77a,78,79a,81,84,85). Motherwort (mother root) supports the heart-yoni connection.
Women’s hands reach into plant stem conduits (flowers removed) representing foraging, distilling, brewing and administering astro-plant magic via ‘plant straws’ (p77,78a,79a,82,83,84a). Are they ‘talking’ emmenagogues, abortifacients, galactagogues, contraceptives and anodynes – herbs to support female body autonomy?
One illustration is decidedly fallopian (p78a). A women sits upon an astral flower-womb, flanked by and connected to two women sitting upon flower-ovaries. Dangling from the flower-womb are what could be three magic mushrooms or three heart-shaped seeds – perhaps a homage to silphium, the possibly extinct contraceptive, aphrodisiac and abortifacient herb, revered by Minoans and ancient Egyptians. In The Offering of the Heart, a medieval tapestry, the heart became a romantic symbol. Three women, three seeds, three florets, seems like code for the Triple Goddess to me, perhaps referencing Hecate, Prosperina and Diana. Her own boss, lunar, forest Goddess Diana was patron of witchcraft in the middle ages.
Leafy sheaths become bathtubs, climbing stems, in a vertical illustration down the page margin (p80a). It’s unclear which plant this is. It resembles Angelica, cow parsley, poison hemlock and the way silphium is drawn on Kyrenaica coins. This image tells a story. The nymph-woman at the top of the stem, taking a dip in her ‘leaf sheath’ bathtub, beneath an astral, medicine wheel, flower canopy, holds a crucifix. Further down the stem, a second nymph-woman reclines in her bathtub, holding a ring that could be part of a witches tool kit; a Celtic torc: an ancient Egyptian shen ring; or the rod-and-ring symbol held by Inanna – all divine infinity / protection symbols. Does this page discuss plant and religious poison?
The myth of the nymph endured through the middle ages. In Greek mythology the flower nymph Chloris who, in fear, exhaled roses, helped Hera conceive by gifting her a flower stem.
The stems sprout from an emerald pool (p80a bottom) where a mermaid bathes, surrounded by animals – spirit guides or animals poisoned by hemlock? I think she is Melusine, spirit of forest ponds, who married a supernatural man-beast. This image comes with a warning: no peeking on Saturday when Melusine grows her serpent tail or she’ll hex you with plant magic.
This page is peppered with plant stalks resembling ‘rainbows’ – medieval symbol linking heaven and Earth, but I don’t think this references the godhead, since Christian iconography may conceal Pagan deities (the rose symbolises Mary and Isis). One nymph-women, who’s hands are inserted into a rainbow plant stem (purple Angelica or spotted poison hemlock?) has a mermaid tail. Another, sits upon a flower whose petals are sprouting aquatic tails. Is she Melusine, striding supernatural, Pagan and Christian realities, which her oftentimes split tail iconography may describe? Melusine’s lineage stretches to Atargatis, Delphyne, Medusa, Tiamat and the Lamia – aquatic, serpent Goddesses, predating patriarchy.
If I’m correct then the ‘star map’ (in part one) could feature Melusine’s castle, Château de Lusignan and Avalon, the otherworld island of ‘wisdom apples’ and lush, healing vegetation. Shapeshifting, from human to dragon, Melusine flew off there. Perhaps the ‘rainbow stems’ reference psychoactive plants and ‘flying off’ describes ‘tripping’. ‘Unguentum pharelis’ (Flying ointment) induced hallucinations and illusions of flying.
Threatened, patriarchy continued to link female power with poison – in 1834 Jean-Baptiste Dumas named chloroform after Chloris. Nymph Chloris metamorphosed into Flora, who is associated with flowers from the mythical Fortunate Isles, representing longitude 0 on the medieval map. Perhaps the ‘Voynich star map’ embodies the mythologies of all the Utopian Garden Paradises, including Eden.
If this document of dichotomies were the World Tree I’ve probably travelled along one twig. Many mysteries wait to emerge. The Voynich portal has transported the wilderness of my imagination to some wild places: forest ponds inhabited by female spirits; nocturnal flower meadows inhabited by Diana; blood drops on finger tips; womb-baths linked with umbilical cords; women healers spinning round the cosmic, medicine wheel; flower stems and fallopian tubes; liquified moon drops; flower heavens; plant magic; female astronomers; witches; healers; distillers; prescribers of the unguents ensuring women’s body autonomy; moral dilemmas and conversations with medieval women; women retreating from patriarchy into the haven of nature.
“Go into the garden for understanding.” – Monaghan, Patricia, Seasons of the Witch: Poetry and Songs to the Goddess.
Manuscripts may have been written in code because monotheism was dangerous for freethinkers. When Sister Maria Crocifissa della Concezione [born 1645] wrote, “This system works for no one.” she wrote in code, fearing retribution, claiming Satan possessed her. Possibly she also feared her own intellect escaping the limiting framework of patriarchal doctrine.
Opening the Voynich portal, in search of the transcendent relationship between women and plants, has led me to the politics of being female. It’s dark, light, earthy, vast, cosmic and magical. The perfume of the flower Goddess wafts through time. These are my findings. Yours maybe different.
[End of the Essay]
References
Clements Raymond, Editor. Harkness Deborah, Introduction. The Voynich Manuscript, 2016, Beinecke Rare Books & Manuscript Library in Association with Yale University Press, New Haven and London, yalebooks.com
wp-content, uploads, Voynich-Manuscript.pdf. Holy Books. holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Voynich-Manuscript.pdf
Vanderbeck Paige, Green Witchcraft Quotes. Green Witchcraft: A Practical Guide to Discovering the Magic of Plants, Herbs, Crystals, and Beyond. Goodreads. goodreads.com/work/quotes/74909928-green-witchcraft-a-practical-guide-to-discovering-the-magic-of-plants
“Marie de France Quotes.” BrainyQuote.com. BrainyMedia Inc, 2023. 15 July 2023. brainyquote.com/quotes/marie_de_france_357581
Algerian Cave Paintings Suggest Humans did Magic Mushrooms 9,000 years ago. 27January 2021. Open Culture openculture.com/2021/01/algerian-cave-paintings-suggest-humans-did-magic-mushrooms-9000-years-ago.html
Arghiris, Richard. A ‘Possessed’ Nun Wrote A Message From The Devil, And Now The Spooky Letter Has Been Translated. 14 Oct 2022. Boredom Therapy. boredomtherapy.com/s/possessed-nun-translation-message/?as=6dap&utm_source=cc_fb&utm_medium=kb_ciq_bt_possessednun_ww_all_0.05_6dap_cc_fb&fbclid=IwAR1FJGv0xyFsYGta9pTRPypn26RlO9o1gea9Meki2V2FoWkgxmo4iwNiSlg&utm_campaign=6dap&bdk=0
Monaghan, Patricia, Seasons of the Witch. Seasons of the Witch: Poetry and Songs to the Goddess, paperback, 1 Jun. 2004, Creatrix Books; 3rd edition. amazon.co.uk/Seasons-Witch-Poetry-Songs-Goddess/dp/097606040X
Weaver, unknown. The Offering of the Heart, tapestry, Musee de Louvre, Web Gallery of Art. wga.hu/html_m/zzdeco/2tapestr/1/03n_1400.html
Browsing Ancient Coinage of Kyrenaica. Wildwinds. wildwinds.com/coins/greece/kyrenaica/t.html
Cernunnos, Wikipedia. wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernunnos
Rod-and-ring symbol, Wikipedia. wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod-and-ring_symbol
Shen ring, Wikipedia. wikipedia.org/wiki/Shen_ring
Women have been using and healing with plants from the beginning – I am one of those women whose relationship with plants has helped me discover who it is I am…