Book Soyga
The Book of Soyga , or Aldaraia ( Enochian “the will of God”), is a Latin treatise from the 16th century on magic .
background
A copy of this book was in the possession of the Elizabethan polymath John Dee . After Dee's death, the book was considered lost until 1994 when Dee historian Deborah Harkness tracked down two manuscripts of it. One was found in the British Library (Sloane MS. 8), the other in the Bodleian Library under the title Aldaraia sive Soyga vocor (Bodley MS. 908).
It is recorded from Elias Ashmole that the Duke of Lauderdale owned a manuscript entitled Aldaraia sive Soyga vocor , which previously belonged to Dee. The manuscript was auctioned off in 1692 and Jim Reed estimates it is likely Sloane MS. 8. The other manuscript, Bodley MS. 908 was donated to the Bodleian Library in 1605.
In addition to the incantations and instructions for magic, the book contains 36 large tables, filled with individual letters that Dee could not decipher. During Dee's so-called Angel Conversations - alleged conversations with angels that he conducted through the medium of Edward Kelley - Dee asked Archangel Uriel about the significance of the book and asked for clues. Uriel's answer was that the book had been revealed to Adam in Paradise by the angels , and that the Archangel Michael was the translator of the book.
After Harkness rediscovered the book, Jim Reeds succeeded in deciphering the tables in 1998 using a mathematical formula.
The 36 code tables
At the end of the book Soygas there are 36 code tables, each of these tables having 36² (i.e. 1296) individual fields, each with a single letter. All 36 tables added together have 36³ (so 46656) fields with a single letter in them.
Overview
| No. | designation | code word | No. | designation | code word | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latin | German | Latin | German | |||||
| 1 | ARIES | Aries | NISRAM |
19th | LIBRA | Libra |
RIUAUX
|
|
| 2 | TAURUS | bull | ROELER |
20th | SCORPIO | Scorpio |
CASOAR
|
|
| 3 | GEMINI | Twins | IOMIOT |
21st | SAGITARIUS | Sagittarius |
AUDASR
|
|
| 4th | CANCER | cancer | ISIAPO |
22nd | CAPRICORNUS | Capricorn |
AGORTA
|
|
| 5 | LEO | lion | ORRASE |
23 | AQUARIUS | Aquarius |
OLOUDS
|
|
| 6th | VIRGO | Virgin | OSACUE |
24 | PISCES | fishes |
AACIRA
|
|
| 7th | LIBRA | Libra | XUAUIR |
25th | SATURNI | Saturn |
OSRESO
|
|
| 8th | SCORPIO | Scorpio | RAOSAC |
26th | JOVIS | Jupiter |
NIEBOA
|
|
| 9 | SAGITARIUS | Sagittarius | RSADUA |
27 | MARTIS | Mars |
OIAIAE
|
|
| 10 | CAPRICORNUS | Capricorn | ATROGA |
28 | SOLIS | Sun |
ITIABA
|
|
| 11 | AQUARIUS | Aquarius | SDUOLO |
29 | VENERIS | Venus |
ADAMIS
|
|
| 12 | PISCES | fishes | ARICAA |
30th | MERCURII | Mercury |
REUELA
|
|
| 13 | ARIES | Aries | MARSIN |
31 | LUNAE | moon |
UISEUA
|
|
| 14th | TAURUS | bull | RELEOR |
32 | IGNIS | Fire |
MERONF
|
|
| 15th | GEMINI | Twins | TOIMOI |
33 | AERIS | air |
ILIOSU
|
|
| 16 | CANCER | cancer | OPAISI |
34 | AQUAE | water |
OYNIND
|
|
| 17th | LEO | lion | ESARRO |
35 | TERRAI | earth |
IASULA
|
|
| 18th | VIRGO | Virgin | EUCASO |
36 | MAGISTRI | "Ghost" |
MOYSES
|
|
Structure and functionality
A 23-letter Latin alphabet is used and a counter value is assigned to each of these letters, as follows:
a 2 g 6 n 14 t 8 b 2 h 5 o 8 u 15 c 3 i 14 p 13 x 15 d 5 k 15 q 20 y 15 e 14 l 20 r 11 z 2 f 2 m 22 s 8
The respective 6-digit code word is entered on the left in the first column of a 36 × 36 table from top to bottom, written alternately forwards and backwards (e.g. for the code word nisram: nisrammarsinnisrammarsinnisrammarsin).
The first column is thus available and the remaining columns are now generated row by row. You start at the top left with the first code word letter and work your way to the right in the line. To know which letter comes next, you have to pay attention to the respective letter to the left of it and the letter above . In the first line there is of course no letter above, you just take the letter on the left and use it as the letter above.
The very first letter n on the left has the counter value 14. In the first line, the same letter n is also thought above. This letter above is the 13th in our 23-letter alphabet, and you now add the counter value 14 from the letter on the left (13 + 14 = 27). With that you already have our missing letter, but since the number is greater than 23, you have to subtract 23 beforehand (27 - 23 = 4). The 4th letter in our 23-letter alphabet is d , and this can now be entered to the right of the n :
n d i z b d i z b d i z b . . . i s r l . . . s c u . . . r o . . . a . . . m . . . m . . . a . . . r . . . . . . . . .
The next letter is calculated in the same way. You take the letter d with the counter value 5, think of the same letter ( d , the 4th in the alphabet) above it, and add the counter value to this (4 + 5 = 9). So the next letter is the ninth in alphabet i .
The same procedure also in the next line. In the second line on the far left is the letter i with the counter value 14, which is added to the already existing letter d above (4 + 14 = 18). The 18th letter is s and can now be entered in the second column of the second line. For the next letter, take the counter value of the letter s just calculated , and add it to the letter i above (9 + 8 = 17), which results in the letter r .