In the table of the names of the Genii of the 22 Scales of the Serpent — at the end of Liber 231 — appears the following name:
Note the cryptic explanation of one of the letters appearing in it (this letter appears also in some of the subsequent names):
where the equation to “st” might lead one to believe that the letter in question is the archaic Greek letter Stigma.
Yet if one transcodes that letter as Unicode 03DA (that’s an upper case Stigma — the lower case version looks similar, only smaller), this is what one sees ...
which is quite different in appearance. Interestingly, the latter is the rendition given in multiple fonts on multiple platforms, so one might presume this to be the canonical representation (if there is such a thing) of the letter Stigma.
The original also looks something like a “backwards Xi” or even a Kai, but neither of those quite mesh with its equation to “st”.
However, if you look at 777 (columns 51-53), you’ll find this “mystery letter” along side its Greek and Arabic equivalents:
We might question its earlier transliteration as “st” (and the above to “s”), but it’s obvious that the “mystery letter” is a Coptic version of the Greek xi!
To the rendering problem... the Coptic alphabet does not get its own
code range as of Unicode version 3.x (and the time in which these Libri
are being encoded) — it is considered to be “just Greek, with
seven extra letters”. This deficiency in Unicode is being
addressed with the next version of Unicode (slated for release
by mid-2005 e.v.), whereupon that letter will go officially by the name
“COPTIC LETTER ksi”. After that, one will have to wait
several years (at least) before one finds real Coptic letters in
Unicode (!) fonts packaged with the various and sundry computer
operating systems. So, despite our preference for using Unicode to render
glyphs, we find it preferable at this time to use a graphic image of the
Coptic letter ksi (
)instead of “making do” with the Greek xi
(ξ) (or presuming that A.C. intended a stigma because of his
note — see above).
Footnote: the Coptic letter is generally considered to have the sound of
“ks” or “x”. See Omniglot”s and
Wikipedia”s
Coptic alphabet pages.
In one of the other names, the sequence “
” (equated to “sh, q”) appears. While the
second character is likely the archaic Greek koppa, the first is
not readily recognizable. Because of the doubtless Arcanum (there almost
always is one:) associated with 666’s use of these
letters, we have decided to keep them rendered them as graphics.
All other “foreign” letters (from the Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic) in Liber 231 are transcoded into their Unicode code points.
![[three columns: Greek xi(sigma), Arabic sin, Coptic ksi]](equated.png)