A Proposal to Encode the Mystical Alphabets of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

Doc Type: Proposal Document
Title: Proposal for encoding the Mystical Alphabets of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in the SMP of the UCS
Source: Individual
Author: Willow McKinnis

1. Introduction.
The Malachim, celestial, and 'Transitus Fluvii'(Passing of the River) scripts were created by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, in his 16th century text Of Occult Philosophy, for use in occult contexts. They takes their letters' names largely from the Hebrew alphabet, though some are named for greek letters. It is not specified how precisely the script is intended to be used. In practice the script is largely used as a simple substitution cipher for the Latin alphabet.

2. Sorting
The alphabets should be ordered in the same manner as H. C. Agrippa ordered them, as shown in the below images.
Celestial, Malachim, and Passing of the river scripts, from Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's Of Occult Philosophy
3. Possible issues One possible reason for dismissing this proposal may be that they are arguably made up of variants on existing glyphs. This table compares the glyphs with their counterparts in Hebrew and Greek.
Malachim
Celestial
Passing of the River
Hebrew
Name Aleph Beth Gimel Daleth He Vau Zain Cheth Theth Yod Kaph Lamed
Malachim
Celestial
Passing of the River
Hebrew/Greek
Name Mem Nun Tau Shom Samech Ayn Pe Tzaddi Quph Resh
NOTE: all glyphs public domain images from Wikimedia Commons. Sources linked on respective images.

While certain symbols (Passing of the River Shom and Mem, Malachim Kaph, and most of Celestial) show distinctive resemblances to the source characters, they still have signifigant variances from their standard Hebrew forms, and the other characters are even more distinct.
While this script is a simple replacement cypher, its distinct use case makes it worthy of inclusion in the UCS.

I propose these characters be placed between the proposed Western Cham block and the Toto block (In other words, the Malachim block should encompass the points F2470-F248F)

4. Encoding
F247 F248 F249 F24A F24B
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
A
B
C
D
E
F


F2470 MALACHIM LETTER ALEPH
F2471 MALACHIM LETTER BETH
F2472 MALACHIM LETTER GIMEL
F2473 MALACHIM LETTER DALETH
F2474 MALACHIM LETTER HE
F2475 MALACHIM LETTER VAU
F2476 MALACHIM LETTER ZAIN
F2477 MALACHIM LETTER CHETH
F2478 MALACHIM LETTER THETH
F2479 MALACHIM LETTER YOD
F247A MALACHIM LETTER KAPH
F247B MALACHIM LETTER LAMED
F247C MALACHIM LETTER MEM
F247D MALACHIM LETTER NUN
F247E MALACHIM LETTER TAU
F247F MALACHIM LETTER SHOM
F2480 MALACHIM LETTER SAMECH
F2481 MALACHIM LETTER AYN
F2482 MALACHIM LETTER PE
F2483 MALACHIM LETTER TZADDI
F2484 MALACHIM LETTER QUPH
F2485 MALACHIM LETTER RESH
F2486 MALACHIM LETTER SAMECH ALTERNATE
F2487 UNUSED
F2488 TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER ALEPH
F2489 TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER BETH
F248A TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER GIMEL
F248B TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER DALETH
F248C TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER HE
F248D TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER VAU
F248E TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER ZAIN
F248F TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER CHETH
F2490 TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER THETH
F2491 TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER YOD
F2492 TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER KAPH
F2493 TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER LAMED
F2494 TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER MEM
F2495 TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER NUN
F2496 TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER SAMECH
F2497 TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER AYN
F2498 TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER PE
F2499 TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER TZADDI
F249A TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER QUPH
F249B TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER RESH
F249C TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER SHOM
F249D TRANSITUS FLUVII LETTER TAU
F249E UNUSED
F249F CELESTIAL LETTER ALEPH
F24A0 CELESTIAL LETTER BETH
F24A1 CELESTIAL LETTER GIMEL
F24A2 CELESTIAL LETTER DALETH
F24A3 CELESTIAL LETTER HE
F24A4 CELESTIAL LETTER VAU
F24A5 CELESTIAL LETTER ZAIN
F24A6 CELESTIAL LETTER CHETH
F24A7 CELESTIAL LETTER THETH
F24A8 CELESTIAL LETTER IOD
F24A9 CELESTIAL LETTER KAPH
F24AA CELESTIAL LETTER LAMED
F24AB CELESTIAL LETTER MEM
F24AC CELESTIAL LETTER NUN
F24AD CELESTIAL LETTER SAMECH
F24AE CELESTIAL LETTER AYN
F24AF CELESTIAL LETTER PE
F24B0 CELESTIAL LETTER TZADDI
F24B1 CELESTIAL LETTER QUPH
F24B2 CELESTIAL LETTER RESH
F24B3 CELESTIAL LETTER SHOM
F24B4 CELESTIAL LETTER TAU














5. Modern Use
An Example of the Celestial Alphabet.
A second example, this one of a Latin-Celestial correspondence.
An example of the Malachnim script in use.
0123456789ABCDEF
F247󲑰󲑱󲑲󲑳󲑴󲑵󲑶󲑷󲑸󲑹󲑺󲑻󲑼󲑽󲑾󲑿
F248󲒀󲒁󲒂󲒃󲒄󲒅󲒆󲒇󲒈󲒉󲒊󲒋󲒌󲒍󲒎󲒏
F249󲒐󲒑󲒒󲒓󲒔󲒕󲒖󲒗󲒘󲒙󲒚󲒛󲒜󲒝󲒞󲒟
F24A󲒠󲒡󲒢󲒣󲒤󲒥󲒦󲒧󲒨󲒩󲒪󲒫󲒬󲒭󲒮󲒯
F24B󲒰󲒱󲒲󲒳󲒴󲒵󲒶󲒷󲒸󲒹󲒺󲒻󲒼󲒽󲒾󲒿

A. Administrative

1. Title
A Proposal to Encode the Mystical Alphabets of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in the SMP of the UCS
2. Requester’s name
Willow McKinnis
3. Requester type (Member body/Liaison/Individual contribution)
Individual
4. Submission date

5. Requester’s reference (if applicable)
6. Choose one of the following:
6a. This is a complete proposal
No.
6b. More information will be provided later
Yes.


B. Technical – General


1. Choose one of the following:
1a. This proposal is for a new script (set of characters)
Yes.
1b. Proposed name of script
Malachim, Celestial, & Transitus Fluvii.
1c. The proposal is for addition of character(s) to an existing block
No.
1d. Name of the existing block
2. Number of characters in proposal
67
3. Proposed category (A-Contemporary; B.1-Specialized (small collection); B.2-Specialized (large collection); C-Major extinct; D-Attested extinct; E-Minor extinct; F-Archaic Hieroglyphic or Ideographic; G-Obscure or questionable usage symbols)
Category G.
4a. Is a repertoire including character names provided?
Yes.
4b. If YES, are the names in accordance with the “character naming guidelines” in Annex L of P&P document?
Yes.
4c. Are the character shapes attached in a legible form suitable for review?
Yes.
5a. Who will provide the appropriate computerized font to the Project Editor of 10646 for publishing the standard?
Willow McKinnis (amckinnis4@gmail.com).
5b. Identify the party granting a license for use of the font by the editors (include address, e-mail, ftp-site, etc.).
Willow McKinnis (amckinnis4@gmail.com)
6a. Are references (to other character sets, dictionaries, descriptive texts etc.) provided?
Yes
6b. Are published examples of use (such as samples from newspapers, magazines, or other sources) of proposed characters attached?
Yes.
7. Does the proposal address other aspects of character data processing (if applicable) such as input, presentation, sorting, searching, indexing, transliteration etc. (if yes please enclose information)?
No
8. Submitters are invited to provide any additional information about Properties of the proposed Character(s) or Script that will assist in correct understanding of and correct linguistic processing of the proposed character(s) or script. Examples of such properties are: Casing information, Numeric information, Currency information, Display behaviour information such as line breaks, heights etc., Combining behaviour, Spacing behaviour, Directional behaviour, Default Collation behaviour, relevance in Mark Up contexts, Compatibility equivalence and other Unicode normalization related information. See the Unicode standard at http://www.unicode.org for such information on other scripts. Also see UAX #44 http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/ and associated Unicode Technical Reports for information needed for consideration by the Unicode Technical Committee for inclusion in the Unicode Standard.
Despite the clear influence of Hebrew, the scripts are typically written left to right - though they are listed right to left in Agrippa's descriptions. The script can be written either LTR or RTL. LTR should be assumed, with a right to left mark used to disztinguish right to left text.

C. Technical – Justification


1. Has this proposal for addition of character(s) been submitted before? If YES, explain.
No
2a. Has contact been made to members of the user community (for example: National Body, user groups of the script or characters, other experts, etc.)?
No
2b. If YES, with whom?
2c. If YES, available relevant documents
3. Information on the user community for the proposed characters (for example: size, demographics, information technology use, or publishing use) is included? Reference:
4a. The context of use for the proposed characters (type of use; common or rare)
Rare. Used largely by occultists and similar.
4b. Reference
5a. Are the proposed characters in current use by the user community?
Rarely.
5b. If YES, where? Reference:
See 4a
6a. After giving due considerations to the principles in the P&P document must the proposed characters be entirely in the BMP?
No
6b. If YES, is a rationale provided?
6c. If YES, reference
7. Should the proposed characters be kept together in a contiguous range (rather than being scattered)?
Yes.
8a. Can any of the proposed characters be considered a presentation form of an existing character or character sequence?
No.
8b. If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
8c. If YES, reference
9a. Can any of the proposed characters be encoded using a composed character sequence of either existing characters or other proposed characters?
No.
9b. If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
9c. If YES, reference
10a. Can any of the proposed character(s) be considered to be similar (in appearance or function) to an existing character?
No. While the characters share names and some design elements with Hebrew and greek, the characters are not the same, and their use case is distinct,
10b. If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
10c. If YES, reference
11a. Does the proposal include use of combining characters and/or use of composite sequences?
No.
11b. If YES, is a rationale for such use provided?
11c. If YES, reference
11d. Is a list of composite sequences and their corresponding glyph images (graphic symbols) provided?
No.
11e. If YES, reference
12a. Does the proposal contain characters with any special properties such as control function or similar semantics?
No.
12b. If YES, describe in detail (include attachment if necessary)
13a. Does the proposal contain any Ideographic compatibility character(s)?
No.
13b. If YES, is the equivalent corresponding unified ideographic character(s) identified? If YES, reference