Thursday, November 12, 2009

Talismans and the Guardian Angel/Daimon


I had an interesting question recently on my discussion group Spiritus Mundi regarding the use of astrological talismans and your guardian angel/daimon.

The 4th Century Neoplatonic philosopher Iamblichus says, "...the invocation of daemons is made in the name of the single god who is their ruler, who from the beginning has apportioned a personal daimon to each individual and who in the theurgic rite reveals...their personal daimon to each...in the case of daimons, the single common leader of the cosmocraters [planetary gods] in the realm of generation sends down to the individual recipients their personal daimon."

De Mysteriis, Bk X, sec, 9.

That individual guardian angel/daimons are under the rulership of various planets is a fairly common formulation in later Neoplatonic and Hermetic thought, though Iamblichus makes the point that the entire cosmos is present in each individual and that simply identifying the almuten of the chart doesn't tell the whole story.

Picatrix discusses our individual Perfect Nature which functions similarly to the guardian angel/daimon,

"Aristotle said furthermore that each sage had his proper virtue infused into him by exalted spirits, by whose powers their senses were closed, their intellects opened, and sciences were revealed to them. This virtue was conjoined with the virtue of the planet ruling the radix of the nativity, so that the virtue thus co-created in them strengthened them and gave intelligence to them."

Picatrix Bk III, ch 6.

Thus it does appear that the guardian angel/daimon/Perfect Nature can be identified in each person with a particular planet. Robert Zoller used Ibn Ezra's almuten figuris calculation for this purpose and identified the almuten figuris as the planet linking each person to the divine. Almuten Figuris Calculation Method

I provide the almuten figuris as part of all of my natal readings
Astrological Checkup
Spiritual Path Reading
Full Natal Reading

Once identified it certainly would make sense to work with the planet that is your almuten figuris. This can be done through ritual, meditation and the use of talismans since these are ways to contact and connect to your guardian angel/daimon/Perfect Nature

"Socrates said that the perfect nature is the Sun of the wise one and his root is that of the Light. One interrogated the sage Hermes and asked him "With what are joined science and philosophy?" He replied "With the perfect nature." He was asked again "What is the root of science and philosophy?" "The perfect nature," he said. He was asked them more precisely "What is the key work of science and philosophy?" "The perfect nature" he answered. He was asked again "What is the perfect nature?" He answered "The perfect nature is the spirit of the philosopher or of the wise one bound to the planet that governs him. It is he that opens the doors of apprehension, and it is by he that one understands what cannot be understood otherwise, and it is from him that proceeds the workings of nature, directly, as much in dreams as in the state of wakefulness."

Picatrix Bk III, ch 6.

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