A Necessary Synthesis #3 Leopold's Talismans

If we wish to practice traditional astrology we need to stay within the tradition. This is less of a moral judgment than simply one of keeping our labels straight. We do not wish, as my mentor in magic Robert Zoller said, to be flying under “false flags” calling ourselves traditional astrologers because we like the sound of it and consciously or more likely unconsciously practicing modern astrology.

As we have explored in earlier posts, we face the delicate task of being true to the essence of the tradition without blind and slavish adherence to every jot and tittle of every traditional text.

We can perhaps say that we have begun to master the essence of traditional astrology by when we have followed our traditional sources carefully and delineated, say 500 charts or created 100 astrological talismans using only traditional methods. At this point we can begin to see through the letter of the rules to the essence.

Let’s look at an example. What follows are a literal and then a “synthesized” version of a translation from a passage in Leopold of Austria’s “Compilatio scientie astrorum” Compilation of the Science of the Stars, dating to about 1271. This passage is included in F J Carmody’s “The Astronomical Works of Thabit b. Qurra” (Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1960) at 172-3.

First here is a literal translation of the passage by our own John Michael Greer,

For having the love of somebody, make an image of the one whose love you want to acquire on the day and hour of Jupiter, under the ascendant of the nativity or question; a fortune ascending, and (a fortune) the lord of him (the ascendant,) and keep the malefics away from it; let the lord of the tenth be a fortune. And let it be joined with the lord of the ascendant, with corporeal reception or a good aspect, and name the image you make with the name by which that person is known; put another image with the first so that they embrace each other, and wrap in a clean cloth. And (what you did) with the lord of the first image, (do) to both images; the power is not in the metal of which they are made or the wax or clay, because the observation of the ascendant suffices with the conditions you should keep in mind.

Next, here is my “synthesized” translation,

In order to have the love of someone, make images for the acquisition of love in the day and hour of Jupiter under the Ascendant of the nativity [of the person whose love you wish] or of a horary question [regarding this person]; with a fortune rising and the Ascendant ruler fortunate; and remove malefics from the Ascendant; and make fortune the ruler of the 10th house and unite it with the ruler of the Ascendant with bodily reception or a good aspect, and name the image with the name of the person for whom it is made; and place the second image with the first image and cause them to be embracing and place them in clean cloth. And the lord of the first image is lord of both; the power is not in the metal out of which they are made or wax or clay, because it is enough to observe the Ascendant and be mindful of it when creating [talismans].

Ok, let’s look at the changes I made. First of all, the literal translation says “make an image” while I say “make images”. This is because later in the paragraph it makes a big deal out of a second image and making the two images embrace each other. This is a key part of the whole talisman creation process because embracing images cause the targets to embrace. The literal translation even says to do the same with the second image as the first!

Next another key is basing the election for these images on a natal chart or a horary. As we can see in De Imaginibus, we use the natal chart of the target or a horary that gave us a favorable outcome concerning them. The problem is that the literal translation goes on to say that you should make a fortune ruling the Ascendant. The fortunes are Jupiter and Venus, they rule Sagittarius, Pisces, Taurus and Libra. So what if the natal chart of your target has Capricorn rising? I have substituted “make the lord of the Ascendant fortunate” This preserves the concept of fortunating the Ascendant, which is what having a benefic rule it does, while also preserving the ability to focus the power of the talisman on the target. Similarly, making the lord of the 10th a fortune limits the signs that can rise, so I make a similar adjustment there.

We can see that the “synthesized” translation does not do anything that goes outside the usual traditional practice and in fact, it resolves the confusion the literal translation causes while still giving a recipe for a powerful talisman.

Translation, in fact, is an excellent analogy about how we need to approach traditional sources, even in English. Translation is an art, it cannot be done word for word, and we must balance fidelity to the literal words of the original with creating a translation that is meaningful to us, but still faithful to the original.

A Necessary Synthesis #2 Agrippa's Synthesis

As contemporary practitioners of the authentic Hermetic arts of traditional astrology, alchemy and magic, we are caught between a rock and a hard place, or Scylla and Charybdis, for the classically educated. On one hand, if we stay in the modern atheistic/materialist worldview, generally unconsciously, we will inevitably distort and destroy any chance of truly understanding or applying Hermeticism, which entirely depends on the spiritual connection of all things stemming from their origin in the One. “But I’m not an atheistic/materialist!” A good test is the “sidereal” (actually constellational) versus Tropical Zodiac. If you find the constellation Zodiac compelling, your unconscious thinking is atheistic/materialist. This is not a disaster, just good to know!

For the newbie and student, the first step is to immerse yourself in the tradition, learn the authentic pre-1700 philosophy of Hermeticism and the pre-1700 techniques of astrology, alchemy and magic. Learn the methods, learn the rules at the same time working from the other end trying to grasp the ubiquity of the modern worldview and understand the traditional worldview.

One of my favorite methods for this stems from my legal training. In a legal brief or before a judge, you are expected to be able to cite an authority, typically a court case decided by an appellate court, statute or regulation to support your position. I have my students cite to specific sections of traditional sources, giving the title and page. This is a useful exercise since it keeps us from straying into modern thinking and methods.

However, this dependence on traditional methods and sources ends up being the second big problem for more advanced students or picky talisman buyers who require complete, 100% adherence to traditional sources. Ok, then what do you do when the sources contradict each other?

But let’s go further, the purpose of learning the rules is to immerse yourself in them and penetrate to the essence of the tradition. The rules themselves should be treated respectfully and are not tossed aside at some mythical level of mastery. Rather one understands the reasons behind them and when the rules occasionally contradict the essence of the tradition or the essence can be preserved if the ruled is not observed, then 100% adherence is not required.

While this is a process reserved for those with a mastery of the philosophy and practice of traditional astrology and astrological magic, let me give a concrete example showing how Agrippa worked with Picatrix within the tradition.

As is indicated by the Latin critical edition of Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, (Brill, 1992) edited by Compagni, the source of the Mercury talismans in Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book II, chapter 43 is Picatrix, Bk II, ch. 10.

We have recently finished translating Picatrix so we have those talisman descriptions available to us. Bk II, ch. 10 has two separate planetary sections, one is a listing simply of images of the planets according to various sources and the second section lists images plus the astrological conditions they are to be made under and
their effects.

Here is the first section of Mercury images:

The form of Mercury according to the opinion of the sage Beylus is the form of a young man with a beard with a dart in his hand. And this is its form.

The form of Mercury according to the opinion of Mercury is the form of a man with the head of a rooster sitting on a throne and his feet look like those of an eagle and in the palm of his left hand he has fire and under his feet are the signs stated before. And this is its form.

The form of Mercury according to the opinion of Picatrix is the image of a man standing erect and to his right side having wings that extend and on his left having a small rooster [?] in his right hand having a dart and in his left hand a round shell and on the middle of his head
the crest of a rooster. And this is its form.

The form of Mercury according to the opinion of the other sages is the form of a crowned nobleman, riding on a peacock in his right hand a reed pen and in his left having a book and his clothing is of many mixed colors. And this is its form.

Picatrix, Bk II, ch 10.

Here is the second section of Mercury images:

Image of Mercury. From the images of Mercury make the image of a baron seated on a chair with the head of a rooster and the feet of an eagle, and in his left hand fire and under his feet are the signs [figures in text] in the hour of Mercury, Mercury exalted and rising, in emerald, and if this stone is carried into a prison it liberates
prisoners.

From the operations of Mercury, when he rises, make this sign in his hour in emerald, and carrying this stone you will be served by scribes and notaries and all those who are the nature of Mercury.

From the operations of Mercury make the image of a lion in emerald or another image is the image of head of a lion, in the hour of Mercury, Mercury rising in Gemini, and above the head write a "A" and below the head a "D" and whoever has this image they will evade infirmities and fear and good things will be said of them.


Picatrix, Bk II, ch. 10

Now here are Agrippa's Mercury talismans from TBOP, Bk II, ch 43

Of the Images of Mercury.

From the operations of Mercury, they made an Image at the hour of Mercury, Mercury ascending in Gemini, the form of which was an handsome young man, bearded, having in his left hand a rod in which a serpent is twyned about, in his right carrying a dart, having his feet winged; They report that this Image conferreth knowledge, eloquence, diligence in merchandizing and gain; moreover to beget peace and concord, and to cure feavers; They made another Image of Mercury, Mercury ascending in Virgo, for good will, wit and memory; The form of which was a man sitting upon a chaire, or riding on a Peacock, having Eagles feet, and on his head a crest, and in his left hand holding a cock or fire.


By comparing Agrippa's talismans with his original source Picatrix, we can see that Agrippa is basically mixing and matching the various Mercury images listed in Picatrix. For example Agrippa’s first image is Mercury in Gemini, with a bearded young man and a dart, but Picatrix doesn’t specify a sign for the bearded young man with a dart. Of course Gemini makes sense being Mercury’s sign. Agrippa adds in a rod with a snake twined around it, but then this is the famous caduceus of Mercury, quite appropriate if not in Picatrix. Also Agrippa has the image with winged feet, again classic for images of Mercury, while Picatrix just says “winged”. Does this make feet wrong, hardly!

So Agrippa is neither inventing out of whole cloth, nor is he simply slavishly following the source, because this is clearly not necessary. He is inspired by Picatrix and adds in other appropriate, traditional elements.

A Necessary Synthesis #1 Flowers' Hermetic Magic

Hermetic Magic by Stephen Flowers is subtitled “The Postmodern Magical Papyrus of Abaris”

I was definitely prepared to dismiss this as another frothy New Age production with the term “hermetic” used as a synonym for esoteric, occult or simply “cool”. Instead Flowers does a good job of outlining the true history of classical Hermeticism, explaining its mixed Greek and Egyptian roots, its subsequent history, cosmology, Hermetic gematria and the operative magical use of Hermeticism in the Greek Magical Papyri.

I’m not wild about the term “postmodern” which already has a current definition that to my mind doesn’t fit how Flowers uses it, because postmodernism is still atheistic/materialistic. On the other hand, what should we call the worldview that is necessary for astrology, alchemy and magic? A bit of a conundrum! Flowers is entirely correct, however, in pointing to a change from the modern worldview as a prerequisite for true contemporary Hermeticist.

I also wasn’t wild at first about the “Epistle of Abaris” which is Flowers’ own creation of a Hermetic text. Then I realized that this was totally traditional! Flowers’ epistle is certainly within the mainstream of Hermetic thought and one would not balk at it if it was part of a newly found ancient Hermetic manuscript.

Ultimately, I realized that basically any problem I had with Hermetic Magic stemmed from bad vibes off of the “postmodern” title. In point of fact, this is a very good introduction to the history, theory and practice of magic within classical (1st to 4th centuries AD) Hermeticism. Flowers points to all the key sources, the Corpus Hermeticum, the Greek Magical Papyri, which you can then read in the original. Ultimately, I think that Flowers’ approach, seeing the origin of Hermeticism in synthesis and then immersing oneself in pre-modern Hermeticism and then finally producing a new synthesis, within this tradition, is the correct approach.

Current Chart: Sun Talisman

I wanted to mention my new current chart, a Sun talisman

This is for the Sun in Leo. Sun elections are nice because they are easy to find, Sun hour on Sunday always being Sunrise and the Sun being in both sign and triplicity in Leo and sign and triplicity in Aries on Sunday at Sunrise. The Sun, not surprisingly, cranks out good elections like clockwork (?) indeed! being the original timekeeper along with the Moon.

Sun is good for promotion, fame, reputation, leadership, wealth, and good for general health as the ruler of the heart and center of the body.

Sun talisman is particularly appropriate for you with Sun in Leo, Aries, or Sagittarius. Yellow flag (caution) on Sun talismans if he is in Aquarius or Libra. He can't be combust or retrograde! Bad aspects, bad house placement or rulership doesn't seem to affect talisman choices much.

This one is particularly easy to adapt to your own location. Just do Sunrise on August 8 at your location! Check US Naval Observatory Sunrise Data

And folks, Dawn is Sunrise and Sunrise is when the Sun comes up in the morning! A staggering number of people have no idea what Dawn is and ask me things like "should I adjust to Eastern time?" or just seem very confused by the concept. Even Sunrise confuses many. Oh, man, if we needed any confirmation that moderns were totally out of whack with Nature, not knowing what Dawn is or being confused about when Sunrise is, really shows it.

Mirror Madness #1: Moon Mirrors!

I got so caught up with Picatrix and other business that I wasn't able to give a heads up about a great Moon election yesterday, but I used it to make Moon mirrors and Wade cast Moon talismans!

This was an excellent Moon election with the Moon culminating, Moon day and hour, Moon dignified by sign and face and waxing! Wow! The Moon moves so quickly that getting good Moon elections can be very difficult.

Ok, but so what? you may ask, why bother with the Moon? I know what you mean, the Moon is mysterious and her incredible power is hidden. This is entirely appropriate, as the Sun, light of the day is blindingly obvious, while the Moon, light of the night, is inscrutable.

The Sun is the cause of all life, controls the weather, regulates the day and the year. But the Moon is equally important. The month is hers, and through her regular and orderly waxing and waning, she controls everything in the Material World, known very appropriately to the ancients, as the sublunar Realm.

Picatrix says,

"You should pay attention to the Moon in all workings, as the foremost of the planets, because she has the most manifest effects and judges all things in this world, and to her belong the powers of generation and corruption, and she is the mediatrix of their effects; for she received the influences and impressions of all the stars and planets, and pours them down onto the inferior things of this world. For this reason you should pay attention to what we have said above concerning her fortunes and infortunes, and the waxing and waning of her light, because after she separates from the Sun her powers are balanced; thereafter they change when she is in sextile, square, trine, and opposite aspect. Her strength will accord with the nature of the planets and stars with which she is conjoined while in the aforesaid
aspects. "

Picatrix Bk II, ch 3, Greer & Warnock trans at page 70


For the astrological mage, we cannot and must not neglect the Moon because she is so key to our magic. Picatrix says,

"You should know also that magic is gained by actions and works in one way, and more subtly in another. That which is gained by actions and works is gained from the magistery that is worked by the sage in the world beneath the sphere of the Moon..."

Picatrix Bk I, ch 2, Greer & Warnock trans at page 29.

If we are to perfect our art, we must be masters of Lunar magic! And what better way to work with the Moon, the luminary of the night, then through a talisman that is itself lightbearing, our Moon mirrors? We will, of course have silver Moon talismans available cast on this date as well.

The more I work with mirrors, the more I begin to appreciate their special magical qualities. Agrippa says the Moon table,

"...renders the bearer thereof grateful, aimiable, pleasant, cheerfull, honored, removing all malice, and ill will. It causeth security in a journey, increase of riches, and health of body, drives away enemies and other evil things from what place thou pleaseth;."

Three Books of Occult Philosophy Bk II, ch 22.

In addition, mirrors add a visionary and dream like quality to talismans, opening up the realms of the spirits, allowing you access into their spheres. The hypnotic quality of incense flowing over mirrors can be quite intense!

I made these Moon mirrors personally, acid etching using the Moon table and my own special design. I consecrated them to the Moon and they are ready for ritual use. "What do you do with mirrors?" Of course you can scry with them, but I have them on my altar space and they really look fabulous as well as being ideal foci for my ritual and beaming off all that fabulous astrological energy.

Cost of the 3 x 3 inch Moon mirrors is $79.95 plus shipping. Order
and more info here

Magical Casuality?

One of the real problems we face in attempting to work with magic is our utter lack of personal experience and societal support and understanding with regard to the spiritual realm.

I get this constant drumbeat of unreasonable hope and unreasonable fear with regard to astrology and talismans. People are hoping that their whole life is going to be turned around instantly with one talisman or even one election. Or they are freaking out that they got the candle color wrong in their consecration ritual or that their new talisman HAS COMPLETELY RUINED THEIR LIFE!!!!

A real problem in this regard is accurately following casual links. This goes both ways, people unreasonably finding magic successful or being convinced that it was unsuccessful. With no personal experience with magic or social training in what it can or cannot do people get very superstitious. If someone said that "once I was almost run over by a redhead, so now I refuse to be in the same room with a redhead" you'd likely think they were not assessing the situation properly. Throw in magic and suddenly they are freaking out!

What's lacking is trust. I don't like the word "faith" because in the modern context that tends to mean believing in something despite the fact it has no "rational" read atheistic/materialist basis, in fact believing in something rather foolish like Santa Claus or God.

Trust, I like better as a basis. Trust can be reasonable, based on personal experience, on logic and philosophy and on the reasonable reports of others.

Moderns don't trust magic because they have been taught by science and the prevailing atheistic/materialism that it doesn't exist. And despite 300 years of atheistic/materialism there is still strong, though deeply buried social programming, stemming from the jealousy of the established religions to magic or any form of spirituality not under their control.

Personally, I have worked with astrological magic for over 10 years now. I have seen how that my life has improved both materially and spiritually over that period. Astrological magic is rooted in Hermetic and Neoplatonic philosophy which is rational, once you accept the existence of the spiritual, and can be part of a positive, right hand spiritual path. (Left hand path is also possible with it, just not really my thing!) I have a rational basis for trusting that astrological magic works and that it works positively if done properly. Minor mistakes don't, in my experience, blow up like a grenade in your face.

If I am going to say that I think astrological or other magic has worked in a particular circumstance, I am going to need reasonable casual links. For example, every month I do a consecration of my 3rd Mansion talisman, when the Moon is in the 3rd Mansion. The 3rd Mansion is for all good things. Invariably within 24 hours, either before or after, my business booms. It is not unusual for the 3rd Mansion day to be the biggest day of business for the whole month. And this has not just happened once, it is as regular as clockwork. In this case we have a reasonable casual link because we get an appropriate effect within a close time range and can say that it appears that the 3rd Mansion magic is working.

Our clues to casual links are connections in terms of time and in terms of effect. If I do the 3rd Mansion consecration and 15 days later I get a boost in business, the link is less clear. This is not saying that there is no link, but the connection is not as evident. If 3 months later I fall down the stairs or get fired from my job, there is very little linking this occurrence with the 3rd Mansion talisman, neither timing nor effect.

This confusion over casuality is an area where atheistic/materialists have a point. "Magical" thinking, ala "step on a crack, break your mother's back" is likely to confuse us and lead us astray. Now personally I am somewhat superstitious, I don't walk under ladders or use the number 13, if I can help it, for example, but I don't try to rationalize this. I regard it as simply my own foibles that I feel more comfortable not crossing. Absolutely nothing wrong with indulging personal preferences.

Spiritual causality is pretty tricky since we are dealing with subtle forces. It is easy to see connections out of hope or fear, since we really don't trust magic. It's easy when things we don't like happen to point to magic since magic is weird and dangerous. Still, by all means, if magic freaks you out or you feel that magic is responsible, don't do magic! You won't see me opening up and messing with my circuit box, I leave it to an electrician.

Wearing or Hiding Astrological Talismans?

I had a recent question asking whether you could openly wear astrological talismans or should hide them.

If there is any mention of this issue at all in Picatrix it does tend toward hiding talismans. Picatrix Bk I, ch 5, Greer & Warnock trans, page 42, "An Image to Increase Wealth and Trade" says to guard the talisman and keep it secret so no one sees it.

De Imaginibus has you burying talismans, eg Chapter VII, though this doesn't necessarily mean the talisman has to be hidden.

I do personally wear talismans openly, even the Great Wealth and Fountain of Wealth talismans based on the Bk I, ch 5 recipe that says to keep them hidden. Perhaps part of this is vanity, since I think Renaissance Astrology talismans are beautiful pieces of jewelry. I have certainly not noticed any ill effects. I don't let all and sundry handle my talismans, but actually I have been rather surprised by the almost total lack of curiosity and interest that my talismans evoke.

I mean, here I am, wearing 2 planetary rings and 4 talismans and nobody asks me about them! I had one guy recently ask me about my Regulus talisman, but that was first time anyone asked in 2010! If I mention the talismans I generally get a very brief purely polite response with zero followup. Maybe people are so weirded out that they can't wait to change the subject; I really have no idea.

My sense of astrological talismans is moving further and further away from the charged battery model to the ensouled entity, dwelling place of the spirits model. I get the sense the astrological spirits like their beautiful talismans. I know I feel like I should keep them polished. My compass in all my dealings with the astrological spirits, be it ritual, meditation or talismans, is "am I being respectful?"

Personally, I don't feel that openly wearing astrological talismans is disrespectful, but this is my personal opinion. Valuable, in that I am basically top of the heap in terms of contemporary astrological magicians, but in particular cases, like the Picatrix Bk I chapter 5 wealth talismans, not in line with this important traditional source.

It's important to be clear about this. We don't want everything frozen in 1647 or 1000, but then we don't want to change merely because the modern worldview insists that everything new is better than everything old and everything my ego thought up in 15 minutes is better than what took Plato a lifetime to conceive. I feel like I am still operating within the tradition, but I want to be perfectly clear that this is my personal idiosyncrasy.

This has particular relevance because there are astrologers out there insisting that they are "traditional" but being very, very vague about what traditional sources say and what they do personally. Nothing wrong with doing your own thing, within the tradition, but let's be crystal clear about what is in traditional sources and what is our own personal thing.