House Based Talismans & the Tree of Wealth

The absolute height of astrological magic, the most difficult to elect and the most powerful astrological talismans are the house based talismans. These are based, not on the power of a single planet, star or other astrological factor, but on the combination of multiple planets ruling key houses. While the typical astrological talismans requires 4-5 factors, house talismans can call for up to 15 separate factors.

Our key source for house based talismans are Picatrix and De Imaginibus On Images or Talismans, by the Harranian Sabian sage Thabit Ibn Qurra. When my students get to the house based talisman lesson, which is one of the last lessons in the Astrological Magic Course they have already mastered planetary, Mansions of the Moon, fixed star and decan/face talismans. Everybody finds house based talismans tough to do, because finding elections for them with so many factors are so difficult. But the work is worth it, since these are truly the most powerful, most intense talismans.

There are important differences between planetary and house based talismans and I've had to do some real thinking about what is actually going on when we worth with a house based talisman. When we make a planetary talisman we get the basic energy of that planet. We can check out how the planet is in our natal chart to see if we are compatible with its basic energy, but its house placement in our natal chart doesn't change the basic energy of the planet. Just because we have Saturn ruling the 7th, doesn't turn Saturn into a love talisman!

I look at house based talismans like a celestial repertory theater. "A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation" The planets are the actors, the houses are different roles they can take on, and the chart for specific election, for a particular time, date and place, shows the complete script for a play. A curse talisman, with afflicted planets and bad aspects, is a tragedy, a benefic talisman, with dignified planets and good aspects, could be a love story, with the 1st and 7th (love & marriage) houses and their rulers well dignified and well connected with good aspects or house placement, or a rags to riches story with the focus on the 1st, 2nd (wealth) and 10th (success, fame, career) houses. Now each of the planets is capable of ruling any house and playing the role of that house well if highly dignified. If we line up the natural rulership with the house rulership, it is like type casting, have John Wayne play the cowboy.

We've been blessed for the past few years with Jupiter, the natural ruler of wealth and prosperity, well dignified. We've been able to do some beautiful Jupiter talismans and we've been able to type cast Jupiter as a key component in some very powerful house based wealth talismans. First the Great Wealth talisman, now sold out, with the last one selling for $900. Then the Fountain of Wealth, which are almost sold out and going for $499.95 and finally the newest and last of our Jupiter "type cast" house based wealth talismans, the Tree of Wealth

The Great Wealth, I looked out for the next 50 years and could not duplicate the conditions. The Fountain of Wealth, at least 12 years, before we can make them again. This means that the Tree of Wealth is really your last chance to get these strongest of wealth talismans, at least until Jupiter goes into Cancer in 2013.

The Tree of Wealth election has a tiny window, just about 5 minutes, when everything lines up right. This means that Wade, our jeweler/mage, is only going to be able to make a tiny amount of the Tree of Wealth talismans. I had started out with pre-orders at $199.95 plus shipping and we have now sold out this slot, and the pre-order price is $249.95 plus shipping.

We have only a few slots available at that price and the price will increase to $299.95 as soon as the talismans are cast and are in stock. You can, if you want, do a layaway and hold that $249.95 price, if you want to pay at least $100 now and the remainder when the talismans come in in January. Contact me if you want more info. But otherwise, the price of the Tree of Wealth talismans are going up and up and up!

Let me just say a bit about the election and the talismans themselves. In the election, which you can see here our key players are a very dignified Moon waxing in Taurus, who rules the 1st house of the user of the talisman and the 2nd house of wealth, making the user strong, powerful and increasing in strength as well as pumping up their wealth and income. Jupiter, natural ruler of wealth rules the 10th of success, fame and career. The Moon sextiles Jupiter, and there is a nice transfer of light as she aspects the Sun who aspects Jupiter.

The Tree of Wealth talisman image was created by the visionary contemporary artist Robert Place and feature his Tree of Wealth design with a beautiful tree blossoming with coins stamped with Moon & Jupiter sigils. On the tree itself is Robert's vision of the infinite wealth sigil!

These talismans are the first of our new streamlined designs. We've tried out many different sizes and thicknesses of talismans over the years and have had feedback requesting that we try out a more sleek design, so the Tree of Wealth talismans are about 1.1 inches in diameter, rather than the standard 1.3 inches and a bit trimmer.

House based talismans really represent the height of mastery of astrological magic and it has been exciting to delve into their mysteries. Only now I am beginning to understand how lucky we are to have found these super wealth talisman elections! And I can tell you from personal experience that they work! The elections for these wealth talismans have coincided with huge surges in my business, fame and income. While I can't always predict exactly what will happen, I KNOW that these talismans WORK!

Definitely worth thinking about, even if you just want to put a down a layaway payment.

More info on the Tree of Wealth talismans

Thoughts on Deconsecration

Recently I had a couple of requests from clients and students for information about deconsecrating talismans.

Basically the method I use for deconsecration is pretty straightforward. Repeat whatever ritual you used to consecrate the talisman in the first place, but thank the spirit(s) for their efforts on your behalf and ask leave the talisman or withdraw their powers from it. Then respectfully dispose of the talisman. In the case of paper talisman they can be burnt, other talismans can be thrown into running water.

However, in thinking about deconsecration, I realized some bigger issues were involved. Personally, I have only ever deconsecrated one set of talismans. These were Jupiter talismans that I made on Jupiter day and hour, but with Jupiter in detriment and retrograde! Needless to say a very bad idea and I promptly started losing large amounts of money. These were not wealth talismans, they were poverty talismans!

Other than that, however, I haven't deconsecrated any talismans. I hadn't really thought about it before, but I don't feel comfortable getting rid of talismans. As I think about this feeling, I realized that it comes from my basic approach to talismanic magic, which is only one of several ways to orient yourself in this area.

One way to look at talismanic magic is what could be termed the "modern" approach. Here spiritual forces are analogized to scientifically verifiable forms of energy and matter. Jupiter, for example, puts out certain waves or a force field or something and consecrating a talisman is basically like charging a battery. Just like a battery, when you are through with it, you throw it away. Worrying about the feelings of the battery or the battery charger would be ridiculous! They are inanimate, dead objects separate from you, who exist simply to serve you.

The next possible approach comes from traditional ceremonial or grimoiric magic, particularly goetic magic. Here the magician and their will is paramount. The magician stands at the center of their protective circle and commands the spirits to appear. The magician needs various types of protection against the spirits, but through knowledge and above all will, forces the spirit(s) to do their bidding.

Finally there is what might be termed the "devotional" approach. Here the planets, stars, etc, are seen as gods or basically angelic spirits, from a higher sphere. The mage does not really command the spirits, but always strives to be respectful of these powerful beings who are basically benign, if properly approached. While you can petition for particular effects from these spirits, they are more looking out for your long term interests, rather than necessarily granting your short term desires. The devotional approach is typical of Vedic astrology.

Now depending on which approach you take, your attitude toward deconsecration is going to differ. For the modern approach, when you are done with a talisman or if you are not immediately satisfied with it, you just toss it out. Similarly with the goetic approach, once you are done, toss it, but in this case you would want to make sure that you thoroughly deconsecrated the talisman so you didn't get any blowback.

With the devotional approach, however, tossing a talisman is like tossing out a gift a friend gave you and telling them. Or perhaps like defriending your rich uncle on Facebook. If you are just dealing with impersonal forces, or if you are the center of the universe and most powerful being in it, then you needn't worry about how your actions come across. If, however, these are powerful beings with personalities then you have to start thinking about etiquette!

I've gravitated to the devotional approach because it suits me and seems to most accurately reflect my experiences as well as being in line with many traditional sources. Certainly the ceremonial magic approach is traditional as well, though it is somewhat of an extension to use that approach with astrological spirits. If we look at the Picatrix invocations, in particularly the lengthy planetary invocations attributed to the Harranian Sabians in Book III, chapter 7, the commanding of the spirits is de-emphasized, though still present and most of the invocation consists of listing the attributes of the planets. The protective circles, clothing and equipment, so characteristic of goetic invocation are missing. Certainly the invocations involve petitions and specific requests but the adaptation of these invocations from the standard religious and devotional practice of the Sabians is evident.

One of the reasons that I like the practice of planetary charity which comes from the Vedic astrology of India, is that it derives from their basically devotional approach.

So, personally my preference is for the devotional approach. That is not to say that this is the "BEST" for everyone in all situations, but it has its advantages. Early on when we were just starting to work with the Mansions of the Moon, a magician with a strong Goetic connection decided to invoke a Mansion spirit using the full Key of Solomon style ritual with the strong imprecations and commands, etc. The being he got claimed to be a Mansion spirit, but then proceeded to make a deal with the magician for rum and tobacco and then not carry out what he promised to do.

On the other hand, I have a very strong personal connection to the spirit of the 3rd Mansion of the Moon, who I invoke every time the Moon enters the 3rd Mansion. I simply praise her and thank her for her efforts, ask her to continue to bring "all good things" and burn a candle and incense. Having done this for about 4 years now, I invariably get a boost in business around her day each month and 3 months this year, the 3rd Mansion day was the biggest business day of the month!

Ficino says,

"I have said elsewhere that down from every single star (so to speak Platonically) there hangs its own series of things down to the lowest...Under the celestial Serpent or the entire constellation of the Serpent-bearer, they place Saturn and sometimes Jupiter, afterwards daemons who often take on serpent's form, in addition men of this kind, serpents (the animals), the snake-weed, the stone draconite which originates in the head of a dragon, and the stone commonly called serpentine..

Ficino, Three Books on Life Bk. III, Chap. 14, p. 311.

My sense is that the Goetic magician, in using Goetic methods, summoned a Goetic spirit in the chain of the Mansion, rather than the Mansion lord.

Ultimately, it seems that what you put out and the attitude and methods in which you do your magic comes back to you!

Credit Card for William Lilly!

Yesterday I got this letter in the mail!




All William needs to do now is provide his date of birth, 1 May (O.S.)/11 May (N.S.), 1602 and SSN and he can start buying stuff on credit. Thanks, Bank of America! This gives me new found faith in the accuracy and careful vetting done by our financial system.

I've heard about dogs getting credit card offers and dead people getting them isn't really that surprising, except Lilly has been dead over 300 years!

At first I was, "hey, why didn't I get one of these offers?" and then I realized I'm on the "Do Not Solicit for Credit Cards" list. I can see William needs to get on this list too!

The Deeper Soul Horary

I thought I might share some thoughts I had recently as a result of working with a long time client. This client and I have had a long relationship. I do lots of different work for them, often having to do with business. I have a reasonable record of horaries with regard to individual business deals. The client would like me to be able to do financial trading horaries, but my record with these is rather hit or miss. I did, however, do some personal romance horaries for this client recently and they were blown away by the accuracy.

Why the difference? I think the key and the client confirms this, is that the romance horaries, really hit the deepest emotionally. It's certainly not that the client doesn't care about the financial trading horaries, they want to make the money and worry about losing it. It's just that these questions don't really get into the root of the person, even if they are worried.

I've certainly never had much success with stock trading or other financial speculation horaries. They just don't seem like "juicy" questions to me. I know lots and lots of people would love to be able to use astrology this way. Certainly my poorer clients want to win the lottery with astrology and my middle class clients want to hit it big on the stock market, same difference really. I've certainly met lots of astrologers that want to be able to predict the markets and have lots of confidence that they have a foolproof method. I guess that when they do make their millions, they just want to keep quiet about it because I never seem to hear about this!

But romantic relationships? These get people at their very core and give very good charts, very easy to read and very accurate. I guess this is a good thing because I get more of these than any other question.

And this really is the key to horary isn't it? The emotional involvement of the querent. Bonatti says,

1st Consideration. on those things which move a man to pose a question (and there are three motions). The first is the motion of the soul, when someone is moved by his intention to pose a question. The second is the motion of the superior bodies, namely when someone asks what they are impressing into the quesited thing, what will come of it. The third is the motion of the free will, which can itself be an action of the one asking. Because even thought the soul is moved to ask, it does not suffice unless the superior bodies lead him to pose the question; nor does the motion of the stars suffice, unless form the motion of the free will the act of asking is reached.

Guido Bonatti, Book of Astronomy, Tr. 5, 146 Considerations, trans
Dykes (Cazimi Press, 2007) at 264.

The relationship question goes deeper into the soul than the trading question, at least so it seems to me!