Procyon Consecration Election & USNO Page

Folks, I was really surprised by the strong positive response to the new Procyon/Jupiter double talismans Note the image of a frizzly rooster!

We've shipped the new talismans and many will have already received them. Since this is both a Jupiter and a Procyon talisman combined, it should get both a Jupiter and a separate Procyon personal consecration, unless you can find a combined election. Obviously this may not be possible, so two separate elections are fine.

Ok, let's step back a bit and talk about the personal consecration. Now all Renaissance Astrology talismans and in fact all astrological talismans, need to be consecrated when they are created. We need to create astrological talismans at an astrologically auspicious time and also to call the appropriate spirit into them at that time. So all Renaissance Astrology talismans are "charged" though I prefer the formulation, ensouled.

The personal consecration is for the user to courteously introduce themselves to the spirit or spirits of the talisman. To bring the "energy" already in the talisman to the user. What this means is that since the talisman is already created, and the energies present at the time of the making fixed, that the election for the personal consecration is much less crucial. We just want to get in touch with the spirits.

So for Jupiter this is pretty easy, use the planetary hour of Jupiter. The planetary day is a bonus, but the hour is key.

For Procyon and other fixed stars, while we would like the Moon applying to conjoin, sextile or trine of the fixed star for a talisman, for a personal consecration we can have the fixed star just rising or culminating.

So we are lucky to have the USNO to provide us with the times of planet and star risings, transitings (what we call culminating) and settings. Here is the special USNO page.

In this case, it is even easier because Procyon is one of the celestial objects specifically listed on the page. I'm going to go further and provide a good date, September 18, 2014 when the Moon is applying to conjoin Procyon. So for that date plug in your location and select Procyon. Then look for Procyon transiting. Start your personal consecration 10-15 minutes before this time and end 10-15 minutes after.

Easy! Thanks USNO!

Traditional and Modern Astrologers: Never the twain shall meet?

I recently had someone on my discussion group Spiritus Mundi ask me about the void of course Moon in fixed star elections.

One of the nice things about having practiced, taught and wrote about traditional astrology for close to 15 years is that I find that I have often already answered a lot of questions.

Here's a post on exactly this question: Fixed Stars and Void of Course Moon

And in fact it references another post that gives a nice run down on modern astrology Retrograde Planet Riff

It's interesting also because I tend to differ from some other traditional astrologers in terms of who the best audience is to get interested in traditional astrology. A certain number of traditional astrologers think that modern astrologers are a good audience to convert to traditional. Now certainly a good number of now traditional astrologers may have started with modern. I think I was lucky because I never trained in or used modern before learning traditional. Lucky? Not because traditional is necessarily so superior, but just that I didn't have to unlearn anything.

This is a serious problem! Prospective students ask if they aren't disadvantaged taking my courses because they know nothing about astrology. I tend to say again that they are lucky because they can start from scratch.

Compared to most other New Age "sciences" modern astrology is pretty difficult. You do have to learn the planets, signs and aspects. You do need to look at a chart. This does take some effort. Why would you want to toss all that and learn a different method? Even more confusing is that fact that most modern astrologers aren't aware that there are other schools of astrology or that there is any reason not to use any and all techniques of any and all schools simultaneously. Finally there is a philosophical problem. Traditional astrology predicts, traditional astrology openly accepts and in fact depends on Fate. Modern astrology weirdly enough denies Fate and makes disguised predictions. Moderns like modern astrology because it fits them better.

This makes traditional astrology a hard sell to modern astrologers. Throw in magic and you've really got a problem. Magic definitely gives modern astrologers the heebie-jeebies. So my view tends to be that modern astrologers are not the best audience for traditional astrology or astrological magic.

Who is? A pretty diverse, but small group. Unlike modern astrology, traditional seems to be about 50-50 men and women. Traditional astrologers and astrological magicians are scattered all over the world. What they all share is a consuming passion for these ancient arts, consuming enough to put in the considerable time and effort required for mastery. Many people describe how traditional astrology and astrological magic call to them, how they feel inexorably drawn to it. That's certainly how I felt and still feel!