New Planetary Charity Page!

I have a new Planetary Charity page.

Planetary charity comes from the Vedic astrology of India and is a great way to work with the energy of planets that are too afflicted in our birth charts to use their talismans.

By doing charity and dedicating it to a planet, we can work with the energy of the planet and help diminish its negative effects on us. Of course, planetary charity is not just for planets that are afflicted in our natal chart, it can be used to good effect with all planets.

In doing planetary charity we time the donation we make according to the nature of the planet we wish to propitiate, making the donation on the planetary day and hour ruled by the planet. We make the donation to a person, organization or thing ruled by the planet and ideally the donation itself is an item ruled by the planet. Typically, however, it is more practical to make a monetary donation. We start by invoking the planet and making a vow to make a set number of donations, at the appropriate time. We then carry out the planetary charity.

Synastry in Traditional Astrology

I had an interesting question recently asking whether "synastry" was used in traditional astrology. Synastry is a modern term for comparing two natal charts and allegedly provides information about the compatibility of the two people usually for romance.

While he doesn't call it synastry, Lilly has a very interesting section in Christian Astrology in the natal section at page 637-9, entitled, "Whether there may be Concord or Unity between two." in other words will two people get along. While this is placed under the 11th house of friends, I have used it for 7th house romantic relationships as well since the techniques are not house dependent.

Lilly says to look at the two natal charts and compare particular factors, in particular he compares the Ascendant rulers and looks to see whether certain planets are at the same location in both charts.

Lilly also uses the traditional concept of the friendships and enmities of the planets, ie Saturn's friends are Jupiter, Sun, Moon according to Lilly and his enemies are Venus and Mars. CA 637. The problem with the friendships and enmities are that there are lots of different and contradictory lists and sometimes you have weirdness where planet A is listed as a friend of B, but then planet B is listed as an enemy of A in the same list. A bit too confusing for ease of use! I've just left this out when doing traditonal "synastry".

Let me say a bit about synastry in general. It is pretty standard in modern astrology because modern is natal, natal, natal and they don't have any other way to try to forecast the specific relationship between two people. As far as I can see there are no generally accepted methods for modern synastry, everyone just makes it up as they go along. As is generally true for modern, typically the answer is that "YES, you are compatible with X! and will live happily ever after"

Couple of problems. First, the lack of set rules and general positive modern outlook heavily biases the modern reading towards a positive answer. Secondly, compatibility is used as a proxy for the question of whether or not the relationship will actually take place or last. The assumption that if two people are compatible, they will automatically be madly in love and thus in a committed relationship is clearly way off base. I used to joke that I am completely compatible with Scarlett Johansson, and I can just hear the wedding bells ringing there!

Horary is really the best method here. It goes right to the heart of the matter and can answer accurately and precisely, "Will I have a committed relationship with X?" Synastry can't answer this accurately even using traditional technique, let alone using whatever passes for technique in modern astrology.

More on Horary Astrology

Aspects & Orbs with Non-Planets

I had a very interesting question recently regarding the Moon aspecting a fixed star. The questioner wanted to know whether you used the full orb of the Moon or her moiety, half her orb. Good question!

Orbs are zones of power spreading out from the exact aspect, known as perfection. According to the English astrology William Lilly, in his 1647 Christian Astrology at page 107 the Moon's orb is either 12.5 or 12 degrees. Here is Lilly's orb table.

First off, don't use orbs like a cliff, use them like a gentle slope. Lilly himself says "I sometimes use the one [orb measurement], and, sometimes the other, as my Memory best Remembereth them, and this without error." Christian Astrology page 107. It is not as if the orb of the Moon is fully effective to exactly 12.5 degrees and then at 12.51 degrees we ignore it completely. The closer the aspect to perfection the more powerful, the farther it is the less powerful it is until it basically fades out. Orbs are reasonably flexible rules of thumb. I set the orbs on my astrological software way out so I can see all the aspects the planets are making even if technically out of orb.

Secondly, orbs and moieties. I am told that in modern astrology it is the aspects that have orbs, but in traditional each planet has an orb. This is split in half for a moiety. So if the Moon's orb is 12, her moiety is 6. With aspects of planets to planets you add the moiety of each planet to see if they are in orb. Thus Moon orb 12, moiety 6, aspecting Mercury orb 7, moiety 3.5, 6 + 3.5 = 9.5 orb of Moon/Mercury aspect is 9.5. Again don't just ignore an applying aspect of the Moon to Mercury if it is 10 degrees, it is just a lot weaker than 3 degrees away!

Now when we pass to planets aspecting non-planets like house cusps, Parts, Nodes, fixed stars, outer planets, etc., for the orbs we need to delve deeper into the background of aspects. Aspect comes from the Latin, aspectus, literally looking, seeing or facing. Only planets make aspects, ie, they alone see or face. Similarly, only planets rule signs or houses. Planets are the real actors in the chart. True the signs are sometimes said to "rule" illnesses, parts of the body and places, but I like how Lilly says they "signify" these things, that is they correspond to them, rather than actively rule or cause them like a planet.

So as it always seems in traditional astrology, we have exceptions, however, when it comes to aspects it is solid, only planets aspect. So this means we use the full planetary orb, not the moiety, since the non-planet has no orb and thus no moiety of its own to contribute. Thus if, for example, the Moon was 7 degrees from the Midheaven and as her orb is 12, the aspect is well within her orb.

Treating the planets as the most "active" and in a different fashion from Parts, Nodes, house cusps, etc., is a major difference between traditional and modern astrology. In modern astrology the nuance has been lost and everything acts likes everything else, eg Parts aspect house cusps aspect Nodes, rather than planets being the primary actors.

Moving Fixed Stars

I had a question recently about trying to get the exact position of a fixed star for an election. This question comes up because the fixed stars are only fixed by comparison to the planets, from the Greek planetos or wanderer, who are bopping all over the place. The fixed stars do slowly move.

Firstly, some astronomy! The planets all orbit fairly close to the plane of the ecliptic, the path of the Sun, but the fixed stars are spread out all over the 3-D sphere of the Heavens. This means that their positions are distorted significantly when they are mapped onto the ecliptic from 3-D to the 2-D of the chart.

Saying this I can feel the modern reaction rising instantly, "ah, we must follow like robots the 'actual' material position of the stars". Not so fast! Now some philosophy. There are ways to use the heliacal rising and setting of fixed stars, Google this for more info, but our system of astrology doesn't use this, any more than Bach needed to use Indian raga quartertones to play incredibly beautiful music or I need German umlauts to write in English. Mapping the fixed stars onto the ecliptic gives us a whole set of "sensitive" points, a way of timing when the spirits of the fixed stars can be contacted, various sets of fixed star cycles in which the physical location of the stars imperfectly reflects more perfect underlying spiritual cycles, archetypes and Platonic forms.

Ok, now some practical considerations. The key here is "imperfectly". So analogous to the way matter imperfectly reflects the Platonic forms, so the ecliptic mapping of the fixed stars distorts their positions somewhat. Then we need to consider that precession, nutation, aberration, parallax and proper motion [google them for more info!] all cause individual differences such that we need to individually determine the Zodiacal location of stars, we can't simply apply a single formula to exactly adjust the current location for every star.

Finally, and I have been mentioning this a bit recently, when we do astrological talisman elections we do a time range, not an exact time, because we can't make a talisman instantly! For fixed stars I tend to use the rough rule of thumb of 3 degrees before and 3 degrees after their conjunction with the Ascendant or Midheaven. The influence begins to build and build as the fixed star moves toward the Ascendant or Midheaven, climaxes, then slowly fades out. It is actually likely more effective to consecrate longer and take advantage of the total range and total energy put out during the range. Anyhow it is not as if we had any choice, until we can work in the twinkling of an eye!

Bottom line is that like being unable to determine exactly when Sunrise happens, there is a point beyond which our attempts to be precise in terms of the exact degree, minute and second Zodiacal longitude of fixed stars simply is not effective. By using the time range, we can be sure that we can covered the most powerful time, even if we can't precisely determine what that is.

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.