Review of Electional Astrology Course

Here is a review of my Electional Astrology Course by a recent graduate.

"For the past 18 months I have been working through (and have recently completed) the Electional Astrology course offered by Mr. Warnock. Since completing the course, I have used the skills acquired from Mr. Warnock’s Electional Astrology course in my daily life (and with clients) with good results.

As I browsed through the lessons prior to starting them, it became apparent I had enrolled in a course filled with depth and detail and that I was going learn a great deal which is what I was hoping for. I was also looking to study within the strict traditional approach found in Renaissance Astrology and not Modern Astrology – both hopes were fulfilled. Each lesson builds on the next, filled with the necessary information, reading material and chart examples to work through the questions at the end of each lesson. In the event there is something you are not sure of or have a question relating to the lesson, Mr. Warnock is available to answer any questions in a succinct and prompt manner. As a teacher, I have found Mr. Warnock to be approachable, supportive and helpful at all times, nothing is too much trouble – he is also patient and willing to clarify what it is you might not understand in a lesson. Mr. Warnock also carefully checks the student’s work thoroughly before recommending he/she move on to the next lesson. Over time, it became apparent the vast and extensive degree of Mr. Warnock’s knowledge when it comes to the subject of Traditional Renaissance Astrology - he is also willing to share this knowledge with other sincere and dedicated students.

Due to the detailed nature of the course, I would recommend students take their time to complete it – also, as a student, be prepared to do some additional research or reading on any astrological terms or theories to help broaden your knowledge and understanding. This is a course compatible with those who are self starters or have a high degree of initiative. It is essential that the student take their time with each lesson and refrain from rushing from one lesson to the next to ensure you have understood, grasped and comprehended the reading material otherwise you are setting yourself up for difficulties in the next lesson. I quote from the registration page: “Students should keep in mind that the material presented in the Electional Astrology Course requires commitment to master”. If you want to pass this course effort, patience and commitment will be required but the results are rewarding.

In closing, the course is excellent; I have thoroughly enjoyed it and would not hesitate to recommend it to others who are genuinely interested in learning the art of traditional Electional Astrology. Was the course value for money? Yes indeed it was when one considers the skill and depth of information it imparts. It was a joy and honour to have Mr. Warnock as a teacher."

LS Electional Astrology Student Victoria, AUSTRALIA

Letter or Spirit of the Rules?

I had a question recently about a reference in Picatrix to only making certain talismans at night or during the day and what to do about this rule.

Really it comes down to whether we follow the letter of the rules or the spirit. But watch out, are we sure we know what the spirit really is?

There's a whole lot of different rules for electing talismans, just like there are many rules for elections in general. Typically our traditional sources relied on many other different earlier sources and just lay out all possible rules, without mentioning what is most important or trying to resolve any discrepancies. One of the nice things about Ramesey in Astrology Restored/Astrologia Restaurata is that he will list off a bunch of rules and then say, "well if you can't get all that, just do x, y or z"

The reality is that we can only elect about 3-5 astrological factors, so we have to pick a few that we (and hopefully our traditional sources) find most important. The day/night rule reminds me a lot of the Moon phase rule, ie Moon must be in appropriate phase, usually waxing. Now clearly day and night are pretty obvious as is the Moon phase, so these are easy rules for non-astrologers or beginning astrologers to follow. An immediate practical problem ensues, however, with both of these rules: right off the bat you lose 1/2 of the total times available for elections. So if you decide that day/night or Moon phase is the ultimate, most significant factor for all elections, and certainly there are some traditional sources that insist on this, you make your life as an electional astrologer or astrological magician very, very difficult.

Now if I am making a regular Moon talisman, or Lunar Mansion talisman or even a fixed star talisman, since fixed star talismans are essentially Moon aspecting the fixed star, I do make sure the Moon phase is appropriate. For any other planetary talisman, no, I don't think the Moon phase is so important that I will sacrifice getting the planet itself in a strong position as opposed to worrying about the Moon. I do compromise a bit here and I do get the Moon unafflicted, ie not combust, in detriment, fall, making nasty applying aspects, etc.

Now this gets into another issue. For the longest time, I've been insistent on looking at traditional (ie pre 1700) sources. This is because we all start out as either conscious or unconscious atheist-materialists and our view of reality in general and astrology and magic in particular, is very different from our medieval and Renaissance predecessors. Our "natural" reaction to almost any facet of magic or astrology is quite different from traditional astrologers and astrological magicians.

However, the next stage is a slavish and total devotion to every jot and tittle of a traditional source. No deviation is permitted and no source may be questioned. This is going too far in the other direction! Consider that traditional sources are often contradictory, what do you do then? If you are grounded in the tradition as a whole, you can find an authentic way to resolve or even disregard the contradiction.

Further, I don't think that magic or astrology have or need to "evolve", in other words what ever does not accord with 21st century sensibilities gets changed. On the other hand, there's a point at which a master doesn't need to look at the books anymore to know how to do the work. Of course, it's tempting to think one has mastered magic or astrology after a few charts, invocations or talismans, which is not possible.

Having been a full time practicing traditional astrologer and astrological magician for close to 15 years, having participated in translating Picatrix, and having elected and created hundreds of astrological talismans, I'm finally to the point of saying, "yes I'm a master of traditional astrological magic"

So when I deviate from a particular source, I've got a reason for it, both practical and traditional. Ultimately while I might not follow an individual thread, I am certainly very much within the overall tapestry of the tradition.

Spirits from Above: Liber Antimaquis and Astrological Magic

I’ve posted a new translation by John Michael Greer of a passage from the Liber Antimaquis on my web site. The Liber Antimaquis is a Latin translation of the Arabic Kitab al-Istamatis, a medieval book of astrological magic and a source for Picatrix, the most famous grimoire of astrological magic. Similar to Picatrix, the Liber Antimaquis includes both philosophical and practical explanations of astrological magic.

In the beginning of this passage, the Liber Antimaquis speaks of “these spirits” and the spirits of the seven regions. By mentioning the planets later and by the fact that the sections immediately before and after the translated portion discuss the spirits of the planets, we can be sure that “these spirits” are the spirits of the 7 planets. So we have our first key point, that the spirits of the planets and not the visible, material bodies, are what is important. This is emphasized as the the Liber Antimaquis says that the spirits of the planets move in their spheres, signs and powers.

As the planetary spirits move through their spheres and through the Zodiac, changing in essential dignity, as well as accidental dignity from these movements come “good and evil, fortune and misfortune” to all creatures, all that is created of matter. This is a classic explanation of the role of the stars and planets, as the intermediaries between the purely spiritual and the material. The cycles of the Heavens foretell or control the cycles on Earth, depending on what paradigm you adopted.

But the influence of the planets is not equally or promiscuously distributed, instead the people in particular parts of the world, the regions ruled by each planet and depending on the function each person performs, are also ruled by each planet. Finally, Liber Antimaquis says that the planets are assigned to “every man according to the share of intellect he has.” On one hand we could take this as a quantitative measure of intelligence, but I think rather that it has to do with the different thought processes and thinking typified by each planet.

What is the mechanism for this influence exerted by the planets? The Liber Antimaquis explains that the powers (“virtues”) of the planets are embodied into souls and the natures and complexions of the planets run into and are conjoined with souls.

Ok, to moderns this is somewhat confusing. Soul, spirit, virtue, complexion, have all changed their meaning since the Renaissance. Let’s begin to see some connections by looking at the macrocosm, the Great World of the Cosmos and the microcosm, the Little World of each individual. As Agrippa notes in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, the cosmos can be seen as having a three fold structure of the Material World, Divine World and Intermediate Celestial World. In the individual these correspond to the physical body, the divine spirit and the intermediate astral body. Sometimes the divine spirit is called soul and sometimes this term is used for the intermediate spiritual body, referred to in other traditions as chi or prana.

So the astrological spirits, themselves intermediary, are connected to the intermediate astral body. Their powers are their natural qualities, their nature. This is in a sense an active influence, but also like the warmth of the Sun or coolness of a breeze, simply an expression of the basic nature of these spirits being what they are.

Finally the Liber Antimaquis says, “in every man, as the planets operate in his nativity, so descend the spiritual virtues of each of these spirits”

So now we again have a differentiation of the planets, whose powers are different depending on a person’s nativity. As I read this it is not saying, for example, that if Saturn rules the 7th in your natal chart, that Saturn can be used as a love talisman for you. Saturn’s power is his nature which is not changed by the time of your birth, rather the question is how apt are you to accept this nature? The natural power of Saturn will descend strongly, moderately or perhaps only a little, if Saturn is strong, moderate or weak in your chart.

In discussing astrological magic, Picatrix says, “…workings were more certain if the planet was strong in the natal chart of those people who performed the working.” Picatrix Bk I ch 5. And paralleling the Liber Antimaquis Picatrix says of a Jupiter ritual, that the spirit of Jupiter “will reach out to him…especially if Jupiter is strong in his nativity.” Picatrix Bk III ch 8.

“Reaches out to him” encapsulates very nicely the sense of the astrological spirits as personalities with a specific predisposition to each individual and really shows the underlying devotional focus that guides my interactions with the celestial spirits.

What is the Source of Power of Talismans?

First, let me say that there are obviously many different types of talismans and many different approaches to them. We are only dealing with astrological talismans here, talismans that are ensouled with astrological spirits. Also we are working in a very traditional Western, pre-1700 context.

Even traditional astrologers had different paradigms for how astrology and astrological magic worked. Al-Kindi, for example, wrote a book called On the Stellar Rays that attributed the power of the planets, and in fact, all things to the fact they emitted spiritual rays. Mind you these are not x-rays, or light or some other form of matter and energy, these are spiritual rays, but this is a very congenial explanation for moderns.

The second approach is that epitomized by Plotinus, who writes in his Enneads "Are the Stars Causes?" Ennead II, Tr 3, that the stars are not causes, but since all things are part of the One, one can read events through the stars. In other words the cycles of the planets and stars very clearly indicate the underlying spiritual cycles that govern all material things.

Finally, the third traditional approach, might be termed the magical approach. Here the spirits of the stars, planets, etc., are seen as spiritual entities, with personalities that can be interacted with.

All of these traditional approaches interacted and overlapped. Picatrix, in particular, mentions all three at various points. As a predictive astrologer, I tend towards the second approach, of the common cycles of Heaven and Earth, but as an astrological magician, I am increasingly pulled towards the third, the magical approach.

In fact, I could take this a bit further and say that my approach is increasingly that of a celestial priest. When you go to a temple or shrine in Japan, for example, you can buy talismans which the priests have created/consecrated. Talismans aren’t their primary purpose, the function of the priests, however, more devotional and more focused on serving the spirits and assisting people in their spiritual path. This is certainly the direction I would like to move in.

Ok, so following the magical approach, what is it that we do when we create a talisman? Where does its power come from?

Let’s look at perhaps the most modern style of magic, Chaos magic. The closest to a talisman in this style of magic is the sigil,

“A sigil can be thought of as an original artistic creation, produced by conceiving a sentence that expresses a magical intent, and converting that sentence into a pictorial representation. The point is to obtain an image that can carry the intent past the psychic censor and into the subconscious mind, where it becomes magically effective. He goes on to say, The great advantage of sigil magic is that no particular belief-set is needed to work with it; there are no discarnate entities to summon, no deities to appease, no invisible rays to emanate from your solar plexus, (unless you want to create them yourself as a meta-belief device).” www.coven-of-cythrawl.com/chaos_magick.htm‎

Magical power in Chaos magic, therefore derives from the individual, a very modern attitude!

Traditional astrological magic is based on a worldview where, while an individual has their own personal magical power, most magical powers lie outside the individual. Cornelius Agrippa, in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, speaks of three worlds, the material, the celestial and the divine world. Astrological magic, therefore comes from the celestial world, intermediate between the material and divine.

Using our third traditional approach, therefore, the power of astrological magic comes from the astrological spirits. Picatrix says, “By sages, magical images are called talismans…To work victoriously he makes it with mathematical proportions and influences, and uses celestial writing. These images are made from their proper substances in order that they might receive the aforementioned influence, and this is done at appropriate times. By suffumigation they are strengthened, and spirits are drawn into these images.” Picatrix Bk I ch 2.

Let’s examine this a bit further. How is it exactly that spirits are drawn into talismans? One way is epitomized by the Goetia and similar grimoires, which command the spirits and use superior power, often divine names and the will of the magician to imprison the spirits.

I follow a different, more devotional approach. Similarly Ficino speaks of making talismans working with the Anima Mundi, the Soul of the World, as a collective spirit containing all of the celestial spirits through, “daemons [spirits] being attracted and gifts from the ensouled world and from the living stars. Again let no man wonder that Soul can be allured as it were into material forms, since she herself has created baits of this kind suitable to herself, to be allured thereby and she always and willingly dwells in them. There is nothing in this whole living world so deformed that Soul [of the world] does not attend it, that a gift of the Soul [of the world] is not in it. Three Books on Life, Bk III ch 1.

Astrological spirits ensoul our talismans because the talismans are made at the correct time for the spirit, are of appropriate materials, images and designs and because we very politely and repeatedly request that they enter the talisman. Finding our request fitting and proper, they ensoul the talisman.

Lost Item Horary

You know, I've said I'm not that good at lost item horaries, but then a very nice question comes along and proves me wrong! Here it is!

Question: Where is the lost salt?
Time Question Received & Understood: 4:12 pm CST December 17, 2013
Place Question Received & Understood: Iowa City, IA 41 N 39 91 W 31

The meaning of the astrological factors are fully explained in the analysis below.

Astrological Factors Considered:

In this chart 21 Gemini rises and it is Moon hour. The chart is not radical/rooted, but we can get an accurate answer from it.

As Gemini rises the querent is signified by Mercury who is in detriment and going to combustion conjunct the 7th house cusp.

The ruler of the 2nd house of moveable objects is the Moon, who signifies the sale. The Moon, rules salty tastes, says Agrippa TBOP BK I ch 24 and Al-Biruni

The Moon is dignified by sign in the 1st house.

The Moon squares Mars. Mercury the significator of the querent conjoins the Sun.

Analysis:

Mercury natural ruler of thought is afflicted and going to combustion. The querent is not thinking clearly and not seeing clearly.

The Moon, ruler of the 2nd naturally rules salt which is appropriate. The Moon is highly dignified, so the salt container is not damaged, but in perfect condition. The Moon is in the 1st an angular house so in the querent’s house and very near by. The Moon makes an antiscion to the Ascendant, a sign of recovery.

Results:

About 10 minutes after hearing the horary, the querent realized that the salt was in a different container from the one they remembered and found the actual container, very nearby and in perfect condition.

Comments:

It really never ceases to amaze me how perfectly horaries can both fit and reveal the situation. This one was spot on and I was relaxed enough with the chart to really nail the reading!

What is It about Elections?

What is it about elections that drives so many clients crazy! I just had an electional client demand a refund because I didn't write in my e-mail, "Dear [Name of Client]" and end the e-mail with "Sincerely yours" This, and my boilerplate electional disclaimer was simply unacceptable!!!!

Yes, indeedy! This certainly strikes me as bizarre since I am fairly old fashioned in my e-mails and do tend to write full sentences, capitalize and use commas and periods. I am accustomed to getting e-mails in "texting" style with no caps, no punctuation and all lower case, but it usually doesn't send me into a rage.

No, it just must be something about elections. I think I am going to do a video about elections, but it's going to be tough, I'd estimate that I have problems with electional customers or they have problems with me about 50-70% of the time. For horary or natal the problems are perhaps 5% of the time, so it's not just me with Mars in Leo.

Let me see if I can identify some of the problems:

(1) Excessively high expectations of the results of an election

Many clients have the expectation that if they can just find the exact, perfect election that anything can be accomplished. Certainly much of modern advertising and indeed the modern ego based outlook does buy into the idea that you can have anything you want and in fact have a constitutional right to whatever you want. The idea of Fate is downright upsetting to moderns.

But in traditional astrology we recognize that an election, a choice of time for an activity, is perhaps the lowest and least powerful cycle of fate in operation. If we chose a good time for money, we must also consider money in our natal chart, our personal life time fate. We need to consider the fate of our family, and our social standing. Lilly says that if the son of a king and the son of a peasant have the same birth chart, that the son of the king becomes a king, but the son of a peasant becomes a big man in his neighborhood. We need to consider the fate of the economy, an otherwise great election during the Great Depression, wouldn't do as well as a similar election in a bull market. We also need to consider the fate of our country and the world as a whole. I've often thought that if you had a good natal chart and good election in Poland in 1939 you get to be a refugee rather than being dead!

So in traditional astrology Fate exists and we operate within the limits that it sets at various levels. Electional astrology is like gardening, if we wisely chose within the options presented to us, we can reap our harvest. We cannot overthrow Fate, just play the cards that have been dealt us well.

This makes sense. If I have the greatest election of the century, will I as a 5'6" 50 year old be able to play professional basketball? If I have a great election will I be elected President of the US? No matter how good the election, these are impossible for me, given my situation.

(2) NO ELECTION IS PERFECT!

The next problem is that electional customers feel that having paid, they have a right to, if not a perfect election, then an election with no problem areas.

This is like asking for a whole day with no problems. Even on the best day of my life there were moments of unhappiness and difficulty. No matter what time you chose there will be some astrological problems with it. It simply is impossible to avoid all problems. The secret of electional is minimizing the problems as much as possible. It is always possible to find the best election over any given date and time range, while this election may not be that great, it does have the inestimable advantage of avoiding the really terrible times.

Still many electional customers are unhappy that there are problems in their election, not realizing that this is inevitable.

(3) Modern versus Traditional Astrology

Most electional clients know a little bit about modern natal astrology, thus are an excellent example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing since I use traditional electional astrological techniques.

Even in traditional there are significant differences between natal and electional astrology, for example the difference in use of separating and applying aspects, or the fact that in natal astrology the whole chart is significant while in electional only particular factors are relevant.

Furthermore, there really isn't any established standard modern electional technique, every modern astrologer who does electional seems to do it differently.

This leads to many misunderstandings and unhappy customers. What they consider to be a problem, may not be in traditional astrology and what they consider to be vital, also may not be in traditional methodology.

So it is not really surprising that there are lots of problems with electional customers. It's really not their fault that they don't understand the process and have unreasonable expectations, it's just a continuing problem that I need to keep working on. Still it may be unsolvable, we shall see.

The Incredible Pull of Nothing

Recently I came across this very interesting definition of what was referred to as extreme scientific empirical materialism:

“we're all nothing but matter and energy and eventually the universe is going to die as if we never existed, so what's the point in trying to hope and fantasize in a world full of suffering and destruction where morality is dictated by force. Your consciousness is merely an electrochemical reaction inside a dying chemical reactor called the brain which, out of animalistic instincts to protect itself from pain, creates the illusion of meaning and significance in a reality that has none. Good, evil, morality and thought are nothing but illusions, with no absolute standard in the universe by which to prove their absolute existence as immutable physical laws.”

I would argue that this is a worldview that most of us are familiar with, I might even say it haunts us. In fact, we could distill the whole paragraph down to “we’re all nothing” and “Good, evil, morality and thought are nothing” Or this quote from a book review on a recent popular philosophy book, “which tackles one of the oldest and most profound questions that humans have asked; ‘Why is there something instead of nothing?’” What I find fascinating is that it is so easy to accept the existence of nothing and in fact nothing is the default setting, of which there can be no doubt, while the existence of something, anything is questionable. Properly speaking this is nihilism, but of course nihilism has a bad reputation

Sometimes we talk about worldview like fish swimming in the sea of a belief or attitude, but for moderns the belief in nothing is more than simply a concept, it is a philosophical black hole. Please don’t take this as simply pejorative, as just name calling. I’m trying to make a more exact point. A black hole is so dense that even light cannot escape, it has such incredible mass that it exerts an irresistible gravitational pull if you are within range, everything within a vast distance of the black hole is affected by its great power.

The despair and hopelessness that is a natural result of this nihilistic fusion of materialism and existentialism is simply part of our worldview. The antidote is often a Promethean myth of the hero, who despite the ever presence and inevitability of nothing, strives bravely and self creates, ala Ayn Rand.

For every society except the modern, the idea of “nothing” seems rather odd. After all can you show me nothing? Your hand appears to be empty, but it is full of air and electrical and magnetic fields, chi and prana, etc., etc. Further, once we posit it, once we describe it, once it has qualities, nothing is a something.

Why is this even important? Faith in nothing has incredibly diverse consequences, particularly in ethics, but even in our day to day lives. If nothing matters, if there are no consequences, then there is no real need for limits.

I suppose there are nihilistic mages and astrologers, but since most modern nihilism relies on the sort of extreme scientific materialism noted above this poses a problem. How can we practice spiritual arts if there is no spirit?

Ultimately, for me, while I like the material boosts I have had with magic, and the ability to predict with astrology, perhaps the most important effect of my astrological and magical practice has been to slowly move me out of the gravitational pull of nothing.