Fate, Providence and Traditional Astrology

I was just re-reading Gregory Shaw's Theurgy and the Soul (Penn State, 1995) on the late Neoplatonic philosopher Iamblichus.

At page 43, Shaw discusses Iamblichos' views on providence and fate which restrict the choices of individuals due to the emanation of the Cosmos from the One and the spiritual connection of all things. "Embodied life could be experienced as a bondage to fate or as an opportunity to live under divine providence, depending on how the soul used its powers."

Because there is a patterning to reality and existence, all things are not possible. We can see this as an evil external force restricting our ego choice, ie fate, or see the underlying purpose of the patterning, which in the Hermetic and Neoplatonic view, despite the existence of evil, is good overall, though not necessarily good as the individual ego may see it.

Think of the small child that wants to get into the cupboard and eat all of the cookies. "Oh mala fortuna, that I cannot gorge myself" Yet he is thereby saved from a gut ache! Greater wisdom brings greater understanding.

As far as giving people bad news and telling them things they do not wish to hear, this is indeed part of the work of a traditional astrologer, if the astrologer wishes to tell their clients the truth. Since traditional astrology is accurate and precisely reflects reality, we can hardly avoid giving bad news on occasion. But this is hardly restricted to astrologers, doctors, lawyers, accountants, many professions have a similar function.

A long time ago I decided I would prefer to be accurate than always satisfy my clients. My better clients appreciate it and come back. I do, of course, have a steady stream of clients who are unconsciously paying me to tell them that everything is going to be fine. They are disappointed when I say it won't be.

Now Lilly advises us not to oppress our clients with our judgments and there is no reason to hit people over the head with bad news. But the fact is that these clients are going to be unhappy no matter what. They go to the 900 psychic who says "everything will be great!" but it isn't and the client is unhappy. They come to me, I saw it won't work out, it doesn't and the client is unhappy.

Christopher Warnock

Basics of Consecration in Astrological Magic

In life in general and in magic in particular, it is very tempting to want the "best" or the "right" way to do things. I get lots of e-mails and calls from clients that are very worried about whether they got the right shade of blue for the candles or the right brand of incense, etc.

What is the essence of what we are doing when we invoke astrological spirits? What is necessary and what is a bonus? What is a hindrance?

To a certain extent these are my personal views, but they are views informed by long study in traditional Western magic and my recent encounter with the Japanese Shinto tradition.

First of all, our cast talismans are consecrated when they are created. This is the key election for the talisman and it is the one that we are most concerned with.

The personal consecration that you do with a talisman when you get it has two purposes, in my view. First and most importantly the energy/spirit in the talismans are tuned to you, you contact the spirit. Secondly, every subsequent consecration renews the initial one, renews your contact with the spirit and helps "recharge" the talisman.

What is key with regard to consecration? The ritual and timing should be appropriate and your attitude should be respectful.

In terms of the ritual and timing being appropriate this gives wide, but not unlimited latitude. Our traditional sources list many colors for Jupiter, so for your candles, altar cloth or even clothes you could use "Sea-green or Blew, Purple, Ash-colour, a mixt Yellow and Green." Lilly, Christian Astrology 63. You could not use black, since that is almost unanimously the color of Saturn in traditional sources.

Personally I use white votive candles, since I buy candles by the case and burn them constantly. White is a good neutral color.

In terms of incense, again appropriate incense for Jupiter is pretty wide, something smelly would not be appropriate since this is again ruled by Saturn.

Don't use a Mars invocation for Jupiter, don't use invocations for spiritual beings in other traditions, without checking with an expert that this is ok. No Shango for Jupiter, for example, without carefully getting this checked.

I am more and more in favor of the short, heart felt invocation, rather than the long, if bored and exhausted, consecration. On the other hand, if the timing says go now even if you don't feel like it at the moment, you may need to do the invocation. I don't always feel totally enthused and excited, particularly if I have to get up at 3 am. On the other hand, if you are just completely freaked out and/or feeling very ill, then no, this is probably not the best time for an invocation. Basically though just do the invocation! Better to do it with a somewhat tired attitude than not at all.

Timing, day and hour for the planet is good. Nice if the planet is dignified, but I have been doing a continuous invocation of the planet of the day for the past 5 years or so, regardless of dignity. Moon phase not a biggie, though waxing is good for increase.

Necessary basics, a candle, some incense, appropriate timing and respect. What do I mean by respect? Don't treat the invocation as a joke. Clean yourself up, move children and animals and other distractions out of the ritual space. Don't use the talisman as a frisbee or the ritual candle as an ashtray. Don't stop the ritual halfway through to answer your phone. Treat the spirit to be invoked in all ways as an honored guest.

Picatrix Now on Amazon!

We really debated back and forth whether to put our English translation of the Latin Picatrix Books I & II on Amazon. On one hand Amazon takes a big chunk of the profits, but on the other hand, being on Amazon makes a book so much more accessible to a huge audience. We decided that ultimately, we wanted Picatrix to have the widest possible distribution.

So now Picatrix books I & II are available directly from Amazon! Gosh, we have reviews, look inside the book and everything! Plus a significant discount, now just $42.99, 22% off.

Well heck, I guess we need to do the same on our website so by golly here is Picatrix directly from us at 22% off

Now it's great to get direct sales from the website and Amazon's not taking it's cut then, but frankly I personally buy a lot of stuff from Amazon. I like the super-saver shipping and Picatrix qualifies for that if you buy it with another book, hey how about Secrets of Planetary Ritual, our translation of the lengthy Sabian planetary invocations from Picatrix book III?

Follow the links from this post and we get Amazon Affiliate credit, which is nice!
We are really chugging along on the Picatrix translation, folks! Help us get over the hump on books III & IV by getting a copy of our earlier translation and other books.

What is a House Based Talisman Really?

I was asked recently what spirits we invoke when consecrating a house based talisman versus a planetary talisman. This is actually a very good question actually since it gets to the root of what a house based talisman really is.

A planetary or fixed star talisman is pretty straightforward. A planet or fixed star has certain attributes, eg Jupiter, wealth; Venus, love and if we make the talisman of the planet we can get those virtues. Equally straightforward is the idea that we invoke the spirit of the planet or star for its talisman.

A house based talisman, however, is more difficult to get your head around. When we make a talisman based on the 2nd house for wealth or 10th house for fame, what exactly are we doing? I like to think of the planets as a repertory theater, with 7 actors, the 7 planets and 12 roles they can play, the 12 houses. Each of the planets can rule any of the 12 houses and do it well, if they are dignified. Some planets are type cast. Having Jupiter do a wealth talisman would be like having John Wayne do a Western.

In terms of what to invoke when we make a house based talisman we get a clue from Agrippa and his source is clearly Thabit Ibn Qurra's De Imaginibus. After discussing the talismans of the Mansions of the Moon, Agrippa says, "Moreover together with the foresaid Images, they did write down also the names of the Spirits and their Characters, and did invocate and pray for those things which they [wished] to obtain." Three Books of Occult Philosophy Bk II ch 46

Then we note that in making a house based talisman, in particular the anti-scorpion talisman, we are advised to "let there be writ upon the image the name of the ascendent, of the Lord thereof, and of the Moon, and of the lord of the day, and of the Lord of the hour." Three Books of Occult Philosophy Bk II, ch 50.

Basically we are reverse engineering here, deducing the fact that you invoke the spirits whose symbols you write on the talisman.

Now there are spirits of the 12 signs, which Agrippa lists at Three Books of Occult Philosophy Bk III, ch 24

And logically there are spirits of the 12 houses, but I haven't seen any listing of them. Still sticking with the planets who rule the houses even when looking at a house talisman makes sense because this is what you do in traditional astrology, look to the house ruler. The planets are the true actors whose power is filtered by the nature of the signs they are in.

Now an additional option would be to use the name of the spirit of the election. Typically we think in terms of Agrippa's explanation in Three Books of Occult Philosophy Bk III, ch 26 of the name of the spirit of a chart as relating to birth charts. But this could be used for a house or other talisman as well in addition to the planets involved.

Cazimi in Longitude & Latitude?

I had an interesting question recently regarding the definition of Cazimi (Kasmimi) found in Ben Dykes' wonderful translation of Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae.

"And when it [the Moon] is with the Sun in one degree, so that there are 16' or less between them, both by latitude and longitude (which rarely happens), it is said to be united, and then it is made strong, because it is said to be in the Sun's forge, that is, in his heart. And many of those dealing with the stars, and particularly in my time, agreed in this, that when a planet is distant from the Sun by 16' or less, it is made strong, and it is said to be in the heart of the Sun. Indeed I am in agreement with them, but not purely and simply. Because for a planet to be in the forge or in the heart of the Sun, it is necessary that it be distant from the Sun by less than 16' according to longitude and latitude - and this was the intention of the philosophers. Because if a planet is distant from the Sun by less than 16' in longitude, and according to latitude it is distant by more than 16', nevertheless it is combust, because the distinction between combustion in latitude and combustion in longitude is practically imperceptible." [Bonatti, "Book of Astronomy", trans. Benjamin Dykes PhD, Cazimi Press, 2007. , Treatise 3, Part 2, Chapter 7, page 211.]

Generally in astrology we are concerned only with Zodiacal longitude, the location of planets, stars, etc., in the 360 degree circle of the Zodiac. Latitude, being above or below the ecliptic, doesn't even come into the picture, particularly in the later, less complex Renaissance style of traditional astrology.

Being cazimi, in the heart of the Sun, is basically a conjunction, albeit a special one. It appears that it was not unusual in early traditional astrology to consider latitude in cazimi. Al-Qabisi (Alcabitius), for example, does include longitude in his definition of cazimi. Introduction to Astrology, Ch III, sec 5, trans Burnett, Yamamato, (Warburg 2004) at 93.

This concern with latitude as well as longitude does appear to be a consideration with all conjunctions in Hellenistic astrology as Ptolemy says that conjunctions or aspects are only valid if the planets are both either in North or South Latitude. Tetrabiblos I, ch. 24. This Hellenistic concern with both latitude and longitude in conjunctions seems preserved with the early traditional definition of cazimi.

We have a similar issue with regard to the fixed stars. Unlike the planets, which are basically fairly close to the ecliptic, the fixed stars range all over the sphere of the heavens. They are projected from this 3 dimensional space on to the 2 dimensional space of the ecliptic, which greatly distorts their position. Nonetheless, all traditional astrologers use their projected positions, while precessing their positions.

From a practical standpoint, I have always used cazimi just in terms of longitude, not latitude. How exactly you would "test" this I don't know due to the multiple variables. Getting nor not getting the expected results even multiple times is certainly not definitive proof!

An argument could be easily made that if we are going to use latitude with cazimi, that we really need to use it with all aspects, I'm not sure that there really is any significant difference between conjunction with the Sun and conjunction with other planets.

Ultimately, if the mechanism of astrology is some sort of rays or beams from the
physical planets, then the longitude plus latitude definition makes sense because then the physical bodies of the planets are superimposed. Of course then we have the problem of other aspects, which seem to work perfectly well with just longitude. Plus the question of how to work with the latitude of the fixed stars!

An alternative explanation is that the cycles of the Heavens are an imperfect material manifestation of deeper, more perfect spiritual cycles. In this case it makes sense to be less concerned with the actual physical position of the planets and stars and more focused on their cyclical relationships, as a means to view the underlying spiritual cycle.

In any case, for now I am going to continue to follow Renaissance practice and view cazimi, like all other aspects, as requiring longitude only. With the proviso, however, that if cazimi or any aspect is both in longitude and latitude, that will increase its power.

Fourth House and Family in Traditional Astrology

I was asked recently if the 4th house included "just blood family or the sort of family that can arise between very close friends or family that is self-chosen." At first my tendency is to say family and the 4th house includes relatives by blood or marriage only, which would not include one's friends.

Ok, but why is that and have there been variations on what the 4th house covers in traditional astrology?

In ancient Rome the term familia was more inclusive, since it took in not only members of the family by blood and marriage, but also slaves and others living in the household.

In English the term house, as in House of Windsor, probably approximates the term familia, including relatives by blood and marriage and their retainers and dependents.

So I think we can look at the 4th house in several ways, first as members of your immediate household, people that you live with. This gets a little amorphous with temporary roommates, but even these shorter term situations involve sharing living space.

Secondly, our current social structure is pretty much based on a nuclear family or a smaller set of people sharing living space. We don't have a social set up with broader coalitions of extended families plus their dependents. So this would pretty much define family as blood or relatives by marriage. This is also 4th house. Of course keep in mind that in traditional astrology there are lots of different houses for specific relatives, for example, 3rd is brothers, sisters, cousins.

Oh, being adopted, I should add, the adopted children do seem to fit into the chart in a similar way to children one is actually related to, both in the 4th and 5th house contexts.

Thus my view is that you can refer to those sharing your living space, particularly on a more or less permanent basis, plus one's immediate relatives by blood or marriage as 4th house. Friends, even close ones, that you don't live with have a perfectly good house, the 11th, to be signified by.

This tendency to start fudging the definitions of houses and making classifications on very subjective grounds is very typical of modern astrology. Think about how I have laid out the 4th/11th distinction, basically if you don't live together and aren't a blood/marriage relative, then you get classified as a friend, fairly straightforward.

But how do you determine whether someone is a good enough friend to switch out of the 11th house into the 4th house very close friend category. Always would be a source of confusion and if you can't assign houses properly you can't judge the chart properly.

We have similar fuzzy subjective house assignments, with mothers and fathers. Traditional is very clear, Mothers are 10th house, fathers 4th. I've seen modern astrologers say that the 4th is the "dominant" parent. Wow, how on earth would you ever be sure you had that assigned properly?

More on the 12 Houses in Traditional Astrology

The "Original" Planetary Symbols?

I had a question recently about what the original, read "best" planetary symbols were. Of necessity there is a good deal of subjectivity involved with magic. We can't hook up our magicometer and see that sigil A produces 1346 milli-potters while sigil B produces only 33.2 milli-potters.

Different people are going to use different sigils and symbols and get different results. There are so many variables involved that it is going to be difficult to determine whether or not the difference in effect was caused by the sigil or by the quality of the election or by the strength of the planet or other astrological factor in their natal chart, or the ritual or the circumstances they were trying to affect with the talisman. "X sigil is best" is going to have to have lots of caveats attached to it, "X is best when I use it" is about as far as you can really go.

However, there are limits. You don't decide that a Saturn sigil would be better for a Jupiter talisman! You don't, as one person related to me, do a lunar mansion ritual on an altar of the orisha Yemoja (the altar caught on fire!).

I like traditional astrological magic. It's a tested system, it has a sound philosophical underpinning. It also gives us a huge range of characters, symbols, sigils and glyphs to work with from our traditional sources.

Let's take a look at the planetary glyphs. Firstly, my interest is as a practitioner, not as a scholar of planetary symbols. What this means is that I want to do the most powerful magic, not publish a paper. In addition, I am convinced of the efficacy of magic in general and am concerned to find the most effective sigil in particular. A scholar is required, if they want to get that paper published, to maintain that magic does not work.

Secondly, my view and this is one that is supported by traditional sources, is that the origin of many of the astrological symbols, and indeed of ritual in general, is in the spiritual realm. Dreams, visions and direct bestowal by spirits or at the very least spiritual inspiration, are the origin of many astrological symbols. The use of planetary tables based on magic squares and the production of sigils using gematria, while very popular nowadays, is an example of a different and more mathematical method of sigil production. However, ultimately this method as well rests on a spiritual basis.

A scholar, on the other hand, again is required by the tenets of the ruling atheistic/materialistic philosophy, to see the origin of astrological symbols in an individual human being, who was the ultimate origin of their creation at some particular historical point since no spiritual beings or spiritual realm exists. The scholar, therefore, seeks the "original" human author of the symbols (or text, ritual or other artifact).

It would be interesting to know the age and human origin of the various symbols in our traditional sources, but to focus on this or seek the "original" symbols is to veer off of the path of the practitioner and to fall into the cul de sac of the scholars.

There are actually a wide range of different planetary symbols available in our traditional sources, all of which are usable on talismans. For example, our translation of Picatrix Books I & II contains on page 103 an interesting set of planetary symbols
The order is odd, from left to right Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Moon, Mars, Sun, Venus.

This set of planetary symbols appears in a slightly different form on the Ouroboros Picatrix volume 1 at page 124 in the Chaldean Order.

There are fascinating sets of planetary and Zodiacal symbols, according to the "astrologers and mages" found in the Brill Latin critical edition of Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Bk II ch 51. In the Three Books of Occult Philosophy English translation edited by Tyson, there are also lots of different planetary symbols provided.

My view would be that these are all appropriate for planetary talismans. I am certainly open to further sources and to the manifestation of new planetary symbols as well.

For example, Jason Miller in his Sorceror's Secrets at page 153, gives some examples of planetary seals, "that arose during planetary workings with my artist Matthew Brownlee." The seals are beautiful, fluid and contain elements that fit them into the traditional planetary symbols. The manner of their manifestation seems quite appropriate and traditional!