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Category: Astrological Talismans
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Are Astrological Talismans Safe? Part I: Technique & Sturdy Relationships
Fear of magic reverberates down through history in the so-called West. From early on, ‘magic’ connoted perceptions of the sinister practices of mysterious foreigners, witch trials and the Inquisition loom large in the cultural imagination, and shows and movies reliably paint magic as chaotic, volatile, and often mixed up in tragedies involving greed and the…
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Materials Matter: Why We Consider Our Attention to Ingredients as Prayer
Not too long ago, we were in a retail outlet browsing the kitchen and home aisles, and beside the myriad discount scented candles sat a shelf of amethyst chunks, unnamed geodes the size of your palm, and a bundle of selenite wands. Divorced from all historical context and subjected to the violence of corporate supply…
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Talismanic Gemstones are more like Birdhouses than Birdcages: On the Essential Freedom of Celestial Spirits (Part II)
In Part I of this post series on the freedom of celestial spirits, we examined source texts in the tradition of astrological magic and compared the methods of astrological magic to the methods of Solomonic magic to reject the idea that talismans are like birdcages. That is, celestial spirits do not become trapped or imprisoned…
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Talismanic Gemstones are not like Birdcages: On the Essential Freedom of Celestial Spirits (Part I)
When those who are less familiar with astrological magic discover astrological talismans, a natural and understandable question arises: if making astrological talismans brings down a spirit of the stars inside of a gemstone (or metal), does the spirit freely reside there or has it been trapped there? This question could really worry us. We could…
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“The Spirit is Made Luminous by Luminous Things”: Astrological Talismans as a Vehicle for Self-Transformation
Many people turn to magic for power and influence. They want to get things in life that they feel like they can’t get on their own, whether that be money, status, creative achievement, sex, love, and so on. Those aims are perfectly understandable, and astrological talismans can help achieve such practical ends. Consideration of exactly…