Category: Astrological Talismans
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Astrological Magic is Medicine for Materialism
The world is magical, so all of us in fact grew up in a magical world. However, many if not most of us in the so-called West were not raised with or within a magical worldview. We did not necessarily have the experience of growing up in a magical world. Being deprived of ways of…
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Attuning to Astrological Talismans Part III – Timing Considerations
In Part I of this post series, we took a look at our historical texts to argue that what we call attunement or introduction to astrological talismans is a modern addition to the tradition, and not an essential feature of the practice. In Part II, we explained why we recommend a ritual of attunement or…
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Attuning to Astrological Talismans Part II – Rationale & Suggested Practices
After the launch of Idola Stellarum’s first collection of astromagical talismanic jewelry, Sanctuary, we fielded a number of questions about how to attune to astrological talismans. “Attunement” refers to the ritual process of connecting or introducing oneself to an astrological talisman for the first time. In Part I of this post series, we took a…
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Attuning to Astrological Talismans Part I – Historical Perspective
After the launch of Idola Stellarum’s first collection of astromagical talismanic jewelry, Sanctuary, we fielded a number of questions about how to attune to astrological talismans. “Attuning” or “attunement” refers to the process of connecting to a talisman for the first time. Often, attunement involves some degree of ceremony or ritual. There is no standard…
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Sanctuary Collection Update
Launched to our mailing list on March 22 (with our early access list getting the first selection on March 21), the Sanctuary collection was down to only three unsold talismans in under four hours. The last few pieces from the collection found takers the next day, meaning that the whole collection was sold out the…
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Why We Use Natural Gemstones for Astrological Talismans
At Idola Stellarum, we make every effort to source gemstones that are 100% natural: undyed, unheated, untreated, and not lab-created. We are painfully aware that natural gemstones present their own violence and ethical problems, including but not limited to the opacity of the supply chain, the treatment of workers, disrespect for the land and Indigenous…
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Are Astrological Talismans Safe? Part II: Safety & Quality Control
In the first post of our series on safety in astrological talismans, we explored the question whether astrological talismans are safe from a technical astrological perspective and a relational perspective. We established that real and consequential magic is alive and astrological talismans are sentient beings, and therefore, astrological talismans are always to some extent unpredictable…
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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…