The condition and dynamics of the Moon wind up being a significant consideration in the vast majority of astromagical elections. In this series of posts, we examine aspects made by the Moon from first principles in order to better understand this piece of astromagical elections.
In this inaugural post, we first provide some background context to why the Moon is such an important part of astromagical elections, situating the Moon’s purpose in the context of the astromagical worldview. After this, we examine astrological aspects in a general sense, spelling out what we are calling the general aspect doctrine. This forms the background for a contrast with how the Picatrix treats aspects of the Moon, which relies on an idea that we call the principle of aspected planetary nature.
These two doctrines form the backbone of knowledge necessary to examine more specific features and nuances of Moon aspects in astrological magic.
The Moon in Astrological Magic
The Moon plays a crucial role in virtually every talismanic election in astrological magic. The Ghayat al-Hakim emphasizes the Moon as one of if not the foremost factor in talismanic magic:
“You should pay attention to the Moon in all workings, as the foremost of the planets, because she has the most manifest effects and judges all things in this world, and to her belong the powers of generation and corruption, and she is the mediatrix of their effects; for she receives the influences and impressions of all the stars and planets, and pours them down onto the inferior things of this world.”
—Picatrix, Book II, Chapter 3, tr. Greer & Warnock
Beautiful, but what exactly does this mean?
Within the Aristotelian model of the cosmos within which this tradition of astrological magic developed, the spheres of the planets all the way up the cosmic hierarchy are considered perfect and essentially unchanging. That is, they are not subject to “generation and corruption.” Among the higher spheres, nothing dies or diminishes, nothing rots or decays. Likewise, nothing is born or improved, nothing is gained or won. This stands in stark contrast to our sublunary (below the Moon) world, which is defined by the ever churning cycles of generation and corruption.
Luna, in her changing faces, is the signature symbol of alteration and cycle. As a transmitter of message and light, she translates the motions and effects of the upper spheres into changing circumstances here in our world. Like a lens through which the events and effects of the heavens becomes magnified, or a chisel through which the movements of the heavens become etched into being in our world, the Moon is the principle agent that bridges heaven and earth.
In a certain sense, the rest of the chart besides the Moon represents what gets written into being through a talismanic working, and the Moon represents how it gets written. A lovely sentiment can get expressed through beautiful calligraphy, utilitarian type, or illegible scrawl. The medium, in a certain sense, is the message.
For this reason, the condition and aspects of the Moon color the effects of any working. Thus, with only mild exaggeration, we could say that every talisman from this tradition is, in some sense, also a Moon talisman. As Clifford Low put it in a thread on the Stellar Sorcery facebook group, the Moon serves as a kind of “bottleneck for all astral light.” Her circumstances place upper limits on the quality and efficacy of any talisman that we make. As such, attending to the Moon becomes of central importance in virtually any talismanic election.
The General Aspect Doctrine
The Picatrix provides a general overview of the nature of aspects in astrological magic. These qualities will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with aspect doctrine. The two “soft aspects,” the trine and the sextile, are considered positive with the trine being more favorable than the sextile. This is not arbitrary, but based on the similarity and harmony of the elemental qualities of the signs configured by the angle.
“I say that the trine is an aspect of perfect love, and the reason for this is that each sign of a fiery nature aspects one another with a trine aspect and signs of earthy nature aspect one another with a trine aspect, and you may understand similarly the aerial and aquatic signs; and this [trine] aspect causes perfect friendship.”
—Picatrix, Book I, Chapter 5, tr. Greer & Warnock
Thus, if a planet in Aries is configured to a planet in Leo by trine, their signs share elemental quality: both planets are in fiery signs that share active and passive qualities. Aristotle (On Generation and Corruption) names heat and cold as active elemental qualities because they imply a power to act, whereas moistness and dryness are considered passive or susceptible qualities because they imply the adaptability of a thing. This language appears in the qualities attributed to the sextile aspect, which is considered moderately positive:
“The sextile is an aspect of moderate friendship, because the signs that aspect each other by this aspect agree in their active but not passive nature, and this is why this aspect is said to be of moderate amity.”
—Picatrix, Book I, Chapter 5, tr. Greer & Warnock
The two “hard aspects,” the square and the opposition, are referred to as aspects of “hatred.” Quite likely, given the elemental language and reasoning, “hatred” could also be perfectly well (and, one could make a case, with more historical fidelity) translated as “strife.” Empedocles, pioneer of the four element theory, saw the four elements as subject to two primary forces: love, which joins, and strife, which separates.
As with the trine and sextile, one hard aspect is more powerful than the other: the opposition is more intense than the square. Both are aspects of conflict and contrariety.
“The square aspect is of moderate hatred, because they aspect each other from contrary natures. The opposition is an aspect of perfect hatred, because the signs that so aspect each other are contrary in all four natural qualities.”
—Picatrix, Book I, Chapter 5, tr. Greer & Warnock
This explanation cannot possibly be accurate, however, when discerned in context. The reasoning does work for the square: for example, a planet in Cancer squaring a planet in Libra will have opposing active qualities, with watery Cancer being of a cold and airy Libra being of a hot elemental nature. A planet in Cancer opposing a planet in Capricorn, however, will share active quality (coldness) but oppose in secondary quality (Cancer is wet, Capricorn is dry).
Converting to the Stoic rather than the Aristotelian model of elemental qualities (in Stoicism, each element has a single quality: fire = hot, air = cold, water = wet) won’t work either, since both the sextile and the opposition will violate elemental quality in the same way: that is, for example, a sextile from Cancer to Virgo will have contrary nature (wet vs. dry) just as will an opposition from Cancer to Capricorn. In fact, it is only certain signs in aversion that share no common elemental qualities. Cancer, being cold and wet, shares no elemental qualities with Leo (hot and dry), for example.
So, in short, the Picatrix does not do a very good job of explaining the underlying logic of why the aspects have their natures, even if it does correctly name their natures. Why the Picatrix would include (intentionally) confounding principles is beyond the scope of our current series, but worth remembering.
The valences of the aspects more properly derive from the aspects that signs of benefic and malefic rulership make to the signs of the luminaries, a full explanation of which also goes beyond the scope of this post. Suffice it to say, the aspects derive from planetary rather than elemental natures. Oppositions are of the nature of the greater malefic Saturn, squares of the nature of the lesser malefic Mars; trines are of the nature of the greater benefic Jupiter, and sextiles are of the nature of the lesser benefic Venus.
This gives us the core of what we can call the general aspect doctrine. Generally speaking in astrology there is a hierarchy of aspects: trines are more beneficial than sextiles, which are more beneficial than squares, which are less harmful than oppositions. The general aspect doctrine does not factor in the nature of the planets being aspected: it only considers the geometry of the aspects themselves.
We can visualize how the general aspect doctrine maps the various aspects onto a spectrum of harmful to benefic as follows:
Aspects of the Moon in Particular
If we consider only the general aspect doctrine, we would have a simple schema for evaluating the aspects the Moon makes: trines and sextiles would be positive, while squares and oppositions would be negative. In astrological magic, however, things get a little more complex.
The general principle for understanding aspects of the Moon comes from a passage in Book II, Chapter 12 of the Ghayat al-Hakim:
“You should understand that the square aspect of the Moon with any planet is more apparent according to nature… In all operations for prosperity, see that there are aspects to fortunate planets, but for evil effects do not have aspects to the fortunes, but only with the infortunes.”
—Picatrix, Book II, Chapter 12, tr. Greer & Warnock
The first sentence comes across as somewhat obscure, but the subsequent passage provides clarification. What we are given here is a second principle: beyond the nature of the geometry of the aspect (that is, whether it is a sextile, trine, square, or opposition), we also look to the nature of the planet being aspected by the Moon.
This principle, which we could call the principle of aspected planetary nature, violates the general aspect doctrine to some degree, which is one of the many reasons astrological magic can be confusing. This passage implies that if we are using the Picatrix model, we first look to the nature of the aspected planet and only secondarily to the geometrical nature of the aspect. In other words, any aspect made by the Moon is better (or even good) if the aspect is made to a fortunate planet—that is, one of the benefic planets, Venus and Jupiter—and any aspect is worse (or even bad) if the aspect of the Moon is made to an infortune—that is, one of the malefic planets, Mars and Saturn.
This gets spelled out clearly in Picatrix:
“When you wish to do any form of evil work, see that an infortunate is in aspect, because from the strength and power of Saturn and Mars the preceding effects [i.e., evil intentions] are carried out, because they are stronger and more powerful in this type of work.”
—Picatrix, Book II, Chapter 12, tr. Greer & Warnock
The language here is not loose, but quite precise: any aspect at all to Saturn or Mars is considered an affliction suitable for “evil work”—even a trine or a sextile. This is reinforced in Chapter 4, in a passage that implies that for beneficial talismans, aspects to Mars and Saturn threaten the working:
“[I]n all good acts and works…you should see that the Moon is well dignified and that it is safe from Saturn and Mars and from the combustion of the Sun. Do the contrary in every evil work, that is, see that the Moon is combust or conjunct Saturn and Mars, or that she applies to an aspect with one of the latter.”
—Picatrix, Book I, Chapter 4, tr. Greer & Warnock
The principle of aspected planetary nature allows us to construct a hierarchy of beneficial and harmful aspects (all else being equal, of course):
Beneficial Aspects of the Moon (Most to Least Beneficial)
- Moon trine Jupiter
- Moon trine Venus
- Moon sextile Jupiter
- Moon sextile Venus
- Moon square Jupiter
- Moon square Venus
- Moon opposed Jupiter
- Moon opposed Venus
Harmful Aspects of the Moon (Most to Least Harmful)
- Moon opposed Saturn
- Moon opposed Mars
- Moon square Saturn
- Moon square Mars
- Moon sextile Saturn
- Moon sextile Mars
- Moon trine Saturn
- Moon trine Mars
We can visualize these two hierarchies on a single spectrum as follows:
These are not the only considerations, but only the valences of Moon aspects when considered in a vacuum. This hierarchically ordered chart is also not meant to be an absolute and strict rubric. We could reflect, for instance, on whether a Moon sextile to Jupiter is always superior to a Moon sextile to Venus. For a Venus election, a sextile to Venus would likely be preferable; and if Jupiter were retrograde in Gemini, we would very likely prefer a Moon sextile to a fast moving Venus in Libra to a sextile to Jupiter. In short, other factors will always apply, and we will explore a variety of these nuances in future posts.
Two Doctrines in Tension
The general aspect doctrine and the principle of aspected planetary nature agree at the edges: both ways of evaluating Moon aspects agree that Moon trine Jupiter is the most auspicious, and Moon opposed Saturn is the least. Their judgments diverge, however, in the middle: what about Moon square Venus, or Moon trine Mars? The general aspect doctrine would evaluate the former as somewhat harmful and the latter as somewhat beneficial, while the Picatrix aspect doctrine would make the opposite evaluation.
In Part II of this post series, we draw out the implications of this tension before turning to explore the qualities of the Moon’s conjunctions with other planets.