Evaluating elections for astrological talismans is partly a science and partly an art. It is a complicated affair, requiring complex knowledge of traditional astrological technique as well as the particularities of the tradition of astrological magic. In this series of posts, we provide an explication and analysis of some general principles and knowledge—mostly grounded in the Picatrix but sometimes from other traditional sources as well—to help empower you to better evaluate the quality of astrological talismans on the market, including our own, based on these sources.
In this post, we outline some of the very basic, essential features of planetary and fixed star elections, focusing on the significator or primary celestial body that the talismanic working is focused on.
What is a Significator?
A mage can make many different types of astrological talismans. Here is a partial list of types of astrological talismans in the tradition of astrological magic as we have received it in texts in English-language translation:
- planetary talismans;
- fixed star talismans;
- lunar mansion talismans;
- constellation talismans;
- talismans of astrological signs;
- decan (or face) talismans;
- house-based talismans.
For some of the various types of talismans, the basic considerations in this post will apply more or less directly (e.g., for lunar mansion and constellation talismans). Other types of talismans (e.g., decan and house based talismans) have their own more idiosyncratic rule systems that merit their own special treatment.
For basic planetary and fixed star talismans, the term ‘significator’ will be used to refer to the celestial body expressing the essential nature of the talisman. For example, Venus would be the significator of a Venus talisman, and Regulus would be the significator of a fixed star Regulus talisman.
The significator is, no pun intended, the star of the show.
Elections: The Foundation of this Art
The Ghayat al-Hakim or Picatrix as it is known in the so-called West is renowned for its obscurity. Nevertheless, for all its complex structure and cryptic passages, Maslama al-Qurtubi, the author of Picatrix, occasionally serves up gems of clarity that deserve wide circulation and contemplation.
Toward the end of an early chapter of Book I containing many example talisman recipes entitled “Examples of the theory of images [i.e., talismans], and of those things needful for making magical images,” the author describes some factors, such as prayer and the mage’s will and belief, that serve as important factors in talismanic workings.
The final paragraph of the chapter begins:
“Now the whole foundation of these operations [of astrological magic] is in observing the motions of the planets and constellations.”
—Maslama al-Qurtubi, Picatrix, Book I, Chapter 5 (tr. Greer & Warnock)
This echoes a sentiment early in the book:
“You should know that those who have equaled the ancients in making images know that the virtue of images consists wholly in the election of hours and times of the proper constellations, and in appropriate substances from which the images are made.”
—Maslama al-Qurtubi, Picatrix, Book I, Chapter 5 (tr. Greer & Warnock)
Picatrix is unambiguous: a proper election is the foundation of the talismanic art.
Elections as Distillations of the Significator
In various writings, Christopher Warnock points toward significant differences between the assumptions and aims of contemporary natal astrology as compared to medieval and Renaissance horary and electional astrology. In thumbnail sketch, contemporary natal astrology tends to look at the chart as a whole, whereas medieval and Renaissance horary and electional astrology focus in on certain factors and not others.
One way we can think about this in a magical context is that an election in astrological magic is somewhat like a distillation. In distillation, chemists use various procedures to separate out various components of a mixture to get a more pure or concentrated version of a specific type. Desalination, for example, distills pure water out of saltwater. Distilling fermented fruits, vegetables, and grains yields highly concentrated alcoholic beverages. Similarly, many talismans can be understood as attempts to in some sense distill out a highly refined, potent version of the powers of the significator.
The metaphorical distilling process of astrological magic involves finding charts that maximize the influence of the significator—typically, while attempting to minimize other factors. The following sections outline some of the essential electional factors in this distillation process.
Planetary Elections: The Placement of the Significator
In an astrological chart, all parts are not created equal. Planets in angular houses are considered stronger, more powerful, and more forceful in their placement. Dorotheus, in Carmen Astrologicum, for example, says that “the most preferable of the places [i.e., houses] is the Ascendant, then the Midheaven” (Chapter 1.5, tr. Benjamin Dykes).
So, it should not surprise us that the placement of the significator is one of the central factors in focusing on that planet and maximizing its influence. And indeed, we see a definite privileging of planetary placement in Picatrix. The passage from Book I, Chapter 5 quoted above continues with perhaps the clearest summary of the foundations of planetary talismans that can be found in our traditional texts:
“Now the whole foundation of these operations [of astrological magic] is in observing the motions of the planets and constellations. Thus the ancient Greek sages were accustomed to observe a planet… [placing] it in the degree of the midheaven, and burned an incense appropriate to the planet, and made sacrifices with prayers likewise corresponding to the planet, and asked that whatever they willed, they would obtain. They said also to work similarly with a planet when it was rising and similarly accomplished what they willed.”
—Maslama al-Qurtubi, Picatrix, Book I, Chapter 5 (tr. Greer & Warnock)
In short: the significator in a planetary election should be rising on the Ascendant or culminating on the Midheaven. Thus, when evaluating, say, a Venus election, check to see whether Venus is on the Ascendant or the Midheaven in the election chart.
Because of the rising popularity of traditional Hellenistic astrology, a possible ambiguity arises here. According to whole sign house doctrine, any planet in the 1st or 10th house could be considered rising or culminating. In our understanding of the tradition of astrological magic, primary—let alone exclusive—focus on whole sign houses had fallen away by the time of the medieval Arabic astrology used in Picatrix. We tend to interpret traditional texts as speaking about quadrant houses, by and large, and so we focus on the Ascendant and Midheaven by degree rather than by sign.
In accordance with this viewpoint, our sense is that most contemporary practitioners allow for a window of time around the moment of rising or culmination, rather than simply using the exact degree of rising or culmination. The most common window is 5° before and after the moment that the planet rises or culminates. For Lunar elections, because of the speed of the Moon and her correspondingly wide orb, some practitioners, following Christopher Warnock, use a wider orb (e.g., 8°) when the Moon is the significator.
Thus, going by the principles that we use, if a talismanic election chart for a planetary talisman has either (a) the significator anywhere other than the Ascendant or the Midheaven, or (b) uses an electional window that places the significator beyond about 5° of the Ascendant or Midheaven (or slightly wider for the Moon), the election likely merits further investigation or explanation.
Planetary Elections: The Dignity of the Significator
In traditional astrology, essential dignity is also a primary factor in determining the strength of a planet. Dorotheus states:
“Every planetary fortune, if it was in its own house, or in its triplicity or its [exaltation], then what it indicates of the good will be powerful and increasing. And an infortune too, if it was in its own place, then its evil will become lighter and decrease.”
—Dorotheus, Carmen Astrologicum, Chapter 1.6 (tr. Benjamin Dykes)
Maximizing the essential dignity of the significator is therefore a cornerstone of elections for planetary workings. Elections in Picatrix typically state that the planet should have a particular type of dignity, and the summary aphorisms in Book IV, Chapter 4 say to put the significator “in its house or exaltation.” Similarly, the description of planetary petitions emphasizes essential dignity:
“Do all this when the planet [you wish to petition] is established in its dignities and called superior in its dispositions, for by observing these things, what you desire will come to pass.”
—Maslama al-Qurtubi, Picatrix, Book III, Chapter 7 (tr. Greer & Warnock)
From the extant recipes we have, it does seem that exaltation was favored over domicile for talismans, as many talismanic recipes in Picatrix Book II, Chapter 10, for example, call for exaltation specifically. Most contemporary practitioners, however, tend to allow for the use of domicile rulership and even sometimes other dignities such as triplicity and term when it comes to implementing these planetary talismans recipes.
Thus, going by the principles we use, if a talismanic election chart for a planetary talisman has a significator that is either (a) peregrine (i.e., having no particular essential dignity whatsoever); (b) in exile; or (c) in fall, the election merits further investigation or explanation.
Planetary Elections: Planetary Hours
Finally, planetary hours seem to be an essential ingredient of the electional distillation process. In the Picatrix chapter that gives talismanic “recipes” (pairings of stones, timings, and images), the vast majority provide instructions to perform the operation during the hour of the appropriate planet. One example of many that would suffice:
“If under the influence of Saturn, you engrave in the stone feyrizech [either sapphire or turquoise, depending on the translation] the form of a man elevated in a high throne, on his head a yellow linen cloth, having in his hand a sickle, in the hour of Saturn, when he is on the Ascendant, the virtue of this image is that whoever carries it on his person will be able to drink heavily and die only of old age.”
—Maslama al-Qurtubi, Picatrix, Book II, Chapter 10 (tr. Greer & Warnock)
Some recipes go further, requiring the “[planetary] day and hour” of the significator, particularly the planetary rings in the early sections of Book II, Chapter 10 and many of the recipes in the preceding chapter. Of note, the house-based talismans in Book I, Chapter V of Picatrix are somewhat more mixed, with some recipes requiring a specific planetary hour and some omitting this component.
Given that planetary hour and day are not always emphasized in other texts of electional astrology (for example, Dorotheus does not mention them), one might wonder why and how this constraint or instruction arose. This was not a new factor introduced in the Islamicate occult sciences, but actually dates back to very early in the tradition of Hellenistic astrology. Serapio of Alexandria, writing in the 1st century BC, places planetary days and hours as a central consideration for astrological elections:
“For every inception…it will be necessary to see at the same time the star going about and the one executing, and in what kind of place the lord of the [ascendant] is found. For whenever they should chance to be upon the pivots of the inception, the matter which it concerns or which they shall take upon themselves will be accomplished quickly.”
—Robert Hand, ed., The Astrological Record of the Early Sages in Greek, trans. Robert Schmidt (Golden Hind Press, 1995), 45.
The terminology of the planet “going about” and the planet “executing” was technical vernacular for the ruler of the planetary day and hour, respectively, and is attested in texts by Antiochus of Athens and Paulus Alexandrinus.
In the case of planetary talismans, we tend to think of planetary hours (and possibly days as well) somewhat like the hours of a business: if you show up outside of those hours you won’t get what you’re looking for, regardless of how prepared you are or how otherwise auspicious the circumstances. Performing a planetary talismanic operation outside of the relevant planetary hour is like looking through binoculars with the lens cap still on: the required light simply does not and cannot come through.
We do note that there remains some ambiguity among contemporary practitioners on the issue of planetary hours versus planetary days. There does seem to be a consensus that the most auspicious configuration is having both the planetary day and planetary hour of a planet. Almost all seem to agree that planetary hour alone is sufficient. Some smaller number believe that planetary day alone is sufficient.
Although we favor planetary hours, it must be said that Picatrix does contain some material that can loosely be construed to support the position that planetary day alone is sufficient for making a talisman. Specifically, Book III, Chapter 9 contains a series of planetary operations which are more like planetary petitions than talismanic workings, and several of these require the planetary day of the relevant planet along with some more (often idiosyncratic) timing requirements. For example, instructions for the “Operation of Jupiter” begin as follows:
“When you wish to work by means of Jupiter, do the following in the day of Jupiter, the Sun being in Sagittarius or Pisces
—Maslama al-Qurtubi, Picatrix, Book III, Chapter 9 (tr. Greer & Warnock)
and the Moon in the head of Aries (because this is the exaltation of the Sun).”
Widening these instructions about a specific type of working to a general principle about planetary days being sufficient for making astrological talismans does require stretching the text somewhat. Nevertheless, some established practitioners such as Clifford Low have attested to planetary day being sufficient and their experience should be noted and respected. At Idola Stellarum, we tend to prioritize planetary hour, and have occasionally made talismans using only planetary day.
Fixed Star Elections
So far, we have considered the placement and quality of the significator in planetary elections. Fixed star talismans work off of similar placement principles.
The clearest summary of the essence of planetary elections in Picatrix finds a mirror in our oldest text on fixed star talismans, De Quindecim Stellis or Hermes on the Fixed Stars. One of the oldest manuscripts in this textual family contains the following instruction:
“Now I admonish thee that when the Moon shall be conjunct with the star to which pertaineth a stone, on the ascendant or midheaven, let this stone be placed in gold or silver or iron or lead or whatever metal is suited thereto, and thou wilt profit much, by God’s grace.”
—De Quindecim Stellis, Quadripertitus manuscript, Part II, p. 31 (tr. Regulus Hess)
Just as with planetary elections, the text instructs us to place the significator for fixed star elections on the Ascendant or the Midheaven. Over and above planetary elections, fixed star elections also require the Moon to be applying to conjoin the significator (the question whether other aspects are sufficient for fixed talismans is treated in Part V of our series on Aspects of the Moon). Closer is generally better for the Moon’s application. Some practitioners use an application of up to about 8 degrees for the Moon, while others (such as ourselves) prefer to keep it within 5 degrees.
Typically, practitioners use a more narrow orb for fixed stars as opposed to planets. While planetary elections generally admit an orb of 10 degrees around the degree of the angle (i.e., a moiety of 5 degrees, which is to say from 5 degrees applying to through 5 degrees separating from the AC/MC), practitioners often use an orb of 5 or even 3 degrees for fixed stars.
Unlike planets, fixed stars do not have essential dignity. They also do not have specific hours or days dedicated to them. Although each fixed star shares in the virtues of one or more planets, electing a time during the hour of a planet that shares in the nature of a given fixed star should be considered a bonus rather than a necessary factor in elections.
One other issue regarding essential dignity is important. Generally speaking, afflictions to the Moon should be avoided in magical elections. A question therefore arises about how to handle fixed star elections for stars in Capricorn (the sign of the Moon’s exile) or Scorpio (the sign of the Moon’s fall). Given that our source texts are silent on the matter, and given that they seem to license making talismans for fixed stars in these signs, we can infer that the Moon’s (lack of) essential dignity is not an important consideration in fixed star elections. This is perhaps the most central and major exception when it comes to the foundational principles of significators in magical elections.
The Significator: A Summary
Planetary and fixed star elections work on the principle of “distilling” the power of the significator, trying to maximize its influence (and to minimize other influences, though we have not explicitly treated that aspect of things in this post). Another way to think about this is that there are various technical factors involved in bringing a specific planet or fixed star into focus, rather than having it be vague, blurry, or outshined by other factors of the chart. We think of angularity, essential dignity, and planetary hour (and/or day) sort of like ‘lens caps’ on a telescope: to get a clear view, the three caps have to be off. If any one of them is still on, the planetary significator cannot be brought into focus.
In very brief form, these are the most essential standards or basic factors that we use for talismanic elections. They are not the only factors and we are not saying that anyone else who does not abide by these is doing something wrong. (In fact, we are not saying anything whatsoever about other people’s practices. We are solely talking about our own.)
For a planetary election, the significator should be angular on the AC or MC within 5 degrees, have positive essential dignity, and the election should take place during the appropriate planetary hour (or, at a minimum, the planetary day).
For a fixed star election, the significator should be angular on the AC or MC within 1.5 to 2.5 degrees, with the Moon applying to conjoin the significator within 5 degrees.
While we would never claim to speak for all practitioners or for the field of astrological magic more generally, we can say that the above principles serve as bare minimum requirements for any Idola Stellarum election. We hold ourselves to the standard that any deviation from these principles would require technical and relational justification, as we view these factors to be more or less constitutive of talismanic workings.