Astrological magic is more than 25 years into its contemporary revival. Robert Zoller’s instruction of Christopher Warnock, followed by Warnock’s subsequent teaching of many students, has slowly led to a Renaissance in the talismanic arts. As a result, many different astrological magicians offer astrological talismans and confections/medicines (often sold under the contemporary term of art “materia” or “talismanic materia”).
We are among that crew, of course, and selling talismans is a big part of what we do. Our vision and values at Idola Stellarum are not merely commercial, though: in the bigger picture, we aim to contribute to the revival and broader acceptance of astrological magic. As such, we do not simply want to convince people to buy our talismans, but rather to empower people to make informed choices about whether, how, and which talismans to bring into their lives and to forge relationships with. This is part of why we value transparency so highly, and why we try to provide as much information as possible about our talismanic offerings (to do so, we think, is to aim to practice trauma-informed astrological magic).
Although we do not position ourselves as teachers of how to make astrological talismans, we do consider ourselves educators about astrological magic. Part of the aim here is to demystify the art, to some degree, and to resource people to evaluate and understand what is out there.
The purpose of this series is to provide some educational resources for people interested in astrological talismans. The general aim is to empower consumers to better understand some of the principles of astrological magical elections so that they can become better equipped to evaluate magical elections. Being able to do so may aid in your discernment process about whether to come into a relationship with a talisman, and may empower you to maximize benefits and minimize harms of talismans you decide to (or decide not to) adopt into your home.
Astromagical vs. Mundane Elections
Many courses exist on electional astrology, and although these can be quite helpful to consumers of astrological magic, the principles of mundane and magical electional astrology are somewhat different. Likewise, although there are resources for learning how to do astrological magic that involve a significant degree of astrological education (foremost among them, the astrological magic course from Christopher Warnock), these courses tend to be narrow in focus and not aimed at the general consumer.
While some of the ideas behind mundane electional astrology and magical elections are similar, the aims and purposes are importantly different. In mundane electional astrology, we generally try to find a chart that fits the narrative of a specific action, balancing technical factors with practical constraints. If you need to choose the best time to ship a package, you are constrained by the operating hours of the post office, for example. And in mundane electional astrology, most people hold that it’s better to just do the action rather than waiting for the perfect time.
For magical elections, however, precision matters significantly more. When sending an important package, even if you did not send it at the most opportune time, you usually still manage to succeed to send it, with reasonable results. When making an astrological talisman or performing a magical petition, however, choosing the wrong time is more like putting your proverbial package on the steps of the post office in the middle of the night, long after they have closed. If you really did that with a package, we would not say that you sent the package. Perhaps a good Samaritan postal worker finds and processes the package: more likely, it gets stolen or lost.
Rather than ‘doing something at not the best time, but still doing it,’ performing astrological magic at the wrong time may very well do nothing at all—or it could significantly backfire. Since curse talismans exist, it is entirely possible to accidentally make a talisman that does more harm than good.
Moreover, the meanings and ‘rule sets’ of mundane and magical elections have important differences. To take one example, many fixed stars have harmful and undesirable significations in natal and mundane electional astrology, and yet impart valuable and precious boons in a magical context. Thus, although having some fluency with electional astrology is helpful and even necessary when evaluating magical elections, they are to some degree different skill sets.
Attending to traditional sources and operating within the guidelines of the tradition of astrological magic as we have inherited it is our best bet for creating talismans that have the best chance of changing our lives for the better. Being able to evaluate whether and to what extent an astrological magician is operating within the framework of the tradition therefore becomes an important tool for keeping oneself safe and for making prudent decisions.
Letting a Hundred Flowers Blossom
With all of that said, we should also bear in mind that within the traditional of astrological magic as we have received it, there are a variety of sources, not all of which are consistent with one another, or even within themselves. Different mages will favor different rules, or have their own interpretation of how to apply those rules. Some mages will try to obey every marginal suggestion and warning in the Picatrix, and others will adopt a looser and more general framework that privileges a handful of core rules while considering the rest as bonuses or window dressing—and they may all get results!
Moreover, some mages believe that the variation within the tradition exists partly because the magic varies mage to mage. Rain’s teacher, Ursula Rising, has been a vocal proponent of the idea that different rules apply more or less stringently depending on the mage. Thus, some mages may need to pay more attention to, say, the speed of the Moon than others.
In this series, we will aspire to mark places where people disagree or where there are different valid interpretations. And we may miss some of these! We operate within our own reading of the tradition, and make no claim that ours is the correct way or the only way to operate.
We make it part of our ethos not to publicly critique the methods of other mages, in part because we believe in the principle of letting a hundred flowers blossom. Especially given the nascent status of the revival of the tradition of astrological magic in the so-called West, some diversity and experimentation will ultimately be necessary and helpful.
With that said, we also think that although traditions are like rivers, with many tributaries and streams that branch in and out, it is in principle usually possible to make some judgment about what is a variation within the tradition and what falls outside the tradition. A thousand flowers may blossom, yes, but when planting a vegetable garden it is important to discriminate between edible, inedible, and poisonous plants.
It is our hope that this series adds to your capacity to make your own discrimination, rather than to rely on ours or anybody else’s.
Reading the Picatrix (and Other Grimoires)
Part of the reason that so much variation and uncertainty exists in regards to the tradition of astrological magic is that one of our primary texts, the Ghayat al-Hakim or Picatrix, is famously complex. As Clifford Low once wrote, “nobody understands Picatrix.” Its difficulty and obscurity renders murky what is already somewhat more of an art than a science.
Beyond that, many if not most people in the world are not particularly well equipped to read and understand complex texts. Even people with acute intelligence or advanced training/degrees do not necessarily have the skills required to interpret dense texts, particularly medieval grimoires that arose in a complex and distant cultural milieu.
Now, we are not saying that we are uniquely equipped to do so (and therefore that you should take our word for it). We do have some background—Rain in philosophy and psychoanalysis and Pallas in literature and history—that bolsters our capacity to work through tough prose, and we have both studied astrology and, to some degree, the cultural-magical context(s) of astrological magic. But we are not necessarily experts, and are certainly not the experts.
In this series, we will frequently quote from primary sources and offer our interpretations. Our references will be right there for you to check for yourselves and from which to draw your own conclusions. In part, this series offers our reading of, and some insight into how we read, the Picatrix and related sources.
We stress time and again that we do not want to be seen as the experts on astrological magic or to have the final word on these complex matters. Rather, our goal is to open up conversations, empower people to join those conversations, and offer our thoughts and ideas without any expectation that they be heeded by others. Ultimately, it is our aim to set our egos and reputations aside in service to the spirits around whom this tradition revolves.
Notes, Disclaimers, & Cautions
As we mention above, we do not offer the final word or claim that we know the absolute truth about the Picatrix or astrological magic. We offer our thoughts, ideas, and interpretations, and they are yours to use or not.
This series of posts is not intended as a training course in astrological magic. We make no claim that these posts will equip, let alone certify you to make astrological talismans or perform astrological petitions. This post series is also not intended as a comprehensive curriculum. We will add resources as we develop them and as they seem useful.
Likewise, these posts are not intended as advice about what talisman(s) or service(s) to purchase or not, whether from Idola Stellarum or anyone else. Though these posts are intended to empower you to make your own decisions, those decisions are ultimately your own responsibility.
Nothing in this series should be construed as a criticism, directly or indirectly, of other practitioners of astrological magic. All examples and charts come from our own workings and/or our own research: we do not and will not critique or comment on the elections of other astrological magicians. Any resemblance or similarity between examples used in these posts and the magical workings of any other practitioner are strictly coincidental.
A Word on Elections for Talismans vs. Materia
Although the revival of astrological magic now spans over a quarter century, the modern creation and use of “Picatrix style” talismanic materia is relatively more recent. Pioneered and popularized by Kaitlin Coppock of Sphere + Sundry, talismanic materia such as oils, perfumes, and incenses ceremonially produced with astrological timing are now in significantly wider use than astrological talismans themselves, largely because they are easier to produce in large quantities and are therefore more financially accessible to consumers.
Although the term materia to refer to such items is recent, the underlying concepts are not. Marsilio Ficino, in his Three Books on Life, does not hide his relative disdain for astrological talismans and his preference for ingestible confections or medicines created using the same astrological timing principles as talismans themselves (which Ficino refers to as images).
Although basically the same principles apply to talismanic materia as astrological talismans, talismans themselves are significantly longer lasting than materia and often significantly more potent. For one thing, talismans tend to be made of more permanent materials that are generally of higher quality and potency, and they cannot be exhausted, consumed, or run out like materia can.
For these reasons, we generally recommend that people apply more rigorous standards to elections of astrological talismans than to those of talismanic materia. A talismanic oil or perfume of dubious quality will quickly fade or easily wash away, whereas a malfunctioning talisman could produce potentially harmful stellar rays virtually indefinitely without appropriate intervention.
Posts in this Series Thus Far
Aspects of the Moon:
- Part I: Basic Concepts & Doctrines
- Part II: Renaissance & Medieval Rules, & Conjunctions
- Part III: Aspects of the Moon to Benefic & Malefic Planets
- Part IV: Aspects of the Moon to the Sun
- Part V: Aspects of the Moon to Mercury & the Fixed Stars
- Part VI: Miscellaneous Considerations
- Part VII: Overarching Principles & Guidelines