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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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On Offerings in Astrological Magic – Part II
In Part I of this series on offerings, we examined historical sources to make two points about the use of offerings in astrological magic. From the example of Albertus Magnus, we saw that making astrological talismans definitely does not require offerings. From other sources more aligned with the devotional, theurgical side of things (Iamblichus, Proclus,…
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Announcement: Idola Stellarum presents ‘Relational Astromagic’ for Initiate
We have the pleasure of presenting for our colleague and friend Drew Levanti’s groundbreaking electional astrology course Initiate, and it’s open to the public! Live & recorded for registrants. Our presentation, ‘Relational Astromagic: An Ecological Spirit Model‘ is a first gesture toward offering insight into how we work and play at Idola Stellarum. As ‘medicine…
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On Offerings in Astrological Magic – Part I
The historical tradition of astrological magic is not complete. We have a technical knowledge base in the form of rules for astrological elections. We have a rough philosophical framework with many variations from individual authors in their historical context. We have a patchwork of guidance on what materials to use and how. And we have…
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Talismanic Gemstones are Neither like Birdhouses nor Birdcages: An Ecological Spirit Model Perspective On the Essential Freedom of Celestial Spirits (Part III)
In Part I of this post series on the freedom of celestial spirits, we used traditional sources to reject the idea that talismans are like birdcages that trap spirits inside them. In Part II of this post series, we deepened this idea by proposing another metaphor: that a talisman could be thought of as more…
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Orphic Hymn to Mercury: Empower Your Mercurial Prayers & Magic
Ah, Mercury, blessed spirit of ambivalence! All the other planets line up neatly into pairs, with one planet belonging to the day sect and one to the night sect: Sol and Luna, Jupiter and Venus, Saturn and Mars. Mercury, as the non-binary outlier, swings both ways, all ways, and everything in between. Having a good…