Welcome to the Insight Collection:
Idola Stellarum’s 2025 Summer Solstice Collection
of Astromagical Talismanic Jewelry

Read more below, or jump to the talismans:

The Insight collection will open at the following times:

  • Early access for Inner Sanctum members: Saturday, June 21, 2025 @ 12:53pm EDT
  • Mailing list subscribers: Tuesday, June 24, 2025 @ 12:42pm EDT

“Other sages have said that what is shown by the constellations is not borne
out by any other judgment, like vain dreams that lack significance or insight.
According to these, you are warned not to study them, and above all else you
should not try to accomplish your desires using them. Rather, you will find
these revealed in nativities, conjunctions, and revolutions.”

—Maslama al-Qurtubi, Picatrix, Book II, Chapter 5 (tr. Greer & Warnock)

Knowledge

Picatrix, the keystone grimoire of astrological magic, begins with knowledge:

“You should know, my dearest brother, that the best and most noble gift that God has given to humanity in this world is knowledge. By knowledge we become acquainted with ancient things, and the causes of everything in the world, and what more immediate causes are the causes of other things, and how one thing corresponds to another.”

—Maslama al-Qurtubi, Picatrix, Book I, Chapter 1 (tr. Greer & Warnock)

The sort of knowledge being discussed at the outset of the Picatrix is not merely information, or the accumulation of facts. It is spiritual and fully divine:

“You should know that knowledge is a perfect and noble thing, and you ought every day to study God—that is, to study His commandments and His goodness—because from him knowledge, perception, and goodness proceed… The source of this knowledge is true wisdom.”

—Maslama al-Qurtubi, Picatrix, Book I, Chapter 1 (tr. Greer & Warnock)

In our time, knowledge has become commodified. Books, once precious items that signified great wealth, learning, or both, are so commonplace that 160,000 truckloads of excess unsold copies are destroyed each year. Almost everyone carries a device in their pocket that puts in the palm of our hand possibly more information than all of our ancestors could ever have accessed in their combined lifetimes.

And yet, how much wiser are we, whether individually, in societies, or as a species for all of that? The “knowledge economy” (a linguistic violence if there ever was one) seems to have in many ways failed to enrich us.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the ascension of so-called artificial intelligence, also (and more appropriately) known as Large Language Models (LLMs). Rather than delve into the rhetoric, we have cutting-edge neuroscience research showing that the repeated use of LLMs leads to significant negative cognitive consequences.

“[LLM users] repeatedly focused on a narrower set of ideas… suggest[ing] that many participants may not have engaged deeply with the topics or critically examined the material provided by the LLM. When individuals fail to critically engage with a subject, their writing might become biased and superficial. This pattern reflects the accumulation of cognitive debt, a condition in which repeated reliance on external systems like LLMs replaces the effortful cognitive processes required for independent thinking. Cognitive debt defers mental effort in the short term but results in long-term costs, such as diminished critical inquiry, increased vulnerability to manipulation, decreased creativity. When participants reproduce suggestions without evaluating their accuracy or relevance, they not only forfeit ownership of the ideas but also risk internalizing shallow or biased perspectives.”

—Kosmyna et al. (2025), Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task

Whatever LLMs give us access to, it is manifestly not knowledge in the sense of Picatrix. Its distance from divinity is vast.

This is perhaps most clearly seen in the spiritual delusions that ChatGPT and other LLMs foster in vulnerable people, leading to “a complete disconnection from reality.” In other words, a complete lack of Insight.

Insight

With any collection, we are always trying to answer the question: what is needed right now, at this time? In such a troubled time, many things are needed, of course, and no one can possibly try to meet every need. But at this moment, with misinformation and corruption running rampant, and with seemingly every corporation not just selling but eagerly, intrusively foisting tools upon us that would push us toward “diminished critical inquiry, increased vulnerability to manipulation, [and] decreased creativity,” it seemed an opportune moment to focus on Insight, the capacity to see into the true nature of things.

What the capitalistic ardor for “artificial intelligence” fails to capture is that knowledge is a relationship. In her 1978 book Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power, Audre Lorde writes:

“Beyond the superficial, the considered phrase, ‘It feels right to me,’ acknowledges the strength of the erotic into a true knowledge, for what that means is the first and most powerful guiding light toward any understanding. And understanding is a handmaiden which can only wait upon, or clarify, that knowledge, deeply born. The erotic is the nurturer or nursemaid of all our deepest knowledge.”

—Audre Lorde (1978), Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power

We can imagine here an expansive idea of eros, akin to what Plato was referring to when he wrote about the daimon that attracts, that draws us in, first to people, then ultimately toward the forms and the divine. Spiritualized knowledge, the knowledge we are after in astrological magic, is essentially about embodied, personalized connection—at least here in the sublunary world, for humans at any rate. 

Ignorance is disconnection. Confusion is the rejection of relationship and the incapacity for curiosity. At root, apathy means without feeling. Feeling is inherently feeling with or feeling for: something in us reaches out to bridge the gap between self and other. Without this curiosity, this desire, this eros, there is no grasp of the other, no connection, no real knowledge. Without real knowledge, then, there can be no genuine compassion or empathy, showing the inherent interconnection and mutual interdependence between self, world, mind, and other.

The austere, impersonal, scientific ideal of knowledge that has gripped the so-called West can only exist through violently effacing the erotic, connective, curious, playful, enlivened and embodied touch that inaugurates and potentiates personal, spiritual knowledge. “Artificial intelligence” that leeches away our creativity and critical inquiry destroys relationship, and with it, knowledge.

In the face of so much artificiality, we need to see into the real.

We need Insight.

The Insight Collection

The Insight Collection holds talismans from three elections from 2024:

The three talismans of the Insight collection each contribute to granting or providing the foundations that might move us toward greater Insight.

The Mercury in Aquarius Insight & Eloquence talismans most directly reach toward knowledge, helping us maximize our own cognitive potential and make the best use of our own minds.

The fixed star Procyon Guardian’s Favor talismans—a star of the nature of Mercury (and complexion of Mars)—fosters favor within relationships and grants protection, granting us greater spaciousness from within which to seek Insight.

The 3rd Lunar Mansion All Good Things talismans help us flourish and prosper. From a more resourced, grounded, and joyous place, we are less likely to seek out artificial and deleterious avenues for granting the illusion of ease.

We hope that the talismans of the Insight collection help their bearers find a place for the mind to rest and become cultivated within a culture that actively seeks to make us harried and cognitively depleted.

Please follow the links below to visit the individual talisman product pages, or scroll down to see brief previews of each of the talismans.

Note that all astrological talismans by their time-sensitive nature are extremely limited edition. Only a relatively small number of each specific talisman we release will ever be available. Once they are gone, they are gone.

(Note also: weight and dimensions listed in product attributes are approximate weights for the entire shipped package, not for the talismans themselves individually. None of the decorative elements displayed in altar photos or product shots besides the chains and jewelry boxes are included with purchased talismans.)

Mercury in Aquarius – Insight & Eloquence

Mercury in Aquarius: Insight & Eloquence - Botswana Agate Pendant

Mercury in Aquarius: Insight & Eloquence – Botswana Agate Pendant

$350.00
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Ensouled during Mercury hour on Monday, February 5, 2024 between 6:17am and 6:36am EST.

Of the nature of Mercury in Aquarius, these Botswana agate talismans were created with the intent of endowing their bearers with enhanced insight in sciences & secrets, ingenuity, wit, and eloquence.

The Insight & Eloquence pendants were crafted from 18x25mm Botswana agate cabochons set in gold-plated sterling silver crown bezel pendant settings.

We consider these talismans generally beginner friendly and do not issue any particular cautions as to their use.

Fixed Star Procyon – Guardian’s Favor

Fixed Star Procyon Talisman: Guardian's Favor - Botswana Agate Pendant

Fixed Star Procyon Talisman: Guardian’s Favor – Botswana Agate Pendant

Procyon Pendant: Dark Agate, Gold-Plated

$450.00
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Ensouled on Sunday, May 12, 2024 between 5:13pm and 5:32pm EDT.

Of the nature of the fixed star Procyon, these talismans were created with the intent of granting the range of Procyon’s blessings: favor from gods, humans, and spirits, influence over spirits of the air, preservation of health, and protection against magic and witchcraft.

The Guardian’s Favor pendants were crafted from 25mm Botswana agate cabochons: lighter gray/white agate cabochons were set in sterling silver and darker brown agate cabochons were set in gold-plated sterling silver crown bezel pendant settings.

Procyon is of the nature of Mercury and Mars, and these talismans carry a driven, almost caffeinated energy that may not be suitable for folks who are chronically keyed up or always anxious. They also have a road-opening quality that can lead to sudden and/or intense adjustment periods, so we do encourage discernment and divination as to whether these are the right talismans at the right time.

3rd Lunar Mansion – All Good Things II

3rd Lunar Mansion: All Good Things - Moonstone Pendant & Selenite Orb Talismans

3rd Lunar Mansion: All Good Things – Moonstone Pendant & Selenite Orb Talismans

Price range: $300.00 through $325.00
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Ensouled on Tuesday, May 7, 2024 between 5:00am and 5:22am EDT.

Of the nature of the 3rd Lunar Mansion, these talismans were created with the intent of bringing a cornucopia of positive blessings to the bearer, including fortune, contentment, prosperity, friendship, love, and joy.

The All Good Things talismans come in 13x18mm rainbow moonstone pendants, and in 6cm (small) and 8cm (large) selenite orbs.

We consider these talismans to be beginner friendly and we issue no specific cautions as to their use.

Idola Stellarum Puts the Stars in your Hands

By putting you in relationship with the powerful spirits who peer into the sublunary realm through these talismans, we hope you will be better equipped to face a strange, shifting, and at times terrifying world in which, too often, injustice reigns and corruption prevails. With institutions under siege (some rightfully so) and social contracts disintegrating at the expense of the most oppressed among us, we have to rely on each other. Thankfully, our interdependent networks of care can include celestial angels, too.

The spirits who guide Idola Stellarum know that if we can begin to equip each other with deep and consequential magic, we can begin to make the types of changes that many of us were told as children were possible, and reach toward the dreams which we knew could come true, but which remain withheld by those who hold structural and institutional power. To that end, we provide extensive information on our talismans, because we believe in making the tradition of astrological magic more accessible and allowing people to step into talismanic relationships equipped with the knowledge they need.

On each product page linked above, we offer photographs and a narrative description of the talisman series before showcasing the electional chart (with a precise time range specifying the beginning and end of the ritual window) and discussing the essential features of the election, further magical factors of the election, and reflections on weaknesses of the election. We include ceremonial details of petitions, altars, suffumigations, and, of course, the talismans themselves.  

Sanctifying Relationships

In building Idola Stellarum, and in thinking about the Insight collection, we aimed to not only put people in relationship with talismanic spirits, but to offer an experience of coming into connection. We, as beings of the sublunary realm, rely on our visceral and tactile senses, and so Idola Stellarum set our intention to usher in an experience of quality that would appeal to the aesthetics of body and spirit alike.

To this end, each Idola Stellarum talisman will include: a foil-stamped black velvet jewelry box for safe keeping and display; a detailed writeup about the nature of the talisman, the circumstances and rituals of its creation, and guidance on how to introduce yourself to the talismanic spirit; and a certificate of authenticity signed by Rain & Pallas. All talismanic jewelry in the Sonia collection has been set in high quality metal settings. All pendant settings in the Insight collection are sterling silver (some gold-plated), and each pendant talisman includes a matching 22″ sterling silver or gold plated sterling silver rope chain.

Additionally, many questions related to the talismans you may have are answered in our frequently asked questions. We take our role as mages and mediators of the celestial spirits very seriously, and we stand by our work and the relationships we build, tend, and foster. To this end, each Idola Stellarum talisman is backed by a number of guarantees, which we encourage you to look over, as well as transparency about what we are not able to guarantee.

Note that good relationships have boundaries, and you should know ours: due to the nature of astrological talismans, all sales are final, and no refunds or exchanges will be offered. Please read our returns & exchanges policy for more information.

Whether or not you hope to meet one of our talismans from this collection, we warmly invite you to keep up to date on our mailing list for more opportunities to join Idola Stellarum for events, spaces, and conversations intended to deepen and improve our relationships, talismanic and otherwise.

Membership in the Inner Sanctum is currently the only way to gain premiere early access to (as well as a member discount on) Idola Stellarum talisman collections. After Inner Sanctum early access, collections go out to our mailing list. Only after this are our collections open to the public, and then only if any talismans remain. The Inner Sanctum is currently closed, but opens quarterly.

Thank you for joining us at Idola Stellarum.