Orphic Hymn to Jupiter Devotional Letterpress Prints

We are pleased to present the premiere offering of devotional letterpress prints from Idola Stellarum. Talismanic prints are available in this collection as well.

This summer, we had the opportunity to adopt a small letterpress studio, and as the exaltation of Jupiter waxed toward his degree of exaltation, Idola Stellarum embarked on a new enterprise of magical-celestial printing. In a week of ritual and devotional fervor, supported by much effort in the lead-up, this effort, spearheaded by Pallas K. Augustine, resulted in a series of devotional Jupiter prints made during Magnanimous, Commanding, Sceptered Jove’s movement through his degree of exaltation.

Crafted from high-quality flax/cotton handmade paper and professional printing ink, these prints were typeset by hand during Jupiter hours prior to the printing, which occurred during Jupiter day and hour while Jupiter occupied his degree of exaltation. 

We didn’t anticipate the prints coming out well enough to offer as part of a collection as they are experimental and new, but as a culmination of a lifetime of skill development and a huge dose of Jupiter magic, they turned out gorgeous and we are proud to present them as the premiere of print offerings from Idola Stellarum.

From Pallas:

“Many folks familiar with my work know I was raised in a house of art and scholarship, but perhaps lesser known is how practical, hands-on, and crafty my upbringing was, as well. My father had me on a bandsaw helping with carpentry projects as soon as I could fit the safety glasses and mother had me on her sewing machine as soon as I could reach the hand wheel.

As a Virgo, I have a knack for most handiwork and enjoy learning, but I particularly love working with clay/carving and printing. I was fortunate as a child to learn how to make linocut prints, and get to hang out with professional stampmakers and artists in their studios. This evolved into my own stamping practice, making sigil-type carvings throughout my creative and magical life.

I’ve also always been making books, hence my previous careers in media production and recently publishing The IC with Idola Stellarum. As a kid, I made picture books, then zines as a teenager, and chapbooks as an early adult. My Masters’ degree featured studying medieval manuscripts, scribal methods, and visiting letterpress and printing studios. The last art I released publicly for sale—a very (very) limited edition chapbook with collage, drawings, poetry, and linocut stamped covers—was in May of 2014…the last time Jupiter was at their exaltation degree in Cancer, as Jupiter was when we made these prints.

Thus when a local artist’s letterpress studio came into our lives this summer—complete with a whole collection of book-size type—a lifelong wish came true and the timing with the upcoming Jupiter at Exaltation degree workings was too auspicious to not follow the spirit guidance in crafting these prints.“

Technical Details

Materials

Crafted from robust handmade flax/cotton from a maker in California, these prints stand up on their own, like a card. The hymn is printed with a professional oil-based printing ink. Flax is attributed to Jupiter and thus holds Jovian virtues, amplifying the working.

NOTE: The sticker with the Idola logo and explanatory text is on the protective cellophane sleeve, not on the back of the print itself.

Timing

Although these Orphic Hymn prints are not talismanic—they were not made under the specific ritual timing and invocation constraints of a talismanic election—they are nevertheless objects of stellar devotion. This included observation of devotional timing in the setting of the letterpress type, performed during Jupiter hours, as well as the printing of the Orphic Hymn prints, which was also performed during Jupiter hour while Jupiter occupied his degree of exaltation.

Procedure

The letterpess type was set during multiple Jupiter hours prior to the printing. The hymns are set in Garamond Old Style, Roman and Italics, and Copperplate Gothic Bold. The hymns were printed with a Kelsey Excelsior 5×8 tabletop letterpress and suffumigated with a housemade Jupiter incense (below) during Jupiter day and hour on Thursday, August 14, 2025.

Suffumigation

After printing, the Orphic Hymn to Jupiter prints were suffumigated with an incense blend made during Jupiter’s occupation of his degree of exaltation according to our interpretation of the Jupiter petition suffumigation listed in Picatrix Book III, Chapter 7.