Saturn in Aquarius: The Immovable Throne

In contemporary parlance, dreams oppose reality. Marginalia of the sleeping world, modern people tend to treat dreams as foggy vestiges of night, at best playthings to indulge in our journals and therapy sessions, at worst distractions from the facts of waking life. Readily forgotten and easily dismissed (“it was only a dream!”), dreams become all too easily sidelined.

The enigmatic psychoanalyst Wilfrid Bion saw things very differently. For Bion, as for several other major psychoanalytic thinkers of the 20th century, dream was not an epiphenomenon of mental life but an essential factor of mind and thought. Dreaming, for Bion, “is central to the operation of consciousness and unconsciousness, on which ordered thought depends” (Learning from Experience, p. 16). Indeed, the capacity to dream “preserves the personality from what is virtually a psychotic state” (ibid).

For Bion, dreaming goes hand in hand with the basic process of mind (which he labeled the alpha-function) that converts sense impressions and emotional experiences into ordered mental objects capable of being used in thinking. When these processes are disturbed, experience remains unmetabolized and disordered, leading to relational and intrapsychic problems.

What does all of this have to do with Saturn?

Thinking of Saturn’s harsh limitation and insistence on the cold, hard facts, one might imagine that Saturn might enjoin us to ‘quit dreaming and focus on getting your life in order.’ Bion’s insights turn this on its head. If dreams form the basis of an ordered mind rather than being byproducts of the mind’s disorder, Saturn might instead tell us, ‘in order to get your life in order, you first have to be able to dream it.’

The Immovable Throne talismans were crafted with the intention of granting their bearers sturdy will and surety of purpose, that their efforts flow unwaveringly from hearts firmly anchored in dignified desires and centered intentions. Centered intentions and surety of purpose require clarity of thought. Clarity of thought requires an untroubled mind.

Which brings us to the Cancer Moon.

Though originally intended as successors to our Will, Wisdom, & Wonders talismans from the Solace collection, the Immovable Throne talismans have shown another side of the Saturn talisman experience through our testing. The involvement of a slow Cancer Moon in this election, which as Picatrix tells us becomes “assimilated to the motion of Saturn,” seems to play an intriguing role in this talisman, providing an interplay of softness with the canonical hardness of Saturn. To read more about our thinking on the qualities of the Cancer Moon and the complex mitigating factors that went into this election, please see the section below on Reflection on Weaknesses of the Election.

An ally who tested these talismans shared that it helped them in “releasing old grief and baggage,” and that the Immovable Throne talisman “demands presence and cuts through emotional dissonance, getting me more radically honest about what I’m feeling in the moment.”

In helping us construct our own Immovable Throne, these Saturn in Aquarius talismans push us out of our stubborn and stuck places and encourage us toward establishing a kingdom grounded in our most foundational dreams, our most integrated and grounded feelings, and our most authoritative and profound thinking.

The Immovable Thone talismans help us brush away the accidental and the unnecessary, the merely satisfactory, the good-enough-for-now, the fairweathers and the freeloaders, the habits that no longer serve—in short, all that is messy, lackluster, and useless in our lives—to make room for what really matters and what will really last.

In case the title of Immovable Throne and the fact of being Saturn in Aquarius talismans do not make it clear in themselves, we would also emphasize that these talismans can be heavy. While not burdensome or depressing, they do put the weight of responsibility for our own lives firmly on our shoulders. It is worth quoting something we wrote about the Will, Wisdom, & Wonders Saturn in Aquarius talismans, for it applies to these talismans as well.

“[These talismans are like] iron support beams that underwrite the capacity for weathering the long-haul of personal transformation, of coming into root knowledge of the singular, ponderous, immovable stones deep in our psyches upon which the countless ephemera of daily life flower and fade.”

If your kingdom could use a little more firmness and firmament, these Immovable Throne talismans may be for you. As with any and all talismans of the malefic planets, while we do not consider them dangerous per se, we do recommend that potential adopters of these talismans reflect on their capacity right now to take on potentially difficult transformative energies, and to consult your divination tools or other forms of spiritual discernment to help aid your decision-making.

(As with other Idola Stellarum Saturn talismans, we note that in Book I, Chapter 5 of Picatrix, Maslama al-Qurtubi states that talismanic working are “more certain if the planet was strong in the natal chart of those people who performed the working.” Idola Stellarum’s mage Rain took charge of this working, and their natal Saturn in Libra (with some other accidental dignities as well) adds a potent boost to these Saturn in Aquarius talismans.)

Technical Details

The Saturn in Aquarius Immovable Throne talismans were ensouled during Saturn hour on Sunday, December 11, 2022 between 10:46am and 11:01am EST.

Essential Features of the Election

For planetary astromagical elections, we require that the relevant planet either rises on the Ascendant or culminates on the Midheaven during the relevant planetary hour. This election took place during Saturn hour with Saturn rising and within 5° of the Ascendant during the electional window. Saturn was unafflicted and dignified by rulership and triplicity in Aquarius, one of Saturn’s two signs of domicile.

Planetary elections also require the Moon to be in sufficiently good condition. During this election, the Moon was dignified by rulership and face, and was applying by trine to Jupiter in Pisces—quite possibly one of the best aspects that the Moon can be making. The Moon was, however, quite slow (almost at her minimum possible speed), about which more below.

Since the 1st house signifies the bearer of the talisman, we also look at the condition of the Lord of the Ascendant in planetary elections. Since Aquarius was rising, the same considerations above for Saturn, the significator planet, apply here as well.

Further Magical Factors in the Election

Several factors auspiciously boost the potency of this election. The Moon’s substantial essential dignity and her application to a dignified Jupiter in Pisces significantly strengthen Luna, who serves as the secondary significator for planetary elections.

Beyond the Moon, three of the cardinal angles host Behenian fixed stars: Aldebaran roots the chart at the IC, Deneb Algedi joins Saturn on the AC, and Antares shines on the MC. Deneb Algedi on the AC serves as the greatest fortification of the three, as Picatrix tells us that the participation of a relevant fixed star serves as a great benefit to an election:

“If you do a planetary working with the aid of some fixed star of the same nature, it will be more complete and more perfect because it will have the vigor of the planet and the endurance of the fixed star.”

—Picatrix, Book IV, Chapter 4 (tr. Greer & Warnock)

Finally, having a benefic planet in the first (quadrant) house—in this case, Jupiter—imparts a more positive cast to the working, as the first house represents the bearer of the talisman.

Reflection on Weaknesses of the Election

The central feature to flag for this election is the extreme lassitude of the Moon. Moving at only 11°51′ per day at the time of this election, her slowness definitely falls afoul of the Picatrix’s warning to avoid elections with a Moon speed of less than 12° per day. As with many of the rules of the Picatrix, we treat such cautions not as ironclad injunctions but as a nuanced field of considerations that must be thoughtfully considered in the context of the whole chart and the purposes of the operation. In this particular case, the slow Moon was rationally selected as a feature rather than a debility of this election, as several factors mitigate this apparent affliction of the Moon and render it harmonious with the working overall.

First off, the strength of the Moon in terms of her essential dignity and the superlative trine to Jupiter in Pisces make Luna quite fortunately placed apart from her slow course.

Second, two factors in this election offer specific mitigations. As we are fond of quoting, Ficino notes:

“[L]ook for Jupiter or Venus either in the ascendant or in the tenth place, for so they compensate for the debilities of the Moon.”

—Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life, Book III, Ch. VI, p. 271 (tr. Kaske & Clark)

Having Jupiter in the 1st quadrant house is one helpful factor. Another is that placing the Moon in a cadent house lessens the influence of her debilities, as noted by Maslama al-Qurtubi in the Picatrix: “If you find the Moon badly placed…make the Moon cadent from the Ascendant, having no part in her” (Book II, Chapter 3). Having the Moon in both the quadrant and whole sign 6th house satisfies this condition admirably.

Third and most centrally, the caution in Picatrix against slow Moon speeds is worth quoting in full: “you should take care that [the Moon] not be of lessened course and slow, that is, when she moves less than 12 degrees in a day, because she is then assimilated to the motion of Saturn” (Picatrix, Book I, Chapter 5). In the general case, it should be clear that introducing the influence of the Greater Malefic into an election would be less than desirable. It has, however, been speculated that a slow Moon does not diminish a Saturn election, since it simply reinforces the basic nature of the working. Themes of slowness and imperturbability were incorporated into the name of this talisman (Immovable Throne) and the petition for this operation in order to cement the harmony of these factors and magnify the Saturnine nature of this election while counterbalancing the malefic factors through mitigations and the involvements of benefic influence.

Finally, beyond the slow speed of the Moon, we do note that having retrograde Mars angular in the 4th house adds an edge to this election (though we also note that since Mars was not the ruler of any of the angles or dispositor of the Moon or significator, his afflicted condition has less impact on the chart as a whole). The temporal bounds of this working, however, were engineered to end before Mars was within 5 degrees of the angle so as to minimize his influence over the operation.

Recommendations

Although talismans of the malefic planets are not inherently or necessarily harmful, Saturn talismans can bring a certain heaviness that not everyone would relish. We would consider it prudent for those with a natally afflicted Saturn (e.g., combust Saturn, Saturn in Aries, Cancer, or Leo) and those prone to depression and melancholia to take extra care with their discernment and divination regarding the adoption of one of these talismans.

Ceremonial Details

Gemstone & Talismanic Image

Iron pyrite was chosen as the stone for the Immovable Throne talisman with the intention that the hardness of iron would bolster the significations of this petition. Picatrix attributes to Saturn metals of “iron and part of gold” and among stones, “iron ore”; Agrippa says that those stones belong to Saturn that are “earthy, dark, and heavy.” Iron pyrite thus brings in Saturnian heaviness with a glimmer of gold.

For this election, 22x30mm iron pyrite cabochons were carved with “the form of a man elevated in a high throne…having in his hand a sickle.” The Picatrix attests that “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” (Book II, Chapter 10). Caveat emptor as far as pushing the limits of these claims is concerned! The back side of the cabochons were etched with the symbol of Saturn and the sigil of Agiel, the planetary intelligence of Saturn. An herbal mixture of black hellebore and cumin seed, henbane, and angelica root was then glued to the back of the cabochons during the electional window.

Ritual Setup

An altar shrouded in black was erected to Saturn preceding this election, adorned with garlands of pine needles (attributed to Saturn by Agrippa and Lilly) and with an hourglass, an antique scythe, and a black angelic statue standing for Saturn’s archangel Cassiel symbolically marking the space. Generous offerings of food and spirits were made to Saturn, including blocks of butter and chocolate etched with the sigils of Saturn and his intelligence, Agiel. Six black candles (two sets of three, the number of Saturn) emblazoned with symbols, seals, and sigils of Saturn were crafted and consecrated to Saturn during Saturn’s planetary hour and dressed with Saturnine herbs.

Suffumigation

The suffumigation used to ensoul these talismans consisted of a specially made Saturn in Aquarius incense blended and consecrated to Saturn during a previous talismanic Saturn election. The incense was prepared according to a recipe adapted from Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, which says to “combine black poppy seed, henbane seed, mandrake root, lodestone, and myrrh.” We elected not to include “the brain of a cat or the blood of a bat” in this mixture, for reasons you can probably imagine. In addition to the traditional ingredients, a portion of sawdust from the Yew tree was added to enhance the incense’s ability to be burned as a standalone powder.