What is astrological magic?
Before I write this post about astrological magic, I want to talk to you about my little brother.
My brother is the kind of person who just seems to have luck on his side. When he goes scuba diving, he finds gold necklaces and rare coins. He goes treasure hunting at thrift stores and finds old things for five bucks which he then sells for five hundred.
When he moved a couple of years ago during the pandemic, moving vans were booked out everywhere, but he managed to find one for sale cheap because it wasn’t expected to pass its next smog test. But when he went to the DMV, he somehow got the permit renewed for a couple of years, and so he sold the truck, again at a profit.
Astrologically speaking, I can see where my brother’s good luck comes from: He has Sagittarius rising and a well-placed Jupiter, his ascendant ruler, and general good fortune is one of the things Jupiter can deliver.
If only you could bottle that kind of good fortune and have it on tap when you need it.
The good news? You can, thanks to astrological magic.
What is astrological magic?
Astrological magic is the art of creating talismans or petitions based on planetary or stellar energy, correspondences and exact timing techniques.
Without getting too far into the history of things (a good source to dive into that is here), the idea is that the energy of the planets in the celestial realm is reflected in the material world here on Earth.
For example, the Jupiter stands for abundance, wealth and good fortune, but his energy can also be found in certain herbs and plants (e.g. sage, nutmeg, hyssop, sandalwood), certain gemstones (e.g. crystal, citrine, yellow sapphire), metals (tin) and so forth.
By creating a talisman out of a material that corresponds to a particular planet and engraving an image and various symbols onto its surface as described in the or Three Books of Occult Philosophy, you can therefore ensoul this object with the distilled energy of the planet in question.
If done successfully, you now have a talisman that acts, for example, as a “mini awesome Jupiter,” that can bring you the good stuff my brother gets automatically since he was born with this planet so well-placed in his chart.
Timing is everything
Although other forms of magic use timing, like following the cycles of the moon or doing rituals on certain planetary days or hours, this aspect becomes more complex when it comes to astrological magic.
After all, since you are ensouling an object with particular planetary energy, you need to make sure that the planet is in the best condition and position at the time you create the talisman.
The basic rules are as follows:
- The planet must be in its sign of rulership or exaltation
- It must be either rising (in the first house, ideally within five degrees of the ascendant) or culminating (in the 10th house, ideally within five degrees of the MC)
- It must be free from challenging aspects from the malefics, Mars and Saturn
- It cannot be retrograde or combust (i.e. within 8 degrees of the sun)
The moon acts as an intermediary between the material and celestial plain, so it’s important that she is also in good condition (i.e. in a positive or neutral sign, free of challenging aspects, not too slow, placed well in the chart, etc.). Other conditions also apply, but those are the main ones.
Astrological magic is not a form of magic well-suited to the hasty or impatient. To create a talisman, all of these details must be just right, otherwise it either won’t work or worse, will backfire and yield negative results instead. This means you sometimes have to wait months or even years before you can create the talisman you’re looking for, which may be a turn off to some people.
Personally, I find this part exciting. Finding the perfect election is a lot like hunting for treasures at the thrift store (yes, like my brother, I am a passionate thrifter). To find those gems you just have to wade through all the worthless stuff first.
Still, it can be frustrating sometimes. Just like you might find a gorgeous cashmere sweater in your size for three bucks at Thrift Town that has a large wine stain on the back rendering it unwearable, you sometimes find elections that look fantastic except, opps, Saturn is in opposition to the moon. If the flaw is a dealbreaker, the best thing to do here is sigh, except the loss and move on.
The ritual
Although you need to be anal and uncompromising when it comes to the quality of your election, the ritual itself is fairly easy going.
Basically, you just need a simple invocation, an image from one of the books mentioned above and some incense and materials that correspond to the planet.
Here’s an example of a bare bones Jupiter talisman creation ritual:
At the start of the election time:
- Light a candle (it’s magic after all, so a candle should be there!)
- Light an herbal incense corresponding to Jupiter (sage, hyssop, nutmeg, etc.)
- Invoke Jupiter by reciting the orphic hymn
- State your intent for making the talisman (e.g. Grant me both spiritual and material wealth)
Now draw or engrave an image as specified onto a piece of paper or a piece of tin, crystal or other material corresponding to Jupiter. Here an example of an image for Jupiter from the Picatrix.
The image of Jupiter, according to the opinion of other sages, in the hope of a man riding an eagle, holding a cloth in his right hand and nuts in his left; all his clothing is yellow.
Add Jupiter’s seal, which looks like this:
Once you’ve finished, suffimigate the talisman by placing it in the smoke from the incense. At this point I like to state my intention again. Now put the talisman down on the altar (which again, can be as simple as just a candle and some incense) and let it hang out there while the incense burns down.
You’re done.
That really doesn’t matter at all (I can’t). Stick figures are completely fine. If you choose to do a petition, you can also just imagine the image in your head.
What matters is the election (and finishing everything during this period of time), using materials that correspond to the planet you’re working with and asking for something that planet can actually deliver, not your artistic skills.
That said, it is fun — and often leads to better results in my experience — if you get a little more creative with your rituals. For example, Jupiter corresponds to the number four and the color blue, white and sea green, so you could also add four blue candles, a mix of four Jupiterian herbs in your incense, wear sea green, add other symbols pertaining to Jupiter onto your altar, add white flowers, write out your own invocation, etc.
The more you tune into Jupiter — or whatever other planet or star you’re working with — the better.
My experience
I’ve been practicing astrological magic for around three years now and I’ve definitely learned a lot. Some of my talismans only had weak or no discernible results, some have been very effective and one dramatically backfired (I wasn’t strict about that election and learned my lesson the hard way!)
However, I’ve definitely noticed some improvement in the past year or so.
I’ve gotten very good results from some Venus in Libra talismans I made last fall as well as some Saturn in Aquarius talismans. Last month I made a Jupiter talisman to improve my financial situation that resulted in me tripling my usual monthly income.
Thanks Jupiter!
We have some good Jupiter talisman making weeks ahead and I’ll be posting some recommended elections, so stay tuned.
I also plan to start selling my talismans that have proven to be effective on my website come April. You can get a bit of a preview of some of them here.
In the meantime, I highly recommend checking out Sphere + Sundry and N ina Gryphon’s Magical Election monthly PDFs.
Originally published at https://ageofair.substack.com on March 13, 2022.
