SOME TRANSITS 07/17/23
One of the most important transits happening now is the Venus retrograde that I wrote about in Newsletter #3. Venus goes retrograde on the 23rd, but has already been in her “shadow phase” for a while, giving us a preview of what’s ahead. Check back to that last newsletter and/or shoot me a message if you’d like to know more about what the retrograde means & what it might bring. Those most impacted have planets between 12-28 degrees of the fixed signs (Leo, Scorpio, Taurus, Aquarius).
The nodes of the moon are about to move into Aries & Libra, starting a series of eclipses in that part of the chart. The nodes can at times bring difficult instability, but they also help us align ourselves with our fate or our destiny, and teach us about balance, excess, loss, equanimity, and attachment. If you have planets (or your natal nodes… those little symbols that look like a uterus or septum piercing) in the later degrees of Aries & Libra, or in the beginning of Scorpio & Taurus, you may already be feeling the effects of the nodes.
Mars has now ingressed into Virgo for the next two months or so, bringing energy & intensity to the way we pay attention, analyze & organize our lives, and practice dedication to things beyond our individual selves. The Virgo & Pisces axis has a lot to do with boundaries & order, control vs. surrender. Mars in Virgo is about to make its one opposition to Saturn in Pisces who has already been busy testing our boundaries—dissolving some, over-fortifying others, making some of us feel isolated & and others inundated with obligations and attachments. Those in their Saturn return or with planets in the early degrees of mutable signs (Virgo, Pisces, Sagittarius, and Gemini) will most acutely experience this encounter between the opposing malefics.
WHAT IS ASTROLOGICAL MAGIC?
The thing that defines astrological magic is the emphasis on timing. While many other approaches try to exert the practitioner’s will on the world, astrological magic is about identifying the moment that is right for certain extraordinary possibilities to occur. We can’t just change the world however we desire at any moment, but there’s magic in identifying when the world, the deities, the energy, are most likely to help us intervene & affect change in the fabric of reality.
The other main factor in the astrological approach is correspondences. Every object, subject, and concept in the universe is "ruled" by a planet or a sign. Based on the idea of "cosmic sympathy," each of these things can be conceived as discontinuous parts of the same body/process/cluster of meanings, on all different scales (from the tiniest bug to the planet itself). In astrological magic, we try to draw down the influences of particular energies by using the materials that are connected to a particular planet/deity, and taking action at a time when their influence is strong and beneficial.
It’s a really satisfying and impactful way to relate to the symbolism & learn about the deeper layers of the planets and signs in a way that’s material & intuitive. It’s also incredible at breaking the stranglehold that realism has over us and inviting the magical, remarkable, and sublime into our lives.
EXCERPTS FROM PICATRIX
Here, I’m going to give just a couple of examples of talismans, or the making of images for magical effect, from the Picatrix, an astrological grimoire originally published in Arabic, likely in the 11th century. The text compiles and preserves many traditions and highly specific magical acts from the centuries leading up to its publication, and, as one of the most influential grimoires, we can see its fingerprints all over a vast number of magical treatises that followed it.
I’ll provide 4 examples verbatim from the text (along with the page number if you'd like to read more). For the final one on hindering the construction of buildings, I’ve calculated an “election” (i.e. a chart chosen for an exact moment, in a specific place, when an action needs to be completed) for the West Bank. I offer this as a speculative tool for combating the oppression & displacement of Palestinians from their own land, since building new Israeli settlements there is an international human rights violation and a key part of the Israeli government’s project of settler-colonialism & apartheid. As I said in my email, I don’t know if the talisman works or not: if it has a practical effect, that’s miraculous and a tool we should be using to fight imperialism, colonialism, and gentrification; if it doesn’t, it still feels like a meaningful symbolic act. Knowing astrology works on an everyday basis, we should at least try to discover the limits of astro-magical interventions using this knowledge and learn what power, what tools, it provides to us.
A note: the text often mentions the hour of a particular planet. Each day is broken up into 24 hours, each assigned a ruler of the hour. The easiest way to find this is with an online calculator of planetary hours.
SOME EXAMPLES FROM PICATRIX
An image for the escape of those in prison, page 32
Make an image in the likeness of the one whom you wish to be released in the hour of the moon, when she is waning, swift in motion and separated from the malefics. Bury the image near the prison when the ascendant is placed as the Tenth house of the city where the prisoner is held.
An image to catch many fish, page 33
Make an image in the form of the fish that are in that particular river, and make the image with Jupiter rising in Pisces, in the hour of Venus. Make it in this way; first make the head and the body and then the tail, and join them together at the aforementioned hour. Next make a spike of pure silver and place the image on the head of the spike, and make a jug or vase of lead with a narrow mouth, and in the middle of the jug place the spike standing straight up with the image of the fish at the top of the spike. Then take the aforementioned vase and fill it with water and seal the mouth with wax so that no water leaks out. And all the fish will congregate there.
An image for removing illness, meloncholy, and spells.
If you wish to remove melancholic infirmities, to strengthen health and to return evil spirits to their makers, make in image in the purest silver in the hour of venus, when the moon is in the fourth, seventh, or tenth houses and aspecting Venus with a good aspect, and the lord of the 6th house aspecting a benefic by trine or opposition, and the lord of the 8th squaring Mercury. Be sure Mercury is not retrograde, combust or aspecting the malefics. Make the image in the final hour of Sunday, with the lord of the hour in the tenth or the ascendant. When it is made in this way the aforementioned infirmities will be removed.
AN IMAGE TO HINDER ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS
From Picatrix: An image to hinder buildings so they are not built
"Make two images, one in the hour of the sun, with Leo rising and the other in the hour of the moon with Cancer rising; when the moon is waxing and safe from the malefics and swift in course. And when they are made, bury them in the hour of Venus, and they will hinder buildings."
Instructions for a Talisman to halt Israel settlements
I've calculated two windows of time that fit the above requirements, one for Leo rising during the hour of the sun & one for Cancer rising during the hour of the moon, using the location of the West Bank. As required, the moon is moving faster than usual, waxing, and not interacting with Mars or Saturn (i.e. "the malefics").
STEP 1: On July 30th, make an image between 3:08-3:20am EEST. This is when Cancer is rising during the hour of the moon. (What image to make is not specified, but it could be a depiction of the land empty, or what was destroyed to make way for the new building, or an image connected to the planets involved here).
STEP 2: On the same date, make an image between 5:54am -7:03am EEST. This is when Leo is rising during the hour of the sun.
STEP 3: On the same date, between 7:03 - 8:11am EEST, bury them both. The text doesn't specify to bury them on our near the land where you want to stop construction. I bet it would help to do so, but given the barriers to access, it's nice that it doesn't require it.
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