magic, gnosis gathering and the lunar stations
ideas for a 28-fold spellbook
Over the last few months I’ve been experimenting in my drafts with the genre of magical writing. Some of the writing on blogs I enjoy the most is in this genre, but it seems challenging to wade into. I love the highly technical writing focused on process as well as the reflective writing delving into personal experiences and I’ve tried my hand at both—for examples see my techincal essay on a Greco-Egpytian Invocation of the Moon as the goddess of time and change or my personal reflection on the year I spent on solar remediation.
There are so many wild and weird things in my drafts right now and I want to start sharing them. Now that I’ve got my introductory material on the lunar stations out, I also think it’s time to start exploring the magic I’ve been working on. The stations have been a beloved pet project for several years, of course, but they’re really only a chapter of my experimentation with astrological magic. I’m feeling really excited to start discussing these experiments more publicly. I’m also hugely inspired by the work of my friends, especially the recent essays by Chloe on developing spiritual goals via dreams, divination and desire and Sadalsvvd’s own gnosis-gathering sessions with the his eponymous star, indicator of the 24th station.
Today I have for you some thoughts about the use of the lunar stations for magical purposes. My next essay in this vein will be an essay about my experiences with one of my oldest and most beloved astrolgical talismans, a talisman of Mercury with Capella in Gemini.
I am focusing my attention on magic as an entry point into the study of the lunar stations. Don’t get me wrong, I mean magic in an especially general sense. Gnosis-gathering is a kind of mystical study at its core. It’s not what you might expect when you hear the word magic, but it’s definitely enchanted.
What kind of magic do the stations hold?
A brass divination bowl featuring Quranic verses and magic squares made some time in the 19th century and purchased in Palestine in 1935 with otherwise unknown origins, via Wikimedia
The lunar stations have only really been known in European cultures for their electional purposes and it seems, from the material history we have, this is one of the most salient uses of the manāzil in broader history, too. The stations are potent for all astrological purposes, including natal and horary astrology, but our earliest sources seem to have a particular emphasis on the stations as a dynamic indicator of time. See, for example, the writings of al-Rijal and ibn al-Hatim on the stations (some of the earliest I’ve been able to find) which are entirely focused on elections. Ibn al-Hatim’s “elections” are closer to a spellbook than anything!
The most well-known grimoires that mention the stations give their meanings in terms of their magical use to do things like make someone fall in love, destroy cities, heal erectile dysfunction and provide safety while giving birth. Many of their uses in these ancient grimoires aren’t terribly practical (you could probably get ahold of a Viagra prescription faster and easier than making the talisman of station 13 ‘Awwā’) and even more of them are questionably ethical at best.
There is an approach to magic that treats the organism of the universe as a kind of cosmic vending machine. If we can figure out the right currency and buttons to push on the vending machine, we can get it to spit out things we want. I don’t think that this kind of magic is inherently wrong by any means! A key part of my own survival has been through the use of magic to acquire resources and connections.
And do not mistake me: these spirits love taking part in that kind of sorcery too
But surely learning to use the cosmic vending machine isn’t the only end goal of magic. Many practitioners find themselves reaching that goal reasonably quickly, but still find themselves pursuing magic—and to what end?
This is essentially where I’ve found myself at this point. There’s always a wildcard element to magical work but after figuring out my workflow to producing the sorcerous results I’m looking for, I’m still thirsty. There are a handful of workings described in the grimoires that sound appealing to me and helpful for my life but after that I’m hunting for deeper knowledge.
It’s clear that if we want to work magic with the 28 spirits, we’ll need to be creative. These ancient cookbooks don’t give us much to work with, but if we approach them with an open-mind, they can provide a useful jumping off point. Medieval cookbooks commonly use spices like cinnamon with game meat—and it turns out I think deer chili tastes great with a hit of cinnamon! If station 19 Shaula can be used to induce menstruation, do you think its spirit would want to help us heal from PCOS or get access to an abortion?
This is what led me to seeking gnosis of the 28 spirits presiding over the stations: I want to flesh out a framework for the kinds of spiritual work they may be well-suited for.
Maybe someday I will learn and write more about their use with natal or horary astrology, but for now I have focused my attention on the studying the nature of their presiding spirits.
By coming into deeper understanding of the angel of each station, we have the opportunity to understand them in a more holistic sense. There’s no sense in holding out hope for the discovery of a grimoire that gives exhaustive magical uses for each of the stations. Perhaps such a thing exists (and if it does it is almost certainly written in some obscure manuscript in Arabic or Persian, certainly not any European language) but even if it were to be discovered, following the guidance of these spirits attained via personal relationship with them will always be a tremendous tool.
I’ve done it myself by exploring my own relationship to the Moon and her retinue—you can do it too, if you want.
A 28-fold spellbook
At this point, I’ve been working this out in my own relationships with the station spirits in various ways for years. I’ve invoked and interviewed the angel of each station named by Ibn al-Hatim (the source for basically all the angel names found later in the tradition) but I’ve only worked, let’s say, specific magic with about a quarter of them. By “specific magic” I just mean that I’ve done some kind of working that could be called a spell, amulet or talisman, in comparison to the more general magic of, for example, praying and venerating the the spirit of a given station for general purposes of satisfying my curiosity.
Through these extensive experiments I’ve learned that these lunar spirits can be so multivalent! Their energy seems to be strongly influenced by the phase of the Moon, her speed, and any close aspects. After seeing the full range of the stations I’ve worked with the most extensively it’s hard to feel satisfied with the experience of a single working or two.
Are these spirits even best described as lunar in their essential nature?
Although these stations come through the most clearly with Luna, I believe that’s just because of the special relationship she has to the fixed stars and the ecliptic. At their root, the stations are enlived by the stars that indicate them and the presence of the Moon in a given station activates these stars and their campsites, bringing their influence down to our Earth, the sublunar sphere.
What of the other 6 planets in the stations? Now the combinations seem endless!
My dream is to eventually produce a 28-fold spellbook—a book of ideas for a range of magical engagement with all 28 stations pulled from my own personal grimoires. This is a long term project and I have no idea how long it will take for such a thing to come to fruition.
As it stands, I have worked most extensively with stations 3 Thurayyā, 7 Dhirā’, 13 ‘Awwā’, 21 Balda, 23 Sa’d al-Bul’a and 24 Sa’d al-Su’ūd. I have observed and engaged these 6 stations under a number of variant conditions, including different phases of the Moon, different rulers and in several cases even inspected the differences between activating the station with other visible planets as well. I’m also well into my experimentation with 5 Haq’a, 10 Jabha, 14 Simāk and 19 Shaula, albeit in a somewhat more limited extent.
This offering is meant to open up a space next to me at the table of the Queen of the Night. God alone knows when this spellbook will come to fruition, however my plan is to begin to offer portions of it to you, my readers, through my Substack and this blog. I’ve got essays on all these stations that I’ve referenced in the works and many more experiments planned for the coming months/years/who knows. I’m looking forward to sharing them as they become available!