the crossroads of astrology and magic
framing my thoughts on astromagic
This is a topic I’ve been beating around the bush with my work for some time.
A well-used divination bowl engraved with Arabic incantations, a magic square, two entwined snakes, a scorpion and a dog. Egypt, 19th century, via Wikimedia
The single astrological topic I have studied in the most depth is likely magical applications of astrology, but I’ve let it chill backstage through a lot of the writing I have publicly shared so far. My friends and family will tell you that this has been a penetrating special interest of mine ever since I made my first Jupiter talisman in 2019 but I’ve been reticent to talk too much about it publicly. I’ve been waiting for my perfect moment, I guess. I want to do this topic justice and I know that we’re in a kind of astromagic bubble. There’s been a cash grab for astrological magic, as anyone who’s interested in this topic for more than a little while has noticed. Haven’t y’all?
I’d like to offer a slightly different perspective: see, the thing is, I don’t really have anything to sell you.
I’ve sat for years in relation with the celestial spirits whose acquaintance I’ve been pleased to make. I’ve spoken with my personal daimon. I don’t think e-commerce is a direction my spirits want me to take.
Don’t misunderstand me: I have great respect for my many colleagues who produce quality work and wish to sell share their products with the community. My life has been greatly improved by the astromagical items I’ve purchased and been gifted over the years! I’m so glad we’ve got reputable sellers in our community like that.
It just isn’t the path I wish to go down.
I think I have something unique to offer the conversation because I have not engaged with this art primarily or even frequently as a consumer but rather almost exclusively as a magical practitioner.
I hope this perspective as someone who doesn’t need to build an ethos selling magical products gives me the opportunity to speak especially frankly about my experience. I’m an experimenter and I’m always excited to get my hands dirty—which means that I don’t have a catalog of perfect talismans to share with you. Instead, what I’d like to offer is a collection of honest experiences.
Maybe this could offer some perspective to those starting out with their own experiments or support potential consumers of my colleagues’ work in figuring out their goals? Maybe this could offer astrologers who are interested in magic or magicians who are interested in astrology some ideas for how to deepen their cross-disciplinary studies?
A unique thing I have to offer is time.
The vast majority of writing available on the internet for astromagic is product descriptions of talismans for sale. Once they’ve been placed up for sale, the story is complete. Can we talk more about what it’s like to collaborate for years at a time with a celestial spirit? What does it do to your life to harmonize your two spirits like that on a longer time frame?
Did y’all see the essay I wrote last month about my beloved Mercury-Capella talismans? That’s the kind of thing I want to offer! We’re coming to our fifth year together, those talismans and I, and I’m proud of our story together.
What happens when you fail? I cant wait to tell you all about my magical failures. There’s so much to learn from things going off the walls! What do you do when it’s not working??
Let’s talk about it!
As I opine on this topic in the months and years to come, please keep this perspective in mind. There are limits that come with it as well—aside from a few minor engagements with others’ work, my experience of astromagic has been near exclusive to my own homebrew. I’m definitely high (and, variably, low) on my own supply. I’ll never be in the position to offer recommendations of which shops to buy from or which products to try (aside from identifying those which are obviously dangerous or fraudulent). I have embarrassed myself more than once by my lack of exposure to other’s products or misunderstanding of the talismanic marketplace, especially when controversies (inevitably, frequently) arise. Thank god I kept my mouth shut til I was ready so only my friends have had to patiently explain to me the way things work out there!
Why do I say astromagic? What does that actually mean?
I like the term astromagic because it’s short and sweet. Astrological magic is a mouthful. I also like it for its lineage—the court of Alfonso X of Castile (often called Alfonso el Sabio • the Wise) produced an interesting compilation of occult-ish applications of astrology called the Libro de astromagia • Book of Astromagic. It was one of the final products of his massive philological effort that produced the Latin and Old Spanish translations of the foundational Arabic texts. These translations laid the ground for the Latinate tradition of astrology as exemplified by the work of European astrologers like Guido Bonatti, Agrippa von Nettesheim, Marsilio Ficino and William Lilly.
The translators of Alfonso X gave us basically all of the astromagical texts that were known in the Latinate tradition including, of course, the (in)famous Picatrix. They produced two original encyclopedic works: Astromagia, which I referenced above, and the Libro de las formas et las ymagenes • Book of Forms and Images. This second book (which is no longer extant beyond its index and introduction) detailed a (mostly) Christianized Latinate take on the Islamicate occult sciences, what they called image magic. This includes talismanic magic—the knowledge of how to use symbols and images to house celestial spirits, usually from stones or other substances harmonized with the essential nature of the spirit you wish to attract.
Astromagia on the other hand, contained plenty of this, but also everything else. This other type of magic has been called “Harranian” or “Sabian” or many other things. It refers to the kind of magic that focuses on the gnosis of the celestial spirits, the assimilation of the soul of the magician with the powers of the celestial bodies. This approach, focusing broadly on everything that occurs at the intersection of astrology and magic (rather than just the creation of talismans), is one I’d like to advocate for. [1]
Every place that astrology and magic intersect is where astromagic is found. Astromagic is not just about image magic or talismans—we can work with symbol and image without a touch of astrology and we can make talismanic houses for any kind of spirit, not just the celestial ones.
Astromagic is not about what specific arts and crafts we’re doing, it’s about the crossroads of these two esoteric studies.
This is actually a huge tent, more than many other magical fields, I’d like to say.
So, yes, I have made a lot of talismans (just over 90 at my last count) and I’m excited to talk about them! But I also want to give some more ideas for the kinds of work we can do at this intersection that isn’t creating sublunar containers for 4th dimensional beings of starlight.
Why is astromagic so cutthroat?
I wish I understood.
The attitudes in this subfield disappoint me too often. Does astromagic make people nasty? Sometimes I wonder.
I decided to start sharing this work after some deep soul-searching and long discussions with my friends and family. I have been in all kinds of magical and astrological scenes and I’ve never seen another one as intensely critical as the astromagic scene. Sure, sure, I hear you already—people are catty all over the internet! The assumption of malicious intent permeates the comment section! It’s true but, good god, the controversies are constant in this scene and they’re bloodthirsty in a way that concerns me. I really don’t want to be a part of that.
Does this point towards the massive powers that we’re working with here? That’s not to demean other forms of magic, but we are working with enormous spirits of time, alien to our mortal animal souls. Sometimes working with astrological magic, especially with talismanic spirit houses, is like bringing a flamethrower to light a candle. As my friend Hawk remarked to me when I was writing this essay, if we aren’t careful (and even if we are) sometimes the flamethrower melts the candle (we’re the candle).
And/or is it related to the economic bubble we’re in right now. Is there another magical scene that is commercialized to the degree this one is? Especially without diluting the powers we’re working with? It’s not an easy field to get into, the systems are intricate and require a very special multidisciplinary skillset as even an entry point. It makes sense why those who make quality work wish to sell it for a well-deserved premium price and it also makes sense that there would be more people who wish to experience the magic of the celestial spirits than have the time/energy/effort to devote to studying such a complicated art.
There’s a small part of me that fears that there’s something about this specific art that generates this contentiousness. Could it be that the harmonization of our human souls with these enormous aliens of light and time curdles our hearts? The way I see many of my colleagues cruelly interacting with each other makes me fear for myself—is it possible to do this work without losing the gentleness I’ve cultivated in my own heart?
I’m gonna find out.
This work has profoundly impacted my life. It has led me to nourishment I doubt I could have found without it. It has provoked challenges and dark moments that I couldn’t have imagined I could extricate myself from. I have partnered with some of these spirits for years—they’ve become friends to me. This art has shown me the way to questions that are just mysterious enough to satisfy my questing heart.
I’m not coming to you as a teacher right now—I’m coming to you as a peer.
I don’t want to position myself as some kind of authority on orthodoxy. I have no reason to sell you on this kind of magic or to sell you on myself.
I’m also not going to talk down to you by telling you how challenging and even risky this work can be. I’m not going to fearmonger. This magic is no more dangerous than any other kind of serious magical practice working with The Big Spirits.
You don’t need to be infantilized; you know if you’re supposed to be here or not.
I’m just here to share my experiences with honesty and humility. I am coming to you in this work as a fellow practitioner in order to share my thoughts and my discoveries and I’m really excited to share what I’ve learned!
Notes
[1] For more on the astromagical works of Alfonso X’s court, I primarily relied on these two sources:
Alejandro García Avilés. 1996. Two Astromagical Manuscrips of Alfonso X. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 59, 14-23. English.
Alejandro García Avilés. Imágenes mágicas. La obra astromágica de Alfonso X y su fortuna en la Europa bajomedieval. Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. Spanish.
Their author also says he’s working on a book called L'iconographie du Livre d'astromagie d'Alphonse X (in French, presumably) that sounds very enticing for students of image magic like us!