Frater Barrabbas Author Literary Tour - Part 7 - Talismanic Magic For Witches

Even while I was editing and revising my book “Elemental Powers for Witches” I had already started writing my third book in that series. We were still in the grips of the pandemic, so I had a lot of time on my hands, and I had already decided to write a book on the topic of talismanic magic, incorporating my own specific brand of planetary magic. Two things happened while I was writing this book. The first is that I needed to deepen my astrological research, since I had determined to bring into this work more astrological information and to write up an historical perspective that included the writings of the ancient Greek philosopher, Pherecydes and the mystical ideas of the Zurvan sect of Zoroastrianism. This is because I intended to bring into my book a detailed discussion about the temporal model of magic, which I felt was strategically important to understanding why working planetary magic on a certain day and time was important, while also being able to examine an elective astrological chart.

I was ambitious to the point of craziness when I included so much material in this book that it threatened to make it monstrously huge and as it turned out, I had to scale this book down in order to make it fit with the objectives of presenting talismanic magic and the associated rituals, much as I had done in the previous two books. This work had ballooned to around 140K words, but the final manuscript had around 94K, so there was a lot of material that was excised, and the final product, I believe, warranted cutting it down to a more essential size.

Recently, I posted an article in my blog that presented my perspective on the temporal model of magic, so I don’t need to present that idea in this article. You can find it here. I have also talked about planetary magic using the septagram, the psychological model of magic, planetary and astrological magic, and zodiacal magic. I also wrote an article that is a brief but comprehensive approach to practicing magic, where talismanic magic is a part of the overall approach. There is a great wealth of articles to be read in my blog, since there are nearly 500 articles, and many of them are quite substantive. A lot of the content of this material was used in my book, but my manuscript presents the actual ritual structures and methodologies for working this kind of magic, which the blog articles have purposely omitted. These linked articles should keep you busy for a while if you choose to read them, but if you really want the details then my books in the “For Witches” series is what you will want to explore.

Here is the advertising text that appears with the book.

Talismanic magic is the art of creating perpetually active spells that can help you create a charmed life. Once the provenance of ceremonial magicians, this book, for the first time, brings planetary and zodiacal magic based on a concise and simplified methodology to the Witchcraft community.

Talismanic Magic for Witches is the third installment of the ‘For Witches’ series, and it is the most comprehensive book on the topic of celestial magic written expressly for the Pagan and Witchcraft community. The product of celestial magic is the creation of a talisman. Talismanic magic is the art of making for yourself and others a charmed life. It is a life where reality seems to consistently bend to the will of the talisman’s owner at all times and places, lessoning the possibility of misfortune and empowering great good fortune. A talisman is nothing more than encapsulating a wish or desire and continually setting upon it the powers of the elements, celestial spirits and archetypes of the Gods.

A talisman is a materialized spell that is continually and perpetually operating for the benefit of the owner. A talisman makes a charmed life possible, and building up a battery of them to act on several fronts simultaneously is the final magical mechanism that makes this kind of overall effect possible. There is no magical artifact that I am aware of that has these qualities except a talisman. Learning to produce a talisman would be the best of all possible magical methodologies that a Witch or Pagan could master.

Talismans are a magical treasure, and a good practitioner of celestial magic will create a series of them to act on every aspect of his or her life, tapping them for a specific purpose when the need arises. This capability alone represents the quantitative wealth or richness of talismanic magic. Who would pass up a chance to acquire this wealth to make a charmed life for themselves? This is also why I refer to talismanic magic, and to celestial magic as its organizing principal, as the veritable crown jewel of Witchcraft magic.

As you can see by the advertising text, this book is promising a lot to the one who will undertake this kind of magic. I am quite serious when I say that mastering the art of talismanic magic will help you to acquire a charmed existence because talismans are continuously working 24/7 to help you to gain your objective, or the object that you set the talisman to work on your behalf. If you were to gather together several of these talismans and set them to work on the various areas of your life then you would have a powerful array of magical charms that would aid and bolster every area of your life. You could forge talismans to enhance employment opportunities, gain long term wealth, achieve a good love life, friendship, and excellent relations with business partners, or protection from physical and emotional harm, and any other area covered by planetary magic joined with an element or a zodiacal sign and performed at the optimal and auspicious time. Such an array of continuously working magical artifacts would over time help you achieve everything that you might desire.

Why are talismans so powerful compared to all other forms of magic? What makes them so capable of assisting their owner to achieve his or her objectives? The reason why is because of the nature of the talismanic charge, consisting of both an energy and an active planetary intelligence. It is focused and fused into a metallic artifact, where it becomes a perpetually functioning source of magical power set to a specific material end. A talismanic field lasts practically forever, or at least as long as the artifact into which that field has been infused remains intact. A talisman can be transferred to another person, and it will continue to work as long as the owner continues to maintain a mental connection with it. A talisman can become dormant if it is neglected for several months or a year, but it can be easily awakened and revitalized simply by being held by the owner and communed with in a deep meditative state. As long as the artifact is intact the talisman will continue to function.

An evocation working or an elemental working are used to bring about a specific intent over a short period of time. The timing for an evocation to produce its objective results is usually stated in the bond or pact between the spirit and the practitioner. The timing for an elemental working is within a lunar cycle. Such a working will target a specific objective, and once that timing cycle has reached its end, the magical working will end with either fulfillment, partial gratification or failure for various reasons. It represents a single event with a single objective, whether that event is using an elemental field or a spiritual being to fulfill the intent of the working.

However, a celestial magical working sets in motion a powerful talismanic field, which continues to operate long after the magical working has been completed. While the magical working is used to charge and infuse a talismanic artifact, what follows over the days, weeks and months, or even years, is part of the continuing magical effect of that working. What that means is that a talismanic field can be a bit more generalized and thereby serve multiple purposes simultaneously. In my many years of magical experience, I have found that there is no other kind of magic that can be used in this manner. It is for this reason that I have stated that talismanic magic is the crown jewel of all magical workings, and certainly it should be one of the tools in the magical toolbox for the experienced and knowledgeable Witch.

Talismanic magic, along with advanced energy workings and spirit conjuration are the trifecta of the magical arts missing from the standard Book of Shadows. I have returned this lore to the various traditions of modern Witchcraft and Paganism where it can act as a kind of completed system of magical workings, making the Witch who masters these three systems of magic something of a Wiccan or Pagan Magus. I felt that it was very important for Witches to be able to work solitary forms of high ritual magic within a methodology that would be comfortable to those who have some experience in the magical arts. These additional kinds of magic are for the experienced student who has mastered the basic magical practices of Witchcraft and its essential liturgical praxis and who now seek to expand their abilities in the areas of evocation, energy workings and talismanic magic.

Learning the art of planetary and zodiacal magic is challenging, and it requires a greater degree of discipline and a deeper understanding of the nature of the human condition from the standpoint of astrology and psychology. This art requires one to learn astrology, astronomy, psychology, and to develop a methodology of engaging and working through the planetary deities. Astrology, as it is used in the art of magic, is not a science as much as it is a religion, a system of divination, and a means of harnessing the potent psychological powers of the archetypes that underpin our cultural world. It is working and manipulating the very stuff of consciousness itself, and these forces and intelligences represent the building blocks of our own psyches and the foundation of our culture and language. Knowing how to wield and manipulate these forces and intelligences is the key to mastering one’s life and overcoming adversity.

Writing this book was something of an ordeal for me, since it forced me to completely reevaluate everything that I had long established regarding this kind of magic. I had the lore and the tech, which I had developed back in the early 1980's, but it was written in a manner that would not make it easy to incorporate into an efficient Witchcraft praxis. Additionally, I have learned a great deal about astrology, the lunar mansions and the decans that I had not known back when this lore was first developed. I had to rewrite and rework all of that lore so that it would be accessible and presentable to the experienced Witchcraft practitioner. This also included building an understanding of the history of astrology, which was a topic that I had neglected to seriously study in order to realize the importance of the historical evolution of astrology, and what it gained and lost by becoming an exoteric and philosophic discipline in antiquity. I studied a two volume book on the history of astrology and took extensive notes in order to recognize the contextual phases of the development of astrology through the various epochs and empires of the east and west.

One of the real treasures that I discovered in my research was the book written by Geoffrey Cornelius entitled “The Moment of Astrology” that helped me understand the magic and the art of astrology, and the historical precedence of such practices as horary and elective astrology and how they contradicted the causal and scientific perspective of modern astrology. I was able to more fully realize that the moment an astrological chart is cast and delineated is as important to the genius of astrological interpretation as the supposed belief in the predestination of the moment of birth. It made me understand that the interpretation of the astrological symbols is the real magic of astrology and its value, bringing it into the context of a system of divination instead of an objective science.

The same perspective can be applied to the moment of other forms of divination, such as the casting of tarot cards, the throwing of rune stones, Geomancy sticks or I-Ching coins. The action of divination sets in motion the activation of insights and the birth of guided action. There is also the moment of magic, when a magical working is started and thereby activating the celestial auspices that come into play at that moment. Becoming sensitive to the occurrence and timing of events makes a practitioner more aware that aligning one’s actions with powerful planetary and celestial auspices can maximize an operation.

However, working talismanic magic can not only use the celestial auspices, but lock them into the talismanic artifact, making them resonate and sending out their energy guided by the invoked intelligences established therein perpetually. This is why understanding the moment that something is started is the precipitating action that will make what is divined as an accessible potential possibility to be materially realized. There is no greater magic unleashed by the ritual magician to impact the material plane then these kinds of operations.

I have stated why I think that this book is so important, not only to Witches and Pagans, but likely to others as well. The methodologies and ritual patterns in the book can be adapted to any magical tradition or spiritual practice. It is why I feel that this book is one of the very best that I have written, and the fact that it took me over a year to see it completed is a statement to how much research, effort and care that I put into its writing. I cannot recommend this book more than what I have already presented here, but you should acquire and read it yourself to make your own judgement.

This book will be available in February, 2023, but you can pre-order it now.

Frater Barrabbas

Breaking Rules - My Zodiacal Magick

As you may know from my previous blog articles, I was too dim to figure out how to work planetary magick in the traditional Golden Dawn manner, so I had to invent something completely different to accomplish that end. Since I had departed quite a bit from the tradition, that left me with a conundrum to figure out - namely, how to work magick using zodiacal elements.

Let’s briefly review how I work planetary magick. It’s really simple, and it’s based on using a septagram trigon. I constructed a rectangular piece of plywood into a talismanic device with a septagram painted on it, and after charging and consecrating it, I would employ it to draw the invoking angles for a specific planet. The septagram talisman is placed in the center of the circle after an inner circle is erected in the magickal circle proper. The actual details of how this is worked can be found in my previous article, which is located here. Using this device, I had the option of using an outer invoking vortex to assist me in invoking just a planetary intelligence, or I could generate an outer element vortex, which would assist me in generating and invoking a talismanic elemental. I could also summon one of the Enochian seniors as well as employ the use of one of the Lunar Mansions.

So using the septagram (instead of the superior hexagram) allowed me to build a magickal repertoire that allowed me to work magick using the seven planets. However, I faced a more difficult task when I attempted to address the problem of working zodiacal magick. Since I had gone so far off of the beaten track, I would have to invent something completely new (or adapt something that was already being used) in order to continue to build my magickal system. I wanted to continue to use some kind of device, but I didn’t want to have to use a trigon with a duodecagram painted on it. I just wanted to come with a simple solution, and use what was already being used, although I would have to use it in a manner that might break the rules.

In addition to failing to figure out how to work with the superior hexagram ritual for doing planetary magick, I also couldn’t figure out how or even why to use the lesser hexagram ritual, but I was intrigued by the three devices that employed double triangles that were offset from each other. The fourth triangle device of this set was just a hexagram, but the other three were offset with parallel bases, touching apexes and where one triangle was penetrating the base of the other with its point. These three triangle devices were very interesting to me, and possibly useful if I wanted to use them in a manner quite different than what they were used for in the lesser hexagram ritual. Anyway, let’s put these three devices aside for a moment and look at what specifically defines an astrological sign.

If I consult the matrix of symbolic elements that define an astrological sign, I will come up with three essential qualities. These qualities consist of the base element, the quadrant house or modality, and the ruling planet. The base element consists of one of the four elements, and that can be easily expressed by the device of the invoking pentagram. The quadrant house or modality are expressed as groupings of three, such as angular, succedent and cadent for the quadrant houses, and cardinal, fixed and mutable for the modality. The ruling planet would be defined by an invoking septagram; but a corresponding device used to define the quadrant house or modality would be the three devices of the lesser hexagram. Applying these triplicities to the three devices of the lesser hexagram that don’t form a true hexagram would seem to solve the problem of how to define through a matrix the nature and quality of a sign. Keep in mind that I associate signs with the houses, which is a modern astrological adaptation. So now that we have the three devices, how would they be deployed together to formulate and generate an astrological sign.

For instance: Capricorn would have a base element of Earth, a modality of cardinal (or angular/ascendent), and a ruling planet of Saturn. To invoke Capricorn, you would need to generate the earth element, modality of cardinal and summon the ruling planet of Saturn. This logic would be applied to all twelve of the zodiacal signs.

Now we need to consider what would be required to actually formulate a ritual structure to invoke a zodiacal sign. Since the base element and the lesser hexagram structure should be joined into a single expression, I discovered that a pylon ritual device would work quite well. I would set an invoking pentagram for a specific element to the base of the pylon, and the corresponding lesser hexagram device at the apex. These two points would be drawn together into an elongated invoking spiral, thus creating the ritual device of the pylon. If four of these pylons are set to the four watchtowers and drawn together to form a magick square within a circle, then the outer energy vortex field required for the astrological sign would be established. I would then erect another vortex using the rose ankh device, and set it to the four angles and the ultra-point, drawing them together and fashioning an invoking vortex. Then I could draw a center circle, place within it the septagram talisman device, charge it, and then proceed to invoke the ruling planet. Once these elements are generated and established in the empowered magick circle, I could summon the archangel of the astrological sign.

Being able to establish the astrological matrix of a specific sign is important if other aspects of the zodiac are going to be incorporated into the magickal working. These other aspects would be the astrological decans and their associated spiritual correspondences, and the astrological quinarians, which would allow for the invocation of the 72 ha-Shem angels or the Goetic Demons. As you can see, this combination of elements makes for nice and efficient magickal system, and causes planetary magick and zodiacal magick to be tightly related.

Of course, I was not able to come up with these ideas right away, and in fact, I had to think about it and experiment for awhile before I was able to determine the final form. However, what I did discover is that the system of magick that I had invented seemed to be quite capable of being modified and extended to perform any number of different kinds of operations. I did indeed break some rules, but that only applies to traditional Golden Dawn magick, and I had passed out of that tradition rather early in my attempt to forge a system of magick that was useful and relevant to a witch who was practicing ritual magick.

Frater Barrabbas