Crafting Beautiful, High Quality Celestial Talismans on a Budget

With a small investment you can make several ethical talismans that are high quality and lasting!

With a small investment you can make several talismans that are high quality and lasting!

When I first began my explorations in various types of magic (both folk, ancient, and astrological), I didn’t have a lot of extra cash for high quality materials. Because most talismanic and phylactery items are a “house” for a spirit, the idea that this house was made from subpar materials really bothered me.

As an animist I don’t think it’s respectful or kind to put a spirit in something that is bad quality, easily damaged, and/or temporary. I also wanted to be as environmentally mindful as possible!

Making paper or wax talismans and phylacteries didn’t seem to be an option in my mind–while at the same time I didn’t have the cash to invest in jewels (which are an ethical quagmire thanks to how they are mined) or metal clay (which is an environmentally friendly and cheaper way of making jewelry without a forge, but nonetheless requires a few hundred dollars of initial investment all the way up to a few thousand if you buy a kiln).

To overcome this, I dove deep into one of my nerdy passions: the history of art materials and methodologies. At the time I was studying the life of Leonardo Da Vinci, and while reading his diaries an egg of an idea was laid in my mind.

Inspired by Old-School Art

You see, when Da Vinci was alive paper was a rarity (very hard to create at the time) and graphite was not yet a viable drawing medium. So they typically used vellum (the skin of animals), gesso (a gritty glue-type substance), and something called silverpoint or metalpoint. Metalpoint is a type of drawing “pencil” that consists of a wire metal in a holder of some sort. Usually this wire metal is made from various grades of silver, gold, and/or copper.

This medium is still used today, though it is not very popular anymore. Instead of vellum, you can use 100% cotton watercolor paper (or if you really want to get fancy, buy some acid-free thin cut birch wood panels). Gesso is commercially available and you can mix in a substance called bone ash to create a fine grit surface. And you can buy 0.5 to 0.9 mm fine metal wire from your local Home Depot, Lowes, or a metalpoint supply store, and simply put it into a mechanical pencil holder.

The total for these materials is somewhere between $60 to $75, and will empower you to make hundreds of talismans and phylacteries that are low-cost, hold the magical charge for a long time, look beautiful, and are built to last.

Why So Much Extra Work?

Why would you go to all this trouble? Because I believe in honoring the spirits, deities, and non-human intelligences that I am in relationship and doing magic with. High quality and more permanent housing for a spirit in a talisman or phylactery is a very simple way to respect and care for the entities who’ve consented to work with you.

Acid-free archival artist quality cotton paper is so stable that it takes over 100 years for it to break down, and acid-free birch panels will last a similarly long time. Gesso further stabilizes the surface and creates a texture the metal can catch onto. And of course we’ve seen how long the metalpoint drawings of Da Vinci have lasted–other than tarnishing (which happens to all metals as they age), his drawings are still entirely intact.

This also draws on the principle that fine metal holds magical charges for a long and stable period of time. Christopher Warnock advises in his various classes and blog that silver and gold can be used for any type of celestial talisman. Copper is a close third.

Lastly, this method of magical item making is very low-impact and environmentally friendly. Cotton paper is a pretty renewable surface–you could also go with linen paper. There are recycled versions out there (such as Khadi paper). Metal wires are often made from recycled metals from castaway electronics. Bone ash is made from calcinated bones, which is a form of utilizing every part of an animal after it is butchered (which is far more honoring than what we do with industrial farming).

The only outlier is commercial gesso, which contains some form of acrylic polymer (plastic). You could avoid this by making old-school gesso, but that can be a bit cost heavy and labor intensive–plus is it really much better to use rabbit skin glue? Not sure. I choose where I want my impact to be based on what sits right for me and the spirits I work with, and what is reasonable for the time I have to spare.

Supply List

So what will you need to get started with metalpoint talisman and phylactery crafting?

• 100% cotton hot pressed watercolor paper that is at least 300gsm, in a block form. A block simply means the paper has been glued on all sides with a small slit that you can run a butter knife or palette knife into to release the paper. You want it glued down because all paper, even watercolor paper, buckles when it is wet. The glued sides help it to dry flat again with zero effort on your part. I’d also recommend going with a smoother finish such as satin or hot press. It will make it easier to draw on. Some brands of hot press/satin 100% cotton paper include Arches, Fabriano, Khadi (which is recycled and all proceeds go directly to the makers of the paper in India), Fluid 100, Stonehenge, Paul Rubens, Arteza… There’s a lot of choices! Since you’re covering the paper in gesso I would worry most about making sure it’s pretty smooth, it’s heavy weight, and it’s glued on all sides so it can dry straight again. American Supplier and European Supplier.

• Gesso — I prefer clear gesso from Liquitex. There is a silverpoint gesso from Golden, but it doesn’t take very many layers of metal and it easily damages and scratches off of the paper. So I go with normal clear gesso (metalpoint may struggle to show up against a colored background). American Supplier and European Supplier.

• Bone ash. This is going to be a very fine powder that you add to your gesso. You can usually buy this from your local pottery art materials supplier. Here’s two nice shops that gives you the real deal: American Supplier and European Supplier.

• A very soft brush such as a goat hair hake brush. You want a brush that is medium to large and very soft so it does not leave streaks when you apply the gesso. Make sure to clean it as soon as you finish your application, to keep the brush in good shape. Clean with warm water and a little bit of dish soap, then rinse thoroughly until the water runs clear. Reshape the brush and allow it to dry. American Supplier and European Supplier.

• 0.5 – 0.9 mm mechanical pencil. You can also buy a “metalpoint holder” but I find them to be heavy, cumbersome, and unnecessarily expensive. A mechanical pencil can do the job of holding the metal wire with a good deal of stability and they’re easy to find. If you’re just copying sigils, I recommend going with the 0.9 size. For full drawings, it’s a good idea to have a range of widths to get various details.

• Sterling Silver, Gold, or Copper wire in a 0.5 to 0.9 mm gauge. If you’re just drawing sigils, stick to the 0.9. For drawing, you’ll want a range of widths to get various details. I personally buy these from suppliers of metalpoint drawing materials (American Supplier and European Supplier) , rather than a home-wares stores on a spool. Twisted wire is hard to straighten out, and a 1-2 inch length of straight wire will last you for 1-2 years even if you’re drawing every single day. Also, metalpoint drawing suppliers give you a variety of metals to choose from at varying levels of purity. So you can buy 100% fine silver, sterling silver, various grades of gold, rose gold, copper, platinum, and more. Avoid tin, iron, or lead. Tin is extremely soft and does not hold its shape. Iron is prone to rust if there is ANY moisture in the air, and will break your paper down — which defeats the purpose of what we’re doing. Lead is highly toxic and can leach into your skin.

• A nail file or sanding block to give your metalpoint pencil a point.

• Various erasers to lift errant lines as you draw. I use Tombow Mono Zero erasers. It won’t totally erase the metalpoint, and you want to be careful about how hard you erase so you don’t destroy the gessoed surface; but erasing can lighten things if you have an accident and need to correct it. To reduce the possibility of making mistakes and avoid the need for erasers, I draft out my art on tracing paper first and then transfer to my final gessoed surface. I give instructions on that below.

Optional but nice:

• Tracing paper to copy sigils from Agrippa, Picatrix, etc. or to just draft out your drawing.

• HB graphite pencil to draw out your initial sketch and to also cover the back of your tracing paper when you’re ready to transfer.

• 2H graphite pencil to use for the transfer (it’s nice and hard and will work better for transferring than a soft pencil).

• Fine point micron liners (I prefer a 0.5 sakura pigma micron pen) to go over your final line work and make it easier to see on the tracing paper when you’re ready to transfer.

Preparing Your Surface

Here are the steps for preparing your paper. Anything more than 3-4 layers of gesso is unnecessary, so just stick to this:

1. Get a bowl and pour ¼ cup of gesso into it. Add 1-2 spoonfuls of bone ash to create a very fine texture. If you are making a celestial talisman, you can also finely crush dried herbal material (you only need a little bit!) with a mortar and pestle and add to your gesso mixture.

2. Wet your hake brush and then dry it so it’s only damp. Now dip lightly into the gesso. Apply the gesso with light strokes to the paper IN ONE DIRECTION. Allow it to dry until the paper is completely flat. You can also check if it’s dry by very very gently pressing the back of your hand to the paper; if it’s cool to the touch it hasn’t fully dried yet. Rinse the brush between applications. Cover your gesso bowl with a damp paper towel to keep it from drying out.

3. Once the first layer is dry, do a second layer going in the opposite direction. Wet your hake brush and then dry so it’s only damp. Lightly dip into the gesso. If your gesso is starting to dry and become tacky, add just a little bit of water. Apply the gesso in the opposite direction. Allow the layer to dry until the paper is completely flat. You can also check if it’s dry by very very gently pressing the back of your hand to the paper; if it’s cool to the touch it hasn’t fully dried yet. Rinse your brush. Cover your gesso bowl with a damp paper towel to keep it from drying out.

4. Once the second layer is dry, do a third layer going in a diagonal direction. Wet your hake brush and then dry so it’s only damp. Lightly dip into the gesso. If your gesso is starting to dry and become tacky, add just a little bit of water. Apply the gesso in ONE diagonal direction. Allow the layer to dry until the paper is completely flat. You can also check if it’s dry by very very gently pressing the back of your hand to the paper; if it’s cool to the touch it hasn’t fully dried yet. Rinse your brush. Cover your gesso bowl with a damp paper towel to keep it from drying out.

5. Once the third layer is dry, do a final layer going in the opposite diagonal direction. Wet your hake brush and then dry so it’s only damp. Lightly dip into the gesso. If your gesso is starting to dry and become tacky, add just a little bit of water. Apply the gesso in the opposite diagonal direction. Allow the layer to dry until the paper is completely flat. You can also check if it’s dry by very very gently pressing the back of your hand to the paper; if it’s cool to the touch it hasn’t fully dried yet.

6. Clean your brush and gesso bowl with warm water and some dish soap. Reform the shape of the brush and allow it to dry. These brushes last a long time if you take care of them!

7. Using a palette or butter knife, insert it into the little opening on your block of paper and carefully cut away the paper you’ve prepared on each side. Now you’re ready to use it! If you’ve made a rather large piece of paper, you can always cut it down to size for several talismans.

8. The directions are the same if you choose to use a wood panel, though you may want to lightly sand it between applications to keep the surface from getting “hairy” from wetting the wood. Some people also prepare the wood separately with a primer for this reason. I don’t have a lot of experience with this, but there are plenty of resources if you take a look around the internet.

How To Use Your Finished Surface With Metalpoint; Transferring Your Drafted Images to the Gessoed Surface

Now your substrate (surface) is prepared and ready to be used! To use it, take your metal wire and insert into the holder of your choice (such as a mechanical pencil). Make sure it’s held very tightly, as the more stable the wire is, the easier it will be to use. To give it a point when it starts to wear down, simply sand at an angle against a nail file or a sanding block.

It is a lot like drawing with a pencil, except that you can never fully erase it (though the lines can grow faint if you softly erase to pull the metal off the surface). You can’t really “blend” as you would with graphite, but instead build up tone with layers of hatching.

This is why I recommend first sketching out what you want to create on tracing paper using an HB pencil and eraser (you can also just copy the sigils directly from Agrippa, Picatrix, Christopher Warnock’s books, etc.). Go back over the final drawing with the micron pen so it’s easy to see and it’s permanent. Then cover the back of the tracing paper with HB graphite (a graphite block is handy for this, but a pencil can do the job). Place that tracing paper with the graphite covered side down on top of your gessoed paper. Then use a harder pencil such as a 2H to go back over the pen lines and faintly transfer the image to your gessoed paper. Now you can go back over this and fully render it with your metalpoint pencil.

OPERATION TIMING AND DEVOTIONAL WORKS

If you know anything about astrological magic in particular, you know that an election window can be quite small. I rarely start and then complete a metalpoint project within the tiny window of the election. So there are a couple of ways around this and different magicians will have different opinions about this. I say ask the spirits that you’re in relationship with what they prefer. Here’s my working method:

1. Well before the election I prepare my gessoed surface (usually with the appropriate crushed herb mixed into the gesso). I also will draft out my drawing or sigil on tracing paper, as I described above, and transfer it to my dried gessoed surface.

2. Well before the election, during an appropriate planetary hour I’ll work on the drawing over several days or weeks. This is a beautiful way to meditatively deepen your relationship with the celestial spirit you’re working with. I like to put on lectures or history about the planetary body and celestial spirit as I am doing the work, so I can sink deeper into understanding the spirit. This is a beautiful act of connection and devotion. I draw up to 97% of my artwork previous to the election so it’s ready to go for my invocation and consecration window.

3. However, if you’re just doing the sigil you could wait for up until just the day before your election, and at the right planetary hour draw 90% of your sigil so it’s ready for your election window. This is especially handy when you are doing multiple talismans at a time.

4. During the actual magical election time window I finish the last part of the drawing or sigil, and I invoke the spirit and consecrate the talismanic object. Then I allow it to incubate in a dark (non-sunny) place for a full moon cycle (sometimes longer, depending on the operation).

5. Sometimes I don’t get a chance to get the drawing close to finished before the election. In that case, I prioritize having the sigil on the paper and finished during the election so it can be invoked and consecrated. I allow it to incubate for a full moon cycle. Then I continue to work on the art at the appropriate planetary hour, until it is finished.

The Result

(Sorry guys, I won’t be showing you what I’ve done as it’s a part of my devotion to keep most of my workings private.)

The finish of metalpoint looks a lot like a pencil but with a high lustrous shine when you move the paper. Over time it will tarnish into something beautiful. Silver turns a golden-gray color, Gold turns quite dark, and Copper creates that famous greenish patina. This is beautiful to watch and is just a natural part of the metal aging and oxidizing. As I stated earlier, drawings made from metalpoint have lasted for hundreds of years!

The best part of working your magical craft like this, is that once you buy these initial supplies you can make several talismans. So instead of buying one decent quality stone (which was probably mined in seriously unethical ways) and a metal setting for $75+, you can create multiple talismans, phylacteries, and devotional art works with beautiful fine art materials. It lasts a long time, it’s a meditative and devotional act to the spirit you’re working with, and it holds the charge better than a plain paper or wax talisman because you’re using fine metals.

If you decide to give this a try let me know on my Instagram! I love to hear how people are putting respectful craft back into their magic!

2023 - 2024 free Devotional and Veneration Resources

Acknowledging and growing closer to our stellar ancestors is one of the most nourishing, enlightening, and clarifying practices we can begin at any given time. It is never too late, nor is what you bring too little.

Whether you're new or well-seasoned in your celestial devotional practice, I wanted to make my personal basic process available as an open resource for those who wish to start or deepen relationships with the fixed stars and/or planets.

You can now download these resources in my shop as free pdfs.

This process is a contemporary and simplified method of veneration (devotional relationship building) that is based off of historical practices in the stellar art. The modifications I've made are based on my own many-years-long practice and relationships with the fixed stars and planets, as well as designed for someone with a modern schedule.

Many people mistake complexity for depth or even artfulness. However, for most of us, making things complicated only leads to inconsistency and eventually abandonment of a practice.

The most important thing to remember in any relationship is sincerity and consistency. A candle, basic incense, and water goes a long way when your heart is in the right place, when you say prayers with fervency, when you show up and stay present in the moment. Doing this once a month with complete presence is a greater offering than giving gold ten times a month while distracted and inattentive.

There are mysteries inherent to learning the artfulness of simplicity, as well as going as deep as you can with the most basic of tools. A master martial artist doesn't need to know every complicated move--they just need complete mastery over the basics to be a champion.

This same principle applies to any esoteric or occult study or practice. Your relationships with stellar beings will grow based on how deeply in love you are with getting to know even the most simple things related to them--including how you approach your devotion with them.

Start with where you are, with what you have. I promise it is enough.

PRE-CONTACT ASSESSMENT

This spread was created for anyone who is nervous or has doubts in regards to starting a relationship with a fixed star or planet.

Relationships should always move at the speed of trust. A great first step is to pre-emptively ask the star/planet a few questions about itself and the outcome that may unfold from starting a relationship with them.

You can use this spread with tarot or oracle cards, and you could even modify the questions for use with a pendulum, dice, or throwing of bones.

Only move forward with creating a devotional relationship if you feel capable and ready to undergo the experience that is being described when using this spread!

THE CELESTIAL BRIDGE

This spread was created to help someone have a first-time conversation during a devotional session with a fixed star or planet. (For more on how to have a basic devotional session, I have detailed step-by-step documents in the next 2 sections of this article).

Everyone likes being known and feeling interesting to the person making contact with them. In fact, I'd argue that is just a basic level of respect in any conversation. This is doubly important when we are making contact with celestial more-than-human spirits.

When I designed this spread I kept this motif in mind--that for a satisfying spiritual relationship, there must be reciprocal expressed and demonstrated interest, as well as an idea of where things will go in that relationship. Healthy commitment is foundational to feeling safe in any relationship, and that includes feeling that a relationship is going somewhere, at least in a broad sense.

You can use this spread with tarot or oracle cards, and you could even modify the questions for use with a pendulum, dice, or throwing of bones.

Basic Fixed Star Devotional Relationship Building (Veneration) Practice

Fixed stars are, in one sense, easier to start relationships with because of their inherently broad and less-defined nature (compared to planets). However, this can also intimidate those who are just starting out who want very precise instructions.

I've done my very best to lay out a basic practice that takes out 70% of the guess work. Because there are almost 100 stars that are visible to the naked eye, there is no way I could sit and come up with correspondent stones, foods, or plants for each and ever one of them. In fact, the way I do that in my own practice is based on a long personal relationship with a star and lots of communication via divination, dreams, and sudden insights gained from research and connection making.

The only way to do this for yourself, is to start the relationship with simplicity (a glass of water, basic incense, the set Orphic Hymn to the stars), and let that relationship blossom and unfold over time.

I wrote this (free) guide with exactly that in mind: a very basic, accessible framework that can be done anywhere with very easy/basic timing--and you can build on and modify it as your relationship grows.

Basic Planetary Devotional Relationship Building (Veneration) Practice

Planets, in one sense, are more complicated than stars. There are planetary days, nights, and hours, as well as very precise planetary correspondences to stones, plants, foods, and incense. I've made sure that you are given a basic overview of these concepts in this guide.

However, I want to encourage you to start slow and simple. It's okay to set up temporary altars. It's okay to have a practice with the planetary day or night when it works for your schedule. It's okay if you only give them water, incense, and a prayer. The more important thing, as I said above, is your sincerity and consistency!

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Don't let dogma be the enemy of starting a fulfilling and personal relationship with the night sky!

Acknowledging and growing closer to our stellar ancestors is one of the most nourishing, enlightening, and clarifying practices we can begin at any given time. It is never too late, nor is what you bring too little. They simply require your presence and desire to connect--and I hope these guides and divination spreads help motivate you to give it a try!

Finding Your Fixed Stars & Basic Interpretive Principles

With all the information about fixed stars floating around, you may be wondering how to find your star parans chart for yourself? A tutorial on finding your fixed stars and basic interpretive principles.

As I’ve written in my monster article on how to learn about the fixed stars, the first astrology of most cultures was based on the Moon and the fixed stars–including the idea that the planets were wandering stars.

Before we began to notice the planetary cycles, most cultures around the world put a lot more emphasis on Moon cycles and phases, as well as the cycles and phases of stars. This is apparent in many megalithic monuments, burial chambers, sacred sites, temples, and even the pyramids.

Fixed stars were seen as Gods by many cultures, and their mythology is wrapped up in the movement of the stars (this is true in the mythology and cosmology of Ireland, Egypt, various Balkan countries, Australia, Peru, many Native American tribes, and so many more).

The earliest calendars were set to the movement of the Moon and the Stars, and the Egyptians had the first ever measurement of time at night that utilized the Stars.

In the West, particularly the Greek and Roman empires, the stars took a backseat after the discovery and mapping of planetary cycles became the main focus of time keeping and astrological divination. (This was in part because of precession, which is our view of the sky here on earth changing by 1 degree every 72 years due to the wobble and tilt of the earth rotating on its axis.)

Sadly, this loss was deep… As society developed more technology and tools it became less necessary to actually go out and look at the sky, let alone have a working relationship with the sky.

It’s also been a big loss for personal astrology, as even in the Neoplatonic schema of divinity, the fixed stars were the sphere closest to Unity, the most divine principle, and often completely alter a person’s lived experience compared to what they find in their planetary birth chart.

Thankfully there’s been a real renaissance of the Fixed Stars in recent years, which I’ve been honored to be a part of. A reconnection with the night sky beyond a chart that you look at on a screen regrounds you into a sense of place, an embodiment of the celestial influences in your own life, and the enchantment that is an inherent animating force of this world.

With all the information about stars floating around, you may be wondering how to find your star parans chart for yourself?

Below I give a quick photo tutorial using the free tool on Astro.com and then go into basic interpretive principles.

(If you want a VERY basic primer on the difference between parans vs. conjunctions, please head to my Coming Into Relation With the Fixed Stars article.)

Note: what you find on Astro.com will slightly differ from the chart you get from Starlight, the best (but pricey) fixed star software for reading parans charts. Their settings are slightly different, but both are worth looking at.

FINDING YOUR FIXED STAR PARANS CHART FOR FREE

Go to astro.com and click "Free Horoscopes"

Scroll down, find, and select "All At A Glance"

Select "Extended Chart Selection"

If you do not have an account with Astro.com you will need to enter your personal information and name. Please note that this will not save after you exit the window. If you want it to save, you need to sign up for a free account.

Once your birth information is filled out and you return to the main "Extended Chart Selection" screen, you need to go select the "Special" tab.

In the "Special" tab you need to click on the drop down that says "Transit Calendars"

In the dropdown select "Parans According to Bernadette Brady, PDF" and then click on "Show the Chart," which will generate a PDF.

The first page of the PDF is going to give you the general information of your traditional chart. Ignore that page and scroll down.

The second page of the PDF will give you a list of your fixed star parans, arranged into categories by the phase of the star. These are your natal (birth) star parans.

How do you interpret your fixed star parans?

You’ll notice that your star parans are vastly different than the conjunctions in your chart, and it may even seem like you’re reading a foreign language.

I’m not going to go into the super technical details of how parans are measured (that is an entire class by itself, which is taught by Dr. Bernadette Brady).

Instead I’m going to focus on interpretive principles and the way that I have come to understand reading the stars after reading over 1,400 client charts.

The Heliacal Rising Star is what I call the title of your life’s screenplay. It gives us an overall idea of how you approach the trajectory of your life, much like your rising sign in a traditional astrological chart (which is likely an idea based on the Heliacal Rising Stars the Egyptians were originally very focused on). You embody the attitude and often the attributes of this star.

The Heliacal Setting Star is the overall mission or theme of your life’s screenplay. It’s the wisdom you’ll come to embody as you move through life and gain experience. You’ll especially begin to feel the very loud call of the Heliacal Setting Star after your first Saturn Return, as it will drive your attention to a specific theme/idea.

Some people (not everyone) also have stars that travel with the horizon or meridian, and these will give us an additional note of tone in regards to the way that specific angle is expressed throughout life, as well as a special emphasis on that angle throughout the life.

So to put these three together using a movie as an example… Thor: Ragnorak is the title of a movie that denotes a mythological hero trying to stop the end of the world. Yet, the theme of the movie is someone who must learn that leadership is about more than just being the strongest and most famous/popular person in the room. The tone that the story is told through is the lens of very quirky action-comedy.

The different categories of the parans give us a 3 act screenplay structure with a backstory.

The planets in these relationships are altered by their angular contact with the stars, expressing themselves and carrying out their various responsibilities (as seen in your traditional astrology chart) utilizing the tools as well as the stories of the stars that have domain in that relationship.

For example, Mars in a paran with Sirius may show serious athletic acuity to the point of becoming well known for that physical gift. However, the rapid rise to eminence could cause this person to become emotionally burned from the preferential treatment and attention, as Sirius was known as The Scorcher for a reason. Like the story of Isis and Osiris, this person may need to go through an underworld initiation of losing their direction in life in order to redefine what success means and how it is measured in their life, so that they do not lose themselves in the future.

Rising Stars of Youth are the stars in rising parans, angular relationships to different planets. These stars are the main players in the first act of the play. In more practical terms, these stars are prominently active in your life from the time you are born until your first Saturn Return (between the age of 27 and 31).

Culminating Stars of Prime are in culminating parans, angular relationships to different planets. These stars are the main players in the second act of the play. In more practical terms, these stars are prominently active in your life from after your first Saturn Return (between the age of 27 and 31) until your second Saturn Return (between the age of 56 and 60).

Setting Stars of Latter Years are in descending parans, angular relationships to different planets. These stars are the main players in the third act of the play. In more practical terms, these stars are prominently active in your life from after your second Saturn Return (between the age of 56 and 60) until your third Saturn Return (between the age of 85 and 90).

The Hearthstone Stars of the Lower Culmination are nadir parans, angular relationships to different planets. Most of us will not activate these directly in our lifetime, as we would have to be in our 90s for that to happen. I consider this to be the backstory of your play, the heritage, ancestry, your upbringing and your reaction/response to it that informs a lot of your motivations and inherent approach to certain aspects in life. Therefore, these stars are with you for your entire life, quietly running in the background with their gifts and challenges.

Again, using the example of Mars in a paran with Sirius, the time period of life where this relationship takes precedence will be determined by the phase of the star. So if Sirius were rising, this paran would be most active from the time that someone was born until their first Saturn Return (age 27 to 30). If it were down in the hearthstone area of the chart, this relationship would take precedence their entire life–perhaps even an ancestral gift with the responsibility of learning how to steward so much ability with a tempered approach to success and how one gains self-esteem outside of accomplishment and notoriety.

In addition to the general time periods, stars can also be activated via planetary profections, and become a cameo or guest star for a year. Much like Seinfeld is the main character of the show, we often get a cameo such as the Soup Guy for an episode or two–that is what it is like to have stars become activated temporarily. (If you want to learn about profections, I recommend this article from Kelly Surtees, and this in-depth video from the Astrology Podcast.)

As an example, when you enter a profection year where Mars is the Lord of the Year, all of the parans in your chart that are with Mars (regardless of their general timing period) will become prominent actors in your life for the year.

Edit: The first person to have presented publicly about the idea of stars being additional Time Lords utilizing the profections technique was certainly Oscar Moises Diaz, and he has very generously made his research and presentation on the topic available for anyone to watch on Youtube. I apologize to Oscar if he felt in any way that he was uncredited for his personal research on the topic.

But... How do I interpret these combinations?

Is this complex? Yes! Especially when you factor in the number of stars (Brady uses 64, but there are many more than that) and their many different combinations with the planets. That’s why there are entire intensive classes to learn this technique!

However, I hope this gives a general idea of how to find your stars and the framework for how to interpret them. It is far beyond the scope of an article to go into how to interpret individual star-planet combinations.

For those who are going to try to use the internet as a resource to learn about individual stars, let me caution:  

When researching fixed stars, it's a good idea to take ancient prognostications with a grain of salt, as historically they tend toward the more extreme versions of what the star could do. Also, in astrological magic usually the negative connotations get reversed into assets, such as the Pleiades causing blindness (mundane prognostication) becoming magically supportive for having insights or finding hidden information.

I've written a blog entry with detailed and well-vetted resources to check out:

https://www.amayarourke.com/writings/coming-into-relation-with-the-fixed-stars-where-to-learn

IF I COULD HAVE ONLY ONE SET OF BOOKS ON STARS, IT WOULD BE THE BOOKS BY DIANA ROSENBERG.

Secrets of the Ancient Skies volumes 1 & 2 are available here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Secrets-of-the-Ancient-Skies-Volumes-1-2-/180895447763

Coming Into Relation With the Fixed Stars: Where to Learn

I believe one of the foundational pieces of astrology, the ENTIRE night sky (not just the narrow band of the ecliptic, the pathway of the Sun), has been forsaken in our reconstruction of ancient astrology.

A boat sailing on an endless ocean towards a light up horizon of stars and clouds.

Before there was the astrology that we know and practice today, in almost every culture worldwide there was STAR veneration.

And in fact, predating even Babylonian planetary astrology, most of the cultures in the Mediterranean area had star cults. Many of them worshiped circumpolar stars as fertility deities.

The Egyptian goddess of the night sky, Nut, the primordial womb of the Gods.

The Egyptians were far more focused on the fixed stars as they believed their Sun God died every night and had to travel through the stations of the womb of his mother, Nut the cosmic sky and star goddess. They believed they needed to know which Gods to venerate (determined by the heliacal rising star, and then eventually the heliacally culminating star, at that time), to ensure that the Sun would be reborn each day. After all, if he wasn’t reborn the world would perish. So they created a calendar called the Decans, to know which God or Goddess to pray to every 10 days (this is very different from the Decans used in Hellenistic astrology). They also invented the first ever method for telling time at night!

This is to say, I believe one of the foundational pieces of astrology, the ENTIRE night sky (not just the narrow band of the ecliptic, the pathway of the Sun), has been forsaken in our reconstruction of ancient astrology.

Projection: the Truth of Conjunctions

What we typically use today in popular astrology are star conjunctions. In most cases, if you try to find a star that is supposedly in conjunction in your chart, you will be baffled to discover it is nowhere close to the sign it supposedly occupies. That is because we project stars back onto the ecliptic to get the conjunctions we use in a flat 2 dimensional chart that is limited to the ecliptic.

See that tiny pink line on the astrolabe? That’s the ecliptic that we base our astrology on (it's where the zodiac is fixed). As you can see there is a HUGE sky that is never paid mind in today’s reconstruction of ancient astrology. Instead, we take stars that are very far away from the ecliptic, and project them back onto the ecliptic to create conjunctions.

Star parans (short for parantellonta) are essentially the angular relationship of stars and planets in their various phases (rising, culminating, setting, anti-culminating)–and most importantly WHERE THEY ARE ACTUALLY LOCATED IN THE SKY. The practice of parans allows you to engage with a living sky that you can observe in your daily life, not just on a piece of paper or through some software. It brings us back to the sacred personal relationship that humans historically had with the cosmos.

In fact, what drew me to learn parans was an incident in which I was trying to locate a star that one of my planets is conjoined in my Hellenistic natal chart. I went out on a crisp evening sky in the Czech Republic, an area with very little light pollution.

As I realized there was a word for my spiritual beliefs–animism–it became important to me that the astrology I practiced allowed me to have an honest relationship with the living cosmos.

The entire Milky Way was laid out above the forest line. Using an app on my phone I searched for where I assumed this star should be located along the ecliptic… and it was nowhere to be found. I became instantly befuddled. I thought ancient astrology was about what was visible? Where was this star? As it turned out, on the opposite side of the sky nowhere close to the ecliptic. What was going on?

Hellenistic astrology, while it addressed the observation of the visible 7 planets as they traveled along the path of the ecliptic, did not accurately address the stars. Thus began my journey into fixed stars and unraveling one of the oldest traditions of nearly every single culture worldwide.

If you’ve had one of my (now retired) Fixed Star readings and you’re trying to learn more about stars, or if you’re an astrologer looking to branch out and add fixed stars and their accurate location and phases to your practice, I’ve made this study guide for you.

Context is King

First, it’s important to note that astrological prognostications from ANY place in the world is going to be deeply influenced by their cultural norms and the context of the times they lived in.

For example, as the Mediterranean became more Romanized, you see that almost every star deemed as feminine has something nasty connected with it. The Pleiades are said to cause blindness. Why? Because they are 7 beautiful sisters that can incite lust.

Another commonality is that the myths around the stars are allegories for the history of a country (some will argue that myths were only used in a mystery school context, but that is simply not true as the myths were circulated far beyond the tiny confines of a select mystery school). For example, the myth of the fixed star Algol was actually an allegory for the Greeks conquering a part of Libya (Lake Tritonus according to a Pausanian description of events) that worshiped a fertility creatrix, a goddess that had snakes for hair. And even the idea that the head of Medusa could be used for protection was an allegory for how the Greeks turned that North African country into a defensive line for their empire, protecting them from invaders.

The Egyptians claimed the circumpolar stars (stars that from our view circle the upper culmination of the sky and never helically rise or set) was the realm of the immortals–Gods that did not care about human life because they were too distant from it, and could therefore not understand our plight. That is because the cultures previous to the Egyptians had worshiped circumpolar stars as fertility deities, and in true imperial fashion the Egyptians were like, “Not those gods!” and refocused their citizens on the cosmology of their choice.

This is all to come to 3 points:

A. It’s a good idea to take the old myths and prognostications of the stars with a grain of salt. Try to think about the context of that culture and time. If you see something such as, “You’ll be stabbed in the gut and robbed, dying alone,” think about the time that it was written. If you were a person of means during that time period (which were the people most privileged to receive personal astrological guidance), it was not unreasonable to assume this could happen. But today that is not as likely to happen, and even if this did happen–you would be unlikely to die because of how advanced our medical care is. Context is really key here.

B. Look to more than one culture and several real-life examples for the stars. Round out your education with more than one perspective. You’ll be surprised to learn that the parans method of star observation was actually common in several different cultures that had (to our knowledge) never been in contact with one another. For example, the Incas were making prognostications with the helical rise, culmination, and setting of the stars and planets just like the Egyptians. But their cosmologies are vastly different, and therefore the meanings assigned to the fixed stars are also vastly different. This helps us to get a better sense of the complexity of the living stars, which brings me to my next point…

C. In the Neo-platonic scheme of divinity, the Greeks considered the stars to be a higher form of divinity only “beneath” the sphere of Unity (which isn’t really a sphere but for the purposes of this article we’ll consider it that). I agree with this. They are complex and living, and therefore much more than we can usually reasonably grasp. In various mystery religions worldwide it has been said to see the face of God in it’s totality would melt the meat right off your bones. I believe this is a metaphor for the complexity of various deities. And this applies to stars, in my book. So the various different meanings assigned to the stars around the world is telling of how one culture encountered that star, and gives us a fuller picture of it’s complex beauty.

My final word before I get into the study guide, is to be cautious in talking about the stars in terms of being like a planet. This was done retro-actively by the Greeks and Romans to describe the stars… but they are much bigger than just being the “nature of Saturn and Venus” for example. It’s my personal reasoning that they did this BECAUSE the stars were so complex and had such a profound impact when in contact with various parts of the chart, that this was the only way they could grasp at their meaning. But in my experience as a parans astrologer and astrological mage, the stars are far bigger than a super limited planetary description. Remember that the Neo-platonic scheme underlying the philosophy of Hellenistic astrology stated that the fixed stars were a higher form of divinity–and that was because of their consistency compared to the erratic movements of the planets.

THE ESSENTIAL FIXED STAR STUDY GUIDE

Dr. Bernadette Brady’s lectures

If you’re serious about learning how to do parans, skip books for now and go directly for Dr. Bernadette Brady’s lectures. They are engaging, give oodles of history behind the practice, and she goes deep into the philosophy and thinking behind parans, not to mention the actual mythology of the stars themselves. These lectures teach you to READ the stars for clients (or yourself). Make sure you get the COMPLETE set of lectures.

Diana Rosenberg’s books

If I could only have one set of book sin my library about the fixed stars, Secrets of the Ancient Skies Volume 1 and Volume 2 would be it. Secrets of the Ancient Skies are a pair of books that are ENCYCLOPEDIC. Diana finished these books while she underwent treatment for cancer, and this was her swan song project, which we are so blessed to have today. She differs in her technical star methods from Brady (she uses projected ecliptic conjunctions rather than parans), but the books are so dense with information, mythology, alternative sources to check out, and case studies that they’re indispensable in my library.

Gray Crawford's Patreon (joined by his partner Genie)

If you want an inspirited yet historical education of the fixed stars within the tradition of Western astrology, Gray and Genie have begun to give webinars for the heliacal rising dates of stars. Their classes span the historical Gods and Goddesses and natural events connected with the fixed stars across the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, and Roman mythologies and cultures.  This is a great way to learn an in-depth foundation in fixed star lore for your magical and devotional activities.

Dr. Bernadette Brady’s books

These will not teach you how to read the stars for clients (or yourself) but they are excellent reference material to have on hand. She has selected 67 stars to cover with depth, and gives you the technical instructions for reading star charts and determining phases. If you’re an enthusiast, I’d go for Star and Planet Combinations. If you want to go into deeper technicalities, I’d go for Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars.

Austin Coppock’s 36 Faces

Hopefully we’ll see a 2nd edition of this book in the future (it’s been promised since 2020 by the never-on-time and never-gives-accurate-updates Three Hands Press). While it’s not particularly about the fixed stars, it goes into detail about the Decans the Egyptians created (as well as some additional history), which really helped some things click for my own practice.

Aleksander Imsiragic’s book

Pillars of Destiny is a great book, but again VERY DIFFERENT from how Brady’s technical methods of interpreting stars. I found the clarity of how he talks about the stars and his method of interpretation to be a good addition to my practice that seemed to bridge the Hellenistic techniques I already use with the star parans in a more cohesive manner. I do not agree with this assessment that stars are disposited by the signs and the planets, as in the Neo-platonic schema of divinity the fixed stars lent their images to the zodiac and are above (not below) the planets. However, some of what he offers in terms of simplifying the myths and how they are translated into use for readings is worthy of consideration.

Star Lore by William Tyler Olcott

A good reference to have on hand, digging specifically into collected star lore. Obviously there is more of a bias towards the Greek and Roman interpretations and myths, as they were most readily available to the author at the time of his writing.

Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning by Richard Hinckley Allen

Update: after having referenced this book for several years, I need to downgrade this to a mediocre resource. There are many claims in here that are a-historical, with no evidence to back them up. I suggest that whatever information you collect from this resource is then back-checked against other resources. This is especially important in regards to non-Egyptian, Greek, or Roman mythologies or asterisms, as often things are made up or poorly translated.

Academia.edu and JSTOR

As my practice has gone further into researching the origins of the stars and their various mythological roots, I have utilized academic papers more and more over time. It's particularly helpful to look for articles on archeoastrology, and in fact there are a few archeoastrology journals out there, but they aren't the easiest to access or find. Places like Academia.edu and JSTOR often have articles from those journals. Utilizing just a free account I've accessed hundreds of papers on star lore, ancient astronomy, and stellar myths across many different cultures and time periods. This has greatly deepened my understanding of the stars and the multitudinous heritage they each contain.

Babylonian Star-Lore by Gavin White

Go deeper than the Egyptians and discover how much of an impact the Babylonian tradition had on EVERY form of astrology, starting from their star lore. For the already practicing traditional astrologer, this book will blow your mind.

Myths from Mesopotamia by Stephanie Dalley

This book is an almost must-have companion to Babylonian Star-Lore, as it gives additional context to the star interpretations of the Babylonians. Remember: interpretation is a reflection of culture and circumstance!

Magical Perspectives

You’ll find that the magic practices that emerged from Arabic and Western Mediterranean countries often fly in the face of the classic prognostications that were given to the stars. Which is why I believe it’s helpful to have a copy of the Picatrix and Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy (for the far less affordable but updated translation, check out Eric Purdue's recent work) in your library. Both are dense, but they offer yet another perspective about the power and meaning of the stars that will help balance some of the more dire interpretations when not related to magic. (For example, in astrological magic instead of making you blind the Pleiades actually help you find occult and hidden information and help you have communications with spirits and the dead.) There are also a ton of references to various stars in the Greek Magical Papyri, but not very much context.

Philosophy and Belief

One thing most of these books lack, are the philosophy that underpinned a lot of ancient Meditteranean myths, but especially the Greeks and Romans. Hamlet’s Mill by Giorgio De Santillana and Hertha Von Dechend and Meaning and Being in Myth by Norman Austin fill in a ton of gaps and prove just how spiritual astrology has always been, and why we need to reconnect to that relationship with the divine.

Advanced Resources

I encourage you to go beyond the Mediterranean into other parts of the world after you get a firm base of technique under your belt.

There are countless other classes and books out there. In fact, I just purchased a nearly 300 page book on just the worldwide star-lore of the Pleiades (which will not go on this list simply because it’s so specific and niche).

There are books on Chinese and Arabic star lore (hard to find, but definitely out there), as well as Aboriginal, Native American, Inca, Mayan, and Central and South American star-lore… And from what I understand soon we’ll also have more books translated from Russian, Eastern European, and Baltic countries at some point in the future to add to our bank of star meanings.

(I’m super hesitant to comment on the British Isles, since most of the indigenous people there did not have written traditions so much of what is being produced at this time is mostly speculation; I’m a stickler for historic accuracy if we’re going to claim something is old.)

Enjoy Your Cosmic Journey!

I hope this helps you start your journey in learning more about the ENTIRE night sky. And if nothing else, pick up a good star gazing app and go look at the stars. We live in a wondrous world, and we’re quick to forget that when we’re inside our little gilded cages staring into a screen all the time.

May the light of the stars guide your studies!