how and why i make talismans

a brief intro to my astral magic practice

some background

I’ll keep this part as brief as possible—this is a newsletter about art and magic, but I believe it’s necessary context for understanding the space talismanic work occupies.

my talismans of fixed star Algol

There is a certain phenomenon surrounding the making of astrological talismans in that although there are a relatively small number of people producing and selling them publicly, everyone seems to have very strong opinions about it. I have plenty of thoughts about why this is, at least one of them being that it has been an extremely profitable endeavor for some, and this rubs people the wrong way. I’m not one of those for whom this is true, but neither do I begrudge those who have found a high level of success with it. Some criticisms levied are valid, others less so. More often than not, they come from people who don’t make talismans themselves or even practice magic at all. I will not be debating them. There’s always been a massive disconnect between astrologers and magicians, and not much has changed in this regard over the past decade. This disconnect leads to many misunderstandings of what talismans actually are and how they work, as well as plenty of fearmongering.

On the flip-side, people doing this work are frequently disdained by the magical community as well. Magicians tend to balk at astrology because it’s difficult to learn, and many don’t like the idea of being overly constrained by time or subject to forces out of their control. Online magicians frequently posture about how “Mercury Retrograde has no effect on them” or aggressively push back against the idea that “you must elect everything.” I largely consider this to be a straw man, as I have never held that position, nor do I know anyone else who does. At least no one who is sane. I elect when it is appropriate to do, and no more. If I’m doing a working that does not explicitly call for an election, I do not use one. When I am working within traditions that have little or no relationship to astrology, I don’t look at it at all. There’s also a perception that astrological magicians look down on other types of magic as being inferior or less advanced. This is also not true, at least in my case, though I still often encounter a level of defensiveness from other magicians who assume this about me. Learning astrology can be challenging and doing elections requires a certain level of technical proficiency, but I do it because I enjoy it, not because I think it’s superior. It’s also only one facet of my personal practice, among many.

Being a person who makes talismans forces you to exist in a strange liminal state of mild dislike and mistrust from both camps. I have come to accept this. And on some level, I get it. But it’s still weird.

With that established, I wanted to talk briefly about how I make talismans, why I make them, and how I think about them, with the general disclaimer that this is but one way among many. And beyond that, this style of practice as a whole is just one small subset of the countless ways that humans interact with the heavens magically, and have across time.

my talismans of constellation Cetus

how i came to this work

I’ve been interested in astrology for most of my life, but I didn’t start studying it seriously until around 2016 or so. I had already been practicing magic for over a decade by that time. I began studying astrological magic with Christopher Warnock around 2017 and eventually attained the title of “astrologicus magus” from him. I owe a great deal to him, as does anyone studying this art today, due to his vast contributions to the field in the form of making translations available as well as extrapolating tech from original sources into a workable system. I credit my pursuit of astrology to the late Jake Stratton-Kent, who had a habit of repeatedly espousing the unpopular idea that magicians should learn astrology. I have a number of his old facebook posts saved, including one where he claimed, “recovering Magical Astrology for our times remains one of the most important and most neglected tasks; its continued neglect erases the claims of various hierophantic pretenders.”

My practice and study of astrology has always been in service of magic, and I will always consider myself to be a magician, first and foremost.

About a year later, astrological magic exploded in popularity due to the innovative and highly successful work of a particular maker that most people are familiar with. I continued engaging with the practice privately in my own work, building relationships with stellar and planetary spirits and experimenting with different ways of engaging with astrology magically. I never had any intention of making talismans for the public or having a magical business of any sort. Over the course of about 3 years beginning in 2020, however, I experienced multiple initiatory events, one including the constellations of Corvus and Hydra that lasted several months, which led me to pursue a new art form and to begin offering my work publicly. I taught myself to electroform copper in late 2023 and then eventually lost wax casting in early 2024. I had some previous experience with lost wax in college, where I learned bronze casting at our school’s foundry. I didn’t pick it up again until years later, but I never lost my fascination with this ancient art. I also feel that making art and reclaiming the “work of the hands” in our current moment is extremely vital.

My personal definition of a talisman is simply an object that has been intentionally enspirited. There are many ways of accomplishing this, and many cultures and traditions have their methods. (For other examples of applications of this technology, I recommend the book Ensouling the Effigy by my friend Matthew Venus.) The creation of an astrological talisman, as I practice it, accomplishes this through the use of astrological timing, an image, ritual, suffumigation, and the calling of spirits into an object and pacting with them to perform a specific function. The user of a talisman can then form a relationship with these spirits through the talisman and allow them to act upon them and in their life.

Astrological timing often takes the form of a full chart election, but can be elected in other ways as well, such as lunar conjunctions with stars, planetary days and hours, heliacal rise, or other various methods. An election simply refers to an auspicious time to perform an action. I like working with full charts because I enjoy exploring the ways that math and time are extremely weird and haunted, and because I get much from the process of both finding and scrying a chart. The search for an election is part of the magic for me, and I have never had success or good results from using other people’s elections, though this is not the case for many. Each method has strengths and drawbacks, though none of them should ever preclude the need to go outside and look up.

In my creation of talismans, the actual talismanic component of the piece is a gemstone. This is the object that is engraved with an image and enspirited during an electional window. For many practitioners, this is the end of the process. This is perfectly valid. A piece of jewelry is not required for a talisman to be functional and potent, and talismans can take many forms. I choose to create a piece of jewelry to house the gemstone because art and spirit-work are the backbone of my entire life. I am not the first or only person to do this, though I can only speak to my motivations. The jewelry I make functions as both a spirit house, akin to a pot or bottle, protecting the talisman and allowing it to be worn, and also as a vehicle for visionary artwork co-created with the spirit itself. Sometimes I have an idea for what this will look like in advance, sometimes not, but I am always surprised by the ways the spirits shape and reshape things, and how I am continually shaped and reshaped in turn. I will often spend weeks or months with talismanic stones before they reveal forms or certain aspects of their nature to me. This allows me to create and maintain unique relationships with these spirits, which in turn make me a better magician and artist.

I am deeply grateful to this practice and art which continues to inspire and surprise me. If you would like to see some of my talismanic work, you can visit my site.