Year: 2019

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A Guide to Dead and Ancestral Worship, Altars, Offerings, and Ritual

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On October 7th, 2024 we received a message in our support portal:

i noticed Your “A Guide to Dead and Ancestral Worship, Altars Offerings, and Ritual” needs to add credit where it is due. Most of this post is from a book called “A guide to the Witches’ Season of the Dead” by Taren S

Having never heard of it before, I began to research. The “book” was self-published on September 26th, 2020, while this article — my original article — was published almost a year earlier, on October 29th, 2019 (according to Google’s index).

 

The back cover alone has directly plagiarized the search engine blurb (part of a longer paragraph in the intro), with a tell-tale copy and pasting error leftover from deleting a few words in the middle (the “by” should have also been deleted).

“Relations can be BY immediate bloodline, which are Ancestral, or they can be chosen…”

When I went to look at a sample of the book on Amazon, at least half of what was previewed was just a direct lift from the article.

This is extraordinarily disappointing given a video the “author” put out recently regarding (drumroll!) fake books and plagiarism in the witchcraft community.

Needless to say, I agree with Taren S!
(whose motto is “celebrating, honoring, respecting”, by the way!)

Plagiarism is a huge issue in today’s climate.
May she remove the book and issue a public apology
(that credits her sources… update below!).

UPDATE APRIL 27, 2025:

On October 29th, following a deluge of negative reviews on the book and comments on her social media and YouTube about this (which have all been deleted), Taren published a video titled “I REALLY Messed Up Public Apology“, in which she again did not cite her source.

She claimed she reached out and I never responded to her, which is at best half true, sort of, but not really.

I had not yet had time to respond to her original email (less than one day), before she placed an order and tried to infiltrate my Client Community under an alias, Ashianna Blue / Smith (which I immediately flagged as a an associate of hers, having visited her blog the day before).

[below is a more recent screenshot of the name, taken when this update was written on April 27th, 2025]

We know this is an alias of Taren’s because all activity under both names happened through the exact same IP address in short order. In addition to the fact that this “person” has zero footprint outside of Taren’s umbrella.

She wanted to infiltrate our Client Community to see what my camp was talking about in the midst of this drama.

I refunded her order with a note as to why, and she replied, creating a support ticket:

It was here, under the alias of “Ashianna Blue” that I responded to and spoke to Taren.

Because this woman is clearly a liar, she is alleging we never spoke / I never replied, but that is a technicality at best.

The truth is, she does not want her followers knowing the extent of her plagiarism, since she is billing the situation as an “oversight”, and because her wrongdoings have been so thoroughly documented here, at the top of the article she would need to direct them toward.

If she were truly sorry, she would not be deleting comments from people who know the truth. She would remediate the situation correctly and be done with it.

The book remains for sale, now without preview text. It is still listed at 54 pages, which if true, means she has not edited out my work, and continues profiting from the sale of it.

Though I doubt very much I am the only person Taren / “Ashianna” has stolen from. Their books are very likely full of all kinds of plagiarized content and AI garbage, which is also plagiarism, just remixed by robots. She really did straight up just… tell on herself.

So anyway. Why pay for what you can get below for free?

Onward and upward…

 

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This was posted to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on October 30th, 2018. It was updated and re-circulated October 27th, 2019.

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My earliest brushes with the paranormal were all oriented around the dead — seeing them, hearing them, being scared the shit out of by them. I was in my mid 20s by the time I overcame the residual trauma of those childhood experiences and was able to begin working with that class of spirits, including ancestors, and it changed absolutely everything.

“The dead” are, obviously, the spirits of deceased human beings, which are fantastic repositories of knowledge and power, especially those we’re related to. Relations can be by immediate bloodline, which are ancestral, or they can be chosen by personal sympathy, occupation, practice, art, or interest.

Why honor our ancestors?

On a primal level, no one is more invested in our health, success, and wellbeing than family, especially the lineage of those who directly birthed or seeded us. Our mother and father, their parents, their parents, and so on. Great sacrifice goes into having a baby and rearing a child — living, breathing extensions of yourself, and vehicles for legacy, genetic and otherwise. Investment in descendants and family is but one natural manifestation of self-interest and egotism, outside of unconditional love and biological values, and those instincts are carried on in death, sometimes even moreso than in life.

Consider it from the perspective of grandparents, who are famous for doting on their grandchildren — spoiling and loving them unconditionally, regardless of whether the grandkids themselves seem to care or appreciate it! Maybe these same grandparents weren’t even the best parents to their own kids, but as generations and immediate care taking duties become farther removed, the love they have for their offspring becomes distilled and more pronounced, less muddied by the stressors of everyday life or the the chaffing of personalities.

Ancestral grandparents are just as excited to pay attention to the goings on of our lives and dote on us from the other side, and will, just like most living grandparents, have a disproportionately generous reaction to their descendants checking in on them.

Familial Trauma and Unsavory Relations

Let us now take a brief intermission to acknowledge that we live in times of unprecedented familial fracturing, and that elective or forced immigration, even from generations ago, very often results in ancestral disconnection and trauma. This is especially true in the case of cultural conversion and religious oppression, where ancestral customs are lost and our families are no longer in contact with their native lands or burial sites.

America in particular is a melting pot of familial trauma and displacement. Early immigrants were usually making the choice to leave their families and never see them again. And those were the lucky ones — people who had a choice, unlike the many Natives who were exterminated or uprooted, or Africans who were ripped from their homelands and forced into the slave trade.

This is one of the reasons why doing ancestral work is particularly important for Americans and other immigrated families, who are some of the least likely to be engaged in such a practice. Outside of the magical benefits of ancestral veneration, it can be a method of healing intergenerational wounds that live on in our bodies and psyches, which can have all kinds of adverse effects on our health, relationships, and even ability to function.

We must also acknowledge that an aspect of ancestral disconnection stems from relatives being abusive assholes, and old hurts and resentments tied to our lived experiences with them, wounds still being suffered, baneful memories or circumstances still affecting our lives. If circumstances like these apply to you, as someone who relates, I am deeply sorry for your suffering.

It need not keep you from doing ancestral devotions, however. While the family closet may be host to some bad egg skeletons, I promise that you have many generations of ancestors, known or unknown, who love and want to help you.

There are two approaches to handling unsavory relatives in an ancestral practice —

  1. Use carefully worded invocations so as not to include them in your venerations or offerings. My ritual structure below fits this criteria. Just as in real life, you decide who gets to break bread at your table. Do not put icons, ashes, or images of those relatives on your altar.
  2. Do intentional work with the problematic ancestor, to heal that trauma within yourself and within their spirit from beyond the grave. This type of work can be intense and would necessitate its own dedicated piece, so we won’t go further into it here, but know that it is an option, and the work of Dr. Daniel Foor is a great place to start.

What are the benefits of ancestral offerings or working with the dead?
How often should I do it?

A regular offering practice for your ancestors will make life run more smoothly overall. Well fed, well intended dead will do you unsolicited favors, such as — keep bad things from happening, protect your own offspring, the rest of your family, and home from harm, act as wards, communicate important things through dream or omen, increase your luck, give you advice and honest feedback on what you’re doing wrong, and generally look out for your best interests.

The dead are, in some ways, simple creatures, easily appeased and happy with relatively little. They want to be acknowledged and to spend a little bit of time with you, and offerings are very basic. They’re unlike Gods who can require elaborate and time consuming shows of dedication, demanding very particular offerings, or other classes of spirits who are easy to offend and high maintenance to wrangle.

The dead are also under-trafficked, relative to their capacity. There might be tens of thousands of people calling on Jove or Ganesha at any given time, but chances are slim to none that someone else is knocking on great-grandma’s grave to give her fresh flowers and brandy. Big spirits have more energy to get things done, but their attention is divided between tons of propitiants, so competition for bandwidth and priority is a factor.

A regular offering practice for your ancestors will keep them paying attention to you between feedings, because frankly, there isn’t a whole lot else to do over there that interests them as much as you do, and they’ll be looking to you for continued interaction.

What do I mean by regular? That’s personal, but once you establish a pattern try to stick to it or make up for deviations. Once the dead become accustomed to a feeding schedule they can get restless and start throwing tantrums if devotions are missed, which is the opposite of the goal. I would recommend at least once per month on the New Moon, but it can be more regular than that.

Good times to make offerings and do rituals for the deceased —

  • Every New Moon, at night
  • Saturdays during the hour of Saturn
  • Tuesday nights after dark, hour of Saturn
  • Around the time of Halloween/ Samhain/ Dia de los Muertos, or sympathetic calendrical beacons per your cultural and religious background
  • Any holiday spent together and breaking bread with living family (Christmas, etc.)
  • Birthdays or deathdays of significant ancestors
  • Your own birthday; the birthdays of your parents, children, or siblings

Around this time of year (from the Fall Equinox through Halloween and the first week of November) is the perfect time to clean or establish a new dead altar and offering schedule. Contact is assisted by the veil being thin.

Ancestral + Dead Altars

Ancestral or dead altars should either be positioned in the West, as the direction of departing life force/ sunset and the gate to the underworld, or North, for the dead are said to dwell there.

You can choose by whichever is more practical or feels right, but it should be its own little table or space, preferably in an area of the house that is low traffic for personal altars, OR is part of the collective family space, if it is to be used by a whole (living) family.

Most people say that you should separate an ancestor altar from a more generalized dead altar, and that issues can arise by combining them, primarily over offering squabbles. That hasn’t been my personal experience — I keep mine together and give offerings in order by invitation (acting psychopomp first, for way-opening services; blood ancestors second; chosen and well intended dead next; anima sola last).

Feel free to experiment with what feels best. Also, if you’re just starting out and don’t intend to work with dead outside your family group, there is no need to create a second altar or perform the later generalized-dead portions of this ritual.

An example altar could include —

  • Black or white altar cloth
  • At least one candle, or a central candle and smaller candles for particular ancestors you wish to venerate
  • Photos of passed over relatives, especially ones who were dear to you, or that you’re particularly interested in
  • Belongings of deceased relatives, such as jewelry, diaries, letters, religious items (rosaries, bibles), metals of honor or regalia, keys, or keepsakes
  • Ashes of relatives, or graveyard dirt from their burial site
  • An incense burner
  • A place for flowers
  • A place for beverage offerings
  • A place for food offerings

Optionally —

  • A statue or image of an intermediary psychopompic deity, such as Hermanubis or Hekate, to help you better call and communicate with the deceased
  • A notebook and pen for writing letters to your relatives, or for automatic drawings and downloads resulting from any trance or mediumistic work
  • Pennies or coins to pay the toll for travel between the worlds of the living and dead
  • Bones, snake skins, dried flowers, shells, tarot cards, or other items related to the death arcana

Appropriate Offerings

There are certain offerings that nearly all the dead enjoy, which will be listed below. Then there are offerings that are particular to what the deceased enjoyed in life.

If you have certain relatives in mind that you would like to particularly honor or ingratiate yourself to, consider offering something specific to them. The dead, because they were once human, have the same relationship to thoughtful gifts as the rest of us. The more thought, individual consideration, and love that goes into them, the better.

If your grandfather enjoyed a nice manhattan at the end of the day, go to the trouble of mixing him one! If you have a recipe book handed down through your mothers’ side, re-create some of those dishes. If your favorite aunt wore Channel N°5, spray it over the altar or toward her photo. If someone liked a particular brand of cigarette, keep a pack on hand. You get the idea! Even playing someone’s favorite song, or giving them a new gift or asset for use beyond the veil in their favorite color, can be a wonderful offering.

Generalized dead offerings —

  • Fresh water (required)
  • Hot coffee or tea, often sweetened
  • Wine or hard alcohol
  • Cigarettes/ tobacco (someone somewhere upstream smoked, probably many of them)
  • Desserts, sweets, or candy
  • Home cooked food, especially served warm and steaming
  • Fresh fruits, cut and ready to eat
  • Bread, cut and ready to eat
  • Flowers
  • Coins

Spirits are drawn to scent. Hot or steaming offerings, such as incense, are very attractive to the dead. A convenient and apt way to offer food is to set aside a portion of whatever meal was cooked and shared between your living relatives, and offer it to your ancestors before it cools, or re-heat it before offering. This is especially true for family gatherings during special occasions or over the holidays.

Note that you do not have to give every type of offering listed every time you make them. I will typically do a glass of water and one other type of beverage, whether alcohol or coffee, and some form of food, sweet, or flowers. You can cycle and give as and what you feel is appropriate, depending on the occasion and if you’re targeting a specific ancestor.

Ancestral and/ or Dead Offering Ritual

Once you have your altar set up, you’re ready for ritual veneration and making offerings. You may or may not have your own way of doing this and invocation. The script and procedure that follows is just a helpful template that works for me.

Once you get familiar with the process or for more casual workings, there is no need to use an outline, or do something so involved. This is for hardcore, dedicated ancestral and dead work, befitting the season. A lot of people just throw a plate of food and cup of water down and say “have at it”, there’s no wrong way to honor your ancestors, as long as you’re doing it!

The ritual structure I am about to present is very malleable. You can omit certain portions as you see fit, and still progress through the template to contact the ancestors and/ or dead you desire. If you only want to talk to your patrilineal side, just perform the opening, do the paternal invocation and close. If you only want to call a specific deceased person, skip to the Chosen/ Sympathetic Dead call.

Leave out what doesn’t apply, and modify this to suit your needs. Read it all the way through at least one time so you can get a sense for how it works, and then set out to customize it. A downloadable Word file is available at the end of this piece for you to modify and print.

As for offerings, prepare and have them ready beside you but don’t put them on the table until it’s that part of the ritual.

Preparation and Opening

Now is a good time to anoint yourself with any oils or sprays designed to enhance contact with the deceased or increase psychic sensitivity. The incense you burn on your ancestral altar can also be designed for that purpose, or you can use your deceased mom’s favorite.

Light the main candle of your altar and the incense. If you have candles representing individual relatives, wait to light theirs until you call them individually.

Sit for a moment, centering yourself, becoming receptive, and attuning to the altar. You don’t have to use a psychopomp to connect with your ancestors or the dead, but I do find that it helps. If you don’t want to use one, just skip it and lay the offerings out now.

Calling Your Psychopomp

Hermes Chthonius can be used for a general underworld Mercury (here is the orphic hymn), or use an appropriate underworld road-opener you have a pre-existing connection with, such as Baron Samedi or Hekate.

I use Hermanubis and keep a statue of him on my ancestral/ dead altar. My invocation is something along the lines of  —

Hermanubis, Hermanubis, Hermanubis, I call! Come to me, here and now, in this space I occupy, which will serve as a crossroads and meeting place for myself, the living, my ancestors, and dead.

Act as a door and guiding light for those I seek. Make me understood by them, and ensure I understand them in turn. Rend the veil between this world and that of the deceased — the underworld, the realm of Amenti. Fetch whom I call, from wherever they may be, and see to it that they receive my words, gifts, and intent.

Accept these offerings of fire, light, incense, (water, wine, bread, etc.) for your services. Disseminate these offerings to the dead I call and invite to partake of them, and see to it that no uninvited intruder finds their way to this altar.

Praise be unto you, Hermanubis!

Make sure these words are heartfelt. If you have a statue or image representing your psychopomp, bathe it in incense smoke or anoint it with oil. If you have it, spray the Dead-Drawing elixir around the altar.

Place the offerings on the table, also running the plates and glasses through the incense smoke. Make a “partake!” gesture toward them, with your hands and heart.

Calling Your Ancestors

Regardless of the relationship we had with our mother or grandmother (if either are deceased), and our matrilineal line, we owe them the greatest ancestral debt.

They physically carried us and the daughters of our lineage to term and went through the birthing process, acting as womb door, and were likely the primary caretakers of our ancestry. Because of this, I highly recommend calling the mother’s line first.

The Matrilineal Call

Now, you can make things “easy” and just say “I call the spirits of my matrilineal line”, or you can perform a more complex, but more effective call. I recommend doing the full version at least once to see how much more powerful it is before cutting corners.

Invoke the most recently deceased, skipping over anyone who is alive (or who you don’t wish to include), tracing backwards. Use full names if you know them, or just identify them by relation. Go at least 3 generations deep, up to 7. If you have a candle representing any of the names you say, light it as you call them. In my case, because my mother is deceased but my grandmother is alive and is therefore “skipped”, it goes —

I call, here and now, the honored and well-intended dead of my matrilineal line. My mother, (say full name), my great-grandmother (say full name or the last name), my great-great grandmother, her mother, and so on!

Every woman who birthed a woman who birthed a woman who birthed a woman, whose blood runs through my veins!

Come to this altar, and accept my heartfelt thanks for the sacrifices you made for our family. Accept these offerings of (food, drink, scent, and fire), along with my love and gratitude. May they take the form that most please you!

Bow to them in appreciation and make a “partake!” gesture toward the offerings. Spend a moment talking and connecting with them, or take care of any communications or business with your matrilineal side before moving on.

The Patrilineal Call

Say “I call the spirits of my patrilineal line” or perform the same extended call, lighting any dedicated candles as you say their name —

I call, here and now, the honored and well-intended dead of my patrilineal line. My grandfather, (say full name), my great-grandfather (say full name or last name), my great-great-grandfather, his father, and so on!

Every man who sired a man who sired a man who sired a man, whose blood runs through my veins! 

Come to this altar, and accept my heartfelt thanks for the sacrifices you made for our family. Accept these offerings of (food, drink, scent, and fire), along with my love and gratitude. May they take the form that most please you!

Bow to them in appreciation and make a “partake!” gesture toward the offerings. Spend a moment talking and connecting with them, or take care of any communications or business with your patrilineal side before moving on.

The Extended Family Call

I now call the well-intended, honored dead of my extended family, my deceased aunts, uncles, cousins, and relatives, whose blood runs through my veins! 

Come to this altar, and accept my heartfelt thanks for the sacrifices you made for our family. Accept these offerings of (food, drink, scent, and fire), along with my love and gratitude. May they take the form that most please you!

Two Roads Diverge

If all you are doing is bloodline ancestral veneration, you can skip the next steps and move to the closing portion.

The Chosen Dead Call

Remember earlier how I mentioned you can work with specific dead, or classes of dead by profession, art, interest, etc? This is the portion where you can call them to the table.

I now call (name; name; — any deceased, non-relative you wish), and the well-intended, sympathetic and the honored dead of (astrology, painters, architects, demonologists, what have you)! Those who spent your life honing your craft, who have much to teach. 

Come to this altar, and accept my heartfelt thanks for the sacrifices you made for your (profession, art, passion, etc.). Accept these offerings as a token of my appreciation for your works and knowledge. May they take the form that most please you!

The Anima Sola Call (Dead Charity)

The Anima Sola are the “lonely souls”; ones who are in purgatory and haven’t found their way to the next stage. I also put ghosts and restless dead in a broader form of this category, outside the strictly Catholic construct.

This portion is essentially charity for such souls, wherein they are fed and our psychopomp is asked to assist them in finding their way, the offerings we’ve already given paying the toll, or you may deposit at least two pennies on the altar. Performing this type of charity can bring unexpected boons, and it can also be done in graveyards — but that’s for another article!

I now invite the well-intended Anima Sola. Any unfortunate, deceased souls who have not found their way to their next stage or resting place, so long as they wish me well, are welcome to partake of the offerings my family and honored dead will share. 

Come to this altar, warm yourself upon this candle. Let this fire invigorate your spirit, and have it light your way. Quench your thirst with this water, and nourish yourself with this bread. Be comforted by our human connection, and then be delivered by Hermanubis to your next destination. Be well, and be at peace!

Closing Portion

Spend as much time in communion with the dead you have called as you wish. The dead appreciate sacrifices of your time and devoted attention as much as anything else. You can talk to them — tell them about your days, your ambitions, your worries. Listen to music, read, or make art and let them share space with you. You can also try some automatic drawing or scrying, pivoting into more necromantic territory.

When you are ready to close the ceremony, something like this can be said —

Thank you to all of my ancestors and the dead who have come to commune with me this night. I pray that you enjoyed your offerings and had your fill! Continue to aid and protect me in my life and works, and know that I am grateful.

You are given license to depart. Return to the resting places you belong, do not linger unduly, and come swiftly again next you are called. My love and gratitude are with you, always!

Hermanubis, see to it that all of the souls who were called here today are delivered to where they ought to be, and help the lost souls find their way. This Rite is now closed. 

Clap your hands or ring a bell/ gong. Blow out the candle. You may wish to spray the area with Asclepius Water, Water of Golden Sol, or do some other form of banishment if the license to depart was insufficient, depending on how much energy you put into the calls and procedure.

Remove offerings before they rot. It is best to dispose of them in nature, at crossroads or burial grounds, or the edge of the woods.

Post-Op Care

When engaged in such heavy death adjacent ritual, it can be a good idea to change clothes and even shower or bathe afterward. The dead have a heavy and draining energy if left to linger, so it can be good to re-orient to a more vital key. Smoke and waters from the Sol in Leo and Asclepius series can be used to clear one’s field and physical space, and applying the sprays to the body or anointing the heart center with oils may also prove helpful.

Blessings be upon you, your ancestors, and our honored dead! Happy venerating!

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For additional information and magical tools for healing and magical
engagement with the Deceased, check out The Ancestral Series…

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Fine print — This is a copyright protected text by Kaitlin Coppock and Sphere + Sundry LLC. All rights reserved. Brief portions may be reproduced online, so long as credit and a link back to this article are provided. Thank you!

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On the Sun’s Fall in Libra, and Taking Our Astro-Magical Vitamins

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This was posted to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on October 13th, 2019.

If this type of practical esoteric content appeals to you, get it in real time by connecting with Sphere + Sundry’s social media profiles…

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The photo above is a throwback to the Sol in Leo operation, created during one of the shining electional moments of the Sun’s time in Leo, 2019…

The Sun is currently passing by its maximum degree of Fall (the 19th of Libra) — the single worst degree of the entire 360 for any planet or luminary, based on the qualities of the sign and how they benefit or harm the objectives and functions of the body in question. This is always exactly opposite the degree of Exaltation.

The Sun has difficulty functioning in air signs because of their multitudinous, temperate, and back and forth nature. It finds its Detriment in Aquarius, whose classical Saturnian rulership limits its ability to beam and brighten, and its Fall in Libra, whose Venus ruled, harmonizing and conciliatory nature makes it difficult for the Self to rise above the relational Other.

Libra is also notoriously indecisive, which is at odds with the Sun’s role as the maximal point of unification and embodied, confident leadership, not just externally, but within our own selves and natal charts.

The talismanic art in astrology is the ability to capture charges at their most desirable. I’ve referred to it before in the context of catching snowflakes, but canning metaphors work equally as well. We harvest when the harvest is good, and preserve things at the peak of their ripeness, so we can continue enjoying the fruits (or vegetables!) of those labors all year round. An entire lifetime, in the case of metal and stone.

The use of high quality astrological materia can be viewed through the lens of supplementation. Maybe we’re treating chronic conditions in the natal chart, often presented in terms of “remediation”.

Having the Sun in its Fall in my own chart, for instance, I’m perpetually Solar deficient, so using Regulus and Sol materia has proved deeply therapeutic and beneficial. I use it on Sundays as a form of ongoing attunement, or whenever I feel negative Libran instincts activate for a little course correction.

[Related: True vs. False Light, Being a Weirdo, and the 12th House in Modern Times]

But we can also treat acute conditions such as transits, where we can’t draw strength or magic from a planet or luminary given its current condition. Libra season is basically Seasonal Affective Disorder for all Solar concerns, so performing Solar rituals and magic alone likely won’t yield good results, and isn’t recommended.

It’s better under transiting conditions like these to supplement with the energies of Sol from its Aries or Leo harvest, instead of asking the Sun to provide what it isn’t under right conditions to offer. That’s one of the ways talismanic materia truly, well… it shines.

Take your magical vitamins, basically. As the testimonials on each offering’s page readily attest, you just may find it life-changing

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The Orphic Hymns + Fixed Star Hack

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This was posted to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on August 3rd, 2018.

If this type of practical esoteric content appeals to you, get it in real time by connecting with Sphere + Sundry’s social media profiles…

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In Greek mythology, Orpheus (Ὀρφεύς) was a poet, singer, and prophet who played music so beautifully that it charmed the full spectrum of existence, from the lowliest rock to the highest of Gods. His instrument was the first ever Lyre, crafted from a tortoise shell by young Mercury and gifted to Orpheus by the Sun God Apollo.

He is best known for traveling into the underworld to rescue his newly deceased bride, playing his Lyre for King Hades and Queen Persephone, who too were charmed. They agreed to release Mrs. Orpheus, named Eurydice, under the condition that he walk ahead of her without looking back. When the star crossed couple were on the brink of arrival in the land of the living, Orpheus couldn’t help but to see if his love was still with him, and as he did, she was swallowed back into the land of the dead, never to return.

Upon Orpheus’ own death, Jupiter cast his famed instrument into the sky, becoming the constellation Lyra. Its primary star is the bright and benefic Vega, which bestows mysterious and artistic talents, the ability to enchant, and the power to cast divine spells. But more on that in an eventual Vega series 

Orpheus was the patron namesake of Orphism, though the figure of Persephone and Dionysus were also important, each having their own relationships to the underworld and resurrection.

There are some parallels between the Orphic cosmology and Buddhism, in that Orphism saw humans as divine, yet shackled to a grievous cycle of death and rebirth that could be transcended with the right knowledge, development, and spiritual processes. The goal of a practitioner of the Orphic Mysteries was to navigate the death realms consciously and well, and ultimately, to break from the earthly cycle of reincarnation.

The Orphic Hymns are a set of 87 short poetic prayers written in the late Hellenistic or early Roman era, each one dedicated to a different figure in the ancient Western mythological canon. Agrippa was the first person to point out the fact that the Hymns could be used in planetary magic, making for the first Orphic Hack.

They have proven an exceptionally convenient, open source tool for the practicing magician or remedial devotee, even to this day, where they appear to be having a moment. A crowd funding project was recently funded for a modern reconstruction of the Hymns, and myself and many others have begun using and referring to the hymns more on social media.

Every Sphere + Sundry order comes with basic instructions, suggested times of working for the most potent results, and a prayer. Often the prayer is an Orphic Hymn, because they are copyright free, but more importantly, because they have been employed by humanity for hundreds of years.

The Powers that Be have been addressed by them for so long, that the petitions will be easily recognizable and empowered by the echoes of all who have prayed before. They are a resurrected thread of magical continuity — a current flowing directly to the ears of the Gods.

As I was putting together the instructions for the Regulus and Algol series, I was feeling irked that there wasn’t an Orphic Hymn that could be used to address them outside conflation with a mythically related figure.

I wondered if I should write an original prayer, a la Austin Coppock’s contribution to The Celestial Art, “A Feast of Starlight”, where he provides a structure for such a thing, or whether to use the Hymn to Helios (the Sun) or even Apollo for Regulus. Unsatisfied with either option, the Hymn to Astron (the stars) pulled my focus, and another Orphic Hack was born.

The Hymn to Astron can be used to address any fixed star, if you replace the first instance of “the stars” with the name of the star you would like to petition. For Regulus, it would become:

With holy voice I call the Stars Regulus on high, pure sacred light and genii of the sky.
Celestial star, the progeny of Night, in whirling circles beaming far your light,
Refulgent rays around the heav’ns ye throw, eternal fires, the source of all below.
With flames significant of Fate ye shine, and aptly rule for men a path divine.
In seven bright zones ye run with wand’ring flames,
and heaven and earth compose your lucid frames: 
With course unwearied, pure and fiery bright forever shining thro’ the veil of Night.
Hail twinkling, joyful, ever wakeful fire! Propitious shine on all my just desires;
These sacred rites regard with conscious rays, and end our works devoted to your praise.

The prayer acknowledges the nature of stars, and asks for their blessing. While the features of Regulus are not directly mentioned, Regulus is always just Regulus-ing, so you don’t really have to. That being said, you could follow the Orphic Hymn with your own after prayer, should you have a specific request in mind.

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Q+A: How do I choose which series or offering is right for me? Do you offer consultations?

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Q+A
How do I choose which series or offering is right for me?
Does Kaitlin offer consultations?

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If you’re new to astrology, remediation, or the use of magical items, it can be intimidating to choose which series or item will be best for you. There are two main ways of going about it…

Need or Desire Based

What do you want more of in your life, or what are you struggling with? This is by far the easiest method.

Are you trying to start a business and promote yourself? Regulus could be just the spotlight you’re looking for. Are you struggling with a health issue? Call the Divine Physician*

Below is a list of our current series and keywords to help you zone in on what can best practically serve you.

Note that there are dedicated write-ups for each series that you can locate by scrolling past the initial list of offerings once you click the series title. These were moved below the actual products to reduce the need to scroll, for those who have read the write-ups before!

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You can also enter keywords in the search field like “exercise,” “motivation,” “money,” and “sex,”
or astrological ones like “the moon,” “mercury,” “libra,” and “regulus.”

CAPRICORN II (DECAN SERIES)

A true Swiss Army Knife! The benefits of Mars and Saturn materia with fewer drawbacks than either alone. A true workhorse, and nothin’ better for “getting [someone’s] shit together”.

Achievement, Anger Management, Anxious States, Architecting, Artistic Endeavors, Athleticism, , , , , Classic Masculinity, Cleaning/ Tidying, Commanding, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 

EXALTED LUNA + JUPITER (MOON IN TAURUS SERIES)

An all-purpose, user-friendly Lunar materia with the aid of Jupiter. Great for settling the Mind-Body complex, improving sleep, and drawing resources.

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POSTPARTUM RELEASE (SUBSET)
Lunar materia for Postpartum support, increasing milk supply, and bonding.

MARS-JUPITER (IN ARIES)

The most positive, jovial, and buoyant Martial materia. Energizing, uplifting, and motivating.

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SATURN IN AQUARIUS SERIES

The most user-friendly ~true~ Saturn materia possible, with the support of Venus. Excellent for meditation, gaining perspective, and boundaries.

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ASCLEPIUS IV: THE DIVINE COTERIE (FIXED STAR / DIETY SERIES)

A staple for nearly every Sphere + Sundry Client, as Asclepius helps to mitigate the side effects from strong Powers found in other series, cleanse energy, clear the mind, improve sleep, and provide sources of healing relief.

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SON OF APOLLO (SUBSET)
The more yang / activating / warming version of Asclepius offerings, best suited to Solar Remediation and addressing conditions of a mental / emotional / spiritual nature, or physical ailments stemming from excess yin.

MERCURY IN GEMINI SERIES

The selection par excellence for bringing levity, fun, and a flurry of communications! None better for exploring one’s options.

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DOOR-KEY (SUBSET)
For gaining access, road opening, travel, and hidden knowledge.

FROGGY (SUBSET)
For way-finding, circuitous and unconventional routes. Mercurial glamours, slick talking, and Mercury retrogrades. Intuitive and light hearted, but full of wisdom.

ANTARES (FIXED STAR SERIES)

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HEART OF THE EMPEROR SCORPION (SUBSET)
For when you need to keep your Martial impulses tightly constrained, focus, and strategize. The sneakiest, most psychic, and potentially most dangerous (for any would-be opponents) of the Antares series.

BADGER (SUBSET)
For when you find yourself wrestling with the vipers of this world and need the protection, grit, and determination to come out victorious! Excellent for relentless pursuit of one’s goals and objectives. And very effective in works of defensive + counter-maleficia. Honey badger don’t care!

AZURE DRAGON (SUBSET)
Uplifting, invigorating, and full of all-potential. Brings growth, good fortune, accomplishment, and a spark of Divine Favor — the Mandate of Heaven.

JUPITER IN SAGITTARIUS II SERIES

Discover the genuine potential of positive thinking! A warming, life-affirming, and uplifting charge (that won’t be possible to capture again until 2030!).

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BUTTER OCEAN (JUPITER IN PISCES SERIES)

A nourishing, calming, reassuring, and indulgent take on Jupiter in Pisces (not available again until 2033). The most yin, terrestrial Jupiter in the shop — arguably best for wealth magic and cultivating “the good life” on all levels.

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EXALTED MERCURY (MERCURY IN VIRGO SERIES)

Mercury in Virgo is a taskin’ and chorin’ POWERHOUSE, rivaling even prescription meds for focus and productivity. It’s also excellent for money drawing and magically troubleshooting electronics.

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EXALTED VENUS II (VENUS IN PISCES SERIES)

Venus at Her very best, without a care in the world aside from Her own pleasure and contentment! The ultimate in relaxation, letting go, and letting live. Easy going, smooth, and utterly divine (with or without company!).

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LUNA IN CANCER SERIES

Unrivaled in magical applications, this Lunar series is ideal for practitioners of witchcraft, seership, and spell casting, as well as those looking to mine the depths of the feminine mysteries. It is also excellent for exploring emotional foundations and re-parenting, for those stable and serious enough to engage on the deepest of levels.

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ADDITIONAL SERIES WILL BE ADDED OVER THE COMING DAYS AS INDEXING FOR THE SEARCH ENGINE CONTINUES!

  • Deneb Algedi II: Fixed star conjunct Jupiter. Boundary reinforcement, energetic Sovereignty, warding. Protection against predatory energies and individuals, especially during times of vulnerability. Bringing true Justice via the favor and ethical conduct of those in Power. “Adulting” and promoting right-behavior in the self and others (kids and co-workers included). Wealth generation.
  • Venus’ Aerial Delight: Venus in Libra (Air of Venus). Lightening the load — emotionally, physically, mentally, and otherwise. Promoting joy and release of worries/ consternation. Stress and anxiety reduction. Romance and chivalry, the cultivation of Elven charm and a light, easy manner. Eirene for diplomatic gravitas and supreme balance, providing more scaffolding and guidance than the base series.
  • Regulus III: Gaining attention in non-thirsty, yet shiny ways. Cultivating extroversion and charisma through highlighting one’s virtues. Promotions, recognition, the favor of those in power. Self-love and self-acceptance (requires less “inner work” than Sol materia (Golden, Exalted) — use before events where you need to appear your most brilliant and best!)
  • Quicksilver Tongue: Saraswati yoga (configuration of Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter) for skill in the Arts, cultivation of creativity, and socializing. Great for solo application and socializing/ parties. Promotes talking and fun conversation. Time warping.
  • Jupiter’s Empyreal Vantage: Jupiter in Pisces (Water of Jupiter). Gold label/ Empyreal Vantage subset for increasing and elevating creative energy (in the “prolific masculine” archetypal sense) + becoming Zeus-like. That includes the Tincture (it was mis-labeled). Cloud Kingdom/ blue label for energetic insulation, management of anxious sensations, and unwinding/ de-stressing.
  • Saturn in Capricorn: Cultivating anti-fragility, maturity, and a long-term perspective. Boundaries, binding, and the Saturnian-like. Golden Gator and Golden GOAT subsets aid in achievement and performance.
  • Exalted Sol: Championship, self-cultivation and self-authoring, big achievement energy. Martial and Solar support in one.
  • Immortal Heart: Grief support, therapeutic support, addressing and intercepting Samskaras (before they embed themselves), re-Mothering, emotional comfort, emotional healing.
  • Hermanubis II: Communicating with the Dead (Ancestors or otherwise!), thinning the veil, necromantic operations.
  • The Ancestral Series: Ancestral healing and veneration, ancestral magic, comforting, empowering, and channeling loved ones, magic via the class of spirits we call the Dead.

Astrology Based

Are you trying to address natal chart placements or remediate a transit? To approach things this way is more complicated and case by case, so prepare to venture into the deeps…

One school of talismanic thought is that if you have a difficult Mars (in Cancer, for instance), you shouldn’t use exalted Mars to fix it because the results can be unpredictable.

That may be true with a forever metal talisman to be worn on your person, but talismanic materia is a different animal because it can be used in so many ways. The relationship is more transient and circumstantial.

Lighting Exalted Mars incense and making prayers and propitiations to Mars will not only please him (which is a form of remediation), you’ll also gain insight into how “proper” Mars should feel during that ritual moment. Such passing applications can help you sort through your tangled Mars wires and think on how to do it more effectively.

And regardless of where your natal Mars is, if you want to do Mars MAGIC, there is no better charged source than the Degree of Exaltation series. Putting that out into the world will deliver pure Mars-y results, because that’s just what it does.

The argument could be made that it’s safer to get your Mars magic off of someone else than to make it yourself if you have a weak or difficult Mars in your natal, especially if you’re a beginner or haven’t done a lot of development in that sphere.

I have a “bad” 12th house fallen Sun in Libra, and the Regulus series has been tremendously medicinal for me, so I’m not entirely sold on the idea that direct remediation doesn’t work.

My suspicion is that it helps to use a fixed star that runs a similar charge to a planet, rather than the planet itself (Sun in Aries, for instance), since it’s less of a direct confrontation between the natal energy and the charge, but still clarifies and benefits similar channels and topics. Using fixed stars for remediation could be a direct planetary “hack” in that sense.

But here’s the thing — at the end of the day, so much of magic is trial and error, and trusting your intuition. If you are curious about a series but concerned about whether it would be good for you, turn to whatever form of divination you work with and check in about it. Connect with the item through the screen and try to psychically feel it. Does it productively resonate? It’s all about trusting your inner guidance and coming in eyes open.

Which brings us to the second question, which is — do I offer consultations? The answer is no. Why? Because it puts the onus of a personal decision on a third party, and it’s important that your will is the primary drive behind any magically involved act (and ideally any act).

While Austin Coppock is in the business of teaching people how to fish, Sphere + Sundry is in a strange middle realm where we are offering people fish and include recipes (instructions, prayers, suggested times for working) for grilling those babies up. Whether you choose to follow our recipe or deviate is your own call.

Once we put a package in the mail, these items are no longer ours. They are yours, and it is up to you to navigate their appropriate use and get the best results. If I recommend something specific to someone in a consultation, and they receive the fish but don’t cook it how I recommended, I’m not responsible for their bad result.

It’s like when people rate recipes online and give something 3 stars, but then go on to talk about all the deviations they made. They didn’t rate the original recipe, they rated their Franken-one. It’s too easy when someone else makes a recommendation to misdirect blame and responsibility, when really your magic is a personal matter. You know yourself and your path better than an outside consultant, as helpful as their advice and guidance may be at various points along the way.

Real magic is volatile, and there are usually some weird side effects to dealing with new energies, whether positive or negative. There can be “healing crisis” types of reactions when you begin a course of remediation, or when magic comes into your world. It starts changing things — because it’s real, and it works.

Our offerings are designed to be helpful and provide as much of a safety net as possible, but at the end of the day it’s still your job to use them in a way that is productive for you, and do the Work. Working with these energies will change and evolve you for the better, if you go with the process, but the middle of that process isn’t always pretty or easy. Magic is always self-development in that sense.

Selecting the Form

Returning to the primary topic of choosing which offerings and their form, that is entirely up to your habits, objectives, and preference. Once you’ve picked the series, consider what you would like to accomplish with the charge and the types of materials you already enjoy working with — that will point to the vehicle that would best suit you.

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Forms Comparison

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Each base-form has qualities it brings to bear in addition to the charge captured by the operation, which is one of the dynamic aspects of creating talismanic materia, as opposed to a more classical talisman. For instance:

  • Waters are clarifying and act instantly, but they also “wear off” the most quickly, like drying off after a shower. For fast energetic shifts, state re-orientation, and emotional intervention, the waters are a phenomenally convenient energy hack in the day to day. They can be used pre-ritual to attune the self, prime the vessel and space, but they really shine for their daily practical applications.
  • Oils and oil based perfumes can take a little bit longer to kick in and are gentler than waters initially, but have longer staying power. Oils and Waters can be used together to jump-start a charge while adding sustain, perfect for all-day (or night!) support during long engagements. Oils are lubricating and nourishing, and can be used to anoint the self, objects, feed talismans, and in spellwork.
  • Candles are warming, illuminating, and activating. They provide a powerful background charge to assist in controlling the psychic and energetic atmosphere in support of your activities, whether that means lighting a Venus candle at family gatherings to keep the peace (or during romantic encounters), an Asclepius candle during convalescence to create a healing atmosphere, or burning an Aldebaran candle while whipping up a sigil shoal. They are wonderful to burn for routine planetary rituals during planetary days and hours, especially as a substitute if the planet is not doing “well” by transit at the time.
  • Incenses work similarly to Waters in that they clear energies and re-orient the stage in accord with their purpose, but are more yang and activating, sometimes inducing trance. They make wonderful offerings for spirits, Gods, and the planetary and stellar powers they serve. They can be used during ritual and to activate sigil shoals, vision boards, and for consecrating items of power. They can also be used on oneself in the form of a smoke bath, to clear and prime the aura in accord with their purpose, resetting the mental state and removing that which does not serve.
  • Honeys are sweetening, useful in love magic, relationship repair, casting glamours, winning affection, and promoting good will. They’re also useful for beautification.
  • Powders are most often used as components of spellwork. They can be used to dress candles, add to mojo bags and other fetishes, mix with dirts, etc. Sphere + Sundry powders are pure and uncut herbs, gemstones, metals, and resin, mixed during the core operation and later ground during appropriate planetary days and hours. They can be mixed with talcum powder or corn starch to create one’s own sachet powders.
  • Salt is purifying, warding, and also energetically absorbent. It can be used to clear the auric field or spaces. Taking pre or post ritual salt baths, or bathing as a form of remediation on the right planetary days and/ or hours is an excellent practice. The bath salts can also be used as needed to help course correct overwhelmed or negative states, in addition to preparing for what one has on the horizon, for instance taking a Deneb Algedi bath the night before a court appearance. The salts can also be added to floor washes for use in physical space.
  • Ritual inks can be used for drawing sigils, writing on paper talismans, automatic drawing and writing, and creating art.

If anointing stuff is your thing and you like oils, go with that. If you are a fan of candle magic and want to light it every week and say the Orphic Hymn during the hour of X for remediation, or even devote a single candle to one big spellworking and dedicate the full charge, choose a candle. If you want to make convenient applications, perhaps daily, a spray may be the best option.

Take the time to read the category descriptions for each form and series — more than enough information is provided to orient you. (The Coppocks have been lovingly described as “long-form” )

You don’t have to follow a purely planetary magic protocol with these items, either. Feel free to throw the recipe booklet out and adapt them to fit your model and methods. The magic will work anyway, because the items themselves have already been charged. You can be as active or passive with them as you like, they’ll work however you engage them.

In that way, you can use these items as components in whatever your style of magic is to boost the signal, even if you don’t do classical planetary workings.

If you are a witch who wants to do love or glamour magic and you already use incense, you may want to grab some from the Venus in Libra series. The Venusian charge will further empower your work and add more magic to the mix, and you don’t have to alter your methods in any manner.

So in short — we are helpful fishmongers offering only the highest quality goods, but it is up to you to determine which fish you want to go with, and how you want to cook it. I, for one, hope it’s the best meal of your life!

*also an appropriately qualified medical professional, disclaimer, disclaimer, blah, blah, blah 

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This was posted to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on July 31st, 2018. It has since been updated.

If this type of practical esoteric content appeals to you, get it in real time by connecting with Sphere + Sundry’s social media profiles…

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Defining Talismans + (Authentic) Talismanic Materia

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This was posted to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on May 19th, 2019.

If this type of practical esoteric content appeals to you, get it in real time by connecting with Sphere + Sundry’s social media profiles…

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I recently had the good fortune and tremendous honor of appearing on Rune Soup for my first ever podcast (AHH!), where the inimitable Gordon White asked about talismans and defining the realm of talismanic materia. This article has been on the ever-waxing “to write” list for a while now, so this seems like a timely opportunity to elaborate…

First off, what is a Talisman?

A talisman is an item of power, classically created of metal and/ or stone at particularly fecund times for whatever forces one intends to capture. They feature inscriptions of key images, names, glyphs or sigils, and are created for the purpose of generating specific magical effects for their owner. They’re often intended to be worn and thus appear in the form of rings or pendants, but aren’t strictly limited to that per se.

There are certain protocols that are consistently employed in the creation of talismans, if we’re going by the book (which is The Picatrix, btw). For astrological talismans, the first step involves selecting the election of its creation, which is the single most important aspect of the working, since the exact timing of the talisman’s creation is what gives the item its character. You’re locking in the qualities of that very specific moment in time, in hopes of perpetuating it for as long as possible.

As I described in a social media post recently:

Each minute is an electional snowflake through the hourglass of our lived experience in place and time, and our job as astrological magicians is to capture the very finest in hopes of preservation.

The space-weather waits for no one – you either bring it all together and stick the snowflake’s landing, or it falls to the ground to join the others, forming one big blanket covering all that has Passed.

Key in the charts of talismans is a supportive Moon, for we’re engaging in a process of materialization. We’re calling the powers of stars and planets into our sub-lunary world and giving them flesh; so even though one may be trying to create a Venus talisman, they can’t just pay attention to Venus.

For the operation to be a success and an election to be worthy, the chart as a whole must be taken into account and provide key supportive factors (and reduce harmful ones) to get a good, clean catch. This both empowers the talisman and mitigates unintended side effects, which is absolutely a thing in the talismanic art.

Once the election has been chosen, one collects and prepares their base materia. Talismans can be made of anything, not just any common casting metal with stones plentiful or precious. The form one chooses is usually down to skillset and accessibility, in terms of — most of us aren’t jewelers and also can’t afford to cast our badass Jupiter talisman in 24k gold with a flawless yellow sapphire, #goals as that may be. One of my most beloved and commonly utilized talismans is literally a loaded sprinkle jar, in faithful service for about a decade. As previously mentioned, talismans, in practice, take many forms.

Once your materials are together and you’ve got your design planned, you wait for that key moment, and then get on with the talisman’s ritual production. At the highest level, that includes preparing yourself, your tools, and your space, and dressing the part. The operation always opens with a (sometimes lengthy) address to the powers you’re trying to call down, the burning of incense, and the actual creation of the talisman, which should also be bathed in smoke (suffumigated).

Once the deed is done, the talisman is typically stowed and left to rest in order for the charge to set, hence Sphere + Sundry’s policy of letting each series incubate for a full lunar cycle before re-homing.

How do talismans work?

For starters, they’re magic! (Good) magic works so talismans work, but we can get more specific than that…

The way I see it, every person is a walking, talking talisman of their own natal chart. They were born in a specific place at a particular time, and the nature of exactly that was imprinted in them, and they carry that forth until the day they die (and even then!). The ripples from that single moment move outward to constitute the whole of their lives. It influences their personalities, determines at least some degree of their fate, all that jazz.

Talismans function very similarly. We elect to form them under certain auspices, give the nature of the power we’re tapping an appropriate body/ vessel to inhabit, and ultimately give “birth” to them via our ritual act. If all comes to term and they have the talismanic equivalent of 10 fingers and 10 toes, they’ll operate as outputs for the powers successfully captured, and can typically be expected to continue for the duration of their lifetime, especially with proper care and feeding.

Talismanic Materia

Talismanic materia is created when you follow all of the guidelines and protocols typically employed in talisman creation, but are making something less set in stone (har! see what I did there?).

Oils go rancid. Candles burn down. You simply cannot mark the physical water or incense blend with the correct images and names as you do a ring or pendant. It’s the difference between getting a tattoo, which becomes part of your naked body, versus wearing that same mark as a sticker or the design of your tee shirt. One is part of the vessel, the other is just on top of it.

A true talisman is a fixed body, or in the case of bottle talismans, a closed system, and their effects are essentially radiant. Talismanic materia is applied in a series of doses that use up the formula, and can even be superior — in my experience — for targeted applications.

Such items can store highly potent charges and create effects just as powerful as a proper talisman, but are similar to batteries in that they contain a fixed amount of power determined by dosage (using all of it) or time (it going “bad” on a material level). In the classical sense, a genuine talisman is capable of restoring its own charge and perpetually regenerating effects, whereas talismanic materia is more transient, and also functions differently, in accord with its form. But we’ll touch more on that in the next article 😉

With all the interest and opportunity in astrology, witchcraft, and in some corners, the influence of Sphere + Sundry, more people are engaging in the practice of trying to time the creation of their own products to specific astrological forces and advertising that fact, which is wonderful.

I love that we’re living in a time where the world is becoming a more magical place and people are more in tune with the space weather, HOWEVER… a lot of people are getting fast and loose with the use of the terms “talisman” and “talismanic”, and proper distinctions should be made when it comes to the well worn tradition of astrological magic.

This is not to hate on or degrade any other provider, it’s simply education for consumers to know what they’re actually getting for their money, because talismanic materia is not yet well understood. Lots of people create wonderful products that are phenomenal and potent using different techniques, and I support any good practitioner authentically practicing their craft and wish all of us profound and incredible success.

In the podcast, I touched on the different tiers of commonly available planetary materia. They are essentially:

  • Any oil, incense, perfume, etc. made at any ol’ time that someone slaps a planetary label on. No attention was paid to the planetary timing and it was mundanely manufactured, involving no ritual at all.

That’s by far the most common type. Lots of companies and people offer stuff like that because… it sells well, it’s easy to make, and most people don’t know the extent to which astrology and magic are real. The result is most likely an inert, sorcerously toothless curio. If items in this category possess any power, it would come from the proper materials the planet rules being used in the formula, and/ or the faith, timing, and magic of the user.

  • Any oil, incense, perfume, etc. created with basic attention paid to timing, such as something for Venus made on Venus’ day, and perhaps hour. Often those in this category of production also pay attention to Lunar cycles, but not necessarily the sign or condition the planet or Moon was otherwise in at the time, nor what was rising or other chart factors.
  • Same as above, but ritually created.

Now we’re getting somewhere! And a lot of those product are wonderful!

But still, NONE of the above categories fit the full criteria for being authentic talismanic materia, because as we’ve already discovered, the entire chart comes into play. The Moon must be supporting, the key powers should be on the chart angles or good houses, and all the other factors that make an election truly talisman worthy must be present.

THAT is how you make authentic talismanic materia per the astrological tradition. And that is HARD to achieve, because you’re trying to isolate the single best available moment any one thing has to offer, which requires a good, preferably well seasoned electional astrologer (who is also familiar with the talismanic art, and hopefully also magic) to determine.

Most of us aren’t that — certainly not I! And that’s where Austin Coppock, one of the best and most pioneering astromages of our time (I’m biased, of course, but have full confidence history will regard that as a fact) comes into play, who devotes hours and hours to the selection of every Sphere + Sundry election, and holds over a decade of eyeball deep experience with astrological and talismanic practice.

Why am I emphasizing this? Enter…

The Perils of Bad Elections

Plain and simple: If you don’t have a good election, you’re not going to get good results in this form of practice.

True talismanic materia is a snapshot of the entire chart as it relates to the power you’re emphasizing. If there’s bad stuff going on, that material will manifest it.

Often a botched election will cause the exact opposite of the results you’re looking for, because the significator you’re emphasizing is being harmed in some way, and sort of contrary to G’s podcast comments regarding planets vs. fixed stars, planets are usually harder elections to consider, because they’re fickler with their constant wandering and hold broader rulership over our lives.

Many years ago, I was given a Venus talisman by someone I sincerely believe had good intentions but wasn’t very experienced — the first (and last) time I wore it, I broke a high heel (the only occasion that’s ever happened), had a random woman freak out on me in public, and got into a huge fight with my partner before bed. All in that one evening, while wearing the talisman.

An assault on Venusian apparel, confrontational disharmony, and spousal tumult are all clearly related to the sphere of Venus, but are inversions of desirable effects, and it’s because some harmful factor was missed in the electional chart for the talisman. Obviously it got destroyed after that.

Other elections aren’t bad, they’re just weak. This comes from overlooking the supportive factors that go into architecting the chart and featuring prominently the configuration you’re looking to capture.

Give me less power over something that will cause harm to me and my life any day! I imagine you hold similar sentiments.

Best Practices

This is why it’s tremendously important for people providing items created at specific times to post the date, time, and location of their working (preferably in the form of an easily accessible full chart), if they’re advertising the product functions in any sort of astro-talismanic regard, and there was ritual creation involved.

Even if you can’t read that chart as a consumer, it shows that the provider stands by their work and is transparent to those who can. Saying something was crafted at an “auspicious” time simply isn’t a high enough standard for talismanic materia, in my (notoriously loud) opinion.

If you’re not engaged in the production of talismanic materia, it’s still great to time things to the degree you’re able, but I would recommend leaving a ritual call to the planet out of it, because it can act to further embed the nature of the actual election into your creation without a full analysis of whether or not it’s desirable.

On Par Side Effects vs. Signs of a Botched Election

Admittedly, these things are a well informed crap shoot. You do the best job you can assessing the quality of an election and anticipating the effects it’ll have, but things can always surprise you as you actually engage the items, and how they relate to certain individuals can differ.

This is a factor in why I consider talismans and talismanic materia as its own life form — they have personalities and manners of working that are super specific to the exact chart of their creation, and intersects with the chart of the user. No two runs will ever be exactly the same, because the quality of time is so unique. Again, snowflakes through the hourglass of our lived experience.

Side effects will still occur, even if the work was successful. The question is if it’s in productive alignment with what the item is supposed to achieve. This is why my writeups are so long and as up front as possible with the down side of engaging these offerings. Clients have a strong right to informed consent.

For instance, if I have something important to get done or have been procrastinating, I’ll pray to St. Expedite to ensure whatever needs doing happens as quickly as possible, and then spray myself and the altar with a few spritzes of his Holy Water.

What I’ve come to discover is that it becomes exceedingly difficult to sleep or rest until that thing gets done, and it’s kept me up all night before, as I became practically obsessed with completing whatever task and consumed with energy to devote to it.

Is that altogether desirable? It doesn’t always feel like it at the end of an exhausting day , but it gets the job done. That’s a side effect of the magic working, not a harmful unintended consequence of a botched election. These are important distinctions. Most processes aren’t peaches and cream the whole time, and if you want the benefit of an omelet, some eggs’ll get cracked along the way.

That being said, you can never fully confirm the effects will be desirable or what you were hoping for until you begin working with the talismanic item in question, which is why I engage in heavy field testing of each item of every series and employ beta testers before releasing it to the public.

Thank god I haven’t had a botched series (knock on wood), but if it ever happens, the entire thing is getting axed. I don’t care how much time I spent on it or what money I could make. Fruitful potency and client protection is, always and forever, my utmost concern.

Thanks for sticking with me through all that! Hopefully this helps to clarify terms within the broader discourse and empowers customers to better understand the world of genuine talismanic materia as it intersects with the long tradition of astrological magic and talismanry. It remains an honor and a privilege to be a provider of this very distinct form of profoundly practical magic ✨

For those looking to learn more about astromagistry and talisman making, Austin has many online classes and recordings, which I recommend not because he’s my husband, but because he’s one of the best at what he does. Enjoy!

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Obligatory Mercury Retrograde Remediation Post

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This was posted to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on March 4th, 2019.

If this type of practical esoteric content appeals to you, get it in real time by connecting with Sphere + Sundry’s social media profiles…

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Here is Sphere + Sundry’s obligatory post for remediating Mercury retrogrades…

The good news: Mercury retrogrades aren’t nearly as bad as the hype surrounding them most of the time, and actions can be taken to reduce their impact. This is what we in the traditional + Vedic astro biz refer to as “remediation”, which we’ll get into shortly.

Retrograde Considerations

When a planet goes retrograde, the areas of life it has rulership over are universally affected. Mercury is in charge of many things, especially in our modern world, which is why there’s so much generalized panic the three times per year they start backin’ that thang up.

Side note on my use of gendered planetary pronouns: I use she/her for Luna and Venus, he/him for Sol, Mars, Jupiter, and sometimes Saturn (even though he’s mostly just post-hormonal and crotchety), and they/them for Mercury, given their status as the OG androgyne.

The planet Mercury oversees —

  • Communication in general
  • Written communications specifically
  • Transmitted information (so basically the entire internet)
  • Electronics
  • Software/ code performance
  • Travel, getting from point A to point B
  • Paperwork
  • Logistics and processes

Since Mercury’s function is to act as a bridge between any one person or thing and another, we can see how easy it is for shit to hit the fan when even just one baton pass gets flubbed, because it so often means we can’t proceed with the rest of a process, which results in delays and irritation.

Mercury retrogrades are typically characterized by things going haywire or not working the way they’re supposed, which means we have to go back and fix something before being able to move forward again — a literal representation of apparent retrograde motion.

Some retrogrades are more powerful than others, both generally and personally. To determine if any given retrograde is going to kick your ass or not, here are some factors to consider —

  • Which house does the planet go retrograde in?
    Angular houses (1, 4, 7, 10) are the most impactful, meaning mutable risings are on high alert
  • Are any of your planets (or key chart points) in the retrograde’s path?
    In this cycle, anything in the last half of Pisces
  • Is the retrograde planet particularly important in your chart?
    If it rules the Ascendant, sect light, or many other planets, it’ll be more significant
  • Is the retrograde planet highlighted by profection or time lord?
    It’ll have a greater impact

The more significant a role the retrograde planet plays for you, generally and for each particular cycle, the more attention you should pay to remediating the effects and the more carefully you should tread.

So, aside from the generally impractical advice to avoid contact with anyone and everything, signing paperwork or initiating new endeavors, what can we do about it?

Mercury Retrograde Remediation Ritual

The face of a retrograde planet is different from its standard presentation. It’s in an underground or darker phase, as Venus Cloacina can attest, so we shan’t be appealing to Mercury proper, who is drunk. We’ll be turning instead to Hermes Chthonius.

On the day and hour of Mercury during their retrograde phase, burn some storax or incense as an offering and say the orphic hymn to Terrestrial Hermes, who can help us navigate the chaos Mercury retrogrades sometimes bring —

Hermes I call, whom Fate decrees to dwell in the dire path which leads to deepest hell
O Bacchic Hermes, progeny divine of Dionysius, parent of the vine,
And of celestial Venus Paphian queen, dark eye-lash’d Goddess of a lovely mien:
Who constant wand’rest thro’ the sacred feats
where hell’s dread empress, Persephone, retreats;
To wretched souls the leader of the way when Fate decrees, to regions void of day:
Thine is the wand which causes sleep to fly, or lulls to slumb’rous rest the weary eye;
For Persephone’s thro’ Tart’rus dark and wide gave thee forever flowing souls to guide.
Come, blessed pow’r the sacrifice attend, and grant our mystic works a happy end.

You can also call upon this form of Hermes and pray to them to help solve specific problems that arise during Mercury’s retrogrades, and provide further offerings.

Practical Remediation Using Talismanic Materia

Items from the various Mercury-based and related series can serve as exquisite Mercurial aids, during direct and retrograde phases alike.

The Froggy and Door-Key subsets can be especially helpful during Mercury RX, as can cleansing forms like Kolonias, Waters, Spell Soaps, Shampoo + specifically selected Incense / Powder, Ritual Salts, and  Bath Salts.

Indirectly Mercurial series like the Third Decan of Capricorn can provide support without going against the “wind” transit-wise. Quicksilver Tongue can help you lean in and find alternative flows while boosting creativity.

Keep these items with you for quick day to day use as issues arise. They can (as always) be applied as needed at any time, but will be especially potent on Wednesdays and during Mercury’s hour.

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Working with St. Expedite — Altar, Offerings, Prayers, Specific Applications

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Saint Expedite is a powerful and efficacious spirit, turned to throughout the globe for quick results and material intercession, especially in the case of emergencies. Most famed for delivering fast cash and bringing a swift end to lawsuits and bureaucratic nonsense, he can also be called upon to expedite the results of other magical work and prayed to for all manner of manifest results. Specific applications are listed at the bottom of this article.

For an introduction to the figure and back story of St. Expedite, see the description text for the series of magical materia we’ve created in his honor. These were constructed to talismanic standard during the full Moon in Gemini 2018 on a particularly potent Mercury-Jupiter conjunction in Sagittarius, giving our patron Saint a battery pack of planetary power to further aid his ability to manifest the fastest, most favorable results.

Note that using our Expedite offerings is not a requirement for working with this spirit, or for the instructions and prayers presented in this article. If you have them, wonderful — use them! If not, work with what you have.

Priming the Pump

If you’re looking to work with Expedite, it’s likely the case that you already know what you want or need help with and are ready to dive right in. Even if you don’t, you can still set up an altar and present offerings to him on Wednesdays to start seeding the relationship and building rapport for when the time comes. He’s a great spirit to keep on retainer, and can be a motivating, energizing influence to share space with.

More on the formation of requests and specific applications can be found below, but first, let’s delve into establishing Expedite’s base of operations within your sphere.

Altar Construction + Placement

Expedite is a hot way-opening figure who prefers to be placed beside doorways. The more primary the entrance the better, whether indoors or out — the front or back door is ideal. I recommend to keep Expedite altars out of the bedroom, because his activity can cause sleep disturbances.

Since St. Expedite is such a yang figure, his altars are most appropriately positioned in the South, East, or in the direction of your Sheng Chi, which is the direction of personal prosperity according to your birth in classical feng shui. In the case you don’t have direction options based on the door or other practical considerations, don’t worry about direction.

His altar cloth should be red or white, but you can always use paper, a placemat, or a decorative platter as a fallback.

You will need an image or statue of St. Expedite. You can print your favorite from Google Images or procure a statue, many fine specimens of which are available through Amazon. In a real pinch, you can pull his image up on your phone and place it on the altar as you make your requests, though that’s obviously not ideal for establishing an ongoing relationship.

Expedite has a fondness for triplicities, so many guides recommend situating your image or statue of Expedite in the center back, and then using a single candle in front on one side and a glass of water in front on the other, making a triangle formation. That’s the simplest layout of an Expedite altar, but far from the only way they can be arranged. Any way that looks pleasing and feels good to you should work great.

Offerings

The two most basic offerings for Expedite are the aforementioned candle and glass of water. The bigger and more important your request, the more in the way of offerings you should give, to the degree you are able. The full list of favored/ common Expedite offerings includes —

  • Candle(s)
  • Glass(es) of water
  • Slice(s) of poundcake. Sarah Lee is rumored to be his favorite, which can be found in the frozen desserts section of many grocery stores, but homemade or other brands will no doubt suffice
  • Red flowers, especially roses
  • Red wine
  • Palm fronds

You do not have to give all of these at once. In fact, it works better to “pay” St. Expedite half up front and half upon delivery of your request, to incentivize him to act even faster. The following ritual structure and prayer is arranged to accommodate this, but feel free to deviate to what makes most sense to you.

Other Expedite lore advises that you flip your icon of Expedite upside down while he’s in the process of fulfilling your request, the theory being that he’ll move quickly in order to get turned rightside up again. This is obviously easier to do with an image than a statue, and is entirely optional. I’ve never worked that way because it feels, uh… rude. But to each their own!

Appropriate Altar Items

Other items at home on Expedite altars include —

  • Coins
  • Paper money, mock money, and checks
  • St. Expedite oils, incenses, perfumes, and other materia made in his name
  • Small living varieties of palm, bamboo, or plants with red flowers
  • Items that are red, green, and/ or gold
  • Skeleton keys and lock picks
  • Crow feathers
  • Holy water, crosses, rosaries, or other Christian iconography and implements
  • Tarot cards and items related to your specific (and current) requests
  • Dice or playing cards
  • A bell, for ringing at the beginning and end of your petitions

Timing — St. Expedite + Astrology

In an ideal world, it’s best to establish a new Expedite altar (or clean and re-arrange one), along with give offerings and make requests on Wednesdays, his customary day, as well as the day of Mercury.

Most approaches to planetary magic are, well… planetary in nature, but because space-weather impacts everything (for better or for worse), it’s best to bring appropriate timing to all magical operations to increase their efficacy. Practical magic is but an odds game, at the end of the day.

St. Expedite is a spirit so you don’t have to use particular timing at all to work with him, but if you do, the results he delivers will be even better.

You can tie St. Expedite into your planetary magic work by pairing your requests with the house rulers of your natal chart, and using those periods of time to make offerings and prayers.

For instance, if you are asking for money and your second house is Pisces, Jupiter is the planet that has the biggest ability to impact your finances. Use the day of Expedite (Wednesday) or Jupiter (Thursday) in the hour of Jupiter for your prayers and offerings.

Quickly for those who don’t know what the houses correlate with —

1st = Self overall, body, personal presentation
2nd = Financial matters, material assets
3rd = Your day-to-day, short distance travel
4th = Your household or base of operations, point of origin, family
5th = Luck, creative pursuits, children, things you do for fun
6th = Health, habits, expenses, pets
7th = Spouse, business partners, close 1:1 relationships, outside world overall
8th = Debts, shared resources
9th = Higher education, long distance travel, religious and philosophical pursuits
10th = Career, prominence, reputation
11th = Online networks, social groups and communities, hobbies
12th = Psyche and subconscious

And the planetary rulers of each sign —

Aries and Scorpio = Mars
Taurus and Libra = Venus
Gemini and Virgo = Mercury
Cancer = Moon
Leo = Sun
Sagittarius and Pisces = Jupiter
Capricorn and Aquarius = Saturn

Planetary hours can be calculated online or using smart phone apps, such as Time Nomad, free for iPhone.

Forming Your Request

Be as specific as possible with your petitions and prayers. Contemplate exactly what you need/ want and consider writing it down to read during the ritual, since phrasing is such an important aspect of communication between all beings, and can deeply impact how your results manifest. Basic considerations include —

♰ What is your final objective?

♰ Who does this request involve, other than yourself?

Give their full name(s) or the title of their position. For instance, if you are seeking a promotion at your current job, name your manager or the person who will make that determination. If you are seeking general employment, something along the lines of “Make my future boss hire me immediately, and have me start work right away!”

♰ Where is the setting this will play out in?

Mention the location or stage the ritual there, if possible. If you are trying to sell your house, say something like “Make this house at 123 Expedite Way in California sell immediately! See that I have many offers over the asking price, and make closing as fast and easy as possible! Get the money from the sale into my account immediately!”

Use your Expedite materials in that location to draw his presence and empower his influence over the space, especially on Wednesdays.

♰ When does this need to be achieved by?

Generally speaking, it’s best to request “today!”, “now!”, “the soonest possible!”, and “without delay!” even if there is a deadline farther out. Expedite responds well to emergencies, so even if something is a desire rather than a need, form the request as imminently pressing regardless, and demand results at quicksilver speed.

♰ Why do you need to achieve this?

If you would like to further flesh out your petition, you can present reasons to Expedite about why you need something done, to add more emotional weight and urgency. An example would be “I need $2,000 to pay my rent, to keep a roof over my family’s heads and feed my children!” Don’t focus too much on the negative, and be careful with your phrasing so as not to consolidate difficulties.

General Petition + Prayer to St. Expedite


Have your request formed and offerings prepared, ready beside the altar. The following script can be downloaded to add your own petition and print underneath the prayer text. You can also write your own, or look up hundreds of other St. Expedite prayers available on the internet.

A word you should know how to say is “HODIE”, which means “today” or “at the present time” in latin, which marks Expedite’s cross. It is pronounced (h)o•dee•aay – with the ghost of an (h).

Listen —

Present prayers and offerings in a heartfelt manner, and address the spirit as if it were actually there in front of you, in the same way you’d give a gift and speak to someone with whom you have much respect, reverence, and regard for. Begin by lighting the candle(s) and incense, if you are using it. Here is a petition script —

 

Saint Expedite, Saint Expedite, Saint Expedite!
[Ring bell or knock three times on the altar]

I call you, here and now, and pray for your intercession!

You who acts immediately, and is reliable in times of need!
You, dressed in the red and gold colors of a Roman centurion
Holding high your sacred cross, marked HODIE!
Bearing a palm frond, showing all God’s children the triumph of Spirit over matter

Expedite, who heard the crow shout “tomorrow”,
Expedite, who denied the beast — stepping upon it
Exclaiming “TODAY”!

Come to my aid, glorious martyr! Deliver me this, my prayer and petition —

[Speak your desire; place your petitions or sigils]

I make you offerings of… [place them on the altar if not already there, and say them aloud: flame, water, poundcake, flowers, and…]

In return for your faithful service, and upon delivery of said needs,
I will give you further offerings and sing your praises to the heavens,
For all should know of your power and splendor!

Expedite, Leader of the Thundering Legions
By the glory and grace of your Special Providence
Find a way. Go forth, make it so!

This instant!
HODIE, HODIE, HODIE!

Amen!

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Upon Receipt of Requests, and Disposal of Offerings

As far as offerings go while your requests are pending, leave them on the altar for as long as you desire, but remove them before they rot or wilt. When it comes to disposal of offering water, if you have house plants (especially palms!), water them with it (more on that in specific applications below…). For other offerings, put them outside for animals to feed on or to compost.

When you get the results you asked for, make sure to return to Expedite’s altar and give him the further offerings and praise you promised (if you did). It can be as simple as placing the offerings there and telling St. Expedite, from the bottom of your heart, “thank you”.

Expedite loooves to be publicly recognized. It’s customary after he delivers your request to sing his praises and tell others about him. This is one of the ways of offering to him upon making manifest your requests and prayers.

This can be done on social media by posting pictures, praises, and hashtags, or done the old fashioned way, in person. In South America some people hand out prayer cards on the street by the hundreds!

Growing a Business

If someone wants to increase their business, it follows that they likely also want to increase their income and social media followers. In the case that you want many things at one time, don’t just present Expedite with a list of demands.

Ask for the biggest, most final form of your goal, which if achieved means the smaller things also ended up happening — or that they didn’t matter as much as you thought.

For instance, some people have tens or hundreds of thousands of social media followers but very little sales conversion, while others have much higher conversion rates and higher paying clients, but don’t seem as successful from a “social proof” perspective. Focus on what will make the biggest positive difference in your life, not on what looks cool from the outside.

The most important thing about owning a business is generally related to the income they bring in, so if that’s the case for you, keep that your focus for your main petition. Use other forms of supportive magic, such as sigils and shoaling, for the more specific, smaller stuff, and ask Expedite to quicken and make manifest your sigils, which you should keep around his altar.

Note that magic works best when it’s supported by mundane action. All magic does is increase the likelihood of pulling something off, so you need to stack the deck in your favor by doing everything else in your power to make your business successful on a practical level.

Success magic is the cherry on top of all the other hard work you need to put in, in order to make that success possible in the real-world.

 

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If possible, establish an Expedite altar inside the business. It’s very common for Chinese and Thai restaurants to feature small shrines on the counter, but they can also be hidden away in cabinets or back rooms. It doesn’t have to be large, but giving Expedite a base of operations in the establishment will empower his ability to increase your business.

If you can’t locate it in the business, have an altar to make offerings for him at home and bring an image or prayer card of Expedite into the business as a satellite. Put this somewhere near the door or in the cash register.

Set a goal for what amount of increase you would like, whether it’s earning $X more per month, getting X amount of new clients, or any other important metric. Add those details to the prayer, and begin saying it every Wednesday until your results are achieved. Then set another set of goals.

Material applications can also include —

  • Burning Expedite’s Incense in your place of business every Wednesday
  • Anointing the door knob with Oil of Expeditus every morning when you open; anointing a large bill you always keep in the cash register
  • Spraying his Holy Water around the cash register
  • Wear Golden Blessings of St. Expedite perfume to work
  • Keeping a palm or bamboo plant in the establishment that you feed with Expedite’s offering water

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If you have a dedicated office you do most of your work in, locate your Expedite altar there if possible. If not, have one in your home and keep his image or a St. Expedite prayer card near the office doorway or beside your computer.

Set a goal for what amount of increase you would like, whether it’s earning $X more per month, getting X amount of new clients, or any other important metric. Add those details to the prayer, and begin saying it every Wednesday until your results are achieved. Then set another set of goals.

Material applications can also include —

  • Anoint the edge of your business cards with Oil of Expeditus or lightly mist his Holy Water over them, keeping them on his altar until you need to use them
  • Keep a palm or bamboo plant and put your business card underneath (or mark the pot with the name and website address of your business), and feed it with Expedite’s offering water
  • Wear Golden Blessings of St. Expedite perfume while you work
  • Burn Expedite’s Incense in your office every Wednesday
  • Print your natal chart and anoint the 10th and 11th houses with Expedite’s oil

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Bring a St. Expedite altar box set (or whatever you’re able) to construct a small, portable altar in your vending booth. Under the table works well. You can also get a medium or larger size cash box and reserve one portion of it for a miniature Expedite shrine. If none of that is possible, just an image or prayer card inside your cash box will suffice.

After set up or before the start of sales, take a moment to pray to Expedite with whatever your desired amount of income or sales generation is. Give the offerings there that you are able, or promise to provide them after delivery of results.

Material applications can also include —

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In the case of wanting to gain clients, you likely already have a brick and mortar or online business and will be enacting those techniques to work with Expedite.

Add your client goals to your petitions, in addition to whatever financial requests you’ve made. Make prayers to Expedite to bless your advertisements and make them more effective. Create goals for how many new clients you would like to amass, or new appointments booked.

Create a mock dream-calendar with appointment slots filled with combinations of “client,” “new client”, “established client”, and keep it on your Expedite altar. Use sigils to the effect of gaining new clients, and make sure you’re putting in the practical effort and marketing required to make gaining clients possible.

Material applications can also include —

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In the case of wanting to gain social media followers, you likely already have a business and will be enacting the applicable techniques to work with Expedite.

Create goals for how many new followers you would like to amass, and add that to your petitions. Print your social profiles and cross out the amount of followers you have, writing in how many you want. Leave on your Expedite altar.

Use sigils to the effect of gaining more followers, and make sure you’re putting in the practical effort and posting required to make gaining additional follows possible.

Material applications can also include —

  • Write out your social media handles and web addresses, and anoint them with Oil of Expeditus, or lightly mist them with his Holy Water
  • Wear Expedite perfumes when making important posts
  • Print your natal chart and anoint the 11th house with Expedite’s oil

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Fast Cash + Gaining Income

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Establish an Expedite altar if you don’t already have one. Determine the amount of money you need, and then add some to that amount. It’s always better to overshoot in these circumstances, and the extra money will come in handy if you’re strapped to begin with.

In a real emergency, you’re working with whatever timeframes are available. You don’t need to worry about if it’s a Wednesday or go for idealized timing, you can turn to Expedite any time you’re in need of him.

Make what offerings you’re able, or promise them upon receipt of results, and pray to Expedite with the amount of money you need, imploring him to deliver it to you NOW, conveying to him that it’s an emergency.

Write the amount of money you asked for down and leave it on his altar, or put that same amount of Monopoly or other mock currency there to represent the sum. Put an image of Expedite or prayer card in your wallet.

Pray to him every day until the money comes in.

Material applications can also include —

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Establish an Expedite altar if you don’t already have one. In non-emergencies, it’s best to do things on the most appropriate days, so wait to start on a Wednesday, ideally in the planetary hour you think is most appropriate.

Determine your financial goals, keeping in mind you can raise this amount on a monthly basis as results are achieved. This is a money marathon, not a sprint! It’s best to choose an initial value that’s high enough to make a real difference, but not unfathomable based on your current income. Something that pushes your comfort level and expectations, but isn’t outlandish.

Write yourself a check with the amount of money you want to generate and leave it on Expedite’s altar, or put that same amount of Monopoly or other mock currency there to represent the sum. Put an image of Expedite or prayer card in your wallet.

Make prayers and offerings on Wednesdays, for ongoing work on your behalf. Spread word of his efficacy and glory, encouraging other people to work with this spirit.

Material applications can also include —

  • Anoint items in your wallet with Oil of Expeditus, or lightly mist it with his Holy Water, including the check you wrote out to yourself
  • Spill some of Expedite’s Powder in your bank
  • Keep a palm or bamboo plant on/ near Expedite’s altar, or in your place of work. If you are asking to earn $5,000 per month, take a $5 dollar bill and write “x1000” on it, and put it underneath the plant. Feed it regularly with Expedite’s offering water. You can also put the check you wrote out to yourself or the overall value instead of using real currency.
  • Wear A Prayer to St. Expedite or Golden Blessings of St. Expedite perfume on Wednesdays
  • Print your natal chart and anoint the 2nd and 8th houses with Expedite’s oil

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Empowering Sigil Work

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You can work with Expedite in a general way by asking him to help potentiate, quicken, and manifest your sigil work.

For an introduction to sigils and shoaling, see Gordon White’s work. Keep your sigils near, on, or above your Expedite altar, and pray that he helps expedite their materialization.

Anoint the sigils with Oil of Expeditus, or lightly mist them with his Holy Water, upon creation and when you pray to Expedite.

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Real Estate

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Create an Expedite altar inside the house if possible, preferably by the front door. It can be in a cabinet to make it less conspicuous.

The end goal is to sell your house as quickly as possible, but other things to consider building into your petition can include —

  • The number of offers you’d like to receive (many!)
  • At what price (above asking!)
  • How long the closing/ escrow process will be (as short as possible!)
  • When the money actually arrives in your account (immediately!)

[Consider putting together a sigil shoal to this effect.]

Pray and light up Expedite’s altar every Wednesday until the house is sold and the money has landed in your account. Pray that he settles any issues that arise throughout the process.

Material applications can include —

  • Anoint your front door with Oil of Expeditus, or lightly mist it with Holy Water, every Wednesday, and before showings or appointments with prospective buyers
  • Anoint the edge of your Realtor’s business cards and your house flyers with Oil of Expeditus, or lightly mist them with Holy Water.
  • Print their natal chart of all owners and anoint the 4th, 2nd, and 8th houses with Oil of Expeditus
  • Write down the price you’d like to sell the house or write out a check to yourself, and keep it on Expedite’s altar
  • Hide an Expedite prayer card under the welcome mat

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It’s likely not going to be possible to create an Expedite altar in the target house, but you can (and should!) put one in yours.

The end goal is to sell your listings as quickly as possible, but other considerations you may wish to build into your petitions —

  • The number of offers you’d like to receive (many!)
  • At what price (above asking!)
  • How long the closing/ escrow process will be (as short as possible!)
  • When the money actually arrives in your account (immediately!)

[Consider putting together a sigil shoal to this effect.]

Pray and light up Expedite’s altar every Wednesday. Pray that he settles any issues that arise throughout the various processes.

Keep flyers of your active listings or a list of addresses on your Expedite altar. You can mark sigils on the backside of each one and anoint them as you gain new listings.

Material applications can include —

  • Anoint the front doors with Oil of Expeditus, or lightly mist them with Holy Water, especially before showings or appointments with prospective buyers
  • Anoint the edge of your business cards and house flyers with Oil of Expeditus, or lightly mist them with Holy Water. The same can be done with contracts that need to be signed
  • Mix dirt from each property with Expedite’s Powder. You can leave it in their yard or carry some back to your Expedite altar
  • If possible, burn some of Expedite’s Incense in the house
  • Hide an image of Expedite or prayer card somewhere in the house, or buried beside the For Sale sign post, etc.

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Bringing Movement + Ending Situations

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Establish an Expedite altar if you don’t already have one. Pray for whatever outcome you want for the case, whether you need it to be dropped, or have the judge rule in your favor, and emphasize that you need all of it as quickly as possible.

Material applications can include —

  • Anoint any case related paperwork you need to sign (or get signed) with Oil of Expeditus, or lightly mist with Holy Water
  • Anoint the edge of your lawyer’s business card with Oil of Expeditus, or lightly mist it with Holy Water. The same can be done if you have any items of identification for the judge, or case number
  • Mix dirt from the courthouse with Expedite’s Powder and bring it back to keep on your altar
  • Wear Expedite perfume oil during case related appearances, such as meetings with your attorney, depositions, and on court days

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Establish an Expedite altar if you don’t already have one. Pray for whatever the situation is to move forward or end, depending on what it is you want.

List the ideal final outcome and tell Expedite to make it happen NOW. Name the key players involved, and if possible, have images or icons of them (or the situation) on your Expedite altar, to anoint with his materia. Keep praying daily or every Wednesday until your results are achieved.

For situations where you need serious movement/ fire power, keep the altar lit up as often as possible and make frequent offerings of red wine and incense.

Material applications can include —

Once the situation moves on, remove any of the things representing the situation off your Expedite altar. Consider burning or putting in a moving river.

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Luck

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Establish an Expedite altar if you don’t already have one. Pray that Expedite makes you luckier and come up with examples of how you’d like that to manifest — winning more games, always hitting green lights, getting dealt the best cards every round, things always working out for you, etc.

Use the planetary hour of the planet that rules your 5th house.

Material applications can include —

  • Keep dice on your Expedite altar, for instance a D20 with the 20 side up. You can do the same with playing cards, either a whole stack, picking out an idealized poker hand, or just all the Aces. The Wheel of Fortune tarot card would also be appropriate to display
  • Anoint any of the items you consider personally lucky with Oil of Expeditus, or lightly mist them with Holy Water. Keep these with you in your wallet or purse, when not on the altar
  • Wear Fast Luck perfume oil
  • Put some of Expedite’s Powder in your shoe
  • Print your natal chart and anoint your 5th house with Expedite’s Oil
  • When something especially lucky happens, promote St. Expedite in person or online

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Establish an Expedite altar if you don’t already have one. In your prayers, name the games you would like to win at and what you desire to receive from winning them.

Use the planetary hour of Jupiter, or the planet that rules your 5th house.

Material applications can include —

  • Keep idealized hands from the games you desire to win on your Expedite altar. For instance, if you are a poker player, keep a Royal Flush. If you play 21, cards adding up to 21. If you play dice, position the best side (for whatever the purpose) up
  • Keep casino chips on Expedite’s altar
  • Anoint yourself with Oil of Expeditus, or lightly mist yourself with Holy Water before playing or gambling
  • Wear Fast Luck perfume oil
  • Put some of Expedite’s Powder in your shoe
  • Get dirt from the casino or place of gaming and keep it on Expedite’s altar
  • Print your natal chart and anoint your 5th house with Expedite’s Oil
  • When you win, promote St. Expedite in person or online. Thank him and make offerings

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Health

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You can pray to Expedite to help encourage healing and recovery for yourself or others.

Do not do this too often because Expedite’s influence can tax the body, no more than once per week. For this purpose, I would recommend a simple offering of water. Do not invoke Expedite in situations where surgery is being performed, which might cause rushing on behalf of the doctor.

You may also find Asclepius, ancient God of medicine, more helpful in dealing with health and healing oriented scenarios.

Material applications can include —

  • Anoint the person (or their image) with Oil of Expeditus, or lightly mist them with Holy Water. The same can be done using Asclepius’ Oil and Water, and would likely be more effective.
  • Light white candles in honor of the sick person, leaving them burning safely and supervised.
  • Print their natal chart and anoint the 1st and 6th houses with appropriate oils.

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Is there anything specific you’d like added to this article?

Looking for a platform to spread word of Expedite’s great works?

Sound off in the comments…

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All praise and glory to St. Expedite for answering our prayers, now and in our times of need,
for his power and speed know no bounds! ♰ 

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On Way-Finding via Failure + Your Best Directions According to Classical Feng Shui

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This was posted as a Facebook thread on October 13, 2018. It was added to this website, Instagram, and Twitter on January 15th, 2019.

If this type of practical esoteric content appeals to you, get it in real time by connecting with Sphere + Sundry’s social media profiles…

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This mindstream article began as a Facebook post sharing an old but useful article I had written in the era of a bygone enterprise. I was reminded of it again on a Twitter thread and wanted to add it to the website…

Once upon a time I did a year long classical feng shui training, specializing in the form of geomancy that analyzes and delineates the energy of landforms and geographical features.

Along the course of finding my way, in Los Angeles (the second time!), I tried my hand at professional feng shui consulting under the shingle of Heaven & Earth Consultations.

Like astrology, it wasn’t a comprehensive enough fit for the totality of my orientation, so it didn’t stick, but some useful articles resulted — including this one, which tells you the most (and least) auspicious directions, according to your gua number.

Gua numbers are calculated by birth day, time, and location, and are a bit of a cross between numerology and astrology, in relation to the Chinese 5-element system. These are broken into two groups, East Life and West Life, which can be likened to the diurnal (daytime) and nocturnal astrological sects.

I am sharing this for two reasons —

  1. It’s useful and cool information that you can easily apply in your own home and ritual activities.
  2. To point out a “failure” of a project that was an essential aspect of my development, which led to what I’m doing today.

Every skill you’ve ever learned, every project that never took off, every attempt to offer yourself to the world, is leading SOMEWHERE…

We don’t always know where that is, or how it’ll manifest.

The point is the expression of yourself, and becoming the living embodiment of your passions and interests, so much of the time and in such a way that the world can’t help but embrace you for it.

Every failure, every misstep, is STILL a step in the right direction. I spent YEARS anguishing over not knowing my place in the world, and not having a direction — trying SO HARD, doing what at the time felt like spinning my wheels.

If I could go back and talk to myself (not that I would have believed me!), I would say —

You’re doing everything right.
I promise.

Keep trying.
You don’t know it yet, but it’s working,
and you’re getting there.

If you’re TRYING, you’re on the right track.
Just
don’t.
stop.
trying.

Keep going,
and you’ll get there.

I promise.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Take a deep breath while that sinks in
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Deeper
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Deeper still
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Until you BELIEVE it…
feel it in the core of your being
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

I promise.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Here’s that gua article I “failed” about.

Did I mention I also trained as an Ericksonian hypnotist?

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Longer Eclipse Cycles + Nodal Horoscopes for Cancer-Capricorn

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This was posted to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on January 8th, 2019.

If this type of practical esoteric content appeals to you, get it in real time by connecting with Sphere + Sundry’s social media profiles…

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There are a number of Eclipse articles on this website, one about common misconceptions in astrology and magic, and two others that suggest appropriate remediation and ritual activities determined by whether an Eclipse is happening on the South or North Node. All will be updated regularly to apply to the specifics of the ongoing Eclipse cycle. Thank you to those who have circulated them, or will in the future!

This piece is about working with the longer-term cycles that Eclipses kick off, and what it means when the Nodes switch signs and houses in the natal chart, meaning they begin impacting new areas of life.

If you find the technical stuff incomprehensible and/ or boring, feel free to skip past the bullets…

The Full Eclipse Life Cycle

  • The actual Eclipse event
  • The Moon exiting the sign in which it took place (leaving Capricorn, most recently). This should ideally be a time of rest, integration, and self-care to prepare for upcoming phases.
  • The two week period before the next Eclipse in the pairing occurs (which happens in the first degree of Leo on January 20th). Austin refers to this phase as the “bardo” because the character of this period can be surreal and confusing, intense and isolating. Here, the bulk of the energetic, emotional and physical manifestations of the Eclipses are cozying in, like seeds planted in ground that’s been freshly tilled and prepped for an odd kind of growing season.
  • The six months between when one pair of Eclipses happened and the next begin. During this phase, reality and our psyches stabilize and the changes the last Eclipses asked of us enter into a growth pattern that becomes the new normal, for this phase of life, as far as the Nodes get to determine.
  • The one and a half years the nodes spend on each axis, and the two year-ish period between when Eclipses start work on one sign axis and another. (The July 12th 2018 Cancer Solar Eclipse was the first the Cancer-Capricorn axis has seen since 2011, and this cycle will come to a close with a Lunar Eclipse in Cancer on July 4th 2020. The upcoming Eclipse January 20th 2019 will conclude the most recent Leo-Aquarius set, until it kicks off again in 2026.)

Tips for the Current Period

During the two weeks between January 5th and when the next Eclipse occurs on the 20th, we’re living between the book ends of not one, but two distinct Eclipse phases — the meat in the time-sandwich between Eclipse-pair lunations, AKA the Bardo (bullet 3 above), and the time where one axis has been initiated and the old one has yet to conclude (point 5).

Continue tending your physical vessel, emotional and spiritual state, and staying engaged with the changes that are taking place within and without. This is a time of heavy processing, and we can lay a lot of ground work for what the future has in store by staying present and doing the work this period entails, as opposed to putting it off for a harder adjustment later.

In a way, it’s fortuitous that this cycle happened at the start of 2019, when we’re checking back in with life after the holidays and thinking about what we want our futures (and future selves!) to look like.

Nodal Axis Effects

Since the Nodes are ultimately points of calculation for where Eclipses will take place, their most impactful manifestations are kicked off by those events actually occurring. On a world transit level, signs mean a great deal, but on a personal level, the houses cannot be ignored. Signs first, then Nodal and Eclipse horosccopes.

Goodbye Leo-Aquarius

The cycle we’re working our way out of saw the North Node in Leo, which amplified people’s desire to be seen and receive credit for their contributions, stoking self-realizations and the need to love and be loved, but also self-importance and appetites of the ego. Many people started getting serious about their own businesses and promoting their material during this last Eclipse cycle, or have finally realized how important putting yourself out there is and dedicated themselves to it moving forward.

For the South Node in Aquarius’ part, a reduction in globalist approaches which were replaced by more tribal and nationalist policies was a clear manifestation, as was the erosion of democratic norms. Attempts to regulate the WWW and create additional laws around internet use, as well as data breaches, can also be tied to Ketu draining the sign that correlates to the collective consciousness and technological innovations.

Hello Cancer-Capricorn

There’s a lot going on in Capricorn for the rest of the Nodes’ stay here, given that Saturn and Pluto are both in Capricorn.

[For more on Saturn, see Austin Coppock’s article or webinar, or listen to episode 140 of The Astrology Podcast]

While transits to this axis can undoubtedly signify brutal events and come to Jesus moments, the South Node has a draining and purgative effect on Capricorn, a sign associated with the government and other elder, powerful, and well insulated institutions.

On a positive note, it may help strip power away from unqualified leaders and see outdated and bloated administrative models collapse. On the negative side, the US government shut down began on December 22nd 2018, the same day of the first lunation on the Cancer-Capricorn axis since the nodes entered those signs (the Full Cancer Moon).

Though it wasn’t an Eclipse, it was still a harbinger of what’s to come. Government responsibilities immediately began shrinking, and have yet to cease this course (as of writing on January 8th). Trump has threatened that he’s happy for it to go on for “months or a year or longer”, though I’m sure one event or another will ultimately intercede.

This period is also likely to witness the continued erosion of responsibilities, regulation, and protective measures instituted by governments. Laws are likely to be revoked during this time, and attempts to make new ones may not stick.

Unfortunately, with the North Node in Cancer, we can expect that the nationalist trends will continue, especially in America. The whole “reason” for the government shut down was because of Trump’s demand for a border wall, to “protect” “our own” country, as ridiculously ineffective as that would be.

Rahu in the Crab’s sign instinctively drives us to hold closer to our own families, our own lands — our own “tribes”, and can result in the rejection of others. Cancer is insular and mushy on the inner, but skittish and hard to crack on the outer.

America’s founding chart has a number of important planets in Cancer, and Pluto in Capricorn is slowly grinding its way to make for the US’s first ever Pluto return. It pains me to say, things do not bode well for our financial systems, ability to address our domestic or international issues in a balanced, productive way, or the issue of mounting fascism and racism for some time.

Better news will come, just not in short order. In the interim, at least we have Jupiter ⚡️

Horoscopes for the Nodes + Eclipses in Cancer-Capricorn

The collective impacts us all, and certainly there will be personal ways in which the sign significations listed above will manifest, but the most important thing to look to for an individual are the houses that the Nodes have transitioned into, which reveal the areas of life the Eclipses will start hitting.

Also keep in mind that what follows are delineations for how things will look by the end of the freshly begun year and a half to two year cycle. These changes won’t be immediately obvious, and each Eclipse lunation will put more emphasis on one end of the process than the other. The Nodes are a seesaw, churning the oceans of life back and forth, based on who takes the reigns. These horoscopes explore some of the pressure points and dialogues the Nodes are set to engage within individual charts.

Our lived experiences of this period will reflect the negotiations that take place between what Rahu is moving us toward versus what Ketu is purging and negating. Some of the largest upcoming life events will likely play into these shifts, meaning that by the end, we’ll have broader gains on the side of Rahu, whereas Ketu’s house topics will have been clarified and minimized. Knowing this can help us productively orient our actions and expectations.

For the most accurate interpretation, read from your rising sign. If you don’t know it, use the Sun, Moon, or whatever point you prefer to derive your houses from…

Rahu in the First (Cancer Rising)

Gaining Independence

Having Rahu in the first house of Cancer motivates you to put your own affairs… well, first… as Ketu in the seventh reduces the amount of energy you’re used to spending on others or receiving from them. You’ll be taking more on, which can show up as a hunger for accomplishment, recognition, and self-improvement. It could also be an increased appetite for literal food and drink.

This is a period of heightened awareness around self-reliance and what you’re capable of, as the struggle between the Self and Other is up for inspection. It’s also a phase where demands of partners and the outside world may make you wish, at times, that you were sequestered behind your own version of a border wall.

Some of those closest to you may fall on some particularly hard times, as the Saturn-Pluto conjunction plays out in your house of partnerships. How much of the onus to fix other people’s problems you take upon yourself vs. keep moving in the direction of your own interests is one of the key questions posited by the times to come.

Rahu in the Second (Gemini Rising)

Asset Gains

The North Node in your second house of personal finances and assets means that some form of accumulation is on the horizon. Collective resources are getting re-shuffled into your personal hand, which may indicate inheritances, pulling monies out of investment pools, the purchasing of gold over stocks, divorce settlements, and the like.

It might not mean that the dollar value of what becomes liquid or “real” is higher than what it was on paper, but you can expect for more assets to become tangibly yours, and to take possession of physical objects and things that are unequivocally for you.

There may be struggles and hardships which contribute to the situation, as Saturn and Pluto play out in your eighth. You may witness a drop in shared expenditures and exchanges, emotionally, financially, and otherwise, as this period sees you less likely to co-mingle your resources with others and may trigger divesting from resource pools. Business and personal partnerships, as well as your relationship between business assets and personal assets, are flagged for a dialogue.

Rahu in the Third (Taurus Rising)

Localized Gains

The third house rules your process of getting from A to B in the day to day. The places you frequent, the people you regularly encounter, the small, rote communications that are made. Rahu in the third brings about an uptick in this type of localized activity — increased email flow, more running around, and more exchanges with siblings.

On the flip side, the South Node in the ninth indicates you’ll take more local trips than long-distance ones, that you’ll focus more on blog writing and less on book writing, and generally indicates a shift from long-term, long-distance orientations to short-term task mastering.

On a magical and spiritual level, the third is said to be the house of the Goddess, and relates to witchcraft and “low magic”. Engagement in smaller, more regular spiritual observations, perhaps of the folk, Goddess-oriented, or self-guided variety is likely to increase, as opposed to formal religious studies, participation in orders and graded systems, and lofty “high” or ceremonial magics.

Rahu in the Fourth (Aries Rising)

Domestic Gains

Rahu in the fourth house of home and family and Ketu in the tenth indicates a shift of energy from the professional sphere into the domestic. You may find that demands at home necessitate this shift, or that a lessening of career opportunities or objectives happen to land you there more often than you used to be. Professional concerns will prove more stressful and taxing at some points in this cycle, and home life may suffer for it as energies are re-allocated.

The fourth house also has to do with origins and parents. You may have a piqued interest in your ancestry or need to pay more attention to care-taking parents, children, or tending to household obligations. Negotiations related to work-life balance will be the main focus of this Nodal period.

Routine space clearings and honoring your ancestors are recommended during this cycle.

Rahu in the Fifth (Pisces Rising)

Creative Gains

The North Node in your fifth house will provide a boost of creative energy, which can manifest in multiple ways. One of the most famous fifth house associations is children, which are a byproduct of sex (also a fifth house topic), but progeny are far from the only thing people can spend their time and energies creating. The fifth also rules works of art, and almost any other project that falls under the purview of a passionate endeavor you derive joy from investing time in.

The South Node in the eleventh suggests that the amount of energy you spend online and engaging in social networks will be reduced, alongside other community engagements. The struggle between what others expect of you and the role you play for collective and social endeavors, versus what you’re wanting to invest your own energies in because they make you happy and stoke your passions, is highlighted. People in positions of power within organizations in which you take part may prove, at times, difficult to deal with.

Rahu in the Sixth (Aquarius Rising)

Practical Gains

The sixth house is where our bodily and financial habits, for better or for worse, come from. Rahu in the sixth signifies that more focus will be allocated to physical and monetary maintenance, and may open doors to odd jobs and contract work. Your pets might need more attention, or you could adopt them during this phase, as the sixth rules not only small routine tasks, but also small animals which demand routine care.

Ketu in the twelfth brings about shifts in psychic energies and the navigation of dreamscapes. Expect an audit of old fantasies and limiting beliefs, and check in on how such things hinder your ability to care-take your body, your bottom line, and rise to the occasion of what’s required to lead a healthy, responsible life. A change of relationship between the intake of mind-altering substances and the conditions they, knowingly or unknowingly, medicate, is up for contemplation during this period.

Rahu in the Seventh (Capricorn Rising)

Gaining Self-Awareness

The seventh house rules the spouse, but also all significant partnerships, and your relationship to the outside world. Rahu transiting your seventh and Ketu in the first will, at times, rewire your energetic expenditures away from yourself in favor of others. This could mean that you get swept up by the demands of those close to you or find yourself in circumstances outside of your control that require some form of self-sacrifice in order to address them.

There’s a lot going on in your first house, with Pluto and Saturn transiting, so this period of time will likely be taxing, asking much of your ability to hold it together and rise to the occasion. Ketu will be in the process of purifying how you present yourself and auditing your ideas as they pertain to your body and orientation to the world, which has the capacity to result in some great spiritual progress and self-illumination, but could also manifest in bouts of depression and angst.

Stay engaged and honest with your support systems and resist the urge to isolate. Prioritize finding ways to take care of your body and mental health, as well as alleviate stress. Weight loss could be one of the manifestations of this time, whether undertaken consciously or as a result of reduced appetite.

Remember, no mountain is too steep for the tenacity and grit that Capricorn can bring to the table, and the peak awaits.

Rahu in the Eighth (Sagittarius Rising)

Collective Gains

The North Node in your eighth house of shared resources and coupled finances, along with Ketu in the second of personal assets, points to an uptick in the co-mingling of monies, emotional intimacy, and shared interests with close partners or businesses. Supporting others might prove to be a burden on your personal finances.

These times, especially given Saturn and Pluto in your second, may apply financial pressures that mandate such shifts, either as a necessary measure or way of reducing personal liabilities and expenditures. This could also manifest in judgments against you that must be paid, or the taking on of (or increased payments toward) debt.

Things that are (or were once) “yours” may end up being shared by or given to others, or you may find yourself investing in collective endeavors in pursuit of short-term shelters or longer term gains. This is money, but also objects and assets. Note that for the rest of 2019 Jupiter in your first in Sagittarius may delay some of these significations, as the Greater Benefic provides protection and will also be delivering bounties.

Rahu in the Ninth (Scorpio Rising)

Gaining Perspective

Rahu in your ninth house concerns things like the accumulation of knowledge, long-distance travel, religious concerns, publishing, and the development of your own philosophical worldview. Such topics will be a primary draw for the coming period, likely at the expense of your day-to-day routine and shorter-term activities.

Meanwhile, the demands of your daily schedule will at times present hurdles that keep you from investing in your longer-term, loftier ambitions. Over the course of this period, you’ll likely discover that more needs to be taken off your plate in order to cultivate yourself in the ways you desire, and to be less distracted by the minutia of the daily grind. The ninth also rules higher education, so you may apply yourself to some form of educational program that chafes against routine demands.

The ninth is the house of the God, which is associated with religious life, “high” magics, formal orders, and the like. Magically and spiritually speaking, you may find yourself pursuing attainments in more formal structures or taking on more masculine forms of observance, even working with a higher number of male spirits and god forms.

Rahu in the Tenth (Libra Rising)

Gaining Visibility

The North Node in your tenth house of career and public visibility stokes ambitions you may not have known you had, and by the end of this cycle, you can expect a heightened public presence and more determined professional direction. Investing additional energy in your public life and career will require sacrifices on the home-front, but domestic demands will present themselves throughout this process that require some back and forth.

The South Node in the fourth house, alongside Saturn and Pluto, mean that things at home or from your family of origin may not be going so smoothly. Home-life may, at times, prove burdensome and claustrophobic, and family secrets or issues with foundations, literal or metaphorical, are up for some excavation. You may be unable to move if you so desire, or find that you have no say in the matter.

Routine space clearings and honoring your ancestors are highly recommended during this Nodal cycle.

Rahu in the Eleventh (Virgo Rising)

Gaining Community

Rahu in your eleventh house of social networks, the internet at large, organizations in which you participate, and communities you’re a part of, draws your energies further in those directions. Although you may find that spending your time in such collective spheres takes away from your ability to spend it freely on your own passion projects and not having to answer to anyone, you’ll also gain new friends and a sense of community you may not have had before this cycle began.

The eleventh houses utopian views and communal drives, so it’s possible that you end up more deeply engaged with politics or volunteering for causes and organizations that you believe will help make the world a better place, or at least more how you envision it, during this cycle.

Meanwhile, Ketu in the fifth house takes your focus away from children, creative endeavors, and other fifth house topics, but not without chaffing along the way. A balance between the personal and collective must be struck. You may feel constrained by the demands on your creative output or obligations to have fun and be happy go lucky, when seemingly more important things are hanging in the balance.

Rahu in the Twelfth (Leo Rising)

Gaining the Unknown

The North Node in your twelfth house magnetizes you to the realm of fantasy, spiritual and magical exploration, dreamscapes, and psychological insight. The use of mind-altering technologies or substances may feature heavily, which rubs against Ketu in the sixth’s demands that you look after the physical first and tend to practical matters, such as bill paying, cleaning, exercising, and all the mundane activities that keep material life from falling to pieces.

Take care to guide the energies feeding into the twelfth productively, via spiritual practices, the responsible use of substances likely to lead to positive breakthroughs and contribute to your wellbeing, and reliable sources of info and tech for exploring the Unknown. The worst forms of this cycle can manifest in over-indulgence, delusional states, psychotic breaks, or confinement.

Ketu, Saturn, and Pluto in the sixth will likely present some physical and financial hardships that cause stress, which would no doubt feel good to blow off. Stay grounded and engaged with these issues in order to work through them and create positive change, rather than engaging in regular avoidance tactics.

Fasting and purifying the physical vessel may be a helpful feature of this time. Tend to your physical health and commit to healthy choices.

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