The Alchemist's Garden » talismans

Sun Talismans

Alchemist in Charge — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 02:05:05 +0000

I’ve been very busy recently making products and packing and shipping orders (thanks, folks!), but I have taken some time to do some talismans. I’ve been working with magic square type talismans for a while, using Hebrew letters for the numbers. The abstraction of this kind of talisman has always appealed to me, but then I had the idea of imposing a magic square on some kind of image. Like what about reshaping a magic square to fit, say, a crescent for a Moon talisman? But I didn’t go any farther with it on account of being so busy.

Then I found that the morning of 3/25 will be an excellent time astrologically for a Sun talisman. I looked at some of the Kabbalistic talismans I have info for (I’ve been making my own designs for those) but decided to stick with the Agrippan magic square type instead and see what I could do about reforming it. At first I thought I’d just make it circular, that being the symbol of the Sun, but me being me, I had to make it more complicated than that–I had to make it the circle at the center of a sunflower, which is an excellent Sun plant. And it still had to read correctly as a magic square, no matter what shape it was, because the way the numbers add up is an essential part of the talisman’s magic. Then I thought, well, what about using the entire sunflower instead of just the center? Use the petals. This is what I came up with. I’ve got to diddle around with it a bit more, but this is the basic design. I want to use my 18 carat gold ink for the letters, but the petals I would like to do in color, like maybe yellow, orange, red, something along those lines–Fire/Sun colors. I’ve enjoyed designing this one and now feel more confident about coming up with some designs for the other planets.

Commercial Break: Jupiter Talismans

Alchemist in Charge — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:41:10 +0000

Lately, I’ve had a lot of talismanic work. I’ve been enjoying it. Here are some practice talismans I made. For some reason, the blue is not showing up exactly right. It’s Dr. Ph. Martin’s Torquoise Bombay India Ink with Dr. Ph. Martin’s 18-Carat Gold ink highlights, using dip pens. I did these first on Bristol board, then on 100% cotton hot press watercolor paper (shown), then on parchment or paper, as the customer requested. They’re about 5″ x 5″/13 x 13cm. I’ve got a new light box, and boy, is it coming in handy for setup, but I still have the devil of a time with straight lines.:)

A practice Jupiter kamea using Celestial letters

A practice Jupiter kamea using Hebrew script

Talismans & Salsa

Alchemist in Charge — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 23:13:02 +0000

I finally got the page on talismans up on the Alchemy Works site. I’ve been making them for myself for a few years now and began doing them for various individuals a while ago, but only if they brought it up (“Can you make something for me to help stop a trespasser?” for instance). I never had anything on the site about it, but it was time. I very much enjoy doing these things. I’m focusing on two types–grimoiric talismans, such as those featured in The Lesser Key of Solomon or The Veritable Key of Solomon, and custom talismans based on Jewish magic. These I design myself using verses from the Hebrew Bible chosen for their appropriateness and written in the original language. For instance, demonstrating the typical bunnies-of-light approach to witchcraft characteristic of Unreal Witches, I took a break from canning some Peppery Pear Salsa (holy cats, is it good!) from The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving to create a talisman on black goatskin for causing a customer’s enemy to have nightmares. It uses two phrases: Job 7:14: “You frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions” and Isaiah 21:4: “My mind is confused, I shudder in panic. My night of pleasure he has turned into terror.” Isaiah is always good for the curse stuff, I find. What I really like about using the Hebrew Bible as a sourcebook for magic is that not only does it fit into Jewish tradition, with which I am comfortable, but also with more modern practice, like Hoodoo work with the Psalms. In Judaism, such talismans can have various uses but usually involve turning the verses into anagrams or using various codes, such as letter replacement/reversals. I have been inspired by that practice to use different letter sizes and to work on making the verses more graphical. For instance, when someone wanted a talisman for dominating someone, I chose Isaiah 60:14: “The children of those who tormented you shall come bowing before you; Those who reviled you shall prostrate themselves at your feet” (see what I mean about Isaiah?). I formed these into the shape of a boot crushing the words for “those who reviled you” and “those who tormented you.” For the nightmare talisman, I wrote the two verses on black goatskin with silver and white ink, arranging the verses to cross each other and borrow letters from each other, weaving them into a negative dream catcher, if you will, and gave it a border of thorns. While working, I noticed that letters spelling “New Moon” (Rosh Chodesh) stood out. This was encouraging to me, as I had chosen to construct this talisman on the New Moon. I figured that was a good time for hatching nightmares. This talisman will be recharged regularly on New Moons with Saturn incense (although I think Moon or even Mars would work as well).

My next talisman is the Second Pentacle of Jupiter from The Veritable Key of Solomon for someone who wants to work on prosperity. This is a nice one that I’ve made before. I’ll make it in blue and gold ink on cream goatskin this Thursday, Jupiter’s day, in between doing taxes. Yes, even bunnies of light must pay taxes.