The talisman of the Moon: how and when to make it

What a Moon talisman means

A Moon talisman, the talisman of the Moon that many now call a Moon amulet, was an image made under the Moon, for the things she governs, at a moment when she was strong. In Canopy it is one of the seven planetary talismans. This page covers how to make a Moon talisman, as far as the app's materials go, and when to make a Moon talisman, which is where the app does its real work. It reads the subject as history and timing and makes no claim that a talisman works.

Canopy gives the meaning in two lines. The purpose line on every Moon window reads "Dreams, the household, and the inner currents of feeling", and the About note names her talisman as one "for the household, for travel by water, and for the soft governance of feeling." Both suit the Moon of the tradition: the nearest and swiftest of the seven, ruler of Cancer, exalted in Taurus, and in elections the planet who presides over every beginning.

The Moon in the Picatrix: planet and mansion

The handbook of this craft is the Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, known in Latin as the Picatrix, and the Moon works in it in two ways. As a planet she has her own colors, stones, plants and suffumigations, and a work addressed to her is set in her own day and hour, as for each of the seven. As the traveler of the twenty-eight lunar mansions she is the significator of a second kind of work, with an image and a purpose for each mansion, timed to her passage through it, as the talismanic timing guide explains.

Canopy keeps the two apart. A Moon talisman window is judged by her strength as a planet. The mansion she holds is named on each window's page, and you can narrow a search to chosen mansions, but the Talismans tab has no separate search for mansion talismans; for the stations themselves, see the 28 lunar mansions and tonight's mansion. Canopy describes no talismanic image for the Moon; it gives her materials and her moments.

How to make a Moon talisman: the materials Canopy shows

Canopy's answer to how to make a Moon talisman stops at the materials and the moment: no construction steps, no image to engrave, no words to recite. Its Correspondences screen, al-Munāsabāt, gives the Moon these, drawn from the classical correspondences:

• Metal (al-Maʿdan): silver, al-fiḍḍa.
• Gemstone (al-Jawhar): pearl.
• Color (al-Lawn): white and silver.
• Fumigation (al-Bakhūr): camphor, kāfūr, or white sandalwood.
• Herb (al-Ḥashīsha): the same two aromatics, camphor or white sandalwood.

On a Moon window's About & Correspondences page, the Talisman Correspondences block repeats silver, pearl, white and silver, and camphor, matching the Correspondences screen. The correspondences of all seven planets are compared in the talismanic timing guide.

The planetary hour of the Moon

The planetary hour of the Moon is any of the unequal hours, a twelfth of the daylight or the night counted from local sunrise and sunset, whose ruler in the Chaldean sequence is the Moon. Monday is hers because she rules its first hour. She rules the 1st and 8th hours of Monday's daylight and the 3rd and 10th of the night that follows, and three or four hours on each of the other days, as the planetary hours table shows. In the tradition her hour suited journeys, messages and the business of the people. The free planetary hour tool shows the hour where you are now.

Every Moon talisman window falls in an hour of the Moon, so its TIMING block always names her as Hour Ruler. Her day is scored, not required: a window on her planetary day, from Monday's sunrise to Tuesday's, earns two points more. The Day Ruler box follows the calendar instead, so a window in the tenth hour of Monday night, past midnight, shows Mars, for Tuesday, yet still scores as the Moon's day.

When to make a Moon talisman: the Moon talisman election

When to make a Moon talisman is the question Canopy answers. Its Moon talisman election admits a moment only when all of these hold, and sets it aside, unscored, when any one fails:

• Her own hour. The Moon must rule the planetary hour.
• On an angle. Within three degrees of the Ascendant or the Midheaven, for the place you choose.
• Never in fall or detriment. Scorpio, her fall, and Capricorn, her detriment, are refused outright.
• Not peregrine. She must hold some essential dignity, as below.
• Unafflicted. Canopy refuses a planetary talisman window while the Moon is combust, near the South Node, or applying by square or opposition to Mars or Saturn.

Two tests do not apply to her: the Moon applying to the planet by conjunction, sextile or trine, since for a Moon talisman she is the planet, and the retrograde test, which falls only on the five from Mercury to Saturn. The tests shared by all seven are set out in why a window is refused.

Where the Moon is strong enough

Here the Moon differs most from the others. She has no terms, since the Egyptian bounds are shared among the five planets alone, so her list is short:

• Cancer, her domicile, and Taurus, her exaltation, throughout the sign.
• Virgo, by night only. Canopy's talisman search gives her the earth signs by night, not the water signs; Taurus already counts as her exaltation and Capricorn is her detriment, so this matters in Virgo alone. Night means the Sun below your horizon.
• Three faces outside Taurus and Cancer: the first ten degrees of Libra, the middle ten of Sagittarius and the last ten of Aquarius.

Everywhere else she is refused: in Scorpio and Capricorn for debility, and in the remaining signs and degrees for holding no dignity at all. That leaves her a quarter of the zodiac by day and a third by night, before the hour and the angle narrow the choice again.

A refused Moon window and an accepted one

Take three imagined skies. On a Monday, in her hour, the Moon rises within a degree of the Ascendant, waxing and clear of the Sun, but in Scorpio, her fall: the moment is set aside. In Gemini on the Midheaven in her hour, unafflicted, she has no domicile, exaltation, triplicity or face, so she is peregrine and refused too. In Taurus, her exaltation, on the Ascendant in her hour, well away from the Sun and the South Node and applying to no square or opposition of Mars or Saturn, she passes, and only then is the moment scored. She needs no other body's aspect, and she need not be waxing.

How Canopy scores a Moon window

An admitted Moon window is scored out of eighteen points and shown as a percentage. It needs 50 percent to be listed, and 70 or more reads Excellent. "Why this time?" lists the factors, led by her dignity, as in "Moon in Taurus (exaltation)":

• Dignity. Five in Cancer, four in Taurus, two for Virgo by night, one for a face.
• Angle. Three on the Ascendant, two on the Midheaven.
• Hour and day. Three for her hour, always present, and two on her planetary day.
• Phase and course. One if she is waxing, and up to two for her condition, full marks only when she is waxing and not void of course.
• The benefics. A point each when Venus or Jupiter aspects her by conjunction, sextile or trine. Neither can help itself, but the Moon can take both points.

So a Moon holding only a face, waning, off her day and without either benefic falls short of the floor on either angle. The Moon in Cancer on the Ascendant on a Monday, waxing and not void of course, with Venus and Jupiter both in aspect, scores every point there is.

Finding a Moon talisman window in Canopy

Open Talismans, then Planetary Talismans (Tilasmāt al-Kawākib), and narrow Bodies from all seven to the Moon. Your location sets the angles. Choose up to six months of dates, add the Waxing filter or a mansion if you like, and tap Search Planets. Filters only narrow the list; they never admit a moment the election has set aside. The whole screen is described in the Planetary Talismans search, step by step.

Each result opens as "Moon Talisman", Tilsam al-Qamar, with the exact time, the score and a TIMING block naming the Hour Ruler and Day Ruler. Its About & Correspondences page adds the lunar mansion she holds, with what it favors and what to avoid in it, and the Correspondences card. Her conditions hold only while she stands within three degrees of her angle in her own hour, so Set Reminder alerts you thirty minutes ahead, and Save to Calendar adds it to your calendar. Talisman scanning requires an active subscription; birth data is optional.

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