Planetary talismans and the window for each planet

What a planetary talisman was

A planetary talisman, in the Arabic tradition, was an image made under one of the seven planets for a purpose that suited that planet's nature: Venus for affection and concord, Jupiter for increase, the Sun for honor, Mercury for speech, learning and trade. The word is ṭilasm, and the great handbook of the subject is the Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, known in Latin as the Picatrix. What set such an image apart was the moment of its making: as in the elections of Māshāʾallāh and Sahl ibn Bishr, the sky at the start was held to stamp the thing begun.

The wider theory is set out in the guide to astrological talisman timing. This page takes one part of it: the window each planet offers, and how Canopy finds it. It reads the subject as history; it gives no instructions for making a talisman and makes no claim that one works.

What Canopy carries for each planet

Timing was paired with matter: each planet had its metal, colors, stone and incense, gathered for a work in the planet's own day and hour. Canopy's Angel of the Day card carries these values for each of the seven; the Correspondences page for each planet adds its herbs and a wider choice of fumigations.

The colors, stones and incenses Canopy carries for the seven, drawn from the classical correspondences:

• The Sun, ruler of Leo and of Sunday: gold and yellow; ruby; frankincense.
• The Moon, ruler of Cancer and of Monday: white and silver; pearl; camphor.
• Mars, ruler of Aries and Scorpio and of Tuesday: red and scarlet; garnet; dragon's blood.
• Mercury, ruler of Gemini and Virgo and of Wednesday: mixed and variegated colors; agate; storax.
• Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius and Pisces and of Thursday: blue and purple; sapphire; cedar.
• Venus, ruler of Taurus and Libra and of Friday: green and rose; emerald; sandalwood and rose.
• Saturn, ruler of Capricorn and Aquarius and of Saturday: black and dark shades; onyx; myrrh.

Their metals follow in the same order: gold for the Sun, silver for the Moon, iron for Mars, quicksilver for Mercury, tin for Jupiter, copper for Venus and lead for Saturn.

The signs each planet rules are its domiciles, the strongest of the essential dignities. And the weekdays follow the Chaldean order set out on the planetary hours page, in which the planet that rules a day also rules its first hour at sunrise.

The Planetary Talismans search, step by step

The app's Talismans tab opens on two entries, Planetary Talismans and Fixed Star Talismans. The first, subtitled Tilasmāt al-Kawākib, searches for the planetary windows; the second does the same for the fixed stars. Below them, a Week Ahead card shows the next planetary or star window.

The Planetary Talismans screen reads from top to bottom:

• Location. Your current location or, failing that, your birth place, and you can change it. The angles depend on where you stand: the same planet can be rising in one city and below the horizon in another.
• Bodies. The seven visible planets, all selected to begin with.
• Filters. Moon phase (Any Phase, Waxing or Waning); angle (Any, ASC, MC or On Angle); Moon motion (Any, Moon Applying or Moon Separating); and one or more of the 28 lunar mansions.
• Date Range. Seven days from today to begin with, and up to six months in one search.

Then Search Planets, for "the next moment for each selected planet", sorted Soonest or Top Rated. Each row gives the planet, the window's span, its exact time and its score.

The filters narrow the list after the search; they never loosen or tighten the rules. Choosing Waxing hides windows under a waning Moon; it cannot admit a moment the engine has refused. Birth data is optional: your chart, if Canopy has it, only adds a note on how each window meets your nativity. When nothing in the span qualifies, the screen says so plainly — "No moment worthy of a talisman in this stretch" — and suggests widening the search.

Why a window is refused

Canopy does not mark a poor moment down and list it anyway. A moment that fails any one of these tests is dropped before it is ever scored:

• Its own hour. The planet must rule the planetary hour: a Venus window always falls in an hour of Venus.
• On an angle. The planet must stand within three degrees of the Ascendant or the Midheaven.
• Never in its fall or detriment. Such a planet is refused outright, whatever minor dignity it holds there.
• Not peregrine. It must hold some essential dignity where it stands: domicile, exaltation, triplicity, term or face.
• Not combust or retrograde. It must be clear of the Sun's beams and moving direct, tests that fall on the five planets other than the Sun and Moon.
• The Moon applying. The Moon must be applying to the planet by conjunction, sextile or trine.
• The Moon unafflicted. She must not be combust, near the South Node, or applying by square or opposition to Mars or Saturn; nor may the planet itself apply to Mars or Saturn by those aspects.

Canopy is gentler than the strictest manuals, which asked for domicile or exaltation: a term or a face is enough to keep a planet from being peregrine, though such a window ranks lower. The Moon's phase and course are weighed rather than refused: a waxing Moon adds to the score and a Moon void of course takes from it.

A refused window and an accepted one

Take two imagined skies. In the first it is a Friday, in an hour of Venus, and Venus is rising within a degree of the Ascendant with the Moon applying to her by trine. Every soft sign favors her, but she is in Virgo, the sign of her fall, and the moment is refused; it never reaches the list. In the second, Venus is in Taurus, her own sign, on the Ascendant in her hour, direct and clear of the Sun, and the Moon applies to her by sextile, clear of the Sun, the South Node and any hard aspect to Mars or Saturn. That moment passes, and only then is it scored.

Dignity counts most in the score, from five points for domicile down to one for face; then the angle (the Ascendant counting for more than the Midheaven), the planet's hour and day, a waxing Moon, help from Venus or Jupiter, and the Moon's condition. A window needs at least 50 percent to be listed.

Why a window lasts only minutes

A planetary hour lasts roughly an hour, but a talisman window is far briefer. The Ascendant moves through a degree of the zodiac in about four minutes on average, so a planet stays within three degrees of an angle for only a short while, and every other condition has to hold for the same span. Canopy narrows the window further: for a talisman of any planet but the Moon, the span it shows is the few minutes in which the Moon moves only a fraction of a degree against the planet, roughly ten minutes either side of the moment it names as exact. That is why each result gives an exact time as well as a span.

Windows that short are easy to miss. Set Reminder alerts you thirty minutes ahead, Save to Calendar adds the window to your calendar, and Share sends it on. The tradition worked such moments out from tables; Canopy does the reckoning for you.

What a talisman window shows

Each result opens on a page of its own: the exact time, the window and the score at the top; then Celestial Configuration, with the House Ruler Analysis, Lord Aspects and, if Canopy has your birth data, Relationship to Your Natal; then "Why this time?", which lists the factors behind the score; and About & Correspondences.

The purpose lines are plain. Mercury's reads "Speech, study, commerce, and the messages we send"; Saturn's, "Endurance, deep work, boundaries, and the long arc of time". The notes reach further into the tradition: a Sun talisman carries the classical image of kingship, "a crowned figure enthroned".

The Correspondences card leads to the planet's fumigation, metal, herb, color, gemstone and angel. The window's page also opens the planet's magic square, from Saturn's three by three to the Moon's nine by nine, as the talismanic timing questions describe. Canopy shows these beside the timing; it gives no instructions for making anything.

How Canopy's talisman window differs from an ordinary election

Canopy's Elections answers a different question. There you choose one of 16 purposes, such as signing a contract, a journey, a wedding or a business launch, and a date range of up to six months; Find Best Moments ranks the windows, and Evaluate a Specific Time judges a moment you have in mind. Each election is weighed by the matter's own rules: the hours that suit it, the mansions that favor or forbid it, the Moon's sign and the lords of its houses.

A talisman window is the stricter tier. It is chosen for a planet rather than a matter; it must pass every hard test above before it is scored at all, on a scale of its own; and anything the election tier would veto is refused here too. A moment refused here can still rank among Canopy's elections; it is simply never offered as a talisman window.

Both lean on the planetary hours, reckoned for the place you choose. Readings are drawn from the classical sources, the planetary correspondences from the Picatrix. Canopy is available on iPhone and Android, in English, Arabic and Turkish.

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