The talisman of Saturn: how and when to make it

What a Saturn talisman means

A Saturn talisman, the talisman of Saturn or Saturn amulet, was an image made under Saturn, for the things he governs, at a moment when he stood strong. This page covers how to make a Saturn talisman, as far as Canopy's materials go, and when to make a Saturn talisman. It treats the subject as history and timing, and makes no claim that a talisman works.

Canopy gives the Saturn talisman meaning in two lines: each window carries the purpose line "Endurance, deep work, boundaries, and the long arc of time", and its About note gives it as one "for endurance, the long work, and boundaries that hold." That is the Saturn of the tradition: the slowest and highest of the seven planets, cold and binding, one of the two malefics. The qualities that made him unwelcome at most beginnings made him the planet of what is meant to hold.

Saturn in the Picatrix

The handbook of this craft is the Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, known in Latin as the Picatrix. It tabulates for each planet its colors, stones, plants and incenses, and a work for a planet was gathered in that planet's own day and hour. Saturn's metal was lead, and the handbooks' talisman was often made in its planet's own metal. Saturn also heads the Chaldean order, slowest planet to swiftest: he takes about twenty-nine and a half years to circle the zodiac.

The talisman-makers wanted the Moon applying by a favorable aspect to the planet of the work and free of the malefics. For a Saturn talisman Canopy keeps both halves: the Moon must apply to Saturn by conjunction, sextile or trine, and a Moon applying by square or opposition to him or to Mars is refused. From the rest of the tradition Canopy takes only Saturn's materials and his moment. It shows no talismanic image for Saturn and gives no instructions for making anything.

How to make a Saturn talisman: the materials Canopy shows

Canopy's answer to how to make a Saturn talisman is a list of materials and a moment. Its Correspondences screen, al-Munāsabāt, gives Saturn these, drawn from the classical correspondences:

• Metal (al-Maʿdan): lead.
• Gemstone (al-Jawhar): onyx.
• Color (al-Lawn): black and dark shades.
• Fumigation (al-Bakhūr): myrrh, al-murr.
• Herb (al-Ḥashīsha): myrrh, asafoetida or black copal.

Saturn is the one planet whose Herb row adds to its Fumigation row, and all three are resins and gums rather than garden herbs. A Saturn window's own page repeats lead, onyx, black and myrrh in its Talisman Correspondences block, so for Saturn the two lists agree. The talismanic timing guide sets all seven planets side by side.

The planetary hour of Saturn

The planetary hour of Saturn is any of the unequal hours, a twelfth of the daylight or of the night counted from your own sunrise and sunset, that falls to Saturn in the Chaldean sequence. On a Saturday, his day, he rules the 1st and 8th hours of daylight and the 3rd and 10th of the night, and his hour comes around three or four times in every day and night, as the planetary hours table shows. The free planetary hour tool shows whether it is running where you are today.

The tradition generally avoided his hour for new beginnings, and Canopy's ordinary elections still count it against a window: "Saturn planetary hour (malefic)". His talisman reverses that. The hour is its first requirement, the TIMING block names "Saturn (Zuḥal)" as Hour Ruler, and "Why this time?" adds three points for "Saturn rules the hour". His day is scored, not required: two points more between Saturday's sunrise and Sunday's. The Day Ruler box follows the calendar, so a window after midnight on Saturday night shows the Sun yet still scores as Saturn's day.

When to make a Saturn talisman: the Saturn talisman election

Canopy's Saturn talisman election admits a moment only when all of these hold, and sets it aside, unscored, when one fails:

• His own hour. Saturn rules the planetary hour.
• On an angle. Within three degrees of the Ascendant or the Midheaven where you are. Saturn may rise: Canopy's elections for a purpose set aside a window with Saturn that close to the Ascendant, but for his talisman the Ascendant scores best.
• Never in fall or detriment. Aries, his fall, and Cancer and Leo, his detriments, are refused outright.
• Dignified. Not peregrine, as below.
• Direct and clear of the Sun. Not retrograde, and more than twelve degrees from the Sun.
• The Moon applying to him. By conjunction, sextile or trine, and not combust, near the South Node, or applying by square or opposition to Mars.
• Clear of Mars. Saturn not applying to Mars by square or opposition.

The shared tests are explained on the planetary talismans page.

Where Saturn is strong enough

A term or a face passes as well as his own sign, though it ranks lower. Saturn is dignified:

• in Capricorn and Aquarius, his night and day houses, and in Libra, his exaltation, throughout;
• in Gemini by day, by triplicity, day meaning the Sun above your horizon;
• in his terms, the Egyptian bounds: Taurus 22° to 27°, Gemini 24° to 30°, Virgo 28° to 30°, Scorpio 24° to 30°, Sagittarius 21° to 26° and Pisces 28° to 30°;
• in his faces: the last ten degrees of Taurus and of Sagittarius and the first ten of Pisces.

Everywhere else he is refused, which leaves him a little under half the zodiac by day and a little over a third by night.

Saturn's slow seasons

Saturn spends about two and a half years in a sign, so these conditions open and close over years. While he is in Aries, Cancer or Leo, Canopy offers no Saturn window for as long as he stays there, and likewise wherever he has no dignity, as in the first twenty degrees of Taurus; such stretches can outlast the six-month search range. He is also retrograde for about four and a half months a year, and within twelve degrees of the Sun for nearly four weeks around his yearly conjunction with it.

A Saturn window set aside, and one that passes

Take two imagined skies. On a Saturday, in his hour, Saturn rises within a degree of the Ascendant with the Moon applying to him by trine, but he is in Aries, his fall: the moment is set aside before it is scored. In the second, Saturn is in Aquarius, his own sign, on the Ascendant in his hour, direct, well clear of the Sun and of any hard aspect to Mars, and the Moon applies to him by trine, clear of the Sun, the South Node and Mars. That moment passes, and only then is it scored.

How Canopy scores a Saturn window

An admitted Saturn 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 his dignity, as in "Saturn in Capricorn (domicile)": five points for a domicile, four for Libra, three for a term, two for Gemini by day, one for a face; three on the Ascendant or two on the Midheaven; three for his hour and two for his day; one for a waxing Moon and up to two for her condition; and a point each when Jupiter or Venus aspects him by conjunction, sextile or trine.

Neither benefic is Saturn, so he can take both points and reach a full score. A Saturn holding only a face on the Midheaven, under a waning Moon, off his day and without either benefic, reaches seven points at most and is never listed.

Minutes, not hours

Canopy narrows each window to the minutes in which the Moon moves a fraction of a degree against Saturn: roughly ten minutes either side of the exact time. Saturn barely moves, so the Moon's pace sets the span.

Finding Saturn's window in Canopy

Open Talismans, then Planetary Talismans (Tilasmāt al-Kawākib), and narrow Bodies from all seven to Saturn. Your location sets the angles. Choose dates up to six months ahead, add the ASC filter or a mansion if you like, and tap Search Planets; filters narrow the list but never admit a moment the election has set aside. An empty search can read "No moment worthy of a talisman in this stretch", and for Saturn the cause is often the sign he is in.

Each result opens as "Saturn Talisman", Tilsam Zuḥal, with its exact time, window and score, then "Why this time?" and About & Correspondences, which names the Moon's lunar mansion and leads to the Correspondences card. 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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