When the sky is disposed toward the work
Astrological talisman timing was the heart of the talisman-maker's craft in the Arabic tradition. A talisman, ṭilasm, was an image cut into metal or stone under a chosen planet or star, and the handbooks give as much care to the hour of its making as to its form. The practical question, long before the modern language of manifestation, was one of election: when is the sky disposed toward this particular work, and for how long will it stay so?
The great Arabic handbook of the subject is the Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, "The Aim of the Sage", compiled in al-Andalus in the tenth or eleventh century and traditionally attributed to al-Majrīṭī. In the thirteenth century it was translated into Castilian and then Latin at the court of Alfonso X of Castile, and under its Latin name, the Picatrix, it shaped European thinking about images and the stars for centuries. Its method rests on the same principle as the electional writings of Māshāʾallāh and Sahl ibn Bishr: a beginning carries the character of the sky in which it is made.
What follows treats the subject as history — a practice of timing and correspondence, read for what it shows about how medieval astrologers understood the sky. It makes no claim that a talisman works, and offers no recommendation that anyone make one.
Planetary talisman election: the hour and the planet's strength
A planetary talisman was placed under the planet whose nature suited its purpose: Venus for affection and concord, Jupiter for increase, the Sun for honor, and so on through the seven. The day and hour of that planet were the natural starting point — Friday and the hour of Venus for a Venusian work — since each hour carries the nature of its ruler, as the planetary hours page explains. But in the manuals an hour by itself was never enough.
The planet had to be strong. The manuals ask that it stand in its own domicile or exaltation, the higher essential dignities, and never in its fall or detriment; that it be direct in motion rather than retrograde; that it be clear of the Sun's beams rather than combust; and, for a benefic work, that it be free of hard aspects from Saturn and Mars. It should also be angular — rising on the Ascendant or standing at the Midheaven — because a planet on an angle was held to act with its full force.
These are the tests of ordinary electional astrology, the ikhtiyārāt, turned to the making of an image.
The Moon, the mansions and the rising stars
Whatever the planet, the Moon governs the beginning. The talisman-makers wanted her free of combustion and of the malefics, Saturn and Mars, and applying by a favorable aspect to the planet of the work, so that she carries its influence into the moment. A Moon void of course, or applying to Saturn or Mars, spoiled an otherwise sound election.
For a lunar mansion talisman, the Moon is the significator herself — the planet that signifies the matter. The Picatrix gives an image and a purpose for each of the twenty-eight lunar mansions, and the work is timed to the hours when the Moon passes through the mansion in question, with her condition otherwise sound. The mansions, and their fortunate or wary temperaments, are set out on their own page.
Two further kinds of talisman follow their own rules. A fixed-star talisman is timed to the moment a star of the right nature rises over the eastern horizon or culminates at the Midheaven; the fifteen Behenian stars, the principal stars of this work, are described on the fixed stars page. A decan talisman draws instead on the faces, the thirty-six ten-degree divisions of the zodiac, for each of which the Picatrix describes an image.
Precision mattered. The Ascendant moves through a degree of the zodiac in roughly four minutes on average — faster in some signs, slower in others — so a window in which a planet or star sits on the angle with every other condition intact is usually measured in minutes rather than hours. The practitioners of the tradition worked from tables to find it, and a demanding work might wait a long time for its moment.
Correspondences: metal, stone, color and incense
Timing was paired with matter. Each planet had its metal — lead for Saturn, tin for Jupiter, iron for Mars, gold for the Sun, copper for Venus, quicksilver for Mercury and silver for the Moon — and the Picatrix tabulates for each planet its colors, stones, plants and incenses, with the suffumigation, the incense burned over the work, to be offered while the image is made. The aim was agreement: an image of Venus, in copper, in her colors and scents, made in her hour while she stood strong on an angle.
The theory behind such agreement found a philosophical form in the treatise On the Rays, attributed to al-Kindī and surviving in Latin as De radiis, which describes every thing in the world as sending out rays that act on every other. The same conviction runs through the Picatrix: the heavens act on the world through likeness, and the craftsman's task is to gather like to like at the right moment.
Sign colors and the planets that rule them
Ask for the Pisces zodiac color, the Taurus zodiac colors or the Virgo zodiac color, and each modern list gives its own answer. The correspondences Canopy carries, like the planetary tables of the Picatrix, belong to the seven planets, so a sign is read here through the planet that rules it, with a glance at the planet exalted there. Even the classical sources differ on the shades. Ptolemy, reading the colors seen at an eclipse in the Tetrabiblos, gives black or livid to Saturn, white to Jupiter, reddish to Mars, yellow to Venus and variegated to Mercury, while the tables Canopy follows give Jupiter blue and purple and Venus green and rose. The two agree on black for Saturn, red for Mars and a mixture for Mercury; on the rest they part, which is one reason to hold any single sign color lightly.
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.
Read this way, Pisces borrows Jupiter's blue and purple, with the green and rose of Venus, who is exalted there. Whatever Taurus colors zodiac websites list, the planets answer with the green and rose of Venus and the white and silver of the Moon, who is exalted in Taurus. Virgo, both the domicile and the exaltation of Mercury, takes Mercury's mixed and variegated colors.
Canopy keeps the planetary reckoning. The Angel of the Day card in its Today reading names the planet that rules the day (the weekday rulers are set out on the planetary hours page) and lists its color, metal, gemstone and incense, with the time of its first hour today. In the natal chart, the remedies for your almuten, the lord of the whole nativity, list that planet's metal, gemstone, color and incense and any Behenian stars of its nature. The Sun sign is one place in a chart; the almuten is weighed from five.
How Canopy finds talisman windows
Canopy's talisman feature identifies windows when a fixed star of significance rises or culminates, following the classical electional method: the planet must stand within three degrees of the Ascendant or Midheaven and hold essential dignity, never in its detriment or fall; the Moon must be applying to it by conjunction, trine or sextile, and not combust, joined to the South Node or applying a hard aspect to a malefic; and a fixed star must sit within one degree of an angle. Its fixed-star descriptions draw on al-Ṣūfī's Book of Fixed Stars, and its planetary correspondences on the Picatrix. It scans for planetary talisman windows as well, and it holds both to stricter conditions than its ordinary elections.
A talisman window is refused, not merely marked down, when the elected planet is in its fall or detriment, peregrine (without any dignity where it stands), combust or retrograde, or when the Moon is afflicted. The elected planet or star must stand on the Ascendant or the Midheaven, and the Moon must be applying to it. A moment that fails these tests may still appear among Canopy's elections, but it is not presented as a talisman window.
Elsewhere in the app, Canopy shows the planetary hour ruling the moment and the lunar mansion the Moon holds today; each planetary hour has its angel, and each mansion has its own, with the actions it favors and the actions it counsels against. The stars themselves are described on the fixed stars page. Readings are drawn from the classical sources.
Home Screen widgets keep tonight's mansion and the day's planetary hour in view. Canopy is available on iPhone and Android.
Questions
How do you elect a time to make an astrological talisman?
The tradition chose the planet or star whose nature suited the purpose, then looked for a moment when it was strong: in its domicile or exaltation, direct, clear of the Sun's beams and, for a benefic work, of the malefics, and on the Ascendant or Midheaven. The planet's own day and hour were preferred, and the Moon was to be well placed and applying to it by a favorable aspect.
What planetary hour should a talisman be made in?
The manuals pair a talisman with the hour of its own planet: a work of Venus in the hour of Venus, ideally on Friday, her day; a work of Jupiter in Jupiter's hour, ideally on Thursday. The hour sets the tone, but the tradition treats it as a starting point; the planet's dignity and angularity, and the Moon's condition, decide whether the moment is fit.
How long does a talisman election window last?
Usually minutes. Because the Ascendant moves through about a degree every four minutes on average, a planet or star stays on an angle within a narrow orb for a short time, and every other condition must hold for the same span. Practitioners therefore calculated the moment closely in advance rather than relying on the planetary hour alone.
What does the Picatrix say about timing talismans?
The Picatrix, the Latin name of the Arabic Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, treats timing as central to the work: an image is made when its planet is strong and well placed and the Moon is in good condition. It describes images for the twenty-eight lunar mansions and the thirty-six faces, and pairs each planet with its colors, stones and incenses.
If I light candles for a new Moon ritual, does the timing matter?
In the Arabic tradition the phase was only one part of the timing. At the new Moon itself she is combust, hidden under the Sun's beams, which the electional manuals counted among her afflictions; the talisman-makers waited for her to leave the beams and weighed the planetary hour, the lunar mansion she held and the strength of the planet of the work. Canopy's planetary talisman windows weigh the planet's dignity, its own day and hour, and whether the Moon is waxing. Unless the talisman is of the Moon herself, Canopy refuses a talisman window while the Moon is combust. As for the color of candles for new Moon ritual work, Canopy's correspondences give colors to the planets, not to the phases: the Moon's are white and silver. The talisman-makers matched their colors to the planet of the work and left the Moon's phase to the timing.
Is there a best time for manifestation in astrology?
The idea is modern and has no exact counterpart in the medieval sources, but the electional tradition held a related conviction: a work begun when its planet is strong and on an angle, with the Moon applying to it by a favorable aspect, carries the character of that sky. Canopy scans for talisman windows on those classical terms: the elected planet must hold essential dignity, and the planet or star must stand on the Ascendant or Midheaven with the Moon applying to it.
Is there an app that calculates talisman elections?
Canopy, available on iPhone and Android, has a talisman feature that identifies windows when a fixed star of significance rises or culminates, and it scans for planetary talisman windows as well. It refuses a window when the elected planet is in its fall or detriment, peregrine, combust or retrograde, or when the Moon is afflicted, and it requires the Moon to be applying.
What is the Pisces color in traditional astrology?
The colors Canopy carries, like those tabulated in the talisman manuals, belong to the planets, so a sign is read through its ruler. Pisces is ruled by Jupiter, whose colors in the app are blue and purple, and Venus is exalted there, so her green and rose can be read alongside them. Ptolemy, reading the colors of eclipses, gave Jupiter white rather than blue, a reminder that the sources differ.
What is the Taurus lucky color?
Lists of lucky colors by sign follow modern fashion; Canopy assigns its colors to the planets. Taurus is the domicile of Venus, whose colors Canopy gives as green and rose, and the exaltation of the Moon, whose colors are white and silver. In the talisman manuals a planet's colors went with a work of that planet, made in its day and hour, which for Venus means Friday: a matter of agreement between the work and the sky, not of luck.
Is there a Virgo favorite color?
That depends on whom you ask. Whether a modern list dresses Virgo in navy or beige or makes Virgo pink, its answer is a matter of taste, and so is a pink Virgo sign on a mug. Canopy answers through the planets. Read that way, the colors associated with Virgo are Mercury's, since Mercury both rules the sign and is exalted in it, and the app lists them as mixed and variegated. Ptolemy, who describes Mercury as joining its influence to whichever planet it is with, gives it the variegated colors too.
Is there a Sagittarius color of the day?
Not by sign. Each weekday has a planetary ruler, the same for everyone whatever their sign, and the day's colors are that planet's. Canopy's Angel of the Day card names the ruler, with its color, metal, gemstone and incense. Jupiter, the ruler of Sagittarius, has Thursday, with blue and purple. The same holds for "the lucky colour for Cancer today": the nearest answer in the tradition is the color of the day's ruler, with no promise of luck attached; the Moon, Cancer's ruler, has her own day on Monday, in white and silver.