“Suitably Seasoned and Composed’: Poetics and Prayer as Power in Astrological Magic” with Rain Mason Olbert.
Picatrix, Ficino, and Agrippa each highlight the power of words and prayer in astrological magic. For example: “in working with magical images, words and prayers help in combination with substances and actions” (Picatrix, Book I, Ch. 5, emphasis added). This talk presents a rationale for composing one’s own talismanic petitions and suggests compositional methods and techniques such as the precise use of ancient epithets for poetically augmenting ritual with one’s own creative mind in the service of “the power of your spirit [being] united with the power of the heavens.”