THE TALISMANS OF THE MIND: The First Face of Gemini, Manuchos
Picatrix Rubeus page 114:
“There rises in the first face of Gemini a beautiful woman, a mistress of stitching, and with her ascend two calves and two horses. This is a face of writing, computation and number, of giving and taking, and of the sciences. This is its form.”
This is a perfect example of the exception to the rule, where you can have an essentially debilitated Benefic on the Ascendant and produce a powerful and benevolent talisman. I had to dig this out of the archive to make my point; Essential Dignity and Debility are extremely important but other factors can completely override them.
Jupiter in Hour and Face (and by necessity Detriment) Ascends, aspecting the Sun by sextile and fulfilling the requirements of the election. There is no way to create this benevolent talisman without Jupiter being in Detriment, but one can substitute Jupiter being on the Asc with the placement of the Sun there.
The Moon is fast, making trines to the Sun and Mercury and a somewhat loose opposition to Jupiter. Chris would consider the opposition an affliction, but Picatrix would consider it a fortitude and I side with Picatrix. The Moon conjoins the North Node, and also perhaps Aldebaran.
There are talismans which are the reverse of this example; my favorite being the Third Face of Virgo, where Mercury is at his greatest quantitative Essential Dignity but produces the most malefic Face talismans of all IMHO.
