The Sorcerer's Blog

THE RINGS OF THE DRAGONFIRE KISS: The talisman of Venus in Libra, embraced by the Sun and conjoined with the Dragon’s Head.

This was one hell of an experimental election. It’s one of the potentially strongest Venus elections possible masquerading as one of the worst.

Let’s start with the basics. Venus Day but not Hour, Ascending, in Domicile. The Moon is fast, in Triplicity and Exaltation, towards the end of a Sign but not quite in the last two degrees. (Also in a malefic House, but I don’t see this as a significant consideration here. A benefic on the ASC rectifies an afflicted Moon anyway.) Venus is also fairly tightly conjoined with the North Node, radically strengthening her.

The main objective for this election was to put Venus in conjunction with the North Node and strong Essential Dignity, which is not easily achievable.

There’s just one problem.

Venus is combust.

Most people would stop here, but the story isn’t over. Venus isn’t combust in just any Sign, but both planets are in Venus’ Domicile. Ancient sources suggest that this either neutralizes the afflictive nature of the combustion, or actually is a strong accidental dignity.

I take the view currently that while combustion is normally akin to a subject trembling before a king, begging for mercy, this is like the king visiting a beloved vassal in their estate to pay him a great honor and treat him almost as an equal.

Even if we accept this interpretation, there is another problem– and it’s a tough one. While Venus is in +5 Rulership, the Sun is in -4 Fall. Does this mean the king is a lousy houseguest? Is this hostility? Most sources are ambiguous on the issue. Picatrix is not.

It’s too long to quote here, but in Picatrix Rubeus pages 90-91 the author says that when planets are in conjunction, the higher planet dominates the union and it is its nature which is signified thereby– with a few notable exceptions. That means normally when the Moon conjoins Saturn, the latter’s nature wholly devours the influence of the Moon. Nothing of the Moon’s significance remains, except as fuel for the nastiness of Saturn. This pattern is the case for all planets, where the naturally slower (higher) planet absorbs the power of the naturally slower one.

The exceptions appear to be conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, which are roughly co-equal; and Mars and Saturn, where Mars will dominate the union.

A third exception is when the lower planet is highly dignified and the higher planet is highly debilitated. Then the lower planet dominates the conjunction and incorporates the power of the greater planet.

That is what is happening here, where Venus is extremely strong and the Sun is extremely weak. So, Venus easily wins the struggle with the Sun, in part because it’s on her home turf.

I often say, conjunction is fighting or fucking. With Venus… it’s realllllly not fighting.

She’s lured the king to her palace (or brothel), tied him to the bedposts and worn the poor guy out. She’s the king now, in everything but title. He can barely lift his head. Everything aches. But don’t worry about him, he’ll get a second wind in Scorpio. And he had a great time with Mistress V.

There are other factors which should be noted. Venus is making a sextile with Mars, but as this is an amicable aspect and Venus is one of the very few planets which gets along with Mars, it’s not a serious affliction.

The Moon being v/c is never a real problem. It’s a minor consideration, even in Mansion talismans. Even so, it’s not deemed an affliction at all according to Bonatti if the Moon is also in any Essential Dignity, which it is here. And Lilly (I think) made a separate list of Signs where v/c is very mild, which overlaps the Bonatti list to a large degree.

In any case, I made three rings. The theme was red; the stone was carnelian, and the herbs under the stone and suffumigation were vervain and saffron. The oil was Luckymojo.com Venus Oil.

The ymage was of the giant housefly head over the zebra head which cures stomach ailments, though I believe in this instance it will do very different stuff. But a heartburn cure isn’t a bad thing, as a bonus.