Each zodiac has been consecrated using PGM IV. 1596-1715: The Consecration of All Things. “Give glory and honor and favor and fortune and power to this phylactery!”
Guest author Sfinga writes about her experiences with Practical Occult’s Cairo Zodiac in this newsletter.
When Alison first contacted me to tell me about her plans for her Cairo Zodiac plaque and amulet series, to say that I was overjoyed would be an understatement. The Daressy Zodiac, or Zodiac of Cairo, has been a great object of fascination for me and a few close friends and Graeco-Egyptian magic enthusiasts. Originally found by Georges Daressy, the famous French Egyptologist, in an antique store in Cairo at the beginning of the 20th century, the Zodiac to this day remains as one of the rare preserved Egyptian zodiacs from the Roman period. While the original artefact remains lost to this day, a reverse copy of its inscription remains in the French Archaeological Institute in Cairo.
Its makeup, while seemingly simplistic, is exceptionally rich. The Zodiac is formed from three concentric circles, with the outermost one containing the dodekaoros or 36 decans, with three spirits per sign, the second layer bearing the twelve Egyptian dodecatemories, and the innermost circle containing glyphs of Helios and Selene, with a serpent interlacing them like a Yin and Yang. The conventional twelve zodiacal signs may be easily linked to each of the twelve animals, and the decans themselves follow the descriptions given by the astrologer Teucrus the Babylonian, codifier of the Sphaera Barbarica, whose arrangement of the decans was transmitted to Western Europe through Arabic lapidaries and astrological texts.
It was Alison’s brilliance that brought the design of the Cairo Zodiac from its current incarnation as a squeeze inscription to life in the form of both a plaque for the wall and an amulet to be worn. Empowered by PGM IV. 1596-1715: The Consecration for all Purposes / Spell to Helios, it not only provides a medley of virtues from the spell—itself calling on the various astrological animals for success, protection, sexual charm, accomplishment, courage, honour, and glory—but creates a remarkably flexible portable enchantment for scrying, spirit flight, and far more.
PGM IV. 1596-1715’s sorcery imprints easily onto the brass, and especially the engraving, given the overlap with the actual glyphs upon the Zodiac, allowing this piece to be worn or placed in the home as a powerful enchantment with a wide area of effect, permeating all aspects of the wearer’s life with luck boons. My own piece is the plaque, and as such one of the first things I did upon receiving it was use it as a scrying mirror, calling forth daimons and spirit familiars obtained from the PGM as well as other Greek and Egyptian divinities (though one need not limit themselves solely to those cultural influences and pantheons, as I’ve found that Mesopotamian, Canaanite, and other such spirits respond equally in kind). Interestingly, not only did the spirits show up as visibly as in my experiments scrying with the 4th Pentacle of the Sun, but there was an additional depth to their visions, transcending the plaque itself. When the sun’s rays caught the reflection of the brass, I found several familiars arriving as white smoke, hazy mist, moving shadows, orbs of luminescence, and tangible footsteps, accompanied by a sensation of proceeding through the stars, the spheres, all the way down through the cycles of sun and moon through the winding of Mehen and the rolling of Khepri, into more tangible forms. The most remarkable was a full physical apparition in three dimensions that lasted even past a trance state, directly in front of where the light shone off the Zodiac.
Scrying through the layers takes on another dimension in divination, allowing for direct perception of timing, which months and elections are best for various workings, and communication with stellar forces. For those accustomed to spirit flight, anointing the Zodiac’s map of the world with an oil of your choice, then anointing your own temples, and speaking to your spirits where you wish to go, and either intentionally projecting through it as a mirror or leaving it under your pillow to sleep can induce not only some truly visually-rich flight experiences, but stunning examples of dream-walking, lucid dreaming, and dream incubation. I’ve found that the entire amulet can substitute easily for various PGM instructions for dream incubation, and can even be left near oil lamps to strengthen such petitions in order to attain further divinatory and oracular knowledge.
Do not be fooled by the Zodiac not being a traditional pentacle or amulet; this is a powerhouse. Alison’s brilliance and well-deserved reputation as a master sorceress bring an ancient design into a formidable amulet that is quite possibly one of the most flexible and potent of her collection that I own. I cannot recommend it enough, its uses are quite literally limitless, tied only to the creativity and boldness of its owner.
Sfinga
@dragoncunning
www.withcunningandcommand.com
Available as a necklace or a plaque.
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This post was originally a Practical Occult newsletter dated July 19th, 2022, by guest author Sfinga.
Author: Alison Chicosky
Alison Chicosky is a scholar and practitioner of a variety of forms of thaumaturgy with a focus on results-based magic. While especially interested in both Solomonic magic and the Graeco-Egyptian magic of the Greek Magical Papyri, she is also well versed in soul-flight and psychic magic of various kinds. The founder and force behind Practical Occult (www.practicaloccult.com), she strives to provide pentacles and other enchanted items drawn from a broad background of rigorously studied ancient arts, leveraging the systems of the past for practical modern use.