A while ago I had the opportunity to hit a series of elections that included a Saturn election one day and a Venus election the next.
The Saturn election went great. I had visions of spirits the night before, intense pre-verberations and insomnia. I just finished up the talismans the other day, and they are On Point.
The Venus election was a bust. No problem with the election, as far as I can tell, but I was so caught up in other kinds of preparation that I was twenty minutes late turning on my electromelt. I should have just quit then, but I really wanted to hit that election . So I hoped and I prayed and I proceeded as if success was possible. I set up the altar. I burned the incense. I chanted the invocations. I could feel the potent and eager Venusian spirits gathered around me to fill the metal, and I tried, I really tried, to get the metal hot enough to pour and hit that election.
I fucking failed. By the time the metal was finally ready to pour, Venus had crossed the midheaven. Technically Venus was still within orb, and I know that others have had success within those parameters, but … I knew immediately that I hadn’t, at least not that time. Strangely, and possibly of note to other magicians, the spirits hung about in my studio until I poured the metal, even though they did not apparently go into the talismans.
My initial concern was that I’d made curse talismans. So I did extensive divination. I got a bunch of weird mixed messaging, but the gist seemed to be that they weren’t cursed … I just had to decide what to do with them. The only clear and good option was 10 Disks for slagging them, and that was a monetary concern. Also good, but significantly less clear, was the Ace of Cups for “do something else” … except every “something else” I proposed after that initial reading was just as muddy.
Eventually, I just used them as photographic exemplars and kept them as well-consecrated materia for the next Venus election.
In retrospect, the talismans may not have been cursed, but the failed electional ritual definitely did a number on me. I fell into a depression that didn’t really lift until I had melted the failed talismans down (with appropriate thanks and apologies) and cast them into the next cohort of Venus talismans.
That batch of talismans is now fermenting happily on my altar. I have their names and sigils and will be writing them up for sale soon … once I’m done processing the cohort that came after (that will almost certainly be done by the time this post goes live).
I’m still not entirely sure what was going on with that divination, or with the depression. I don’t know if it would have gotten better faster if I’d melted the miscast talismans down sooner, of if I had done some more elaborate propitiation ritual. Or maybe I had just pushed myself too hard that week and would have crashed, after, even if the ritual had been a shining success.
But I want to share this story for the benefit of other astromages, so if you all experience something similar, they know you’re not alone.