Showing all posts tagged picatrix image of venus

In art, witchcraft

Picatrix Image of Venus According to Mercurius

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

The image of Venus, according to the opinion of the wise Mercurius, is a shape with the body of a man, the face and head of a bird, and the feet of an eagle. This is its shape.

Picatrix, Bk II, Ch 10, Para 28, trans. Attrell and Porreca

Behold the Image of Venus According to Mercurius!

My first try at this image had a very different head: dove-like, like my Image of Venus to be Well Received and Esteemed by All, but facing the viewer. Technically, it was well-executed, but I fucking hated it. When I vented my frustration about it over on bsky, Fae Grigoryeva suggested a harpy eagle and shared a fantastic photo reference, which – as you can see – was absolutely perfect. I considered going back and seeing if I could find a reference for harpy eagle claws, specifically, but decided against because I like the claws as I drew them, already.

I struggled with what to do with his hands. As you can see, I ultimately went with Baphomet’s gesture of benediction.

I considered making him explicitly trans, naked and with top surgery scars, but in this case decided to make it more ambiguous, just leaving his wasp waist and mighty thighs. I dressed him in a fantasy loincloth with some of the same geometry as the Egyptian kilt I dressed the Image of Saturn in mostly because I just really like that shape.

It’s interesting to me that this image is so similar to the Image of Venus to Be Well Received and Esteemed by All, a bird-headed woman holding the same comb and apple as the Image of Venus According to Picatrix, which is why I originally tried to give him a similar dovelike head. I suspect there’s something interesting to sus out there, but I’m just going to run with “Venus is genderqueer” and leave it there, for now.

This image completes my collection of images according to Mercurius, my second complete set of Picatrix planetary images. It is my seventeenth Picatrix planetary image, altogether. Some day, I may come back and do the rest of the images “according to Picatrix” (I’ve already done Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn), or some of the other authors, but – somewhat to my own surprise – I’m a little tired of the planets and of the Picatrix. I don’t know, yet, where exactly I’m going to turn to next for inspiration. I have a few thoughts, but I want to reflect on this collection a bit before I chose my path forward.

In art, witchcraft

Image of Venus According to Apollonius

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

The image of Venus, according to the opinion of the wise Apollonius, is the shape of a woman standing on her feet and holding an apple in her right hand. This is her shape.

– Picatrix Bk 2, Ch 10, Para. 26 trans. Attrell & Parecca

Modern magicians overwhelmingly use Venus to bring love, and that is absolutely in her wheelhouse: “Entreat Venus for the union of desires, the power of causing joy and friendship, driving out idleness and grief, for invigorating the appetite, augmenting procreation, multiplying sons, extinguishing fires, and remaining secure from animals.” (Book 4 Chapter 4 Para 8)

She also governs the arts: “She governs an aspect toward grammar, the art of poetic meter, sounds, and songs. … From the crafts, she governs all the skills of painting, illustrating, selling perfumes, playing instruments pleasantly, singing, dancing, and producing harmonies with instruments.” (Book 3 Chapter 1 Para 7)

My first astrological image of 2026, and my sixth of seven images “according to Apollonius. I’m really very pleased with how it’s turned out. I love her facial features, and the texture I was able to convey in her hair. I think I did a great job of making her fat and hot.

Even more than my other planetary images, it’s important to me as a politically conscious artist that at least one of my images of Venus be explicitly Black. When I picked Venus as my next Apollonian image to finish, I decided that there was no time like the present. I had originally wanted her costume to be much more clearly African-inspired, but I struggled to find inspirational images attatched to such basic information as, “who and where in Africa designed or wore or wears this”. So for this image I settled on a big cloth that reads somewhere in between a Hellenistic himation, in line with the vaguely Graeco-Roman vibes of most of my images, and the wrapped cloth I’ve seen both tribal and urban Ghanans wear. If I ever do this in color, the cloth will be bright yellow-orange and have my best simplified approximation of the vivid, intricate, and colorful patterns for which West Africans, in particular, are known. I wish I knew how to better convey Black skin in a black-and-white image, like this. That’s obviously going on the research list, along with traditional and modern African fashions.

I might go back and dial up the details and the shading, but my hands hurt like fire and I’m really, really pleased with this as-is.

In art, witchcraft

Picatrix Image of Venus to Be Well Received and Esteemed by All

Author Satyr MagosPosted on 1 Comment

The image of Venus. Make from the figures of Venus the shape of a woman with a human body but with the head of a bird and the feet of an eagle, holding an apple in her right hand and a wooden comb similar to a tablet in her left, which has these figures written upon it: OΛOIOΛ. Whoever carries this image will be well received and esteemed by all.

— Picatrix Bk 2, Chapter 10, Paragraph 55, translated by Attrell and Porecca

This was the first astrological image I ever drew, all the way back in college in 2013 or 14, when I first got my hands on my own copy of the Picatrix. At long, long last I have finally inked it and republished it as a part of this series of Picatrix images.

I have a lot of feelings about this image that I’m not entirely sure how to articulate. I was fucking ecstatic about it when I first drew it. I am really, really happy with how the digital inks came out. I like the thickness of her, and the textures of the eagle-feet and feathers, and that one staring eye.

I have used this image for all the Venus talismans I have so far made or kept for myself, and clients have attributed both professional and romantic success to its use.

It’s interesting to me that this is a hybrid image of PIcatrix’ and Mercurius’ images of Venus: a bird-headed woman instead of a man, holding the apple and comb and with the characters. Given my skeptical relationship with gender, you will be unsurprised to hear that I suspect the three images and their features can be used interchangeably, for all Venusian purposes, and this one is merely exceptionally potent at making the bearer well-liked.

Thank you for reading. If you’d like a high resolution version of this image, or to see my work before anyone else, please support me on Patreon.

In art, scholarship, witchcraft

First Complete Set of Picatrix Images

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

I began this series of Picatrix planetary images back in February of 2023 with the (now very rough looking) image of mercury according to Apollonius. With the completion of the image of the Moon according to Mercurius, back at the end of May, I finally have finally completed a full set. I present them as such, here, for the first time.

I plan to eventually release them as a “booster pack” of tarot-sized cards through DriveThruGames. I may also make them available as transparent stickers to slap on novena candles, or even as larger prints, if there’s any interest in that. First I need to re-do the Mercury and Venus images to better match the others, stylistically (my digital illustration skills have improved a lot over the last couple years). Then I need to settle on a frame. And then I need to design a back. And then I either need to have a couple really good sales months, or look into crowdfunding… assuming its even still legal to publish shit like this, by the time I’ve done all that, what with the swiftly-escalating fascism.

I’m still experimenting with frames. Of the handful of designs I’ve done up, so far, I like this simple geometry best. Part of me really wants a more elaborate Art Nouveau or Arabesque pattern, but that’s a little outside my design wheelhouse and I haven’t yet found one I like that I’m certain is in the public domain.

I have no idea what to do about a back design. Something minimalist and easy to write over for petition / paper talisman purposes? Something pentacle-tacular and extra witchy? One of my Baphomet devotional images? One of my occult art photographs? (I am definitely open to suggestions, here.)

I’m only a few images away from a complete second set, too: another Moon, for which I already have two sketches to choose from; another Jupiter and Venus, both already sketched; another Mars; another Mercury. Then I’ll be on to fixed stars and lunar mansions. Maybe I’ll even do all the decans, eventually.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these.