Under the constellation of Pleiades, they made the image of a little Virgin, or the Figure of a Lamp; its reported to increase the light of the eyes, to assemble Spirits, to raise Winds, to reveal secret and hidden things. – Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book II, Chapter XLVII (1)
The second Fixed Star in the lists I’ve found, and the second to receive full treatment in this series, is the constellation Pleiades, a cluster of six stars most famous for their near-universal recognition across times and cultures.
De Quindecim Stellis (2), a treatise on the fixed stars, describes the Pleiades as “of the nature of the Moon and the complexion of Mars”. This “nature and complexion” scheme is reported for each of the fixed stars, and if we’re being honest, I don’t know exactly what that is meant to mean. It also gives the stone of the Pleiades as “crystal” or “diadocos”, neither of which can be mistaken for clear identifications, and the herbs as fennel and frankincense. Other texts included in De Quindecim give quicksilver as the metal of the star, and suggest including it in talismanic rings.
Similar to, if not outright drawing on Agrippa, the lapidary Speculum Lapidum gives this image as, “A virgin or a young woman or a torch…” (3), and the Hebrew name of the constellation (at least, according to De Quindecim Stellis) is “the Lamp”, giving a strong through-line to the images.
Warnock reports that the Pleiades constellation, as marked by their brightest star, Acyone, is currently at 0 Gemini 14.
Nigel Jackson’s image in Warnock’s Fixed Star Magic (4) is a woman with a lamp beholding disembodied spirits and buffeted by winds. I chose a similar theme but wildly different visual composition: a portrait more suitable to a tarot-sized card in the Art Nouveau-inspired style and framing that I’ve been exploring over the last couple months, with seven sets of glowing spirit-eyes numbered for the Seven Sisters but not actually meant to represent them, and a spiral of winds around the central figure and her lamp. The bowl-shaped lamp is marked with the Agrippan Characters of the Moon. Yes, she has an Adam’s apple. Yes, that’s the now-slightly-dated trendy nose-ring chain.
Overall, I am exceptionally pleased with this image. I love her face. I love how the winds turned out. The eyes came out way better than I thought I could pull off. I think I did a fantastic job of a minimalist and suggestive background. I believe that she is having a mystical experience. And I think that the colors really work.
Admittedly, I am less happy with the fennel and frankincense at the bottom. Frankly, they were just much, much harder to draw than the hellebore and mugwort I did for Algol, even if I were more of a plant. This, of course, is why I drew the plants instead of the stones.
As you can see, I produced two versions: one mostly black and white with just a bit of color pop, meant to be easily printable for at-home use, and one full color, because this image really called for me to push myself.
For all that the Pleiades are held to be bad stars to be born under, and that fixed star elections are notoriously difficult to catch, I have found the spirits of these stars to be extremely amenable to sorcerous contact. I made my first such contact made during morning ritual with the aid of my Third Lunar Mansion talisman spirit (the 3rd LM is associated with the Pleiades), from which I got my first inkling of the image I would make, and a sense that a full-scale conjuration would be a good way to dial in both the art and the magic.
I made my second contact with the spirits of the Pleiades on the Day of the Moon during the hour of Mars, using the triangle of conjuration taught to me by Saturn (6) and a variation on the invocation in Warnock’s Fixed Star Magic, which combines a prayer written by Nigel Jackson with a PGM invocation. The spirits of the Pleiades approved the sketch i had done for my Image with a few editorial adjustments: more eyes, more winds. They also recommended that I substitute either archangel’s seals or the Picatrix planetary glyphs for the Agrippan Grand Planetary Seals that I used.
The spirits also told me to carry the Pleiades glyph that I had made for the conjuration ritual with me when I went to continue my work on the image. When I went to do so the next day, the paper lamen was hot to the touch, and my vision of the image stayed sharp and clear. In fact, it was a real struggle to put down my stylus and turn off the computer at the end of the day: I’d save the image, take one last look, and find myself tweaking some other little part.
Third contact was made on the Day of Mars during the Hour of the Moon, with the Grand Planetary Seals of the Moon and Mars switched out for seals of the archangels Gabriel and Sammael, as previously instructed. I had originally intended to repeat my Moon-day/Mars-hour invocation from the week before, but Monday … did not work out. Tuesday morning divination indicated that an additional conjuration/contact was unnecessary, but not unwanted.
The spirits came clearly and quickly. I asked to know them, and to be initiated into their mysteries, and they answered. The point of planetary seals was clarified somewhat: one should call them by the Lunar and Martial powers that one knows best, not by Gabriel and Sammael, in particular.
They confirmed, both explicitly and implicitly, that any combination of Lunar and Martial days and hours is a good time to conjure them. They told me to call on them under the waxing moon for their aid in seeing and commanding spirits of the upper air, and to call them under a waning moon for power over the dead, and to call upon them at any time for power over the winds: as messengers across the spirit world, and to raise and calm storms. They did not say, specifically, when to call them to clarify sight or to reveal hidden things; perhaps those are more closely associated with Pleiades talismans, only, but more likely they come with closer friendship.
They told me that rites of the Fixed Star Pleiades (with a bit of hopefully obvious modification) can be used to call up any of the sets of seven associated with the constellation, but that one must start from the beginning with each septet – that is to say, friendship with the daughters of Atlas and Pleione will win you no favors with the Babylonian MUL.MUL goddesses(5).
And they gave me this invocation to share with you:
I call upon you O Pleiades, you Seven Sisters: Alcyone, Maia, Electra, Taygete, Celaeno, Sterope, Merope. Under the auspices of the Moon [NN] and of Mars [NN], I call you. By Zizaubio, your messenger, I call you. Come to my circle. Shower me with your power, your spirit, your pneuma. Initiate me into your mysteries and [do the deed i wish].
Hail unto you, O Pleiades. Hail unto you Seven Sisters. Hail unto you, Alcyone, Maia, Electra, Taygete, Celaeno, Sterope, Merope. Daughters of gods, mothers of heroes, you who guard the gates of the ecliptic, I honor you. Initiate me into your mysteries and [do the deed i wish].
O you Pleiades, beautiful nymphs. O you mighty Seven Sisters. O Alcyone. O Maia. O Electra. O Tygete. O Celaeno. O Sterope. O Merope. I thank you for your presence in my circle. I thank you for the gifts of your mysteries. I thank you for your mighty deeds on my behalf, [the deed you wish]. As you came in power, go in peace with my gratitude.
Between the research – which I can hardly claim to have finished – the conjurations, and the illustrations, this image was significantly more work than the image of Algol. I had some concern that I would not be able to finish this post this month. I am both excited to continue to develop my relationship with the Pleiades, and extremely glad to be done with this image.
The next in the series will be Aldebaran, which comes third in those lists where he doesn’t trade places with Algol for first. I’ve done an Aldebaran image before, but I can’t recall that I’ve ever caught a proper election, which means that I will have a lot less previous relationship to draw on as I start my new illustration and do my conjuring. Still, I’m really looking forward to it, and I hope that you are, as well.
1 – Agrippa, Henry Cornelius. Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Book II, Chapter XLVII https://esotericarchives.com/agrippa/op2.htm
2 – De Quindecim Stellis: The Comprehensive Translations of Hermes on the Fifteen Fixed Stars. 2022. Various authors. Translated by Regulus Hess, edited by Christopher Warnock. This book also includes excerpts from several other texts, including the Speculum Lapidum.
3 – Leonardi, Camillo. Speculum Lapidum. Pennyslvania State University Press. 2023. Translated by Liliana Leopardi. (Hess and Warnock render this “A virgin or maiden, or a torch” in their excerpt in De Quindecim Stellis.)
4 – Warnock, Christopher. Fixed Star, Sign & Constellation Magic. 2019. Image by Nigel Jackson. Page 28.
5 – MUL.APIN. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUL.APIN
6 – I am very seriously working on my baseline conjuration ritual writeup, but in the meantime this link will take you to a pretty good explanation: https://journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com/index.php/2023/06/16/triangles-of-the-art-an-idiosyncratic-journey/
