“Under the Spike they made the image of a bird, or of a man laden with merchandise; it confers riches, and makes one overcome contentions, it takes away scarcity and mischief – Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book II, Chapter 47 On the Images of the Fixed Behenian Stars (transl. Joseph H. Peterson)
Spica is one of the most fortunate and benevolent stars described in Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy as well as earlier works on astrological magic. It is one of the brightest stars in the heavens and is located in the ear of wheat in the Virgo constellation.
In astrological magic, we make use of this star by electing a fortunate time to construct a talisman imbued with the powers of Spica to attract wealth, prosperity and the good will of others. It is said to remove poverty as well as one’s enemies and to provide victory in legal disputes.
The Election
The place is London, UK and the time is 10:32 BST on 2 September 2019.
Spica is rising and the Moon applies to a tight (within 3 degrees) conjunction to Spica. The moon is waxing, peregrine, and makes no other applying aspects.
The working
Agrippa describes the manner of working with this election in Book I, Chapter 47 of his Three Books of Occult Philosophy:
“Now the manner of making these kinds of rings, is this, viz. when any star ascends fortunately, with the fortunate aspect, or conjunction of the Moon, we must take a stone, and herb that is under that star, and make a ring of the metal that is suitable to this star, and in it fasten the stone, putting the herb, or root under it; not omitting the inscriptions of images, names, and characters, as also the proper suffumigations…” – Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book I, Chapter 47 (transl. Joseph H. Peterson)
The herbs, suffumigations and stone for Spica can be found described in Liber Hermetis* which gives the herbs as trefoil, periwinkle, wormwood and mandrake, and the stone of Spica as emerald. The seal of Spica can also be found in Liber Hermetis, although versions are also available in Agrippa in Book II, Chapter 52 which Joseph H. Peterson has kindly made available here at his Esoteric Archives website.
At the time of the election, an emerald should be engraved with the image of a bird or a man carrying merchandise and the seal of Spica while invoking the Angel of the constellation and the spirit of Spica. The emerald should be set in a ring or pendant with some of the ground herbs. This ring should then be suffumigated with the herbs of Spica while a petition for wealth and good fortune is recited.
The election is only valid for London, UK and would need to be rectified for your location. If you would like to order a Spica talisman election for your location, feel free to order an election via my services page or contact me.
* Liber Hermetis, in Joan Evans, Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, (transl. John Michael Greer)