(Apologies in advance for a long effortpost.) I've been thinking about the Mansions of the Moon as listed in Picatrix, specifically the 27th/Al Fargh al-Thani.
The reason this Mansion has the powers it does is due to the effects of the zodiac, because everything in the created cosmos may be located in one of the twelve zodiacal signs, specifically mediated through the further distinction of decan and term; my sense with the Mansions is that exaltation and triplicity play less of a role, but I can't yet justify this from first principles.
The Plinian description of the 27th is to destroy springs and wells; its ymage is an angel holding a perforated dish to his mouth. This Mansion overlaps the decans of Saturn and Jupiter, and the bounds of Venus and Jupiter. The decanic admixture of Saturn, who has no further essential dignity concurrent with his decan, and Jupiter, who rules both a bound overlapping his decan and the entire sign, is part of the reason this Mansion has such a sharp mixture of benefic uses and malefica; this is also the reason the Sufi mystic Al-Buni says of it, "When the Moon is in this Mansion there descends a spirit of mixed good and evil, in which you will abstain from making any preparation." This is the reason the earlier listing in bk I ch 4 gives its magical uses as: > increase merchandise and acquire profit (benefic Jove) > unite allies (Jupiter and likely Venus as well) > increase harvests (Venus and possibly Jupiter mediating Saturn's influence) > heal illness (Jupiter) > destroy the riches of whomever you wish (Saturn "mediating" Jove) > impede the building of buildings (Saturn) > put travelers on the sea in peril (malefic Jove?, possibly malefic Venus) > prolong the incarceration of captives (Saturn) > to do evil to whomever you wish (Saturn triumphing over all)
It would be foolish to use the Plinian ymage for any of these. The Plinian ymage of an angel blowing his breath (or pneuma) onto a dish (perforated, it spills anything in it and cannot hold water, another reinforcement of the ymage's destructive purpose) is for annihilating the wells and springs of an enemy. The description gives us everything we need: as Picatrix itself states in bk II ch 3, "..from generalities, you will be able to understand and judge particulars." We already know to make the purpose of the ymage as coherent as possible; because of how the cosmos is configured, there is nothing purely coherent in the physical world of matter and energy. Everything is "a coadunation of the elements ordered for the reception of Form." We will never encounter pure Fire or even a pure Form, only shadows of the ideas. While the Moon is in this Mansion, gaining a great deal of influence over Piscean matters, as further mediated through the other rules of the Mansion's degrees, we increase the coherence of our ymage in order to magnify its effect. We draw an angelic spirit belonging to this Mansion; he's breathing on/effecting the target, water; the vessel he holds is damaged and afflicted. And in the operation itself, we call out to the Angel or Lord ruling the Mansion, ask him to destroy the specific spring, then give the ymage to our apprentice and tell him to toss it in the guy's well in the middle of the night.
I believe the powers and effects of the Mansions change based on the state of the five rulers of the degree through which the Moon is passing as the ymage is made. These effects gain further coherence based on which planets the Moon is aspecting, their own essential dignity and angularity, and the houses they rule in the chart of the election. This Mansion is used to heal illness, possibly to aid health and vitality generally. On August 3rd at my location, the Moon rises in the 27th, sextiling her disposer Jupiter with very strong mutual reception, and applying to oppose Mars, also with mutual reception. With Pisces rising, the operator is associated with Jupiter; with Leo on the cusp of the 6th, the Sun represents illness. The ymage for this election might depict a winged, angelic figure breathing on an injured body part, or, even better, speaking into a doctor's ear while the doctor examines the patient (who is drawn to look like the person we want to help). Does this look like an ok election for a healing ymage? And have I made any blunders in this longwinded description of astrological magic?
Mansions of the Moon
The reason this Mansion has the powers it does is due to the effects of the zodiac, because everything in the created cosmos may be located in one of the twelve zodiacal signs, specifically mediated through the further distinction of decan and term; my sense with the Mansions is that exaltation and triplicity play less of a role, but I can't yet justify this from first principles.
The Plinian description of the 27th is to destroy springs and wells; its ymage is an angel holding a perforated dish to his mouth. This Mansion overlaps the decans of Saturn and Jupiter, and the bounds of Venus and Jupiter. The decanic admixture of Saturn, who has no further essential dignity concurrent with his decan, and Jupiter, who rules both a bound overlapping his decan and the entire sign, is part of the reason this Mansion has such a sharp mixture of benefic uses and malefica; this is also the reason the Sufi mystic Al-Buni says of it, "When the Moon is in this Mansion there descends a spirit of mixed good and evil, in which you will abstain from making any preparation." This is the reason the earlier listing in bk I ch 4 gives its magical uses as:
> increase merchandise and acquire profit (benefic Jove)
> unite allies (Jupiter and likely Venus as well)
> increase harvests (Venus and possibly Jupiter mediating Saturn's influence)
> heal illness (Jupiter)
> destroy the riches of whomever you wish (Saturn "mediating" Jove)
> impede the building of buildings (Saturn)
> put travelers on the sea in peril (malefic Jove?, possibly malefic Venus)
> prolong the incarceration of captives (Saturn)
> to do evil to whomever you wish (Saturn triumphing over all)
It would be foolish to use the Plinian ymage for any of these. The Plinian ymage of an angel blowing his breath (or pneuma) onto a dish (perforated, it spills anything in it and cannot hold water, another reinforcement of the ymage's destructive purpose) is for annihilating the wells and springs of an enemy. The description gives us everything we need: as Picatrix itself states in bk II ch 3, "..from generalities, you will be able to understand and judge particulars." We already know to make the purpose of the ymage as coherent as possible; because of how the cosmos is configured, there is nothing purely coherent in the physical world of matter and energy. Everything is "a coadunation of the elements ordered for the reception of Form." We will never encounter pure Fire or even a pure Form, only shadows of the ideas. While the Moon is in this Mansion, gaining a great deal of influence over Piscean matters, as further mediated through the other rules of the Mansion's degrees, we increase the coherence of our ymage in order to magnify its effect. We draw an angelic spirit belonging to this Mansion; he's breathing on/effecting the target, water; the vessel he holds is damaged and afflicted. And in the operation itself, we call out to the Angel or Lord ruling the Mansion, ask him to destroy the specific spring, then give the ymage to our apprentice and tell him to toss it in the guy's well in the middle of the night.
I believe the powers and effects of the Mansions change based on the state of the five rulers of the degree through which the Moon is passing as the ymage is made. These effects gain further coherence based on which planets the Moon is aspecting, their own essential dignity and angularity, and the houses they rule in the chart of the election. This Mansion is used to heal illness, possibly to aid health and vitality generally. On August 3rd at my location, the Moon rises in the 27th, sextiling her disposer Jupiter with very strong mutual reception, and applying to oppose Mars, also with mutual reception. With Pisces rising, the operator is associated with Jupiter; with Leo on the cusp of the 6th, the Sun represents illness. The ymage for this election might depict a winged, angelic figure breathing on an injured body part, or, even better, speaking into a doctor's ear while the doctor examines the patient (who is drawn to look like the person we want to help). Does this look like an ok election for a healing ymage? And have I made any blunders in this longwinded description of astrological magic?
Best,
Andrew