How To Get Quality Magical Elections When You’re Not An Astrologer

Any talisman is only as good as the election selected for its creation. No matter how earnest your ritual, or how much sympathetic materia you use, the astrology determines the effect of the magical working. But astrology is an entire, complex corpus of wisdom that takes years to learn.

This begs the question: Can you even practice astro-magic if you’re not a skilled astrologer?

Thanks to the internet and the growing popularity of talismanic magic, the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”. There are talented astrologers doing the research every month to find magical elections of all types and sharing their findings with their digital audiences.

Astro-magical rituals have their own learning curve. One can easily be skilled at astrology and not be familiar with theurgic ritual and the making of talismans and vice versa. It only makes sense that in such a broad field of study there are specialists of all varieties.

Over time, you will undoubtably become more familiar with astrological theory by practicing astrological magic. Some folks start with astrology and learn magic later and others start with magic and eventually learn astrology. All paths are valid.

From a practical standpoint, if you’re not in a position to research your own elections, you can simply subscribe to one or more of the practitioners who do and share them publicly. I have personally worked with elections from three such people and can attest to the quality of their work.

3 Sources For Magical Elections For The Creation Of Talismans

Nina Gryphon (Website)

Nina is a very talented astrologer who runs a Patreon and a YouTube channel on (primarily) Hellenistic astrology and she produces a guide with a handful of her favorite magical elections each month. The elections come with membership to the Patreon and can be purchased individually from her website as well.

Each monthly guide contains 5-10 high quality elections and instructions for their use in ritual, such as recommendations for sympathetic materia, images/glyphs to engrave, and insight into the nuanced details of the astrological configuration to help you understand what they might be used to accomplish.

Her elections are sourced using a variety of astrological methods from typical planetary elections to decans to lunar mansions and occasionally fixed stars and her recommendations follow Agrippa’s teachings primarily and, sometimes, the Picatrix.

Rhyan Butler (YouTube)

Another up-and-coming electional astrologer, Rhyan Butler provides similar elections (to Nina) via his YouTube for free each month and deeper astrological insights and education through his Patreon. Though Nina and Rhyan will feature similar elections from time to time, most of Rhyan’s elections will be unique enough to warrant following both of them.

Rhyan provides 5+ elections each month, featuring primarily traditional planetary elections and lunar mansion elections, along with educational content about the configurations and how they can be put to use magically.

Postmugglism (YouTube)

Surprise! One of the people is me… Did you know that I produce a monthly guide to lunar mansion magic that features all of the viable lunar mansion elections for the month in four timezones (PST, EST, CET, and AET)?

Since December 2021 I’ve been putting out a video detailing all the opportunities to work lunar mansion magic each month and highlighting the elections which are suitable for the creation of talismans. Lunar mansion elections are a little different that traditional planetary elections because they are primarily concerned with the position of the Moon and which mansion it is “resting” in during that day/night. For “talisman-quality” elections I look for opportunities where the Moon is on the Ascendant or Midheaven and positively aspecting one of the other celestial bodies.

I provide the same type of recommendations as Nina and Rhyan, to help you understand how to work with the lunar mansion spirits in ritual to achieve your goals and I am also producing other videos on the topic of lunar mansions regularly, to help make the system more accessible to more practitioners.

Subscribe to this Substack to get notified about all my content, including the lunar mansion magic guide, and lots of other good stuff.

So You Acquired Some Magical Elections –Now What?

If you live in the same timezone as the elections you acquired were cast then you won’t need to do anything to adjust the charts for your location but, if not, you’ll need to change the time of the election slightly to make it work for you.

This is relatively straightforward, since all that you can do is move the time forward or backwards. The first thing you should do is get the Moon and the Ascendant to approximately the same degree in your timezone as it is on the original electional chart.

In an astrology app, set the time to be the same as on the electional chart you’ve acquired -but set the app to your timezone. Then adjust the time forward or backward in small increments to move the celestials until they roughly match their positions on the electional chart. Then verify that any other aspects mentioned by the astrologer for this election are approaching within 9 degrees for the moon, 5 degrees for planets, and 1 degree for fixed stars.

Some celestials may not reach the exact same positions or may not make the same aspects as in the electional chart and when this happens there is not much you can do about it. Most of the time, though, finding the same configuration is as simple as tweaking the time by a few minutes. Having relocated the chart to your area, all that’s left is to gather your materia and perform the ritual.

It Takes A Community

Many mages are not able to spend the money on decent astrological software like AstroGold or Solarfire which are necessary to find elections reliably. Likewise, not everyone is an experienced astrologer who knows what qualifies as a “good” election.

But this is nothing new. It’s unlikely that, in ancient times, every magical practitioner was fluent in astrology and math to the point of casting electional charts. It is more likely that, just as we do, they relied on the skills of talented astrologers and shared their findings among a community of peers.

This is a valid approach because we have access to a global community of talented astrologers and practitioners. By working with elections from Nina, Rhyan, or myself, you have the opportunity to experiment and learn without the threat of producing bad talismans at inopportune times due to inexperience. As you practice, you will learn about the astrology as well as the rituals and your own skills will develop in time; giving you the resources you need now and inspiration for your own education along the way.

You will also find that working magic yields more positive changes to your life and spirit than you intend with your rituals. Time spent in theurgic ritual is uplifting and transformative and it is better to work with another astrologer’s elections so that you’re not forced to wait to receive these benefits during the years of study it will take to master the astrology behind the magic.

Featured Image: Secrets of a Library – The Astronomer by Ikku Nala