When you call and the Planets answer…
In October 2022 I virtually attended the AstroMagia Conference, a three day online conference featuring lectures and panel discussions centering around the theory and practice of astrological magic. Some of the keynote speakers included Demetra George and Christopher Warnock, to name a few. The three days of the conference were jam packed with lectures, viewings and discussions and I spent the next couple of weeks and months catching up on all the content as I wasn’t able to attend all of them live. I learnt a lot and definitely felt very inspired to include some of what I had learnt in my own practice.
One talk that particularly stood out to me was given by Sam Belyea which covered the set up of planetary altars and the way he communicated with each planet to see what they would each like on their altar. I had never really thought about ‘talking’ or communicating with planets in this way so taking inspiration from this I did a little experimenting of my own and was pretty blown away by what I received.
I believe that each of the planets have a role to play in our lives based on their placement in the birth chart and being heavily Saturnian and Mercurial, thus feeling an affinity with those planets, I chose Saturn and Mercury to work with first as I felt that these energies were more familiar to me and would be easier to tap in to. I also chose to use tarot cards as a medium to receive messages as this felt more natural to me having read the tarot since I was a teenager. Below covers some of my process and how I went about this:
My Process:
On the planetary day of the planet that you wish to communicate with, light a candle and burn suitable incense as an offering.
Meditate and concentrate on the energies of the planet and any feelings that may arise.
Pull a few tarots cards and pay attention to any messages that may come through.
I have noticed that Saturn tends to give me messages that pertain to my life path, learning and career. Perhaps because he is the ruler of my chart (said to be seated at the helm of the chart in Hellenistic Astrology). But he does seem very concerned about keeping me on track and not letting me lose sight of my goals and aspirations and for that, I am truly appreciative for his role in my life despite some of his lessons being difficult and not always welcome! I also noticed a feeling of heaviness in my body and a slight headache when focusing on his energy.
When working with Mercury, I must admit that in true mercurial fashion, the energies felt a little all over the place to me! I had some difficulty in interpreting what it was they were trying to communicate with me. I had pulled quite a few tarot cards but couldn’t really deduce a cohesive message and it wasn’t until I was packing away the cards that a message finally did come through. As if a light bulb had gone off in my head and the answer to my question came.
Whilst I currently do not have the space to have separate planetary altars as suggested by Sam Belyea, this is definitely something I would love to have in the future. Below is a picture of my current altar set up featuring images for each of the seven traditional planets. I would also like to add that I have received more specific requests from the planets regarding what they would each like to have on the altar. For example; the Moon requested white flowers, Mercury requested a wooden pencil, and Jupiter requested silver coins so the offerings on the altar change depending on which energies I would like to draw upon at that particular time in my life.
Planetary Altar
If you would like to attend this years AstroMagia Conference (which I would highly recommend) you can find more information about it here. They run regular live talks throughout the year and their back catalogue of conference talks is available for purchase if you missed the previous years.
So, let me know what you think. Do you have your own process for communicating with the planets? Is this something you have tried or would like to try in the future?