THE TALISMAN IMAGE
A talisman-image is an image that folds the cosmos and draws the folded points into contact the body. As the thirteenth-century Latin Picatrix, a translation of the tenth-century Arabic magic text the Ghayāt al-Hakīm (Goal of the Sage), puts it, “The talisman is nothing other than the force of celestial bodies that influence bodies.” Traditionally, a magician, using astrological knowledge, fashions a talisman to intervene in the causal action of stars and planets in order to effect earthly changes. The magician’s bodily discipline, knowledge of nature, and intention, as well as acute timing to align with planetary and stellar causality, are required for the talisman to function properly. In our time, talisman-images intervene in the cosmic order by realigning the forces that connect our bodies to the cosmos. -Laura U. Marks
