Although I originally planned to have the ritual a little later in the day, I always like to double check - and realized I was looking at the wrong time for Capella (or rather, I was on the wrong date). Instead, Capella was culminating right during Jupiter hour on Wednesday - good enough for me. Personally, I don’t work with Jupiter directly - every time I’ve tried, he’s introduced me to someone else, and I’m assuming at this point in our relationship he’s building me a support / expansion system instead of working with me directly. It’s part of his nature, and I’m trying to deal with it not as rejection but as anticipation; it feels a little weird to be constantly handed off. This is the first time I’ve come to him directly with a request to ‘introduce me to..’ instead of him saying ‘oh, you should meet Mars, he’s going to help you with this instead.’
So; practicality time. Freshly showered (but in street clothes), one purple candle and one white candle, two small cups of water and one pint jar of water gathered. My workspace is a mess, so I made space on my desk, pulled out SkySafari to figure out where the two candles would go, tried and failed to find my copy of Dunn’s translations of the Orphic Hymns (took it as a sign that I didn’t need it right now). Lit the candles, entered meditative space.
Caption: Part of the original talk - a brilliant diagram of the ‘ideal’ altar when working with stars. However, remember - the best work is the work you actually do, don’t let perfect be the enemy of done.
I don’t work directly in vision, but with a sense of knowing. I saw this because I overthink and I’m not sure I ‘see’ things the way I’m supposed to. Instead, I consider myself a storyteller and I let the story unfold in my mind.
First, I address Jupiter, requesting to meet Capella, Almathea, his nursemaid when he was hidden away by his mother. He nods and gestures to a small empty table slightly outside of the throng of people always present in his court. I don’t take the time to try and grab details of what he looks like or who is present, because that’s not why I’m here.
Caption: Jupiter on his throne. Pompeian wall painting, house of the Dioskuroi, atrium - Museo Archeologico Nazionale.
The table is small and metal, chairs not comfortable. They are like iron garden furniture, and out of place for the space. A woman comes and sits next to me.
First impressions are that she is incredibly pale, with blue veins visible under translucent skin - more human than I expected. Dark hair, sweet face, maybe late 20s/early 30s in maturity, but not enough detail that I would recognize her later. Round cheeks, small smile. Wearing white with purple threads woven in, metal and stone clasps at her shoulders, a sort of goat hide belt around her waist.
In sync, the three of us raise a glass and take a sip (Jupiter from his throne in a distance) - then Jupiter goes back to his business and I focus more purely on Capella.
She asks what I want; I tell her I’m not sure, exactly, but I wander too far and I thought her presence might help get things under control. She tells me that that’s not what she does - she’s likely to make things worse. I ask instead, then, if she can help my wandering projects come to fruition, to be nourished and be complete (ie, if I have to work on 10 things at once, can I at least finish some to success and then start the next thing). That she found agreeable.
Next I asked about the reading, specifically the 7 of Swords. She told me that it was fine if I wanted to make a talisman, that that’s a project she could help be successful, but that I really shouldn’t put her in the 8th house; that would not be helpful, and would cause her to kill things rather than complete them. She advised either to go earlier - let the moon be before the midheaven, with her in the 9th house - would put Jupiter in his joy, the 11th house, and honor him for his patronage; or let her fall to setting, although then she wouldn’t be human but be touching the earth - less powerful, goat shaped, but very helpful.
There was also a moment of the image being two people - Gemini influenced, Lovers influenced - a musician and a dancer, perhaps. But it was vague, and we’ll see.
I said I would look at the charts, and we moved on. I tried to understand what metal she was wearing, what stones were in her brooches, and she sort of waved me off. Yes, sapphire, yes, gold and silver- but that is because I was meeting her at midheaven, in Jupiter’s court, where she was most exalted and honored. The material would differ depending on where she was - she did like blue stones, so lapis would be okay.
I offered clay, with lapis chips inset in the design. She liked the mix of mundane with the beautiful, but said that the color of the clay would depend on when I picked the talisman.
I opened my eyes and cast it around my workspace - kind of covered in stones and things. I was instantly drawn to a particular jasper stone, so this is the stone I will be using to connect with her in the future - as an altar marker, not for talismanic work.
Taking a few moments for contemplation, I got directed that I should make a tea blend for the next meeting; milky oats, lemon balm, and chamomile. Nothing matched her herbs, but she said that tea was for enjoyment, incense was for something else. The tea indicated her personality and our relationship.
I was feeling done, so I thanked them for their help and their presence, blew out candles, and came to the computer to record my thoughts.
Caption: Workspace meets reality - my altar is still being redone, so I use the space I have; detritus and all. Please enjoy my cute little cups I use for liquid offerings, as well as the jasper Capella picked as a reference stone.
First: interesting to ask Jupiter for connection; although now I can see that I will get a particular aspect if I choose to meet in court. For longer research, it might be worth meeting a star under each planet’s aegis, to see how things shift, see what aspects come out, what instructions or relationships are given - especially when people don’t agree what planets are associated with the star.
Perhaps because I was under Jupiter she was willing to bend her efforts toward ‘success’ instead of a more Saturnian ‘make some of this stop’. I always have more ideas for things to do than time or physical energy, and finishing things is the least exciting part. If I can just get more things done and in maintenance mode, that will give me more mental energy for the next thing, more things shared with the community, and hopefully more benefit to myself as well.
Websites used: https://www.almanac.com/astronomy/bright-stars/ for Capella timings (although originally it defaulted to the wrong date, which is why my original plan was off) and our good friend https://planetaryhours.net/app for the planetary hours.
Looking at the alternate timings, since I’m here. It’s good to remember that the chart is an abstraction - Capella at my location will rise at 12:33am on August 12th, culminate at 9:33am, and set at 6:33pm. So her sitting abstractly in the 7th house, approaching the descendent - that’s about Gemini, not about her presence in the sky.
I kind of like her in the 7th house, as well - that’s a Lovers position if I’ve ever seen one.
If I wanted Jupiter in the 11th house the Moon would be JUST before reaching true new moon with the Sun - and apparently there’s going to be a solar eclipse that day (although not very visible where I am). That eclipse ends at 3:57pm, so getting Capella into the 7th house will put us right past the eclipse. Astrologically, this is not even the midpoint of ‘eclipse season’, though - current season just started (July 27th) and will go until August 31st - this is when the Sun will get more than 18 degrees away from the South Node. I’ve never contemplated talisman work during eclipse season, but Capella didn’t say NO, so perhaps it’s best to consider this as a ‘channeling my natural chaos into something better’ as exemplified by eclipse energy.
Generally, though - eclipse energy is a problem, and I need to be even more careful than I thought.
This will probably require a second meeting. There is a second Leo solar eclipse in August 2027.
Eclipse is giving me a big pause - this is a large amount of energy, and it shifts my thoughts on what I would be working with both as materials and as intention.
New next steps: make the tea blend. Have tea with Capella. In a perfect world, I’d meet with her tomorrow, on Jupiter’s day. Her next rise is a Jupiter hour, but at 1:46am so still a Mercury day, and honestly I’m not going to make that. Her culmination and set are both Venus hours in Jupiter day properly; that’s auspicious enough. We’ll see where reality actually puts the meeting, though (foreshadowing: I did not make this particular timing date).