Join IAAM for a conversation with Danny Larkin about solar magic. With the Sun exalted in Aries, there is a unique opportunity to work magically with the Sun between March 21st and April 19, 2025.
https://astromagia-org.zoom.us/j/87903515262?pwd=ttyiUIcsEfbKS8FnLMUKXnoXwOo5cF.1
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This solar opportunity - embedded in Aries season - is about more than talisman creation. In the past few years, our community has become animated by the enthusiasm for inscribing talismans and other materia at an auspicious moment and selling them online. But sometimes, a misperception can form that talismans are the only or the best form of astrological magic, which can narrow our focus onto the task of finding the perfect electional time during Aries season, or forking over a significant sum for the ultimate solar talisman.
In fact, there are several forms of solar magic that we can tap into during Aries season. Join us for a more capacious and playful approach to unleashing the magic of Aries season, which is grounded in our shared tradition as a point of departure, but also informed by recent advances and insights from disciplines that stand adjacent to astrological magic.
Numerous plants are associated with the Sun in the corpus of astrological texts. Rather than name checking every plant that is deemed solar at some point in our tradition, we will hone in on two exemplars from the plant kingdom - Frankincense and Saffron. Working with both of them during this Aries season can facilitate solar discoveries. .
The frankincense tree grows in some of the sunniest and driest places on earth in Ethiopia, Somalia, Oman, Yemen and India. It is treasured by aromatherapists for therpetic properties that border on the transcendental. How can we draw closer towards Frankincense and use it in ritual during Aries season? How can we mentally prepare ourselves to experience the full mental, emotional, physical and spiritual benefits of a sacred and revered aroma? Probing the intersection between the work of our colleagues in aromatherapy with our own astrological magic tradition can transform our ritual workings.
Saffron comes from a variety of the crocus flower. Its threads must be plucked by hand from the pistils of the flower before drying. Saffron loses 80% of its weight during this drying process for its preservation, causing Saffron to be one of the most expensive and therefore most counterfeited spices in the world. As a result, many home chefs do not cook with Saffron frequently. And sometimes, we may unwittingly cook with fake saffron. How can we learn from colleagues at the forefront of the spice trade about how to procure the best and truest saffron? How can we learn from chefs about the gastronomy of saffron - creating a dish that showcases its aroma and flavor? During this Aries season, cooking a few dishes with solar saffron can create a moment for an epicurean encounter with the Sun.
Gold was associated with the Sun in the earliest known Mesopotamian planetary color scheme, as well as in the Greek Magical Papyri. Perhaps, dissuaded by the burdensome expense of gold and the technical difficulty of creating golden metallic textiles, astrologers in the Middle Ages began to work with orange and yellow as a more affordable alternative for solar colors. This pragmatic choice was the most realistic given the economic and technological constraints of the pigment trade. In modern times, it is now very easy for us to procure shimmering metallic textiles and other golden objects at a reasonable price point. So, as we plan out the accouterments for our solar rituals or even just the clothes we might wear as Spring arrives, it might be fruitful to revisit the Solar potency of a touch of gold, as opposed to falling back onto the medieval conventions of yellow or orange.
Several widely available gemstones in crystal shops will become more powerful during this Aries season because of their intrinsic solar properties. The discourse of connecting crystals to astrology can sometimes degenerate into clickbait about the best crystals for each sun sign. What is often lost is how when the luminaries or planets become dignified in the here and now, their corresponding gems or plants associated with that dignified planet become more potent in the here and now. The virtues of crystals and gems can be efficacious in their own rite, even if they are not inscribed at an auspicious electional time. We don’t want to miss out on the unique virtues and benefits of uninscribed solar gemstones. In this way, we can work with gemstones to make the most of each of us constructively experiencing this exalted sun by transit. How can we cultivate a deeper relationship with Pyrite, Sunstone, Garnet, Chyrsolite, Rainbow Iris Agate, and Bloodstone (which is also known as Heliotrope). How can we draw closer to these gems during Aries season?
Beside these practical considerations in our work with this spectrum of solar materia, we will contemplate a lesser known but key concept from Proclus (412 - 485) about the mental and emotional breakthroughs we can experience as a result of ritual. Proclus’s notion of Ἐκπλήσσω (ékplēxis) is sometimes inaccurately mistranslated as epiphany. It’s a much more complicated process of shock, awe, rupture and breakthrough that offers a helpful insight into how these solar workings can usher in the breakthroughs we are craving as we embrace another Spring.
Danny Larkin is the Vice President of the International Association of Astral Magic (IAAM). He previously served as Vice President and then President of the Association for Young Astrologers (AYA) (2017-2020). He is a lifetime member of the International Society for Astrological Research (ISAR) as well as the National Council for Geocosmic Research (NCGR).
Danny is a pillar of the astrology community in New York City. He studied modern astrology with Annabel Gat and John Marchesella. He serves as a fellow of the New York NCGR chapter and teaches classes as part of its faculty. He organizes the largest monthly gathering of Astrologers in New York - the Big Apple Astrology Meetup at the New York Theosophical Society, which he inherited from the late Kirk Kahn. Danny is certified at the first level by NCGR-PAA. He is also fully certified by ISAR, passing the ISAR competency exam after a series of workshops organized by Anne Ortelee.
Danny is deeply connected with Psychological Astrology and the Faculty of Astrological Studies. He has attended every in-person Summer School at Oxford since 2017, and shares a birthday with Melanie Reinhart. He is currently working towards its certificate, and eventually aspires to attain its formidable diploma in modern astrology. Along with Rory Keys, he is one of the few astrologers in his generation with the distinct privilege of studying in person with Liz Greene, when she gave a workshop in Cornwall in 2017 on Jung’s Red Book and the interconnections between astrology, theurgy, myth and analytic psychology.
Danny is deeply connected with the revival of Hellenistic and traditional astrology. He attended Demetra George’s inaugural retreats in Hellenistic Astrology in 2016, 2017 and 2018. He joined Demetra on a pilgrimage to sacred sites in Greece in 2019 - right before the pandemic - exploring the mysteries as one of the roots of the magical tradition. He passed Demetra’s first and second Herculean exams in Hellenistic Astrology with Distinction, and is currently bringing his third time lord exam to completion. He assisted Chris Brennan with research projects for his landmark 2017 book on Hellenistic Astrology, and plans to re-engage and finish his course after completing Demetra’s exams.
Danny is Irish-American. In 2022, he traveled to Ireland with his brother Sean. As brothers, they underwent an initiation into the celtic path with Ireland's most prominent living druid - Ard Druí Con Connor - in the bogs of Roscommon - the county of their ancestral Larkin roots. As brothers, they crawled through the mud and entered into the depths of a cave to the otherworld that freed their Celtic ancestors from fear. Danny is fearless about facilitating pagan and astrological community. He is passionate about crawling through the mud to organize events in person and online that resurrect the celestial spirituality of his druid ancestors. At times grandiloquent, loquacious, over-opinionated, unabashedly anti-colonial, prone to angry tirades, but overflowing with the wit and blarney of the Emerald Isle, Danny is probably too passionate about astrology’s past, present and future.