The Sky Library · Mansion 4 of 28
Al Dabaran
Ad-Dabaran · The Follower
Span8°34′17″ Taurus – 21°25′43″ Taurus (tropical)
Determinant starsAldebaran (Alpha Tauri), the red eye of the Bull, with the Hyades about it
The red eye that follows the Sisters and never looks away.
Named for Aldebaran, which follows the Pleiades across the sky. Agrippa lists it as Aldebaram or Aldelamen and gives it almost entirely to undoing, a mansion whose strength runs toward endings, dispersal and demolition rather than increase.
The Spirit of the Mansion
the square of Jupiter, 34 in every line
a small fire keeps the sill; on the far side, the pin at the heart of the plate answers a touch
Agrippa and the Picatrix transmit different names for the mansion spirits; both are given.
What the number square means
The grid is a kamea, one of the planetary magic squares from Agrippa's second book; every planet has one, from Saturn's three by three to the Moon's nine by nine. In a true square every row, every column, and both diagonals add to the same number, and Jupiter's adds to 34 in every line. Count any line and see. Practitioners engraved these on talismans as the planet's signature written in number, and the gilded cell marks this mansion's own number.
Elections in this mansion
- driving away creeping and venomous things
- deliberate endings and demolitions
- severing what must be severed
Contraries
Contrary to buildings, fountains, wells, mines and foundations of every kind, and it begets discord.
The sidereal frame: this sky also belongs to Rohini .
Picatrix likewise makes this a mansion of destruction and enmity; the two sources agree on its temper. Some transmissions of the Picatrix spell the mansion spirit Assurez.