The Sky Library · Mansion 20 of 28
Al Na'a'im
An-Na'a'im · The Ostriches
Span4°17′09″ Sagittarius – 17°08′34″ Sagittarius (tropical)
Determinant starsGamma, Delta, Epsilon and Eta Sagittarii with Sigma, Phi, Tau and Zeta Sagittarii, the ostriches going down to the river of the Milky Way and returning
Ostriches at the river of stars, going down to drink and coming home again.
Eight stars of Sagittarius read as two files of ostriches crossing to the celestial river. Agrippa calls the mansion Abnahaya, glossed a beam, and gives it a strange strength of compulsion, the power that tames, confines and summons.
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
- the taming of wild beasts
- the strengthening of prisons
- compelling a person to come to a certain place
Contraries
Destroys the wealth of societies; ill for partnerships and common funds.
Agrippa's gloss, a beam, does not translate the Arabic name, which plainly means the ostriches; his source garbled it somewhere along the road from Arabic to Latin.