The Sky Library · Mansion 25 of 28
Sa'd al-Akhbiyah
Sa'd al-Akhbiyah · The Luck of the Tents
Span8°34′17″ Aquarius – 21°25′43″ Aquarius (tropical)
Determinant starsSadachbia (Gamma Aquarii) with Pi, Zeta and Eta Aquarii, pitched like tent poles
Tent pegs driven deep, and a messenger already on the road.
The luck of the tents, a Y of faint stars in Aquarius. Agrippa lists it as Sadalabra or Sadalachia, glossed a butterfly or a spreading forth, and it is the great binding mansion, one that fixes, confirms and ties fast, for good and for ill.
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
- besieging and redress against enemies
- confirming prisons and buildings
- hastening messengers
Contraries
The old books lend it to spells against copulation and to bindings that hinder the body; it is contrary to unions and to every work of loosing.