Resources to learn *traditional* electional astrology?

RohanMenon

I've been looking at books on Electional astrology. Most seem to be by modern writers.

Ideally someone here can reccomend specific books by traditional i.e medieval or arab or hellenistic authors. I'm reading through books by Lilly and Morin. Neither seems to deal with electional astrology (Lilly deals with horary and Morin deals with mundane predictions but I may just not have encountered their electional writings yet).

I'd like to attempt making a planetary talisman, just to see if it works, for which I need a good electional chart. (Well I also need a book on the process of actually making a talisman, given a moment, but that is step 2. I don't really "believe" in 'magic' which is another problem.. but that is step 3 ;-))

Any pointers gratefully received.
thanks in advance
 

Minderwiz

Most traditional writers tended to include elections part of a longer work. But when Ben Dykes translated Bonatti, he released the work in instalments and his translation of Bonatti on Elections is still available. If you have a Kindle and a Kindle Unlimited subscription you can get it for free as one of your borrowed books. Alternatively you can buy the Kindle version of it for £7.95 (UK price). Dykes charges $24.95 plus p&p if you purchase directly from him.

Bonatti in turn had translated from Arabic texts (themselves often translated from Farsi). From memory I think Sahl and Masha'allah were his main sources. Dykes has also translated them too and cut out the middle man ;).

A word of warning though. Dykes is not the easiest person to read and his translations are not as easy to read as Holden, even if they are more literally accurate (or so he claims).
 

RohanMenon

Thank You, Minderwiz, It looks like it is going to be a longer effort than I thought, if the available material is tough to read in translation. I personally find Dykes tough going, as compared to Holden/Morin or Lilly.

So I think I'll focus on natal chart analysis and prediction for now (and after I finish working through Lilly, horary) , which should sharpen basic astrology skills.

logically, electional astrology would seem to be natal astrology 'in reverse' so to speak. Instead of analyzing a given moment's chart, we look for a chart with 'good' placements, so the benefics at the angles, and the malefics de emphasized and so on. I think in practice, no chart will have all the planets placed 'perfectly'.

Maybe the whole idea is dubious. The talisman construction procedures available online also seem flaky. I'll do a rethink.

Thank You for the (extremely valuable as always) reply.