This week’s Doodle Addicts prompt, and a side project that I’m working on, had me inspired to do this illustration of the weird, wonderful medieval talismanic images associated with the twenty eight Mansions of the Moon, or Lunar Stations. The symbols come from a medieval book on astrology and talismanic (protective) magic originally in Arabic, but came to be known in Latin (kind of adorably) as the Picatrix. Like all such pieces of medieval obscurity, the symbols are like a delicious and weird potpourri of astrological folklore.
Here is a rundown of the talismanic images, because how could I post them without a key?
- A warrior with a spear, his head wrapped
- A king, crowned
- A woman with her right arm over her head
- A knight riding forth, holding aloft a serpent in his right hand
- A head, disembodied, not dead
- Two identical people, tied together
- A man in robes, his hands extended in prayer
- An eagle with the face of a man
- A eunuch, covering his eyes (a wounded man)
- The head of a lion
- A man with a lance astride a lion
- A man battling a dragon
- A man and a woman, tied together
- A dog with its tail in its mouth
- A man seated, reading scrolls
- A man enthroned, holding scales
- A monkey with its arms raised above its head
- An asp with a tail held over its head
- A woman, weeping
- A centaur armed with bow and arrow
- A man with two faces, one gazing right, the other left
- A helmeted man with wings on his feet
- A cat with the head of a dog
- A woman holding a child to nurse
- A man planting trees
- A woman washing her hair in a basin
- A winged man holding a cup to his mouth
- A fish with a multicolored spine