Bringing Wind to Your Sails — Aquamarine Sualocin Talismans
For these new Sualocin Talismans, I’ve put together a revised write-up that will accompany the talismans in booklet form; it includes both new material and adapted sections from the original. As I revisited the earlier text, I realized how much the myth has unfolded in my own life. In that first write-up, I focused on the mythological king of Ithaka, Odysseus, and the role the Nereids play in The Odyssey. His journey (finding his way home to Ithaka) has always held deep significance for me. Ithaka is my ancestral home just one generation back; my father was born there. My family left not long after a devastating earthquake in 1953 that decimated much of the island, which followed the four years of Nazi occupation. It was these two devestations that led to much of the island immigrating to seek a better life for their families.
At the time of the first release, I was writing about a place I had never been, but had dreamed of since childhood. Since then, I’ve made my own pilgrimage home. Reading over the original text now, I do so with an embodied understanding of the island. I have visited the Cave of the Nymphs and swam with the Nereids in the crystal waters of Ithaki!
Bringing Wind to Your Sails — Sualocin Talismans
These talismans differ slightly from previous iterations. While the core Sualocin qualities remain—glamour, movement toward opportunity, and support through transition—their energy feels more calm. The phrase that came to me while meditating with them was: “bringing the wind to your sails.” A favorable wind to push you forward along your path.
This image brought to mind a scene from the Argonautica, when Jason and the Argonauts, sailing home with the Golden Fleece, are forced to navigate the Planctae, also known as the Wandering Rocks. These shifting sea cliffs are perilous, for they are reputed to crush anything that dares to pass between them. Concerned for their safety, Hera sends Thetis and the Nereids to guide the Argo, Thetis takes the rudder while the Nereids rise from the sea to surround the ship.
“And as when in fair weather herds of dolphins come up from the depths and sport in circles round a ship as it speeds along, now seen in front, now behind, now again at the side and delight comes to the sailors; so the Nereids darted upward and circled in their ranks round the ship Argo, while Thetis guided its course.”
— Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, Book IV
As the Argo nears the rocks, the Nereids lift their garments and run across the waves and jagged cliffs. The current lifts the ship as the sea crashes around it, the rocks rising like crags into the sky, then dropping below the surface. The Nereids, like maidens tossing a ball so it never touches the ground, pass the ship from one to another across the waves, keeping it in motion and guiding it safely through the peril.
And so, the Argonauts were delivered safely from the deadly passage.
Most of my write-ups include mythic connections, and this is done with increasing intention. The write-up itself becomes a continuation of the talismanic working. The main myth invoked with these talismans is that of the Nereids guiding the Argo; spirit allies ushering a vulnerable vessel through chaos towards home. As we move into chaotic astrological times, may we call on the guidance of the Nereids to help steer our ships safely through whatever turbulence lies ahead.
The Astrological Election
The Sualocin talismans were inspirited, quenched, and bathed in rose petal–infused sea water on April 22nd at 3:36 am Pacific Time, with invocations to the Nereid sisters. Then passed through a suffumigation of Sualocin incense, which I created during the heliacal rise of Sualocin in 2023.
In this election, the Moon is fast and within a 2-degree orb of Sualocin. In the past, I primarily focused on applying aspects, but I’ve recently shifted my approach to prioritize other factors in the chart over whether the Moon is applying to or separating from the projected degree of the star. In this case, with Sualocin, I’m especially comfortable with this technique, as these are stellar spirits I’ve been working with for many years. This philosophical choice is rooted in an anti-imperial approach that centers on sky-gazing (what we actually see when we look up at the night sky), rather than what appears on the two-dimensional, ecliptical time wheel of the chart. I’ve been reflecting deeply on the Moon’s role in astrological magic as a ladder of light. Since Sualocin, like most stars, is not located on the ecliptic but projected onto it from deep in the heavens, I’ve come to the conclusion that proximity, being able to draw a line from the Moon to the star, which we can envision as a ladder connecting the celestial to the sublunary, is what matters most.
All that said, I’m combining both methodologies. What drew me to this chart is that Venus is exalted in her watery Piscean throne. While Sualocin isn’t one of the fifteen Behenian stars and therefore lacks traditional planetary associations, I find a connection to Venusian qualities to be quite apparent, especially Venus’s Piscean expression.
I thought this election was especially excellent because the Ascendant ruler (representing you) is located in the 1st house and tightly conjoined exalted Venus. When considering talismanic elections, we look to the AC ruler to see how the talisman will affect you. It’s not about the planet’s nature (when working with stars rising in the Capricorn/Aquarius regions of the sky it will always be Saturn), but rather the planet’s placement and the conditions affecting it. In this case, Saturn is in the 1st house, meaning the talisman’s influence should be directly felt in your person, and with that tight Venus conjunction, we have all those watery exalted Venus traits: compassionate love, sensuality, artistic creativity, and glamour, influencing and blending with Saturn. There are no hard aspects being made to the ascendant ruler or Moon, whose condition is also of major importance as she is our translator of light. She is in a harmonious trine to Jupiter, the major benefic. Which means both benefics are positively influencing this chart. Mars the other malefic is safely tucked away in the 6th house, making them cadent and not making any aspect to the ascendant. Saturn is separating from the north node while Venus is applying to it: some people may not like this, but in my experience Venus here has mitigated any concerns.
The Moon’s speed is another important factor, its swiftness indicates that the talisman’s effects will manifest quickly and effectively. Being in the last quarter phase, the Moon also reflects a receiving phase of its cycle. We can find this in the Picatrix; the phases of the Moon can be likened to sowing and reaping: from first quarter to full for asking, and from full to last quarter for receiving.
The Nereids and the Alpha Star of the Dolphin
Sualocin is the binary alpha star in the eye of the Delphinus (dolphin) constellation. Through extensive research, I came to understand that the Nereids, the Grecian sea nymphs, hold a deep affinity with this star and act as its presiding spirits. Throughout Greek mythology, plays, and artifacts, the Nereids are closely associated with dolphins: they are often shown riding them, swimming alongside them, or moving in dolphin-like ways. Their queen, Amphitrite, eldest of the Nereid sisters, is revered as the mother of dolphins.
This dolphin-Nereid connection appears widely across ancient sources. In vase paintings and sculptural reliefs, the Nereids are frequently depicted with dolphins. The motif also appears in literature: in the Achilles Trilogy(ca. 490 B.C.), the Nereids open the second play; in Euripides’ Elektra, they and the dolphins are described as protectors of Greek ships on the way to Troy. In The Argonautica, Apollonius Rhodius recounts the Nereids guiding the Argo like dolphins through perilous waters, and in Arion’s Hymn to Poseidon, dolphins again appear in close kinship with the sea nymphs.
The Orphic Hymn to the Nereids reinforces this dolphinic imagery, portraying them not only as divine sea nymphs but as beings whose movement through water mirrors the grace and shimmer of dolphins:
O lovely-faced and pure nymphs,
daughters of Nereus, sovereign of the abyss,
in the ocean's depths you dance and play,
fifty maidens cavorting in the surf,
astride Tritons, delighting in your aquatic forms,
nurtured by the sea, amidst Triton's wave-washed realm.
Your realm is the water,
dancing through the waves like shimmering dolphins,
traversing the tumultuous seas.
I summon you to bestow great fortune upon the initiates,
for you unveiled the sacred rituals of divine Bacchos
and pure Persephone,
alongside mother Kalliope
and Apollo, the lord.
–Translation by Athanassakis and Wolkow
These connections between the Nereids and dolphins was a doorway into the Sualocin working. As it unfolded, I began to experience recurring synchronicities involving horses, along with vivid dream-visions of horse spirits. I started to sense that the spirits connected to this star might also carry a horse-nature. At first, this felt incongruous, but the more I sat with it, the more it began to make sense. There is, after all, a deep symbolic link between the ocean and horses. Poseidon, Amphitrite’s consort, rides a chariot drawn by sea horses. Walter Crane’s Neptune’s Horses came to mind immediately. Delving deeper, I discovered that some scholars believe the names of the fifty Nereids function as epithets, forming an invocation to a primordial sea goddess, who is described as horse-like and who may predate the Olympians entirely. In this light, the dolphin and horse imagery no longer felt contradictory, but rather like twin expressions of the same current. I thought of the hippocampus, the mythic sea-horse often depicted, like dolphins, as the steed of the Nereids in classical art and vase painting. This is what led me to choose the seahorse as the image for Sualocin.
The Nereids: Guardians of Thresholds and Mysteries
The story of the Nereids begins with the Titans Tethys, goddess of fresh water that nourishes the earth, and Oceanus, god of the earth-encircling river. As lovers (not fighters) Tethys and Oceanus were disinterested in the wars and quarrels of the other gods, devoting themselves instead to procreation. They bore three thousand children, among them the Okeanid-nymphs known as the Naiads. The Naiads are nymphs of fresh water. One of them, Doris, who was considered the goddess of river mouths where fresh water mingles with sea water, wed the sea-god Nereus, known as the truth-telling old man of the sea. Together, they bore the fifty Nereids, or sea nymphs.
The Nereids are known mostly as benevolent, protective forces of exceptional charm and beauty. Described as nymphs with flower-like faces, they symbolized everything beautiful and kind about the sea. As goddesses of the sea’s bounty, they were protectors of sailors and fishermen, often coming to the aid of those in distress. They delight in gaiety, and their dolphin-like qualities evoke their playful and freedom-loving nature. They are skilled in the arts and said to have melodious voices.
While the Nereids delight in surface water activities, their home is in the deep grottos of the sea. It is in these depths that we encounter another side of their nature. In Secrets of the Ancient Skies, Diana Rosenberg describes Sualocin as a psychopomp star. Interestingly, the Nereids are also considered psychopomps.
In ancient Greek religion, they were goddesses of mourning and transition. Like the sea journeys they protect, the process of death may also be understood as a journey, from this world to the next, and the Nereids are known to oversee both kinds of passage. Ancient literature contains many accounts of Nereids leading burial rites and escorting the dead across the sea to the afterlife, serving as attendants during mourning, funeral rites, and the reintegration of the soul.The Nereids are also found at Eleusis (Elefsina, Greece) and have a role in the mysteries there.
Extending from this, the Nereids are also credited with the gift of prophecy and the power to immortalize individuals upon death. The most dramatic examples appear in the stories of Peleus and Ino. In both stories, we see Nereids coming to the aid of humans undergoing physical or metaphysical death, whose spirits have been broken.
The story of Peleus’s immortalization is told in Euripides’ Andromache. King Peleus, despairing after the death of his last living son Achilles, relinquished his throne and cried:
“O city, I am dead. Farewell, my sceptre! … And you, Nereid in your dark cave, shall see me fallen into utter destruction.” (Eur. Andr. 1214)
Hearing his cry, the Nereid Thetis came to him as a divine vision and took pity on him, as they had once been married and she was the mother of Achilles, nd granted him the gift of immortality:
“I shall set you free from mortal woe and make you a god, deathless and exempt from decay. And then you shall dwell with me in the house of Nereus, god with goddess, for all time to come… Go to the hollow cave on the ancient promontory of Sepias and sit. Wait there until I come from the sea with a chorus of fifty Nereids to escort you.” (Eur. Andr. 1231)
The story of Ino is another example of the Nereids’ power to bestow immortality. Ino, the Theban princess, was the sister of Semele, the mother of Dionysus. After Semele’s death, Ino nursed and raised Dionysus, which provoked Hera’s jealousy. In vengeance, Hera drove Ino’s husband, King Athamas, into madness. In a frenzy, he tried to murder Ino, who fled and threw herself into the sea to escape. There, she entered the realm of the Nereids and was immortalized, becoming Leucothea (Leucothoe), a Nereid known for her oracular gift of dream interpretation, which she shared at her sanctuary in Laconia.
Leucothea plays a prominent role as guide and protector of a lost sailor in Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus, having lived as the unwilling lover of the Nereid Calypso (yes, the Nereids are also known to abduct and keep lovers against their will) had been offered immortality in exchange for staying as her eternal companion. But the price was too high. Longing for his wife Penelope, he chose to leave. The gods intervened and instructed Calypso to assist him in his journey home. She obeyed, though not without warning that the sea would not be kind.
Without Leucothea’s help, Odysseus would have drowned. As he approached the final leg of his sea journey, Poseidon sent a violent storm. His raft was shattered, and his hope nearly lost. Leucothea appeared and gave him a magical veil to protect him. In Homer’s words:
But Ino saw him—Ino, Kadmos’ daughter,
slim-legged, lovely, once an earthling girl,
now in the seas a nereid, Leukothea.
Touched by Odysseus’ painful buffeting,
she broke the surface, like a diving bird,
to rest upon the tossing raft and say:
“O forlorn man, I wonder
why the Earthshaker, Lord Poseidon, holds
this fearful grudge—father of all your woes.
He will not drown you, though, despite his rage.
You seem clear-headed still; do what I tell you.
Shed that cloak, let the gale take your craft,
and swim for it—swim hard to get ashore
upon Skhería, yonder,
where it is fated that you find a shelter.
Here: make my veil your sash; it is not mortal;
you cannot, now, be drowned or suffer harm.
Only, the instant you lay hold of earth,
discard it, cast it far, far out from shore
in the wine-dark sea again, and turn away.”
William Blake immortalized this moment in his painting The Sea of Space and Time. On the left, Poseidon rises from the waters; on the shore, Odysseus kneels with Leucothea standing protectively over him, shrouded in her magical veil. To the right, the cave of the nymphs on Ithaca is depicted. Within this painting, we glimpse the mysteries of the Nereids. Odysseus had rejected Calypso’s offer of immortality, yet he accepted Leucothea’s loan of the veil of immortality, a gift that granted him safe passage through the turbulent sea, allowing him to reach the safety of the shore. This veil may be seen as symbolic of the sacred veils used to shield the holy mysteries from profane eyes. To peer behind the veil is to bear witness to the great mysteries that Blake alludes to in the painting’s title, The Sea of Space and Time.
The veil Odysseus receives from Leucothea is a powerful symbol, both a literal life-saving gift and a metaphysical one. It echoes the veils used in mystery traditions to shield sacred knowledge from the uninitiated. To pass safely through storm and sea, Odysseus accepts the veil of Leucothea.
The cave of the nymphs depicted on the right speaks further to the mysteries, when Odyssus reaches his home of Ithaca he first spends time in the cave of the nymphs as described in this passage from the Odyssey:
There, on the inmost shore, an olive tree
throws wide its boughs over the bay; nearby
a cave of dusky light is hidden
for those immortal girls, the Naiadês.
Within are winebowls hollowed in the rock
and amphorai; bees bring their honey here;
and there are looms of stone, great looms, whereon
the weaving nymphs make tissues, richly dyed
(sea-purple) as the deep sea is; and clear springs
in the cavern flow forever. Of two entrances,
one on the north allows descent of mortals,
but beings out of light alone, the undying,
can pass by the south slit; no men come there.
The cave, which is described as having two entrances one for mortals and the other for immortals, represents a place of transition, a space between two worlds and is symbolic of the nature of the nymphs. To pass through the cave requires a transformation and the nymphs are the liminal beings that stand at the threshold. As agents of change, they offer protection and prophetic guidance to those who walk the path in search of initiation into their mysteries.
Finding our way to the Primordial Mother, Mare of the Sea
Earlier, I described some of the horse synchronicities I experienced during this working. I had an unshakable feeling that a connection must exist within the Greek mythos. While I found much linking Poseidon to an early horse cult before he became a god of the sea, the most exciting discovery emerged in connecting and combining the epithets of the Nereids with Hesiod’s Theogony.
Within the pages of the Theogony, we find the first recorded catalogue of the Nereids. Scholars have suggested that Hesiod’s goal in composing the Theogonywas to unite Greece by bringing together the gods of indigenous traditions with those of the Hellenic pantheon. In the introduction to The Orphic Hymns, Athanassakis and Wolkow propose that the catalogue of the Nereids is not merely poetic, it may be a fragment of an older religious tradition. They write:
“Hesiod's catalogues of the daughters of Nereus and of the daughters of Okeanos are religious documents [that] come from an old religious tradition. A deity must be invoked by words that refer to its attributes. In all likelihood the names of the daughters of Nereus are in fact epithets of the sea, at times older than even Hesiod, epithets that point to a Mother of the Waters. The sea has countless potencies, countless faces. The sea is both a great blessing and treacherous element that is fraught with peril…
The fact that great numbers of feminine divinities, essentially Daughters of the Sea, so frequently rise out of the sea is indicative of a deeply entrenched and old religious feeling that the sea is feminine and maternal, a huge counterpart to the masculine sky. Zeus is the Indo-European sky god. When people pray to him, they also pray to the sky. In a tradition that predates the arrival of the Greeks in Greece, the sea and its in-dwelling divinities must have received more attention.
The new religion that emerged introduced a male god whose dominion became preeminent. The lists of the daughters of Nereus are prayer lists that come from an older religious order. Every one of these names has a meaning.”
Unable to find a complete version of what Athanassakis and Wolkow describe as a "prayer list" to the Mother of the Waters, I set out to complete it myself. I took the passage from Theogony that lists the Nereids and replaced each name with her epithet, using Kerenyi’s The Gods of the Greeks as my guide.
What emerged is, without a doubt, an invocation to a primordial sea goddess—one who is also of horse nature, described more than once as a mare. I have given her the title: Primordial Mother, Mare of the Sea. I recommend using this invocation/prayer in your devotions to Sualocin.
The Epithets of the Nereids
Invocation to the Primordial Mother, Mare of the Sea
First One,
Bringer of fulfilment, sea-goddess, and saviour,
She of good gifts, great mistress of the sea, calm weather, and sea-green,
Of the rushing waves, of the numberless caves, swift one, lovely sea,
Seen by all, awakener of desire, bearer of rosy-armed victory,
Graceful, honey-sweet, she of safe haven, noble one,
The giver, the bringer, she of the powerful seas,
Dweller on islands, dweller on coasts, first queen,
Gift-giver, all-seeing and all-knowing, she of the milky white beauty,
Swift as a mare, lovely, wild, rosy-armed,
Wave-gatherer with the wave-stiller, fair-ankled sea-goddess,
She who calms the misty sea and tempers the storm winds,
Wave-goddess, shore-goddess, fair-wreathed ocean queen,
Laughter-loving, dweller in the green sea, guide to the seafarer,
Smooth-tongued, eloquent, queen of the people,
Giver of reason, of inspiration, redeeming mistress of freedom,
Of the lovely body and unblemished face,
Sand-goddess of graceful build, splendid, brave, courageous mare,
Island-goddess, guide and guardian of custom and providence,
Truthful one, whose mind is like that of her immortal father.
Possible Talismanic Qualities Gleaned from the Mythological Symbolism:
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Emergence or Deepening of Seership
The talisman might support the development of seership in those new to such experiences, or gently deepen this capacity in those already attuned. -
Lucid or Vivid Dreaming
Some wearers have noted that the talisman can encourage heightened dream states, dreams that become lucid or unusually vivid.
Creative Flow
The talisman may help dissolve creative blocks and open a freer flow of ideas and expression. It seems especially resonant for artists, writers, and other makers seeking inspiration or movement in their work. -
Support for Personal Freedom
Themes of personal freedom may emerge under the influence of this talisman, encouraging movement toward a path more aligned with one’s inner truth. -
Subtle Protection
Rather than functioning as a hard shield, this talisman may offer a gentler form of protection. -
Guidance Through Transitions
For those navigating change, the talisman might serve as a companion through symbolic deaths and rebirths. It could provide subtle support in crossing thresholds and re-emerging into a new way of being.
Key Sualocin themes from Bernadette Brady:
– helpfulness
– confidence of mastery of ones environment
– Native talent and artistry; having an artist’s eye
– Intelligent playfulness
Carl Jung was born at the moment Sualocin was setting.
"After his break with Freud, he deliberately strove to allow the irrational side of his nature a free rein, in order to explore his own mind. Like a friendly dolphin of the sea, Jung is seen as a gentle guide to the depths of the human mind, in contrast to Freud and Menkar, who seemed to delight in the horrors of the sea of the mind. In addition, through its playfulness, Sualocin seems to give a certain mastery, or at least confidence of mastery, of one's environment."
– Excerpt from Brady's Book of Fixed Stars, Bernadette Brady