Fomalhaut Sunken Treasure Talisman Collection

View the Fomalhaut Sunken Treasure Talismans

Part 1: The Preparation

Fomalhaut is the Alpha star, located in the mouth of the great fish known as the constellation Pisces Australis. This enigmatic and mysterious star shines brightly in a region of the heavens called the celestial sea and has been dubbed the 'solitary one' due to the surrounding darkness. Pisces Australis lies beneath Aquarius, drinking from the waters of wisdom poured forth from Ganymede’s urn, and Fomalhaut is forever bathed in these waters.

Shortly before the heliacal rise of Fomalhaut, I made a pilgrimage to the beach to make offerings to the ocean. Our destination was Long Beach, WA. It was my first visit to this location, chosen based on a recommendation. I was hoping for omens indicative of a blessing for this working—and I received them.

The synchronicities began an hour before we reached our destination when we pulled over for a bathroom stop and discovered a forest of fish plaques. At dusk, we arrived at our small-town beachfront hotel, dropped our bags, and immediately headed out to the beach. At the threshold between the road and sand, we were greeted by large wooden whale sculptures. Hello, Fomalhaut.

We decided to make our offerings and collect materia for the working the next day. That night, the rhythmic sound of waves crashing upon the shore permeated my dreams, stirring a nostalgia for my childhood. The next morning, we ventured out to the beach, taking a different, more hidden path beside the hotel. At the entrance of this path, there were more wooden statues—this time, dolphins—a Sualocin synchronicity which was amplified minutes later.

When we reached the beach, we laid out our towels and sat down. Minutes later, people on horseback came down the very path we had just arrived from. This will be significant to those familiar with the Sualocin write-up or my Astromagia talk. Additionally, horses are connected to Neptune, the Greek god of the seas, and mares to Shatabhisha Nakshatra, whose deity is Varuna, the Hindu lord of the ocean.

I made my offerings, walked along the seashore, and collected sand, seaweed, and seawater to take back for the working. Settling back onto my towel, I looked out over the ocean, hoping for an omen from the sea. I wished for a direct sign from Fomalhaut, something to reveal or clarify their nature. After some time I became aware of my anticipation, I was waiting for something extraordinary to happen and I shrugged it off. After a while, relaxed by the warmth of the sun and sea breeze, I laid down on my side and continued watching the ocean.

Perhaps induced by the perspective change from lying on my side or the relaxed state I had entered, the appearance of the ocean began to change. Instead of receding, the horizon line seemed to rise. The entire ocean transformed into a massive body akin to a whale, and in that moment, I understood Fomalhaut to be the entire ocean, the whale body a kingdom. Discussing this revelation and the visions that followed the election at the heliacal rise (detailed in the booklet accompanying the talismans) with my friend and fellow talisman crafter Vanessa Irena of Sword and Scythe, she shared with this evocative passage from her Cetus write-up: "There is no limit to what the abyss can hold, no burden too great for the belly of a whale. For the sea is itself nothing but love and emotion. It is the Living Infinite."

Part 2: Fomalhaut

Fomalhaut is a living kingdom, the great encompassing whale body of the ocean that provides sanctuary to the spirits of the waters. Water spirits are well known for their charisma and allure, traits that are amplified with Fomalhaut. This majestic star rules over the southern skies, holding the title ‘the watcher of the south,’ while Pisces Australis is known as a parental figure. The name Fomalhaut, meaning the mouth of the whale, emphasizes the grandeur of this star, likening it to the largest creature on Earth.

According to Anonymous 379, The Treatise on the Bright Fixed Stars translated by Robert Schmidt for Project Hindsight, Fomalhaut is of the same nature of ‘Aphrodite and Hermes’, and under its influence one becomes “notable, well-off, and esteemed, but also learned, philosophical, eloquent, creative, knowing, well-disposed, fond of the arts, clever, artistic, devoted to pleasure, surrounded by luxury, of good cheer; also sagacious, intelligent, always on target, likely to succeed, almost self-taught, and generally extolled in speeches for virtue or practical wisdom, zealous for virtues, clear and charming of speech, beloved and accommodating in disposition, serious, critical, and high-minded."

Fomalhaut bestows creativity and innovation alongside charisma. Bernadette Brady, in her book Star and Planet Combinations, speaks of this charisma being conferred on individuals as they seek to express the divine through art or poetry: “As one of the Royal Stars, it bestows charisma—in particular, in Fomalhaut's case, beauty or perfect harmony.”

Fomalhaut is found within the Shatabhisha Nakshatra. Shatabhisha derives power from the hidden and occulted. Its main symbol, an 'empty circle,' represents the infinite void of creation. Its main deity is Varuna, the lord of the oceans. Historically, Shatabhisha has fuelled artistic innovation, inspiring its natives to pioneer new and effective forms of art and media through technical innovation and creative imagination. Under Fomalhaut's influence, art and creative expression takes the form of magic and enchantment.

In the kingdom of Fomalhaut, innovative creativity is born. Fomalhaut guides us on a mystical journey into the depths of the otherworld, gathering pearls of wisdom and inspiration that, when nurtured, grow into boundless new artistic forms. Fomalhaut provides the innovation, charisma, creativity, and expansive vision necessary for world-building. The circle of Shatabhisha suggests a container encompassing the whole, within which creation can unfold.

Robson relates Fomalhaut to immortal fame, great success, and to spirituality. 

Fomalhaut has been known to give great creative power, which can be used for good or ill. This power can enrich the world with love and beauty, imagining into being new realities for the betterment of the collective. Conversely, it can be used to elevate oneself by dominating others, making them planets orbiting one's own Sun, and entirely consuming them, rather than encouraging them to shine with their own light.

According to Bernadette Brady, individuals strongly influenced by Fomalhaut face the crucial challenge of preserving the purity of their ideals or dreams. When these ideals are virtuous, they lead to personal happiness or success beneficial to the collective. However, if the ideals or dreams become tainted or corrupt, the resulting downfall can be absolute and devastating.

We can use Fomalhaut native Elvis Presley to example this (a story Gray Crawford explores in more detail in his Zodiacal Releasing course through Kepler College). Known as the King of Rock 'n' Roll, Elvis embodied many traits of Fomalhaut. In his time he revolutionized music by synthesizing different genres and enveloping it in a charisma so intense and hypnotizing that it induced ecstatic states in his female fans. His incredible influence and creative innovation exemplify Fomalhaut’s power.

However, Elvis’s story also serves as a stark reminder of the potential for total collapse when ideals are compromised. Despite his monumental success, Elvis struggled to maintain the purity of his dreams. His life became increasingly consumed by excess and indulgence. The pressures of fame, coupled with personal insecurities, led him down a path of substance abuse and isolation.

Elvis’s fall from grace was so extreme that the world watched as he became imprisoned by the opulence and depravity of his success. The very qualities that once brought him adoration and acclaim eventually contributed to his undoing. Trapped in a gilded cage of his own making, Elvis drowned in the excesses of fame, wealth, and addiction. His tragic end illustrates the Fomalhaut warning: without a steadfast commitment to noble ideals, even the greatest of stars can be engulfed by their own shadows.

Elvis is a rather extreme example, but still a fitting one as it contains all the markers. I believe talismans made for the royal stars should all come with a heed of warning to remind us of the importance of consciously and habitually evaluating our motives and correcting our paths accordingly for the sake of our safety and well-being.

Part 3: The Working

I have been enchanted by Fomalhaut, absorbed into a creative journey. I was swept up in inspiration to create something new, push beyond my current skill set, and challenge myself. Artistic innovation became the priority over all other considerations.

During the Fomalhaut working, I became aware of technological advancements in jewelry making, where AI can now generate jewelry designs from written prompts, which can then be laser printed into wax and cast into metal—effectively removing the artist’s hand from the creative process. This raised many concerns for me: What happens to the imaginal when we automate creativity? What becomes of our ability to dream a more positive collective reality into being?

The acts of sculpting and smithing may not directly change the world, but the process of creation and imagination, honing skills, and overcoming challenges develops skills essential for world-building. As a slow, devotional practice, it also serves as a form of meditation. Creating beauty is a noble endeavor that enriches the world, albeit in small ways. However, with the elimination of the artist’s hand and the artistic processes, we find ourselves at a juncture where, without practice and development, we may lose the ability to dream.

Creative practices, whatever they may be, enrich the soul and provide nourishment. The more we dream and create, the wider our scope of vision becomes, and the more agency we have to effect change. My concern is that relying on feeding written prompts into a computer for quick outcomes will erode our ability to be true creators and limit our capacity to dream new realities into being.

In light of this, I thought to myself, 'How do I make jewelry that a computer can’t?' My answer was abstraction. When photography was invented, French painter Paul Delaroche proclaimed, “From today, painting is dead!” But painting didn’t die; it took a new form. It was released from the shackles of representation, and artists were given new opportunities for imaginative expression with paint that they had never had before. Photography didn’t kill painting—it innovated and abstracted it.

A computer, like photography, can replicate but it cannot imagine. It cannot dream, it cannot enter into hypnagogic states, commune with seaweed-tentacled spirits, or dance in the belly of the whale.

All of this informed the pieces I made for Fomalhaut: coral-like abstract shapes, jewelry appearing as if born from the depths of the sea. I carved these pieces from wax and cast them in tarnish-resistant sterling silver.

The talismans were inspirited during the Heliacal Rise of Fomalhaut, which began at 3:20 am on the 6th of June 2024. You can find my reasoning for using the heliacal rise as an election [here]. I called to the daimons of Fomalhaut, their children of the most benefic nature. I played whale songs and engraved pearls and aquamarine with the image of the fish drinking the waters of life, represented by three wavy lines. In Egyptian hieroglyphics, the triple wavy line symbolizes a volume of water and the primeval ocean. I bathed the talismans in waters I had collected from the sea that held Fomalhaut starlight and then in a suffumigation of frankincense and seaweed.

The rest of this write-up will be available to those who procure a talisman. Each talisman comes in its own box with a booklet.

While my experience in making Heliacal Rise Talismans over many years has shown that the chart holds no importance in HR elections—since this magic predates the chart—I would like to note, for interest's sake, the conditions of the two planets that Anonymous 379 attributes to Fomalhaut during this election: Venus was Cazimi, within 4 minutes of her conjunction with the Sun, and Mercury was domicile in an exact conjunction with Jupiter - the greater benefic - to the minute, in the 1st House. Additionally, the malefics were cadent.