Aldebaran: riches and honour, in a silver ring with garnet

The eye of the Bull

Aldebaran is the bright eye of Taurus, the Bull, and in Agrippa's fixed star work it is the third of the fifteen Behenian stars. Both spellings point to the same star, alpha Tauri, and the Companion stellar notes record both, with the variant kept visible rather than smoothed away. That care with spelling is a small sign of care with the work as a whole: a tradition that preserves its variants is a tradition that can be checked, and a ring made from it can be checked too.

Agrippa gives Aldebaran as Mars by nature, and Venus by complexion. That is a mixed nature, not a single planet, and it matters for how you think about the ring. Mars gives drive, force, and the willingness to act. Venus gives favour, grace, and the goodwill of others. A ring for a mixed star is not a ring for a single, simple purpose, and it should not be bought as if it were. It is a ring for work where both force and favour are needed, and where the balance between them is part of the work itself.

The position Agrippa gives is 3 degrees of Gemini, but the stellar notes record that Agrippa himself notes Hermes places the star at 25 degrees of Aries, a discrepancy of about eight degrees preserved in the text itself. That discrepancy is not a mistake to be corrected by picking the number you prefer. It is a variant in the tradition, and a maker who works with Aldebaran has to say which position she is using, and why.

Riches and honour, in the old sense

The image Agrippa gives for Aldebaran is the likeness of God, or a flying man. The virtue attached to that image, in the stellar notes, is short and plain: it gives riches and honour. Those two words need unpacking, because in modern use they have shrunk. Riches, in the old books, does not mean only money in a bank account. It means resources, sufficiency, the means to do the work you need to do, and the absence of the kind of want that forces bad decisions. Honour, likewise, does not mean fame. It means standing, reputation among people whose opinion matters, and the kind of regard that opens doors without you having to force them.

If you are considering this ring for riches and honour, ask yourself what those words mean in your own life, in concrete terms. What resource are you short of, and what would sufficiency look like, in a sentence you could check later? What standing have you lost, or failed to gain, and among whom? A petition that cannot be stated in those concrete terms is not yet ready, and a ring worn for a vague wish for riches will give you a vague record, which is no record at all. Write the matter down, in one clear sentence, leave it overnight, and come back to see if it still reads true.

Nothing in this article promises riches or honour as a result of wearing the ring. Those are traditional virtues attached to the star's image, recorded here because they are what the tradition says, and they are not a guarantee. A talisman supports a practice; it does not replace one, and it does not replace ordinary work, ordinary prudence, or ordinary dealings with other people. If you want riches, you still have to do the work that earns them. If you want honour, you still have to act in a way that earns it. The ring is worn alongside that work, not instead of it.

Stone, plant, and silver

Under Aldebaran, Agrippa places, among stones, the carbuncle and the ruby, and among plants, the milky thistle and matry-silva. That is a coherent choice inside the tradition, because carbuncle, in the old books, is the red garnet stone, and the ring's garnet is that stone, set in silver.

Keep the plant and the stone apart when you read the old books: a plant paired with a star is not automatically an ingredient in a ring, and a ring that claims every correspondence at once is usually claiming more than it can carry.

Keep them apart when you order. This article is about the silver ring with garnet, and the price and description here belong to that entry alone.

The one-degree window, again

For Aldebaran, that window matters more than usual, because of the position variant noted above. A maker who is careless about position, and careless about window, could make a ring that is degrees away from either traditional position, and still call it an Aldebaran ring. A maker who states a one-degree window, and who works to it, is making a different object, even if the stone and the metal look the same.

The one-degree rule also explains why a fixed star ring cannot be treated as stock. It is made for a star, at a time when that star is in place, and the work has to wait for the sky. If you are in a hurry, that waiting is frustrating. If you understand the work, the waiting is the point: the ring is supposed to be made under the star, and a ring made at the wrong time, however well made, misses the condition the tradition sets for it.

A ring talisman is worn on the hand, which means it is in contact with your daily work in a way a pendant is not. It will be knocked, scratched, and exposed to water, soap, and the ordinary accidents of a hand. That is normal for a working ring, and it is not a sign that the talisman has failed. Keep it clean with a soft cloth, keep it away from harsh chemicals, and check the setting now and then. If a prong loosens, stop wearing it until it can be repaired properly, because a stone that can fall out is a stone you can lose.

Wearing the ring, and keeping a record

This article does not give you a consecration rite for a fixed star ring, because a general article is not a substitute for teaching in the system you work in. If your practice has a method for preparing a new talisman, follow that method. If it does not, and you have no teacher for this kind of work, be honest about that before you order, rather than inventing a rite from a general article and then wondering why the work feels thin.

When the ring arrives, take time to look at it properly, to hold it, and to note the stone and the metal as they actually are, not as you imagined them. Wear it deliberately for a period, and keep a short record: when you wore it, what you were doing, and what you noticed, over days and weeks, not just on the first day. Note, in particular, the two matters the tradition attaches to this star: resources, and standing. What changed, if anything, in the resources available to you, and in the regard of the people whose regard matters for the work? If nothing changes, that is also information, and it may mean the work was not appropriate, or the matter needs a different approach.

Keep the ring for the work it was made for. If you wear it for everything, you will not be able to say, weeks later, what it was worn for, or whether anything changed in that particular matter. Specificity is a working discipline, and it applies to talismans as much as it applies to petitions.

Aldebaran silver ring with garnet

A fixed star ring should be made under its star, not merely named after it.

I make these gemstone ring talismans as per the instructions in Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, using a within-one-degree window, which I prefer over even two degrees out. This one is Aldebaran, in silver, with garnet, the red stone paired with this star in the old books. I bless each piece myself before it is sent out. I make no promise about what it will do for you, only that it is made by hand, for this star, and not mass produced.

If you want this ring, this is the one I offer: Agrippa fixed star talisman, silver Aldebaran ring, garnet, $540 CAD. View the product

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