A Journal: Conversations with the Stars

[Star-Seeker]

Fixed Star ALGOL, from the Arabic “Al Ghoul”

Beta Perseii

Current Position: 26 degrees Taurus

Planetary Nature: Jupiter + Mars

Stone: Diamond

Plant: Mugwort, Black Hellebore

Other names: “Piled up Corpses” in China

Sigil:

According to Vivian Robson, wearing this sigil “gives success to petitions, makes the wearer bold and magnanimous, preserves the body, protects against witchcraft, and turns evil and spells back against those who work them.”

According to the same author, Algol conjunct with the rising sun brings snow. When conjunct with Saturn, it will be cold and moist. I don’t particularly believe this, but perhaps we can associate Algol with the cold and snow.

This is a triple star system. Algol appears to brighten and dim due to the two smaller stars passing in front of the large one. The Egyptians used the brightening and dimming cycle to calculate lucky and unlucky days.

The Greeks identified Algol with Medusa’s head. The Jews identify it with Lilith. If Algol is Lilith, could other fixed stars be manifestations of other demons? Something to ponder.

Algol was feared by multiple cultures and astrologers call it the most evil star in the sky. It causes death by beheading, mvrder, electrocution, or hanging. It also brings mob violence. Algol can bring death to the person, or the person will bring death to others.

Its good aspects, according to astrologers, are “A splendid and illustrious life; glorious, mighty and commanding nature; fame, busy with many activities, bountiful resources, well known or feared in cities and regions. Prosperity from youth and in own city.”

Personally, I have my descendant conjunct Algol. I’m not prosperous nor do I have bountiful resources, so it must mean something else.

***

I have met the Egyptian Algol, but I don’t know much about her. She is an Arrow of Osiris and appears green-skinned like her father. She has wild, tangled long black hair. Her eyes are black with yellow sclera. She wears a little black dress but no shoes. Algol crawls about on all fours like an animal and speaks in a guttural, growling tone.

Don’t laugh, but she lives under my bed. Yes, under the bed. I asked her why. She said that it’s a good place to watch + hide. She can see things, but things can’t see her. She is here to protect me.

That is all I know right now.

[Star-Seeker]

Asmodeus came to me again. I didn’t believe in his offer to be my benefactor because I don’t believe that an entity I don’t know would show up and offer to give me money and such, no strings attached. This is obviously something trolling me, I thought.

This time he had explanation. Basically it was, “You are a victim of my hated enemy, the demiurge, its followers, and the system they have set up. Your abusive ‘parents’ used the name of the false god and its teachings to excuse their behavior. An entire community assented to this shit and nodded in approval.

Your ‘parents’ have done everything they can to thwart your success in life. You have so far lived in deprivation and suffering due to their scheming.

I believe that you are owed reparations for your suffering. Your parents want you to starve and die in a ditch for not being an obedient enough daughter? I won’t let their wish come true.”

“What do you want in exchange?” I asked.

“Speak against the demiurge’s teachings. Oppose it!”

[Star-Seeker]

Asmodeus was telling me that he is Aeshma, the Zoroastrian wrath-demon. Wikipedia says Aeshma’s adversary is Sraosha, or “Obedience.”

That would explain why he told me that he hates the idea that obedience=goodness.

***

I found a page that explains what a demon is and how the concept has evolved over time. There is a section that mentions Arrows, or disease-demons.

RESHEPH is another major god of the Canaanite religion who becomes a demonic figure in biblical literature. Resheph is known as the god of plague over much of the ancient Near East, in texts and artistic representations spanning more than a millennium from 1850 B.C.E. to 350 B.C.E. In Habakkuk 3:5, YHWH on the warpath is said to be preceded and followed by respectively Dever and Resheph. (This is similar to the picture of two divine attendants who escort major gods in ancient myths.) Just as some other names of deities are used as common nouns in biblical Hebrew (Dagon (dagon, “grain”); Ashtaroth (ashtarot, “increase [of the flock]”), etc.) so Reshef (reshef) has come to mean simply “plague” (Deut. 33:29; Ps. 78:48), and the fiery darts of the bow (Ps. 76:4 [Eng. 76:3]; Song 8:6), apparently from the common association of plague and arrows.

DEVER (“Pestilence”) is the other demonic herald who marches with YHWH to battle (Hab. 3:5). Dever is also mentioned in Psalms 91:5–6: “Thou shalt not be afraid for the T.error (Paḥad) by night; Nor for the Arrow (Ḥeẓ) that flieth by day; Nor for the Pestilence (Dever) that walketh in the darkness; Nor for the Destruction (Ketev) that wasteth at noonday.” Not only Dever but also the other words italicized above have been plausibly identified as names of demons. The “Arrow” is a familiar symbol in folklore, for disease or sudden pain, and Ketev (Qetev; cf. Deut. 32:24; Isa. 28:2; Hos. 13:14) is in this instance the personification of overpowering noonday heat, known also to Greek and Roman demonology.

Jewish Concepts: Demons & Demonology

Ancient Egyptian texts mention Reshep, a “foreign” god of war and plague who has Arrows. I caught a glimpse of him during the covid pandemic. I saw a muscular Middle Eastern man turn and look at me. He said, smiling, “Do you like my work?” Then the vision ended.

What’s interesting about the second paragraph is that the Egyptians considered heat waves to be a type of plague or pestilence brought on by Arrows.

[Mani]

@Star-Seeker

Asmodeus was telling me that he is Aeshma, the Zoroastrian wrath-demon.

That’s actually surprisingly close. I figured that out with research when he first contacted me. Of course, a lot of middle Eastern cultures are connected.

I remember seeing that he was known as “Aeshma Deva” to the Zoroastrians and “Ashmedai” to the Hebrews. Different variations, same being.

What confuses me in the terms of “Devas” is how its also a term in Hinduism and Buddhism. Cause as far as I know, Persian/Farsi doesn’t have the same roots as Proto-Indoeuropean languages.

[Star-Seeker]

Asmodeus’ energy feels very aristocratic and refined. The Arrow Rigel also feels that way. How to tell them apart when all I feel is energy and can’t see or hear anything? Hmm.

Today I will tell the story of meeting Fixed Star Procyon, and this time I will tell the whole truth without redactions due to fear of not being believed.

I was reading a book in bed. I saw the video game character “Tails” standing by the bed watching me. “Don’t tell me that you’re an Arrow, too.”

He smiled. I saw a sigil that looked sort of like a menorah. I opened my astrology book and there it was, Fixed Star Procyon.

The keywords for Procyon included “a clever fox” and “a brilliant scientific mind.” I was stunned by what I read. “Tails” looked at me, reached up to his face, and removed it as if it were a mask. Then he peeled his skin off as if it were a costume. I saw before me a realistic bipedal fox, not a cartoony one. He was wearing a white lab coat.

I ask why he was in a video game.

“My character was designed to teach the little children that it’s okay to be different. ‘Tails’ has an extra tail! Lots of people will be mean to you for being different, but you mustn’t listen to them. There are people out there who will love and support you; seek those people out. My character found a little blue hedgehog who loved him as he was, and they go on many adventures together.”

“Do you have an extra tail?”

Procyon laughed. “No.”

I asked how close his character is to his real self. “Hmmm. We are both inventors. I work as an engineer for the Egyptian pantheon.”

“What have you invented?”

“Oh, lots of things, from devices that heal to weapons of war.”

***

Fixed Star PROCYON

Alpha Canis Minoris

Name meaning: before the dog (Sirius)

Current Position: 25 degrees Cancer

Planetary Nature: Mercury+Mars

Tarot Card: The Moon

Fixed star Procyon has power over canines. It causes a love of canines, but also causes canine attacks, including bites by rabid dogs. It also causes death by drowning or brings hydrophobia.

It makes its natives clever, witty, thieving, bold, and fierce. It brings success and good fortune, but also ruin.

[Star-Seeker]

A depiction of two of Sekhmet’s Arrows (the bulls) from the temple of Esna. Depictions of Arrows are rare.

Research notes from View of Divine Wrath in Ancient Egypt

View of Divine Wrath in Ancient Egypt

A spell to stop the Arrows (plague demons, messenger demons, wandering demons)

“As a cat goddess, Bastet was closely associated with rage. Therefore, the bass-spring of Bastet is linked to the rage of the goddess. Thus, the ointment inside the jar serves to protect the anointed ones from the goddess’s rage. During the rituals of Confirming the Royal Power at the New Year from the Late period, the king was anointed with the contents of several bass-jars or balm jars associated with the goddesses of the Eye of Re. The main purpose of this anointing is to protect the king from the messenger Demons of these goddesses and their rage during the epagomenal days; and therefore, neither the accusations of Sekhmet nor the plague demons of Bastet are against him.

In a spell for purifying anything during the plague, the emissaries of Sekhmet and the murderers of Bastet, rage against the face of the one who is identified with Horus. The text reads: May your emissaries(wpwty)be burned, Sekhmet! Let your murderers (xAyty)retreat, Bastet! No year(-demon) passes along to rage against my face! Your breeze will not reach me! I’m Horus, (Set) over the wandering Oh my god, oh my god. I am Your God, Sekhmet. I am your Unique One; see: Borghouts 1978: 17. In a similar spell for warding off the breath of the vexation of the murderers, the incendiaries and the emissaries of Sekhmet, the year demons rage against the one who is vulnerable to die from the plague, as the text reads: Retreat, murderers! No breeze will reach me so that passers-by would pass on, to rage against my face. I am Horus who passes along the wandering demons of Sekhmet;

[Star-Seeker]

One of the first Arrows I met was Zosma. I woke up one morning and saw a Grim Reaper standing over me. His cloak had an iridescent green sheen. Black eyes with yellow sclera were floating in his eye sockets.

“The Grim Reaper? Are you here to kill me?”

The being laughed. “Not today.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“I am Zosma, Arrow of Osiris.”

I briefly saw another Grim Reaper figure standing behind him. I had the feeling that that one was female. His wife maybe? I never saw her again.

Zosma wanted to help teach me the rules of the death spirits. I am a piece of one of Bast’s Arrows incarnate, so I should learn the ways of my people.

***

I told one of my mage friends about Zosma and he had some questions about Arrows. I’ll call my friend Sam.

Sam: Doesn’t modern technology overpower you? Soon humans will defeat you. We’re coming up with new cures every day!

Zosma: What a ridiculous human question! Humans will never defeat Plague! We can continually invent new plagues, such as HIV, and tinker with old ones! In fact, we are designing a new plague that will shake the world!

After a bit more conversation that I can’t remember, Zosma said, “There is always the element of human stupidity, which makes our job easier.”

Sam: You mean like anti-vaxxers?

Zosma: Yes.

Me: And bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics?

Zosma: Yes, because the humans don’t want to take them as directed.

***

I didn’t take Zosma’s comment on “a plague to shake the world” seriously. A year later, the Covid outbreak began. At its height, when society was in lockdown, Sam called me.

Sam: Star-seeker, there is an army of Arrows marching through [his town]. I see them. And there are other Middle Eastern spirits. There’s a dude, and his name is…I’m getting something that starts with an R? He’s not Egyptian, but he has Arrows.

Me: Reshep?

Sam: Yes, that’s him! Star-seeker, tell the Arrows to stop.

Me: I can’t.

Sam: But they’re ~your~ people. They’ll listen to you.

Me: Nope.

Sam: But why? Why are they doing this? Why can’t your gods make them stop—”

At this point, I had the feeling that an entity was talking to him on his end, because he suddenly paused, sighed, and said, “The disease spirits are going to do what they do.”

Me: Yes.

Sam: I don’t want to die. What should I do?

I had a vision of angel walking past a door with blood smeared on it. I got a word: Passover.

Sam: Passover?

Me: Yes. The story from the Bible.

We talked and decided that this meant he should mark his door with lamb’s blood.

Zosma: We will pass over you if you do this, but if we catch you doing something stupid like going to a party, we will strike you down any way!

***

After doing a bit of research, the ritual described in the Bible was actually an old Middle Eastern spell to ward off the disease demons. I will try to dig up the source again.

[Star-Seeker]

All day yesterday I had a headache that would not go away. Later that evening, I started having chills and aches. I checked my temperature and I had a fever.

The next morning I called in sick and my boss told me that one of my coworkers had tested positive for covid. This person came to work anyway because she thinks coming to work while sick makes her some sort of badass hard worker, and those of us who stay home when sick are “lazy.” She and the boss didn’t say anything because “I didn’t want to scare people.”

I drove to the walk-in clinic and tested positive for covid. Thanks a lot, idiot. I see what Zosma meant when he said human stupid makes his job easier.

[Star-Seeker]

Day two of quarantine. I still feel like shit, but better than last night. Sekhmet, the lion goddess of healing and plagues, has been hanging around and watching me. She seems concerned. Rasalhague B is here, too.

I’m glad that I have the company of my tabby cat. She was a scrawny stray kitten that I brought home last summer.

[Star-Seeker]

I keep seeing imagery of a bird deity in my head. I know I’ve seen pictures of this being somewhere, but I can’t remember where.

“Where are you from, bird god?” I asked.

“Babylon.”

Today I found his image. He is Abzu, husband of Tiamat. I have no idea what he wants.