Agrippa’s Orphic Table of Correspondences
These correspondences caught me off guard, but are derived from Graeco-Roman lore. Hermes as Cancer is…unexpected. A great many of these surprise me and do not match up with correspondences I am used to seeing in modern systems of magick and astrology.
Astronomica (Marcus Manilius) (ca. AD 30-40)
What step must one take next, when so much has been learnt ? It is to mark well the tutelary deities appointed to the signs and the signs which Nature assigned to each god, when she gave to the great virtues the persons of the gods and under sacred names established various powers, in order that a living presence might lend majesty to abstract qualities.
Pallas is protectress of the Ram,
the Cytherean of the Bull,
and Phoebus of the comely Twins ;
you, Mercury, rule the Crab, and you, Jupiter,
as well as the Mother of the Gods, the Lion;
the Virgin with her sheaf belongs to Ceres,
and the Balance to Vulcan who wrought it;
bellicose Scorpion clings to Mars;
Diana cherishes the hunter,
a man to be sure, but a horse in his other half,
and Vesta the cramped stars of Capricorn ;
opposite Jupiter, Juno has the sign of Aquarius,
and Neptune acknowledges the Fishes as his own
for all that they are in heaven.
“The correct set for the Olympians is technically two signs, as each god governed a month, and each month was divided in two sign periods (Apollo, for instance, would get Taurus and Gemini), but like modern pagans classical Greek and Roman traditions preferred to consider a specific sign “special” to the deity, as part of the then arising custom of correspondences, which would shape western magic forever.”
