Digital collages of the lunar mansions
The lunar mansions are an ancient Arabic astronomical tradition long lost and no longer used in the scientific sense, but still used by modern mystics. The system divides the constellations along the elliptic into 28 mansions, or places of rest for the moon. They believed that each space represented omens, talismans and the opportunity to incant to create effect in human society both individual and collective.
The text for each image is taken from the english translation of The Picatrix (Gayat al-Hakim), a treaty of talismanic magic written in the eleventh century and translated into Latin in the twelfth century.
9th. A eunuch holding his hands over his eyes.
8th. An eagle with the face of a man.
7th. A man clothed in robes with his hands extended as if in prayer.
6th. Two images each of one person. The two images are then tied together.
4th. A knight riding a horse and holding a serpent in his right hand.
3rd. A seated woman with her right hand above her head.
28th. A fish with a coloured spine
27th. A winged man holding a perforated dish, raising it towards his mouth.
26th. A woman washing or combing her hair in a vessel.
