Mars finds his nocturnal throne in Scorpio, a fixed water sign where power moves like a current: covert, sustained, and able to erode through relentless persistence rather than brute force. Where Mars in Aries charges across open ground, Mars in Scorpio strikes from concealment, knowing that the hidden blade often cuts the deepest. Scorpio governs what lies beneath the surface: the underground channel, the sealed chamber, the unspoken threat. This is the Mars of the assassin and the poisoner, the one who understands the power that lies in secrecy, endurance, and control. The open battlefield is for those with no other choice. Mars in Scorpio is he who watches unseen, who alters form to escape pursuit, who vanishes when the work is done.
The design of these talismans takes the form of a scorpion’s claw, molded from an actual claw, hand-sculpted, and cast in solid sterling silver. At its center sits an amethyst stone. Agrippa attributes amethyst to Mars and writes in Three Books of Occult Philosophy of its virtue against drunkenness. This suggests that the stone aids in maintaining clear-headdedness and composure, qualities essential for one who must act with precision and cunning.
Beneath the stone lies a blend of three herbs of Mars, each chosen for its power to conceal, protect, and misdirect. Basil, which Culpeper assigns to Scorpio, was used in classical medicine to draw out poison. Pliny the Elder writes that basil mixed with wine and vinegar cures the sting of the scorpion, the very creature of Scorpio. Yet basil’s reputation extends beyond the physical. In folk magic it is used to repel the evil eye and dissolve malice before it can take form. The plant’s name derives from the Greek basilikon, meaning royal, and shares its root with basilisk, the serpent whose gaze kills: a reminder that basil protects from venom as well as sight itself. As a plant of counterpoison and reversal, it embodies the power to direct the unwanted gaze back upon the watcher.
Garlic, another herb of Mars, has a long record as an apotropaic charm. In antiquity and later European folk practice, garlic was hung at doors and windows, worn on the body, or carried on travels as a ward against harmful forces such as demons, the evil eye, plague, and later vampires and werewolves. In Greek tradition garlic was left at crossroads as an offering connected to Hecate and as protection against spirits, and in Central and Eastern European folklore it is named as a way to repel vampires and other predatory dead, often by suspending whole bulbs at thresholds or wearing cloves on the person.
Aconite, or wolfsbane, completes the three. Though it is sometimes placed under Saturn due to its poisonous nature, Agrippa also lists wolfsbane among the plants of Mars. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, wolfsbane is said to have sprung from the foam of Cerberus when Hercules dragged the three-headed hound from the underworld, and the plant took root where the venom fell upon the rocks. In early modern European witchcraft accounts, aconite appears among the poisonous herbs said to be used in flying ointments that were applied to the skin to induce trance and allow the spirit to travel to the Sabbath. In folklore, wolfsbane seeds were believed to render the bearer invisible when carried wrapped in lizard skin. Wolfsbane is also tied to shapeshifting in European folklore through its association with werewolves, in which it is sometimes named as a cause of the change and sometimes as something used against the shape-shifter. It is a plant of poison and passage, of altered state and shifting form, a herb that blurs the edge between body and spirit and lends its nature to those who pass unseen. Safety note: Wolfsbane is extremely poisonous therefore only a small amount of the root is present in the talismans and is sealed completely beneath the stone. As an added safety measure, I have further sealed the materia in a thin layer of epoxy resin.
These talismans were created on October 4, 2025, when Mars rose on the ascendant in Scorpio, dignified by rulership and face. The Moon was unafflicted, waxing, fast in motion, and applied to a trine with Mars. The election chart is available to view in the gallery.
During the electional window, the amethyst stones were engraved with the glyph of Mars, suffumigated, and ritually enspirited with the intention of granting stealth and cunning. They were then set into the scorpion claws above a load of the materia listed above.
Each talisman measures approximately 2.5″ tall and comes on your choice of black satin cord or oxidized sterling silver chain, along with a copy of the devotional artwork above printed on card stock. Only 9 were made.
May the daimon of these talismans grant you stealth and cunning.
References
- Agrippa, Cornelius. Three Books of Occult Philosophy. 1531.
- Culpeper, Nicholas. The English Physician. 1652.
- Ovid. Metamorphoses. Book VII.
- Pliny the Elder. Natural History. Book 20.