Three rungs: attested, tradition, synthesis
Every claim on this site sits on one of three rungs. The tag next to it tells you which — treat the ladder as a measure of how far a claim is from the primary text, not a judgment on whether it's true or useful.
Attested
Stated directly in a primary Renaissance or classical source — chiefly Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1533), Marsilio Ficino's De Vita Coelitus Comparanda (Book III of De Vita, 1489), and the Arabic Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, known in its Latin translation as the Picatrix (11th century, translated into Latin c. 1256). Where this site cites a planet's metal, day, or named intelligence as attested, it's naming what those texts themselves say.
Tradition
Not stated in those specific texts, but continuous with an earlier or parallel line — Solomonic grimoire material, Hebrew angelology, or Arabic astral magic that fed into the Renaissance synthesis without being quoted verbatim by it. Several of the planetary spirit names fall here: well-attested in the broader grimoire tradition, present under slightly different forms across sources.
Modern synthesis
Additions from the 19th- and 20th-century revival — chiefly the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which built an elaborate correspondence system (extended colour scales, tarot and Tree of Life attributions, additional incense and plant correspondences) on top of the Renaissance planetary framework. Useful and widely used, but genuinely a later layer, not something Agrippa or Ficino wrote.
Primary sources referenced on this site
| Three Books of Occult Philosophy | Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, 1533. Source for the planetary angels, intelligences, spirits, seals, and kamea. |
| De Vita Coelitus Comparanda | Marsilio Ficino, 1489 (Book III of De Vita). Source for planetary talismanic theory and astral influence. |
| Picatrix (Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm) | Arabic, c. 11th century; Latin translation c. 1256. Earlier root for much of the Renaissance talismanic system. |
For the astrological reading of the planets — how they're worked through a horoscope rather than through metal, hour, and seal — see astrotheurgy.com. For the wider Hermetic and Kabbalistic reference network this site belongs to, see magickal.biz.