plant, at the conjunction occurring in Leo, take the juice and, mixing it with honey and myrrh, write on a leaf of persea the eight-lettered name, as is set out below.

The astrology is exact. The rite is timed to a sýnodos — a conjunction of sun and moon, i.e. a new moon — but specifically one 'occurring in Leo,' the Lion, which is the sun's own zodiacal house. So the working wants the moon renewing itself in the very sign the sun rules: solar power at its home, the lunar cycle beginning. Nothing in these recipes is 'whenever convenient'; the heavens have to be standing in the right relation, or the ingredients are inert. And notice the writing-surface. The name goes on a leaf of perséa, the sacred Egyptian tree whose leaves were thought shaped like a tongue or a heart and were offered to the gods of writing. The medium is chosen as carefully as the words: sacred juice for ink (kentritis, honey, myrrh), a sacred leaf for paper, a sacred hour for the act. The 'eight-lettered name' is withheld here — 'as is set out below' — the manual pointing forward to the secret it will disclose only in a moment, keeping even from its own reader the timing of the reveal.