An Exploration of the Planetary Hours (and why you should use them.)

 

How conscious are you of the Planetary Hours? They are an important and powerful tool for assessing the prominence of specific planets in any given chart, even more so important for timing action on a day to day basis.

    Wait, back up.  To start, are you aware that the days of the week are named after the moving lights in the sky?  Some are obvious.  It starts with Sun day,(dimanche, or Day Manche) moves into Moon day,(lundi... or Lune day) and then Tuesday, which is actually "Tīw's Day", as Tiw was another name for Tyr, god of one on one combat, or Mars day, which is clearer in French with Mardi.

Next is Wednesday, or Woden's Day, or rather, Odin's day, who is yet another manifestation of the Hermes archetype, the Mercurial figure who brought astrology, medicine, and magic to humanity. Again in French, Mercredi makes the connection more clear. Thor's Day comes next, the god of thunder, a Norse version of Jupiter of course, (Jeudi).  Friday is Venus day, or Frig or Fria Day.... another Venus Correlate, (Vendredi). We end with Saturn Day of course, which winds up being more fun than it sounds.

    Knowing the days of the week became an important mystical and magical practice, as each day was ruled by a specific planet.  The nature of that planet, and its specific placement and condition on that day, becomes an important marker for ritual use.  The day is then divided into equal portions of 12 between sunrise and sunset in your specific region. Yes, again, astrology is a practice reliant upon the perspective of the individual experiencing nature from their own unique vantage point. As such, the planetary hours will be different wherever you are on the Globe at any given time aside from laterally during the two equinoxes.  On each equinox, we find the division between day and night equivalent, and as such, the planetary hours will be equivalent to an actual hour in both day and night.  After the Vernal equinox, the length of every planetary hour will extend each day, as the length of every planetary hour at night will decrease.  After the Summer solstice, the Planetary hours during the day will begin to shorten, until they match the length of the planetary hours at night on the Autumnal equinox, at which point the night hours will overtake the Daylight hours, until the Winter solstice, at which point the moment will reverse again. 
   So if we start with Sun Day, the first hour will begin as the Sun rises. After that, we count down through the planets, from Sun hour, to Venus hour, to Mercury hour, to Moon hour, and then we jump all the way out to Saturn hour, and count back from there to Jupiter, to Mars, back to Sun, and so on. Over the course of the twelve hours, on Sun day, we will wind up with the Sun Setting during Saturn Hour (how fitting,) and then Jupiter hour beginning the first hour of the night after the Sun sets. The first hour of every night then begins its rulership of that night. So Sunday ends with Jupiter night.  We count down through twelve equal portions of night, until we arrive at Moon hour where the Sun rises and begins Moon day.

    I'll post the link here, because if that confused you you can check up the cycle of the planetary hours over at my favourite site astro-seek.  Be sure to make an account if you want to work with this on a regular basis (and you should).  Plug in you current coordinates so that you are getting accurate planetary hours for your area.  For ritual and magical work, if one wants to call on the beneficence of Jupiter for instance, your work will be most potent during Jupiter hour of Jupiter day, Jupiter being a member of the Diurnal sect, but Jupiter hour of Jupiter night is nothing to ignore either!  This of course also translates into any branch of astrology you look at, your natal chart happened on a specific hour of a specific day, adding an accentuation onto that planet within your chart.

   This brings us to an interesting philosophical divergence of systems, which in my opinion are easily reconciled.  Some systems will only utilize the day ruler, while others will utilize the first hour of the night as the ruler of that entire night.  As far as I'm concerned, the night ruler is valid, but to catch the final hour of a planet on the night of it's specific day will still carry that charge with it.  It's a robust system where you can mix and match the influences of two separate planets in your work, or double up on a single planetary influence. 
   As you start to work with the Planetary hours, it may seem rather abstract at first, but over time you will find this a profound means of tuning into planetary energy.  While rarely used in modern astrology, it is a system that was of utmost importance in medieval astrology and continues to be used as a regular part of timing prayers within the Vedic system.  Keep a tab open on your phone as you go about your day and regularly check in with the Astro-seek planetary hour calculator.  You will soon find that as you start to ruminate upon a specific planet, or the domains which it rules, you will check the hour and find time has just shifted to this planetary hour.  For millennia humans have timed their lives to this system, and it creates a sub-strata of planetary energy influencing every moment of our lives.  Each hour accentuating the specific charge which that planet now has in the mundane chart of the day.  
  A great practical use of this, (one a lazy sack of meat like myself truly requires), is to plot basic tasks around the planetary hours.  Venus loves cleanliness and aesthetics, so plan a cleaning ritual on a Venus hour of Venus day.  Saturn loves rigid structure and slow progress towards a goal, so plot the boring mundane stuff around Saturn hours and days.  Plan a workout around Mars.  If you have to have a significant conversation, plot it around Mercury.  Just timing something ensures you are more likely to put the effort into accomplishing something you've been putting off.  The energy of that planet will assist in your success. 

    Ok, That was just the preamble.  Now let's get to the unique meat, because most of what I post here is about being in the throes of exuberant discovery, which one always is when engaging with astrological magic.  In looking at which planet rules the night of which day, it occurred to me that there is a deeper story here, another teachable meditation upon the meaning of the relationship between the planets.  Every night is ruled by a planet two spheres higher than the planet that rules that day. For instance, Sun Day has Jupiter night, which is two planets higher in the spheres from the Earthly plane. In looking at these combinations, it appears as though the planet which rules the night represents that which the planet who rules that day desires most. Let me explain.

The Sun is the King, the Sun is the center, the Sun is the sol of the whole system.  What does the King want?  The King wants more always.  The Sun is the everlasting glory of the ego and the heart of all matters. When the Ego attains the ultimate power, or in fact the accomplishment and completion of any goal, depression sets in.  What's next is the end result of all success.   It is a fact that humans are happiest when they are questing towards a goal and making progress.   When the goal is attained, after the initial dopamine boost, it is all downhill from there.  So what does the Sun desire most?  MORE,  and if Jupiter is good at anything , it is giving MORE.

   Now here's the next layer of relationship, while the Day ruler desires the Night ruler, the Night ruler is exceptionally well suited to supporting the following day ruler.   Jupiter night is followed by Moon Day.  Any astrologer knows that Jupiter, the father of all, is exceptionally well suited to aspecting the Moon.  Jupiter absolutely loves the Moon, and while spoiling (or overindulgence) can become a negative signification of Jupiter Moon relations, in general Jupiter tends to help the Moon love and nurture on a larger, more effective and effervescent level.

   Moon day then ends in Venus night.  Here we have the two decidedly feminine planetary energies. The Mother, and the Maiden.  What does the Mother desire deep down? After her duties to her children are taken care of, to be desired as she was as the maiden.  What does Venus Night lead into? Mars Day. If Venus supports anything in the end, it is Martial energy.  The Trojan war was fought over the beauty of a woman.   The masculine muscle to prove oneself for the fair maiden.

   Mars day leads into Saturn night.  Here we see the two Malefics together.  I mean, who loves a Tuesday?  Blech.   At any rate, Mars is brash, and unthinking action.   Mars craves the Saturnian diligence and strategy to win the war.   Mars, in excess, may also crave the cooling and restrictive nature of Saturn to keep Mars from running off the edge of the cliff in a rage.

   Saturn Night leads to Mercury day.  Saturn is an exceptional ally to Mercury, though it is rarely thought about.  Mercury dances about in a mutable manner, endlessly jumping from task to task, all the ideas at once.  Mercury needs Saturnian rigidity to structure thoughts and communication into something practical and complete.

   Mercury day then leads into Sun night, (what an anachronism that is!).  Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, it dances back and forth around the Sun from our perspective, rarely visible from Earth, normally hidden beneath the Sun's rays.   One can only imagine the jealousy Mercury holds for the Sun.  This, by the way, was a new revelation for me.  

   The Seven Deadly sins seem obviously modeled after dysfunctions of the planets, but it isn't always obvious which planet rules which Sin. Venus is obviously lust, but then isn't Envy also Venus?  No.  Envy is a dysfunction of Mercury, as envy derails the mind from thinking about what one does have, and working towards getting more, into obsessing in a destructive neural circuit around what one DOESN'T have.  This is a dysfunction of Mercury.  So Mercury, desires the lofty status of the Sun at the center of all, instead of just being the class clown.

    Sun Night then moves into Jupiter day. Here we have our first mutual appreciation, as both the Sun and Jupiter bear significations of the Father and the King.  Jupiter, despite being further out, shines almost as brilliantly as Venus, and in scientific theory, could have become its own Sun with a bit more mass.  It clusters dozens of Moons around it as its own solar system in a sense.   It really appears that rather than Jealousy, the Sun supports Jupiter as a proud son fostering its own growing system.

   Jupiter day leads to Moon night.  The king needs his queen to foster the progeny, and doesn't Jupiter have his fair share of moons!  He got what he wanted, best leave it at that.

    Moon night leads to Venus day, the mother supports her daughter.   The mother helps the daughter foster her own sense of beauty in hopes of her success in securing a husband who will lead to grandchildren and furthering the family line.

   Venus day leads to Mars Night.  What does Venus desire?  Venus desires Martian passion.  Venus' aim is to arouse the Martian energies, as these two planets are adjacent to the Earth's orbit.  We live on a plane where the tension between the ultimate Feminine principle and the ultimate Masculine principle pull against each other with us in the midst. Life on Earth ladies and gents!

   Mars night leads to Saturn Day, here Mars is the energy Saturn needs to accomplish the strictures it deems requisite through its lethargic meandering across our sky, at the edges of our visible system. Mars enforces the boundaries which Saturn desires.

   Saturn day leads to Mercury night.  Saturn, in its slow trek, cold and distant, wishes it could dance across the face of the Sun, be held within the throne room of the king 6 times a year, and whisper to the King its deepest desires of frigid order. To have the ear of the King, often more concerned with personal creative identity than STRUCTURE!

   Meanwhile, Mercury night leads to Sun Day, the messenger god dances back and forth from Sun to every other planet, heralding the message of the King before he arrives, and retrograding back to make sure the message got across after the King laid waste to the path ahead. 
   Note that this leapfrogging of planets from night to day and back again mimics how the generations tend to enjoy each other one generation removed more than subsequent generations, as I explored in this article.  This becomes explicit when considering the son kills father trend within the mythology of Uranus, to Saturn, to Jupiter, to Mars, where we leave off the mythos, Jupiter detesting Mars, in fear that the cycle will continue. 

   So there you have it.  Most of this is my own poetic musings upon the relationship between the planets, but I hope you take note of the powerful timing methods that paying heed to the planetary hours brings to you.  Even just watch it, note the feeling of Saturn hour versus the feeling of Jupiter hour.  The legitimacy of this system will make itself known to you in time.  Oh yes, time! A divine time underlying all of reality, tugging at the sky above from our specific Earthly perspective.  Note the connection to planetary hours across the globe, how certain themes will hit a friend a few hours away at a different time than you.  The planetary hours, though offset, are a deeper layer of time, connecting at an angle to everyone else on the planet, just slightly offset.  Play around with these concepts, you may just open up a whole new understanding of how time works.