Planetary Hours

Planetary Hours

In working magic, certain days are better than others (see planetary rulers, on the next page), depending upon what is being sought. In addition to working magic on the appropriate day, some Witches like to start the ritual on the actual planetary hour. In other words, if they are working love magic they would start the ritual not only on a Friday but also in the hour of Venus, the goddess of love. To determine the hour of Venus (or any other particular planet), it is necessary first to know the local times of sunrise and sunset. These times vary across the country and throughout the year.

As an example, in a specific location at the time of year that the magical ritual needs to be done, sunrise comes at 6:25 a.m. and sunset at 8:20 p.m. That means there are more hours of daylight than of darkness. Divide the daily hours into twelve parts and do the same with the nighttime hours. With a total of 835 minutes of daylight (6:25 a.m. till 8:20 p.m.) and 605 minutes of darkness (8:20 p.m. till 6:25 a.m.), dividing each into twelve parts (not hours), you have twelve 69.58minute daylight sections (835 divided by 12), and twelve 50.42-minute nighttime sections (605 divided by 12). For the purposes of working with Planetary Hours, these 69.58-minute sections and 50.42-minute sections will be called "hours" even though they are not regular 60-minute hours.

The first "hour" of daylight on a Friday is the Planetary Hour of Venus. (On a Wednesday, the first "hour" would be the Planetary Hour of Mercury.) The hours then follow through the twelve rulers in order, each daylight "hour" taking, in this case, 69.58 minutes and each nighttime "hour" taking 50.42 minutes. Different days of the year will, then, vary in the lengths of their hours according to the local times for sunrise and sunset.

Below is a table of daytime planetary hours, in which the hour shown marks the sunrise:

Below is a table of nighttime planetary hours, in which the hour shown marks the sunset: