On The Planetary Hours

By M.J. Makransky
At present, astrologer-channels throughout the world are receiving similar messages from the spirits who, from time immemorial, have guided astrologers and assisted them in making correct judgments. The astrology spirits are emphasizing the importance of the system of planetary hours to replace (or at least augment) conventional hours systems and the zodiac, and to make all kinds of elections (selections of propitious times for commencing different activities). While the use of planetary hours in magical operations has been discussed, including charging talismans and amulets, we can use planetary hours in more conventional, day-to-day elections. The Planetary hours are a system as ancient as the zodiac for assigning planetary rulers to each of the 24 hours of the day. The first hour after dawn is ruled by the day ruler (Sun if Sunday, Moon if Monday, Mars if Tuesday, Mercury if Wednesday, Jupiter if Thursday, Venus if Friday and Saturn if Saturday). The subsequent hours are ruled by the planets in Chaldean order: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon. You may want a perpetual table of planetary hours from, for example, Llewellyn George's A to Z Horoscope Maker or Dell Horoscope magazine which publishes recyclable tables monthly. How to Use the Planetary Hours First, identify the activity in question with its ruling planet. Sun Hours: activities requiring courage or a mood of self-certainty - spiritual activities whose aim is illumination; making big decisions; scheduling meetings for reaching decisions; giving speeches; launching new projects. Venus Hours: enjoyable, sociable, aesthetic activities; parties, social gatherings; recitals, exhibitions; weddings; visits; dating and seeking romance; planting ornamentals; buying gifts, clothing, luxuries; beauty treatments. Mercury Hours: routine activities and activities needing clear communications or making a good impression - teaching, learning; business letters and phone calls; meetings to develop or communicate ideas; buying, selling; routine shopping, errands, travel; job applications and interviews. Moon Hours: activities remote in time or space - meditation, prayer; searching for lost objects; treating spiritual illnesses; making reservations; planting food crops; cooking; moving, vacations, journeys (moment of leaving home, or of takeoff); hiring employees; personal letters and phone calls; relaxing. Moon hours are used for commencing most Pagan and Wiccan rituals, except those specifically related to the Sun (such as power quests, prayers directly to the Spirit, etc.). Saturn Hours: tackling difficult or disagreeable chores; overcoming obstacles; tasks or projects of long duration; breaking ground, laying foundations; planting perennials; buying durable goods; treating chronic illness; making repairs.

Jupiter Hours: activities requiring optimism and enthusiasm - borrowing, lending and investing money; buying lottery tickets; seeking advice, consultation; settling disputes. Mars Hours: drastic action - enforcing your will; initiating conflicts and lawsuits; making complaints; firing employees; surgery; sports, exercises; risk-taking, adventure. Certain planetary hours are favorable for initiating dealings with other people (seeking favors, resolving conflicts, etc.). Here is a list of the people ruled by each planet: Sun Hours: father, superiors and authorities of both sexes (e.g., bosses), spiritual teachers. Venus Hours: for a man, his wife or girlfriend; for both sexes, female friends and rivals. Mercury Hours: children, siblings, equals (where sex is not a factor, e.g., neighbors, coworkers). Moon Hours: mother, subordinates of either sex (e.g., employees, servants), the public generally. Saturn Hours: elderly (other than grandparents); difficult people. Jupiter Hours: grandparents, aunts and uncles, advisors (e.g., doctors, lawyers, accountants, and astrologers). Mars Hours: for a woman, her husband or boyfriend. For both sexes, male friends and rivals. These lists are by no means exhaustive but can be a general guideline. If you are in doubt about which planet rules a given activity, just use your intuition and you won't go wrong. Once you have selected the planetary ruler for the activity, turn to the tables of planetary hours for the current week (irrespective of year - the tables are valid from year to year). Choose the correct weekday from the seven central columns (Su, M, Tu, W, Th, F, Sa) and scan down the column to pick out the three or four hours ruled by the planet in question. From the column for terrestrial latitude nearest to the latitude of the place where you are (column headings are given for every two degrees of terrestrial latitude between 27 and 55 north), take out the times when the planetary hours commence. They end at the next time down the column. The times given in the tables of planetary hours are Local Mean Time, and must be corrected to Standard Time by adding four minutes for each degree of longitude you are west of the standard time meridian (or subtracting four minutes for each degree of longitude you are east of your standard time meridian). For example, Spring Valley lies at a longitude of 117W 02', in the Pacific Standard Time zone (120th meridian). Therefore, 11 minutes 52 seconds must be subtracted from all times given in the planetary hours tables to correct for the 258' of longitude that Spring Valley lies east of the 120th meridian. If daylight saving time is in effect, then you must add an hour to the Standard Time to obtain clock time. Refining the Technique The most important point in making an election is choosing a proper planetary hour - the rest is secondary. However, if you like, it is helpful to make your election on a day when the ruling planet makes a favorable transiting aspect with another planet. For this you need a current ephemeris, preferably one which has a good aspectarian (e.g., The American Ephemeris ten-year volumes).

Remember to convert the Greenwich Mean Times given in the ephemeris to Standard Time by subtracting as many hours as your zone number (4 hours if Atlantic Standard Time, 5 hours if Eastern Standard Time, 6 hours if Central Standard Time, etc.). The aspectarian in Dell Horoscope magazine ("Self-Guidance Chart") is given in Eastern Standard Time. If Daylight Savings Time is in effect, add an hour to the Standard Time to obtain the clock time. Only favorable aspects should be considered (conjunctions, sextiles and trines). Then, when you have found a good day, you can use any of the three or four planetary hours which occur in the 24 hour period before the exact time of the transiting aspect if the Moon is not involved. However, if the Moon is involved in the transiting aspect (either it rules the election, or it aspects the ruler), then you must use that planetary hour which occurs just before the exact time of the transit. If the transit occurs during the planetary hour of the election, then commence the activity between the moment the planetary hour begins, and the moment the transit becomes exact. This is actually the ideal situation. Although it is by no means necessary (and is not always practiced in any case), it is possible to refine the technique even further to locate a good moment to commence the activity in question. To do this you must have a table of houses, and know how to erect a horoscope. Just check the table of houses to see if any favorable natal or transiting planet (preferably the ruler of the election) crosses any of the four angles during the planetary hour you have chosen. However, this isn't all that important, so if you don't know how to do these calculations, don't worry about it. The Purpose of the Planetary Hours The reason for using the planetary hours is this: although to the rational, scientific mind the system of planetary hours seems wholly artificial and arbitrary (e.g., assigning rulerships by day of the week), in fact the system is symbolically correct, which is the more important criterion from the magical point of view. The planetary hours combine the symbolism of the solar cycle (since the varying lengths of daytime and nighttime hours reflect the seasonal cycle) with the symbolism of the lunar cycle (the week is a lunar symbol). Anyway, humans didn't invent it - it was given to humans. It was given us to help us tune in to the ambient rhythms of the universe. Ancients had no need of these artificial constructs; they just knew when to act or not act. But with the invention of agriculture, people had to begin behaving in a more rational, methodical, orderly fashion than they did when they were nomadic hunter-gatherers. Agriculture (and trade) requires a completely different mindset than hunting: past and future are more important than the now, and concentration and focus are more important than nimbleness and gut-level intuition. So in order to farm, one had to repress a lot of one's instinctive sensitivity to the subtle rhythms of mood and energy flow - rhythms of the time (Zeitgeist), rhythms of the human race, rhythms of place, and one's own individual rhythms. To farm, one had to go out there and scrabble at the dirt no matter how lousy one felt that day. In losing their attunement to the basic rhythms of life around them, people lost their ability to enjoy themselves. Agriculture is a Saturnine occupation - it isn't as much fun as hunting was, with all the running around naked and howling at the Moon. Planetary Hours Astrology is a system for injecting a bit more fun into the basic framework of modern life. We don't have to scrabble at the dirt any longer; there's no

reason we should find our daily lives onerous. We can do a little more running around and howling within the existing framework of modern life. And the easiest way to do this, say the astrology spirits, is by using the planetary hours to plan our daily activities - and most certainly to use them in timing our most important activities (rituals and prayers). Using the planetary hours is a way of catching up with an ambient current of energy and riding with it, instead of fighting against it and letting it thrash us around. Try the planetary hours out for a few weeks and see how they work in your own life; you'll find that your life starts to click instead of clunk.