Days are easy enough to remember. Hours are a little more complex, only because the term “hour” is honorary - it is an amount of time that is variable, depending on the current sunrise/sunset times where you are. I use a program on my PC for this, if I’m being completely honest :P hehe.. [ChronosXP]. I love it, and highly recommend it.
Book 1, Chapter 2 of The Key of Solomon, titled, “Of the Days, and Hours, and of the Virtues of the Planets,” gives the fundamentals of magickal timing, as well as going into some basic correspondences for the planets and movements of the moon. Even if you have no interest in Solomonic Magick in general, this chapter makes for an interesting read even if only to see how far back these staples of magickal timing go :)
I caution you, however: In his (very popular) edition of the Key, S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers inserted an unfortunate “Note by Editor” which attempts to simplify the language used in the text, but ends up giving instructions completely contrary to the text. If you have decided to follow the traditional method for calculating planetary hours, you should ignore the Mathers Note.
From [Book 1, Chapter 2 of The Key of Solomon]:
It must, therefore, be understood that the planets have their dominion over the day which approacheth nearest unto the name which is given and attributed unto them -- viz., over Saturday, Saturn; Thursday, Jupiter; Tuesday, Mars; Sunday, the Sun; Friday, Venus; Wednesday, Mercury; and Monday, the Moon.
From [Book 1, Chapter 2 of The Key of Solomon]:
The rule of the planets over each hour begins from the dawn at the rising of the Sun on the day which take its name from such planet, and the planet which follows it in order, succeeds to the rule over the next hour. Thus (on Saturday) Saturn rules the first hour, Jupiter the second, Mars the third, the Sun the fourth, Venus the fifth, Mercury the sixth, the Moon the seventh, and Saturn returns in the rule over the eighth, and the others in their turn, the planets always keeping the same relative order.
This is a little more abstract, if you don’t have an example to work from. I’ll use the same example I used in [a previous post on the subject]:
Planetary Hours are calculated by finding your local sunrise and sunset times, taking the inclusive time between, and dividing it equally into 12 units. This becomes the number of minutes for each “hour” of the day. Then you do the same for the inclusive time between sunset and sunrise of the next day in order to determine your “hours” of the night.
For example: Let’s say the sun is rising at 7AM and setting at 5PM. This means your day (the time between sunrise and sunset) is made up of 10 hours (600 minutes), and your night (the time between sunset and sunrise of the next day) is 14 hours (840 minutes).
Day Hours = 600 minutes ÷ 12 = 50-minute segments
Night Hours = 840 minutes ÷ 12 = 70-minute segments
Planetary hour rulership starts on the first hour of the day with the ruler of that day, then goes through the planets in order. This resyncs at the first hour of the night.
It is worth noting, Abramelin [didn’t like this system very much] and concluded Planetary Days should be when the given planet is visible for you above the horizon, and Planetary Hours should be when the given planet is in the Meridian of your location.
There’s nothing to say you can’t do both though ;) I tend to follow Jason Miller’s [lead] and use Solomonic timing as a default, adding or swapping Abramelin timing to add personal emphasis to something very important.
I put together a handy chart for quick reference. The hours are color coded, using the colors of the planets, and I used the same example as above and in [my other post].
(for a larger version of the above chart, click [here])
