I’ve recently had some comments asking some great questions about planetary hours. And because my readership seems to be growing (you like me, you really like me!) I thought it would be a good idea to publish an intro. round up of where the Next Week in Magic posts are coming from.
First a bit of a warning: Magic is still (and has always been) the Wild West. There isn’t just one way or one best or more authoritative way or site. That makes it both hard, but also more fun (explore, try stuff out, see what works)! So there’s not just one way of doing things. And while I have my preferences and areas of expertise (I’ve been actively practicing magic for over 30 years now — which, yes, I get it I’m old) I try to keep the things I share here more general. That means you can use my material with all kinds of magic, from witchcraft to Saint work to Solomonic demon-conjuring.
Planetary Days and Hours
If you are new to the concept of magical / planetary timing, you should know that it’s one of the oldest and most consistent astrological structures across time and place and I can think of no better way to provide some basic structure to a magical practice.
For a clear, high level introduction, Lunarium is excellent. Here’s their overview explanation with high level uses for various hours. And here’s their planetary hour calculator (make sure you set your location at the top of the page because remember, the hours vary by length of day and night, which varies by where you are in the world). I use an app called PH Pro on my Android phone for calculation on the fly and there are other apps and apps for iPhones too. These apps use the time and location from your phone, which is great for magic while traveling. When in doubt, check your timings against Lunarium.
If you are brand new to magic and magical timing, then you might start at this level as many successful magicians use this model really effectively. Jason Miller for example, has a chapbook called Advanced Planetary Magic which includes a call (a planetary invocation) for each combination of planetary day and hour. I highly recommend this little book.
The planetary hour magical uses I share in my weekly posts come from a specific grimoire, the Hygromanteia. There are tables of purposes for each hour of each day (across multiple versions, this is a highly academic text). I have to credit Gordon White at runesoup.com for making me aware of this grimoire and its uses as he shared the information with his premium membership. Other grimoires have other lists of varying specificity but the Hygro really puts weight on the hours.
Magic Using Planetary Timing
So now that you have a handle on the hours, what do you do with them? Fortunately, the timing framework is very agnostic to magic type. That means you could use any type of enchantment from sigils to witchcraft to hoodoo and so on.
If you are very new to magic I recommend this free course. I’ve never taken it myself but someone I’m very close to has and highly recommends it (and I trust her recommendation).
For sigils, Gordon is tops and searching his blog will give you some great basic information (he’s also got a premium course that I highly recommend that links the hygromanteia to sigil work). I’ve been doing sigils for a really long time and his innovations have really contributed to the body of work on the subject.
Who You Gonna Call?
In using magic with the planetary timings, you can call on any entity (God, Saint, Demon) or none frankly. And while there’s an argument to be made to focus on beings you already have a relationship with, there are several obvious contenders if you want to dial into to beings in the noncorporeal world.
First, the Hygromanteia also comes with a list of angels and demons, a pair for each hour. You conjure the demon and then the angel that controls it with a short invocation. If Solomonic-style magic is your thing, than this might warrant the purchase price of the book (or frankly Gordon’s premium membership).
However, if you are more God and Goddess inclined, then I recommend the Orphic hymns. There are hymns for each deity that goes with the days and you can easily build a working around the hymn to the deity of the day followed by the hymn to the deity of the hour. And, erm, obviously my Lunation rite is in that vein, with a ritual structure with a hymn for each Lunar day.
The good news is that you can start simply with one angle or technique and then adjust or expand as you go. You don’t have to learn everything before you start.
