Secrets of Planetary Magic

by Christopher Warnock

  There are various types of software for determining the planetary hours, including my own TPHP planetary hours program which is provided free to students of my Planetary Magic Mini-Course and full Astrological Magic Course. However, it is useful to understand how to do the process by hand. The necessary sunrise and sunset times can be obtained from the U.S. Naval Observatory using your own location, or you can obtain your local sunrise and sunset times from the newspaper. Take the time from sunrise to sunset and convert it into seconds. There are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour, so there are 3,600 seconds in an hour. Using seconds allows for precise fractions of an hour.

  For example, if the Sun rises on Sunday at 6:00 am and sets at 6:24 pm, the length of the planetary day is 12 hours and 24 minutes. (12 x 60 = 720 minutes x 60 = 43,200 seconds) + (24 x 60 = 1440 seconds) = 44, 640 seconds. Don't worry if the time is not provided in seconds from your source, minutes are precise enough, and you can still do your calculations in seconds. Divide by twelve to get the length of each planetary hour for the day. 44, 460 divided by 12 equals 3720 seconds. This equals 1 hour, 2 minutes (3600 seconds divided by 60 = 60 minutes = 1 hour) 3720 - 3600 = 120 seconds (120 divided by 60 = 2 minutes).

  So if we start at sunrise at 6:00, then the first planetary hour extends from 6:00 to 7:02 am. The second from 7:02 to 8:04 and so on. We repeat the same process for the period from sunset to the sunrise of the next day. Because of the rounding of the fractional second we won't be absolutely precisely on the mark, but a few seconds variation is acceptable.

  Then starting with the planet that rules the day , e.g., the Sun for Sundays, follow the Chaldean order and assign the proper planet to each planetary hour of the day and night that you have just calculated. For example, if Sunrise on Sunday is at 6:00, then Sun hour starts at 6:00 am and ends at 7:02 am. At 7:02 am, Venus hour starts. At 8:04 am, Venus hour ends and Mercury hour begins. At 9:06 am, Mercury hour ends and Moon hour begins. At 10:08 am, Moon hour ends and Saturn hour, beginning the Chaldean order cycle, begins. The hours of the planetary day of the Sun thus continue through the Chaldean order for a total of 24 hours until dawn on Monday. Note that because the conventional day begins at Midnight, the planetary hour of the Sun continues into conventional Monday, lasting until Sunrise.

  Chapter 4: Planetary Hour Elections

  The planetary hours are a useful part of electional astrology, the branch of astrology which allows us to choose auspicious times to take action. Generally we would choose to take action during the planetary hour of the planet that rules the activity we wish to undertake. We can check our planetary rulership tables, found in the Appendices for guidance. For example, the medieval Arabic astrologer Al-Biruni says Mercury rules selling books, so if I wanted to send a book proposal to a publisher I could do it in the hour of Mercury. For additional strength, take the action in the day as well as the hour of the chosen planet. We can also use the planetary days and hours to make planetary talismans, as will be explained later in detail.

  In addition to this general advice regarding timing by planetary hours, the English astrologer, Henry Coley in his 1676 book, Clavis Astrologiae Elimata or, A Key to the Whole Art of Astrology gives the following detailed suggestions for using the planetary hours:

  "Here it will be necessary, briefly to shew the Signification of each Planetary Hour, and what use may be made of them, &c.

  In the hour of Saturn take no Voyage to Sea, neither take any long Journey by Land; for crosses will surely attend, and small success may be expected; take no Physick: entertain no Servant, for they will prove idle, careless Persons: Not good to put on a new Garment, or cut your Hair, but this hour is good to buy, or take Leases of Houses or Lands; good to buy any kind of Grain, or dig in the Earth or Plow; not good to borrow Money in this hour, or to fall sick in; for it threatens long Disease and sometimes terminates in death.

  In the hour of Jupiter tis good to apply to Ecclesiastical Persons and all great Men to obtain their favour; the same from all grave Senators, Judges, Lawyers, &c. In this hour tis good to take a Journey; or to go out of the House with success; good to sow all kind of Seeds or to Plant; not good to be let blood; he that falls sick in this hour will soon recover; good also to lend, or borrow Moneys; not good to enter a Ship; not good to buy Beasts: to conclude this hour is good to Contract Matrimony in, &c.

  In the hour of Mars begin no worthy Action, or Enter-prize, for it is very unfortunate hour in all things, and there-fore as much as may be to be avoided, it is ill to take a Journey for you shall be in danger of Thieves; very ill to take a Voyage to Sea, and generally in all things.

  The hour of the Sun, is not to be chosen, as being generally infortunate, unless in makeing Application to great Persons, not good to begin a building, or put on new Garments, not good to enter into a mans own house, for discontent and brawling may then be expected to follow, this hour is good for a man to receive preferment in, not good to Court the Female Sex or lay down moneys upon any account, 'tis also very dangerous for any person to fall sick in.

  In the hour of Venus 'tis good to court Women, or to begin a Journey, but not a Voyage, good to enter upon any Play, Sport or pastime; not good to be let blood in, go House with success, but not so good to return again in, good to take Physick in, but if a Man falls sick in that hour, the disease proceeds from some Venereal distemper, this hour is generally good to undertake any business relating to the Womens concerns, or any delightful Actions, not good to begin a new Garment, but singular good for marriage, and contracting in Matrimony, &c

  The hour of Mercury is very good to Merchandize in, viz. Buy or sell, or to write Letters, or to good to send Messengers, to take Physick in, to send Children to School, to begin a Journey, to lend or or to brrow Moneys in, to put forth Apprentices, to begin any Building, but not good to Contract Marriage, or to Buy Houses or Lands, or to Re-enter your House being abroad, lest discontent or Brawling arise; nor good to take or hire a Servant, or to Redeem a Prisoner, but good to Plant or Graff-in, and finally to make Suit to great Persons.

  The hour of the Moon is not accounted good to Buy Cattle in, especialy of the smaller Sort, nor to take Physick in, or begin any Building, not good to lend Money in, or to make new Cloaths; 'tis good to Court the Female Sex in, or send Children to School, and in some cases to take a Journey, or to pursue an Enemy, and to conclude, you may make choice of this hour to leave your Native Country in, (if designed to Travil) but choose another hour when you return, not and are to re-enter your own Countrey again." A Key to the Whole Art of Astrology, Book II, section 4.

  We also have suggestions for use of the planetary hours from the Key of Solomon, a 16th century grimoire or book of magic in Chapter 17. The instructions in the Key of Solomon will be particularly useful when we wish to elect talismans, because many of its elections are for timing magical rituals and talismans.

  Coley, after listing the planetary hour elections above, then pronounces:

  "These Significations of the Planetary Hours are very Ancient, approved of by the Arabians, and confirmed by Haly and later Authors, and may be of good use, though they are not of that efficacy as well-grounded Elections, from an apt positure of the Heavens, which doth sympathize with the Nativity (if it be known) of which I shall treat in the next Section."

  Coley is therefore saying that while planetary hour and day elections are useful, they are not as precise, accurate or powerful as full chart elections. This is logical because we are only taking into consideration one astrological factor, while in full chart elections we will consider not only the planetary day and hour, but a wide variety of other factors as well.

  There are several ways to directly work with the planetary day and hour cycle. We can chose to take action at appropriate times, using the planetary days and hours, as suggested above and in the appendices. Alternatively, we can watch the planetary hours and days for a week and to note how they correspond to events. Conflict and arguments, for example, will often be found to correspond
with Mars hour, important communications with Mercury hour and times of love and friendship with Venus hour. My experience and the experience of my students who have done this exercise is that the planetary hours correspond roughly 60%-70% to the actual cycle of events. This fits with Coley’s comments regarding the accuracy of planetary days and hour used by themselves.

  Another consideration, and this truly is a secret of planetary hours, since it appears in no traditional source that I have seen, is that the planetary hour cycle is affected by the current Zodiacal state of the planet. What this means is that if Venus is currently afflicted, for example, in Aries or Scorpio, her detriments, or in Virgo, her fall, then the days and hours of Venus will be affected as well and thus not as efficacious for love, friendship and other Venusian activities compared to those times when Venus is not afflicted. I have had personal experience with this in regard to talismans. I once made a Jupiter talisman on Jupiter day (Thursday) and Jupiter hour. However, Jupiter was in detriment and retrograde and so the talisman caused me to lose money!

  Chapter 5: Advanced Planetary Elections

  While the planetary days and hours are a good start in terms of finding an appropriate time for an planetary election, in order to find the most powerful election, we must use the more complex techniques of traditional (pre-1700) astrology. A complete explanation of these techniques is beyond the scope of this book, however, to give readers a taste of the precision of traditional astrology and assist more practiced traditional astrologers in making advanced planetary elections, here are the rules that I have culled from our traditional sources.

  What we seek to do is find a time when the planet is most powerful, realizing that all elections involve some trade off; we cannot expect to find a perfect election. The Renaissance mage Cornelius Agrippa says:

  "Now we shall have the Planets powerfull when they are ruling in a House, or in Exaltation or Triplicity, or term, or face without combustion of what is direct in the figure of the heavens, viz. when they are in Angles, especially of the rising, or Tenth, or in houses presently succeeding, or in their delights." Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book II, chapter 3.

  Agrippa also notes that neither the planet nor the Moon, important in all elections, should be afflicted. While many talismans have specific electional requirements, we can start by looking at a basic recipe for benefic planetary talismans. I have determined this selection of factors from looking at a wide variety of traditional sources including Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Marsilio Ficino’s Three Books on Life and the premier grimoire of medieval and Renaissance astrological magic, the Picatrix, as well as considering my own experience in creating hundreds of talismans using traditional methods. The following selection of factors balances practicality with the myriad requirements sometimes listed in traditional sources. As noted, what follows is a general recipe for a electing a planetary talisman and often our traditional sources list special, individual requirements. Keep in mind that if there are specific requirements for the particular talisman, these take precedence over the basic method, though adding in additional positive factors is never a problem unless it prevents you from doing the election.

  * The planet should be dignified, preferably by sign or exaltation.

  * The planet should be rising , i.e., conjunct the Ascendant, or culminating i.e., conjunct the Midheaven.

  * It should be the hour and preferably the day of the planet

  In addition, the planet and the Moon must be unafflicted. In other words neither the planet nor the Moon must be:

  * Combust, that is within 8.5 degrees of the Sun

  * Retrograde or significantly slower than its average speed

  * In detriment or fall

  * Making an applying opposition or square of any planet or an applying conjunction, opposition or square of Saturn or Mars

  * Conjunct the South Node of the Moon or the malefic fixed star Algol which is at 26 Taurus.

  The presence of any one of the afflictions listed above invalidates the talisman election in the basic method or with a particular election recipe. Many talisman elections in our traditional sources call only for the hour of the planet, so this is more important than the day, and even the day of the planet can be dispensed with if necessary. We can also make a good talisman with the planet dignified by triplicity, but a term or face talisman would be rather weak.

  Let’s take a look at an example election for a Sun talisman.

  This election is for Iowa City, Iowa at 6:00 am CDT (Central Daylight Time) on July 26, 2009. The Sun is in his sign Leo, and as a bonus is dignified by triplicity as well, being the day ruler of fire signs in a fire sign by day. The Sun is rising because he is within 5 (we can stretch to 8) degrees of the Ascendant. Now with any other planet we could start at 5 degrees below the Ascendant and continue to 5 degrees above the Ascendant and consider the planet rising. However, we need to have the hour and if possible the day of the planet for the election, and planetary Sunday and Sun hour do not start until the Sun rises above the Ascendant.

  Neither the Sun nor the Moon are making any applying negative aspects and in fact the Moon applies to a sextile of the Sun, which is very auspicious, and is conjunct the benefic Part of Fortune. The Moon is not otherwise afflicted.

  Now having determined the start of the election, which is when all of the desired factors are first in operation, we need to look for a stop time. In this case the first factor to end is when the Sun moves more than five degrees from the Ascendant at 6:25 am, so this is our stop time.

  For a planetary talisman we would thus want to complete the making the talisman during that time range. But it is fine to continue and complete the consecration ritual beyond the stopping time, if necessary, provided we began our ritual within the time frame.

  This is just a surface overview of the complexity of full chart planetary elections. The necessary energy and effort to master their mysteries, however, is fully compensated by their power and precision.

  Chapter 6: Planetary Talismans

  The most basic form of astrological magic is planetary magic which uses the seven traditional planets. First the mage decides what effect to manifest. For example, suppose the mage desires eloquence and good memory. The mage then selects a planet that embodies the chosen Divine Idea or rules the desired effect. In this case, the planet Mercury is appropriate, as he rules speech and communication. The mage then selects a time when Mercury is strong. As we have seen in full chart planetary elections there are many factors that must be considered when deciding whether a planet is strong, but we can make effective use of the planetary days and hours for timing a planetary talisman.

  At the selected time, the mage creates a talisman from materials that are ruled by the chosen planet or star and so contain the essence of the selected Divine Idea. Mercury, for example, rules the gemstones agate, marcasite and topaz, the plants lungwort and marjoram, and mixed colors . Though they are less powerful and long lasting, paper talismans can also be created using paper images. images.

  Finally, when constructing the talisman, it is important to conduct certain rituals in order to consecrate and charge the talisman. Because each person, like the Cosmos, has a body, soul and Divine Spirit, we are closely and harmoniously connected to the Anima Mundi, the Soul of the World, a key magical link. By choosing incense, candles, music, clothing and surroundings appropriate to the planet, and calling upon and invoking the planet, we align ourselves with the planet and its embodied Divine Ideas, and so become a conduit for its energy. This further increases the power of the talisman. Each of the individual planetary pages lists the colors, incense and music of each planet which can be incorporated into the planetary ritual. You can even dress in appropriate planetary clothing as listed in Appendix D. Readers should keep in mind that the rituals provided in this book are suggestions and can be altered if desired. Ritual should appeal to you esthetically and stir your mind and senses. In addition, you can incorporate features from othe
r magical systems, particularly if you already practice another system.

  The first thing you need to do is set up an altar space. An altar can be quite elaborate or just a small space delineated by an appropriately colored cloth. I use the top of a bookshelf for my ritual work. The altar needs to be placed where you will be able to have some privacy and quiet during your ritual and where it will not be disturbed. Consult the planetary pages for an appropriate color for candles for the ritual. Black, for example, is the color of Saturn. White is a good neutral color and is suited for many kinds of benefic magic. Use white candles or even one white candle if you can’t get candles in the appropriate planetary colors.

  For an astrologically based choice for the number of candles, Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book II, chapter 22 notes the numbers corresponding to each planet. These numbers are provided on the planetary ritual later in this book. These numbers are also used for timing the number of days you repeat the invocation.

  If you wish you can rub or anoint the candles with appropriate oils. The plants and herbs ruled by a planet, which you can find in the planetary rulership lists in Chapters 15 and 16, give guidance for appropriate oils. You can even carve the candles with your name and goal using a needle or pin as well as add the various characters and symbols of the planets as shown on the planetary ritual pages. You can either do the anointing and carving of the candles at the beginning of your ritual work at the appropriate planetary hour or you can prepare the candles beforehand. Set the candles up in an appropriate pattern on your altar; a square for four or even number, a triangle for three or odd number, or a circle for a large number of candles. You can use candleholders or lightly melt the bottom of the candles and stick them on a plate. Be careful with candles! Do not let them burn unattended. If they fall over during your ritual this is a sign that the ritual is going to fail. Stop and try again at a later date.