The Loom of Time

The planetary hours system is like the loom upon which our temporality is woven.

The Platonic order of the planets is: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. If however, we permute this sequence into 24 hours, and repeat this seven times, what will happen is that we will see a full "round" emerge. Each day will begin with the planet that symbolizes that day - Venus for Friday, Saturn for Saturday, Sun for Sunday, Moon for Monday, Mars for Tuesday, Mercury for Wednesday, and Jupiter for Thursday. This is in fact how the days were named in the first place - this planetary matrix comes BEFORE the seven day week as a human social practice and is the underlying theory that makes it conceivable!

What's more is that we now see that each day has four "golden hours" - hours in which the planet of the hour and the planet of the day are the same planet. For magickal purposes these four hours are especially valuable for the consecration of talismans and the performance of rites that are in harmony with that planet.

An ambitious mage might even consider this: the 1st hour is fire (set the intention), the 8th hour is water (envision the outcome), the 15th hour is air (make the plan), and the 22nd hour is earth (ground the process in an object). This four-fold method, using planetary timing is a powerful way to do planetary magick.

The hours system differs depending where you are in the world, since hour 1 is based on the time of sunrise. There are planetary hours calculators available online which will help you find out your specifics - but in general the four golden hours happen at dawn, the early afternoon, the late evening, and the "witching hour" of about 4AM.

Consider how you might invoke the powers of each weekday in order to form a practice of using this ancient matrix to charge and harmonize your own psychocosm. I have composed my own invocatory prayers - why not write your own?