Intro to planetary days and hours (+King Solomon’s planetary hours)
Practical Astrology 101
Published September 23, 2023
The seven days of the week are named for the seven traditional planets in astrology. So anybody who uses a seven day week calendar is participating in an astrological system whether they realize it or not. Practical astrology is the application of astrology into your everyday life and this is one of the best examples of it.
Each of the seven traditional planets rules over the day that they're named for and that's why there's certain days that society has collectively agreed are good for certain things. Friday is date night because Friday is ruled by Venus, the planet that rules romance.
In Judaism, they recognize the Sabbath on Saturday. In the Bible, there is a name for God, Sabaoth, and the full name being Jehovah or Yahweh Sabaoth, which directly translates to the Lord of the armies or Lord of the hosts. Saturn is the planet that rules over all military operations, spiritual and physical. Saturn also rules over the concept of rest, stopping everything you're doing in order to recover, as well as reflect. So the Sabbath, the day of rest, recovery, and reflection, happens on Saturday, the day ruled by Saturn.
And in the non Abrahamic context, Saturday is the first day of the weekend, the first day that most people, unless you work in the service industry or emergency services, have off from work after working all week.
In Christianity, Sunday is referred to as the day of the Lord. In Christian astrology, Christ is represented by the Sun, and so Christian worship happens on Sunday.
Not only are the seven days of the week assigned to the seven traditional planets, but each of those days is broken down into 24 planetary hours, each of which is ruled by one of the seven traditional planets.
The first planetary hour of the day is ruled by the planet that rules that day. So the first planetary hour on Saturday is ruled by Saturn–but these 24 planetary hours in a day are not divided evenly the way that the 24 hours on the clock are. Instead, it's based on the amount of daylight. So the first planetary hour of the day starts exactly at sunrise. Then the 12th planetary hour ends exactly as the sun sets and begins the 13th planetary hour.
So if we look at the planetary hours for September 23rd, for example, which is the autumn equinox, there's equal amounts of night and day, which means that the 24 planetary hours are as evenly distributed as they can be for the entire year. You can see over here that just about every planetary hour is about 60 minutes long.
But if we look at the summer solstice, for example, the most amount of daylight and the least amount of nighttime in the entire year, you can see that the first 12 planetary hours, the daytime hours, are significantly longer. These are almost like an hour and a half long, while the nighttime hours, or 13 through 24, are significantly shorter.
And if we look at the winter solstice, December 21st, you can see the daytime hours are significantly shorter. This one's only about 45 minutes long. And of course, then the nighttime hours, 13 through 24 are significantly longer in the winter.
This app gives you the exact timing for all of the planetary hours, which change every day. So it's really, really useful. It even has a widget, so you don't have to open the app to see what planetary hour it is. The app is called Planetaro, planetary hours app. I am obsessed with this app. This is not sponsored. It's not an ad. I am just sharing this with you guys because I literally use this app every single day. So you should definitely check this app out if you use planetary hours in any way.
King Solomon, from the Bible, who was the son of King David, and one of the most notorious monarchs of ancient Israel, was an astrologer, and he used planetary hours in his planning. King Solomon wrote many different grimoires, and one of them contains a list of every planetary hour throughout a seven day week, and his corresponding uses for those planetary hours. So this is a list of all of the planetary hours for the week, and King Solomon's uses for those hours. If you're interested in using King Solomon's planetary hours, this full document is available for free download on my website, so I will put the URL right here.
