Not every Witch worries about magical timing, but many feel that it gives a boost
of energy that is conducive to your efforts.
Another way to plan your magical timing is by planetary hours. Planetary hours
are useful if the ideal moon phase or moon sign is not possible when you want to
cast your spell. They will lend you even more energy to your moon phase and
moon sign timing.
Calculating planetary hours requires a bit of math, but if you can tell time and
divide, you will be fine. It looks more complex than it actually is, so let’s get
started.
What You Need to Know to Cast Spells
1. Planetary influence
2. The planetary hour
3. How to calculate daylight planetary hours
4. How to calculate nighttime planetary hours
5. The Chaldean order and the planets’ ruling days
6. How to piece it all together
1. How to Cast Spells Based on Planetary Influence
Planetary hours are the hours in the day associated with the various planets that
have astrological influence: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon,
and then the pattern is repeated. This sequence is known as the Chaldean order.
The Chaldean order is an ancient philosophy that is based on the planets’
distance and velocity relative to their centers of orbit from a heliocentric
perspective, as well as their astrological spheres from a geocentric perspective.
Each hour is ruled by a planet, and thus the planet’s influences briefly come into
play. Each day iskicked off by a different planetary influence. The difference that
seems to confuse everyone is that planetary hours do not match the 60 minute
hours of man-made time. They depend on the exact moments of sunrise and
sunset.
Chart of Planetary Influences
Planet Influences
Saturn
Long-term goals, career goals,
protection
Jupiter
Wealth and prosperity,
meditation, luck
Mars Courage, passion, defensive spells
Sun
Sunday Success, happiness,
healing, boosting physical energy,
strength
Venus
Love, romantic relationships,
beauty, domestic efforts
Mercury
Education,legal issues,
communications, selfimprovement, wisdom
Moon
Psychic abilities, gardening,
emotions, fertility, family
2. Example of How to Cast Spells with Planetary Hours
Let’s say I want to cast a spell to help me with a career goal. Ideally, for my goal,
the moon would be in Capricorn, but the moon doesn’t enter Capricorn until near
the end of the month. Worse, Mercury is in retrograde from now until February
28th, and that won’t do at all! I just can’t wait, so I decide to use the planetary
hours of Saturn to draw the influences from it that I need, and I choose to do the
spell on February 13th because the moon phase is good and I’m off that night.
So let’s walk through the process of how to cast spells for the best outcome with
planetary hours. I promise, try it a couple of times and you’ll find it’s not as
complicated as you think!
3. How to Calculate Daylight Planetary Hours to Cast Spells
The bolded text below are instructions for how to calculate planetary hours. The
non-bolded text is how I would calculate using the specific February 13th example
above.
1. Find the exact moments of sunrise and sunset.
You can find that in your local newspaper, or by going online. For my example, I
looked up the time of the sunrise in my local paper. On February 13th, the sun is
rising at 7:10 A.M. and setting at 6:20 P.M.
2. Calculate the number of minutes between sunrise and sunset.
From 7:10 A.M. to 7:59 A.M. there are 49 minutes until the start of sunrise until
the complete sunrise. From 8 A.M. to 6 P.M. is 10 hours until the start of sunset.
Multiplied by 60 minutes (10 hours X 60 minutes = 600 minutes). From 6:01
through 6:19 gives me 18 minutes until complete sunset. If I add 49 minutes + 600
minutes + 18 minutes = 668 minutes of daylight hours.
3. Divide the number of daylight minutes by 12.
There are 668 minutes between sunrise and sunset on February 13th, so we would
calculate 668/12 = 55.58. In our example, we’ll only use the even minutes. Each
planetary hour will be about 55 minutes long.
4. Figure out the times your daylight planetary hours begin and end.
in our example, since the sun is rising at 7:10 A.M. we’ll start there and keep
adding 55 minutes. The calculation for February 13th’s daylight hours are in the
table below.
Example of Calculated Daylight Hours for Feb. 13th
Time Hour
7:10 am to 8:05 am 1st planetary hour
8:06 am to 9:01 am 2nd planetary hour
9:02 am to 9:56 am 3rd planetary hour
9:58 am to 10:53 am 4th planetary hour
10:54 am to 11:49 am 5th planetary hour
11:50 am to 12:45 pm 6th planetary hour
12:46 pm to 1:41 pm 7th planetary hour
1:42 pm to 2:37 pm 8th planetary hour
2:38 pm to 3:33 pm 9th planetary hour
3:34 pm to 4:29 pm 10th planetary hour
4:30 pm to 5:25 pm 11th planetary hour
5:26 pm to 6:20 pm 12th planetary hour*
*Note that because of that .58 of a second there can be slight variations and it may
not come out precise—that’s okay, though; less than 6/10 of a second difference
is not enough to really matter
Planetary Hour Fun Fact
There are 2 days of the year when your planetary hours will be exactly the same
for daytime and night time: The spring and autumn equinoxes. On these two
days, daytime and night time are completely balanced, 12 hours long each.
It’s also the only two days of the year when your planetary hours will actually be
60 minute hours!
4. Casting Spells Using Night time Planetary Hours
Now, I’m only half-way through calculating a 24 hour period. I’ve calculated the
first 12 daylight planetary hours, now I want to calculate the 12 night time
planetary hours. The process is roughly the same, but the length of each hour will
almost always be different. Remember, for half the years, days are longer and
nights are shorter; for the other half of the year, that reverses.
1. Find the time of sunset and the time of the next day’s sunrise.
Using our example, the sun is set hour is 6:20 pm; the sun rise the next morning
is 7:09 am (a minute earlier than the day before).
2. Calculate the minutes between sunset and sunrise.
6:21 pm to 6:59 pm = 38 minutes. There are 12 hours between 7 am and 7 pm, so
12*60= 720 minutes. 7:01 am to 7:09 am = 8 minutes. I add up all the minutes: 38
+ 720 +8 = 766 minutes between sunset and next day sunrise.
3. Divide the minutes between sunset and next day sunrise by 12 to find the length
of night time planetary hours.
766/12 = 63.91. So that’s 63 minutes long for each night time planetary hour on
Feb. 13th.
4. Complete the chart, picking it up where you left off.
In my example, I would be adding 63 minutes for each planetary hour, and the
remainder of my chart to cast spells by planetary hours would look like this:
Example of Calculated Planetary Hours for Feb. 13th
Time Hour
6:20 pm to 7:23 pm 13th planetary hour
7:24 pm to 8:27 pm 14th planetary hour
8:28 pm to 9:32 pm 15th planetary hour*
9:33 pm to 10:36 pm 16th planetary hour
10:37 pm to 11:40 pm 17th planetary hour
11:41 pm to 12:45 am 18th planetary hour*
12:46 am to 1:49 am 19th planetary hour
1:50 am to 2:53 am 20 planetary hour
2:54 am to 3:58 21st planetary hour*
3:59 am to 5:02 am 22nd planetary hour
5:03 am to 6:06 am 23rd planetary hour
6:07 am – 7:09 pm 24th planetary hour
*Note that here we have a .91 variation here, which actually does make some
difference, because that’s almost one whole second difference. To compensate, for
every 3rd hour, I’m going to add 1 second to keep it more even. Again, calculations
will be
5. Using the Chaldean Order in Sequence
Now you know (roughly) what time each planetary hourbegins and what time it
ends for a full 24-hour period. Now you’re going to apply the Chaldeon order of
planets to it. This will depend on the day of the week.
Each day of the week, the first planetary hour begins with a different planet. You
can see examples of this in the table below.
Planets Ruling Days of the Week
Day of the Week Ruling Planet
Sunday Sun
Monday Moon
Tuesday Mars
Wednesday Mercury
Thursday Jupiter
Friday Venus
Saturday Saturn
6. So How Does It All Fit Together?
1. Figure out the ruling planet of the day.
In my case, the ruling planet on February 13th would be Jupiter, since the day falls
on a Thursday.
2. Make the ruling planet of the day your first planetary hour for that day.
My first planetary hour is from 7:10 to 8:05 A.M. for Thursday, Feb. 13th;
therefore, my first planetary hour would be ruled by Jupiter.
3. Continue listing the rest of the planets in the Chaldean sequence. Repeat the
sequence for the rest of the day’s hours.
The Chaldean sequence was mentioned earlier: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus,
Mercury, and the Moon. Since my first planetary hour is Jupiter, I’ll start with
that, so my second planetary hour would be Mars, then the Sun, and so on.
Below, you’ll find my final calculation for casting spells on February 13th.
Example of Calculated Planetary Hours for 24-Hour Period, Feb. 13th
Planetary Hour
Time I calculated for that
day
Planet (starting planet
based on day of week it
is)
1st Planetary Hour 7:10 am -8:05am Jupiter
2nd Planetary Hour 8:06 am to 9:01 am Mars
3rd Planetary Hour 9:02 am to 9:56 am Sun
4th Planetary Hour 9:58 am to 10:53 am Venus
5th Planetary Hour 10:54 am to 11:49 am Mercury
6th Planetary Hour 11:50 am to 12:45 pm Moon
7th Planetary Hour 12:46 pm to 1:41 pm Saturn
8th Planetary Hour 1:42 pm to 2:37 pm Jupiter
9th Planetary Hour 2:38 pm to 3:33 pm Mars
10th Planetary Hour 3:34 pm to 4:29 pm Sun
11th Planetary Hour 4:30 pm to 5:25 pm Venus
12th Planetary Hour 5:26 pm to 6:20 pm Mercury
13th Planetary Hour 6:20 pm to 7:23 pm Moon
Planetary Hour
Time I calculated for that
day
Planet (starting planet
based on day of week it
is)
14th Planetary Hour 7:24 pm to 8:27 pm Saturn
15th Planetary Hour 8:28 pm to 9:32 pm Jupiter
16th Planetary Hour 9:33 pm to 10:36 pm Mars
17th Planetary Hour 10:37 pm to 11:40 pm Sun
18th Planetary Hour 11:41 pm to 12:45 am Venus
19th Planetary Hour 12:46 am to 1:49 am Mercury
20th Planetary Hour 1:50 am to 2:53 am Moon
21st Planetary Hour 2:54 am to 3:58 Saturn
22nd Planetary Hour 3:59am to 5:02 am Jupiter
23rd Planetary Hour 5:03 am to 6:06 am Mars
24th Planetary Hour 6:07 am – 7:09 Sun
Bingo! I Have My Timing to Cast Spells
I found that my planetary hours will be influenced by Saturn. Now I know how to
cast spells successfully at 12:46 P.M. to 1:41 P.M., 7:24 P.M. to 8:27 P.M., or 2:54
A.M. to 3:58 A.M., despite the fact that other times would be working against me.
Sound confusing? Yes, it can seem that way, if you’re looking at it all at once. But
if you break down the steps, take them as one task at a time, you will find it’s not
all that difficult—just a bit tedious.
Still, once you get the hang of how to cast spells with planetary hours, it’ll only
take you a few minutes to figure out your timing. This scared me the first time I
was taught on how to do this. After a few tries, I could do it in 10 minutes.
To practice, actually try to calculate any day at random. By doing it just once, a lot
of the confusion falls away and you understand the process better.
When it comes to casting spells, my magical motto is, “every little bit helps!” Any
little boost I can use to affect my spell, I’m going to take it. If you’re already
working with magical timing when spell casting, give planetary hours a try
