The planetary hours are an ancient system in which one of the seven traditional naked eye planets is given rulership over each day and various parts of the day. Sunday is always the day of the Sun, Monday is the Day of the Moon, Tuesday is the day of Mars, Wednesday is ruled by Mercury, Thursday is Jupiter's day, Friday is the day of Venus, and Saturday is the day of Saturn.
Each planetary day begins at sunrise, and ends at the next day's sunrise. For example, Sunrise on Saturday is the beginning of the day of Saturn. Before sunrise on Saturday, you are still under the day of Venus.
The day is divided into two parts; the day (time between sunrise and sunset) and the night (time between sunset and tomorrow's sunrise). Each part of the day is then divided into 12 equal parts, for a total of 24 (unequal) hours. The further the location is from the equator; and the closer the date is to the solstices (as opposed to the equinoxes); the greater the difference in length between the length of the planetary hours and the clock hours.
The first planetary hour of the day is always the same as the planetary day; so sunrise on Monday is the beginning of both the day of the Moon and the hour of the Moon. The hours repeat infinitely in this order:
- Saturn
- Jupiter
- Mars
- Sun
- Venus
- Mercury
- Moon
So the second planetary hour of the day of the Moon is the hour of Saturn, the third would be the hour of Jupiter, and so on.
Read more about Planetary Hours: History, Astrological Significance
Famous quotes containing the words planetary and/or hours:
“We cannot cheat on DNA. We cannot get round photosynthesis. We cannot say I am not going to give a damn about phytoplankton. All these tiny mechanisms provide the preconditions of our planetary life. To say we do not care is to say in the most literal sense that “we choose death.””
—Barbara Ward (1914–1981)
““And how many hours a day did you do lessons?” said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.
“Ten hours the first day,” said the Mock Turtle: “nine the next, and so on.”
“What a curious plan!” exclaimed Alice.
“That’s the reason they’re called lessons,” the Gryphon remarked: “because they lessen from day to day.””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)