PLANETARY HOURS That the planets have dominion over the days of the week which represent the seven creative days (Periods) is taught by the Rosicrucians. Saturday is Saturn's day and corresponds to the Saturn Period. Sunday is the Sun's day and corresponds to the Sun Period. Monday is the Moon's day and corresponds to the Moon Period. Tuesday is the day of the Norse war-god, Tyr, and corresponds to the Mars-half of the Earth Period. Wednesday is the day of the Norse Mercury, Wotan, and corresponds to the Mercury-half of the Earth Period. Thursday is the day of Thor, the Norse Jupiter, and corresponds to the Jupiter Period. Friday is the day of the Norse Venus, Freia, and corresponds to the Venus Period. In addition to the rulership over the days of the week, the planets have dominion in turn over the hours of the day and the underlying system, order and connection between the rulership of the days and hours becomes apparent when it is noted that: The planet for which any day is named rules the first hour after sunrise on that day. Starting with the hour of sunrise on Sunday which is ruled by the Sun, the next hour is allotted to Venus, the third to Mercury. Next come the hours of the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. Then come other hours ruled by the Sun, by Venus and all the other planets in the order given: Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars. This succession is followed in unbroken sequence to the next Sunday morning when Mars rules the last hour of the week in his proper order and the Sun opens the new week with his beneficent ray. Under this arrangement of succession started at sunrise on Sunday, the Moon rules the first hour of Monday, which is the twenty-fifth from the hour of the Sun which ruled Sunday morning. Mars rules the first hour on Tuesday which is the twenty-fifth hour from the hour of the Moon which ruled Monday morning. And so on, through the other days of the week. This shows how the method of naming the days for the Planetary Spirits which have dominion over them, dovetails with the system of planetary hours and both are rooted in a foundation of esoteric knowledge. When we speak of planetary 'HOURS' it must be understood that these hours are not sixty minutes in length, but vary in a wide measure, with the time of the year and the place of your residence. Near the equator the divergence is least and it increases the further North we go because a planetary hour is one-twelfth part of the time between Sunset on a particular day and Sunrise the next morning or it is one- twelfth part of a particular day beginning at Sunrise and ending at Sunset. At the equinoxes, when the day and night are of equal length, the planetary hours are also sixty minutes each, but at midsummer and in latitude sixty where the Sun rises at 2:47 A.M. and sets at 9:16 P.M. giving a day of eighteen and one half hours and a night of only five and one half hours, the planetary hours of the day are ninety-three minutes long against twenty-seven minutes for the night hours. This is reversed in December, for then the Sun does not rise till 9:13 A.M. in latitude sixty North and it sets at 2:43 P.M. with the result that the planetary hours of the day are twenty-eight minutes long and the night hours are ninety-two minutes. Regarding the use of the planetary hours, anyone who has studied the nature and influence of the various planets on the affairs of life may readily form an opinion. Experiment and observation will soon make anyone proficient in the choice of the best times for doing the thing desired with the best chance of success. There are many who drag the stars in the gutter by perverted use of their influence for selfish ends and endeavor to obtain an undue advantage thereby, but students of our literature will not expect to find advice on how to proceed with such a purpose. We have not studied the matter from that angle and would not teach others how, if we knew. But on certain occasions the planetary hours may be justly and beneficently used and we shall try to indicate how they may be of service. Suppose we want to help a friend to obtain employment and know a place where he would fit in. We remember that the Sun is a significator of those in authority and therefore the hours of the Sun are good in which to transact business with and ask favors of such people and you will have the best chance of success if you apply at those times. But it is also important to remember that the planet which rules the first hour of a given day has PRIME RULERSHIP during that entire day and that the other planets are only subsidiary rulers with the day ruler. They are weakened or strengthened in proportion to the agreement or disagreement of their natures with the nature of the day- ruler. Thus if you select a Sun-hour on Saturday, which is tinged with the obstructive Saturnine influence, your chances of success are not nearly as good as if you select a Sun-hour on a Thursday, which is tinged throughout with the benevolent ray of its day-ruler Jupiter. Or, if you have occasion as a matter of duty, to reason with someone who has a very short temper who you know is apt to resent it and say or do something that you will both wish to avoid, use the cold wet blanket of the Saturn-hour on Saturn's day if possible to put down and quench the martial spirit. The danger of a rupture will then be minimized to a wonderful extent and you will probably both wonder with pleasant retrospection how well it went off. Or, if it becomes necessary to stir someone who has fallen into habits of idleness wherefrom others are made to suffer, if it seems almost necessary to build a fire under him to make him move, compound the fire and energy of Mars as a day-ruler with his influence as an hour- ruler by talking to him on Tuesday. He will heed then if it is at all possible to get him started. By using the planetary hours on the lines here laid down, for the purpose of unselfish service, you may confer a great many blessings on others and lay up much treasure for yourself in heaven where neither moth nor rust will corrupt and it is well worth remembering that however much material advantage you may gain by using such knowledge, that material gain, power, position, money and all other things that pertain to this world are left behind when death calls and that OUR GOOD DEEDS ALONE STAND BY US in that hour. Therefore do not scoff, but if you want to use these stellar influences, use them so that they will bring you everlasting instead of only temporary gain. - Simplified Scientific Astrology PLANETARY HOURS Measures for the alleviation of pain and disease cannot always be deferred to a propitious time, but where that is possible the student will find that remedial treatments given under the propitious planetary rays are much more efficient and successful than when applied haphazardly. Therefore the following hints may be found valuable. Surgeons who have watched and tabulated these matters inform us that the operations performed while the Moon is increasing in light (see Page 521) are generally more successful, less liable to cause complications and more quickly healed than operations performed when the Moon is decreasing in light. When a surgical operation seems unavoidable, consult the ephemeris and if the Moon is going through the sign which rules that part of the body where the operation is to be performed defer it for a day or two until the Moon gets well into the next sign. This will minimize the danger of complications and not infrequently the symptoms change so that an operation is avoided. Always look to the benefics and the good aspects in a horoscope for directions concerning how and when to treat. Suppose the Sun, the giver of life, is square to Saturn, the planet of stagnation and death. The tendency is to rob the person of vitality and if he is taken ill, recuperation will be very slow. Then, to give the most effective and energizing treatment apply the principle of the day and hour rulers as given in our SIMPLIFIED SCIENTIFIC ASTROLOGY - choose the Sun's day (Sunday) and the hours ruled by the Sun on any day. Treatments on Mars' day (Tuesday) and the hours ruled by Mars on any day will also build up wonderfully. Similarly with the other planets, their virtues and power is greatest during the days ruled by them. But the so-called malefics also have their virtues. Poultices intended to draw suppuration from a wound or bring a boil to a head are most efficacious on the hot and inflammatory Mars' day (Tuesday) or in the hours of Mars on any day, but applications made to disperse a swelling are most successful when applied on the day of Saturn, the planet of suppression, or in his hours on any day. Treatments received on the day and in the hours of the planets which are well aspected in the patient's horoscope are always more powerful and beneficial than they would be if given in the hours and on the days ruled by planets afflicted when he was born. - Message of the Stars PLANETARY HOUR TABLES QUESTION #113 IS IT RIGHT TO USE THE GUIDANCE OF THE PLANETARY HOUR TABLES FOR THE PURPOSE OF PECUNIARY GAIN OR TO GAIN THE ADVANTAGE OVER ANOTHER PERSON? ANSWER: It is certainly very wrong to use any means to get the advantage over another person, it doesn't matter what the reason is. If, on the other hand, we want to help somebody -- let us say that a person is sick and we want to pour out our vitality and give him all that we can spare -- then we can do that best in the hours of Mars, the planet of dynamic energy. If we want to help somebody obtain a position and we use the hour of the Sun to go and ask for a position for him, the Sun signifying an employer, then we are more likely to be successful than at another time. We are using it legitimately also, if we have to go and face somebody that may harm us. If we can find a good hour it is all right. The editor was in Germany in 1908 and over there in peace times everybody had to register. Those who were strangers had to register at the police station and go in person to show their papers and give a good account of themselves. The police secured a good description of them, asked about their religion, whether married or single, and how long they intended to stay. These and many more questions had to be answered, and if one moved around the corner to another place, the process had to be repeated. These officers were very brusque and it was not very pleasant to face them. So we thought we would go in the hour of the Sun when the Sun was well aspected and everything was as harmonious as possible. We were treated very politely and everything went beautifully. However, later we moved. That time we couldn't find an auspicious hour of the Sun so went in another hour. They were so brusque that we were relieved, pleased and thankful to get out of the station with a whole skin. So planetary hours do have some effect, if that experience counts. - The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions and Answers II