The Least Known Side of the Moon

Planetary Day:  Mars Day  until 5:05 am 14 May On the Mars Day your energy, rush and desire to achieve something become strong. This day is favorable for fast and determined deeds, related to the great energy consumption. But consideration must be given to the possibility of quarrels and conflicts. If we are not able to spend our energy properly it gets off our guidance and hearts those around us.

Planetary Hour:  Sun Hour  until 4:26 am Auspicious for those affairs and activities, the aim of which is to increase one's power or influence in the society, to attain of prominency, self-confidence, to strengthen one's authority. This is a good time for an application to prominent figures, to those who possess power and influence. Advertise, make presentations, stand out, show yourself, demonstrate your creativity.

This Planetary Day

5:07 am	6:28 am	7:49 am	9:09 am	10:30 am	11:51 am	1:12 pm	2:33 pm	3:53 pm	5:14 pm	6:35 pm	7:56 pm
9:17 pm	9:56 pm	10:35 pm	11:14 pm	11:53 pm	12:32 am	1:11 am	1:50 am	2:29 am	3:08 am	3:47 am	4:26 am

The Next Planetary Day

5:05 am	6:26 am	7:48 am	9:09 am	10:30 am	11:51 am	1:12 pm	2:33 pm	3:54 pm	5:15 pm	6:36 pm	7:57 pm
9:18 pm	9:57 pm	10:36 pm	11:15 pm	11:53 pm	12:32 am	1:11 am	1:50 am	2:29 am	3:07 am	3:46 am	4:25 am

RETROGRADE PERIODS
OF PERSONAL PLANETS

(for explanation of the tables read "On the Nature of Retrograde Planets")

Mercury

Venus

Mars

ABOUT PLANETARY DAYS AND PLANETARY HOURS

The conception of Planetary Days and Hours is one of the most ancient in astrology. The names for the days of the week have an obvious planetary connotation. Isn't it obvious that Monday is ruled by the Moon, Saturday - by Saturn and Sunday - by the Sun? When centuries ago Gregorian calendar was adopted in many countries of Europe, special care was taken to ensure that the sequence of the days of the week, and the sequence of their planetary rulers, remained unaltered. So it can be said that this sequence comes to us from time immemorial.

After Sunday ruled by the Sun follows Monday ruled by the Moon, then Tuesday ruled by Mars, Wednesday ruled by Mercury, Thursday ruled by Jupiter, Friday ruled by Venus, and finally Saturday ruled by Saturn.

This sequence of the planetary rulers of the days of the week follows the beams of seven-point star, or heptagram, also known as the Star of the Magi (it can be found on this page of Wikipedia as 'Weekday heptagram').

In fact, the sequence of the planetary rulers of the days of the week is a result of another, even more fundamental sequence - the sequence of the Planetary Hours.

Planetary Hours and ordinary hours

At the first glance, Planetary Hours are similar to the ordinary hours which all of us are used to. A Planetary Day consists of 24 Planetary Hours, and an ordinary day consists of 24 hours. But here similarity ends.

Planetary Day begins at the moment of sunrise in the given place, while ordinary day begins at midnight. Since the moment of sunrise is generally different for different places, every place on the Earth has its own Planetary Day, while ordinary day is the same for all the places in the same time zone.

Ordinary hours always have the same continuity (60 minutes), while the length of Planetary Hours varies around the year, and Day Hour is usually not equal to Night Hour (these are equal to each other, as also to ordinary hour, only twice a year - at the Vernal Equinox, around 21st of March, and at the Autumnal Equinox, around 22nd of September).

On precision of calculations

To calculate planetary hours, first of all we need to find out the moments of sunrise and sunset for the given place on the Earth and for the given date. But what IS the moment of sunrise? Is it the moment when the first sunbeam appears and the whole nature wakes up? Or is it the moment when the geometrical center of the solar disc crosses the line of the Horizon?

Also, if you think the first sunbeam is most relevant, the moment when you see it will depend on the altitude of the place. If you are on top of a hill, you'll see it earlier, if in a valley - later. And the condition of the atmosphere can also influense the path this first beam follows.

Existing algorithms for calculating the times of sunrise and sunset have different precision and accept different defaults. As a result, they may differ from each other, but the difference is within a few minutes.

For example, today is the 28th of June 2006 and my site gives for Galsgow 4:37 am sunrise and 10:01 pm sunset (I am using the in-built functions of PHP5 for these calculations). However, the TimeAndDate.com site gives slightly different figures: 4:34 am and 10:06 pm.

What can be done about this? The most obvious solution is to do, whatever you are using Planetary Hours for, further into the hour, not close to its borders. Alternatively, you can calculate planetary hours yourself following the instructions given below.

How to calculate Planetary Hours

Let's consider the example given above: the 28th of June, Glasgow. Figures will be different for other places and dates.

Sunrise: 4:37 am

Sunset: 10:01 pm

The length of day time (from sunrise to sunset) is 17 hours 24 minutes, or 1044 minutes. Let's divide this number by 12. The result is 87 minutes, which is the length of one Day Hour at Glasgow on the 28th of June.

To define the length of one Night Hour we could take the period of time from the sunset to the next sunrise and divide it by 12. But it will be more efficient to use the simple rule: a Day Hour and a Night Hour summed up should always give 120 minutes. Thus the length of one Night Hour in our case is 33 minutes.

You can see that the length of a Day Hour exceeds significantly the length of a Night Hour. You can easily guess that this is typical for summer. In winter this will be vice versa. And around Equinoxes both Day and Night Hours have the length of 60 minutes.

Now that we know the length of a Day Hour and Night Hour for the given date and location, we can draw the table of the Planetary Hours shown below. As for the planetary rulers of the hours, they will be explained in a moment.

It is not difficult to find out which planet rules the hour. The first hour of any day is always ruled by the planet which rules that Planetary Day. The 28th of June was Wednesday, the day of Mercury, so the first Planetary Hour of that day was ruled by Mercury.

And after this, the cyclical sequence of planets is always the same: ... - Saturn - Jupiter - Mars - Sun - Venus - Mercury - Saturn - ... This sequence is named the Chaldean Sequence and it is deeply rooted in the ancient philosophy. You might notice that in this sequence the planets are ordered by their relative speed as observed from the Earth, the Moon being the fastest and Saturn - the slowest.

How they can be used

In contemporary astrology Planetary Days and Hours were almost forgotten, and only in Horary Astrology and Elections they are still being used by some practicioners. But in the other Esoteric Arts like Magic and Alchemy, as also in Herbalism, to know the appropriate day and hour can be of crucial importance.

The planet which rules the day and the hour promotes those activities which are in tune with its principle and can impede those activities which are of the opposite nature.

Those who are seeking love, will benefit from Venus Day and Venus Hour, the seekers of wisdom might choose to have the patronage of Jupiter on their side. Planetary Hours and Days are by all means taken into account when making amulets or performing a ritual.

Famous British astrologer and herbologist Nicholas Culpeper advised to collect herbs in the appropriate Planetary Hour, corresponding to the planetary ruler of the herb.

You can also use this ancient knowledge when planning something important in your life, especially if you know which planet is the strongest in your horoscope or which planet rules the area of life which is most important for you now.