The seven classical planets are the second alphabet of the art. Where the elements describe the modes of nature, the planets describe its powers: seven distinct kinds of force that the ancients saw at work in the sky, in history and in the human character. Planetary magick is the practice of working with one of these powers at a time, at the hours when it is traditionally strongest, by means of the things that belong to it.
In brief
- The seven planets are the Sun, the Moon and the five planets visible to the naked eye.
- Each rules a day of the week, a metal, a color, a number and a field of life.
- Each day and night is divided into twelve planetary hours, each with its own ruler.
- A planetary working assembles the correspondences of one planet at its proper time.
The seven planets
In the old cosmology a planet was any light that moved against the fixed stars, so the Sun and Moon were counted with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Arranged by their apparent speed, from slowest to fastest, they give the sequence called the Chaldean order: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. This sequence underlies everything that follows.
| Planet | Day | Metal | Color | Number | Governs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturn | Saturday | Lead | Black | 3 | Structure, limits, time, discipline, endings, old age |
| Jupiter | Thursday | Tin | Blue | 4 | Growth, generosity, law, good fortune, the wide view |
| Mars | Tuesday | Iron | Red | 5 | Energy, courage, conflict, surgery, the cutting away |
| Sun | Sunday | Gold | Gold or yellow | 6 | Vitality, identity, clarity, authority, health |
| Venus | Friday | Copper | Green | 7 | Love, harmony, beauty, pleasure, the arts |
| Mercury | Wednesday | Quicksilver | Orange or mixed colors | 8 | Thought, language, learning, trade, travel, skill |
| Moon | Monday | Silver | Silver or violet | 9 | Rhythm, dreams, memory, the body's tides, the home |
Each planet has a helpful and a harmful face. Saturn gives discipline or despondency. Jupiter gives generosity or excess. Mars gives courage or cruelty. The Sun gives dignity or arrogance. Venus gives affection or indulgence. Mercury gives intelligence or deceit. The Moon gives sensitivity or instability. The aim of the work is to draw on the first of each pair and to recognize the second when it appears.
The planetary days
The names of the days still record their rulers. In English four of the names come from the northern gods who were matched with the Roman ones: Tiw with Mars, Woden with Mercury, Thor with Jupiter and Frige with Venus. In the Romance languages the planets are named directly.
The order of the days puzzles everyone who notices it. Why does the Sun's day follow Saturn's and the Moon's follow the Sun's, when that is not the order of the planets in the sky? The answer lies in the planetary hours, and it can be seen in the seven pointed star at the top of our home page. Set the planets round a circle in Chaldean order, join each to the third after it, and the line traces the days of the week.
The planetary hours
The planetary hours are not clock hours. The time from sunrise to sunset is divided into twelve equal parts, and the time from sunset to the next sunrise into twelve more. In summer the hours of the day are long and the hours of the night short, and in winter the reverse. They are equal to each other only at the equinoxes.
The first hour of each day, beginning at sunrise, belongs to the planet that rules the day. The following hours are given to the planets in Chaldean order, round and round. Count twenty four hours forward from the Sun's hour on Sunday morning and the twenty fifth, which is the first of the next day, falls to the Moon. That is why Monday follows Sunday.
For practical purposes the rule is this: work with a planet on its own day, in its own hour. On any day each planet rules at least three hours, so a suitable time can always be found. Our planetary hours calculator will work the hours out for your own place and date.
The planetary squares
Each planet has a magic square, called a kamea: a grid of numbers in which every row, column and diagonal adds up to the same total. Saturn's square has three cells on a side, Jupiter's four, and so on up to the Moon's nine. They were published in Europe by Agrippa in the sixteenth century and derive from earlier Arabic sources.
| 4 | 9 | 2 |
| 3 | 5 | 7 |
| 8 | 1 | 6 |
The squares are used to make planetary seals and sigils. A name or word is turned into numbers and the numbers are joined in sequence across the square, giving a figure that belongs both to the planet and to the purpose.
Designing a planetary working
A planetary working is an exercise in applied correspondence. Everything the senses meet during the rite is chosen from the family of one planet, so that the mind is saturated with a single quality.
- Choose the planet. Decide which of the seven governs the matter in hand. A wish to study well is Mercury's. A need to finish a long task is Saturn's.
- Choose the time. The planet's own day and hour. Some also consider the phase of the Moon, preferring the waxing Moon for increase and the waning for decrease.
- Gather the correspondences. A cloth or candle of the planet's color, its number expressed in candles or knocks, its symbol drawn and placed on the altar.
- Perform the rite. Use the seven part structure. In the invocation, address the planet by its qualities. In the working, contemplate its symbol and allow its quality to arise in you.
- Act and record. Follow the rite with a practical act of the same kind, and write the whole thing down.
Practice
A week of the seven
- For seven days, begin each morning by naming the planet of the day and reading its line in the table above.
- Choose one small action in keeping with the planet and carry it out before evening: on Mercury's day write the letter you have put off, on Saturn's day put one thing in order.
- In the evening, note where the planet's helpful and harmful faces showed themselves in your day.
- At the end of the week, mark which planet came most naturally and which felt most foreign.
A note on the modern planets
Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were unknown to the tradition and have no place in the classical scheme of days, hours, metals and squares, which is complete and symmetrical with seven. Some modern practitioners assign meanings to them. Students are advised to learn the seven thoroughly first.