Planetary Days, Hours and Talismans

From the Lesson

A working has a when as well as a what. The ancients timed their rites by the planets, and the week we still live by is the visible remnant of that practice. This teaching explains the Chaldean order, how the planetary hours are counted, and how a talisman is made within them.

The Chaldean Order

Hellenistic astronomers ranked the seven planets by their apparent speed against the stars, slowest to fastest: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon. The name Chaldean honours the Babylonian astronomers whose records stood behind Greek astronomy, though the order itself is Greek in its attested form.

How the Hours Make the Week

Divide the time from sunrise to sunset into twelve equal parts, and sunset to the next sunrise into twelve more. These are unequal, or planetary, hours: long in summer days, short in winter. The first hour after sunrise belongs to the planet of the day; each hour after it takes the next planet in the Chaldean order. Count twenty-four hours from the Sun's first hour on Sunday and the next sunrise falls to the Moon: Monday. Count again and it falls to Mars: Tuesday, Mardi, Tiw's day. This is why the weekdays run Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn. Roman writers such as Cassius Dio recorded this explanation in the third century.

To find an hour precisely you need your local sunrise and sunset. Divide the daylight minutes by twelve and count from sunrise.

What Each Day Is For

Sunday and the Sun: health, success, honour. Monday and the Moon: dreams, home and intuition. Tuesday and Mars: courage and protection. Wednesday and Mercury: study, speech, trade and travel. Thursday and Jupiter: prosperity and blessing. Friday and Venus: love, friendship and art. Saturday and Saturn: binding, banishing and endings. A work begun in the first hour of its own day doubles the note.

Making a Talisman

The talisman tradition comes into the West from Arabic sources such as the Picatrix (Ghayat al-Hakim, tenth or eleventh century) and through Agrippa. The method is simple in outline.

First, choose the aim and its planet. Second, choose the material: the planet's metal, or parchment and ink in its colour. Third, choose its signs: the planet's glyph, its magic square (Saturn 3 by 3, Jupiter 4 by 4, up to the Moon at 9 by 9), and any seal or divine name your tradition supplies. Fourth, choose the time: the planet's day and hour, ideally with the planet well placed in the sky and the Moon waxing for gain or waning for release. Fifth, consecrate it: purify with water and salt, pass it through the planet's incense, and state its purpose aloud. Keep it wrapped in cloth of its colour.

An Honest Word

These are practices of attention, timing and devotion. No study has shown a metal disc altering events by itself. What the tradition teaches, and what practitioners report, is that a rite carried out in the right hour with every detail chosen gives the will an unusual singleness of purpose. That is the real talisman.

Practice

Look up tomorrow's sunrise. Work out the first planetary hour and its ruler. Spend that hour in a short act suited to the planet: a gratitude list for Jupiter, a page of study for Mercury, a walk at first light for the Sun.