Maria Kay Simms is a well-known astrologer, currently the elected Chair of
National Council for Geocosmic Research (NCGR). She is also a Wiccan High
Priestess. In addition to A Time for Magick, she is author of The Witch's
Circle and various astrology books including Future Signs and Dial Detective.
Maria writes a monthly column called Moon Magick on the web site
http://www.starcraftsob.com that she shares with her daughter's Starcrafts
store in Ocean Beach, CA. Here you'll find interpretations of the current
lunar phases and other astrological transits, including a variety of ideas
for magick and ritual ideas based on astrological themes.
Success often depends on being "in the right place at the right
time." How often have you heard that said? Is it luck, or something
more? Obviously, having a tool to predict "the right time" would
give one an advantage. That thought was, and is, most likely the major
motivator for the continual development of astrology through the ages.
Many methods of astrological timing exist, and most of them are quite
technical-astrology is a complex field. One method stands out as easy enough
to be used by non-technical types who've studied astrology only very little.
Planetary hours can be used by anyone with the patience to learn to recognize
seven planet symbols and to understand basic interpretive meanings of each of
those seven planets. This article will introduce you the method, and also to
the "magick " that I consider to be a highly important ingredient
for the most effective use of any astrological technique for electing
(choosing) the appropriate timing for planned actions.
The Method:
One of the oldest methods of choosing the most propitious time with astrology
is the symbolic system of planetary hours. Because this system was developed
many centuries before the invention of the telescope, it uses only Sun, Moon
and the five planets that are visible to the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn. These seven planets, according to a Chaldean order that
arranges them from slowest to fastest in motion, are said to rule the hours
of the day in a repeated sequence that is quite elegant in its structure.
Each day of the week is named for a planet. The planet ruling the day also
rules the sunrise hour and then each hour the next planet in the Chaldean
order rules following in a repetitive sequence. The next day will be the one
that is named for the planet that, in this repetitive sequence, has become
that day's sunrise planetary hour. The simple elegance of this system can
best be seen in a spiral design.
Until the recent revival of ancient methodology through translations of
historical texts, modern astrologers had neglected the planetary hour system,
possibly because it is symbolic and thus deemed not as scientific as the
actual daily positions of the planets according to precise astronomical
calculation. Practitioners of magick, however, continued to use planetary
hours as they had through the ages, both because using them is easy, and
because they work! Within the past few years, many astrologers have
rediscovered planetary hours and in observing how they work, have found the
method to be well-worth reviving.
In using planetary hours, it is important to realize that a planetary
"day" is not the same as our calendar days, nor does an hour
necessarily contain 60 minutes. Planetary days begin at sunrise, so the hours
between midnight and sunrise belong to the previous day. In order to account
for the seasonal difference in length of daylight, the amount of time in each
hour is different in the day from the night. Only at the equinoxes are hours
about 60 minutes each day and night. At Summer Solstice (the longest day of
the year) the daytime (diurnal) hours are much longer than the nighttime
(nocturnal) hours. At Winter Solstice (the longest night of the year), the
nocturnal hours are much longer than the diurnal hours.
You can figure the planetary hours out for yourself if you know the sunrise
and sunset times for your area. For diurnal hours you figure the total amount
of time between sunrise and sunset and then divide by 12, to find out how
many minutes to assign to each planetary hour. For nocturnal hours you figure
total time from sunset to the next sunrise and divide by 12. This method is
slow, though. Quick methods are easily available.
With perpetual planetary hour tables such as are included in my book A Time
for Magick you can do a quick look-up of the planetary hour for any day of
any year in any location. To interpolate the time in the tables to be correct
for the time zone in which you live, you need only one simple + or - time
correction for your location. An extensive city list with time corrections is
also included in the book. The most useful and least expensive computer
option currently available for planetary hours is Sundial Software by Arlene
Kramer, www.arlenekramer.com. From Sundial you can print out pages of daily
listings in the clock time for your time zone and location.
The choice of which planetary hour will be best for your planned action is a
matter of knowing which planet most favorably corresponds with your intent
for that action. Most of the text of A Time for Magick is devoted to helping
the reader understand the energies of each of the planets through knowledge
of their traditional correspondences and also intuitively, through meditation
and ritual. Because intents can be complex and each planet has many
correspondences, additional study beyond this article is highly recommended.
Still, many activities can be matched with this simple summary:
Hour of the Sun: for career success, employment, promotion, making
presentations, public speaking, improving social status, approaching
authority figures, improving health
Hour of the Moon: for doing things that are likely to change or are not
intended to be permanent or binding, for increased intuition or imagination,
for all domestic activities
Hour of Mercury: for abstract thinking, mental alertness, speaking, signing
papers, sending significant mail, fixing computer problems, or in general,
for any activity related to communication, provided you are in the frame of
mind to be logical and rational. (Mercury can be a trickster when you are
mentally fogged or emotionally upset.
Hour of Venus: for social occasions, love, courtship, marriage, improving
appearance, for financial investments, to reconcile after a disagreement, to
mediate a dispute, to achieve calm after stress, to work for peace
Hour of Mars: good for activities that require muscular exertion, boldness,
courage and active enterprise, when your feelings are in check. Caution is
needed if you are angry or stressed, and especially if a relationship is
involved, for Mars can be confrontational.
Hour of Jupiter: for success in just about any activity you can imagine and
for beginning anything important. The only downside would be where a tendency
to over-indulgence or excess is a factor.
Hour of Saturn: for getting organized, plowing through tedious work, breaking
unwanted habits, accepting and dealing with responsibilities, and for
contemplation or meditation especially if you find yourself feeling tired and
needing a respite from activity
I've found it interesting to have a planetary hour listing at hand while
silently observing a group activity, and you might try that, too, in order to
get a feeling of how moods can change with the hours. For example, I remember
observing a meeting where during the Moon hour the debate over issues went
'round and 'round with many feelings expressed but no resolution. Just when
the hour changed to Saturn, the mood became quite serious. The group got down
to business and decisions on several issues were resolved. Then, the lunch
break was announced and everyone got up and began chatting happily. I looked
at my planetary hour list and sure enough, the hour had just changed to
Jupiter.
Here are a few examples of how planetary hours might be used in daily
planning:
A Personal Anecdote of Planning Actions with Planetary Hours
In order to demonstrate how one can work with the planetary hours and other
transits, I'll tell you about a workshop I conducted a year ago at an
astrological conference. It was at a time when I'll bet that some people,
having looked at their own transits, as I did, might have wondered if staying
home might be a wise move. It was less than two months past Sept. 11, and I
was to fly to Toronto on a Full Moon Thursday evening, and then on Friday
afternoon I was to do my three-hour workshop on astrological timing and
ritual. The much talked about Saturn-Pluto opposition was exact on the day of
my workshop, and the degrees in which it was exact put Pluto precisely on my
Ascendant and Saturn on the Descendant. Jupiter was stationary retrograde and
the Moon was void of course when my workshop was to begin. In the string of
Moon aspects following her entrance into Gemini a little over an hour into my
workshop time, she would conjunct Saturn and oppose Pluto. If all that
astro-jargon evades any readers, let's just say that if I'd been allowed to
freely choose my time to do this workshop, this time would not have been it!
But…if I'd attempted to duck that time, I'd be denying important points I'd
fully intended to make in that workshop-and intend to make again within this
article in "The Magick" section to follow. Obviously "walking
my talk" meant accepting the challenge to work well within whatever time
I was assigned. I planned my workshop to use the planetary themes of the
three-hour period in which it was scheduled, including a ritual design based
on the Moon as mediator between the clashing Saturn and Pluto,
The workshop began in the hour of the Moon and would change to the hour of
Saturn less than a half hour later. The Jupiter hour would take the greater
portion of the middle hour, and the final hour of the workshop would be Mars.
I began with a general introduction to easy timing techniques, with a major
focus on the lunar phases. I announced to the group when the Saturn hour was
beginning, saying that we'd use its theme at its best to cover the
technicalities of the planetary hour system in a disciplined manner. I used
an overhead and transparencies to demonstrate the use of the tables and the
time corrections for Toronto. With the Jupiter hour I introduced the value of
ritual and magick for the intuitive understanding of the planets and for
helping to focus the mind toward desired goals. I asked for volunteers to
take various parts within the ritual, gave the two key players, Saturn and
Pluto, a little skit for their part, and called a 10-minute break to set up.
Only a few of the class had any previous experience with ritual and because
of this, I knew some would be uncomfortable with it, so I let everyone know
that their choice to participate or watch was entirely voluntary and fine
with me either way. As it turned out, I was extremely fortunate in my two
main volunteers, for both had a wonderful flair for improvised dramatic
effect and they made terrific use of the break time to talk over how they'd
do the skit.
The ritual began with somewhat over half the class gathered in a circle
around a center table and the rest remaining in their chairs to watch. I led
them through a simple casting of the circle, followed by four volunteers who
called the four elements (air, fire, water, earth) to the cardinal points.
After invoking the Goddess Moon and the two Dark Lords Saturn and Pluto, the
fun began, with a skit that was both very meaningful and also entertaining as
my two Dark Lords squared off to the point of pushing each other around as
they argued their points about the necessity to tear down and transform old
structures and rebuild newer and better ones. By the time I, as Moon, had
interceded, and Pluto began to pass out small black stones in which
participants could will those old habits and structures they wished to
banish, everyone in the room was ready to participate and all did. I
collected the stones to return to Earth Mother, and then Saturn passed out
cords for knot magick. The intent and action of that was for each person to
make one or more commitments to positive and responsible future action
(building anew). The act of tying a knot firmly into the cord would be to
bind oneself to carry out the commitment. Now into the Mars hour, we raised
energy to charge the magick with a spirited chant, after which each person
was invited to choose three little paper stars I'd scattered on the center
table face down. The stars were of three different colors, one of which
carried a symbol for one of the planets, another the number of a house and
the third color, a symbol for one of the zodiac signs. Since all participants
were astrologers, they could easily interpret the three stars they drew for a
personal message.
The workshop concluded with the sharing of experiences within the ritual, and
questions and answers centering mostly on the use of magick and ritual. All
in all, it was a good experience for me and appeared to be for the
participants. I experience absolutely no "downside" Saturn-Pluto
events during this time, despite the exact transits of the two to my own
chart. I like to believe that this was one of a number of personal examples
I've given myself that if I deliberately choose to "do" my transits
in a positive manner, more often than not, positive manifestation prevails.
The Magick
Nearly always, after an event has passed, a clear and appropriate
correspondence of the event to astrological phenomena can be demonstrated.
Looking ahead is far less exact. Why is that? Primarily because nothing in
astrology can be interpreted in only one way, at least not in any detail.
Each planet or planetary configuration has a general theme, but within that
theme there are multiple potentials with wide range from "good" to
"bad," depending on one's point of view. Obviously, picking the
"right" planetary time is not enough. Your intent and your will to
carry out that intent are not just equally as important, but more so.
A common phrase you've probably often heard is "thoughts are
things," referring to the observation that if one thinks strongly enough
about something, the thought often becomes reality. This can happen
naturally, when one wishes or fears so strongly that, for good or ill, what
is wished for or feared becomes a "self-fulfilling prophecy"-and
from that has emerged another phrase you've probably heard: "Be careful
what you wish for, because you may be so unfortunate as to receive it."
Some might prefer to call the act of strongly and deliberately focusing the
mind to achieve a desired purpose "creative visualization" or
"mind control." I prefer to call this "magick." Whatever
you choose to call it, the point is this: focused intent can effect desired
change within one's consciousness, and when change occurs within, change in
one's outer world occurs, as well.
Magick is a good one-word definition for an attitude and a belief that the
primary power to direct one's future flows from within. The "k"
differentiates the practice from the stage magic of sleight-of-hand or the
experience of sparkly feelings without focused intent. The practitioner of
magick knows that all is energy, and with a keenly focused mind and spirit
energy can be moved such that will, intent and purpose becomes manifest in
reality. Within astrological language specifically, effective use of magick
depends on your attitude in believing that one's power comes not from the
planets, but from within.
Electional Astrology (the specific branch of astrology for choosing the most
propitious time in advance of an action) has been called the closest
astrological methodology comes to magick. To make that true, it is essential
to understand that a very big part of deciding what time will, in fact, be
propitious (have a favorable correspondence with intended action), is
dependent upon the astrological interpretation attached to the time chosen,
and that can vary widely. Each planet has a unique general theme of
expression, but within that are many possible interpretations, some of which
could be "bad" for what you want, others good and others varying in
shades in between. In electing a planetary hour, it is important to be very
clear that you are also electing (choosing) your interpretation of the
planet! Since you are doing the choosing, it seems only common sense to do so
with the focused intent and belief that you can and will carry out the
proposed action according to your chosen interpretation of the planetary hour
in which you will begin that action. Magick can be done with the mind alone,
but often ceremony in a meditative state of mind, including the use of tools
of ritual that appeal to all the senses, will greatly aid focus, as well as
enhance your ability to intuitively understand the planetary energies. A Time
for Magick offers specific meditation exercises and ritual designs for each
of the planets.
Try planetary hours! Among astrological techniques, this one lends itself
best to the times when a quick timing decision must be made with no time to
do more complex astrological computations, even if you know how. For those
who do take the time to consult an astrological calendar for timing
decisions, or to do complete election charts, it is well worthwhile to
consider the planetary hour, too. Choose the planetary hour that best fits
your intended action and take that action with the commitment, the will, the
focus and the faith of magick. My view is this: if electional astrology is
not being used with magical intent, it ought to be!
RECOMMENDED TITLES:
MAGICKAL ASTROLOGY:
Gain an understanding of your place in the cosmos and connect with the magickal forces around you.
MYSTERIES OF THE GODDESS: ASTROLOGY, TAROT & THE MAGICAL ARTS:
Astrological views and stories and a wealth of information on the healing ans psychic arts.
ASTROLOGY THROUGH A PSYCHIC'S EYES:
More than 30 years of joy, tears, laughter, and knowledge are reflected in this work, gathered by Browne during her many thousands of counseling sessions.
ASTROLOGY: A KEY TO PERSONALITY:
Unlike traditional astrological textbooks that deal solely with interpreting behavior, Mayo proposes that astrology reveals the very roots of behavior, the fundamental "blueprint" of personality.
ASTROLOGY: UNDERSTANDING THE BIRTH CHART:
This book is based on a course taught to prepare students for the NCGR Level I Astrological Certification exam.
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