Magickal Timing

One is asked all sorts of questions over the phone. Lower down on the list from”what are you wearing?” often comes why did my spell/ritual/thing not work? At least I receive these sorts of inquiries. In a world of multitasking and interconnection, the short answer is, in the words of Shirley McLaine, “It’s all in the timing”. Some authors would have you believe that any magic can be done at anytime, as long as the intention is there. This is true, up to a point; but why work against the current, rather than allowing it to assist you? Yes, it requires a bit of patience, and a bit of math, but the result is fewer failures.

Let’s begin with the big picture. We reckon time by the passage of Earth around the Sun, or by the phases of the Moon, or some combination of the two. We count off by 24 hour days, even though the actual time involved is a bit more, so various calculations are done to bring the two into agreement (such as the Leap Year). The division of time into weeks is an inheritance from Mesopotamia.

In most magical systems, Moon phases are used to determine the timing of a working; the New Moon for beginnings, waxing for things you wish to increase, the Full Moon to charge objects, the waning period to get rid of things, and the Dark of the Moon for darker work, or secrets. This is where most books leave off in their instructions. However, a great deal more fine-tuning is possible, by considering the planets.

The days of the week are considered to be under the influence of the seven moving heavenly bodies visible to the naked eye. Some aspects of their influences are distributed as follows (this is a rough sketch, but should help you find your way):

Sunday-Sun: Health, matters of prestige and honor, money, creation.
Monday-Moon: Intuitive matters, general health matters.
Tuesday-Mars: Activities, defense and aggression.
Wednesday-Mercury: Knowledge and communication, employment, subterfuge, travel.
Thursday-Jupiter: Business and Government dealings, desires
Friday-Venus; for personal affairs, conflict resolution, love.
Saturday-Saturn: Creating barriers, self analysis, baneful acts.

Finally, the hours of each day are under the additional influence of one of these bodies, the order being Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, repeated until the 24 hours are assigned a planet, beginning with the planet of the day; the first hour is at sunrise. As an example, the first six hours of Saturday are under the influence of; Saturn, Jupiter, Moon, Sun, Venus, Mercury.

However, in magic, these planetary hours are not of equal length, except on the two equinoxes each year. For every other day, you will need to do a little figuring, class. There are 1440 minutes in the day. If the Sun rises at 7:14 and sets at 4:35, there are 46 minutes to each planetary hour of daylight (556 minutes of daylight divided by 12 hours). The same day would have nighttime planetary hours of 73 minutes each (884 minutes divided by 12 hours).

Now, you have in your hands the most compact exposition of how to choose the best times to begin a magical working. For an at a glance table for easy reference, all you need is a sheet of columned ledger paper; number the left hand side 1 to 24, and the top of the page the days of the week, then fill in the ruling planets for each hour. If anyone asks, tell them it’s a new form of class schedule.