Good question! I've never delved deeper because I didn't use any software for that and I always thought that each hour was just once a day and that's how I counted it for practice, and here bam, surprise 😀.

But where I got it from, I don't know anymore. I didn't count like that for no reason, surely something directed me to it. As soon as I figure something out, I'll let you know. And while we're on the subject of hours, it might be worth elaborating somehow. I'm especially interested in whether all those magic tricks using planetary days and hours actually work.

I have encountered the approach that day and night are divided separately into 12 parts and assigned planets according to Chaldean order, i.e. from the slowest to the fastest during the day: you start with Saturn, then Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and finally the Moon. Interestingly, if you get it right, the first hour of the day always agrees with the name of the day of the week, and this can be seen especially in English - "Saturday" from Saturn, "Sunday" from the Sun, "Monday" from the Moon, and so on, and even "Friday" refers to Freya, the goddess of love, which corresponds to Venus. Well, that's where the names of the days came from. Here, it's worth noting that the days of the week themselves don't line up according to this Chaldean order, but this too has its own significance in magic. When you divide into 7, you keep the same planetary allocations for each day. Me thinks that somewhere in some book there was an explanation of this division into 12, which is mega important in astrology and our calendars, clocks, etc. If I find the passage, I'll post it here. For the inquisitive, a little hint: the Placidus system, which is used in astrology, is based on time and space, and that time is these planetary hours.

I will also try to explain this mathematically, how to count these planetary hours using the example of the 12-separation, because I see that some astrology books explain this poorly. First of all, planetary hours are not our standard 60-minute hours.

To calculate the planetary hours, you need to go online and check the sunrise and sunset times for a specific location and date.

You will also need a calculator to convert hours into minutes:
topster.co.uk/calendar/zeitrechner.php

I checked for Krakow, on November 24, 2023:

1) The time of sunrise - today it was at 7:07.
2) The hour of sunset - today at 15:48.
3) The time of sunrise for the next day - tomorrow it will be at 7:09.

We need to calculate how long a day lasts, that is, from sunrise at 7:07 a.m. to sunset at 3:48 p.m. Today it came out to be 8 hours and 40 minutes, or 520 minutes. Divide this by 12 and you have that one planetary daylight hour today lasts 42 minutes and 5 seconds.

Now we count the night hours, that is, from sunset today at 3:48 p.m. to sunrise tomorrow at 7:09 a.m. The result is 15 hours and 21 minutes, or 921 minutes. 921 divided by 12 gives us that one planetary night hour is 77 minutes and 5 seconds.

Now we start with sunrise at 7:07 a.m., add 42 minutes and 5 seconds - this gives us the first planetary hour, lasting from 7:07 a.m. to 7:49 a.m. Then we add another 42 minutes and 5 seconds to 7:49 a.m., and so on until we reach 12 daylight hours.

When we start with sunset at 3:48 p.m., we add 77 minutes and 5 seconds, which gives the first night planetary hour from 3:48 p.m. to 5:05 p.m., and so on.

Two important things to note:
(a) planetary hours do not coincide with our watch hours (they differ and do not start at full hours).
(b) the length of the hours depends on the place and season, e.g. in Poland winter makes the days shorter and the nights longer.

Finally, we assign planets to each hour according to Chaldean order, starting according to the day, e.g. Monday from the hour of the Moon, and Sunday from the Sun. This is also where the magic of the days of the week associated with the planets comes from.

@ariesza when we divide the day into 7 planetary hours, each day starts from sunrise and begins with the planet that corresponds to the day, following the Chaldean order.

But there is a difference between the system on 12 and on 7. In the system on 12, each planet has its own two hours during the day and two at night, while in the system on 7, each planet rules for only one hour a day and one night. This complicates things when it comes to magic and sorcery, because you have to get that one hour of the day right.

The whole system must have some kind of origin, but I've searched a bit and so far haven't found anything.

That is, yes, I searched the Internet, but books can't be reviewed quickly, especially if you don't know exactly where to look.

@ejbert  If everything were to be divided fairly, each planet would have to get 14 hours each 🙂 .

@ariesza If we look at today, we had 499 minutes in a day: divided by 7 gives about 71 minutes for each planet, starting from Venus, through Mercury, the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars to the Sun.

And at night, where we have 941 minutes, this is divided into about 134.5 minutes per planet, also starting with Venus and ending with the Sun.

Of course, it's a fair division, but it's not about 14 hours, because the next day, which is Saturday, starts with Saturn and follows the same sequence, but starting with Saturn.

In this system on the 7th, it is not about one day smoothly transitioning into the next according to Chaldean order. Here, "Chaldean order" refers only to the order in which the planets overlap.

To be honest, I have no idea which method is correct or where they came from, but my guess is that they have different sources, as do the differences between Western and Vedic astrology when it comes to precession.

Someone came up with it (and it wasn't me or Emerita :D), so they must have had some rationale other than just Roman time counting.

But certainly in ancient times there was agreement on one thing - the day begins with the rising of the sun. It's natural, logical, otherwise.

And the rest, including the magic associated with planetary hours, varies from country to country.

In this case, too, it probably varies. This popular division is simpler, but the one for 7 is more magical, because you have to try harder to hit that one hour - and as you know, more effort often brings better results 😀

No matter what, the certainty is about the first hour of the day - then you can get up at sunrise, knowing that you start with the magic of the Moon on Monday and Jupiter on Thursday.

For me, it's better in winter, because the sun rises later, but in summer....

Planetary hours are actually 1/24 of the period from one sunrise to the next, that is, half of the day is from sunrise to sunset and the other half from sunset to the next sunrise. From this it follows that the length of these hours changes every day and depends on where in the world we are and what time of year it is.

How do you count the length of day and night? Simple: we take the duration of the day divided by 12 for daytime hours and the duration of the night divided by 12 for nighttime hours. This gives us 24 hours of the entire day, based on the rotation of the Earth around its axis - that's what those "magic" astrological hours are all about.

Each day begins with the planet that rules that day, following in Chaldean order - that's all the math behind the system.

If you want to count the hours yourself, all you need is a calendar with sunrise and sunset times and, for those less fond of math, a calculator.

And for those who prefer ready-made solutions (like me :D), I recommend programs. There are several good ones, such as the one recommended by Ariesz or Astroseek.

Some free astrology programs also count these hours.

This dividing by 7 may make sense in some other magical systems, but mathematically and astronomically it doesn't connect with what we mean by astrological hours based on the natural diurnal cycle. Plus it's inconvenient because you only have two times of day for a given planet - one at dawn and one at dusk.

The astrological system gives you more flexibility - each day the planet that rules the day dominates for its first, eighth, twelfth and twenty-second hours, so you have four options instead of two, and the duration is longer, too.

Using the Aries example, Venus has a total of 255 minutes (i.e. 4 hours and 15 minutes) and 4 time windows during the day, while in the system on the 7th that Ejbert described, Venus has only about 205 minutes (3 hours and 25 minutes) and only two time windows.

I have also heard about the concept of dividing the day into 7 planets, but it was a long time ago and rather not in the context of astrology, but more in a magical context. In astrological literature, I have not likely encountered it.

So if we're talking about astrological magic, dividing the day and night hours by 12 seems appropriate.

Good, you have convinced me 😀

Indeed, it's not so much about witchcraft here as it is about finding the best moment for planned ventures, which is crucial in elections, that is, choosing the right astrological moment to start something important.

A good step would be to start with something simple. You can try to choose the right day and time that planetarily supports your plans. This is the easiest way to start experimenting with the selections.

Indeed, you may find that the deeper you delve into the subject, the more complications and nuances arise. But the best part is that you can always start with the basics and gradually add more layers to your selections as you get comfortable with it.

You can start by trying these basic principles on small, less important issues, and when you see that it works, you can transfer these principles to more important decisions in your life. Good luck!

Testing planetary hours in their simplest form is not too difficult, and can bring interesting results 🙂