2
Hi

My suggestion: use a computer and an astrological software, because it is a tedious work.

Or, if you are a Virgo and enjoy this stuff, divide the interval between the sunrise and the sunset into 12 equal parts (called "day hours"), also the interval betwen the sunset and the next sunrise into other equal parts ("night hours"). The 12 day and the 12 night divisions will not be equal only at equinoxes.

Then start labelling each division in order, beginning with the ruler of the day immediatly after sunrise and continuing with the other planets in Chaldean order: Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury.
The next day (next sunrise) start again with the ruler of the day.

3
Chris,

I created two spreadsheets that will do this for you. I made them before I had Solarfire, but I still use them to check Solarfire's accuracy. Solarfire is off sometimes especially when the the time of your chart is within a minute or two of a new planetary hour.

All you need to calcualte the planetary hour is the rising and setting time, which you can get at the US Naval Observatory.

I can send you them two Excel spreadsheets, but I think they were available on this site, somewhere, but I can't remember where.
Mark F

5
If you use the information on the page at http://www.skyscript.co.uk/hourrule.html - here is an example to demonstrate the calculation. If you can't follow this, let me know where you get stuck. If you can follow it, you've cracked it. It's not actually that hard so long as you know the time of sunrise and sunset.

EG.,
Sat 10th July / Sunrise = 6:49 am / Sunset = 9:01 pm
Time difference= (12:00 ? 6:49) = 5:11 + 9:01 = 14:12 hrs
Convert hours to minutes (14 x 60) = 840
Add remainder (12 mins) = 852
Divide by 12 to get the length of each hour: 852/12 = 71
So each planetary hour is 71 mins or 1 hour 11 minute long

IE:
Sunrise = 6:49 am ? It is Saturday so the first hour belongs to Saturn
2nd hour begins at 8:00 am (6:49 +1:11) ? Jupiter
3rd hour ? 9:11 am ? Mars
4th hour ? 10:22 am ? Sun
5th hour ? 11:33 am ? Venus
6th hour ? 12:44 pm ? Mercury
7th hour ? 1:55 pm ? Moon
8th hour ? 3:06 pm ? Saturn
9th hour ? 4:17 pm ? Jupiter
10th hour ? 5:28 pm ? Mars
11th hour ? 6:39 pm ? Sun
12th hour ? 7:50 ? Venus
1st night time hour starts at sunset 9:01 pm ? Mercury
2=Moon 3=Saturn 4=Jupiter 5=Mars 6=Sun 7=Venus 8=Mercury 9=Moon 10=Saturn 11=Jupiter 12=Mars ?
--- So the first hour of the next day (Sunday) is governed by the Sun

If your chart is cast in the early hours - remember that 3.00 am of June 6th, 1995 will still belong to the night time hours of the day before. (Astrological days start at sun-rise and not midnight).

Hope this helps
Deb

Planetary Hours

6
Hi

I saved the planetary hours Mark did. here is the information.

http:www.skyscript,day.hr. (after skyscript it looks like a "," but if that doesn't work try the (.)

http:www.skyscript.night.hr.

I just typed this from what I saved so hope they work.

MarG

8
Re: The Solar Fire planetary hour times discrepancy mentioned by Mark.
Could this from the ?Help? from Curtis Manwaring?s Timaeus program (version 4) have something to do with it?
Please note that the apparent sunset is not used but rather the true sunset position. Atmospheric refraction causes the Sun to appear to set later and rise earlier than the stated time in Timaeus. What you see on The Weather Channel and other weather reports is the time of apparent sunrise and sunset. There is also the difference in definition in when sunset occurs. The definition used by most weather agencies is based on the whole of the Sun's disk disappearing below the observers horizon. Astrologers use the center of the Sun's disk. Since the Sun is half a degree in diameter, and there is approximately 4 minutes in time per degree this is a difference of 1 minute between the 2 definitions. Atmospheric refraction accounts for about 4 minutes (1 degree).
I?ve been interested in the hours and have been wondering what happened to the sect issue concerning the hours. Curtis Manwaring talks about the planet that goes about and the planet that executes. For example, the Sun goes about from Sunrise to Sunset on Sunday and the planet that executes is the current planet of the hour during that peroid. But at sunset on Sunday we pass from the Sun to Jupiter as the going about lord. This is also from the Timaeus program:
Keep in mind that the planet that goes about for the day is the planet that has the first hour at sunrise and the planet that goes about at night is the planet that has the first hour at sunset. [...] Modern astrologers have ignored the issue of sect and say the same planet goes about for both day and night, but this is not what the ancients intended. While the planetary hours stated in Solar Fire 4 are correct, the night going about lord they list is incorrect. It is supposed to change at sunset, but they have it listed as the day lord continuing until the next sunrise. See Guido Bonatti's "Liber Astronimae" written circa 1280 CE for proof.
What we use now is ?Saturn Day? and ?Saturn Night?, but according to what he says it passes to Mercury at sunset Saturday. Mercury is the lord until sunrise on Sunday morning. The first hour after Saturday sunset Mercury goes about and Mercury executes. The second hour Mercury goes about and the Moon executes, etc. This makes sense to me because sect is so important, possibly more so as one goes further back in time to the Hellenistic astrologers. If Lilly didn?t make the sect differentiation, could he have been in error and that error is continuing? Perhaps as the centuries progressed we became too rigidly locked into the units of time as days of the week on our calendars (Saturn-day, Sun-day, etc.).

11
I have done little work with the traditional planetary hours: apparently, John Frawley in his new 'Horary Textbook' has jettisoned them from his own approach to horary but maybe others know more about this than I.

There is a method which is (supposedly!) based on a medieval Arabic approach to the use of planetary hours: in this system, the planetary hours divide each day into four quarters. Monday is so called because its first quarter, beginning at sunrise, is ruled by the Moon, which apparently exercises a general rulership over the whole day. Its second quarter, beginning at noon, is ruled by Mercury; its third quarter, beginning at sunset, is ruled by Venus; and its fourth quarter, beginning at midnight, is ruled by the Sun; and so on with the other days in order. This seems to bear some relationship to the Arabic lunar mansions, which are twenty-eight in number, just as this system of planetary rulers divides the week into twenty-eight hours. But do they work? Try them out for yourself. 8)

12
Do you know if Frawley has only used the lord of the day, or has he tried using the planet at the hour of sunset to rule the night sect, as I mentioned in my previous post? Also, Curtis Manwaring says that the planet ruling the hour doesn?t really settle in to power for 10-15 minutes after it?s hour has begun and is weakened in the last few minutes of its hour. Could this be something like the early and late degrees of the Ascendant in a horary chart? I?m wondering if planetary hours just haven?t been used correctly. I haven?t read Frawley yet and I don?t know much about horary, but I see things here to wonder about. With mutual receptions, and everything else to consider, it is possible that planetary hours just haven?t received as much attention and careful study. Does anyone have any comments on Manwaring?s Bonatti reference that I mentioned?