Planetary Hours

Hours. Egyptian astronomy had only seven planets, arranged in this order: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon - based seemingly on the apparent velocities of the bodies. In rotation, each hour of the 24-hour day was consecrated to a planet. If Saturn ruled the first hour, it also ruled the 8th, 15th and 22nd. As Jupiter would then rule the 23rd, and Mars the 24th hour, the first hour of the following day would be ruled by the Sun; and so on. The days thus came to be known by the ruler of the first hour, resulting in our present order of the days of the week. Thus the order of the days of the week, which can be hormonized with no observable cosmic plan, are explainable only by a student of astrology. The hatred of the Jews for the Egyptians after their flight from Egypt is said to have caused them to "demote" Saturn from the rulership of the first day, by beginning the week on Sunday, making Saturn's day the last day of the week. Probably some symbolical association of the Sun with the Hebrew idea of Jehovah, had something to do with it. The evolution of the English names of the days, from the Latin, through the Saxon, resulted as follows:

Under this system an hour was not uniformly 60 minutes, except at the equinoxes. It was one-twelfth of the interval between sunrise and sunset, by day; and the reverse, by night. A planet favorably aspected suggests that action be initiated during that planet's hour; or if unfavorably aspected, that one should wait for others to act. Wilson goes to some length in expressing doubt as to the efficacy and logic of this system.

The astonishing thing about this sequence is the placing of the Sun between Venus and Mars, showing that the ancients realized that in speaking of the Sun they were actually making reference to the position of the Earth as determined by the apparent position of the Sun.