Via Serpentis

Classical Planets & Chaldean Order

Magical and Alchemy traditions, places great importance on the seven classical “planets” -  Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. These are the celestial bodies that our earliest ancestors observed and whose effects on the natural rhythms of life they studied. The term “planet” comes to us from the Greek πλανήτης (planetes, “wanderer”) as these were the celestial objects that moved at their own pace against a backdrop of “fixed” stars. It is only recently that we’ve reclassified the word to denote a specific astronomical body different from the Sun and Moon. 

The ancient Greeks credited the Babylonians as being the first people to meticulously document the cycles of these planets. Specifically, the Chaldean Magi of southern Babylon were hailed as the greatest astronomers of early antiquity and it is from them that we have inherited much of our astrological and astronomical understandings. By measuring the Sidereal Cycles - the time it takes for a planet to return the same point against a background of fixed stars - these Chaldean Magi discovered the cyclic rhythms and relative distances of each planet. The band of background stars used to measure the motion of the planets is what we know today as the Zodiac and the sequential ordering of the planets is the Chaldean Order that would make its way into nearly every esoteric tradition.

Seen from our vantage point on Earth, and sorted from slowest/furthest to fastest/nearest, the Chaldean order is: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon.

It’s worth noting that the sidereal cycle observed for the Sun is a reflection of our Earth’s planetary orbit.  From a geocentric perspective this is measured by the apparent return of the sunrise or sunset position to a fixed point of the zodiac ( i.e. 0° Aries)  and acts as  the base rhythm of 1-year (365.25 days) by which we structure time and identify the outer and inner planets. For this reason whether we assume a heliocentric or geocentric position this Chaldean Order holds true as an accurate representation of the relative structure of our solar system. 

Planetary Hours

Together with the classical planets the Alchemical tradition inherited the Ptolemaic system of Planetary Hours in which every day is divided into twelve hours of day and twelve hours of night and each hour is ruled by one of the classical planets following the Chaldean Order.

Depending on the season and our latitude, the actual length of these “hours” will vary. The length of the day hour is calculated by dividing the time between sunrise and sunset by twelve , the length of the night hour is the remaining time until the next sunrise also divided by twelve. Only around the equinox will night and day hours be equal and actually 60 minutes since on these days there are equal periods of day and night. 

The planet who rules over the hour of sunrise is understood to be the primary celestial influence over the entire day.  This idea is hidden in plane sight in the names of the weekdays. It is much more obvious in Latin (where it is literally ‘day of <planet>’) and the Romance languages, but is present in English as well  once we understand the Norse roots of the names of the weekdays and correspondences between Roman and Norse deities (i.e. Mars and Tyr, Mercury and Woden, Jove/Jupiter and Thor, Venus and Freya).

Every following hour is ruled by the next planet in the Chaldean order. For example on Sunday, the first hour (sunrise) is ruled by the Sun and the remaining daylight hours are as follows:  Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn. The night hours are: Jupiter (sunset),Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury. This concludes the 24 hours of Sunday, the next hour is ruled by the Moon and is the sunrise and first hour of Monday. This pattern remains true for the remaining days of the week.

A simple way to visualize this is via the Planetary Heptagram where the planets (in Chaldean Order) are written around the circumference of the circle and are connected so as to form a continuous seven pointed star. Each point of the star connects to the next following the order of the weekdays.