This chapter explores the significance of planetary hours within the context of Southern Hemisphere practice, offering advanced insight into how they can be harnessed to elevate the depth, control, and potency of Shadow and Nocturnal Witchcraft.
The Core of Planetary Hour Magic
Planetary hours divide the 24-hour day into 12 daylight and 12 night-time segments, regardless of the season. These segments shift slightly in duration depending on the length of day and night—which is especially relevant in the Southern Hemisphere, where autumn’s encroaching darkness begins to elongate the night and intensify nocturnal rites. The sequence follows a continuous cycle based on the Chaldean Order: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon—repeating over and over, starting anew at sunrise each day.
The first planetary hour of each day is ruled by the planet governing that weekday (e.g., Saturday begins with Saturn, Monday with the Moon). Each subsequent hour follows the Chaldean sequence.
In Shadow and Nocturnal Witchcraft, the night hours take on particular potency. These hours are naturally charged with stillness, liminality, and psychic permeability. When paired with the correct planetary current, they act as amplifiers for specific workings—particularly those concerning spirit conjuration, death rites, banishments, bindings, dreams, and inner transmutation.
Planetary Forces in the Night.
Below is a detailed breakdown of each planet’s influence, its nocturnal potency, and how it can be harnessed in shadow work.
Saturn (Saturday / Saturnine Hour)
Saturn is the anchor of structure, decay, and finality. Its hours during the night are cold, heavy, and slow—ideal for curses that are meant to rot foundations, bind spirits, or seal pacts. In the Southern Hemisphere, as the nights grow longer, Saturn’s planetary hours grow in resonance, echoing the descent into winter.
Use Saturn's hour for:
-
Creating lasting bindings or oaths
-
Burying curses (literally or symbolically)
-
Necromantic work requiring strict control
Jupiter (Thursday / Jovian Hour)
Jupiter in shadow work is not about light or luck—it becomes a tool of hierarchy, judgment, and dominion. Its planetary hour can be used to heighten status within the spirit world or enforce structure upon unruly energies.
Use Jupiter’s hour for:
-
Rituals of elevation (crowning, claiming)
-
Creating spiritual contracts or binding agreements
-
Offering to benevolent dead or mighty ancestors
Mars (Tuesday / Martial Hour)
Mars governs the raw will of the witch—its planetary hours at night are electric with volatile power. In autumn’s cold clarity, Mars becomes a torch in the dark, used to defend, strike, or cut.
Use Mars’ hour for:
-
Breaking soul ties or hexing abusers
-
Empowering ritual blades or protective talismans
-
Dominating unruly spirits
Sun (Sunday / Solar Hour)
In nocturnal work, the Sun becomes a force of exposure, not warmth. Its planetary hour at night creates powerful juxtapositions—shedding light in darkness to confront deep-seated truths or expose falsehoods.
Use Solar hour for:
-
Shadow integration rites
-
Truth-scrying or mirror gazing
-
Working with solar deities in their chthonic aspects
Venus (Friday / Venusian Hour)
Venus at night is the witch in velvet, whispering in the dark. Its hours empower workings of enticement, obsession, and manipulation. The Venusian current in autumn is cool and lush, perfect for mirror magic and hidden intentions.
Use Venus’ hour for:
-
Glamour and veiling spells
-
Knot magic or sigils to influence affection or lust
-
Drawing spirits through sensual or evocative offerings
Mercury (Wednesday / Mercurial Hour)
Mercury is the psychopomp—its planetary hour is ideal for contacting spirits, crafting pacts, and traveling between realms. In nocturnal rites, it is the herald and deceiver, equally valuable for summoning or obscuring.
Use Mercury’s hour for:
-
Channelling messages from the dead
-
Enchanting written or spoken words
-
Performing rituals involving pacts or agreements
Moon (Monday / Lunar Hour)
The Moon is the ruling planet of nocturnal craft. During her hours—particularly under moonlight—rites become dreamlike, prophetic, and fluid. In autumn, when the moon often hangs low and fat in the sky, her influence becomes thick and narcotic.
Use Lunar hour for:
-
Dream weaving and oneiric travel
-
Working with spirits of water or moonlit graveyards
-
Laying illusions or cloaking spells
Calculating Planetary Hours in the Southern Hemisphere.
Due to the Southern Hemisphere’s seasonal inversion, the sun sets earlier in autumn, stretching the night planetary hours and giving them greater reach.
To calculate planetary hours:
-
Note the local sunrise and sunset times.
-
Divide the daylight period into 12 equal hours.
-
Do the same for the night—from sunset to sunrise.
-
Apply the Chaldean Order, starting the first hour of each day with the planet of that weekday.
Several mobile apps or almanacs tailored for the Southern Hemisphere can assist with this. It’s crucial that the planetary hours are based on local solar time, not clock time, to ensure precision.
Ritual Integration: Using Planetary Hours in Shadow Rites.
When crafting complex nocturnal rituals, layering planetary hours into the timing strengthens intent and alignment. Consider:
-
Aligning the planetary hour with the moon phase (e.g., Dark Moon + Saturn hour = potent banishment).
-
Consecrating tools during their corresponding planetary hours.
-
Timing spirit work to the hour of a spirit’s planetary correspondence.
-
Creating sigils under a planetary hour for enhanced resonance.
This can also apply to multi-day rituals, where each night a different planetary hour is used to build layers of energy toward a climax.
Planetary hours are the witch’s celestial timepieces—often overlooked but deeply potent when understood and skilfully woven into ritual. For practitioners of Shadow and Nocturnal Witchcraft in the Southern Hemisphere, they offer an ancient and exacting structure that harmonizes with the descending light, the deepening dark, and the vast unseen tides of power. When used with precision and respect, planetary hours become the pulse of the ritual—marking each moment not just by time, but by intention, cosmos, and shadow.
Understanding the Chaldean Order in the Southern Hemisphere.
(and Why It’s Still Used in Planetary Hour Magic).
What Is the Chaldean Order?
The Chaldean Order is an ancient system that arranges the seven classical planets—Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon—based on their apparent speed and distance from Earth as observed by early astronomers, particularly the Babylonian-Chaldeans.
The order is:
Saturn → Jupiter → Mars → Sun → Venus → Mercury → Moon
-
Saturn is the slowest and furthest visible planet.
-
Moon is the fastest and closest celestial body to Earth.
-
This sequence does not change based on hemisphere, as it reflects celestial motion and perceived distance, not seasonal or geographical phenomena.
This ordering is used to calculate planetary hours and day rulerships, forming the basis of planetary magic across cultures.
Why the Chaldean Order Is Still Used in the Southern Hemisphere.
Whether you're in Hobart, Tasmania or Reykjavik, Iceland, the Chaldean Order remains unchanged because:
-
It is based on planetary motion and influence, not seasonal markers.
-
The sequence of planetary hours is determined by this fixed order, flowing cyclically through the hours of each day and night.
-
The planetary rulership of each weekday (e.g., Monday = Moon, Saturday = Saturn) also derives from this order.
Thus, practitioners in the Southern Hemisphere use the exact same Chaldean Order as those in the North. What changes is how and when those planetary hours are most powerful, based on seasonal inversion and local time.
Chaldean Order and Planetary Hours.
Planetary hours are derived by rotating the Chaldean sequence across the day:
-
Each weekday begins with the planetary ruler of that day (e.g., Sunday starts with the Sun).
-
The hours cycle through the Chaldean Order repeatedly.
-
These hours are recalculated each day based on local sunrise and sunset times.
In Shadow & Nocturnal Witchcraft, where working with the night planetary hours is critical, the Chaldean Order ensures you're tapping into the correct planetary influence regardless of the hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere’s seasonal reversal simply changes when and why you'd choose to work with a particular planetary hour (e.g., Saturnian rites are more common in winter, which occurs June–August below the equator).
Practical Example: Southern Hemisphere Application.
Let’s say it’s Friday in June in the Southern Hemisphere—winter. You want to work a nocturnal Venusian glamour and binding under the waning moon.
-
Friday’s planetary ruler is Venus, so the first planetary hour after sunset will follow the Chaldean cycle from Venus onward.
-
You find when the Venus hour occurs that night (typically it will be around the 5th or 6th hour after sunset).
-
You perform your glamour spell under the night Venus hour—capitalizing on the winter season’s heightened shadows and introspective energy.
The Chaldean Order structures the timing, while your Southern Hemisphere perspective guides the intention and seasonal relevance.
In Summary.
-
The Chaldean Order is a fixed, ancient planetary sequence based on planetary distance and speed.
-
It is used globally, including in the Southern Hemisphere, because it reflects astronomical constants.
-
Southern witches use the Chaldean Order for planetary hour calculations just like those in the North—but apply them differently based on seasonal timing, lunar alignment, and ritual goals.
The celestial rhythm remains constant—the way we tune into it changes with the earth beneath our feet.
The Shadow Clock Beneath Southern Stars.
In Shadow & Nocturnal Witchcraft, time is not a passive flow—it is a living architecture of influence. The Chaldean Order, born from the gaze of ancient skywatchers, remains a trusted compass, pointing not to north or south, but inward and beyond. It reminds the witch that even in the depths of the night, there is order within chaos, rhythm within silence.
To walk in rhythm with the planets is to listen to the quiet ticking of the universe’s hidden clock. And for the nocturnal witch, that clock is not mechanical, but elemental—a spiral of hours marked in ash, bone, blood, and shadow.
Let the stars name the hour. Let the hour shape the spell. And let the Southern land whisper which currents rise beneath your feet, as the heavens blaze their ancient dance overhead.
© Odette Austin. All Rights Reserved.
All content, including articles, photography, and images, is owned by Odette Austin and protected by copyright law.
No part of this site may be reproduced or used without written permission.
