Skyscript Astrology Forum

Hello

Could anyone recommend me a reliable, easy to use free online calculator?
I've been using http://www.astrology.com.tr/planetary-hours.asp
but found out this morning that it's not always accurate.

Hi Gem,

Here's one:
<http://chronosxp.sourceforge.net/en/

And here's the description from their site:

"ChronosXP is a free planetary hours program for Windows. It runs from the system tray where it displays a glyph corresponding to the current planetary hour. If you double-click on the glyph, a calendar window opens up where you can see planetary hour times for any given day or location. ChronosXP currently supports the English, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese languages".

Hope this helps
ea

ea

Thank you Have you used it?

Hi Gem,

yes, I have downloaded it to my computer so I'm able to see when the planetary hours change from the little icon in the righthand corner of my screen. It's a nice little feature. Like when I see the planetary hour switching to Saturn I know it's time to stop playing around on the computer and start doing something useful for a change

Enjoy it!

ea

Sounds very useful

What house system do you use? Planetary hours are Placidean. My opinion is that your use of planetary hours should follow your house system. If you are using Regiamonatnus houses work out a reasonable bisection of the houses. Two planetary hours fit into each house. The planetary hours change as the the Sun works itself through the houses during the day.

Ie. On Monday the 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd hours are ruled by the Moon. The 8th hour is when the Sun is in the first half of the 9th house. If the Sun were in the latter half of the 8th house it would be the hour of Saturn.

With some practice you will get to work out and observe those planetary hours by sight. Providing you can remember what day it is!

Hi Andrew,

What I've learned is that a planetary hour by day is one twelfth of the interval between sunrise and sunset, and the planetary hour by night one twelfth of the interval between sunset and sunrise. I hope that I can stick to that as I don't want any extra work here Where did you learn that planetary hours are related to a house system? I've never seen it mentioned anywhere.

ea

Where did you learn that planetary hours are related to a house system? I've never seen it mentioned anywhere.

Think it out! The original concept of planetary hours is time-based, ie Placedian. Try to calculate charts for when the planetary hour changes, use Placidus houses and per definition the Sun will sit on a housecusp for every other hour. Perform the same calculations with Regiomontaus houses and you will discover you are well off mark.

Which house system do you use? What is your preference and why? Do you use any other system than Placidus? Do you calculate your planetary hours yourself or do you just have a program that provides them for you?

You may use the house system of your choice. That's OK by me, but the question is - do you really want to mix systems? Do you want to mix Regiomontanus with Placidus. In my mind that is like trying to speak German with an Italian.

The planetary hours are based upon the movement of the Sun through the heavens and in my mind the your choise of planetary hours should follow your house system. I do mention this in my article http://www.astronor.com/hours.htm from 1994, probably discussed it with Olivia Barclay, but then I do not write books and have been busy with my practice and family.

I don't want any extra work here

Keep it simple! I like to look at the chart and it tells me everything I need to know. You look at the chart and observe the location of the Sun by house. This will tell you the planetary hour and you will not have to go to the trouble of calculating them manually.

ea wrote:What I've learned is that a planetary hour by day is one twelfth of the interval between sunrise and sunset, and the planetary hour by night one twelfth of the interval between sunset and sunrise.

That is indeed the only traditional view. The 'Placidus' house system (which was known some 500 years before Placidus, but didn't catch on) is based on planetary hours, not the other way around. It may seem minimalistically elegant to use the same principles for dividing the day and dividing the sky, but it is not logically necessary, nor has it been the standard practice of astrologers historically. (The same sort of argument often surfaces with regard to house division and primary directions.)

Hi Martin,

You beat me here . I was just going to write something to the same effect.
I'm glad you jumped in and supported my reasoning. Thanks.

Andrew:
In your article you wrote:
If your computer doesn't do this job for you, the calculations may be quite tedious. However, planetary hours may instantly, although to some degree only approximately, be determined by noting the Suns position by house.

This is exactly why a computer program comes in handy, especially if you do horary. An approxiamtion is just not good enough.

ea

Thanks Andrew,

I have never heard this explained so clearly before. I guess like many I just lazily went along with what the PC said without really understanding the ancient reasoning underlying the system of planetary hours. Thanks very much for that.

One query though. As I understand it planetary hours are Babylonian in origin. If the system so clearly fits with Placidus houses doesn't this add weight to the argument that Placidus may be one of the earliest quadrant house systems? I know Porphyry houses were probably used by Valens and most likely pre-date him. Still this planetary hours link makes me wonder.....

I have read at least one astrologer suggesting Ptolemy might have been using Placidus houses.

Andrew wrote:My opinion is that your use of planetary hours should follow your house system.

Thank you for explaining your reasoning on this, Andrew. I couldn't understand why, in the "Is my husband having an affair?" thread, you had a different hour ruler using Regio. It didn't make sense to me that the hour ruler changes according to the house system. However....

Martin wrote:The 'Placidus' house system (which was known some 500 years before Placidus, but didn't catch on) is based on planetary hours, not the other way around.

So, Andrew, I'd be interested to know if you've changed your opinion