{"id":194,"date":"2022-06-11T15:12:48","date_gmt":"2022-06-11T15:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/almuten.co.uk\/?p=194"},"modified":"2022-06-11T16:05:39","modified_gmt":"2022-06-11T16:05:39","slug":"lord-of-the-day-and-lord-of-the-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/almuten.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/06\/11\/lord-of-the-day-and-lord-of-the-hour\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord of the Day and Lord of the Hour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A lot of medieval astrological techniques involve knowing the \u201cLord of the Day\u201d and the \u201cLord of the Hour\u201d, which are simply the planet ruling the current day, and the planet ruling the current hour respectively. This article will explain how to calculate these \u2013 including how to look at a chart and work it out in your head!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord of the Day<\/strong> is very easy if you already know the day \u2013 and was even easier in medieval times when scholars wrote in Latin, because in Latin the days of the week were named after planets. That\u2019s still true in modern Romance languages \u2013 in French, Friday is \u201cVenredi\u201d which means \u201cVenus\u2019 day\u201d, Tuesday is \u201cMardi\u201d, which is Mars\u2019 day and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means Lord of the Day is trivial to work out \u2013 if it\u2019s Wednesday today, the Lord of the Day is Mercury. However, if you have a chart in front of you that just tells you the date but not the day \u2013 don\u2019t panic! You can still work it out in your head \u2013 see the section below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

English<\/strong><\/td>Latin<\/strong><\/td>Planet<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Sunday<\/td>Dies Solis<\/td>Sun<\/td><\/tr>
Monday<\/td>Dies Lunae<\/td>Moon<\/td><\/tr>
Tuesday<\/td>Dies Martis<\/td>Mars<\/td><\/tr>
Wednesday<\/td>Dies Mercurii<\/td>Mercury<\/td><\/tr>
Thursday<\/td>Dies Iovis<\/td>Jupiter<\/td><\/tr>
Friday<\/td>Dies Veneris<\/td>Venus<\/td><\/tr>
Saturday<\/td>Dies Saturni<\/td>Saturn<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lord of the Hour<\/strong> is a bit more fiddly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the modern definition of an hour is one twenty-fourth of a day (from midnight to midnight), there were two definitions of the term \u201chour\u201d in the twelfth century. The usual definition was that the period from sunrise to sunset was divided into twelve equal diurnal hours<\/strong>, and the period from sunset to the following sunrise was divided into twelve equal nocturnal hours<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The length of an hour would, then, depend on your location, the time of year, and whether it was day or night. To give an example, at the summer solstice in Hereford on the English\/Welsh border, there are 16 hours and 40 minutes of daytime (between sunrise and sunset), and 7 hours and 20 minutes of night-time (between sunset and sunrise). A diurnal hour at the solstice would, therefore, be 83 minutes and 20 seconds, and a nocturnal hour would be 36 minutes and 40 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the equinoxes, daytime and night-time are equal, and the hour is 60 minutes. Thus these hours \u2013 the division used today of the day into twenty-four equal hours \u2013 were called equinoctal hours<\/strong>. The principle of a planetary hour is that at sunrise on a particular day, the planet ruling the day was also the planet ruling the first diurnal hour. For example, the first diurnal hour of Thursday (Jupiter\u2019s day) is ruled by Jupiter. The second hour is ruled by the next planet in the Chaldean order<\/strong> \u2013 this is simply the order of planets in decreasing apparent speed from Earth\u2019s perspective: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon in that sequence. So for Thursday, the second hour would be ruled by Mars. The table below shows all the planetary hours for Thursday, and the first two for Friday \u2013 as can be seen, the natural Chaldean order means that the final night-time hour of Thursday is ruled by the Sun, so the next planet in the sequence \u2013 Venus \u2013 is the ruler of the first daytime hour of Friday, as one would expect for Dies Veneris<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calculating all this in your head<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a chart of an event, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, using Placidus houses. If you\u2019re in front of a computer, you can find out the day easily enough, but if you\u2019re sitting in a train reading an astrology book, it may not be so easy. Can you work out the Lord of the Day and the Lord of the Hour in your head by looking at this chart? Yes, you can!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fall of the Berlin Wall. Time set for the moment that Col Harald Jaeger opened the gates to let everyone through.<\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord of the Day<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We know the event took place on 9 November 1989. What day was that \u2013 and how do you work this out in your head?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These instructions are a bit fiddly at first, but you only need to memorise the steps, and you\u2019ll soon be able to work out any date if you\u2019re reasonably good with numbers. A lot of the steps involve something called \u201cmodulo 7 arithmetic\u201d \u2013 don\u2019t be put off by the name, it just means that a lot of the steps involve dividing by 7 and just worrying about the remainder. So 10 divided by 7 is 1 with a remainder of 3. We\u2019re only interested in that remainder \u2013 so 10 modulo 7 is 3. 22 modulo 7 is 1. 35 modulo 7 is 0 (because 7 goes into 35 exactly).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start by noting the date, month, and year, but with this proviso: if the month is January or February, then instead of considering that the first and second months of the year, consider them the 13th<\/sup> and 14th<\/sup> months of the PREVIOUS year. I\u2019ll do a second example shortly, but let\u2019s start with 9 November 1989:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start with the year: 1989, and just use the last two digits: 89<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. What\u2019s 89 modulo 7? 7 goes into 89 12 times, with a remainder of 5. Answer: 5.<\/li>
  2. Now work out how many leap years there have been that century: divide 89 by 4 and ignore the remainder: 22. Take mod 7 of that and add to the answer above: 5 + 1 = 6.<\/li>
  3. Now take the month number, subtract 3, and double it: November is month 11, subtract 3 is 8, double is 16. Take mod 7 of that and add to the answer above: 6 + 2 = 8. You\u2019ll notice that for March, nothing is added (month 3 minus 3 is zero).<\/li>
  4. Some months have 30 days, some have 31 (our trick of using February as the 14th<\/sup> month of the previous year means we can ignore the fiddly business of 28 or 29 days), in a semi-regular pattern. I think of this as three sets of mountain peaks, starting in April (I count these on my knuckles, just using the first three knuckles as \u201csummits\u201d) \u2013 see the diagram below. April is a summit, May is a dip, June is a summit, July is a dip, August is a summit. That\u2019s the first three mountains. Now we use the second set: September is a summit, October is a dip, November is a summit, December is a dip, January is a summit. The third set of mountains is academic, actually \u2013 we\u2019re only left with February as a summit. Then we see how many \u201csummits\u201d we\u2019ve climbed \u2013 for November, it\u2019s 5. I said February is academic, because that\u2019s 7 \u2013 and 7 modulo 7 is zero, so we can skip this step completely for February. We can also skip it for March. Add that 5 onto our previous answer: 8 + 5 = 13.<\/li>
  5. Then consider the date of the month \u2013 the 9th<\/sup> \u2013 do the modulo 7 of that and add to the previous answer: 13 + 2 = 15.<\/li>
  6. Now take modulo 7 of that total to give us 1.<\/li>
  7. This tells us how many days on from \u201cday zero\u201d we have to go; for the 20th<\/sup> century, \u201cday zero\u201d is Wednesday, and for the 21st<\/sup> century it\u2019s Tuesday. This is a 20th<\/sup>-century date, so one day on from Wednesday is Thursday: 9 November 1989 was a Thursday.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Let\u2019s try a second example: the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021. What day was that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This is January, so we have to treat this as the 13th<\/sup> month of the previous year \u2013 2020. So we use the last two digits of the year: 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. 20 mod 7 is 6 (7 goes into 20 twice, with a remainder of 6). Answer: 6.<\/li>
    2. Divide 20 by 4 to find out how many leap years: 5. Add to previous answer: 11.<\/li>
    3. Take the month number \u2013 this is 13 for January, subtract 3 and double it: 13 – 3 is 10, double is 20. Take mod 7 of that to get 6, and add to previous answer: 11 + 6 = 17.<\/li>
    4. How many \u201csummits\u201d do we climb in our set of triple-peak mountains, starting with April? Count on your three of your knuckles and dips between knuckles: APRIL may JUNE july AUGUST \u2013 that\u2019s three summits, and we\u2019re not there yet. SEPTEMBER october NOVEMBER december JANUARY \u2013 we\u2019re there, that\u2019s another three summits, so six altogether. Add that to the previous answer: 17 + 6 = 23.<\/li>
    5. Now consider the date of the month, the 6th<\/sup> \u2013 so add 6 to the answer to get 23 + 6 = 29.<\/li>
    6. Take modulo 7 of that \u2013 7 goes into 29 four times with a remainder of 1, so 1.<\/li>
    7. This means we need to add one day onto our day zero for the 21st<\/sup> century \u2013 it was a Wednesday.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      This seems fiddly, but you get the hang of it quite quickly \u2013 and it\u2019s a great party trick!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Lord of the Hour<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      Lord of the Hour is easier to work out if you have a chart using Placidus houses in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      At sunrise, the Lord of the Hour is the same as the Lord of the Day. One diurnal hour later, the hour switches to the next planet in the Chaldean sequence. Take Thursday as an example \u2013 this is Jupiter\u2019s day, so at sunrise the Lord of the Hour is Jupiter. One diurnal hour later, it\u2019s Mars, then the Sun, then Venus and so on through a repeating cycle. As we saw above, working out diurnal hours can be quite tricky, but if you already have a chart in front of you, it\u2019s easy (though the trick only works with Placidus houses \u2013 and I\u2019m very grateful to Wade Caves for showing me this technique, and convincing me to return to Placidus as my usual house system!). Starting at the Ascendant and going clockwise (diurnal motion) divide each house in half and count the planets through the houses until you reach the point where the Sun is \u2013 on Thursday, the half of the 12th<\/sup> house nearest the Ascendant will be Jupiter, the upper half will be Mars, the bottom half of the 11th<\/sup> house is the Sun, the next half Venus and so on. In our example of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we can see the Sun in the bottom of the chart, and so counting from Jupiter at the Ascendant (since the day was a Thursday), we go round the houses until we reach the Sun, and can see that the Sun is at the position where Venus is the Lord of the Hour. This trick usually works, but if the Sun is very close to the middle of a house, you might still need to do the tricky sums to work it out for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Also remember that a medieval day begins at sunrise. The chart above is set for 23:30 on Thursday 9 November 1989, showing Venus as Lord of the Hour. An hour later, the Sun would be in the third house in the section where Mercury is, so Mercury would be Lord of the Hour. However, because it\u2019s after midnight, your software would give the date as 10 November 1989, a Friday \u2013 but medievally, because the Sun is still in the lower (nocturnal) half of the chart, you would have to pretend that it\u2019s still 9 November, as the Lord of the Day doesn\u2019t change until sunrise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So next time you\u2019re sitting on a train with an astrology book but no Internet connection looking at a chart and wondering what the Lord of the Day and Lord of the Hour is \u2013 you can do it in your head!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      A lot of medieval astrological techniques involve knowing the \u201cLord of the Day\u201d and the \u201cLord of the Hour\u201d, which are simply the planet ruling the current day, and the planet ruling the current hour respectively. This article will explain how to calculate these \u2013 including how to look at a chart and work it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"iawp_total_views":454,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/almuten.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/almuten.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/almuten.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almuten.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almuten.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/almuten.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/almuten.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/almuten.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almuten.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almuten.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}