#celestial timing

Though nobody needs it (well, depending), astrological timing is often thrown to the wayside. Poor celestial bodies, their movements so defamed as being aggrandized and unnecessary. Which is a shame; planetary magic is some of the easiest and most powerful work I know.

In this post, astrological timing includes:

Day of week

Solstices and equinoxes (including daily twilights, midnight, and noon)

Planetary hour of day

Holy days

Moon phases

Movement of constellations

But we gotta set up this concept first: Astrological timing can be conceptualized as gates opening, so that waters of power pour upon your location. These "waters" carry their own virtues, and they are so omnipresent that they automatically influence any working of magic.

Not only this, but when the gates open, the waters become like roads upon which spirits can travel. A great deal of magic, especially in Traditional Witchcraft, surrounds the idea that we must either travel to the spirits, or "open roads" so that they may travel to us. Celestial timing is an efficient way to achieve this.

When the celestial bodies move and those gates swing shut, it can become more difficult to access those powers and the spirits who correspond to those powers.

This generally means that no matter when you are, there will be an abundance and flow of certain powers and spirits, and an absence of others.

You don't have to wait for anything, all timings can support all things.

This is kind of why I hate correspondence lists... "waning moon is for banishing!" Well, if you have a problem, you can't necessarily wait 14 days for the moon phase to cycle through. Nor should you!

Let's say our moon is waxing: gentle increase, new beginnings, growth. For the banishing problem, you can:

Increase the distance between you and the person

Create a new beginning for them somewhere else (so they leave)

Grow people's awareness that this person is problematic so you have support

A fun spellcrafting game is practicing applying a single correspondence to any situation (as a Discord game: everyone choose your own intent. One person chooses a correspondence. Everyone brainstorms to figure out how the correspondence can support every intent).

This post is about celestial timings, so let's take a look at the Big Seven celestial bodies, for the intent of... *spins wheel* get a big boost to finish writing your novel before the deadline.

Moon (Monday; illusions, appearances): That you see yourself as a capable and confident professional writer (or, that a path is revealed to circumvent writer's block).

Mars (Tuesday; defense, aggression): That you gain the energy and passion to battle your way through to the end.

Mercury (Wednesday; communication, commerce): That you gain quicksilver, mercurial speed in finishing the project.

Jupiter (Thursday; success, empowerment): That you succeed in hitting all your daily deadlines.

Venus (Friday; love, relationships): That you fall in love with the part of the project you're currently working on, so you'll be eager to spend all day with it.

Saturn (Saturday; boundaries, limits): That all distractions and obstacles in your way are limited from interfering with your project.

Sun (Sunday; vitality, joy): That the dreary clouds over your project be expelled, and that you are filled with the joy of shining yourself into your project and bringing it to life.

We can play this game with moon phases (like the example above), or any stones, herbs, or animals.

If you are familiar with celestial timing, you know that not only is each day assigned to one of the seven celestial bodies, but every hour of the day is assigned to one as well.

Therefore we might be in the hour of Saturn on the day of Mars, during a waning moon. We can play the game again, on a more nuanced level: My intent might be one of overall decrease (waning moon), where an aggressive energy is captured (Mars) in order to bind and limit all potential failure (Saturn) so that my project is finished by the deadline.

If we combine that intent above with a physical correspondence that vibrates with those same energies (say, a black stone and a candle with the Seal of Mars carved into it), a spell of significant power begins to be born.

IMO, using timing to focus & direct spellwork makes the planning a heck of a lot easier

This has two uses:

When you know you need to solve a problem, but don't know how to get started, examining the timings can give you a really clear place to start.

When you want to have fun with magic, but have no idea what to cast upon, the timings can really assist in brainstorming.

Suppose I realllllly need to sell commissions this month, but I have no idea how to do it. Let's pretend that the following is true:

Today is Friday on a waning gibbous moon a couple of days after Spring Equinox.

There's a heck of a lot of balance hanging around from the Equinox (balance = no movement). So instead of casting my spell at midnight or noon (very proximal, balanced times), I'm going to wait for evening twilight (very liminal, changing time). It just so happens that the planetary hour at twilight is Jupiter.

My spell will be this: Raising a great deal of loving, adoring energy (Friday/Venus) in order to bless my commissions page with success (Jupiter), so that people will fall in love with my work and want it for themselves.

Although they are not counted as an active part of my spell intent, I know simply by virtue of the moon being waning and the twilight hour, my spell will be infused with the virtues of changing and decrease - in this case, decreasing disinterest in my commissions and changing how people feel about my work.

(Suppose sales were really good and I wanted to preserve that - I'd perhaps cast the spell at noon, which my planetary calculator tells me is the hour of Mars. Stable, solar noon balances and preserves what already exists, and Mars gives me a cutthroat business edge so I can maintain my position.)

Orienting spells around freeflowing celestial powers makes the spell more powerful

It just do.

It also highly decreases the risk that the powers you need to call just aren't readily available right now

Not all of us channel power - plenty of people only burn their own lamp oil, so to speak. But for those of us who do call on external powers, you ever notice how sometimes it's just really hard to connect with some types of energies? Or sometimes, spirits just don't pick up the phone?

This may be because the powers & spirits you seek are behind a shut gate, the celestial roads upon which they walk closed off from us. Does this mean the power or spirit is impossible to contact? No!

It just means you might have to work harder and expend more of your own energy and resources to create that road yourself. If some of your spells randomly fall flat and you don't know why, celestial timing may be an avenue of troubleshooting for you.

And it can help explain unintended consequences and side-effects of spells