Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Night Moves - Sha'ah Zemanit By Night

ב' באדר תשס"ז

Calculating sha'ah zemanit, a proportional (variable) hour, by night:

For example, if I wanted to do spellwork tonight February 20, 2007 (fine-tuned to the power of the night according to my location and time zone),

sunset is 5:31 pm this evening
sunrise is 6:35 am tomorrow morning

From these data, we can calculate that there are 784 minutes of "night" (as opposed to "day"), inclusive of the minutes of sunset and sunrise.

5:31 to midnight = (60 X 6) + (60 - 31) = 389 minutes
midnight to 6:35 = (60 X 6) + 35 = 395 minutes

389 + 395 = 784 total minutes of "night" between sunset and sunrise

784 total minutes/12 hours = 65.3 minutes per "night" hour

Thus, 1 planetary night hour for tonight is 65.3 minutes long. Rounding to 65 minutes for ease of basic calculation,

hour 1 = 5:31 pm - 6:36 pm
hour 2 = 6:36 pm - 7:41 pm
hour 3 = 7:41 pm - 8:47 pm*
hour 4 = 8:47 pm - 9:52 pm
hour 5 = 9:52 pm - 10:57 pm
hour 6 = 10:57 pm - 12:03 am*
hour 7 = 12:03 am - 1:08 am
hour 8 = 1:08 am - 2:13 am
hour 9 = 2:13 am - 3:19 am*
hour 10 = 3:19 am - 4:24 am
hour 11 = 4:24 am - 5:29 am
hour 12 = 5:29 am - 6:35 am*
sun rises at 6:35 am

*add 1 minute to adjust for fraction (0.3 of 65.3)

According to (Gra version) Sefer Yetzirah (Table 36 in Aryeh Kaplan translation), the first hour of Tuesday night (the night before Wednesday day) is ruled by Saturn. Thus, the planetary associations for the hours of the night tonight are:

hour 1 - saturn
hour 2 - jupiter
hour 3 - mars
hour 4 - sun
hour 5 - venus
hour 6 - mercury
hour 7 - moon
hour 8 - saturn
hour 9 - jupiter
hour 10 - mars
hour 11 - sun
hour 12 - venus

Using all this information, a spell performed during the 6th night hour February 20/Adar 3 would be under the planetary influence of mercury. Mercury influences wisdom, skill, writing and language. Consequently, between the hours of 10:57 pm and 12:03 am tonight in my location would be a favorable time to perform spellwork to infuse wisdom and skill into my use of mystical language, ability to communicate effectively and to bestow understanding.

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