Just as the Ascendant casts a hue over the whole chart, a planetary hour casts a hue over the moment you are in.

Here is a rather rough look at the planetary hours and how to calculate them:

1) Find sunrise for your location: for example, 6:00 am.

2) Find sunset for your location: for example, 12:00 am.

3) Find the difference between sunrise and sunset: in our example,the difference is 18 hours, even.

4) Divide this number (the difference) by 12: in our example, 18 / 12 = 1.5; or, 18 / 12 = 1 hour and thirty minutes (modern time).

5) Find out what day it is: let's pretend it's Sunday. Name the hours according to the Chaldean Order of the Stars (in other words, on a Sun-Day, the first "unequal hour" (technically one hour and 30 minutes) is the Sun Hour.

6) Name the next 11 hours (each of the one-and-an-half-hour segments) according to the Chaldean Order of the Stars. On a Sun- Day this would read Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars.

7) Do the exact same thing for the hours of darkness. In our example there would be six hours of darkness. We would figure their length in the same way: 6/12 = .5 or 6/12 = 30 minutes. On a Sunday, your last daylight hour (1.5 hours modern time) would be Saturn, or Saturn's hour. The next hour is the nocturnal hour, which simply continues in the circle of "stars" from outer to inner. So, if the last hour on Sun-Day is a Saturn Hour, then the first hour of dark would be a Jupiter-Hour, as Jupiter is the next planet in, toward earth; then Mars-Hour, then Sun-Hour, then Venus-Hour, then Mercury-Hour, then Moon-Hour, then another Saturn-Hour, then on around until you get to the twelvth hour, which is the .5 hour period (30 minute) before sunrise the next day.

8) On the Next Day, that would be Moon-Day or Monday, the first daylight hour is the Moon. On Tuesday, or Mars-Day, then the first daylight hour (unequal hour) is Mars-Hour.

9) For each hour, see what sign the hour rules. It is generally a better hour for these things. If you want to fight and argue and get into fruitless and troublesome discussions, talk during a Mars hour. If you want the yields of lust and love? (when to choose a romantic dinner?) choose a venus hour.

10) Look at the natal chart of the person you are electing a good time for. If Venus is weak or undermined in their chart, try using the ruler of the fifth (sex) or seventh (relationships) as the planet that would help them in sex and romance. Let them choose a time that during that hour of that planet that supports them in romance, instead of using the planet that undermines them.

Now to get you experimenting with planetary hours.