Planetary Charity

Improving Your Relationship with the Planets


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Introduction to Planetary Charity

Planetary charity is an alternative to astrological talismans in working with the energy, or more precisely, the spirits of the planets. Here is a Planetary Charity Video. When planets are afflicted in a our natal or birth chart we need to cautious about using their talismans. Keep in mind that I use "afflicted" in a limited way for purposes of talismans and working with the planets. Predominately essential dignity and not affliction by aspects or house placement. Here is more information on Talismans and dignified and afflicted planets in the natal chart.

Planetary charity comes from the Vedic astrology of India and is a natural expression of the view of the planets as spirits or gods. By doing charity and dedicating it to a planet, we can work with the energy of the planet and help diminish its negative effects on us. Of course, planetary charity is not just for planets that are afflicted in our natal chart, it can be used to good effect with all planets.


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In doing planetary charity we time the donation we make according to the nature of the planet we wish to propitiate, making the donation on the planetary day and hour ruled by the planet. We make the donation to a person, organization or thing ruled by the planet and ideally the donation itself is an item ruled by the planet. Typically, however, it is more practical to make a monetary donation. We start by invoking the planet and making a vow to make a set number of donations, at the appropriate time. We then carry out the planetary charity.

It is very important that all of the activities done as planetary charity be done respectfully. Most importantly, DO NOT fail to carry out the complete number of donations you have promised to the planet. Breaking your vow will have much worse consequences than never making the vow in the first place.

Instructions for Planetary Charity

The basic method of doing planetary charity is to decide on the planet that you wish to propitiate. You then invoke the planet, vow to do a set number of donations and then do the donations, giving a monetary donation or ideally an appropriate item ruled by the planet, to a person, organization or thing ruled by the planet. On the left side of the Planets page are links to planetary rulership lists by Al-Biruni, Cornelius Agrippa and William Lilly. I tend to go with Lilly as the final judge, but that is a matter of personal preference, all of the planetary rulerships listed are usable.

So if we wished to propitiate Jupiter, Lilly says Jupiter rules, "Judges, Senators, Councellours, Ecclesiasticall men, Bishops, Priests, Ministers, Cardinals, Chancellours, Doctors of the Civill Law, young Schollers and Students in an University or College, Lawyers." Christian Astrology page 63. We could, therefore give a donation to a priest or minister, or to a church, or to a student or professor, or a university, since these are all ruled by Jupiter.


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Cornelius Agrippa in Book II, chapter 22 of Three Books of Occult Philosophy lists numbers appropriate to the seven planets:

  • Saturn 3 or 9
  • Jupiter 4 or 16
  • Mars 5 or 25
  • the Sun 6 or 36
  • Venus 7 or 49
  • Mercury 8 or 64
  • the Moon 9 or 81
These numbers are appropriate for the number of times you should repeat the donation and can even be used in the amount donated, for example, making a Saturn donation 3 times of $9 or $27 (3 x 9).

The donation should be made on the planetary day and hour of the planet.

  • Sunday is ruled by the Sun
  • Monday is ruled by the Moon
  • Tuesday is ruled by Mars
  • Wednesday is ruled by Mercury
  • Thursday is ruled by Jupiter
  • Friday is ruled by Venus
  • Saturday is ruled by Saturn
The first planetary hour of every day begins at Sunrise and is ruled by the planet that rules the day. For example, Sunrise on Monday is Moon hour. Renaissance Astrology sells a software program TPHP, the planetary hours program, which automatically calculates the planetary hours for the date and your location.

Here is an example of planetary charity for Saturn. We decide to give a donation to a homeless person, Lilly says Saturn rules, "Beggars" Christian Astrology, page 58. We decide to give the donation 3 Saturdays in a row on Saturn hour. We start with an invocation on an earlier Saturday at Saturn hour and invoke Saturn, then make our vow.

We can invoke the planets using the Hymns of Orpheus:

Another option is to use the planetary invocations in Book III, chapter 7 of Picatrix which can be found in Secrets of Planetary Ritual, which is specifically set up for us in ritual or in our translation of the Complete Picatrix. If you work in another tradition that has planetary invocations you can use those rituals as well.

Finally, in addition to invocation we can also do the Vedic mantras of the planets. Here is a Youtube playlist with the planetary mantras plus the lunar nodes, i.e. Rahu and Ketu. Here is Sun Mantra, which is missing from the playlist. 108 times is very good, but you can also use the numbers of the planets listed above as appropriate numbers of repetitions of their mantras or the numbers suggested in the videos.

Learning More About Astrological Magic & Talismans

If you are interested in astrological magic and astrological talismans the Renaissance Astrology website is an excellent resource with over 300 pages of material on traditional astrology and magic. Here is a useful page on Astrology and Magic Books some of which are available directly from Renaissance Astrology, links are provided for other useful book sources.

Check out the Renaissance Astrology Facebook page, the Renaissance Astrology blog and the Spiritus Mundi Yahoo Discussion Group to learn and be part of the Renaissance Astrology community. Also for those interested in advanced traditional astrology and astrological magic and their use as a spiritual path we have the Renaissance Astrology Inner Circle that includes the Inner Circle Marginalia newsletter.

For those that desire to delve deeper into Astrology and magic I offer my Planetary Magic Mini-Course and Mansions of the Moon Mini-Course, Decan/Face Mini-Course, and Green Magic Mini-Course which allow students to immediately start making talismans and elections and are a great introduction to my longer Astrological Magic Course.

Please Contact me with any questions about taking Renaissance Astrology courses.