Want to enhance your life through planetary magic? Learn how to create a ritual or altar practice and bring more love and abundance into your life.

Planetary magic has become increasingly popular as more and more people learn about practitioners from the medieval and earlier periods, who were both astrologers and magicians. Historical texts like The Picatrix have been translated into English and are more widely accessible. The Picatrix is not a book for the faint-hearted, but for those already well versed in astrology and magic it can be an insightful tool for enhancing your life through planetary magic.

Ancient astrologers honoured the seven visible planets. Each planet is associated with unique topics and experiences in life. Two of common areas in life that I get asked about a lot — and that you might be interested in too — are finances and abundance, as well as relationships. These topics are linked to the two helpful planets, Venus and Jupiter.

Venus and Jupiter

Jupiter is the planet of wealth and abundance. The large size of Jupiter gives him the ability to make things bigger. Jupiter is also the planet of fertility, showing that for anything that you want to grow or make more of, Jupiter will be the planet to connect with.

Jupiter’s support can help your bank balance grow, as well as improve your overall financial prospects. The qualities of heat and moisture are associated with Jupiter: these are the exact qualities that bring the garden alive in the spring. If you need a boost of luck or support from well-placed benefactors, or you’re simply looking to get the rewards you’ve worked for, Jupiter can help improve your prospects.

While there are many affirmations you can say to support love and abundance, it can be more empowering to do so as part of a ritual or altar practice to help enhance your results.

Most of us, regardless of our relationship status, want to improve our experiences in love. If you’re single, you might want to tap into cosmic support to help you find the right partner. If you’re in a relationship, you might appreciate a dash of romantic support from the cosmos to help keep your connection sweet, and your partnership full of tenderness and passion. In astrology, the main planet of relationships is Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. You can also call on Venus if you would like to develop an artistic or creative talent, boost self-love or update your style; and to help you make a sweeter impression on others in general.

While there are many affirmations you can say to support love and abundance, it can be more empowering to do so as part of a ritual or altar practice to help enhance your results.

Planetary days, nights and hours

Making a meaningful offering to the right planet is important. Just as important will be making your altar, offering and request at just the right time to capture as much cosmic power and energy as possible.

In addition to their special cycles through the zodiac, each of the seven original planets is allocated rulership over certain periods of time, including days and nights of the week and specific hours of the day and night. For instance, Jupiter rules Thursday, from sunrise to sunset, and Sunday night, from sunset to sunrise. For her part, Venus rules Friday, from sunrise to sunset and Monday night, from sunset to sunrise.

In addition, the ruling planet of the day or night of the week also governs the first and eighth hour of that day or night. In the planetary hours method, an “hour” is not 60 minutes and planetary hours are not measured with the clock in the normal way.

A planetary hour is one-twelfth of the length of either the day or the night. How long this is in minutes will vary according to your location, the length of day or night and the time, or season, of the year. A great resource to look up the planetary hours in your area is lunarium.co.uk. Be sure to enter your location at the top of the page to get the right planetary hours according to clock time for your area for the current day and month. Keep in mind, these planetary hour times of day will change through the year, as the day length changes with the seasons.

Making a meaningful offering to the right planet is important. Just as important will be making your altar, offering and request at just the right time to capture as much cosmic power and energy as possible.

The first planetary “hour” of the day or night, which can vary in time from 45 to 75 minutes, depending on whether it is summer or winter, will belong to the same planet whose day or night of the week it is. Eight planetary “hours” later, the planet of the day will be back in charge again.

The best times to activate, create or charge your Venus and Jupiter altars will be in the day and hour of either Jupiter or Venus. For instance, on June 18, 2020 in Sydney, a Thursday, ruled by Jupiter, the Jupiter hours of the day will be 6.58am–7.48am and 12.46pm–13.36pm. The very next day, Friday June 19, 2020 will be ruled by Venus and those clock times will become the hours of Venus on her day.

To help you explore the world of planetary magic in the safest way possible, here are some simple tips to create a basic Venus or Jupiter altar. These ideas come from the Sphere + Sundry website (sphereandsundry.com), which is an excellent resource for planetary magic, for both beginner and advanced students.

Create a love altar to Venus

Set aside a dedicated counter space, shelf or small table for your Venus altar. Venus’s colours are green and white, and her number is seven, so these will ideally feature on your Venus altar. You can also honour Venus by wearing green or white on Fridays, and on Monday nights.

Begin by dressing your altar space with a green or white cloth as the base and to create a dedicated sacred area. Include fresh flowers, objects made from copper, the metal of Venus, along with sparkling or bubbly liquids, like mineral water or, for something fancy, prosecco or champagne.

Try to include objects in groups of seven, which is Venus’s number. If that’s not possible, just use one of something. That said, if your intention with Venus is to create an altar for love and romance, pairs of things might be appropriate too. I have two copper mugs on mine, to represent a pair, like a partnership. For stones, rose quartz is ideal, but if you’re in a position to do so, you can also include an emerald, diamond or something made of green jade.

Jupiter is the planet of fertility, showing that for anything that you want to grow or make more of, Jupiter will be the planet to connect with.

Also include anything fragrant, like perfume, incense or floral essential oils, along with your fresh flowers. Any fresh flowers will work, but fragrant ones are ideal, and Venus has a special link with roses and violets.

You’ll also want space on your altar to make offerings, which you’d ideally do in the day or night and hour of Venus. In addition to the flowers and sparkling drinks mentioned above, anything sweet, like honey, fruit juice, good-quality chocolate or a homemade cake or treat can also be included.

Add a green pen: use this to write out your wishes and to draw special symbols like the image of Venus. If you want to get really magical, visit sphereandsundry.com to download a template of the Agrippan symbols for Venus, along with a special prayer, known as the Orphic Hymn to Aphrodite, which you can say in the day and hour of Venus to add extra charge to your altar.

Create an abundance altar to Jupiter

Set aside a dedicated counter space, shelf or small table for your Jupiter altar. Jupiter’s colours are royal blue, yellow and white, and his number is four, so these will ideally feature on your Jupiter altar. You can also honour Jupiter by wearing royal blue, white or yellow on Thursdays, and Sunday nights.

Begin by dressing your altar space with a cloth in either royal blue or yellow. You can also include fresh flowers, but fruit — which is the growth or potential of the flower made manifest — will be a better choice for Jupiter. Jupiter’s metal is tin, so objects made of tin are ideal, but you can also use gold. For Jupiter The Picatrix mentions “… all stones that are white and clear and shining, and also gold.” Quality matters for Jupiter, so for liquids opt for a fine wine, rum or cognac.

Try to include objects in groups of four, which is Jupiter’s number, like four candles in Jupiter’s colours, or four pieces of fruit. I’ve used four lots of four (16 in total) gold-wrapped chocolates on my Jupiter altar in the past for an extra-strong dose of Jupiter.

If you would like to add extra charge and magic to your Venus or Jupiter altars, you might consider purchasing some of the special oils, candles and incense.

If using groups of four isn’t possible, just use one of something. For stones, gems and crystals include either one or four pieces of lapis lazuli, sapphire, amethyst, yellow citrine or blue topaz. I have four pieces of amethyst on my Jupiter altar. You could also include mint, saffron and nutmeg, which are correspondences of Jupiter listed in The Picatrix.

You’ll also want space on your altar to make offerings, which you’d ideally do in the day or night and hour of Jupiter. This might include money or other symbols of wealth (avoid symbols of debt, like a credit card or loan statement!), any of the food or drink options listed above, or something like frankincense, which is associated with Jupiter. In addition, since Jupiter represents the abundance and richness of life, I’ve also included quality cheese and nuts on my Jupiter altar.

Add a royal blue or yellow pen: use this to write out your wishes and to draw special symbols like the image of Jupiter. If you want to get really magical, visit sphereandsundry.com to download a template of the Agrippan symbols for Jupiter, along with a special prayer, known as the Orphic Hymn to Jove/Zeus, which are other names for Jupiter. You can say this Orphic Hymn in the day and hour of Jupiter to add extra charge to your altar.

Altar tips

For any fresh offerings that will spoil over time, like flowers or food, place them on your Venus or Jupiter altar at the day or night and hour of the planet. Leave them for about 24 hours, then clear away. You don’t want anything to go bad on your altar.

Ideally, add your offerings and light the candles during the Venus or Jupiter hour. If it’s safe, leave the candles burning during the planetary hour, then blow them out.

If you would like to add extra charge and magic to your Venus or Jupiter altars, you might consider purchasing some of the special Venus or Jupiter oils, candles and incense via Sphere + Sundry.

Activate and charge your altar

You can create and work with your Venus or Jupiter altars at any time. However, there are some months and years where Venus or Jupiter are especially potent. In 2020, Venus will be in one of her home signs of Libra from October 28 to November 21. A Friday during that period will have extra-special Venus qualities, making that an ideal time in which to create, tend to or use your Venus altar.

Jupiter won’t have any extra-special zodiac sign placement energies to draw on until 2022. If you have access to an astrological Moon calendar or astrological almanac, you could look for a Thursday where the Moon is in either Sagittarius or Pisces, which are the two signs ruled by Jupiter, or a day on which Jupiter is itself involved in a helpful aspect, like with the Sun, Venus, Moon or Mercury.

Activating the planets

Creating a love or abundance altar can help you bring an aware mindset to your desires and makes space for the planetary powers to support you in achieving your dreams.

Reference: The Picatrix, translated by Greer and Warnock