Planetary Days of the Weeks

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Naming the gods of the 7 visible planets

The planetary days and hours, are part of our Babylonian inheritance. Planetary Days was first introduced in Babylonia, when our attention turned upwards towards the sky. This is where the framework of planetary days, we believe, was first introduced. The Babylonians developed a horoscope around 500 BCE, where each day of the week was assigned to one of the seven observable planets: the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. The official Roman calendar, adopted the seven day week with the names of the gods who’s quality were like those planets. This system is similar to philosophy in Vedic astrology - which shows the culturally Babylonian influence spread both east (India) and west (Rome).

“You must understand that as there are seven days of the week, viz. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, so there are seven Planets, viz. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, Luna: We appropriate to each day of the Week a several Planet; as to Sunday, Sun; to Monday, Moon; to Tuesday, Mars; to Wednesday, Mercury; to Thursday, Jupiter; to Friday, Venus; to Saturday, Saturn:” (CA, p482)”
— William Lilly

The names of the day of the week were coined in the Roman era:

  • Monday, in Greek as ἡμέρᾱ Σελήνης, and Latin diēs Lūnae "day of the Moon"

  • Tuesday, Latin diēs Martis “day of Mars”.

  • Wednesday, in Italian mercoledì, Latin dies Mercurii “day of Mercury”.

  • Thursday, in Italian giovedì, Latin Iovis Dies, "Jupiter's Day".

  • Friday, in Italian venerdì, Latin dies Veneris or "day of Venus".

  • Saturday, Sāturni diēs “Saturn's Day".

  • Sunday, dies Solis “day of the Sun”. In Russian, Воскресенье (Voskreseniye / Voskresenie) meaning “Resurrection”, or Sunday.

The names for the days of the weeks in many European countries come straight from the Roman days for the corresponding planets - yet these norther European countries inserted their own corresponding Germanic (Norse) gods for -Tues., Wed., Thurs., Friday - replacing the four Roman gods of the days of the week:

  • Monday, Mōnandæg and Middle English Monenday, Day of the Moon.

  • Tuesday was named for Tiw, god of war (according to some), corresponding to Mars.

  • Wednesday was named for Woden, god of wisdom, eloquence, poetry, the ability to travel, and the guardianship of the dead, corresponding to Mercury.

  • Thursday was named for Thunor’s day, or, to give the word its Old English form, Thunresdæg “the day of Thunder”. Which is very similar to the Norse god, Thor, as well as god of lightning and protection, corresponding to Jupiter. These gods are associated with thunder in their respective mythologies.

  • Friday was named for Freya, god of love, corresponding to Venus.

  • Saturday, Old English Sætern(es)dæġ and Sæterdæġ. The day was also referred to as "Sæternes dæġe" - Saturns Day.

  • Sunday, derived from sunedai, developed from Old English, or Sunnandæg - meaning "suns’ day”, which is cognate to other Germanic languages, Old Saxon sunnundag.

Our understanding of time, first began with observation. We can observe the sun and moon / day and night. We can quarter the lunar cycle (full moon, new moon and the two quarter moons); and from this quartering we arrive at the 7 day week. The Moon takes 27.3 days to orbit Earth, but the lunar phase cycle (from new Moon to new Moon) is 29.5 days. The Babylonians rounded the lunar cycle down to 28 days, and divided this time span into 4 periods of 7 days.

Diurnal - adjective - of, relating to, or occurring in the daytime.
Nocturnal - adjective - of, relating to, or occurring in the nighttime.

Phase Hour Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Diurnal I ☉ ☽︎ ♀ ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄
II ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃
III ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂
IV ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉
V ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃ ♀
VI ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿
VII ♂ ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎
VIII ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄
IX ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃
X ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂
XI ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉
XII ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃ ♀
Nocturnal XIII ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿
XIV ♂ ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎
XV ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄
XVI ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃
XVII ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂
XVIII ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉
XIX ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃ ♀
XX ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿
XXI ♂ ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎
XXII ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄
XXIII ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂ ☿ ♃
XXIV ☿ ♃ ♀ ♄ ☉ ☽︎ ♂
 
 
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