The Origins of Planetary Correspondances We are all familiar with the seven planets, many of us will have looked into astrology to some extent, those of us who do regular magic will know about planetary days and hours and other correspondances. This article is intended to summarise some of that information while at the same time looking at the origins of the data we use. In Mesopotamia (Sumer, Babylon and Assyria) Jupiter was the creator God Marduk who established order by killing the dragon of primordial chaos, Tiamat, and making the sky and sea out of her. He then puts the world, in particular the sky, in order. Jupiter's path follows the path of the sun more closely than the other planets and it's configurations repeat themselves every 12 years. Sometimes Jupiter was called Neberu, which means Jupiter or pole/pivot. Venus was Ishtar, the Goddess of love and fertility. Her descent into the underworld may be a reflection of the stars evening and morning appearances. Venus was known as early as 3000BC in Uruk and associated with the 8 pointed star, Venus does move in an 8 year cycle. Mercury was Nebo, record keeper and messenger of the Gods. This association probably comes from the swiftness with which Mercury travels the sky. The obviously red colouring of Mars has led to its association with Gods like Nergal the Babylonian God of war. The cunieform symbol for star eventually came to mean God in Mesopotamia, showing how closely they associated the stellar bodies with their pantheon. Their symbol for the Sun was a four pointed disk with undulating lines radiating intercardinally.
Table 1. Naming the Planets
In Egypt Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were all named after Horus; Horus the Red or Horus of the Horizon for Mars, Horus who bounds/illuminates the two lands (upper and lower Egypt) for Jupiter, and Horus Bull of the Sky for Saturn. Other names for the planets were Heru-deshret or Hor-tas (bruising planet) for Mars, Her-wepes-tawy or Hor-Sat (just/true planet) for Jupiter, and Hor-Ka (slow planet) or Her-Ka-Pet for Saturn. Venus was known as The One Who Crosses, implying the Egyptians were aware that it was the same planet seen at sunrise and sunset, or God of the Morning and also as Ba'ah, Seba-djai, and Pe-neterti (bright/glorious of heaven). Mercury was associated with Seth and also known as Sowek (coming quickly). The sun was symbolised by a winged disk.
The meaning of the planets in Hebrew is ... The Greeks originally recognised only Venus (Euphoros) as a planet. They recieved information on the other planets most likely from the Babylonians and named them according to Gods of their own culture which corresponded to the Gods the Babylonians had named them after. However they did not at first consider the planet to be the God, but to be a possession of the God. The change may have been a Chaldean influence occuring gradually between 2BC and the birth of Christ. So even this far back we have already seen a propensity in Venus to be seen as female and for Mars, Jupiter and Saturn to be seen as male. Jupiter is already strongly associated with the concept of justice or leadership and Saturn with stillness. The planets were thought to circle the Earth with the Moon being closest followed by Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and finally Saturn. This is the order the planets are given in most magickal systems. These planets were thought (as far back as 5BC, and possibly earlier, in Egypt, Persia and Greece) to rule the hours of the day, starting with Saturn ruling the first hour of Saturday, Jupiter the second, Mars the third and proceeding in that order through the week. The planet which ruled the first hour of each day also ruled that day, giving us the order of the days. This seven day system was made official in Rome in 321AD by Constantine. The planets were also associated with appropriate deities in each culture, sometime literally take to be that deity.
Table 2. Naming the Days
In the 2nd century AD, a document known as the Tetrabiblos was written by Ptolemy. This was an astrological treatise that has become a core text in the development of modern astrology, however it did not reach Europe until 11-13AD. Book 1 in particular specifies the attributes of the planets and constellations. It seperates the planets into categories...
Table 3. The Tetrabiblos
These natures were determined by the planet's position in reference to the Sun (hot and dry) and the Earth (moist). The moon was moist because it was close to the earth, Mars was hot and dry because it was near the sun and red in colour, Saturn was cold and dry because it was the furthest from both the Sun and the Earth. “Most of the moon's power consists of humidifying, clearly because it is close to the earth and because of the moist exhalations there from. Its action therefore is precisely this, to soften and cause putrefaction in bodies for the most part, but it shares moderately also in heating power because of the light which it receives from the sun. “ ”Jupiter has a temperate active force because his movement takes place between the cooling influence of Saturn and the burning power of Mars. He both heats and humidifies; and because his heating power is the greater by reason of the underlying spheres, he produces fertilizing winds. “ ”Venus has the same powers and tempered nature as Jupiter, but acts in the opposite way; for she warms moderately because of her nearness to the sun, but chiefly humidifies, like the moon, because of the amount of her own light and because she appropriates the exhalations from the moist atmosphere surrounding the earth. “ ”Mercury in general is found at certain times alike to be drying and absorptive of moisture, because he never is far removed in longitude from the heat of the sun; and again humidifying, because he is next above the sphere of the moon, which is closest to the earth; and to change quickly from one to the other, inspired as it were by the speed of his motion in the neighborhood of the sun itself.” The system of four natures or humours (hot/cold and wet/dry) tie into the four elements common to us, and are Greek in origin. Other systems often had only three elements (fire, air and water). Ptolemy states that hot and wet are active and fertile while cold and dry are passive and destructive, wetness is also associated with being female. The seasons, cardinal points and winds were also associated with this four-fold system.
Table 4. Four-fold system
We can see where this has continued into the present and also where other systems or ideas have altered things. We consider autumn to be west, not east. Ptolemy also associates the stars of the constellations with the planets, different stars in each constellation having an effect similar to different planets. “The stars in the head of Aries, then, have an effect like the power of Mars and Saturn, mingled; those in the mouth like Mercury's power and moderately like Saturn's; those in the hind foot like that of Mars, and those in the tail like that of Venus.“ In 379AD Antiochus of Athens related the elemental correspondances of the planets and many correspondances of the zodiacal signs in 'The Thesaurus'; Mars as Fire, Jupiter as air, Mercury and the Moon as water for instance. Sometime in 11-12th centuries the astrological text known as the Picatrix was written in Arabic. Unfortunately there do not appear to be any copies of this book online, but it was hugely influential on later works. Book 3 of the Picatrix apparantly goes into great detail on the planets. The Picatrix contained the first magic square to appear in the west as well as much information on how to conciliate and use the spirits of the planets. Here are some excerpts...
“Sun … for the raise of prestige, praising of fraternity, amplitude of designs, authority over the powerful, humiliation of the sovereigns, splendor of lights and vanishing of darkness. “ “Entrust the Sun when you are depressed“
Table 5. Metals from Book II Ch10 and Book III Ch1 of the Picatrix
* ruddy bronze may refer to copper or bronze with a high copper content Here we see a mixed outline of the traditional metal correspondances of the planets. We can see the same in the colour correspondances given…
Table 6. Planetary colours
Western Qabalah associates the planets with the sephiroth and vice versa in what can be a confusing amalgamation. Are the sephiroth just the planets? Are the planets just the sephiroth? The planets can be seen as physical expressions of the sephiroth, thus sharing the same correspondances and rulers. There are four levels in the Qabalah; Atziluth (archetypal), Briah (creative), Yetzirah (formative) and Assiah (material). Each sephirah manifests in each of the four levels.
Table 7. Qabalistic planetary correspondances
* from Athanasius Kircher's 'Oedipus Aegyptiacus' (1653) In the oldest known work, the Sepher Yetzirah (120AD), the 7 double letters (BGDKPRT) are explicitly associated with the planets and days of the week, but no mention is made associating the planets with the sephirah themselves. However, there is a tradition which associates Chesed through Malkuth (not Binah through Yesod) with the seven days of creation. The tree of life itself as a diagram did not exist until the 13th century, before it was simply a concept and a description. The oldest known diagram is from 1516, it is very similar to our standard tree but has no planetary information. The diagram from Athanasius Kircher's 'Oedipus Aegyptiacus' (1653) is more precisely what we use. It has the paths as used by the Golden Dawn, however the planets are different (see table 7). The Bahir makes no real mention of the planets and in fact it's descriptions of the sephirah stray from the order we know as well. Qabalistic theory grew out of ancient Jewish Merkabah (chariot/throne) mysticism. Part of this belief system was the ascent of the soul from the earth to the throne of God through the seven planetary spheres or heavens guarded by hostile planetary angels to which you must give a password. These spheres were sometimes seen as halls and called the Hekhaloth. Texts began to be written on travelling through these around 2-4AD. However I can find no direct statement that these spheres, or indeed the planets, correspond to the sephiroth of Yesod through Binah until much later. There are specifically ten sephirah, “ten and not nine, ten and not eleven”, definitely ten and not seven. The planets are associated with things numbering seven; the double letters, the days of the week etc. It may be that the use of the sephirah as a path to God and the parallel use of the seven spheres as a path to God eventually led to the two systems being merged in around the 15th century. This created a confusion in that each planet now had an archangel from the sephiroth system and a planetary angel from the hehkaloth system, which were sometimes identical and sometimes not. The planetary angel can be seen as calling on a specific function of the archangel of that planet/sephirah rather than it's full being. In the cases of Samael and Haniel there are several variations on these names that are used which can be confusing (eg. Zamael and Anael). Planets also have spirits, intelligences, deities, and many other creatures associated with them, depending on the system you use, which can be called upon when working with them.
Table 8. Angelic correspondances
* these two are often given the other way around in modern usage The Key of Solomon is another hugely influential text. It is reputed to be written by the biblical King Solomon, who was wise and ruled the entire world, but the oldest manuscript used in the most common translation (by Mathers) was from the 16th century and most of the work was taken from 18th century French manuscripts. Certainly elements of the Key of Solomon existed in the 13th century but the oldest known version is in Greek and dates to the 15th century. It lists the planetary correspondances more or less as given in table 7 (trad) above. It also lists the type of magickal operation which should be done under the influence of each planet, via it's day or hour.
Saturn: “to summon the Souls from Hades, but only of those who have died a natural death.” “to bring either good or bad fortune to buildings; to have familiar Spirits attend thee in sleep; to cause good or ill success in business, possessions, goods, seeds, fruits, and similar things, in order to acquire learning; to bring destruction and to give death, and to sow hatred and discord.” Specific to the hourly correspondance are listed…
Saturn: “communicating and speaking with Spirits” “hatred, enmity, quarrel, and discord”
There are also further details on which astrological sign planets should be in for the best effect and many other things including images of pentacles for each planet. The second and third pentacles of Saturn can be seen below, the second is recommended for “repressing the pride of the Spirits”. Another well known text is that of Cornelius Agrippa (Three Books of Occult Philosophy) written in the early 16th century. It has chapters on each planet and many sigils and symbols and attributes of the planets as of the time. He took much of his work from early Greek texts and other old sources rather than copying more recent works as many writers were inclined to do. An excellent translation of his book was published by Llewellyn. Unfortunately the language can be very archaic and hard to decipher, eg. “And amongst stones, they which resemble the rayes of the Sun by their golden sparklings, as doth the glittering stone Aetites which hath power against the Falling-sickness, and poisons: so also the stone, which is called the eye of the Sun, being of a figure like to the Apple of the eye, from the middle whereof shines forth a ray, it comforts the brain, and strengthens the sight; So the Carbuncle which shines by night, hath a vertue against all aiery, and vaporous poison”. Table 9. Sample Correspondances from Three Books of Occult Philosophy
As you can see many items overlap a great deal. Gold is given as corresponding to Saturn (because it is heavy), Jupiter (because it is easily worked), and the Sun (because of it's colour). Sapphire appears for Saturn, Jupiter and Venus. Dogs for Venus, Mercury and the Moon. However he often explains why his correspondances are given as they are which can be very useful in understanding how tables of correspondance have been built up. They have generally been built up from the existing colour and elemental correspondances and attributes of the planets. Crystals that are red correspond to Mars, green to Venus. Strong, masculine, golden coloured animals are associated with the sun. According to Culpeper the beech tree is cooling and binding and therefore attributed to Saturn, the hawthorn is prickly and therefore attributed to Mars, saffron creates yellow dye and so is attributed to the Sun. In other words, you can create your own correspondance lists using the basic attributes listed above. References:
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