Electional astrology from the Greater Key of Solomon

If you are concerned that waiting for an opportune time for a particular operation may not be possible or would be extremely inconvenient, the Greater Key of Solomon offers some planetary day and hour elections and some basic lunar elections which work well in a pinch.

Planetary hour elections

The planetary hours are calculated by dividing the day (calculated from sunrise to sunset) and night (calculated from sunset to sunrise of the next day) in 12 periods of equal length. Note that a planetary hour may last for less than or longer than a regular 60 minute hour depending upon the time of year, and day hours may be a different length tof time to night hours. The hours are then assigned a planet based upon the Chaldaen order (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury,Moon) starting from the planet that rules the day, e.g., for Monday, the first hour belongs to the Moon, for Tuesday the first hour is of Mars, and so on.

The author of the Greater Key gives the following uses for the Planetary hours and advises that it is more efficacious to work during the correct day also:

Saturn

Experiments to summon the souls from Hades, but only of those who have died a natural death. Operations to bring either good or bad fortune to buildings; to have familiar spirits attend you 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.

Jupiter
For obtaining honours, acquiring riches; contracting friendships, preserving health; and arriving at all that tyou can desire.

Mars
Experiments regarding war; to arrive at military honour; to acquire courage; to overthrow enemies; and further to cause ruin, slaughter, cruelty, discord; to wound and to give death.

Sun
Experiments regarding temporal wealth, hope, gain, fortune, divination, the favour of princes, to dissolve hostile feeling, and to make friends.

Venus
For forming friendships; for kindness and love; for joyous and pleasant undertakings, and for traveling; for lots, poisons, all things of the nature of Venus, for preparing powders provocative of madness and the like things

Mercury
Operations for eloquence and intelligence; promptitude in business; science and divination; wonders; apparitions; and answers regarding the future; for thefts; writings; deceit; and merchandise; The hours of Mercury are good for undertaking experiments relating to games, raillery, jests, sports, and the like

Moon
For embassies; voyages; envoys; messages; navigation; reconciliation; love; and the acquisition of merchandise by water; for making trial of experiments relating to recovery of stolen property, for obtaining nocturnal visions, for summoning spirits in sleep, and for preparing anything relating to water.

In general, the hours of Saturn, of Mars, and of the Moon are good for communicating and speaking with spirits; and the hour of Mercury too for recovering thefts by the means of spirits. The hours of Mars are good to speak to the spirits of those slain in battle.

The hours of the Sun, of Jupiter, and of Venus are equally good for preparing any operations of love, of kindness, and of invisibility.

The hours of the Sun, of Jupiter, and of Venus, particularly on the days which they rule, are good for all extraordinary, uncommon, and unknown operations.

Lunar elections

The waxing phase of the moon (the new to full moon) is good for all operations of a beneficial nature as long as the moon ha separated from combustion of the Sun and is visible. The waning phase of the moon is good for operations of war, disturbance and discord, and, when the moon is almost dark, it is good for operations of invisibility and death.

When the Moon is in Earth signs ( Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn), this is good for the invocation of spirits, the works of necromancy, and the recovery of stolen property

When the Moon is in Fiery Signs ( Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius), this is good for operations of love, grace, and invisibility

When the Moon is in Water Signs ( Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces), this is a good time for operations of hatred, discord, and destruction

When the Moon is in Air Signs (Gemini, Libra, or Aquarius), this is a good time for experiments of a peculiar nature, which cannot be classed under any certain head

The hours of Saturn and Mars, and also the days on which the Moon is conjunct, square or on opposition to them with them, are excellent for making experiments of hatred, enmity, quarrel, and discord.

The hours of Mercury, when the Moon is in airy sign (another version has Earth signs) as well as the Sun, is a good time to communicate with the spirits.

As in many grimoires, the operations for particular goals described in the Greater Key of Solomon are preceded by the evocation of the planetary spirits named in the pentacles for which the grimoire is famous, and your results are likely to be better if you have established a relationship with them first, but it is not a prerequisite to use these elections

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