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Hora, the planetary hours
A hora is one twelfth of the daylight or one twelfth of the night, ruled by one of the seven classical planets in a fixed order. The first hora of the day belongs to the lord of the weekday, which is where the names of the weekdays come from.
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- First horaMercury
- Day hora length55 min
- Night hora length64 min
| Hora | Lord | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Mercury | 6:30 AM to 7:25 AM |
| Day 2 | Moon | 7:25 AM to 8:21 AM |
| Day 3 | Saturn | 8:21 AM to 9:17 AM |
| Day 4 | Jupiter | 9:17 AM to 10:13 AM |
| Day 5 | Mars | 10:13 AM to 11:09 AM |
| Day 6 | Sun | 11:09 AM to 12:04 PM |
| Day 7 | Venus | 12:04 PM to 1:00 PM |
| Day 8 | Mercury | 1:00 PM to 1:56 PM |
| Day 9 | Moon | 1:56 PM to 2:52 PM |
| Day 10 | Saturn | 2:52 PM to 3:47 PM |
| Day 11 | Jupiter | 3:47 PM to 4:43 PM |
| Day 12 | Mars | 4:43 PM to 5:39 PM |
| Night 1 | Sun | 5:39 PM to 6:43 PM |
| Night 2 | Venus | 6:43 PM to 7:47 PM |
| Night 3 | Mercury | 7:47 PM to 8:52 PM |
| Night 4 | Moon | 8:52 PM to 9:56 PM |
| Night 5 | Saturn | 9:56 PM to 11:00 PM |
| Night 6 | Jupiter | 11:00 PM to 12:05 AM |
| Night 7 | Mars | 12:05 AM to 1:09 AM |
| Night 8 | Sun | 1:09 AM to 2:13 AM |
| Night 9 | Venus | 2:13 AM to 3:17 AM |
| Night 10 | Mercury | 3:17 AM to 4:22 AM |
| Night 11 | Moon | 4:22 AM to 5:26 AM |
| Night 12 | Saturn | 5:26 AM to 6:30 AM |
Measured from local sunrise and sunset, so a day hora is only sixty minutes near the equinox.
The hour belongs to a planet. The years belong to your dasha.
A hora names the planet ruling the next stretch of clock time, and it names the same planet for everyone. The planet ruling the next stretch of your life is fixed by your birth Moon and runs for years, and that is the one worth knowing.
- The planet period you are in now, and what it does in your chart
- Each sub-period ahead, dated to the day it changes
- Work, money and relationships read through those periods
- The working behind every section, so an astrologer can check it
10 written sections, 10 years forward, about 29 minutes to read. Written in five to ten minutes, in English or Hinglish, and emailed to you.
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How the order works
The horas run Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and repeat. Twenty four steps after one sunrise the sequence lands on the lord of the next day, so Sunday's first hora is the Sun's and Monday's is the Moon's. We check that rule against all seven days at startup.
Why a hora is not sixty minutes
Day horas are a twelfth of sunrise to sunset and night horas a twelfth of sunset to sunrise. Only near the equinoxes are they close to an hour each.
How this is calculated
Positions come from Skyfield and the JPL DE440s ephemeris, with our own Lahiri ayanamsa referred to the mean equinox of date. Every planet agrees with Swiss Ephemeris to under one arcsecond, and the lunar node to under a tenth of one. We publish that because nobody else in this market publishes theirs.
- Skyfield. The astronomy library that computes every position on this site.
- JPL planetary ephemerides. NASA JPL's ephemeris export page. The DE440s kernel we load is the source of every raw planetary position.
- Capitaine, Wallace and Chapront (2003), IAU 2006 precession. The precession expressions our Lahiri ayanamsa is carried forward with from its J2000 anchor.
- Positional Astronomy Centre, Kolkata. The India Meteorological Department office that publishes the Rashtriya Panchang, which defines the Lahiri ayanamsa.
- Swiss Ephemeris. The reference implementation we test against: under one arcsecond on every planet. It is used only in our test suite, never on this site.
Questions about hora, the planetary hours
What is a hora used for?
Traditionally, matching an activity to the planet ruling the hour: Mercury's for writing and trade, Jupiter's for teaching and advice, Venus's for art and comfort. It is a custom, not a calculation about you.
Why does the hora change by city?
Because it is measured from local sunrise and sunset, which move with latitude and longitude.
. The calculation is live; this date is when the writing on this page was last reviewed.