Days are for What Now?

You might have heard that “Mondays are for the Moon.” Perhaps you’re well aware that each day of the week corresponds to one of the 7 traditional planets (or 5 planets and 2 lights, if we want to be precise).

Sundays – the Sun
Mondays – the Moon
Tuesdays – Mars
Wednesdays – Mercury
Thursdays – Jupiter
Fridays – Venus
Saturdays – Saturn

Okay great.

But what do you do with that information?

A lot of folks will say to take a nap, have a snack, or bathe luxurious-like on Mondays. Focus on self-care. That’s fine. If you've got the means to do those things, by all means do 'em if it pleases you.

But, maybe you’ve found that on Mondays you prefer yoga or a martial arts class, and it’s Saturdays are actually the day you want to focus on self-care? (I’m looking at you Aquarius risings!)

That’s because the planet that rules each day of the week is going to correspond to different topics (or houses of your chart) depending on your rising sign. So, while a Cancer rising might indeed love nothing more than to nap Mondays away, a Virgo or Capricorn rising might prefer to spend that day connecting with others.

Over the course of this series, we’ll take a quick look at each of the days of the week, how you can use them for simple practical magic (even if you’re a total beginner), and I’ll give you a few suggestions for putting the theory into practice based on your rising sign.

Practical Magic

What is magic anyways?

Greater writers than I have spent countless pages working out how to answer that question.

The simplest definition I can give is: magic is the act of deliberately utilizing correspondences to achieve an end through more or other-than-direct (aka mundane) means.

Planting a seed, watering it, and waiting for it to grow. Miraculous and cool – certainly. Not necessarily magic – though it can be.

Aleister Crowley famously said that "magic is the art of changing reality in conformity with your will."

Think of that plant we planted.

Offer the spirit of the plant, or the land a little something something to encourage their growth? Now you’re getting magical. Time that ritualized planting time with the appropriate phases or Mansions of the Moon, or some other auspicious astrological event?

Now it’s astro-magical and maybe even talismanic.

So practical magic then, we can think of as any mundane action that we enhance or “enchant” via deliberate use of correspondences. Read: taking a bath, cooking a meal, sweeping the floors, cleaning your mirrors or windows, but make it magic.

Or mundane actions that we undertake with magical outcomes in mind.

For instance: cleaning your floors, windows, or refrigerator. Regular life stuff that eventually has to get done. You can do them as normal, with regular cleaning supplies, but while focusing on magical outcomes:

• clean the floors to tidy up and maintain the foundations of your life
• clean the windows to improve your sight (physical or psychic)
• clean the refrigerator to nourish yourself more plentifully
• clean the doors to close up cracks in energetic defenses / psychic shields

...you get the idea.

In The Celestial Art, Austin Coppock describes “astrological magic as the art of reconciling Heaven and Earth…” Very similar to the 'as above, so below' which isn't precisely an accurate quote of the original (that's a conversation for a different article).

He points to something vital here: there's a slipstream of similitude that suffuses everything we can perceive. We can see it play out through synchronicities, and we can participate as co-creators through acts of magic.

Those acts of magic can be ceremonial, ritual, sympathetic, practical and I'm sure there's others too. And these are just a layperson's way of describing it. We could absolutely talk about theurgy vs. thaumaturgy and whether or not something is apotropaic or whatever else. But the goal here is to present to you clear ways of building your own practice with the planets.

Mercury’s Days

Wednesdays are my favorite day of the week. They’re also the first day that I ever took as a blackout day – a day that I reserved for myself alone. No answering my phone. I didn't tell anyone where I was going or when.

From 2013 to 2019 Wednesdays were my day.

I didn’t know it then, but it was the first faint emergence of a planetary days practice. I certainly knew about the association between the planets and the days then, and had memorized my chart way back in 2002 or '03.

I could have chosen any other day of the week. At the time, Mondays were available, and I already had those days free from commitments to work. Instead, I shifted my schedule around so that I could be alone with my thoughts, moleskine and pilot precise v5 pen, wandering around Oakland as I pleased.

That is, after therapy. Truth is I'd set out to get to the bottom of some shit with weekly somatic trauma therapy sessions, and the last thing I wanted to do afterwards was shake or serve drinks.

You could certainly have made the argument that somatics on Moon's day would have made more sense based on the Soma = Moon connection, and you'd be right. Where that Moon lights up my chart and what They're* responsible for would just add further credence to your claims.

But, Mercury is the planet of speech, translation. The planetary psychopomp. And there's definitely something of a traversing into the underworld of one's of consciousness that occurs (or at least did for me) over the course of of years of doing that intense therapeutic work.

Besides, Wednesdays just felt right.

While I was aware of the planetary days back then, I didn’t do it for Hermes. From 2013 to 2015, I spent Wednesdays in devotion to Odin and study of the Runes - meditating with each rune-poem and slowly cutting, carving, and staining a ritual set of my own; and slowly working on my own rudimentary translations based on my modest understanding of Swedish and an old Old Norse dictionary a friend gifted to me.

Friends, translation, things requiring fine motor skills and dexterity of the fingers – these are all significations of Mercury. Some of y'all Sun Siblings out there reading this may already by chuckling about the connection between Odin and Hermes.

It's actually right there in the name: Wednesday.

In Swedish it's called Önsdag. In Spanish: Miercoles. Those are two of the three languages I know a little of but can't really speak. Still, it holds true in other romance languages as well where we get some variation of Mercury's day, whereas in the one's that descend from a Germanic language, we get Odin (or Wotan/Wodan's) day.

So maybe you could so that I was "doing it for Mercury," just in a way that reflected my life/interests, etc. at the time.

Today I like to think it was the call of the Liminal One. Or my devotion to Odin (the deity the Germanic languages honor on Wednesdays). Or the way that Mercury shows up in my own chart - most bonified planet, leader of my stellium, triplicity lord of my sect light... It was inevitable that Wednesday would have become the day

Much maligned, a lot of people call it ‘hump’ day.

In the middle of the workweek for most folks where I live, it’s a day where many feel already tired from the work they’ve put in, and far too weary to consider what’s left to be done with the remainder of the week ahead.

If you’re wondering what you can do to tap into the practical magic of Mercury, stay tuned for Wednesdays are For... where I'll walk you through areas to focus on based on the houses that Mercury rules in your chart (as determined by your rising sign).

At the simplest level of practice it's best to begin with simply noting which planet belongs to which day. Wednesday's are Mercury's.

Working with anything having to do with words is, first and foremost, guaranteed, so one need only pay a little more mind to the acts of speech, writing, reading, or listening, or any other means of communication, in order to do Mercury things on Mercury's day.

Getting Personal with the Planets

There's a way of personalizing one's practice with the planetary days. At least, that's the whole point of this series, the Practice with the Planets class series, and the course that will be launching later this year.

The basic idea is that by looking at the houses that are activated by that day's planet you can focus in on the types of actions that work most harmoniously with your chart, and which that planet will be most responsive to coming from you.

That's what you can find below in the descriptions for each of the rising signs.

If you rising sign isn't complete yet, don't fret! Each week a couple more entries will be added across for one day or the other, until the whole set is complete.

Gemini Rising (1H / 4H):

Self and home

With Mercury ruling your first and fourth houses Wednesdays are a good day for focusing on your self and your home. Home here can be understood in a broad sense – "where the heart is," the place that you grew up, the family that raised you, your roots, or the land that claims you.

History may be something you find you have a particular interest in on Wednesdays. Or, potentially gardening or other types of home improvement projects. If it's close to home, or "yours" it's a strong contender for working with on Wednesdays.

Question for Wednesday

• What stories do you know about the land you're on? Where you're from? About your family?

Wednesday Challenges

• Write an important word or phrase in with your best handwriting. Refine it. Maybe practice calligraphy.
• Or, memorize something and recite it from memory. Refine your pronunciation.

Taurus Rising (2H / 5H):

Inventory of pleasures

As a Taurus rising the places that Mercury rules are your second house (Gemini) and your fifth house (Virgo). These are the places of our personal pantry and our public (as well as private... if you know what I mean) pleasures.

Questions for Wednesday

• How do you display your pleasure?
• What acts of leisure are the foundation of your talents and interest? (In other words, if "all work and no play" make us dull automatons, what's the play that feeds your interests?

Challenge for Wednesday

• Public displays of active pleasure... of just straight up PDA (maybe?). Whether the affection is for a recreational passtime, your favorite meal to cook, a poem, story or whatever it might be that you enjoy.

Aries Rising (3H / 6H):

Ritual routines

As an Aries rising Wednesday activate your third house (Gemini) and your sixth house (Virgo). The third is a place of 'little rituals' while the sixth is a place about the routines that sustain life – or avert crisis.

Pisces Rising (4H / 7H):

Roots and relations

coming soon

Aquarius Rising (5H / 8H):

Pleasurable exchange

coming soon

Capricorn Rising (6H / 9H):

Holistic learning

coming soon

Sagittarius Rising (7H / 10H):

Professional relationships

coming soon

Scorpio Rising (8H / 11H):

Communal resources

coming soon

Libra Rising (9H / 12H):

Spiritual retreat

coming soon

Virgo Rising (10H / 1H):

Public relations

coming soon

Leo Rising (11H / 2H):

Social supply

coming soon

Cancer Rising (12H / 3H):

Writer’s retreat

coming soon

Playlists for the Planets

Mercury Edition

Hermetic Rhapsodies

Mercury has a connection with stringed instruments, and all of these tracks feature them in one way or another. Some get into lyrical topics that have astrological connections ("Hello, Anxiety") and others have some kind of word-play about them.

Slick Trick Tongue

Hip-hop, largely of the older-school varieties. A much later iteration of Bear's practice of creating playlists for the planets.

Upcoming Class at Raven's Wing Magical Co.

After the success of the first Practice with the Planets class, Bear is back Raven's Wing teaching an eight-week series taking an in-depth look at each of the planets and their days.

The course begins March 12th at 6:30 pm on and carries on weekly every Sunday until April 30th. Sign up for just one class, or get a discount when you purchase the whole series.

Tickets are available for purchase through Eventbrite with a suggested donation between $22 and $44 per class.

Walk-ins are welcome, space provided. So feel free to drop by if you're near Lake Merritt on Sunday nights!

Have a question for Bear? Want to connect with other astrologers and astrology enthusiasts?

As always, I hope these words find and serve you well.

If you'd like to start a discussion or pose a question to your fellow members (and/or Bear) feel free to post down below!

If you'd like to reach out to Bear directly you can reach him at: contact@bearryver.com

Bear Ryver is a professional astrologer helping his clients hone strategies for grounded growth and embodied empowerment by bringing them back to the BASICS. Winner of OPA’s Most Promising Astrologer in 2018, Bear has lectured at conferences like NORWAC and ISAR. He holds certifications in Hellenistic, Electional, and Horary astrology, and specializes in Intersectional Astrology. He was a teacher for the Portland School of Astrology, and has volunteered as a mentor for AFAN. When he’s not talking stars, or pulling cards, you can find him climbing rocks and playing guitar.