There’s an old Chinese proverb that goes “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” When people ask me about timing and spellwork, this proverb always comes to mind. In a very real sense, the best time to cast a spell is BEFORE YOU NEED IT but most of us are not precognizant (enough) to know when you will need a spell in the future – so the second-best time to cast a spell is always now. When you need it. But that’s not really the answer that people are looking for and I get that. So here’s my personal reasoning behind when I choose to cast spells.
What is Divine Timing
Divine timing is applying the movement of the planets to your advantage in your spell casting. The belief behind this is basically this: when the planets move through the signs in the horoscope and as they make aspects with one another, they open and close certain energetic doors. We can use the energies that are available to aid in our spellwork. Some of this is pretty baked into witchcraft, in general. For instance, most witches accept the idea that you can use the new moon to start a new project and the full moon to complete a project. Does it mean that you MUST start a new project on the new moon or complete a project on the full moon? Of course not, it just means that the energy during these times is supportive of these endeavors.
What I have found personally is that, if you spend the time to align your magic properly with divine timing, you tend to need to put less of your own personal energy into your spell. This is especially useful to witches who operate often from a space of being low on spoons or energy deprived for any particular reason.
My general flow chart for following divine timing is as follows:
Now > Good Astrological Timing > Phase of the Moon > Day of the Week > Planetary Hours
I’ll break this down in a way that hopefully makes sense.
NOW
How important is the thing that you need? In the end, if you feel called the cast a spell there is a reason. You should examine this need. The more immediately you need the results, the quicker you should cast your spell and maybe you don’t have time to wait for the proper moon phase or hope for a good planetary alignment to help you out. My caveat to this is that spells do require planning if they aren’t something you’ve done before (once I’ve done a spell 2-3x I can often go from decision to implementation in about 30 minutes so long as I have any components on hand.) My second caveat to this is to think carefully before you cast a spell during a void of course moon. Almost everybody is lower energy during a void of course moon and you might not have as much oomph to put into your spell. This is especially true of anybody with a strong Cancerian element to their birth chart of whose chart is Moon-centric in general. If it’s cleansing magic, go ahead – if it’s anything else, wait until the moon has changed signs. If you can’t wait, you probably don’t need magic you need something else (a doctor, a lawyer, a therapist?). There are many apps out there that track void of course moons for you – this is specific to where you are and needs to be calculated for accuracy.
GOOD ASTROLOGICAL TIMING
As the planets move through the sky, they interact with each other and with the Earth in different ways that add energy to our daily lives. Think about all of the talk about Mercury retrogrades and eclipse seasons – some energies are good for spellcraft and some not-so-good. Learning astrology and how it can help or hinder your craft is, IMO, one of the greatest things that you can do to enhance your witching.
Some astrological events add energy that can be harnessed by everybody. They include (but are not limited to): anytime a planet changes signs, anytime a planet “stations” (goes retrograde or direct after going retrograde), anytime two planets aspect each other in the sky, full and new moons…I could go on about this for hours. Use this energy. It makes your witchcraft easier because you don’t need to add as much energy to your spells – using divine timing allows you to work with the energy that IS ALREADY THERE. Simple examples of this include: cursing a couple when Venus is square Mars in the skies, making a road opener oil to counteract the effects of Mercury retrograde, or casting a success spell while Jupiter is in Sagittarius. The ways to apply astrological events to your spellwork are endless and highly individualized.
A way to level up from using the base transits to enhance your spellwork is to use the current transits of the planets through the sky when they aspect your birth chart. This involves knowing your own birth chart well. You need to have a good understanding of the planets, houses, and transits but this is all information worth knowing! For instance, you could not get better divine timing (IMO) for Crown of Success work than to perform it when Jupiter crosses your midheaven and into your 10th house which rules success and work.
This is tricky – the outer planets only transverse our houses a couple of times in our lifetime – but the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the Moon do so regularly. In fact, the Moon does so every month!
PHASES OF THE MOON
This is still an aspect of divine timing, it’s just divine timing on a much quicker scale. The moon goes through every single sign in the horoscope every 28 days so if you want to cast a spell with the moon is in Pisces (for whatever reason), you AT MOST need to wait 28 days to cast this spell. The same goes for doing magic with the full moon or new moon. Other astrological timing is hit or miss but you can guarantee that the moon is going to do what you need to do quickly enough that it is reasonable to wait for the proper moon phase (New, Waxing, Full, or Waning) for most work that doesn’t need immediate results. Some spells are naturally cast better on a waning moon and some better on a waxing – I’m not going to go into specifics in this because this should be general spell knowledge. Use this to your advantage – it will ALWAYS help you. That said, I will always choose other astrological timing over the moon phase. I would rather cast a Road Opener when an outer planet stations direct (a major shift of energy in the forward direction which can be harnessed for the spell) even if it’s not during a waning moon which is the traditional phase for a road opener spell.
DAYS OF THE WEEK
If you’ve got nothing else, days of the week do just fine. Monday is a moon day so casting a moon-centric spell on a Monday under the right moon phase will pack a lot of punch. If you want to work with Saturn energy but aren’t going to have a good Saturn aspect in the sky or in transit to your chart for a while, cast it on Saturn’s Day (Saturday). I find that the days of the week work especially well when combined with appropriate moon phases – you’ll likely never clean your house quite as efficiently as you can on a Monday under the waning Virgo moon, as an example. I’m also not going to go into the exact specifics of what types of magic are aligned with each day as this is information already readily found online. Just know that if you can wait a week, you can always use the day of the week to your advantage.
PLANETARY HOURS
Planetary hours are a complex system of calculated the hours which are ruled by the planets. If nothing else, even if you need to perform a spell “now”, you might have enough time to wait for a planetary hour. You can find this using any good planetary ap calculator – again, this needs to be calculated to your exact location so it takes some finesse to get right. The drawback to using planetary hours is that they are not on your schedule – if you have other things in your life that need tending, you may not be able to bend your magic to meet these parameters. If you can’t, that’s totally okay. Don’t use them.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
You can, at any time, use all or none of the above-mentioned examples of divine timing to enhance your magic. The more of them that you can combine together, the more ambient energy is available to cast your spell which means less energy that you need to put into your casting. Will all of the above always be available to you? Definitely not. Do you need to work with all of them? Definitely not. In fact, you don’t have to work with any of them – diving timing, like most things in magic, is simply another tool that you can choose to include or not – the choice is always up to you.