~ 79 ~
be clutching at some method of propitiating or eluding it. It is not surprising, therefore, that we should find among the remains of magical documents occasional incantations to the planets, and that these should sometimes shew recognition of the planetary hours or days. These may very likely be much more numerous than those which I can give from my present knowledge. One of the volumes of those 'Codices Astrologorum' which I have already quoted contains a number of magic formulae of an astrological type[1]. These direct the spell to be used when one or other of the planets is in a certain position in the Zodiac. But there is also appended a direction that it shall be used at the 'hour' of some planet, which is frequently a different one from that whose position is described. In these formulae the 'hour' of the planet may be assumed to mean the hour or hours in the planetary week which belong to the planet in question. No mention is made of days, and we have here an indication that, while to the popular mind the planet-days were the essential thing, the esoteric mind thought more of the hours which were the original unit of the system. Again, an Egyptian magical papyrus now in the Leyden Museum has side by side the normal and the week-order of the planets[2] . The former is headed the 'Seven-Zones,' the other simply 'Greek,' a fact which, by the way, does not encourage us
