Hora: Planetary Hours for Everyday Timing

Hora is one of the simplest timing tools in Jyotish. Each day and each night is divided into twelve horas, and each hora is ruled by one of the seven visible planets. Choosing the hora of the right planet for a task is a quick way to pick a good time when a full muhurta is not needed.

How the horas are counted

The first hora of each day begins at local sunrise and is ruled by the lord of the weekday: the Sun on Sunday, the Moon on Monday, and so on. The following horas run in a fixed order — Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars — which is the ancient order of the planets by apparent speed, from slowest to fastest (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon), entered at the Sun. After the 24th hora the sequence lands on the lord of the next weekday, which is why the weekdays run Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and not in the order of the planets’ speeds.

A hora is not always sixty minutes. Day horas are one-twelfth of the time from sunrise to sunset and night horas one-twelfth of the time from sunset to the next sunrise, so in winter the day horas are shorter and the night horas longer. Tables that use fixed clock hours are only approximate.

What each hora suits

• Sun — dealing with government, seniors and authority; applying for posts.
• Moon — travel, public dealings, matters of home and women, starting new things.
• Mars — property, machinery, sport, courage, disputes; avoid for agreements.
• Mercury — study, writing, communication, trade, accounts.
• Jupiter — education, religious work, finance, advice, ceremonies.
• Venus — marriage talks, arts, buying clothes, jewellery and vehicles, pleasure.
• Saturn — hard work, labour, repairs, buying iron or oil; avoid for celebrations.

Combining with other tools

Hora is used inside a good day, not instead of one. Choose the day by Panchang — tithi, nakshatra and weekday — and then choose the hora within it, avoiding Rahu Kaal. Many people also wear or begin a gemstone in the hora of its planet on its weekday.

Our Hora page calculates every planetary hour from sunrise and sunset at your location, for today or any date.