In Astrology, there are 7 planets which correlate with the 7 days of the week. I’ve found that what day we were born has important associations with the planet ruling that day.

It’s been many years since I last gave this to you, so let’s have some fun with an entirely different way of calculating your “chart ruler.” Because each day is associated with a planet, that implies that people born on different days of the week have different qualities, while those born on the same day share qualities. That implies the day of the week we’re born matters in big ways!

Here in the west, there is an ancient anonymous poem which states “Monday’s child is fair of face, Tuesday’s child is full of grace, Wednesday’s child is full of woe, Thursday’s child has far to go, Friday’s child is loving and giving, Saturday’s child works hard for a living, but the child that's born on the Sabbath day is bright, bonnie, good and gay.” So let’s take a look at how this relates to the astrological planets, as well as how the names of the days of the week give us clues to which planet is associated with which day.

The name “Monday” is obviously a derivation of “Moon's day.” “Tuesday” is a variation of “Tyr’s day.” Tyr was the Norse god of war, so it’s easy to see it’s related to Mars. “Wednesday” is a derivation of “Woden's day.” Woden was another Nordic god with similar qualities as what we know about the planet Mercury. “Thursday” is clearly derived from “Thor's day,” correlating with Jupiter. “Friday” is related to “Frigga's day,” that Norse goddess being the same as Venus. “Saturday” is obviously derived from “Saturn's day,” just as “Sunday” is the "Sun's day."

So how much credibility should we give these associations? Over the years I’ve done a little research into this, and found there are some remarkable and clear associations between the day of the week we were born and the planet ruling that day in our birth chart. Of course, since we have all 7 planets in our chart, it could be said that a) we’re constantly exposed to all the planets as the days roll forward, and b) regardless of what day we were born, how we express our planetary energies are entirely a product of our awareness, skill, understanding, self-discipline, and maturity.

Getting back to the poem, while some associations seem obvious, there are others which need examination to see how they might correlate. We are told those born on the Moon’s day, Monday, are “full of face,” and we know that Lunar people have very prominent faces, full of expression and feeling. When we get to Tuesday and Mars, it seems strange to associate Mars’ ruled people with “full of grace," since grace is a quality usually given to Venus.

However, in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend I offer that each planet has a duality of function, one healthy, one not. Mars’ duality is Grace/Sin with “sin” being an old archery term for “missing the mark.” Perhaps those born on Tuesday, or at a time when Mars is prominent in the chart, do need to show grace to others, especially those who get them agitated, excited, or “fired up” as per Mars’ fiery nature.

We now turn to Wednesday, and its supposed associations with Mercury. Mercury, ruling the mind, can get very grumpy from time to time, since the mind is a barren place of always evaluating and comparing and contrasting information but never really knowing anything beyond its own barren facts and figures. One of the qualities of the archetypal Magician (Mercury) is that they can be very grumpy. That could be associated with being “full of woe,” since the mind’s arid (and even pessimistic) quality as it makes countless experiments never finds joy in the journey. You can see how this could lead to “woe,” or sorrow, since the mind disconnected from heart makes for a “woeful” human existence, with all the feelings we have to feel.

When the poem states “Thursday's child has far to go,” it’s easy to see the connection to Jupiter, just as Friday’s (Venus’) child is “loving and giving” if our Venus is healthy. If Saturday’s children are associated with Saturn, the correlation with "work hard for a living,&quot becomes easy to see, since Saturn’s people are very hard workers throughout their lives. And it’s easy to imagine that someone born on Sunday with the Sun as their ruler could be very bright, “sunny,” and good when the Sun is functioning in a healthy way.

All that said, because we have all the planets functioning all the time and are constantly challenged by live to bring forth their healthy qualities and leave behind their dysfunctional behaviors and attitudes, we have had to work with these energies since we were very young. It’s certainly simplistic to say Mercury is always woeful or that the Sun is always good. On the other hand, many years of doing charts has convinced me that these planet associations with the day of the week we were born is useful for understanding another major factor in the person whose chart it is. And besides the correlations with the birth chart, there’s also significant associations with the day of the week your progressed chart is calculated for.

Turning to the work week, Mars associated with Tuesday could mean we need to be gracious on that day, and Wednesday, “hump day,” is one where we need good Mercury skills to sort out what needs to get done. I can see Venus ruling Friday is great for “loving and giving” at the end of the work week to give momentum to enjoying the weekend!

Because this poem was created at a time when the world had 6 day work weeks, we can see how it has a correlation with working, though it may need to be reconsidered in light of our current “Saturday Night fever” to play as much as we feel like. And as for Sunday being related to the Sun, that seems apt given my experience of that being usually a “sunny day” of brightness, lightness, and good feelings.

I’ll leave you with an experiment. Find the day of the week you were born, and then take a look at that planet in your birth chart. You may find it is more important than you imagined! And then take a look at what day your current progressed chart is done for, and see if that planet isn’t more important this year, whether natally, by progressing, or even the transits of that planet.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

© Copyright 2023 Robert Wilkinson

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