Historically, the planets have been understood as wandering lights in the heavens, distinguished from the fixed stars by their motion and regarded across many cultures as divine bodies, omens, powers, and intelligences. In the ancient Near East, the visible planets were associated with particular gods and their spheres of influence; in later astrological and magical traditions, these same celestial bodies became part of an elaborate system through which virtues, spirits, images, substances, and earthly affairs were understood to correspond and move along side of. 

It is towards this same celestial edifice that Haus of Ophidious approaches the Planets - as living powers whose natures may be observed, approached, cultivated, petitioned, venerated, and called down to work. The Picatrix treats the seven traditional planets as sources of particular virtues and spirits, giving methods for approaching their powers through images, offerings, prayers, fumigations, substances, and astrological conditions. Agrippa likewise describes the planets as possessing particular virtues, names, spirits, intelligences, images, numbers, substances, and correspondences, and gives considerable attention to the celestial conditions under which their powers are strongest. My planetary work draws principally from Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy and the Picatrix, alongside traditional astrology, astrological magic, and the living relationships developed through practice and continual observance of the Heavenly Bodies. 

The offerings below may be utilized to work with the given virtues and potencies of each Planet in the way specified for each ware, whether approached through traditional astrological correspondence or through an individual relationship developed over time. For the witch and spirit worker, they may also serve as places of meeting through which one can seek relationship, petition, devotion, or pact with the spirits and powers belonging to a particular Planet.