Planetary squares are seven magic squares, one for each of the seven classical planets, where every row, every column and both diagonals add up to the same number. Practitioners trace a word, a name or a set of numbers across a square to make a sigil that carries that planet's kind of energy, such as Venus for love or Jupiter for money and growth.
You can try it right now with our free planetary square sigil maker, or read on for the history, the seven squares and how to draw one by hand.
What Are Planetary Squares?
A planetary square is a magic square given to one of the seven planets that people could see without a telescope: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. Each square uses every whole number from 1 up to its size squared, once each. Saturn's 3 × 3 square uses 1 to 9, and the Moon's 9 × 9 square uses 1 to 81.
The number every line adds up to is called the magic sum. Saturn's is 15, and the Moon's is 369. The total of every number on the square is another traditional number of that planet, so the Sun is tied to 111 (its magic sum) and 666 (its total).
You will also see planetary squares called kameas, from a Hebrew word for an amulet. Our witchcraft glossary has short entries for kamea, magic square, planetary seal and the other terms on this page.
Where Planetary Squares Come From
The oldest known magic square is the Luoshu Square of ancient China, a 3 × 3 grid with the same numbers as Saturn's square. Scholars in the medieval Islamic world studied magic squares in depth and used them on talismans, and the idea of pairing seven squares with the seven planets reached Europe through that work.
The set most people use today was printed by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in 1533, in Book II of his Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Agrippa gave each planet its square, its magic sum and total, a seal, and the names of a good intelligence and a troublesome spirit tied to the same numbers. He also listed what each table was said to do when engraved at a good time for its planet, and what it did at a bad time. Later magicians, including the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, used his squares to draw sigils of names, and that is the method most practitioners follow now.
The Seven Planetary Squares and What Each One Is For
The squares grow by one row for each planet, in the old order of the planets from slowest to fastest: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. These are Agrippa's versions. Some books show the same squares flipped or turned, which turns any sigil drawn on them too.
Magic Square of Saturn (3 × 3)
| 4 | 9 | 2 |
| 3 | 5 | 7 |
| 8 | 1 | 6 |
Saturn's square is the smallest. Every line adds up to 15, and all nine numbers add up to 45. Practitioners turn to it for slow, serious work: setting boundaries, protection, ending something that has run its course, breaking a habit and sticking with a long goal. Its day is Saturday and its metal is lead. Agrippa wrote that, made at a good hour, it helped with safe childbirth and made its bearer safe and powerful.
Magic Square of Jupiter (4 × 4)
| 4 | 14 | 15 | 1 |
| 9 | 7 | 6 | 12 |
| 5 | 11 | 10 | 8 |
| 16 | 2 | 3 | 13 |
Jupiter's lines each add up to 34, and the whole square adds up to 136. This is the square many practitioners reach for when they want something to grow: money, opportunities, luck, a fair legal outcome or a step up at work. Its day is Thursday and its metal is tin, though Agrippa himself had the table engraved on silver. He wrote that it brought gain and riches, favor and love, and peace with others.
Magic Square of Mars (5 × 5)
| 11 | 24 | 7 | 20 | 3 |
| 4 | 12 | 25 | 8 | 16 |
| 17 | 5 | 13 | 21 | 9 |
| 10 | 18 | 1 | 14 | 22 |
| 23 | 6 | 19 | 2 | 15 |
Mars's lines add up to 65, and the square totals 325. It carries drive and nerve, so practitioners use it for courage, the push to start something hard, competition, standing their ground and cutting ties. Its day is Tuesday and its metal is iron. Agrippa wrote that it made its bearer strong in disputes and lawsuits and victorious over enemies.
Magic Square of the Sun (6 × 6)
| 6 | 32 | 3 | 34 | 35 | 1 |
| 7 | 11 | 27 | 28 | 8 | 30 |
| 19 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 23 | 24 |
| 18 | 20 | 22 | 21 | 17 | 13 |
| 25 | 29 | 10 | 9 | 26 | 12 |
| 36 | 5 | 33 | 4 | 2 | 31 |
Every line of the Sun's square adds up to 111, and all 36 numbers add up to 666. That total surprises a lot of people. Here, 666 is simply the sum of the numbers 1 through 36, and it was a solar number in this tradition long before most readers met the number of the beast. Practitioners use the Sun's square for success, confidence, recognition, career goals and a bright, warm spirit. Its day is Sunday and its metal is gold. Agrippa wrote that it made its bearer well known, well liked and successful in their work.
Magic Square of Venus (7 × 7)
| 22 | 47 | 16 | 41 | 10 | 35 | 4 |
| 5 | 23 | 48 | 17 | 42 | 11 | 29 |
| 30 | 6 | 24 | 49 | 18 | 36 | 12 |
| 13 | 31 | 7 | 25 | 43 | 19 | 37 |
| 38 | 14 | 32 | 1 | 26 | 44 | 20 |
| 21 | 39 | 8 | 33 | 2 | 27 | 45 |
| 46 | 15 | 40 | 9 | 34 | 3 | 28 |
Venus's lines add up to 175, and the square totals 1,225. It is the square for what brings people together: love, friendship, beauty, art and music, self-love and making peace after a quarrel. Its day is Friday and its metal is copper. Agrippa wrote that it brought harmony and love and put an end to quarrels.
Magic Square of Mercury (8 × 8)
| 8 | 58 | 59 | 5 | 4 | 62 | 63 | 1 |
| 49 | 15 | 14 | 52 | 53 | 11 | 10 | 56 |
| 41 | 23 | 22 | 44 | 45 | 19 | 18 | 48 |
| 32 | 34 | 35 | 29 | 28 | 38 | 39 | 25 |
| 40 | 26 | 27 | 37 | 36 | 30 | 31 | 33 |
| 17 | 47 | 46 | 20 | 21 | 43 | 42 | 24 |
| 9 | 55 | 54 | 12 | 13 | 51 | 50 | 16 |
| 64 | 2 | 3 | 61 | 60 | 6 | 7 | 57 |
Mercury's lines add up to 260, and the square totals 2,080. It suits the quick, clever parts of life: speaking and writing well, study and exams, business deals, travel and messages. Its day is Wednesday. Its traditional metal is quicksilver, which is toxic, so practitioners draw Mercury's square on paper or parchment instead. Agrippa wrote that it brought gain and helped memory, understanding and divination.
Magic Square of the Moon (9 × 9)
| 37 | 78 | 29 | 70 | 21 | 62 | 13 | 54 | 5 |
| 6 | 38 | 79 | 30 | 71 | 22 | 63 | 14 | 46 |
| 47 | 7 | 39 | 80 | 31 | 72 | 23 | 55 | 15 |
| 16 | 48 | 8 | 40 | 81 | 32 | 64 | 24 | 56 |
| 57 | 17 | 49 | 9 | 41 | 73 | 33 | 65 | 25 |
| 26 | 58 | 18 | 50 | 1 | 42 | 74 | 34 | 66 |
| 67 | 27 | 59 | 10 | 51 | 2 | 43 | 75 | 35 |
| 36 | 68 | 19 | 60 | 11 | 52 | 3 | 44 | 76 |
| 77 | 28 | 69 | 20 | 61 | 12 | 53 | 4 | 45 |
The Moon's square is the largest. Its lines add up to 369, and all 81 numbers total 3,321. Practitioners use it for the inner life and the home: dreams, intuition, psychic work, feelings, family and safe travel. Its day is Monday and its metal is silver. Agrippa wrote that it made its bearer pleasant and well liked and kept them safe on a journey.
Which Planetary Square Should You Use?
Pick the planet that rules your goal. If two planets both fit, go with the one that feels closest to what you want; there is no wrong pick between two good matches.
| Your goal | Square | Day |
|---|---|---|
| Love, friendship, beauty, making up | Venus | Friday |
| Money, growth, luck, legal matters | Jupiter | Thursday |
| Courage, drive, competition | Mars | Tuesday |
| Success, confidence, recognition | Sun | Sunday |
| Study, writing, business, travel | Mercury | Wednesday |
| Dreams, intuition, home and family | Moon | Monday |
| Protection, boundaries, endings, habits | Saturn | Saturday |
For the strongest timing, many practitioners draw the sigil on the planet's day and during its hour. Our planetary hours calculator shows when the hour of Venus, Jupiter or any other planet falls in your town today.
How to Make a Sigil on a Planetary Square
You make a planetary square sigil by turning your goal into numbers, finding each number on the square and joining them with one line. Here is the method step by step.
- Choose the square of the planet that rules your goal.
- Turn your goal into numbers. Write a word or short phrase and give each letter a number, such as A=1, B=2 through Z=26, or use numbers that already matter to your goal, like a date or an amount.
- Make every number fit the square. If a number is bigger than the square's highest number, add its digits together until it fits. On Saturn's square, which stops at 9, the letter P (16) becomes 1 + 6 = 7.
- Find your first number on the square and draw a small open circle on it. Then draw a straight line to each next number, in order.
- Finish on the last number with a short bar across the line or a filled dot, so you can see where the sigil ends.
Here is a worked example. The word LOVE on the Venus square becomes L=12, O=15, V=22 and E=5. Every number already fits, because Venus's square runs to 49. The line starts at 12 on the right side of the third row, crosses to 15 near the bottom left, climbs to 22 in the top-left corner and drops one cell to 5.
The finished shape is your sigil. Copy it on its own, or keep the faint grid behind it the way old talismans do. If you would rather let the tool do the tracing, the planetary square sigil maker draws it as you type and lets you save it as an image.
Older magicians used gematria, the Hebrew letter values, and reduced big numbers by dropping zeros, so 200 became 2. Your English-letter sigil will look different from the sigils in old books, and it does not need to match them. What matters is that you use one method and stick with it.
Planetary Seals, Intelligences and Spirits
Each planetary square also has a seal, a single symbol that stands for the planet as a whole. Traditionally, a seal's lines are said to touch every number on its square. Agrippa printed a seal for each planet along with sigils for its intelligence and its spirit, whose names add up to the planet's numbers.
The seals are often engraved on planetary talismans next to a personal sigil. The intelligences and spirits belong to ceremonial magic and are best learned from books and teachers within that tradition before you work with them. A personal sigil on a square needs none of them.
How to Charge and Use a Planetary Square Sigil
Most practitioners charge the sigil after drawing it, then let it work in the background. Our guide on how to charge a sigil covers the main ways, from breath and candle flame to moonlight.
A few ways to use a planetary square sigil:
- Carve it into a candle in the planet's color, such as green or pink for Venus or royal blue for Jupiter, and light it on the planet's day.
- Draw it on a talisman disk or a square of paper and keep it in your wallet, under your pillow or on your altar.
- Engrave or paint it on the planet's metal, such as a copper disk for Venus or a silver charm for the Moon.
- Draw it inside your spell journal with the date and the planet, so you can look back on how the working went.
There are 17 more ways to use sigils if you want ideas beyond these. Planetary squares sit alongside the other sigil methods in our guide to the types of sigils. If letters feel more natural to you than numbers, the Witch's Wheel sigil maker builds a sigil from a phrase on a lettered wheel instead.
The squares are about 500 years old in this form and much older as an idea. Every time you trace a line across one, you are using the same grids that filled the notebooks of Renaissance magicians, with your own words written into them.
Planetary Squares FAQ
What are planetary squares?
Planetary squares are seven magic squares, one for each classical planet, where every row, column and diagonal adds up to the same number. Practitioners trace words or numbers across them to make sigils tied to that planet.
Why does the magic square of the Sun add up to 666?
The Sun's square holds the numbers 1 through 36, and those numbers add up to 666. In this tradition 666 is a solar number. It has no tie to the number of the beast on the Sun's square.
What is a kamea?
Kamea is another name for a planetary square. The word comes from the Hebrew for an amulet, and it is also spelled qamea.
What is the magic square of Saturn used for?
Saturn's 3 × 3 square is used for boundaries, protection, endings, breaking habits and long-term goals. Every line adds up to 15.
Which planetary square is for money?
Jupiter's 4 × 4 square is the usual choice for money, growth and luck. Every line adds up to 34, and its day is Thursday.
Which planetary square is for love?
Venus's 7 × 7 square is the usual choice for love, friendship and harmony. Every line adds up to 175, and its day is Friday.
Who created the planetary squares?
Magic squares go back to ancient China, and scholars in the medieval Islamic world paired them with the planets. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa printed the version most people use today in 1533.
Can I use English letters on a planetary square?
Yes. Many practitioners give each letter a number, such as A=1 through Z=26, and add the digits of any number that is too big for the square. The old books used Hebrew letter values, so the shapes will differ.
What is the difference between a planetary seal and a sigil?
A planetary seal stands for the planet as a whole and stays the same for everyone. A sigil is drawn from a specific word or name, so yours is unique to your goal.
Do I have to engrave the square on metal?
No. Agrippa described engraving on metal plates, but paper, parchment, candles and wood are all common today. Mercury's metal is quicksilver, which is toxic, so always use paper for Mercury.
