Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Days of the Week

Wednesday

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Wednesday is Mercury's day, dies Mercurii in Latin, and Woden's day in English, after the Germanic god of wisdom, poetry and the dead identified with Mercury under interpretatio germanica for his role as a guide between worlds. The French mercredi keeps the Latin planet directly, while English, German (Mittwoch, an exception naming the midweek position instead) and the other Germanic tongues went separate ways with the name. Traditionally associated with mind, message, travel and commerce, following the qualities classical astrology assigns Mercury.

Facts
Observance
Observance Note
In the grimoire scheme of the planetary hours, each day is divided into twelve daylight and twelve night hours cycling through the seven planets in the Chaldean order, and the first hour after sunrise always belongs to the day's own planet; on Wednesday that first hour, and the day itself, belongs to Mercury. 2
Origins
Origin of the Name
Named for Woden, the Germanic god read as the equivalent of Mercury. 1
Identity
Position
4 of 7 1
Attributions
Ruling Planet
Mercury 1
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Woden, Mercury and the Naming of Wednesday

Dies Mercurii, Mercury's day, became Woden's day among the Germanic peoples, preserved in English as Wednesday, through the same interpretatio germanica that turned Mars into Tiw. Woden, known more widely in later Norse sources as Odin, was matched to Mercury less for a shared portfolio of commerce and communication than for a shared role as a guide who moved between worlds, Mercury as psychopomp leading souls to the underworld in classical myth and Woden as a wanderer associated with knowledge gained by crossing boundaries others could not.

The French mercredi keeps the Latin planet directly, in the same pattern followed by mardi and vendredi, while German took a third path entirely with Mittwoch, literally mid week, abandoning the planetary reference altogether in favour of a simple positional name; English and the Scandinavian languages, by contrast, kept Woden's name in the day. The three different outcomes for essentially the same starting point, Latin retention, Germanic god substitution, and abandonment of the reference entirely, show that interpretatio germanica was never a single uniform process applied identically everywhere it touched the planetary week.

Sources Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and BeliefsJohn Lindow with Deutsche MythologieJacob Grimm

Mercury's Day in Practice

Wednesday carries Mercury's significations: mind, communication, travel, negotiation and commerce, following the qualities classical astrology assigns the planet closest to the Sun and fastest moving after the Moon. Older astrological and magical handbooks recommend Wednesday for correspondence, contracts, study, short journeys and any undertaking whose success depends on clear thinking and effective exchange of information rather than on emotional appeal or sheer force.

Mercury was read as neutral rather than benefic or malefic in its own right, taking on the character of whatever planet it was aspected by in a given chart, and Wednesday inherited something of that adaptability in practical use: it was considered a flexible day, suited to intellectual and mercantile activity generally rather than to any single narrow purpose, in contrast to the more specifically weighted characters of Tuesday's Mars or Friday's Venus.

Sources A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion with Grimoires: A History of Magic BooksOwen Davies

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Source De Heptarchia Mystica (Sloane MS 3191), Joseph H. Peterson's editionJohn Dee, edited by Joseph H. Peterson
Source De Heptarchia Mystica (Sloane MS 3191), Joseph H. Peterson's editionJohn Dee, edited by Joseph H. Peterson
Mercury, Planets
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Mercury, Metals

Agrippa's occult philosophy assigns quicksilver to Mercury among the seven planetary metals, the same correspondence already recorded elsewhere on this page as the ruling planet.

Source Three Books of Occult PhilosophyHeinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Raphael, Archangels

Raphael is paired with Wednesday and Mercury in the scheme of the planetary hours that also names the weekday. That scheme runs through the grimoires, not Agrippa, whose own table gives Mercury to Michael instead.

Source Grimoires: A History of Magic BooksOwen Davies

Corresponds To

In jyotisha, Wednesday (Budhavara) is the vara ruled by Budha, the Mercury graha.

Source Brihat Parashara Hora ShastraSage Parashara (attributed)

Named For

Odin, Deities

English Wednesday is named for Woden, the Old English name of Odin, read as the equivalent of Mercury under interpretatio germanica for his role as a guide between worlds.

Source Dictionary of Northern MythologyRudolf Simek, translated by Angela Hall

Related To

6AM, Hours
Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion
Sources
1. A History of Western Astrology
Nicholas Campion, Continuum, 2009View the Source
2. Grimoires: A History of Magic Books
Owen Davies, Oxford University Press, 2009View the Source
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