I had a recent question on how to figure true midnight on another thread about making the Talisman known as Hecate’s Key.  The querent also asked me if the spell would still work if she was “off” in calculating the time.

These are not uncommon questions, so I figured I’d repost my comment here as a separate post to encourage some dialogue and give others the chance to ask follow-up questions if needed.

“First of all, let me put your mind to rest on something — getting it “just right” isn’t something you need to worry about unless it’s something you need to worry about.  I’m not trying to be droll, here.  If you attached a great deal of importance to being EXACT, then you need to get it exact.  Your mind needs that prop.  If you’re okay with it being non-exact, then don’t worry so much about it.  The best way to judge whether or not you’re going to think that way is to imagine that you WEREN’T exact with it… would you immediately doubt yourself??  If the answer is yes, that you would doubt your spellwork, then you need to be exact.  The truth is, the Gods answer with an equal amount of attraction and power and belief with which they were called.  Some of us need a lot of extra bells and whistles, and some of us don’t.  I happen to like them because they require me to “give up” something to make the magick happen — whether it’s my time in researching or simply my time in ordering my life around an important “hour”.

“Now, as to figuring true midnight… here’s how.  Find out what time the sun sets on the 15th.  Find out what time the sun rises on the 16th.  Now, count backwards from both sunset and sunrise to the middle hour and minute between them.  Easiest way is to take the total number of minutes between sunset and sunrise, divide it by two (halving it), then divide that number up into hours and minutes.  Take what you have and add it to the time of sunset, and you’ll have true midnight.

“For example, if sunset is 7:15 pm and sunrise is 6:50 am, then there are 11 hours and 35 minutes in the night (695 minutes).  Half of that would be approximately 347 minutes.  Divided into hours, that is 5 hours and 47 minutes.  5 hours and 47 minutes after 7:15 pm is 1:02 a.m.  This is the hour of true midnight in this example.

“Use the time of sunset and sunrise for where you live.  The Weather Channel online can give this to you very easily.  You can also get this information from iPhone programs such as Fourth Day or a regional Farmer’s Almanac.

It’s a somewhat tricky little calculation, but worth the working.  I find that spells work far better at TRUE midnight than the old clock midnight when you’re trying to gauge the timing of things.  A little sidenote that you might find interesting — when you calculate true midnight this way, you often end up with midnight as being somewhere in the hour between 12:00am and 1:00am… the 13th hour.  The time that is not a time, if you catch my meaning.”

I really look forward to hearing about your experiences making this talisman.  Feel free to send me a snapshot of your key once it’s finished, and I’ll even post them here online with a little blurb about what you experienced if you’d like to write something up and email it to me.

May your keys unlock many spiritual doors as you journey through life!

Photo by KimonoMania (via Flickr).