About a year ago I decided it was time to switch from a Blackberry to something new.  I was heavily considering an iPhone but after hearing nothing but gripes about it from a number of people and seeing how ridiculous the ultimate cost of having one would be I decided to go with one of the new Android phones that had just come out.  I bought an HTC Hero and have now had the phone for the full year and have loved it.  The one thing that I liked so much was the open application feature that allowed people to create and share apps of all kinds for free.  There are certainly a number of apps that cost money and you can purchase them for (usually) reasonable fees with the option to return them and refund your purchase in 24 hours if you really don’t feel the app is what you were looking for.  One thing that I began to get frustrated with was the lack of Pagan apps that I was noticing people were able to get for their iPhone.  Programs that followed the moon phases and cycles, calculators that told you the planetary hours, even aura photography apps.  Recently there have been some new, Witchy apps that have started to pop up and hopefully with Andriod really having become as popular as it has, these will only increase as people learn the programming to make the apps.   I figure there are a few other Android users out there that would like to find some cool, magickal apps for their phones so I wanted to share a few of the ones that I’ve found and have enjoyed so far.

Hours – This app may not be as fancy as some of the iPhone ones out there but if you’re looking for a planetary hours app that will calculate the planetary hours for any day, any time, from virtually anywhere, this app is worth the (roughly) $4.50.  It helps to take out all the guesswork with figuring out what hour is the best for certain types of spells and magick.  You can set a predefined location, use your GPS to find where you are or you can use the “custom location” feature to set your location manually.

iLuna – This app is by the same developer as the Hours app and is a great addition to that one.  This application show you the moon phase, let’s you know when the moon is Void of Course and lets you know the sign the moon is in as well as when it will transition and what it will transition to.  By clicking on the moon icon you’ll get details on the energy of that moon phase; clicking on the astrological sign will tell you what the energies of the moon in that phase are.  This is another paid application but only costs around $2 or so and is also well worth the money.

MoonPhase Widget – As much as I like iLuna I also like having a widget showing the moon’s current phase on my home screen.  MoonPhase Widget is so far the best one that I have found because it’s simple, only takes up one icon space on the screen, and if you click on it it will open up a screen that will show you the moon phases for the next month.  This is a free app and is a nice addition to help you know instantly at a glance what the phase is today.

Zen Timer – If you are a Reiki practitioner or someone that would love to have a simple, gentle and easy to use meditation timer, Zen Timer is a great app to add to your phone.  There are a number of different chimes and sound to pick from, mostly made from the sounds of various sized singing bowls, with the options to set up interval chimes which is fantastic for doing Reiki.  You can adjust the length and volume of the chimes so that you beginning and end chimes are more “stand out” sounds from the interval ones if you use them.  This is another paid app but only costs about $3 and is worth the cost.  The developer does updates one a semi regular basis and new features get added along the way.

There are other apps that you can use to build up the Pagan aspect of your Android phone such as using shared online calendars for your phone calendar app to remind you of seasonal dates the Sabbats and other festivals, you can use one of the many RSS feed programs to add your favorite Pagan and Wiccan themed blogs right to your phone (like One Witch’s Way!) and you can use the theme customizing to add any of a number of Wiccan and Pagan themes to your phone to adjust the look and feel to however Witchy you’d like it to be.

Know of an Android app that would be idea for Wiccans and Pagans and wish to share?  Post links and suggestions in the comment section!