The name “transits” is given to the daily positions of the planets when they act and affect our birth chart. The birth chart never changes. It is always the same from the moment we were born. However, the energies are renewed daily – the transits – on the magnetic field of our planet, affecting us, for easier situations or others, more pressing, always according to the way we react.
The truth is that we do not have to react negatively to the tensest situations. But we do it often. We are not educated and prepared to let ourselves flow with the stars, without letting them control us. It is not what happens in the day-to-day. We let ourselves be influenced, to say: “I have bad luck in my life”. Few people remember the good times.
BASIC COMPONENTS OF TRANSITS
- First, take into account the nature of the home planet that receives the transit, as well as its positioning by sign and house.
- Then, focus on the nature of the planet in transit.
- Finally, take into account the angle of the transit to determine what it does: conjunction, sextile, square, trine, or opposition.
DEEPENING THE TRANSITS
Analyze carefully the positioning of the planet in transit through sign and house, that is, to see where it operates.
Look at the sign and natal home of the transiting planet.
The positioning of the home planet that receives the transit indicates to us its function in the life of the person because it indicates to us how it is being challenged or stimulated. The aspect will indicate to us the general quality of the transit and if we are before a process facilitator or defiant.
The planet in transit will indicate the concrete content of the transit opportunity, that is, what quality or function they ask us to integrate with those of the transited home planet.
Analyze the scenarios and qualities that we can visualize from the base of operations (home and sign) of the planet that transits and that will generate in the person feelings, emotions, ideas, initiatives.
The natal qualities of the planet in transit give us the information about the instruments that we have in the birth chart so that we can transcend and mobilize the pressure that the planet in transit needs to fulfill its function.
ADVANCED ANALYSIS
Verify the direct influences that this planet in transit exerts in a map. For example: regencies, their natal aspects, natal aspects of the planet that receives the transit, cosmic state, etc.
Synthesis: if it’s true that the Base of Operations (house and sign) of the transiting planet is constantly changing on a person’s map throughout his life, the Instruments (natal position of the transiting planet) that it uses always refer to the same area of the map.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE TRANSITS
The fastest planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars) deal with and corroborate the daily and personal affairs of our lives. The heaviest and slowest planets (Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Chiron, Saturn, and Jupiter)are the ones that make the big changes. Transits are the external world to affect us. “Progressions” are the changes of inner consciousness, which in turn modify the external environment in which we live.
Why are we one day more sensitive than another? Why are we one day more affable and cordial than another? Maybe we have a transit of Venus to our Sun or our Moon. We react unconsciously to this. Are we more nervous than usual? Maybe Mercury in transit is making an appearance to Mars.
Mercury to travel on Saturn can create one or two more apprehensive days, to the point of looking like depression, if we want to see the situation as negative. Or, we assume more responsibility than usual if we can positively work the energies of Saturn. The opposite, if it is Saturn to travel on Mercury, will take much longer (several months) and requires more patience, since Saturn’s movement is slower, and it is frequent to advance, retrograde and advance again.
The transits are stronger when applied by a conjunction (same degree) and opposition (180º), followed by quadratures (90º), trines (120º) and sextiles (60º). Many people do not even realize that they are having a blessed trine or sextile because they are focused on the intensity of other aspects. It is not difficult to understand the meaning of transits if one knows the basic meaning of the planets. For this, it is necessary to study.
The longer the transit, the deeper and wider the effect will be on the person. The slower-moving planets operate more deeply and more permanently in the person’s life, personality, and psyche. Sun-to-Pluto conjunction lasts 3 to 4 days and the opposite, Pluto on the Sun remains for almost 4 years. The slowest planets are, in order of slowness: Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Chiron, Saturn, and Jupiter.
To better analyze a transit, it is convenient to understand how the natal aspects of the planets involved operate. If in the natal map the aspect between two planets is harmonic and the aspect of transit is the tensest (opposition and quadrature), this same transit will be easier to resolve, despite the difficulties involved. If in the natal map these planets are in tense aspect, the transit will be more demanding and the difficulties greater.
When analyzing a transit we must take into account in which houses are positioned the planets and the energies of the signs that involve these questions.
The inner and the mental work are fundamental to not let ourselves be dragged by the tensest transits, falling in the lamentations that lead to nothing, nor half depressions that do not help. It is necessary to counteract the current of tense transits and enjoy favorable transits. When the time comes for the test, we can pass this tide with approval, learning and cleaning our karmic memories.
We can not escape the influences of the stars, but we can decide what we will allow to influence ourselves. The transits show us the course of the cosmic tides and what kind of cycle is in activity. For this reason, we can take advantage of this internal movement or let it pass without using it for our own benefit. Everything is connected. Our biological body is only the container of the Being, or Spirit, as you wish to call it.
EVOLUTIONARY STAGES OF TRANSITS
When transits (whatever the planets) deal with the subjects that are in what is called the “personal and preparatory stage or settlement” – houses 1, 2 and 3 – they move slowly. From the Ascendant (ASC) to the Imum Coeli (IC). It is not a position for rapid change. Whatever you try to do, it must be thought of and felt as having a long-term goal. If the transits involve Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, try to see them as authentic projects of life, to be slowly elaborated.
In this space of the map, the transits energies are reorganizing to develop in the next three houses – at 4, 5 and 6. From the Imum Coeli (IC) to the descendent (DC). This sector of the map is called the “development stage”. This area is the one that involves our roots, foundations, creativity and work.
Transits continue to express themselves and expand in the following houses – to 7, 8, and 9. From the Descendant (DC) to the Midheaven (MC). It is when we confirm partnerships, business, marriage, internal maturity and expansion of horizons. External activities are the most important in this sector.
We have the last sector of the map – houses 10, 11 and 12 – called the “consolidation stage”. From the Midheaven (MC), again to the Ascendant (ASC). It’s time of the consolidation of our internal plans and of learning, handling, and operating everything that refers to the “I”. It is in this area that is located above all what concerns the occurrences of our innerself.
Neptune and Pluto do not go through all these sectors (or houses) in a normal life span. Pluto needs about 250 years to travel this distance; Neptune – 160 years; Uranus – 80 years; Chiron – 50 years; Saturn – 29 years; Jupiter – 12 years old; Mars – 2 years; Venus – 1 and a half years; Mercury – about 1 year; Sun – 1 year; Moon – 28 days; Here we notice the mood variations that the Moon can cause us in everyday life. It takes about two and a half days on each sign. The Sun, going through these four steps over the course of a year, gives us tremendous opportunities to express ourselves in many ways.
If Saturn moves through the “personal and preparatory stage or settlement” – houses 1, 2 and 3 – announces a period of evaluation, of greater recollection, a retreat from more mundane activities. Obviously, planets in transit do not just pass through houses. They also travel across signs. And, of course, they meet our natal planets.
Astrology for Consciousness 