Understand
What is a transit in astrology?
Your natal chart never moves. The planets, though, keep turning: when one of them passes today over a point of your chart, that is a transit. It is what connects the sky of the day to your life.
A planet of today over your sky of birth
On the day you were born, the sky was frozen into your natal chart: your planets, your houses, your aspects. But the real sky never stopped moving. Every day, the Sun, the Moon and all the planets continue their course through the zodiac. A transit is the moment when one of these moving planets reaches a position of your natal chart, or forms a precise angle with it: the same place, or 90°, 120°, 180° away.
Example: you were born with the Sun at 10° Aries. When Saturn, in its course, reaches 10° Aries, we say that *Saturn is transiting your Sun*. For a few months, what Saturn represents (structure, demands, the long term) comes into dialogue with what your Sun represents (your identity, your direction). It is a period, not an event.
“It is computed for Paris, I live in London”: what really matters
It is the question everyone asks in front of the sky today. The answer has two levels. First level, the planets: their position in the zodiac is the same everywhere on Earth at the same instant. The Sun at 10° Libra is there in Paris, in London, in Dakar and in Tokyo. The Moon, the fastest, moves half a degree per hour; Saturn, one degree a month. What you see on the wheel, planet by planet, is therefore true for you, wherever you are.
Second level, the Ascendant and the houses: they do depend on the place, but not on the city as such. What turns them is the time it is where you are, in other words your time zone, then, more finely, your latitude (your distance from the equator). Two cities with the same hour and a nearby latitude have practically the same sky, houses included. London, Brussels, Geneva, Barcelona, Marseille: the Paris wheel is yours, within a degree or two, which changes neither the Ascendant nor the houses in the vast majority of cases.
It is when the hour changes that things change. In Montreal, it is six hours earlier: the Earth has turned a quarter turn, the Ascendant of the moment is at a completely different place in the zodiac, and the houses with it. In Dakar, one or two hours apart and a much lower latitude: the Ascendant has moved 15 to 30 degrees. In Tokyo, it is another rising sky. In those cases, read the planets in the signs and their aspects (identical) and ignore the house numbers of the wheel, which are those of Paris.
And for your transits, good news: it is the planets that count, not the houses of the day. A transit is read by comparing the position of a planet today, in the zodiac, with that of a planet in your natal chart. That comparison depends on no place. “Saturn square your Moon” this month is true in Lyon, in Algiers and in Los Angeles.
The transits that really matter
Not all transits are equal. The Moon transits your whole chart in a month: its passages last a few hours and colour a day, no more. Mercury, Venus and Mars pass in days or weeks: they set the tone of a short period. It is the slow planets that mark the turning points: Jupiter (a year per sign, expansion, openings), Saturn (two and a half years per sign, structure, responsibilities, reckonings), Uranus (seven years, breaks and liberations), Neptune (fourteen years, blur and inspiration), Pluto (up to thirty years, deep transformations).
A slow transit over a sensitive point of your chart (Sun, Moon, Ascendant, ruler of the Ascendant) lasts months, sometimes over a year, because the planet goes back and forth (it retrogrades). These are precisely the periods a year-ahead chart describes, or a question to the astrologer sheds light on.
Transits, Saturn return, solar return: the cousins
The Saturn return is a famous transit: around 29, then 58, Saturn comes back exactly to its natal position. It is the entry into adulthood, then maturity. The Jupiter return happens every twelve years. The solar return is the Sun’s yearly return to its natal position: the chart of that moment is cast to read the year. They are all particular transits, those where a planet returns to its starting point.
How to know which transits touch you today
Calculate your free natal chart, then look at the sky today: a planet of the day at the same degree as one of your planets (or 90°, 120°, 180° away) is transiting you. The transits page lists the major transits under way. For a personal reading of the period you are going through, that is the role of the year-ahead chart or of a question to the astrologer.
Frequently asked questions
Is the sky of the day shown for Paris valid if I live in London, Brussels or Quebec?
For the planets in the signs and their aspects: yes, everywhere on Earth, it is the same sky at the same instant. For the Ascendant and the houses of the wheel: they follow local time (the time zone) and then latitude. If you share Paris’s hour, or are within an hour, and a nearby latitude (London, Brussels, Geneva, Barcelona, all of France), the wheel is yours, houses included. If you are several hours apart (Quebec, the Caribbean, Asia), the planets are identical but the Ascendant and houses of the wheel are those of Paris: read the planets and the aspects, not the house numbers. For your personal transits, only the planets count.
How long does a transit last?
It depends on the planet: a few hours for the Moon, a few days for Mercury, Venus or Mars, a few weeks for the Sun, several months for Jupiter, and from several months to over a year for Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, which go back and forth (retrogradation) over the same point.
Does a transit predict an event?
No. A transit describes a climate and an activated area: what the moving planet comes to awaken in your chart, and for how long. Two people with the same transit live different things, because their natal chart and their situation differ. That is why a transit is always read within a chart, never alone.
What is the difference between a transit and a horoscope?
A horoscope applies the day’s positions to a whole sign, one twelfth of humanity. A transit compares the day’s positions with your personal natal chart, calculated on your time and place. The first is a general trend, the second concerns you precisely.
What is an “exact” transit?
The moment when the moving planet reaches precisely the same degree (or the exact angle: 90°, 120°, 180°) as the natal position. The influence is felt before and after, within an orb of a few degrees, but exactness marks the heart of the period.
Do I need my birth time for my transits?
For transits to your planets (Sun, Moon, Venus…), the date is almost always enough, except for the Moon, which moves fast. For transits to your Ascendant, your Midheaven or through your houses, the time is needed.