Due to their slow motion, the transits of the outer planets tend to linger over the same zodiacal degrees, sometimes for years, creating back-and-forth movements that can prove deeply destabilizing, especially if we don’t understand this phenomenon or know how to time it.
Without that awareness, we risk sinking into unnecessary gloom.
What I’ll address here concerns Neptune more specifically, and especially Pluto, which are truly the slowest-moving planets.
Uranus is also classified as a slow planet, but it moves noticeably faster than its counterparts (an orbital period of 84 years, compared to 165 years for Neptune and 248 years (!) for Pluto).
Working with Time
When a slow-moving planet approaches a sensitive point in our chart, it’s important to narrow its orb of influence to refine your predictive approach. Logically, if you maintain too wide an orb, the planetary energy would diffuse over years and you’d lose precision…
As a rough guideline, for a Pluto or Neptune conjunction, I use approximately 1°, while for Uranus I extend to 3° (which makes sense, given the approximate ratio of their orbital periods).
Keep in mind that we always work in terms of “zones” rather than precise “points” down to the exact degree (see Framings and House Systems to grasp this important concept).
Thus, if we count 3° (the exact degree, plus 1° before and 1° after), the influence of a transpersonal planet can unfold over many months, often even years, allowing time for us to learn the new lessons it has to offer.
There are reasons for the extended duration of these transits: often, the insights they carry are profoundly transformative in nature, sometimes radically different from the path we’ve been following up to that point.
We simply can’t expect such changes to happen overnight, with a snap of the fingers, without any difficulty or reflection…
I won’t delve here into the distinct transformative qualities offered by these three planets, I’ll refer you to their respective articles for that.
What I’m addressing here is the central thread uniting these three transits: the necessity of working with time and practicing patience.
This required time and patience are embodied in the retrograde motion process, which passes and repasses over the same point, sometimes up to five times for Pluto, with each pass acting like an additional layer confirming the necessary change.
Schematically, the principle of retrograde motion is identical to that of faster-moving planets (see this article to understand the differences between them, however), but there is a specific repetitive pattern unique to the retrogradation of transpersonal planets that stretches out over the same degrees for a longer duration.
1+ When the planet is approaching the sensitive point, we begin to detect, to sense (even if more or less consciously, given the subtle nature of these energies) that a shift is underway.
We no longer accept the same things; we understand that certain things will no longer be possible, that one way or another, change is necessary.
We want to align more closely with who we fundamentally are, and we feel a deep longing, an urgent call rising from the depths of the soul, pushing us in that direction…
At this stage, several possibilities unfold for the coming months, depending on many factors (dominant configurations in the Birth Chart, other ongoing Transits or Progressions, etc): we can listen to this call and try to manage it, to accommodate it as best we can; or we may feel afraid and try to resist, to refuse the change, to struggle to keep things as they are by clinging on, sometimes even going against reality and truth, defying logic and rationality.
And the months ahead will embed this dynamic even more deeply:
– sometimes we’ll be confronted directly with fate, forcing us to make decisions, to break with the status quo and move on,
– sometimes we’ll have a significant encounter that upheaves our life by enabling us to project what we truly need (see Projections),
– sometimes we’ll experience a form of divine inspiration coming from who-knows-where, intuitively guiding us toward one direction or another
This always fundamentally moves us toward greater wholeness, toward succeeding in expressing more fully the totality of our chart, of who we “Are”, our Animus, our Anima, our Shadow…
2+ The planet will persist according to the rhythm of its retrogrades motions…
Because there are resistances, deeply rooted fears; because for a change to be etched deeply and lastingly, it must be fully integrated by the individual.
A mere intellectual understanding isn’t enough, we have to live it, feel it, embody it.
Especially for Pluto, which passes over the point multiple times in retrograde, things unfold in stages. There may be hesitation, and we might find ourselves needing to step back again in order to leap forward more effectively…
3+ By the final pass, you are no longer the same.
The lessons are learned or in the process of being integrated; understanding runs deep; the definitive change takes hold; the “galvanizing” has done its work. Certainly, details may still surface in the months and years ahead (particularly with Neptune, which can have a notably delayed effect), because when transpersonal planets shift, we’re truly touching the very structure of individuality, and maturation time plays a significant role.
But we have been transformed: the caterpillar has become a butterfly during this process, and it will never again be a caterpillar, that’s simply not possible…
It’s important, when approaching these transpersonal transits, to hold this sense of “duration” in mind.
In a way, you need to “work with Saturn” and tell yourself, for instance by noting the dates: “I’ll have work to do in such-and-such areas, on such-and-such elements of my life, throughout this entire period; I’ll organize myself and navigate it as best I can”…
This isn’t about trying to skip steps by thinking, “I’ll just jump straight to the final update”.
Things don’t work that way. We have to live through and accomplish what we’re meant to accomplish at the moment it’s asked of us, and knowing astrology won’t change that fundamental truth.
See also my article Experiencing Difficult Transits to better understand this approach, and remember that transits of the transpersonal planets rank among the most powerful transits we can experience in a lifetime.
Even though they are complex, challenging, painful, and can frequently lead to processes of Depression, they also contain a richness and evolutionary force that no other transit can offer !
In this sense, from the perspective of humanistic astrology, they can be a true blessing, opening the door to (or facilitating) any process of Individuation…