Astrological transits correspond to the study of the planetary cycles evolution, a kind of “astrological weather”, they concern the “prediction / forecasting” aspect of astrology. Through the ephemerides, we can know which planet will pass at which location and which time. Each planet has its own rhythm, and each synodic cycle/period works at its own pace too (the earth/sun/planet relation).
We call “transits chart” the comparison of the current planetary transits (of the present or of a defined period, future or past) with the birth chart configuration.
If the birth chart represents the 3 dimensions of the being (Zodiac Signs, Astrological Houses and Planets, read in particular Dane Rudhyar and his book “Astrological Triptych”), the transits represent the 4th dimension, the temporal factor, they indicate the actualization of the potentialities already present, they specify when and how they will be activated ?
Transits : actualizing the birth chart
The birth chart is a “photography frozen in time” of an astral configuration. But this static “snapshot” must be replaced in its dynamic context, it’s important to study and understand the cycles that presided over this instant, as well as their subsequent developments.
A planet transit in the sky is always studied in relation to other angular factors (aspects), other planets. When a planet transits a birth sector, it will activate by Aspects this sector as well as other sectors : it will indicate which potentialities require attention, which energies reach maturity and can form personal and social constraints, psychological Complexes… All according to the aspect’s “quality” and the represented planetary functions.
The transits (as well as the Progressions) underline the progressive realizations of the being according to the abstract character of the potentialities already present in the birth chart, they represent a permanent questioning of the individuality fundamental structure (see “Birth chart go beyond or miss it”).
More precisely, transits tell us the impact that the outside world has on us, they are in a way the consequences of our existence in the social world, that we wanted or that we undergo.
As such, they represent life and its events, they can be Creativity and creation vectors, as well as of destruction (see How to deal the difficult transits), they represent the eternal succession of commencements, ends and regenerations, they are our obstacles to overcome, our joys to savor, all our experiences to assimilate, but that we really created ourselves karmically.
Transits are lived differently according to different factors such as the natives’ sex/gender, their “astrogeneology” (their astrological heredity), their environment (social, cultural, religious), of course their psychology (the birth Chart), and also especially their level of awareness and integration of reality (which cannot be determined by reading only the chart alone).
The transits (and Progressions) can indicate favorable periods to explore parts of one’s personality (the Subpersonalities), to experience certain types of projection, and psychic energies releases, they can produce the necessary “shock” to this evolution.
- Well channeled, they accompany change, consolidate the Individuation process, lead to liberation and individual / spiritual realization, they allow to make things meaningful.
- Misused or suffered unconsciously, they can produce ego collapse, exacerbation of the Shadow projections and of all the repressed energies, the confusion, Depression (see How to overcome the suffering of a “bad birth chart”)…
French astrologer, André Barbault, in his book “From Psychoanalysis to Astrology” thus evokes the purpose of transits :
“The object of transits is almost beyond us; we can retain the action, the verb, the word, and consequently the sensitivity and the feeling that comes from it, but the object is almost beyond us.
We can consider the object of the transit as a probability, i.e. an event character that it’s most reasonable to expect.A Venusian configuration in early youth produces in most cases the blossoming of a love passion especially if there is no dissonance at least. However, if dissonance does occur, the trend is susceptible to displacement, deviation, rejection, repression, or sublimation. Thus, this long-awaited love passion finally turns out to be a passion for music and feverish constitution of a record collection, a craze for a new acquisition, or simply the access to an inner peace.
In case of introversion, inhibition or schizoid personality, the same configuration may give no “event”, no external fact of destiny, the being seems to be satisfied with a state of mind and consciousness which fills his/her life in the same way as an event : here takes place a novel without object (Editor’s note : or lived by proxy through Projections for example).
But we know that we must always place the prognosis on the inner plane in terms of feelings experienced.”
Objective events cannot be predicted with precision (what matters anyway is the way they are experienced inside the psyche), but the necessary conditions for the individual’s evolutionary process can be diagnosed in advance by transits.
More than a description of external events, transits give the essential subjective meaning of a particular experience or phase of life, as well as their approximate duration.
Thus, on this signifying basis, we can initiate a constructive and coherent approach to our development, we can increase our self-confidence and confidence in life, transits cyclically allow us to question ourselves mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
Transits allow us to become aware of these cyclic rhythms to which we are subjected, they offer us the possibility of perceiving an order behind the apparent chaos, with the certainty that each phase will eventually end in due time.
Even if some of the cycles are always a source of suffering, at least individual perceives a finality. This is our growth process, our Individuation Plan, a kind of compass that points us in the right directions, with fast transits being short-term detonating factors (see “Living the fast-moving planets transits”) while slow transits represent heavier background changes (see “Living the slow-moving planets transits”).
Studying transits, putting them back in their cycles
Studying any transit is like asking : what does God want to make me understand through this cycle ?
You can replace “god” by “Spirit” or whatever term you wish, we are talking here about the principle of transcendence, of harmony and balance, that pushes human beings to be “in the Verticality“, and to raise their eyes to the sky (see also “How karmic transits act in your daily life”).
By studying the cycles of past transits, we go back in evolution, i.e. we detect in part the actual individual’s stage of development : at which phases was he/she born? (see even the study of his/her prenatal phases) which phases has he/she passed through until now ?
It’s the exchange with the native which allows to better determine the course of this development, as well as the evolution of the actualizations of future transits.
Of course, phases of cycles of individual planets must always be put in parallel with the phases of cycles of transpersonal and collective planets, because these 2 development processes, although concomitant, frequently clash. Collective and transpersonal cycles “overflow” on the individuel, or rather encompass this one.
I often begin the birth chart analysis, from the slowest to the fastest planets, in order to understand : what is the backdrop ? what is the background in which personal energies develop ?
Fast transits often act as “trigger” for an astrological patternn and produce an “explosion” that can be as sudden as it’s ephemeral… While the slower transits take time to set up deep and last !
Thus, Mars transiting on natal Pluto in birth chart, will not be at all the same transit as Pluto transiting on natal Mars…
In the first case, the transit effect can last at most several months with a Retrograde motion or most often be a matter of few weeks (with a large orb)… In the second case, it’s a matter of several years that settles in the background !
Always remember that it’s the latent tendencies of the birth chart that “dominate” the transits and not the opposite ! Transits “propose”, they solicit the individual to react in a domain, but their proposal remains conditioned to potentialities already existing in personality.
In the absolute, transits activate the emergence of an unconscious content to the conscious (this is their inner meaning), they can be purely psychic, or arrive in Synchronicity with external events.
Course of the transits; and the orbs
The transits development is spread out according to an orb with respect to the exact aspect in several phases :
- 1- The bud : Before the exact aspect, it’s generally a “maturation” phase of the cycle in the unconscious, some points arrive to the conscious by small touches, but the pieces of the puzzle are only gradually put in place.
- 2- The flower : At the exact aspect, it’s the paroxysm of the aspect, the consecutive “flowering” of the previous preparatory phase, it’s the full expression of the transit, its development expresses itself more openly.
- 3- The fruit : After the exact aspect comes the time of the “meaning”, a phase of transit understanding and integration, accompanied by the changes it requires… It will be necessary here to take into account these new psychic materials to make a “micro balance” and integrate them in a more inclusive “whole” of the personality.
The fastest planet is said to be “applying” on the slowest if it’s in decreasing phase, and it’s said to be “separative” if it’s in increasing phase.
The duration of these phases depends on the speed of the planets involved. These phases are not strictly cut out, everything depends a lot on the planets involved : the slow-moving planet transit often takes months and months, sometimes with degrees that will be transited several times by Retrograde motion, and further complicating the astrological interpretation… Thus there can be a “flowering” in several stages ! (see “How the study of our birth chart proceeds psychologically”)
Concerning the Orb, it’s thus the zone of influence, and this zone is variable according to the Planets concerned as well as the Aspects achieved. The Orb can start from a few degrees for example in the case of a Semi-sextile of fast planets, to more than 10° in the case of a Conjunction involving the Sun, or even extend to a whole Sign of the zodiac in certain cases to make an Aspect come “alive” and considering the influence of the Astrological Elements, each astrologer has here his own recipes…
Maturation, flowering, meaning, are the normal stages of any transit that is not repressed. Repression can generally occur in phase 3 of meaning, when the transit has fully expressed itself, and it can produce great disturbances for the personality… The personality, for various reasons, refuses to understand the cycle and struggles with reality, there will be a return to a maturation phase and repetition of the cycle pattern with variants until the fundamental meaning is well integrated… which can take a lifetime in some cases !
In phase 3 of “harvesting the fruit”, when it comes to finding a meaning to the transit, we have to understand that thanks to astrology we can partly channel their energies, we can succeed in partly to choose their means of expression, or even force or provoke their expression in a domain.
Putting the cycles back into the Whole
When the individual understands the absolute unity between his ego and the others, between what he is and what the universe around him really is, in a certain perspective, there is no difference between the changes occurring inside the psyche (Progressions) and the external events of the present moment (Transits), the both form a whole in perfect Synchronicity like the 2 sides of the same coin. Remember, the ultimate goal of the Universal Spirit is harmony and balance.
Transit interpretation must always be recontextualized in relation to the whole the theme. Transits interpretation is an art that is not so much a matter of logic, but also and mostly, of the astrologer sensitivity and intuitiveness.
The wise man perceives the cycles, recognizes their meaning and integrates them at the given moment when they occur, as already part of his development pattern. And everything is meaningful in the universe, at least for the one who knows how to look…