Recently I shared that when the sun moves into Libra each year there is a part of me that hides away until the spring time, around the time that the sun moves into Aries. When I was younger I chalked this up to a mild case of seasonal depression, nothing major or anything that was diagnosed by a professional, but just a recognition that I tend to retreat more during the colder months. Once I learned astrology it occurred to me that as a Scorpio rising, around the time of Libra/Scorpio season, the sun is moving into the bottom half of my natal chart. This is the part of the chart that is more private and hidden, as opposed to the top half of the chart that is more public. So much about this was validating for me, and it made so much more sense that I feel more ‘on’ when the sun is transiting the top half of my chart, Aries/Taurus seasons to Libra/Scorpio seasons. This inspired me to talk a little bit about transits and how to read them!
This first thing that is helpful to understand is that your rising sign is always your first house. So, if you know that you are an Aries (in the picture you can see the glyph for Aries on the left side of the circle, just under where the 9 o'clock would be if you were looking at a clock. this is where the first house starts in every chart!) rising, this means that your natal chart will always start with Aries and this sign will be the sign on the cusp of your first house. Then, your second house will be the sign after that: Taurus. Then you continue all the way around the circle until you get to Pisces, the sign before Aries, which is the sign on the cusp of your 12th house. It will be important for you to establish your rising sign if you aren't an Aries rising and get an idea of how the signs line up! Once you understand how the signs fall in your chart and which signs are associated with which houses you can begin to understand how planets move through your chart. If we stick with the Aries rising example, when you hear someone say “Venus has just moved into Taurus” you will know that Venus has moved out of your first house (Aries) and into your second house (Taurus)! If you find yourself unsure of what the different house meanings are check out my blog post on the different meanings!
We can use transits to understand how the current planets in the sky are interacting with our natal planets in our natal chart. In the pictures below you can see some examples of how the transiting Venus, at 7 degrees Aries on the outside of the chart, is interacting with different possible positions of your natal moon, which you see on the inside of the chart. Your natal planets will never move, but I wanted to give you all a visual of how the transiting Venus can interact with different parts of the chart. These interactions are called aspects. Here are the five major aspects that correspond with the pictures (note: the conjunction is not pictured because it seems fairly easy to understand).
conjunction: 0 degrees away, sharing the same sign and degree
Sextile: 60 degrees apart or two signs away, sharing the same degree of signs 60 degrees from each other (example is 7 degrees Aries and 7 degrees Gemini)
Square: 90 degrees apart or three signs away, sharing the same degree of signs 90 degrees from each other (example is 7 degrees Aries and 7 degrees Cancer)
Trine: 120 degrees apart or four signs away, sharing the same degrees of signs 120 degrees from each other (example: 7 degrees Aries and 7 degrees Leo)
Opposition: 180 degrees apart or 6 signs away, sharing the same degrees of signs 180 degrees from each other (example: 7 degrees Aries and 7 degrees Libra)
One last thing I will mention about the aspects: I usually use a five degree orb. This means that even if Venus were at 7 degrees Aries and the Moon were at 12 degrees Aries or even 2 degrees Aries I would still consider it a conjunction (or any other aspects). Some astrologers use a smaller orb and some use a wider orb. My suggestion to you would be to play with it, take note of when you start to notice these energies and decide for yourself.
Now that you have an understanding of how aspects and the houses work you can begin to understand where certain planets fall in your chart during different periods of the year. This can be done with all types of transits throughout the year! You can look at retrogrades, new moons, full moons, eclipses, etc. If we consider another example, let's take the recent Aries full moon, we would know that this full moon took place in the house that you find Aries in within your chart. For this example, this full moon would have taken place in their first house. But, let's say you are actually a Libra rising, the full moon in Aries would have been in your 7th house of relationships. We also knew that this full moon was ruled by a Mars in Libra conjunct the SN, so this house would have been significant for you as well. When we consider the meanings of these houses we can begin to see what areas of our charts are activated: for these two examples both their first and seventh houses would have been activated, meaning that this is a significant time for both their self/health (1st) and their relationships (7th).
We can do this with any and all movements from every one of the ten planets, which can become overwhelming, so ease into it! It can be helpful to start with one transit at a time, studying the degrees, signs, houses and planets involved. Each one of these pieces will be helpful in understanding how the transit will impact you and what you might expect during it. I personally have a journal that is just for tracking transits: how did I feel under the transit? How long was it? What signs, houses, degrees, planets were involved? You could spend a lot of time tracking and paying attention to the themes, but again, it's ok to start small! Let me know what you find :)
Xoxo,
Lauren
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