What Are Planetary Transits and Why Do They Matter?
Your natal chart is a fixed snapshot, but the sky keeps moving. Every day, the planets continue their orbits, forming new geometric relationships with the positions they held at your birth. These moving planets interacting with your natal chart are called transits, and they're the primary tool astrologers use to understand timing.
How Transits Work
Think of your natal chart as a permanent map of your psyche. Transits are weather systems passing over that map. When transiting Saturn crosses your natal Sun, it doesn't change who you are, but it changes the conditions you're operating in, like a cold front moving through.
A transit activates the natal planet it contacts. If transiting Venus crosses your natal Mars, your love life and your drive suddenly interact in new ways. If transiting Pluto squares your natal Moon, deep emotional transformation becomes unavoidable.
Speed Matters
Different planets move at different speeds, and this determines how long their transits last and how deeply they affect you:
The Moon transits each sign in about 2.5 days. Moon transits are felt as daily mood shifts, brief emotional colorings that pass quickly.
Mercury, Venus, and Mars transit a sign in weeks to months. These are the events of everyday life: conversations, romantic encounters, conflicts, decisions.
Jupiter takes about a year per sign. Jupiter transits bring expansion, opportunity, and growth to whatever they touch. A Jupiter transit to your natal Sun might bring a year of increased confidence and opportunity.
Saturn takes about 2.5 years per sign. Saturn transits bring challenges, responsibilities, and maturation. They're not fun, but they build the structure of your life. The famous "Saturn return" (when transiting Saturn returns to its natal position around age 29) is a major life restructuring.
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto move so slowly that their transits unfold over years. These are the transformative, life-changing transits that reshape your entire existence. A Pluto transit to your natal Sun might take 2-3 years and completely transform your identity.
Aspect Types in Transits
Just like natal aspects, transits form conjunctions, sextiles, squares, trines, and oppositions with your natal planets. The same principles apply:
Astrologers typically use tighter orbs for transits than for natal charts (around 1-3 degrees for outer planets, up to 5 degrees for faster ones), since transit effects peak when the aspect is exact and fade as the transiting planet moves away.
Planet Venus against a dark space background
Outer Planet Transits: The Big Ones
The transits that change your life are almost always from Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto. These are slow enough to create lasting change and powerful enough to be felt as major life events.
Saturn transits feel like pressure, restriction, and the demand to grow up in whatever area of life they touch. They're difficult but constructive.
Uranus transits feel like sudden liberation, disruption, or awakening. Something breaks free that has been constrained. The change is usually permanent.
Neptune transits feel like dissolution, confusion, and spiritual opening. Reality becomes less certain. What seemed solid melts. The gift is transcendence; the risk is deception.
Pluto transits feel like death and rebirth. Something in your life must be completely destroyed and rebuilt. The process is often painful but always transformative.
Using Transits Practically
Check your current transits regularly. When you understand what's transiting what, difficult periods make more sense and opportunities become clearer. You can't change the weather, but you can dress for it.
Our Transits page shows you the current planetary positions and how they interact with your saved natal chart, so you always know what's active in your sky.