Before reading this it’s helpful to read How Astrology Works

 

Does the future exist yet? Maybe not. If it doesn’t then how is possible to predict something? It isn’t, not specifically. But using different techniques astrologers do make predictions about the future. A commonly used technique is called transits. Transits show when the planets in the solar system make connections with the planets in our chart, thus highlighting and bringing forward different themes in our lives.

I like using transits because they’re real and they work. It’s also possible to be accurate because we know exactly where the planets were when we were born, where they are now, and where they will be in future.

Actually our solar system, as used in astrology, is a bit like a clock with many hands, one for each planet, all revolving around a central point which is the Earth. The reason the Earth is at the center and not the Sun is because that’s where we are. The positions of the planets are relative to us here on Earth.

So let’s say now along comes some a transit, a planet, that makes a connection with a sensitive point in our chart. That connection can be quick, a day, a few weeks, a few months, or much longer like a few years. What’s most valuable, in my opinion, is to look at the transits that last a long time, because they are the one’s that bring about bigger, more profound changes.

What happens to us then? Well it’s like an alarm goes off – ding ding wake up – and we begin to feel it is time to do something, to make some major change over a period of time. That might be a big change within ourselves, a change in our thinking or behavior. It could also be a big change we make to the structure of our lives.

So essentially transits show when certain qualities or themes in our charts, and ourselves, are activated and how that could feel to us. They also show how different planets may be influencing many of us, collectively, to do what feels right at certain times.

So it’s not like you can say a person will do something, or that something specific will happen to them, but rather that a transit can encourage them to feel a certain way, or see things a certain way, and that’s what influences their actions. That we are free to interpret and respond to things however we like is assumed in Western astrology, though you cannot deny that when a big transit impacts us, it may not feel that way. We tend to do what feels natural to us, even when responding to a difficult situation. Because transits can also show times when something outside of us, a person, a situation, pushes us to make changes, even when we don’t feel ready to.

So a good astrologer will help a person understand what’s going on at such times. My approach is to say “around this time you’re likely to feel like changing something related to this area of your life” or “this is the right time to focus on X.” My hope is that people can then watch their own lives and reactions with a higher degree of awareness and shape the outcomes more positively.

Shall we test it how a transit can work? I’m now going to predict something based on the movement of a planet and let’s see how you react. I predict that after the Sun moves below the western horizon tonight you will feel like laying down and closing your eyes. Then, hours later, when the Sun is somewhere around the eastern horizon you’ll open your eyes and stand up. Is it for sure that you will do this? No. But somehow I imagine it will feel right… even if that’s because it’s light or it’s dark and you’re tired.

The Sun is an example of a cycle that repeats every 24 hours, and how we respond is predictable, give or take a bit. And the good news is that we know we’re going to have to get up in the morning, though with the other, bigger cycles, we may not know what’s to come. Because other planets too, the one’s we can’t see, are encouraging us to feel things also. So maybe it is like a passing planet shines a light on something in ourselves, or our life, and we become more sensitive to it, and start to examine it and respond to it, and changes follow.

 

The mechanics

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are the slowest moving planets in relation to us, so when they trigger a planet in our chart it happens quite slowly, instigating a phase that can last a year or two or more. The movements of these planets are the most powerful, bringing about the strongest periods of change, although the cycles of Jupiter and Saturn are important also.

When these planets trigger a planet in our chart, that planet in our chart already has a specific meaning. So transits can trigger changes to our personality (Sun in our chart), our home or family life (Moon), how we think and communicate (Mercury), how and who we love (Venus) and how we take action and protect ourselves from danger (Mars). There are also trends to do with areas in our such as career, marriage/partnerships, where we live, our appearance, and so on.

Below shows a calendar called a timescan which shows how the movements of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are connecting with the different planets in a person’s birth chart from 2000 to 2001. The little colored line areas show the time when the interaction is most strong mathematically, and the symbol in the colored bit shows the mathematical angle between the planet out there now and the planet in their chart.

You can also see how these periods, lasting a year or two, are split into 3 parts. This is really interesting as it shows that these periods of change, or feeling that it’s time to change, tend to have a beginning, a middle and an end.

What does a transit feel like?

People feel transits coming, especially the big ones. Maybe they feel ready for change or have started to experience rumblings in an area of their life. It seems we prepare by becoming aware, and then start maneuvering ourselves into situations that are appropriate for working something out, like a little car driving down the road and choosing to go this way or that.

Can people change their future because they’re aware of what the planets are doing? I think yes… but whether they actually make different decisions, or take different actions, I’m not sure. Even so, knowing about our transits can help us see things really differently, and hopefully accept and shape our lives in a more dynamic way. They can also help us understand why certain things may seem to be happening to us, especially things that are odd or unexpected. Meditation can also help us respond in a more balanced and alert way.

 

Over the years I’ve done charts for people who do and don’t meditate and have seen that the less self aware someone is, the more they may be pushed about (unknowingly) by the influences of the planets. It could be that that our state of awareness actually filters the influence itself, so if we’re feeling really negative we tune into the negative elements of it, but when centered then something more balanced comes through. I think it’s been proven that when people are feeling vulnerable, they actually become more vulnerable. And if someone is feeling well and balanced even the most challenging influences can wash over them a bit. This makes sense since it’s the physical world that the energies of the planets seem to work on, and not our true spiritual selves, since this is not something material.

Maybe it’s like being in the ocean. Sometimes it’s better to float and sometimes its better to swim.

 

What impacts our experience?

How a transit affects us seems connected to:

1) The design of our birth chart and the nature of the transit itself.

2) Where we are at the start, psychologically and logistically.

3) Our ability to witness.

 

1) The design of our birth chart and the nature of the transit

How the planets are arranged in our chart seems to imprint us with certain strengths and tendencies, conditionings you could say, or expectations. And since it’s these being triggered by passing influences, what’s already in our chart strongly influences our experience. And this is why astrological predictions made by computers or books can only give general guidelines.

Let’s use Saturn, our career planet, as an example. Saturn in our charts shows how we manage structure and responsibility in the tangible world, how we build up security for ourselves and for others. Our chart shows a particular ‘Saturn’ imprint, which is also influenced by parents and the social structures we’re born into.

So when our Saturn is triggered by a passing transit we feel pushed to interact with that imprint, develop or change it. We might feel it’s time to change our job or goals, or the way we handle responsibility. We may become a parent, start a business, buy property or a pension. We may, also, alternatively, have to let go of things that have been providing us with security up till then. Sometimes a change involves breaking things apart before putting them back together again.

Planetary influences also come in different flavors, some feeling easy and some not. While some of this may down to how we see things, it is also connected to the actual circumstances we’re faced with. Easy influences feel comfortable and familiar, they don’t challenge us to adapt to things we don’t like but rather things seem to be working out pleasantly and effortlessly. Difficult influences, on the other hand, generate conflict or feel like an imposition, forcing us to adapt to something we don’t like or don’t want to do just to relieve the tension. Difficult influences also tend to be more obvious because they’re so stressful. But it’s through the process of adapting we change.

Say you’re at a party and someone pleasant comes in. They feel easy, they fit in and are more likely to enhance rather than disrupt what’s going on. But say a genuinely disgusting and disruptive person arrives, and everyone suddenly feels they must adjust – do something – in reaction. This is a bit like the difference between how a harmonious and challenging influence can feel.

 

Another way the design of our chart may influence our experience is because of the connections between the planets within the chart itself. Say our Saturn (career, responsibilities) is linked to our Venus (heart, relationships) then we might experience career, responsibilities and relationships as linked. So when we work out career issues we may also be dealing with heart or partnership issues. It’s as if each planet in our chart is a musical note which can played by itself, or as part of a chord. Then the passing planets play these notes and chords, often in the same order, again and again. But actually the arrangement of the planets in our solar system is always changing, so even if the planets in our chart is fixed, the solar system is not. This is what’s been called the real music of the spheres.

 

2) Where we are when it starts

Another thing that impacts our experience of a planetary transit is our position, in ourselves and in the world, when it starts. All journeys involving change, like stories, have some sort of beginning, middle and end. So we too are at a beginning point when things start.

And at the beginning of a transit we often realize, or feel, that something can no longer be the same, although where we are at the start (A) will have some bearing on where we are at the end (B). We start from where we are now (I want to change something) and move toward an end point (I am different, my life has changed).

In the beginning: Here is when our attention starts to shift towards the need to do something, something in our life comes into focus. We realize there is a need to change something. Sometimes we rely on our relationships with other people, or specific situations, to act as vehicles to ‘carry’ the energy of the change we are making, i.e., we get attracted to people or situations that help us, or force us to, work something out. It’s like we’re maneuvering ourselves into position before starting the dance. Our journey begins.

 

The middle: It’s usually during the middle when the big changes or dramas happen, although there may have also been some at the start. If it’s a challenging influence then it’s in the middle we feel pushed to make decisions and resolve things. It’s also this time when we are more likely to change things about ourselves we’ve been wanting to “fix” for ages. It can also feel as if circumstances, or other people, are pushing us to do something in order to resolve a problem.

Planetary influences that trigger something in our chart by square (see the little red squares in the timescan calendar above) often force us to resolve conflicts that arise from wanting two (or more) things to be possible at the same time, when they can’t be.  For example say a person wants to move to another city, but they don’t want to quit their job. How to resolve that dilemma? So during the middle period is when we try and work things out, either by accepting one solution or another, or concocting some innovative compromise.

Another thing we might feel during this middle period is impatience, just wanting to find the solution or resolve something quickly because the tension is just too much. In such cases the timings of the influence helps us understand things work out according to their own timing, and how there may be no sense trying to rush things along if a solution has not yet appeared. Solutions do tend to show up though, especially near the middle of an influence. Sometimes the problem solves itself naturally or a decision is made for us. Sometimes we fix the problem because we just have to, the time is right.

So basically this middle period is more eventful, and potentially more stressful. Surrendering can help since a solution is then free to work out, though physical actions and activity, as well as decision making, may be also be required. People with many challenging aspects in their own charts are more likely to feel pulled in different directions, since it’s often the conflicts in their chart (and in themselves) which get exaggerated. This explains how sometimes we meet the same dilemma over and over again in our life, the dilemma is actually inside us – help!

But not all influences are challenging, some are harmonious and then things just seem to work out by themselves. Not all change, or growth, involves conflict of course.

 

Near the end is usually when we have found ways to resolve any dilemmas we were facing, and we settle into the new state of things within and without. Equilibrium returns.

 

3) Our ability to witness

Also influencing our experience is how detached we are. People who meditate usually tend to see things differently, can keep a cool head, not get so stressed, and are less likely to react and do something crazy they later regret. By observing and witnessing one’s reactions the outcome tends to be more positive, more balanced.

 

So essentially the movements of the planets can encourage and accelerate our growth by sending us ‘time to change’ messages, that’s how they work. And since the planets move according to certain laws of nature it’s no wonder we can feel when they’re coming our way. Maybe the planetary influence itself is just one way of telling us what time it is – the time to change something or move ourselves, and our lives, from A to B.