transits °
life on the move
the planets of now, of each new moment, meet the planets in your chart and create movement & events—a stream of life, passing through. planets are like travelers. Sometimes momentary interactions occur, sometimes they come to stay for an extended time. Sometimes thrilling, sometimes exhausting.
natal chart with transits
In this chart image, a natal chart is the main feature and the transiting planets are circling the outer perimeter, in a deeper peach color.
To single out one planet, we can see that in the natal chart, Mars is in Capricorn, but transiting Mars (or where Mars is on a specific date you want to look up) is in Cancer.
Transiting planets can make aspects (or have open lines of communication) with natal planets, just like planets within the natal chart. The difference is these communications are temporary, and yet they bring new events, information, circumstances, and moods into play.
You can refer back to the ‘Interactions & Aspects’ page to see what a transiting planet’s aspect to a natal planet might mean.
Each planet moves at its own orbital speed making how fast they move around the chart different for each (from a geocentric view). I’ll give the geocentric transit timing of the planets, below.
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Technically the Sun doesn’t move, but because of Earth’s orbit around it, we see its apparent motion through the zodiac. From our view, it take 12-months for this to happen, spending 30 days in each sign.
This pattern is our solar year.
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For the Moon to return to a fixed spot from our view, takes 27.3 days. This is different to what’s called its synodic period, which is how long it takes to return to the same phase, such as to a new moon phase (which is 29.5 days). So, to go once around our chart takes 27.3 days, but we see a repeated lunar phase after 29.5 days.
The moon will spend approximately 2.5 days in a sign before moving on, the fastest ruling body, by a lot.
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Mercury stays in a zodiac sign for about 2-3 weeks, unless in retrograde, in which case it will stay in a sign for up to 10 weeks. It takes approximately 12 months to move through the whole zodiac, from our geocentric perspective.
Mercury typically retrogrades three times a year for about 3 weeks each time, appearing to reverse its motion.
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Venus takes 10-12 months to move around our chart, depending on its retrograde timing. If retrograde during a year, it will take about 12 months to go around the zodiac. If it didn’t go retrograde, it will take about 10 months.
Venus retrogrades about every 18 months for 40 days, appearing to reverse its motion.
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Mars circles our whole chart in about two years. It will stay in one zodiac sign (from our geocentric perspective) for about 6-7 weeks, unless it is in retrograde motion (appearing to reverse its motion). When it moves in and out of retrograde in a sign, it can stay there for up to 7-8 months. During its 2-year tour of our chart it will have only one retrograde period take place for 8-11 weeks.
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Ceres takes about 4 years to transit through our whole chart, staying in each sign for about 4 months. The goddess of agriculture seems to tune into the ‘4’ pattern, in my mind, mimicking the 4 seasons.
This dwarf planet goes retrograde once a year for about 3 months.
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From our geocentric view, it takes Jupiter 12 years to circle our whole chart, staying in one zodiac sign for about 1 year.
Jupiter goes retrograde once a year for about 4 months.
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Saturn takes about 29.5 years to go around our whole chart, staying in each zodiac sign for about 2.5 years.
Every year Saturn will go retrograde for about 4.5 moths.
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It takes Uranus about 7 years to move through one zodiac sign, taking about 84 years to circle our whole chart.
Each year Uranus will experience one retrograde when it appears to us to reverse motion. This lasts for about 5 months.
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Neptune will stay in one zodiac sign for about 14 years from our geocentric perspective. To tour our whole chart takes about 146 years. As humans, we will only experience Neptune in a portion of signs, depending on our lifespan.
Neptune will turn retrograde once a year, from our perspective, reversing in motion for about 5 months.
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Our furthest out (typically used) dwarf planet, Pluto takes 248 years to tour a chart. This means in a human life, we will never have a Pluto Return, or experience this planet in very many zodiac signs.
Pluto takes anywhere between 11.5 to 30.5 years to tour one sign, depending on where it is in its elliptical orbit.
Pluto goes into retrograde once a year for between 5 and 6 months, also depending on where it is in its elliptical orbit.
planets in retrograde
As you may have seen in the above list of planets and their geocentric timing around the zodiac, retrogrades are a transit feature that should be understood.
When a planet is in direct alignment with Earth, making a straight line between Planet/Earth/Sun, a bit of an illusion happens. I’ve heard an allusion to this being similar to when a car passes you, or you pass a car. It can feel like one or the other is suddenly moving in reverse, depending on which is moving faster or slower.
Earth is the car we are in, and during a retrograde, either we are passing another planet, or we are being passed by one. Again, this depends on orbital speed. The closer to the Sun, the faster the planet’s orbital speed. Mercury and Venus are inside of our own orbit and so will lap us on occasion. The rest of the planets are slower than Earth and so we will pass them on occasion. We never see the Sun or Moon in retrograde.
For planets outside our orbit, retrogrades happen when we see a transiting planet opposed to the transiting Sun. Because Earth is always opposite the Sun, this means the planet is conjunct Earth, or we are about to pass by it.
For planets inside our orbit, we never see them in oppostion to Sun, but there are two kinds of Sun conjunctions, one where that planet is behind the Sun from us, a superior conjunction, and one where that planet is between Earth and the Sun, an inferior conjunction. The latter Sun conjunction (inferior) is when we experience this planet as retrograde—it is in the process of passing Earth.
