Transits and Their Effects

The Moving Sky

While the birth chart captures the planetary positions at the moment of birth, the planets continue their journey through the zodiac. Transits (gochara) are the current positions of planets as they move through signs and houses, triggering or modifying the potential in the birth chart.

How Transits Work

The birth chart is static - a snapshot. Transits are dynamic - the ongoing movement of planets through time. When transiting planets aspect or conjoin sensitive points in the birth chart, they activate those points.

Think of the birth chart as a house with rooms (houses) of different qualities. Transiting planets are visitors moving through those rooms, bringing their energy and influence wherever they go.

Transit Assessment

Transits are primarily assessed from the Moon sign (Chandra lagna). The Moon represents the mind, and transit effects are felt most directly through the mental and emotional experience.

However, transits can also be read from:

The Outer Planet Transits

Slower-moving planets produce longer, more significant transit effects:

Saturn Transit (2.5 years per sign)

Saturn’s transit is among the most impactful. Key periods include:

Sade Sati: When Saturn transits the 12th, 1st, and 2nd houses from the Moon (7.5 years total). This is a challenging period of restructuring, responsibility, and maturation.

Kantaka Shani: Saturn in the 4th, 7th, or 10th from Moon - bringing pressure in home, relationships, or career.

Ashtama Shani: Saturn in the 8th from Moon - difficulties, obstacles, health issues.

Saturn transits bring hard work, delayed results, and lessons learned through difficulty. They often correlate with increased responsibility, career advancement through effort, or the need to confront reality.

Jupiter Transit (1 year per sign)

Jupiter’s transit is generally beneficial, though houses vary in favorability:

Favorable houses from Moon: 2nd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th Challenging houses from Moon: 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th

Jupiter transits bring expansion, opportunity, wisdom, and grace. They often correlate with educational advancement, spiritual development, or improvement in the areas governed by the transited house.

Rahu/Ketu Transit (1.5 years per sign)

The nodes transit as an axis - when Rahu is in one sign, Ketu is in the opposite.

Rahu transits bring intensity, obsession, unconventional developments, and amplification of the house themes. Ketu transits bring detachment, spiritual insight, and sometimes loss or letting go.

Rahu-Ketu transits over key chart points (especially the ascendant and Moon) can bring significant life shifts.

Inner Planet Transits

Faster-moving planets have briefer but more frequent effects:

Mars (6 weeks per sign): Energy, conflict, initiative, or accidents related to the transited house Venus (1 month per sign): Pleasure, relationships, creativity in that area Mercury (varies): Communication, learning, travel connected to that house Sun (1 month per sign): Focus, vitality, clarity about those matters Moon (2.5 days per sign): Daily emotional fluctuations

Transit to Natal Aspects

Transits are especially potent when they contact natal planets:

Conjunction: The transiting planet joins the natal planet, strongly activating its themes Opposition: Creates tension, awareness, and often external events Trine: Generally supportive and flowing Square: Creates friction and pressure for change

The effects depend on both the transiting planet and the natal planet involved. Saturn transiting over natal Moon is very different from Jupiter transiting over natal Moon.

Vedakha (Obstruction)

Classical Jyotish describes planets that can obstruct or modify transit effects:

When judging a transit’s favorability, consider whether malefic planets are in houses that can negate the benefic effect (vedakha positions). A benefic Jupiter transit may be weakened if Saturn or Mars occupy certain positions from the Moon.

Double Transit Theory

Major life events often coincide with both Jupiter and Saturn aspecting or transiting the same house or its lord. This “double transit” theory helps time significant developments:

Marriage: Both Jupiter and Saturn influencing the 7th house and its lord Career change: Both influencing the 10th house Children: Both influencing the 5th house

Combining Transits with Dasha

Transits work in conjunction with dashas. A favorable transit during an unfavorable dasha may not produce results; the dasha limits what can manifest.

Dasha as potential: What karma is scheduled to unfold Transit as timing: When within that period events crystallize

A Jupiter return (Jupiter transiting its natal position) during Jupiter dasha is highly favorable. The same transit during Saturn dasha may have limited effect.

Practical Transit Reading

When reading transits:

  1. Note current outer planet positions: Where are Saturn, Jupiter, and the nodes?

  2. Calculate from Moon: What houses are these planets transiting from the Moon sign?

  3. Check sensitive points: Are major transits aspecting natal Sun, Moon, ascendant, or ascendant lord?

  4. Consider the dasha: Does the transit harmonize with or contradict the current dasha?

  5. Look for patterns: When multiple transits activate the same theme, effects are stronger.

Working with Transits

Unlike the birth chart, transits are ongoing - they change. This offers both challenge and opportunity:

Challenging transits: Understanding when difficult transits end provides perspective. Remedial measures may help.

Favorable transits: Recognizing opportune periods helps with timing important decisions.

Preparation: Knowing what’s coming allows preparation - physically, emotionally, and practically.

The Living Chart

The transit system brings the chart to life. The static birth potential is activated, tested, and expressed through the ongoing dance of planets through the sky.

Reading transits well requires knowing the birth chart deeply - transits only activate what is already there. A transit cannot create something the natal chart doesn’t contain; it can only awaken, express, or challenge existing potential.

This is the bridge between destiny and time - the mechanism by which karma unfolds according to cosmic rhythm.

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