Guides / Western astrology
What is a transit?
A transit is a planet in the sky now, forming an aspect to a point in the natal chart. It is a timing technique, not a second birth chart.
The sky moving over a fixed chart
A natal chart is a still photograph. Transits are the planets continuing to move after that photograph was taken. When transiting Saturn squares natal Sun, an astrologer reads that as a period in which Saturn’s themes of time and pressure meet the natal Sun’s themes of vitality and purpose.
Slow planets make fewer, longer transits. The Moon transits everything in a month. Traditional practice weighs the slow contacts more heavily for life chapters and the fast ones for weather.
Common questions
- Does Inner Light calculate transits?
- The birth chart is natal. Daily planetary context appears on the Panchang and on the sky snapshot used on the birth chart landing. A full transit-to-natal report is a separate technique from those pages.