The Truth About Transits

What is a transit in astrology? It’s when a current planetary influence crosses or is at an angle to the birth position of your Sun, Moon, a planet or a significant point like the Ascendant.

For example, if you were born with Mars at 29° Capricorn, Pluto at 29° Capricorn would be conjunct (adjacent to) your natal or birth Mars. You would be having a Pluto-Mars transit.

Now the truth about transits is that they can be worked with for maximum effect but that there is also a lot of scare-mongering around them. Planets don’t just charge around looking for someone to mess with and while there are transits which are more pleasurable than others, all have their opportunities and threats.

The most important thing to remember is that the current planetary energy will arouse the natal energy it’s impacting. Figuring out how to work with the particular vibe being evoked puts you ahead. Astrology is not fatalistic but, with contemplation you can perceive patterns and cycles that will awe you with their synchronicity.

Now, you can see your upcoming big-deal transits via a Year Ahead Report – these ones are designed to be proactive and upbeat but still pragmatic. But to use the Pluto-Mars example above, this would activate your natal Mars vibe and Mars represents courage, audacity and ambition but also anger and resentment.

Pluto deepens your experience of the Mars archetype so if you have a good channel for Mars expression, Pluto-Mars tends to result in more avenues to go for it. Or your focus becomes more fixed on desirable goals.

But if you’ve lowered your Mars vibe for whatever reason and are operating under capacity or sadly oppressed, your Pluto-Mars experience will be more akin to an eruption. You’ll be like a dormant volcano rumbling into life.

Transits don’t happen ‘to you’ – they’re an influence that you can mitigate, enhance or learn from!

And, some additional thoughts from Clarissa Dolphin:

Astrological transits generate a bevy of strange theories entrenched in drenching defeatism, as if autonomy is buried by higher cosmic sensibility. 

When a moving celestial body forms a tight angle to a planet or point in the natal chart, i.e. when transit Uranus at 21 degrees rests on a natal Moon at 21 degrees via square, trine, conjunction, is powerlessness inevitable? Or is willpower and cosmic determinism intertwined?

Everyone has experienced a “f**ked up” transit, like when Pluto, Saturn, or Uranus barrels down, wreaking havoc on what was once stable, predictable and functional. In many of these situations, a sense of control is lost and impotence reigns… but personal powerlessness is NEVER actually the case, in any forecasting circumstance. 

Self-determination is always the outcome of every transit. Choice on how to interact with predominating celestial forces, moving with the tides of entropy, change or evolution, is the bedrock of everything.

In some sense, what else are we even here for, to be the same forever, entrenched in comfort? That’s completely out of alignment with consistent change in the universe. Does anything, even monolithic inanimate objects like chairs, stay the same? No. At a subatomic level everything is moving. 

Humans ARE literally stardust too, let’s not forget that fact. Millions of years into metamorphic making, we are one in the same as these big ass planets doing whatever they’re doing in outer space. Consequently, we can adapt to and transform with any celestial energy: the planets are our kin.

Finally, call me an optimist, but I personally believe that pressure, real hard sh*t, can bring out the best in you, engender inimitable resilience and growth. The self-discovery potential with transits is enormous – they beget powers, enhanced consciousness, ways of being that were once inconceivable.

What do you think, is there freedom with transits or are we all just pawns / puppets to providential forces?

~Clarissa