How to Track Your Transits 


​A Step By Step Guide 
In order to track your transits, you will need your natal, or birth chart.  If you don’t already have this you can get your natal chart for free here. You will also need an ephemeris. For this article we will use the natal chart of actor Chris Evans.

The Houses 

Perhaps the easiest thing to start out doing is to check the transit, or movement, of the planets through your natal houses.  The first thing you want to do is to familiarize yourself with how the Signs relate to your natal houses. The Ascendant, or Rising Sign,  always represents the beginning of the first house. If you look at Chris's chart above you see that the Signs are related to the Houses in the following manner. 
​
Each of the 12 houses rule a different area of life. A planet transiting, or moving, through a house will have a specific effect on that area of life. For example. Jupiter, the planet of good luck and expansion, moving through the 7th house of relationships will have a much different affect on the individual than Saturn, the planet of restriction and discipline.  

To learn more about how transiting planets relate to your natal chart, please refer to my Transits page. 


Aspects between Planets

The next thing you will want to do is to check the aspects between the transiting planets and your natal placement. Begin by taking your placements and putting them in numerological order from least to greatest. As you can see from the chart above, Chris’ placements are as follows

When these are placed in numerological order from least to greatest they are now arranged as follows:
Next you will add two degrees to either side of these placements, seen below in red.

These are the hot zones that you will be looking for in your ephemeris.  Anything two degrees before exact is considered applying and anything two degrees after exact are considered separating.  

  • Any planet +/- 2 degrees in the same sign are conjunct each other
  • Any planet +/- 2 degrees 6 signs away are in opposition to each other
  • Any planet +/- 2 degrees 3 signs away are square to each other
  • Any planet +/- 2 degrees 4 signs away are trine to each other
  • Any planet +/- 2 degrees 2 signs away are sextile to each other.  

Aspects are thought to be either “hard” (difficult) or “soft” (easy).  Trines and Sextiles are soft, while conjunctions, oppositions, and squares are hard.  Soft aspects typically occur quickly and easily with little effort. Hard aspects bring challenges that help push us past our own personal boundaries and give us the impetus to achieve our goals.

  • When one planet conjuncts another planet, their energies are fused together. However, the moon carries more weight. The keyword for conjunctions is fused or blends.
  • When one planet is in opposition to another planet, their energies are challenging each other. We often identify with one planet and cast someone or something in our lives in the role of the opposing planet. Someone or something is doing something to you and it’s not your fault. The key word for oppositions is split or divided.
  • When one planet is square to another planet a tension forms between the two planets and you are forced to take some kind of action. The keyword for squares is challenges or pushes
  • When one planet is trine to another planet, things tend to occur easily and in a natural way. The keyword for trines is allows
  • When one planet  is sextile to another planet, it brings opportunities. The keyword for sextiles is coaxes.

For the purpose of this article, we will be looking at September 2018 and checking aspects between the transiting moon and natal placements. However, you can check apsects between any and all placements that you wish.



Let us look at the transiting Moon which starts out on September 1st in 16 degrees Taurus. This does not fall within any of Chris’ hot zones. Scanning the ephemeris we see the Moon is in 29 degrees Taurus on September 2nd which falls within his natal Jupiter (28-00-02) and Uranus (25-27-29) hot zones.

  • Jupiter is in 0 degrees Libra in Chris’s natal chart. Libra and Taurus are five signs apart and form no major aspects.
  • Uranus is in 27 degrees Scorpio in his natal chart. Scorpio and Taurus are six signs apart and therefore are in opposition to one another.  So sometime between September 1st and 2nd, the transiting Moon will be in opposition to Natal Uranus.

In order to narrow this down, a little math is in order. We know that the moon moves about 13.2 degrees a day. If we divide this by 24 hours in a day we know that the moon moves .55 degrees per hour or roughly 1 degrees every two hours.  If the moon is in 29 degrees Leo at midnight on September 12th then we count back one degree every two hours.

For example

  1. 9/2    12 AM        Moon in 29 degrees Taurus     Separating
  2. 9/1    10 PM        Moon in 28 degrees Taurus     Separating  
  3. 9/1     8 PM         Moon in 27 degrees Taurus     Exact
  4. 9/1     6 PM         Moon in 26 degrees Taurus     Applying
  5. 9/1     4 PM         Moon in 25 degrees Taurus     Applying

So Chris will begin to feel the effect of the transiting moon in opposition to his natal Uranus around 4 pm on 9/1, it will reach its peak around 8 pm that night and it will lessen around 10 PM as the planets grow further apart. During this brief period Chris may experience a strong emotional urge to rebel against something or someone outside of himself.  He may be easily distracted and search for some form of excitement and this plays out in the form of impulsive decisions and emotional reactions.

Continue scanning the Moon column on the ephemeris for hot zones and write down any aspects which are formed.  Due to the fact that the moon moves so quickly through the zodiac, most of these aspects will last for only a short time but they can trigger events and experiences.  If you desire you can check the movement of all the transiting planets to your natal placements.


My Astrology Pages