By Jove i think i understand jeeves....

i think the light bulb has finally clicked on!

i have struggled with trying to understand the basics of transits,i have read books, asked questions, googled but still nothing clicked, i felt like i was missing a piece of the puzzle.


i have reread some posts here, and the dreaded sue rushman book, and by jove i think its clicked. i realised that transits are how the planets currently 'rub up' against your natal planets, is there friction, or does it rub up nicely etc.

now i just need to understand progressions.....

Transits indicate triggers - Look more for conjunctions, oppositions and squares than trines and sextiles. Modern views would be that the activate planets in your natal chart (and aspect patterns if you believe in them) Traditional views would be that they indicate the time when issues indicated in directions and solar returns are likely to actually come to a head.

Progressions are a bit more difficult in terms of comprehension because, unlike tranists, they are symbolic - if they actually happened they did so an awful long time ago. If I use your secondary progressions as an example, the whole of your thirtieth year is symbolised by the chart for the thirtieth day after you were born (counting from your time of birth). As you were born less than half an hour before midnight, you could easily approximate this from an ephemeris but if you have software, you can cast a chart exactly for 23:35 GMT on 18th August 1976. Having the software means that you can actually progress the planets through the year - though usually the only one worth progressing in this fashion is the Moon, unless one of the others is within minutes of perfecting as aspect.

Solar Arc Directions are slightly diffent and move ALL planets forward at the Sun's Mean rate (so the chart represents a situation that NEVER occurs in reality and is entirely symbolic)

Primary Directions use the observed movement of the heavens in the hours after your birth at a rate of approximately one degree equals one year. This means that events in your thirtieth year (beginning on 20th July 2005) are symbolised by the heavens approximately two hours after your birth (The Ascendant moving at an average of one degree every four minutes). Your whole life can be read in the first six hours of life (well slightly longer if you make it past 90 LOL).

ALL progressions and Directions must be read in relation to the Natal chart.

It is best to chose ONE method as your preferred system, rather than continually swap. However you will need to try oth the various ones for some time before you settle on the one you like.

wow thanks minderwiz, the way you explained it made alot more sense to the other articles i have read, i didnt understand before the fact that they say 34 days when they mean 34 years.
once i have digested this i will see if i can put a few things togther and see if they make sense to you, and am on the right track

214red said:

I realised that transits are how the planets currently 'rub up' against your natal planets, is there friction, or does it rub up nicely etc.

now i just need to understand progressions.....

Click to expand...

Nice way to put it. I like that analogy! "Rub against" lol

Nicely put, that's exactly what it is.

214red said:

, i didnt understand before the fact that they say 34 days when they mean 34 years.

Click to expand...

Yes it's one of the most difficult things to grasp because it seems so 'off the wall'. You then 'progress' or advance the chart to get any particular day within the year - so for example, using your thirtieth secondary progression for 18/19th August 1976. At 23:35 on the 18th we have a chart for the year following your birthday in 2005 (your 30th year). To examine the situation on a date during that year, for example 18th February 2006 (6 months on) you cast a chart for 11:35 19th August 1976 (12 hours after the annual Secondary Progression). This enables you to pinpoint events within the year. If you are using software, this will usually be able to adjust any secondary progression chart for a date during the year to which it refers, or even an hour during that day!

214red said:

once i have digested this i will see if i can put a few things togther and see if they make sense to you, and am on the right track

Click to expand...

That's a good idea and I'll be happy to check for you.

Minderwiz can you suggest some astro.com reports that i can use to look at progressions and directions.

there are a number or charts to look at and i am not sure which one would be the easiest for a begginner, i have tried to natal chart and progressions.

okay lets see how on track i am (or how way off...)

Natal chart holds all the information about you, and how you view the world etc, but also the natal promise, all the potential you carry.

the solar return gives you the flavour of the year , what your focus will be.

transits is more about timing of when things will happen or start that is indicated in the natal and the SR chart.

Progressions- now this is a tricky one to discribe for me, how does it fit into the big picture, i think i understand the progressed moon a bit as look at my progressed moon for my 30th year , it was in gemini and i took up formal study again and i was dating multiple people (bad i know) , now its in cancer i have been a bit more comfortable with less friends, entertaining at home. However it also signified a huge family issue when it moved into cancer.
now i understand from other things that my 35th year i am likely to completely change careers, doing what i am learning fulltime....now would my sun moving sign be an indicator of this as it moves into virgo which my natal mars is in, and it will also aspect my natal mars?
does any of that make sense or am i well off track?

Solar Returns, Progressions, Directions and Transits are all predictive tools and so are all concerned with timing. As an analogy, see progressions/Directions as the hour hand, Solar Returns as the minute hand and Transits as the second hand. This analogy isn't perfect by any means but it will give you a flavour.

With progressions (and indeed the rest) Don't try to read the chart in the way that you would read a Natal chart - what you are looking for are 'triggers'. A trigger is a significant change - a planet changing sign or house, a planet reaching an angle or perfecting an aspect or conjunction. Thus, in your current secondary progression chart, you are quite right to point out that your Sun is about to change signs,- though it will still remain in your fifth house, so that might affect the way that you deal with fifth house matters at that time (and it's about six months off).

Although the aspect to Mars looks not far off, it actually is. The Sun moves at an average of one degree a day (approx). In secondary progression terms, that's one degree a year. So even if Mars were stationary, it would be seven years before that conjunction perfected. In fact Mars is not stationary so the aspect will take even longer still to perfect.

However the progressed Moon is about to enter your natal fourth and that will come very quickly - in just over three weeks. In about seven months it will conjunct your natal Sun and then Mercury, Saturn and Venus in turn. So you ought to start thinking about the meaning of these conjunctions, in terms of what each planet symbolises in your natal chart. Look for Transits in the period of the perfection to see when you think there will be a significant effect around that time. No significant transits might indicate that the effect might not happen or might be very subdued. If there is a tranist that coincides with the progression then something ought to happen.

Minderwiz said:

However the progressed Moon is about to enter your natal fourth and that will come very quickly - in just over three weeks. In about seven months it will conjunct your natal Sun and then Mercury, Saturn and Venus in turn. So you ought to start thinking about the meaning of these conjunctions, in terms of what each planet symbolises in your natal chart. Look for Transits in the period of the perfection to see when you think there will be a significant effect around that time. No significant transits might indicate that the effect might not happen or might be very subdued. If there is a tranist that coincides with the progression then something ought to happen.

Click to expand...

perhaps i am looking at the wrong chart in astro.com, what would you suggest as a better chart.

old habits die hard and yes i am trying to read it like my natal chart and hence failing
my 4th house is the house of joy and great pain to me so i am interested to know the affect that will have on me. its interesting as i move in approx 4-6 weeks so i dont need other issues to rear their head...or rather i would prefer to have the heads up on the situation
**edited to add**
something just clicked, in my trance readings i keep being told august i will be moving house again to a bigger place, because i will be sharing it again. now this looks like it might be related to the transits against my 4house planets

okay i went back to my birth chart information and looked back at an ephermeris to try and make sense of this all, and i think it started clicking a bit more.
i cast a chart for transits for 22nd of august 1976 which would be for my 33rd year, i can see the moon on the chart and as you said about it moving into my 4th house in 3 weeks i can see that clearly on the chart as you said it moves 1 degree per week.

however i dont have software yet and astro.com doesnt allow you to do part days, so i cant cast a chart for 7 months time using this method.

so i have a couple of questions as normal:
1- where can i find a chart for this time frame without downloading software (i need to rebuild my laptop before i do that)

2-maybe i am mad, but i would have thought that within a couple of months the moon would start making some aspect to my sun, or is this relating to the degree my sun is at?

thanks in advance, you will get sick of me one day!
*****edit*****

i realised my error on point 2, because i ran my chart for 22nd of august which is when i will turn 34 which is not until the middle of next year, hence i can see why the you said 7 months, i am still only partially through 22nd august