question on how to record transits

hi. I'm beginning to explore a little deeper into astrology. I think I have a gist of the real basic stuff... but I just read something about recording transits on your natal chart, and then looking up the houses and planets they affect. However, it really doesn't go into detail about exactly how to do this. I have my natal chart plotted, with what sign is in each house, and by how many degrees. How would I go about plotting the daily transits? For example, if Venus enters Pisces, where would I put that in my chart? Say I had Venus in my 8th house (4 degrees), would that mean that the influence of Pisces(intuition) would affect the "8th house"(sex/death/finances?) area of my life in a Venus (loving) kind of way? And, another question along this same line... do you plot "squares" "trines" and all those aspects... or is it just when a planet enters a sign?

so much to learn! thanks! - joy

Hi Joya,

You asked multi-faceted questions that aren't easy to answer in this forum, but I'll try by best:

Venus in your 8th can mean many things including that you'll attract a partner with money (it's your partner's money house) and also the areas of life that you mentioned.

Recording transits: I would suggest using a pencil because some planets move quickly so you'll be erasing (or you can make many copies of your chart and start anew each time).

You would place the transit on the outside of the wheel...Example: if your 8th house cusp is 2 degrees of Pisces and your 9th house is 1 degree of Aries, any planet within those paramaters would be transiting your 8th. When Venus reaches 2 degrees of Pisces (in a few days) it will be transiting your 8th. You would do this for all the planets.

I'm figuring that you're a Leo ascendant, correct (unless you have an interception)? Pluto is either transiting your 4th or 5th house now and Neptune either your 6th or 7th. Those are long transits (many years), but the personal planets (Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars) move quickly. I would suggest not bothering with the Moon because it's in a new sign every 2 1/2 days.

Best wishes,
AG

Oops, I forgot about the aspects, yes, the aspects a transit makes is very important and should be recorded.

Let's say for instance you have Mars at 17 degrees of Leo, when transiting Mars reaches 17 degrees of Aries, it will trine (120 degrees) your natal Mars. Or when Mars reaches 17 degrees of Taurus, it will square (90 degrees) your natal Mars. That's how it's done.

You're checking for both the transiting house placement and aspects that the transit makes.

AG

thanks AG. whew. it's a lot of stuff. i'm gonna have to print that out and read it a few times. btw, my acsendent is Scorpio. (gemini sun, cancer moon -- air and water... sometimes gets messy, haha)

Joya,

It's not as difficut as it sounds....you may want to begin tracking only the houses the planets are transiting...that's the real easy part. Once you feel comfortable with that, move on to looking for aspects...first conjunctions and oppositions as they're very easy to detect (check out my post on "identifying aspects").

The sextiles, squares and trines are more difficult, but you can learn those later, once you're more comfortable with the others. It's not a good idea to attempt to learn everything at once, it will only confuse the hell out of you!

When I taught astrology, I devoted four weeks just on aspects as they're the most difficult facet of astrology to learn....but they are learnable...it just takes time.

Good luck and happy studies,
AG