A transit is a planet in today’s sky making an aspect to a point in your birth chart. The tool lists every exact aspect Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto make to your chart in the twelve months from the date you choose, with the date of each one and the stretch when it is within one degree. Tick the box to add Mars. In the ten test charts we checked, the five slow planets made between 22 and 33 exact transits in a year, and Mars added between 27 and 68 more.
How it works
Your birth chart is cast from your date, time and place with NASA JPL DE440 data in the tropical zodiac: the Sun, the Moon and the planets to Pluto, and with a birth time the Ascendant and Midheaven. Then the tool follows each slow planet day by day for twelve months and finds, to the minute, every moment it stands exactly 0, 60, 90, 120 or 180 degrees from one of your points.
Those are the conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition, the major or Ptolemaic aspects: Ptolemy names the opposition, trine, square and sextile in the Tetrabiblos (book I, chapter 13, Of the Aspects of the Signs), and astrologers count the conjunction with them.
When a planet turns retrograde close to one of your points, it can make the same aspect two or three times. The tool numbers the passes and shows the whole stretch when the planet is within one degree of exact, which is when readers say a transit is felt most.
Reading the result
Read the list by planet. Jupiter transits are read as growth and opening doors, Saturn as structure and responsibility, Uranus as change and the wish for freedom, Neptune as imagination and a softer focus, and Pluto as depth and slow transformation. Mars, if you add it, brings short bursts of energy and friction.
The aspect gives the tone: a conjunction merges two themes, a sextile is an opening that rewards a small step, a square is friction that asks for an adjustment, a trine is an easy flow, and an opposition is a pull between two sides, often seen through other people. These are modern readings, offered for reflection. The point in your chart says where it lands: your Sun for your sense of self, your Moon for your feelings, your Ascendant for how you meet the world, and so on.
Where traditions differ
Astrologers use different orbs, from one degree to five or more, so some will say a transit has begun earlier than the window shown here. Some list the fast planets as well, the Sun, Mercury and Venus, whose transits last a day or two; this tool leaves them out, and leaves out Mars unless you ask for it. Vedic astrology reads transits (gochara) mainly from the Moon sign, in the sidereal zodiac, which is a different method.
What it does not do
It does not predict events or say whether a year will be good or bad. Without a birth time it leaves out your Moon, Ascendant and Midheaven, which move too far in a day to place to the degree, and it places the planets at 12:00, which makes the dates approximate. The slowest planets move so little each day that the exact moment of an aspect is uncertain by an hour or so, which can move a date by one day when it falls near midnight. Dates are shown in your device’s time zone.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is a transit?
It is a planet in the sky now forming an aspect, such as a conjunction or a square, to a planet or point in your birth chart. Astrologers read the slow planets' transits as the main themes of a period.
↳ Why does the same transit appear two or three times?
Because the planet turned retrograde near that point. It passes the exact degree going forward, comes back over it while retrograde, and passes it a third time when it moves forward again. The tool numbers the passes.
↳ Why are the fast planets left out?
The Sun, Mercury and Venus aspect each point in your chart many times a year and each contact lasts only a day or two, so they would bury the slow transits that astrologers read as the themes of the year. Mars is optional for the same reason.
↳ What orb does the tool use?
It lists the exact date of each aspect and shows the stretch when the planet is within one degree of exact. Many astrologers use wider orbs, so a transit may be talked about for longer than that window.
↳ Do I need my birth time?
It helps. Without a time the Moon, the Ascendant and the Midheaven are left out, and the planets are placed at 12:00 on your birth date. They move at most about two degrees in a day (Mercury, the fastest), so their places are close, but a slow planet can take weeks to cover a single degree, so the transit dates become approximate.
↳ How is this different from my horoscope?
A Sun sign horoscope uses only your Sun sign. This list uses your whole birth chart and gives the exact dates the slow planets reach your own points.