All 52 chapters
  1. Part 1 · The sky and the chart
  2. The sky above us
  3. Time and place of birth
  4. Two zodiacs
  5. How a chart is drawn
  6. Part 2 · The building blocks
  7. The 9 planets
  8. The 12 signs
  9. The 27 nakshatras
  10. The 12 houses
  11. The lagnas
  12. Part 3 · How planets work together
  13. How planets interact
  14. Friends, dispositors, exchanges
  15. House lords
  16. Reading one placement
  17. Part 4 · Strength and condition
  18. Dignity in depth
  19. A planet's mood
  20. Planetary strength
  21. Ashtakavarga in depth
  22. Part 5 · Patterns: yogas and doshas
  23. Yogas
  24. Doshas
  25. Part 6 · The nakshatras up close
  26. Reading a nakshatra
  27. Tara Bala
  28. Part 7 · Divisional charts
  29. Divisional charts
  30. Navamsa in depth
  31. Part 8 · Timing
  32. Dashas
  33. Transits
  34. The annual chart (Tajika)
  35. Part 9 · Relationships
  36. Compatibility
  37. Marriage in depth
  38. Part 10 · Advanced systems
  39. Special points
  40. Jaimini astrology
  41. Arudha padas
  42. KP astrology
  43. Nadi astrology
  44. Part 11 · Choosing the moment
  45. Panchanga
  46. Muhurta
  47. Prashna (horary)
  48. Part 12 · Life areas
  49. Career, money and business
  50. Travel, abroad, spirituality
  51. Health and longevity
  52. Karma and past lives
  53. Remedies
  54. Rectifying a birth time
  55. Part 13 · Western astrology
  56. Western astrology basics
  57. Aspects and chart shapes
  58. Western prediction
  59. Synastry
  60. Horary and electional
  61. Part 14 · The wider world
  62. Mundane astrology and eclipses
  63. Astrocartography and branches
  64. Part 15 · Putting it all together
  65. How it all fits
  66. How AstroMatch4u scores a chart
  67. Using astrology well
Part 8Timing
CHAPTER 25

Transits (Gochar)

What is changing right now?

Your birth chart is frozen at one moment, but the planets keep moving. A transit is where a planet is today, compared with your birth chart. Fast planets like the Moon pass through a sign in a couple of days, so their transits colour a day or a mood. Slow planets stay for years, so their transits shape whole chapters of life.

weather passing over your house. The house (your chart) stays the same; the weather changes, and some weather suits some rooms better than others.

How long each planet stays in one sign. The slow ones, Jupiter, Rahu, Ketu and Saturn, are the transits astrologers watch.

The most famous transit is Sade Sati ("seven and a half"): the roughly 7½ years while Saturn passes the sign before your Moon, your Moon's own sign, and the sign after it. It is known as a slow, testing, maturing time, not a doomed one. Many people do their most lasting work in it.

Sade Sati's three phases, about 2½ years each.
Ashtama ShaniSaturn passing the 8th sign from your Moon: a time for caution and patience.
Jupiter's transitWherever Jupiter moves each year tends to bring growth and help to that area.
Rahu–Ketu transitEvery 1½ years the axis shifts, bringing new hunger in one area and letting go in the opposite one.
Over natal planetsA slow planet crossing one of your birth planets wakes up that planet's themes.

A transit works together with the dasha: a good transit helps most when the running period also promises it.

Good houses for each transit, from the Moon

Transits are read mainly from your Moon sign (Chandra lagna). Tradition lists the houses from the Moon where each planet's transit tends to help:

PlanetHelpful houses from your Moon
Sun3, 6, 10, 11
Moon1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11
Mars3, 6, 11
Mercury2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11
Jupiter2, 5, 7, 9, 11
Venus1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12
Saturn, Rahu, Ketu3, 6, 11
  • Vedha (obstruction): each helpful house has a partner house. If another planet is transiting that partner house at the same time, the good result is blocked. (The Sun and Saturn, and the Moon and Mercury, do not block each other.)
  • Dhaiya: Saturn's 2½-year transits of the 4th and 8th houses from the Moon, a "small" version of Sade Sati.
  • Returns: Jupiter comes back to its birth sign about every 12 years (ages 12, 24, 36…), a time of renewal; Saturn about every 29½ years (around 29–30 and 58–59), a time of growing up and taking stock.
  • Transit plus nakshatra: a slow planet crossing the nakshatra of a birth planet, or a harsh tara from your birth star, sharpens the result.
  • Transit plus Ashtakavarga: the score of the sign being crossed (the Ashtakavarga chapter) tells you how kind the transit will be.
  • Double transit: a popular rule says a big event (such as marriage) tends to come when both Jupiter and Saturn touch the relevant house or its lord by transit or aspect, during a dasha that promises it.

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