Your birth chart is fixed. The planets in it will stand at the same degrees for as long as you live. The sky, meanwhile, has not stopped for a single moment since you were born. The Moon has gone round the zodiac hundreds of times, the Sun once a year, and the slower planets have crawled on through the signs at their own pace. A transit is what happens when one of those moving planets reaches an angle to one of the fixed planets in your chart.

That is the whole idea behind a personal forecast. It is not a description of the sky for everyone. It is a comparison between the sky now and the sky when you were born, and two people born a week apart will get different answers, because different points of their charts are being touched.

The four parts of a transit

Every transit can be read as a sentence with four parts.

The transiting planet is what is happening. Saturn brings tests, structure and patience; Jupiter brings growth and opportunity; Mars brings energy and friction; Venus brings affection, pleasure and a softer mood.

The natal point it touches is the part of you that is involved. A transit to your Sun is about direction and vitality; to your Moon, about feelings and needs; to Mercury, about thinking and talking; to your Ascendant, about how you meet the world.

The aspect is the kind of contact. A conjunction merges the two; an opposition sets them face to face; a square creates pressure that asks for action; a trine or a sextile lets things flow more easily.

The house the transiting planet is moving through is where in your life it is happening: money in the second, home in the fourth, work and daily routine in the sixth, partnerships in the seventh, career in the tenth.

Put together: when transiting Saturn squares your natal Sun from your tenth house, the sentence reads something like "a period of pressure on your sense of direction, showing up mostly at work." That is a forecast of a theme, not of an event. It may be a demanding manager, a project that needs more discipline, or simply a feeling that you have to prove something. Saturn is not famous for its sense of humour, but it is very reliable.

Orbs: how close counts

An aspect is almost never exact. Saturn does not have to be precisely ninety degrees from your Sun to square it; it has to be close. That margin is the orb, and it is what decides when a transit begins and ends.

Our daily forecast uses fairly tight orbs for transits: about four to five degrees for conjunctions and oppositions, three to four for squares, trines and sextiles, and one or two for the minor aspects. Inside that margin, the strength grows as the aspect gets closer to exact. A transit at half a degree is the loudest thing in the day; one at four degrees is a faint signal at the edge.

Speed decides how long it lasts

The same aspect means a very different thing depending on which planet is making it, because the planets move at very different speeds.

The Moon moves about thirteen degrees a day, so its transits last hours. They describe moods, reactions and the general colour of a day. The Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars move around a degree a day, more or less, so their transits last a few days. Jupiter and Saturn stay on a point for weeks or months. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto can stay for a year or more, and because they appear to go backwards when retrograde, they often cross the same degree of your chart three times.

This is why a good forecast never treats all transits alike. A Moon square Mars can make a slow queue feel like a personal insult for one afternoon. A Pluto square Mars can change how you handle conflict for two years. Both are real; only one of them deserves a long conversation.

How the daily forecast is organized

Our forecast takes a birth chart and a date and calculates the transits to that chart for that day. You can choose right now, tomorrow, or, as a member, any date in the past or the future. Looking back at a day you remember well is one of the best ways to learn what transits feel like.

The transit readings are grouped by speed, so you can read the day in layers:

Short term: the Moon. Medium term: the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Lilith and the asteroids Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta and Eros. Long term: Jupiter, Saturn and the North Node. Very long term: Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Chiron and Pholus.

After the aspects come the readings for the houses the transiting planets are passing through. Further sections show the areas of life most emphasized on that day, the harmonious and the difficult qualities the transits bring out, the most important astrological elements, and the chart itself with the transiting planets around your natal ones. Above the readings, you can also ask the AI astrologer for a single synthesis of the day's transits.

How to read it without getting lost

Start from the slow end. Look at the very long and long term transits first: they describe the season you are in, and they will still be there next week. Then read the medium term group for what is moving in and out this week. Read the Moon last, as the weather of the day itself.

Then notice what is being touched. If three different transits all involve your Venus, the day is about relationships and what you value, whatever else is going on. If the same natal point keeps appearing day after day, a slow transit is sitting on it, and that is usually the story worth following.

Finally, pay attention to the tightest aspects. An aspect within a degree of exact is the clearest signal of the day. A wide aspect from a fast planet is background noise, even if its reading sounds dramatic.

What a birth time adds

Without a birth time, the chart is cast for noon. The transits to your planets are still correct, which is most of a forecast. What is missing is the houses, the Ascendant and the Midheaven, and the Moon may be several degrees off. The report leaves the houses out rather than guessing them, because a guessed house tells you the wrong area of life with great confidence.

Tendencies, not fate

A transit describes what a period asks of you. It does not decide what will happen, and nothing in a forecast is a verdict about health, money or anyone's future. A hard transit can be the moment you finally fix something; an easy one can pass without anyone noticing, including you. The chart describes the conditions. You still choose what to do in them.

When you are ready, open your forecast for today or any date, and try it on a day you remember.

Frequently asked questions

What is a transit in astrology?
A planet in the current sky making an aspect, such as a conjunction, square or trine, to a planet or angle in your birth chart. Transits are the main tool astrologers use to describe what a period of time is about for one person.

How is this different from a daily horoscope for my sign?
A sign horoscope is written for a twelfth of the world at once. This forecast is calculated from your own birth date, time and place, so the transits it shows are touching your chart specifically.

What is an orb?
The margin within which an aspect counts. A square is ninety degrees, but a transit at eighty-seven or ninety-three degrees still works as a square. The closer to exact, the stronger the transit.

Which transits matter most?
The slow ones and the tight ones. A transit from Saturn, Uranus, Neptune or Pluto describes months, and any aspect within about a degree of exact is the clearest signal of the day.

Can I see the forecast for another date?
Yes. Today is the default and tomorrow is one click away. Members can choose any date in the past or the future; visitors see the current day.

Do I need my exact birth time?
Not for the transits to your planets. For the houses, the Ascendant and an exact Moon, yes. Without a time the report gives you what is happening, but leaves out where in your life it is happening.