9 Tips for Locating a Transit in Your Own Chart

How to track the celestial energy of each month with accuracy and ease!

Every month, the chronically online and cosmically inclined are flooded with a Full Moon, New Moon, Mercury entering a new sign, on and on. With the planets in constant motion, it can feel hard to keep up. I promise you, there’s no better feeling than being able to glance at your birth chart and understand how each of the ten planets are impacting you at any given moment.

(While the synthesis of transits requires time and practice to interpret, the basic identification of where a planet falls in your birth chart is fairly straightforward. That’s what we’ll be covering today.)

Here’s a video tutorial to set the scene. I shared my screen to walk you through identifying the house of a New or Full Moon. This same logic can be applied to locating any planetary transit, and I’ll explain more in writing below. Please watch it before proceeding; visual cues make this easier!

Let’s start with a couple important basics about the birth chart.

1. Some chart drawings are more confusing that others. Apps can be intentionally obtuse in their renderings, forcing you to rely on their written analysis…while some websites trade functionality for aesthetic and it’s damn near impossible to tell the houses apart. For this reason, I prefer astro.com — the OG platform where charts are free to create and it’s the most clear cut, visually.

2. The outer wheel shows the symbols for all 12 signs. It’s essential to memorize what they look like, and the order they go in. This streamlines transit identification. (I learned on hand drawn flashcards, so don’t be afraid to get thrifty with it!)

   

3. The planets move counterclockwise around this circle. Memorizing the order of the zodiac helps keep it straight. Visualize the Sun leaving Libra and entering Scorpio. What direction would it have to be traveling in your birth chart? From 29° Libra to 0° Scorpio, it would have to move counterclockwise. (Double check the direction you’re counting the degrees, if you are just starting out.)

   

4. Each sign within your chart contains 0 to 29° degrees. That is 30 degrees total. We count zero as the very beginning of a new sign. Since the birth chart is a perfect circle, 12 signs times 30° equals 360°. Simple enough, right?

5. The free birth chart under “extended chart selection” on astro.com has little lines written on the inside of the chart to denote each degree. Notice a slightly longer line at each 5° increment, making it faster to count.

   

6. When you hear me say, “This full moon is happening at 5° Leo. Whatever house it occurs in your birth chart, is the area of life where…”

You quite literally have every single sign and degree contained in your own birth chart, in a pattern that is unique to you. Now your only job is to locate it:

7. Find the symbol that represents the sign you’re looking for, on the outer wheel. Locate the beginning of the sign, then start counting the inner degrees counterclockwise until you reach the number of the transit.

8. At the very inside of the chart, numbers 1 through 12 run around a smaller circle showing you which house is which.

   

9. Find the degree, and then confirm which house it’s inside of.

And voilà, you’ve just identified the house of your chart that a transit is taking place!

P.S. A house will feel a transit, even if it’s empty. That’s still an area of life lived by you; it might not be emphasized the way occupied houses are, but it is still impacted by the planets moving through it, just to a lesser degree of intensity.

I can make a longer post on Placidus vs. Whole Sign, but locating a transit is the same principle in both. For a quick recap of why I prefer Placidus, check out this reel I made.

Let me know if this helped! Post by post, reading by reading… my goal is to make your birth chart feel like your best friend. Which means getting to know it well, inside and out. Be patient with yourself and practice, practice, practice!

To the moon and back (pun intended),
Ocean