Transit

Unlike a natal chart, which fixes planetary positions forever at the moment of birth, transits are the living, constantly shifting movement of the planets across today's sky. To read a transit, a planet's current position (say, transiting Saturn) is laid over a person's natal chart to see what aspect it forms with natal planets or house cusps — that interaction is what "activates" a given theme for a specific period. Fast-moving planets — the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars — bring short, often barely noticeable effects over days or weeks; slow-moving ones — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto — hold a theme for months or years and tend to line up with major life stages: transiting Saturn over your natal Sun, roughly once every 29 years, marks a check on maturity and structure. Transits don't "create" events — in astrological logic, they highlight a favorable or tense period for themes that are already built into the natal chart. For self-knowledge, a transit is useful as timing for reflection: noticing what's flaring up right now and consciously working with it, rather than waiting for the period to "just pass."