ask jeanna: what are planetary transits and void moons?
in which we cover some 101 foundations
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It is our third edition of Ask Jeanna, where paid subscribers in the Discord get to ask questions for me to answer publicly in the newsletter. There has been a recent spat of really wonderful, vulnerable questions around astrology basics.
And so today, we are going to be covering some basics that you, too, may have been wondering about! When I say planetary transit, what the heck even is that? And what does the moon being “void” mean?
Let’s get into it.
The recent conversation in the Saturn channel was miles over my head, and I’m not sure at this point I even want or need that level of detail…. [I want to] maybe just continue to mostly lurk here and slowly feed my curiosity rather than be like “I must understand all the things right away.”
Vocabulary wise, it seems like a good early question could be: What is a transit?
I really appreciate you asking this question about transits because I am 100% confident you are not the only one wondering. But I’m going to spend some time breaking it down.
Part the first of my answer:
Astrology is, to me, at its core, a mindfulness practice. An observational practice, you could say: one that puts us here on earth in relationship with the cosmos, noticing how the changes in the sky (through the planets, stars, etc.) impact our seasons of life. But what are we observing? When Venus brightens in the night sky, and then seems to disappear for weeks on end every 18 months or so? When we see, so visibly in our night sky, that the moon waxes and wanes from a crescent to a full pizza pie every two weeks? What is that? What is happening, exactly? A planetary transit.
The planets do not stay still. They keep moving. They keep rotating around the sun, just like earth. Scientifically, you know this! You learned it in science class way back when. The planets keep moving, or transiting, through the sky (and through the “signs,” which are really just different apportioned sections, as it were, of the sky) at different rates.
The moon moves faster than any of its sister planets. The sun changes signs about once a month. Saturn moves the slowest of the visible planets we can see at night, changing signs, or transiting through a sign, about once every 2.5-3 years.
And so, at its most foundational, when we are discussing, for example, "Saturn's transit through Pisces," what we mean is "the 2.5-3 years Saturn will spend in the part of the sky that is designated for 'Pisces'" — which is also, traditionally, where the constellation for Pisces lived, hence how we got to that distinction in the first place.* (**altho the constellations also move so this can shift over time; don't worry about this too much)
Part two: personal transits. What do we mean when we talk about a planet transiting the birth chart?
Your birth chart is your birth chart. It never changes! It's a snapshot of the sky the moment you took your first breath.
BUT. As we have discussed: the planets keep moving.
Have you ever wondered how astrologers write horoscopes? We write them based on how planets are ‘transiting” or “moving” around a birth chart. A demonstration!
This is Dolly Parton's birth chart. It will never change. It was her birth chart the day she was born; it will be her birth chart when she dies — heaven stall the day.
Now, this is her chart with current transits.
The inner circle is still Dolly Parton’s birth chart. The OUTER CIRCLE is where the planets are today at this moment (also, this is professional astrology software so if you're like WTF am I looking at, don't worry!).
In writing horoscopes or giving a birth chart reading, looking at where the planets are in the outer circle — which is to say, looking at where the planets are transiting right now — tells me a lot about what areas of life are most prominent in her (or a client’s) life.
Sometimes, a planet will be transiting on top of, or in a strong geometric angle (astrology is actually a lot of math in the technicalities), to a planet in the natal chart. Witness: the bottom right corner of dolly's chart. She has her sun at 29* Capricorn in the 5th house. She just had Pluto exactly on her sun for a VERY long time (and it will retrograde back there later this year). So in astro-lingo, we would say that “Pluto was transiting her sun.”
tl;dr planetary transits are really just where and how the planets are moving, and also the intensity at which those movements may directly impact your own chart.
Also: everyone has every planet transiting their chart. But the intensity will vary, depending on where in the chart the transit is happening, as well as if any personal planets (the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars) or points (the Ascendant/Descendant or Midheaven/Imum Coeli) are involved.
And so when I say that astrology is a mindfulness practice, it is this: that you don't have to know the technical specifics of all this to be mindful, or to observe, how you feel during, say, a new or full moon. If you want to start observing a transit, the lunar cycle is the most accessible one to start noticing and integrating in your life.
You don't have to know all the specifics of your natal chart, or where all the planets are at any given time, for this practice to bring you into a more observational relationship with the world around you.
Could you expand on what the “void moon” means? Is it something that you use in your personal practice and are there ways to work with it, especially around creativity in writing?
Astrologers say the moon is "void" when it is done making aspects with planets.
Which is to say: The moon moves the fastest of any planet. It moves through the entire zodiac every month, spending roughly 2.5-3 days in every sign. This means that the moon will make an aspect to every single planet every month.
Note: This is the chart that I captured to explain the moon’s transits when I answered this question in the astrology for writers Discord.
The moon in this chart is at 9* of Capricorn. The next aspect it will make is a sextile (a 60* geometric aspect) to Saturn in Pisces, which is two signs away at 10 degrees. Then, the moon will trine Jupiter, which is at 12* Taurus.
As a sidebar, sextiles are gentle, supportive aspects between planets in complementary elements — air and fire, water and earth — and trines are always flowing, river-like resourcing that happens between planets in different signs but the same element.
The moon will continue to go between sextiles to Pisces planets (Saturn, Sun, Mercury, Neptune) and trines (120-degree geometric patterns) to the Taurus planets (Jupiter and Uranus) until pretty late in the sign. The Capricorn moon’s last aspect will be a sextile at 26*, because Neptune is currently very late in Pisces at 26. But that is the last planet that the moon will connect with while in Capricorn. So from the time it is 27 degrees onward, it will be “void,” or “void of course” or “VOC.” The time the moon spends VOC varies depending on the sign it is in and the planets it is making connections with.
Sometimes, the moon spends very little time void, and sometimes, it spends a LOT of time void.
Void of Course periods are not really things to be “worked with,” IMO. My general take is that the moon is resting and so should we, especially for long VOC periods. The moon is thought to be inactive during this period: it isn't “carrying” light, energy, the body towards anything. It's a period of denouement. Which makes void moons very good for journaling, for reflection, for quiet time.
I find that void moons are often very low-energy. Set your creative expectations accordingly. You might think of them as recovery periods: Luna just did a lot of work and is tuckered out now.
The moon is resting, and so should you!
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Oh, Dolly! I feel for her. Pluto trod back and forth across my Cap Sun for YEARS. It was brutal. Useful, transformational, I much prefer my life now to what was before, etc., etc. but MAN did Pluto exact some coin to get across that river.
Which makes me think about another thing which is maybe just over the line of basic about transits, but maybe not. It certainly took me a long time to appreciate. Namely, that not understanding what the meaning/lesson/significance of a given transit is, particularly, an outer planet transit while it's happening is totally normal. If you can journal while it's happening to catch the details, that can be useful information to have later, but what it all meant can take years to reveal itself.
I love how you described VOC moons. I’ve been focusing more on lunar cycles after learning about sects and it’s been so interesting to deepen my relationship with the moon beyond full and new moons.