CHAPTER II

THE EFFECTS OF TRANSITS Among the number of important indicators to which Astrologers refer in making a forecast of concurrent events, there are the transits of the planets over the places of the Significators at birth, the positions of Eclipses, and those of the lunations. The first of these chronocrators depends upon the revolutions of the planets in their orbits. Each planet has a period in which it completes its revolution in the heavens, in the course of which it passes the places of the Sun, Moon, Midheaven, and Ascendant of the horoscope. This passage over the radical Significators is technically termed its “transit,” and it will be found that such transits afford a very precise and reliable source of prognostication, for the time of a planet’s transit is known in advance of its occurrence (see Sect. II., chap. iv.), and the effects of such transit are in exact terms of the nature of the planet concerned. It is only necessary to add that the Midheaven and the Sun have relation to the position and honour of the Subject, while the Moon and Ascendant have relation to the personal health and general fortunes. The Sun and Midheaven also signify the father, and the Moon has general signification of the mother. Venus signifies domestic and love affairs, the affections and sentiments; while Mercury signifies the mental disposition. So Uranus in transit over the place of Venus will give a love affair, a romantic attachment. Mars over the place of Venus will engender passionate love. Saturn over Venus will give disappointment or bereavement; and Neptune thereover will bring entanglements and complications, with danger of being led astray. Saturn over Mercury will produce melancholy and many errors of judgment. Mars over the same planet will excite the mind and dispose to impulse and unreasoning anger, quarrels and disputation. Uranus over Mercury will render the mind wayward and headstrong, disposed to erratic courses and egotistic methods. Neptune passing the place of Mercury produces deceits, treacheries, and apprehension of impending evil, a sense of espionage and ambush. It involves the mind in tortuous and complicated schemes, and disposes to secrecy and wariness. The transits of the major planets are of chief significance, and their effects are rendered more weighty and lasting when at the time of transit they are retrograde in the zodiac; while their stationary positions on the places of the Significators have almost the same power as Primary Directions. Of Eclipses. An Eclipse of the Sun or Moon falling on the place of any Significator in the horoscope of birth is of a sinister import, and cannot be too seriously considered. Falling on the Ascendant or the Moon they affect the health and general fortunes very seriously, and only a series of subsequent good directions can avail to restore the Subject to his normal condition. On the Midheaven or the Sun, the honour and fortunes may both be affected, and in the same serious degree. The Eclipses falling on the places of the other planets will produce effects in accord with the nature of those planets and the Houses they occupy. To have any appreciable effect, the Eclipses must be within two degrees of any of the radical positions, or of their opposition aspects. Of Lunations. The Lunations recur in the same part of the Ecliptic every nineteen years. Considered in relation to the current indications they afford the means of a monthly forecast of events. Thus, if the lunation for the month falls on the place of Jupiter in the horoscope of birth, it will produce good effects in that department of life which is governed by the House in which Jupiter is situated; as if in the 11th, through friends; in the 4th, through property or rental; in the 6th, through servants and health; in the 8th, through a financial colleague, &c. The effects of Lunations are subsidiary to the current Lunar directions, and these in turn are subsidiary to the transits, and the transits to the Primary Directions. By this it is not meant that they are inoperative, nor that they fail to indicate the events of the month, but their power and degree of influence is subject to the greater influence of superior causes. And as a general observation it may be affirmed that the less frequently any celestial position occurs in a horoscope, the greater is its influence. This fact gives to primary directions their great influence in the life, for they can only occur once in a lifetime; and for the same reason Eclipses have a major significance, for the same Eclipse only recurs after an interval of 649 years. The transits of Neptune, of Uranus, of Saturn and Jupiter and Mars follow in their order of frequency. Neptune has a revolution of about 165 years, Uranus 84 years, Saturn 30 years, Jupiter 12 years, and Mars 1-1/4 years. Major effects must not therefore be referred to inferior causes, and minor effects must not be referred to superior causes. In universal or even national cataclysms, individual fortunes are submerged.