I've been following astrology for decades and have seen a lot of different astrological configurations. Every now and again the planets line up in such a way that their effects are heightened. But not every configuration has a big impact.
There are eight planets (excluding earth) in traditional astrology, plus the sun and the moon. Some astrologers add in extra objects like asteroids and the North and South 'nodes' of the moon, and other such things, but I have enough to deal with in the traditional style so I don't go any farther than that.
Keep it simple, I say. And so let's look at the planets, the sun, and the moon and see if we can calculate their impact by their speed of movement. As seen from the earth, the moon moves the fastest, it passes through each sign of the zodaic in about two and a half days, which is roughly a month. Next is the sun. It moves a little over a degree a day, thus the 360 degree circle of the zodiac, and the 365 days of the year. Mercury accelerates ahead of the sun, then backtracks in retrograde movement about three times a year. Venus does the same thing, only in a slower fashion, it goes retrograde about every eighteen months.
Mars is the next fastest planet, it keeps up a steady pace but eventually appears to stand still and then move backwards, relative to the earth. Mars goes retrograde about every two years for ten weeks.
I call these aforementioned objects 'fast movers'. Their effects don't last very long because these ‘planets’ don't stick around very long. Unless any of these ‘planets’ goes stationary, that period at the very beginning and end of a retrograde movement, they won't be lingering on any degree for long in your astrological chart.
But now we move on to the heavies, the slow movers, which can take years to transit areas of your natal chart, and the further out we get, the slower they move. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Some astronomers want to remove Pluto from the list of planets, saying that it is too small, but astrologers say it is a planet and I tend to agree with that. It didn't show up by accident in the first place, and it does a handy enough job of representing the underworld, so let’s keep it there.
So- continuing here, every person born on earth has an astrological chart that is cast at the minute they arrive, their natal chart. This chart shows where every planet, the sun, and the moon were at the time you were born. This chart represents who you are, what challenges you are going to face, where your strengths lie, and all other sorts of initial life path information. There are plenty of books out there that go into detail about this.
There's also a lot of interpretation out there, a lot of argument, the use of different astrological charts, calculations, etc, etc. Keep it simple, see if it represents you, and move on already.
Ok. Now that I've said all that, I say this- the heavies are the long term influences, the 'grinders', and their effects are felt for years. Most astrological aspects, I've noticed, tend to rise like the incoming tide. Their influence is felt long before, as they are approaching, and the peak of their influence comes just before the planet hits the exact degree on your chart. After that, it's pretty much over. The influence has been felt and from there on, the lesson has been learned, hopefully, one way or another, and the aspect lessens in importance. I've found I'm much more affected during the approach to exactness than I am during the actual period when aspects are exact, and that I really don't care much during the slow decline that happens afterwards.
Gotta like the Romans. Men were noble then.
Nils- Unsplash.com
Your natal chart is a fixed set of, in astrological terminology, 'planetary' positions. The next thing we are concerned about are things called 'transits'. These are the positions that the planets are currently in, in relation to the fixed planets of your natal chart.
Say if your natal Mercury is at 2 degrees Capricorn, like mine is, the transiting planets in your transit chart may or may not be having an effect on that position. Effects are determined by the transiting planets’ positions relative to the fixed positions of the planets on your natal chart. Strong positions are called 'aspects'. These represent particular angles that a transiting planet is making with a fixed planetary position.
Transit angles are 'Trines' (120 degrees, a favourable aspect), 'Squares' (90 Degrees, a challenging aspect), 'Oppositions' (180 degrees apart, kind of a standoff), and 'Conjunctions' (0 degrees apart, an amplification, or dilution of power, depending on which planets are in conjunction).
There are other, minor angles that come into play, and there are usually numerous angles happening at any one time in a transit chart, so interpreting these charts is something best done by somebody who has been doing it for a long time and has somehow managed to be able to interpret all this data. Because it's not all just aspects and angles! There are also astrological houses, the positions of the planets in those houses, detrimental positions of planets, exalted positions, nodes (as mentioned before), ascendants, descendants, degrees of influence, waxing aspects, waning aspects, rare and unusual formations like the 'Grand Trine' harmonic convergence of August 24, 1987, 'Grand Crosses', 'T-squares', 'Yods', and the like. It can be exhausting.
So, moving on, something is coming up. Slow movers are grinding through Capricorn or heading that way. Two planets are already in Capricorn- Pluto and Saturn. They will be joined by Jupiter in 2020, and then in March of that year, by Mars for awhile, and all of this is taking place on or within a few degrees of my natal sun! Is that good? Not so good? I don't know. I think it is significant, though. But not just for me. Everybody is going to have this concentration of heavies on some degree of their chart, and save for fast moving Mars, this confluence of planets is going to be in place throughout 2020.
The last time Pluto, Saturn, and Jupiter were all together at the same point in the sky was way back in 1285. For that configuration to reappear, and tie in with the degree of the sun in my natal chart in 2020 is incalculable and makes the meeting sound full of portent and at the same time somewhat ominous, does it not? But, I've survived, as has everybody else, numerous powerful astrological configurations before and while some of them have been stressful periods, it's all been for the good, right?
Right?