About Learning Transits: Deirdre Tanton Advises Astrology Beginners

29 Responses to “About Learning Transits: Deirdre Tanton Advises Astrology Beginners”

1. Lupa says on 7/2/08 at 6:21 am:
   

   I started paying attention to the moon. Phases of the moon as well as the sign it was in at a given time. I think this is a really good way to learn because if you are paying attention you will feel the moon go across your entire chart in 28 days. Then you get to start over and integrate those lessons on a deeper level. The moon’s impact is fleeting so it often gets downplayed in astrology as regards transits anyway, but the fact that we feel it on an emotional level means it is easier to pick up on the energy of the different signs as the moon moves through them. Once you have that you can begin carry that understanding over to the other planets and their path through the sky.

2. Foxxy says on 7/2/08 at 6:58 am:
   

   I first learned about phases of the moon as a teenager interested in occultism/wicca/ect.

   Knowledge of astrological transits developed with my interest in astrology as I followed Elsa’s blog. The first serious studying of astrology I did, I did on the greyhound bus (ninth house what?) while bouncing around the states for 30 days. I took four astrology books (The Idiots Guide {blah}, The House Book, one on Mercury RX and one on Transits) and print outs of my chart, my two best friends, and my boyfriend at the time. Since then its odds and ends, reguarly reading the short report forcast/daily horoscope/long term @ astro.com and the occasional book.

3. kashmiri says on 7/2/08 at 7:39 am:
   

   I first learned about Saturn transits when I was 21 (1998) and working at a bar in London. A woman I worked with was deeply involved in all occult matters, and she was going through her Saturn Return. She talked about it constantly.

   I thought she told me I was going through one, too, and it took me years to realize that I was having Sun square Saturn, which happens every 7 years or so.

   I think that learning through the Internet (Elsa’s blog especially) has been apt for my natal Mercury opposed Uranus.

4. Jeffrey Kishner says on 7/2/08 at 9:06 am:
   

   I first learned about transits when I took an astrology class from Richard Tarnas at CIIS. He taught us how to use an ephemeris, what orbs to use, and did a quick rundown of aspect combinations, with an emphasis on outer planet transits.

5. goddess says on 7/2/08 at 9:11 am:
   

   i’m still working on learning the transits. my first real connection to the impact of transits was getting a reading done in an astro class elsa did, when she was talking to me about a 4th house pluto transit.

   i have a basic idea of what sort of energy the planets have individually, so when i look at transits, i get the energies interact, and i get that the energy of squares are more abrasive, like the two energies butting heads, than conjunctions, more like the two energies combine, etc.

   i can’t read charts by sight yet. but i can look and see, oh, you’ve got lots of planets here or there, and get bits and pieces of the picture.

6. june says on 7/2/08 at 9:42 am:
   

   pretty much by accident. i had prior interest in astrology and picked up a small book that i thought was just an astro-focused day planner, and it turned out to have an ephemeris in it. i was pretty freakin’ confused about it and slowly pieced it together. i tried reading books but i couldn’t find any good ones. after a while, i found astro.com, and within a few weeks of reading their “personal horoscopes” i started to pick up patterns with moon aspects, did searches and started reading about them on other sites. things more or less came together from that point.

   i learned to read charts quite a while before i “got” transits.

   it helps to read about them until the basic ideas/patterns are stuck in your head, and then study your own with several years worth of ephemerides.

7. Deirdre says on 7/2/08 at 10:21 am:
   

   Lupa- I like your way of starting out with the moon. That’s so pure. It’s like learning to play catch with one ball before juggling with three. Plus Moon is comparitively so fast, and can give us a glimpse into each of our house in just one month.

   Foxxy- on a bus, great idea for an Astrology School.

   Kashmiri, that’s funny that you thought you were going through your Saturn Return but it was a false alarm. Saturn square Sun almost qualifies as far as rigorous tasks go, I’d say.

8. Deirdre says on 7/2/08 at 10:34 am:
   

   Jeffrey- sounds nice to learn from Richard Tarnas, a wise and gentle soul is he.

   goddess- know what you mean, about still learning. I think the learning never stops, just gently moves to the background sometimes.

9. Deirdre says on 7/2/08 at 10:39 am:
   

   june- that’s funny about that little book that tricked you into the dimension of transits, like jumping onto a moving horse. Whoa!

10. Loonsounds says on 7/2/08 at 10:43 am:
    

    It took a really long time before I could get to a point where I had any kind of reasonable understanding of the transits or anything else for that matter. One big turning point was to select important dates over the time of my life, and then go back and see if any transiting planet was on an angle or luminary (sun or moon) or another INNER planet. (I have also now found interesting things about, say, progressed moon on natal pluto, etc).

    It was something of a backwards learning process for me (I have prog. merc retro, I read a lot of stuff back to front) but I found it helpful to find points in time in my life that were inundated in powerful energy for the good or for the bad (my big marriage ceremony combined with major promotion, the death of my father, an operation, my grandmothers stroke, the midlife debacle, etc)

    Each of these things changed my life and each carried a distict and unique energy charge. Then I would go look at the transits, then go study up on them and read about them after I saw what they were. This allowed me to remember what that time felt like. It isn’t the usual way to learn astrology, but it was the only way I could retain without memorizing.

    Also then I got caught up in James Braha’s work, so I took up studying Vedic solely for a while. Then, when I came back to western (I do both now) I was much better at it from having studied Vedic. Another backwards learning approach which I would not recommend, particularly.

    I picked up John Frawleys test for certification for Vedic, like, 6 years ago, and learned a whole lot that wey. I never finished it because I got bogged down in something they call Nakshatras, but I sure did learn a whole lot.

    I love this complex intricate field of study where one can never learn it all, yet it becomes more and more compelling and fascinating with each passing day. I never get tired of the learning process in this field.

11. Deirdre says on 7/2/08 at 10:54 am:
    

    I never get tired of the learning process either Loonsounds. Well actually once i did, but that was kind of different, when I was trying to give up astrology forever, which of course didnt work, just merely cemented my interest deeper.

12. Loonsounds says on 7/2/08 at 11:02 am:
    

    Same here, Deirdre. I gave it up forever too.

    As if ;-0

13. wyrdling says on 7/2/08 at 11:06 am:
    

    reading Planets in Transit.
    repeatedly, over time, for myself and others, as the mood struck.

    also, once the internet age hit, doing web searches, but those have only been terribly productive in the last couple years or so.

14. wyrdling says on 7/2/08 at 11:07 am:
    

    well and a (much) older cousin would send me these yearly letters describing what my year might look like and i started to connect what she was saying to the transits.

15. Conny says on 7/2/08 at 3:45 pm:
    

    I started learning astrology and about transits about 35 years ago. I was a teenager then and there was an astrology course at a Rosicrucian location in my home town. We used an old edition of the ephemeris, a book named “tables of houses” to determine the cusps, drawings of an empty chart, a ruler and a pencil. There was no internet, no astro atlas, and no calculators. For many years I calculated and drew each chart manually, and I’m happy to know how to do it. When the first computer program came out I was amazed but always double checked to see if the program was correct

16. Loonsounds says on 7/3/08 at 9:44 am:
    

    You know you are hooked when you find yourself reading an ephemeris for more than half an hour

17. Snapdragon says on 7/3/08 at 2:15 pm:
    

    Thanks Elsa for putting this up for me (and everyone else).

    Remember you all that I was trying to match up a difficult time with what was happening in my transits? Um, seemed like if you go on Astro, you can actually come up with (or I could, anyway) more than one ephemeris. I was just kind of getting confused and lost, so maybe I’ll try in a couple of years :::sigh:::. I’m afraid I always want everything NOW. Have to work on that.

    Anyway, to all you knowledgeable folks out there - can you recommend any books in particular? The internet is great, but it is a little frustrating navigating back and forth, back and forth. Doesn’t stop me… but.

18. Deirdre says on 7/3/08 at 10:03 pm:
    

    Parker’s Astrology is a big fat general book about lots of different areas of astrology, and there is a simple ephemeris in the back. I think this book was written by a collection of ghost writers, not the parkers.

    The Astrologer’s Handbook, / Predictive Astrology both are by Francis Sakoian & Louis S. Acker. If you buy these books then you need an ephemeris.

    None of those books mention much of Chiron, so find information on chiron fromo Barbara Hand Clowe and or Melanie Reinhardt

    also somewhere in the Elsa archives is a post about books…

19. Deirdre says on 7/3/08 at 10:06 pm:
    

    http://www.elsaelsa.com/archives/tag/books/

20. Snapdragon says on 7/3/08 at 10:19 pm:
    

    Thank you Deirdre, I’ll see what I can find.

21. SaDiablo says on 7/4/08 at 12:34 am:
    

    There’s also a simple ephemeris in the back of “The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need,” but I think (unless it’s been updated) that it only has info until 2010.
    Then again, since the world’s ending in 2012, not such a big deal, eh?

22. Snapdragon says on 7/5/08 at 9:35 am:
    

    That’s 10:30 eastern time….. hahahahaha
    Anybody get that old joke?

23. Alison says on 7/5/08 at 5:44 pm:
    

    I learnt about transits by going to a astrology meeting once a week. There was no set topic and we’d just chat with our charts handy, some people came for a year some just came once. One woman talked constantly about money, finding work, needing money to feel happy, what industries were lucrative on and on. Why all this talk about money, honey? ( I didn’t have any money and didn’t need to talk about my lack of it) I studied her chart to find a packed second house with major outer planet transits in 2nd house. It was a Aha!?! moment in understanding transits.

24. Snapdragon says on 7/6/08 at 12:01 pm:
    

    Deirdre was that kind of for me? (Books)
    How sweet, thanks very much!
    I am writing them down right now.

25. Deirdre says on 7/6/08 at 12:38 pm:
    

    Snapdragon, yes, this was all for you, the picture and everything, it is a snapdragon clock for transits.

26. Snapdragon says on 7/6/08 at 2:04 pm:
    

    Thanks again, Deirdre (much appreciated).

    LOL. I can be so quick. But I can be SO slow. Took me a while to get the whole picture thing…I was just about to ask you about it. Scrolling up, I realized that the pretty blue flower picture is Snapdragons. (Boy am I slow)

    So Deirdre, other than a representation of a clock (number positions) is there anything I should be getting from that picture?

27. Deirdre says on 7/6/08 at 2:20 pm:
    

    i was just thinking… transits are about timing, and going deeper in astrology takes time, so this is like a snapdragon time cubby, it was a way I was thinking of you getting your time : )

28. Snapdragon says on 7/6/08 at 2:22 pm:
    

    Hahah Deirdre, silly me for thinking it might be a quick thing to understand transits.

    I see that it will NOT be a quick thing. I think I’ll persist, though.

    That was cute, the snapdragon time cubby thing…

29. Snapdragon says on 7/19/08 at 12:54 pm:
    

    Deirdre, I didn’t realize that you are an artist. Did you actually MAKE that picture for me?

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