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Demystifying Astrology: The Different Speeds Of The Planets and What You Can Make Of Them
Astrology for beginners - See all beginner posts
Note that all the these time frames are approximate.
Moon - changes signs every 2 ½ days, transits the zodiac every 30 days
Mercury - variable due to retrograde motion. Can be in a sign from 15- 60 days but is never more than 2 signs away from the Sun
Venus - stays in a sign about 30 day… also is never more than 2 signs away from the Sun.
Sun - changes signs monthly
Mars - changes signs about every 2 months unless there is a retrograde which can keep it in one sign for as long as 7 months
Jupiter - changes signs once a year, transits the zodiac in 12 years.
Saturn - changes signs every 2 ½ years, transits the zodiac every 29 - 30 years
Uranus -changes signs every 7 years, transits the zodiac every 84 years
Neptune - changes signs every 14 years, transits the zodiac every 164 years
Pluto changes signs every 10 to 20 years, transits the zodiac every 248 years
A few notes on what this means…
First, Mercury and Venus move at about the same rate as the Sun though they have retrograde phases. The result is Mercury is never more than 1 sign away from the Sun, and Venus is never more than 2 signs away from the sun.
This means if someone is a Pisces, it is impossible they can have Mercury in Virgo, halfway around the zodiac. It means if someone is a Pisces, they have Mercury in Pisces, or Aries (the sign after) or Aquarius (the sign before).
Now if you think about that when you meet a Pisces… they are going to have one of the 3 flavors of mind (Mercury) and you can see how this gets very interesting. Aspects modify the effect of course, but catch the concept. Pisces with a warrior mind (Mercury in Aries), Pisces with emotional thinking (Mercury in Pisces) or and intellectual Pisces (Mercury in Aquarius).
If you are always winding up in relationships with Pisces, do they have the same Mercury sign as well or does it vary. Thinking about things like this raises your astrology IQ and will lead you all kinds of places worth exploring.
Another other things this tells you (and this is a mistake a lot of beginners make) is when you discover you and your beau who is roughly your age have Neptune conjunct, it is meaningless other than it marks you as being from the same generation. Neptune moves so slow, see?
Also this shows you the impact of various transits. Mars is going to cross your ascendant every 2 years as compared to Pluto which will cross it every 248 years. What this means is not everyone will have that transit in their lifetime and it is a BIG DEAL.
Another thing to note - the effects of Venus transit while generally pleasant are very fleeting. We’re talking about a week. Saturn sits on a point for months and Uranus, for a year and Pluto for a period of years.
Astrology for beginners - See all beginner posts
Tell us your Sun sign and your Mercury sign and lets see if a pattern emerges….
49 Responses to “Demystifying Astrology: The Different Speeds Of The Planets and What You Can Make Of Them”
Sun Virgo, Mercury Libra
Sun in Cancer, Mercury in Leo, Venus in Gemini, and if you factor in my Taurus Ac.(Moon in Virgo) actually that is a pretty good picture of me.
Capricorn Sun, Sagittarius Mercury, and Aquarius Venus.
My controlling Capricorn is easily embarrassed when my bigmouth Sag Mercury gets out of hand. The Aquarius detachment curbs the embarrassment.
Another diplomatic virgo although with mercury conjunct uranus I don’t mind dropping the odd shocker…nicely of course 
Sun and Mercury both in Gemini less than two degrees
Mercury 9 (?) Libra, Sun 29 Libra
lotsalibra
*waves at Becca* Attention: we are not in charge of choosing the restaurant.
Sun and Mercury in Scorpio.
Guess I’m deeeeeep..got a 1st house Pluto, too.
jessica- i will help the Libras pick the most logical restaurant based on dietary requirements and travel time.
Becca and Jessica
I created a special wheel (think small wheel of fortune) with local restaurants on it because my Libra friend would never choose where we were going for lunch. At lunch I would just spin the wheel and tell her where we were going to eat! 
If I live long enough pluto will make it through my fifth, sixtth and seventh house. I guess it only makes it through like six houses in a human lifetime? So I guess you could say I’ll have work and relationship changes.
Both in Gemini, first house, no aspect.
Oddly, my libra friend is the one who will decide where to eat. Do you ever have a friend who is the persnickity complainer? I’m noticing that she will grill the wait staff about every damn thing she orders. so aggressive. So with my libra moon and mercury, I don’t know, I tend to behave like a libra when deciding on what to do or where to eat. I even have trouble on the menu, I’ll be the last to order cuz I couldn’t decide, then I end up with something I didn’t really want or the same old boring thing. I think I’m really a libra not a scorpio.
Sun in Aries, Mercury in Pisces (Wow! One sign behind!).
Aries with emotional thinking 
And sweet! I get my Pluto transiting my midheaven sometime within the next year or so! WHEEEE! 
I wonder what that means… :\
The best way my libra friends and I work restaurants is we have a discussion about our experiences with certain restaurants or ones we want to try. Then I swear we each are also thinking about what would make the other one happy or what would not make them disappointed while also weighing the parking, distance, price, etc. It ain’t easy but we come up with great places and always enjoy it! I think libras need to talkt about it but getting them to do it takes practice. ^o^
Pisces Sun and Mercury, in the 10th house.
Mars and Jupiter in Virgo opposing the Midheaven.
Moon in Gemini forming a square to the Midheaven.
And a Sun-Midheaven conjunction.
Anyone have an idea what significance the planetary-Midheaven aspects have (if any) on the way the planets posited in the 10th house ‘behave’ and vice versa — are Mercury and the Sun exerting influence on the way my Mars, Jupiter, and Moon ‘behave’?
dana, maybe your Libra friend has Mercury in Virgo and she’s just being thorough and meticulous?
Tam and goddess, thank goodness for people like you!
I wonder if people’s Mercuries are more apparent here because we’re just writing and posting on a blog? I was going to say that Jennifer’s and Dorothy’s Mercuries make sense to me just from comments, but I wouldn’t have guessed their Suns without a lot of further research….
Good Gawd this was an interesting post! I’m an intellectual Pisces.
Leo Sun house 2
Virgo Mercury house 3
Gemini sun7degrees and gem merc 26degrees.
Sun and Mercury in Cancer. Overly sensitive!
“Capricorn Sun, Sagittarius Mercury, and Aquarius Venus.”
Weird Sue Ellen, me too - exactly!
What doublecappy? I’m not unique?
I guess my natal Saturn - Neptune conjunction had me confused, again.
The Sag-Cap-Aqua combo is an interesting mix to work with, I’ll have to admit. I have to work on people thinking I’m “so cold”. It’s the Cap - Aquarius combo. I think….
My Aquarius Venus and Sagittarius Mercury are in sextile aspect, both in aspect to Saturn-Neptune, as part of a bucket pattern.
sun in libra, mercury in scorpio
i had pluto conjunct asc and saturn when i was 10. That was exactly when my mom and I moved to another country, and i met my dad (saturn) for the first time since i was 4.
Hi there! My virgo mother used to call me “nit comb” because nothing could to escape to my escrutiny. I am libra sun and almost scorpio mercury (29º39′libra) I think it is scorpio because my thinking is that way. However I try to keep with me what I think (mercury 12th) and I try to be polite - that should be a sun venus conj in libra
Hey Sue Ellen, I’m sure you’re not a Libra moon. Then it’d be weird; anyway, I’m new at this, learning. But, yeah, the combo is def. tricky!
No, doublecappy, I don’t have a Libra moon. It’s a super sensitive Cancer. Weird combo with the Aquarius Venus.
I put astrology away for decades because I couldn’t decide where my moon was placed. I read a beginner book that instructed people to read both signs decide on their own if the moon switched signs on their birthday. I didn’t like either description.
My Virgo sister turned me onto a computer generated chart and a couple of books.
Virgo sun, Mercury and Venus in Libra. Elsa -these astrology for beginner posts are great! Thanks!
Cool, Sue Ellen! I like the computer chart too!
sun pisces…mercury aquarius…and yes, thanks elsa…these beginner posts are goooooooood….
filling in lots of big gaps in my astro understanding~~ and now that i see i fall under “intellectual pisces” (Ha! one feel good thought for the day!)…i know why i like the brain food…
sun aries mercury taurus
pioneer with stable thinking? (except for, er, nevermind the aspects for the moment
i can hope, anyway.
i have an interesting sun/moon combo friend, he lives in another country but we have been friends online for a while. ( just friends ) … Aries sun, taurus moon ( conjunct mars ), venus in pisces, mercury in pisces.. so he is definetely more sensitive… oh and his sun is in the 12th house too to boot! i’ve always found his chart really interesting, aries rising as well.
This is very helpful, I think I just heard something click in my brain. Cap sun/cap mercury.
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Sun and Mercury both in Taurus, 10 degrees apart. (Personally I use a 5 degree orb, so there are no aspects between the two).