Transits of the Sun

Transits to Mercury

Mercury has much to do with the rational mind and one’s ability to communicate. The Sun, on the other hand, is the great energizer, setting off whatever natal energy it contacts. We must also remember that the Sun is itself an energy of consciousness. So what is the difference?

The Sun represents the state of being conscious. Mercury has more to do with what you are conscious of, how you process that awareness within yourself, and how you communicate it to other people. Mercury generally takes the impulses of the Sun (or any other planet that may transit it) and processes those influences for verbal expression, either within one’s own mind or through communication with others.

Consequently, transits of the Sun to Mercury are likely to trigger powerful impulses to communicate and express yourself. Also, the energy of Mercury is not entirely satisfied unless you are getting out and mixing with people. It is not exactly a social energy, but exchanging communications with at least one other person is one of the most important uses of its energy.

As a result, people often feel a bit restless under this transit and may not be satisfied with sitting alone and calmly reflecting, although under the right conditions that can be a very good use of a Sun-Mercury transit.

Transits to Venus

The Sun’s transits to Venus boost the power of natal Venus for the duration of the transit. There are two sides to this.

On one hand, we can view the Sun as an energy like the god Apollo, who had dominion over music and poetry, especially at the highest levels where these arts serve to elevate and enlighten those who encounter them. When the Sun-Venus energy works at this level, it can be extremely creative in every sense of the word, not only artistically, but in every activity where aesthetics and elegance are useful.

The other level at which this energy can operate is not quite so simple or harmonious: love. Venus stands for love from the earthiest kind of sexual love up to the love taught by great spiritual leaders. The energy of the Sun is more at ease with the more spiritual forms of love. However, combinations of Sun and Venus can indicate the entire range of love; the earthier aspects are simply not as highly favored as the more spiritual ones.

That said, this is usually not a difficult combination.

Transits to the Sun

This is, of course, one of the most basic rhythms in your life. Every year at or near your birthday, the transiting Sun makes a conjunction with your natal Sun. I say “at or near” because the calendar and the astronomical year are not precisely in sync. This causes the phenomenon of the leap year, when an extra day is added to the calendar on February 29 to keep it aligned with the astronomical year. As a result, sometimes the Sun returns to its position in your chart on the calendar day before or after your birthday.

In the year that follows each birthday, the transiting Sun makes every possible aspect to the position of the natal Sun. This means that every year possesses an identical underlying structure. However, this is not easy to detect experientially because this underlying pattern occurs within a context affected by every other transit happening at the same time. Those are not so regular, and there are many of them. Nevertheless, the fact remains that there is this basic underlying rhythm every year of transits between the transiting Sun and the Sun’s position in your natal chart.

Several things make this cycle important. First, the Sun represents basic energy and vitality on both the physical and psychological levels. Second, this annual cycle is not only experienced internally, but is also experienced externally as your personal relationship to the events of the year with its holidays, seasons, the school year (for those of you who are in school or have children in school), and of course annual deadlines such as taxes. Many of these have nothing directly to do with the energy of the Sun.

However, it is the astronomical cycle of the Sun that establishes the year and, therefore, we can say that the Sun strongly, if indirectly, influences your family and social life, which are in different states depending on the time of year. We should also not forget the most obvious effect of the Sun’s astronomical cycle, aside from weather: the annual cycle of vegetation, sowing and harvesting, and so forth.

Transits to Mars

The Sun and Mars are two of the most energetic planets in astrology. Therefore, any combination of these is likely to coincide with situations and circumstances, both within the psyche and in the outer world, that manifest these energies. At the most useful level, the interaction of these two energy complexes will give you both physical and psychological drive to do what you need and bring things to satisfactory conclusions.

Both planets have to do with basic animal vitality and spirit. An excess of these energies, or an imbalance between them, may lead to strife and conflict. In traditional astrology both planets were considered “hot” and “dry.” This means they both raise energy levels, and they do so with more concern for oneself and one’s own ego than for harmony and getting along with others. Both energies can manifest as excessively egoistic patterns of behavior and thought. When these energies are misused, whether together or separately, the result can be a desire to “win” at all costs, even when the result is destructive. When they are used creatively and positively, the results are just as constructive and helpful as they are potentially damaging and destructive when used negatively.

Many people are tempted to take extreme measures regarding these two planetary energies. Some try to live in a completely self-sacrificing and self-denying manner and do not allow themselves to be assertive, commanding or authoritative even when it is necessary. Others go to the opposite extreme and treat every whim and minor desire to be in command as a mandate to exert themselves to the maximum to achieve an end. Here we have the kind of people who need to win at all costs before they have even bothered to ask whether the game is worth playing.

Transits to Jupiter

The Sun-Jupiter combination is a one-year cycle of growth and expansion. The energy tends to be inclusive and helpful to others unless the individual involved operates from an inherently selfish position. The two sides of this combination can be seen symbolically in the life of Andrew Carnegie. He spent the first portion of his life competing ruthlessly in the iron and steel industry, trying to become the biggest and most dominant figure (at which he succeeded). Then, having done this, he turned around and gave away most of his fortune, doing good works across America.

Why does the energy of this combination have both sides? The reason has to do with the placements of the Sun and Jupiter in the hierarchy of the planets. The Sun is fundamentally an energy of higher consciousness, awareness and the pursuit of absolute reality. On a slightly lower level it is the source of the energy that drives the entire solar system, and in individuals it signifies the energy that integrates the soul and makes it serve a special purpose.

Jupiter is quite similar, although it does not have the transcendental position of the Sun in the planetary hierarchy. Jupiter is the social order itself and its proper ordering. Its energies are not really for the purpose of individual aggrandizement; they are for the betterment of social order.

Neither of these energies functions best when subordinated to purely egoistic and selfish concerns, yet this often happens because human beings typically do not function at the highest possible level of spiritual awareness.

Jupiter is generally regarded as the “greater benefic” among the planets. Many astrologers believe that hardly anything can go wrong under transits involving Jupiter. One quality that gives rise to this view is that even when Jupiter’s energies are going wrong, they feel good. This can lead Jupiter’s energies to indicate overindulgence and excess without caring very much for one’s fellow man, which is the exact opposite of what Jupiter is supposed to do in the planetary hierarchy.

Likewise, the ancients believed the Sun to be a stand-in for God at the highest possible level, universal consciousness and the eye of the divine. At a somewhat lower level it describes kingship and anyone responsible for directing and organizing institutions in the social world. Such figures can be models who inspire others and creators of energies that enable others to live and be well, or they can be despots and dictators who genuinely believe that everybody else exists for their personal benefit.

We will see the double potential of these two bodies in the transit descriptions in the Premium Daily Horoscope. How beneficial these transits are to you depends entirely upon what you do with them. Jupiter is “lucky” only in its appearances and on the surface. It truly demands that people strive to do the good and the right. Anyone who relies on the luck of Jupiter and does nothing to deserve it will usually find that life turns out badly. Carnegie acted in the nick of time.

Transits to Saturn

The Sun is a general indicator of health, physical vitality and energy, will and purpose. At its highest level the Sun represents complete clarity of consciousness and awareness and the ability to see things exactly as they are, both in ordinary reality in the everyday world and in expanded realms of perception more distant from the commonplace.

Saturn also has two levels. The first level tends to interfere with the lower levels of the Sun. That is, Sun to Saturn may indicate not feeling well, low vitality and energy, and that the will and intentions are frustrated by circumstances or persons beyond one’s control. Or, on the other hand, in a more positive manner, at the same level, transits of the Sun to Saturn can indicate constructive restraint of the individual’s will and vitality. This milder form of Saturn is usually regarded as its benevolent side. And while this form is constructive, Saturn has a much higher level of manifestation that is completely in accord with the highest level of the Sun.

When both energies are operating at the highest possible level, the effect of Saturn is to turn the energy of the Sun toward its higher purpose of consciousness and awareness — to see things as they really are, separate from the influences of one’s family, community of origin, region, nation or historical circumstance. The highest level of Sun-Saturn contacts manifests as an entry point into higher levels of consciousness.

That said, most transits of the Sun to Saturn have more to do with the discipline and hard-work side of Saturn than the transcendental. It would be fair to describe the "lower" Saturn as a manifestation of the energies of society that work to prevent individuals from getting out of line, thereby maintaining social order. While this may not always be pleasant, it is frequently necessary. So, as the Sun goes around the zodiac and makes contacts with your natal Saturn, you will have to reach accommodations between what you want and intend and what circumstances permit.

However, the descriptions in the Premium Daily Horoscope also deal with the higher side of both energies and how you can channel them into your life.

Transits to Uranus

Transits of the Sun to natal Uranus can be upsetting and difficult at times, yet they can also indicate moments in which you can break out of established habits and old viewpoints. This may result in greater freedom and increased clarity of vision. How you react to these transits depends upon how flexibly and how quickly you see opportunities for creative change.

However, you should not underestimate the difficulties that arise with these transits. There are patterns and structures in your life that you must hold on to in order to exist at all, and these cannot be casually challenged. It is likely that a completely enlightened individual might have no difficulty with any of these transits, but most of us are not such beings.

Therefore, the best way to prepare for these transits and to get through them in the best possible manner is to examine your life thoroughly, looking for behaviors and attitudes that do not serve a useful purpose — habits you usually acquired early in life. Notice every time you make a decision without understanding why you made it, or react to something or someone in a manner that does not seem rational. These events give you clues to the areas of your life and thinking that may require change.

On the other hand, when the energies of these transits affect some part of yourself and your life that you know is fundamental to your being, a core part of who you are, you need not fear. One of two things will happen. Either the transit energies will not cause long-term disruption, merely challenges, or, even better, they may lead to positive change that will enhance your life, although these energies may seem fearsome at the time. Of course, keep in mind that all transits of the Sun to natal Uranus indicate energies that are effective only for one or two days.

Sometimes these transits indicate unfortunate and unexpected events such as accidents or unpleasant incidents that may suddenly arise. Usually this happens only when other transits by planets that move more slowly than the Sun have similar significations. But when such events do happen, the best thing to do is to move beyond them as quickly as possible and not attempt to “figure them out” or rationalize them. You may understand them later when the upset has subsided.

Transits to Neptune

Sun-Neptune combinations indicate a blending of planetary energies that can be very difficult at one level and extremely magnificent at another. This is because both planets (in the astrological sense of the word “planet”) have high and low symbolic attributes, or, in the case of the Sun, a lower set of attributes among the three levels at which the Sun works.

The most fundamental level of the Sun in ordinary living is that it represents the fundamental energy of everything. Just as the Sun’s light and gravitation are the motive powers of the entire solar system, so in everyday life the Sun represents everything that provides energy for systems — including the general social order, energy in a physical sense as represented by fossil fuels, wind or solar energy, and most importantly the fundamental energy of life itself.

The Sun’s lower attributes manifest when an individual takes the solar energy within and channels it in a way that inflates the purely personal ego. Then we have the classic egotist, the person who wants to be the center of attention, who demands to be noticed and who likely has an irrational desire for power.

The energy of Neptune is challenging for both sets of the Sun’s attributes, as Neptune is typically experienced as weakening.

One problem of the Sun-Neptune combination is that it increases one’s sensitivity to the surroundings, and it becomes difficult to keep the energies in the world around you from penetrating and permeating your individuality. So, when there are Sun-Neptune transits you may feel that it is hard to keep yourself from being affected by the energies of those around you. If those energies are good, there is no problem. If they are difficult or discordant, it can be challenging.

The high side of the Sun’s energy is that it symbolizes the light of consciousness itself, for light is the foundation of consciousness. We often say when we understand something, “I see!” The energy symbolized by Neptune is capable of confusing and distorting even this aspect of the Sun, but only when this aspect of the Sun is operating at an egocentric and personal level.

Neptune demands that the individual rise to a higher level of consciousness — one that is completely within the capacity of the Sun’s energy — and use that energy to understand and perceive higher orders of reality than the one we perceive on the normal day-to-day level. In ancient religion, when that religion achieved a philosophical view of the universe, the physical Sun was regarded as the representative of the universal mind, that is to say, consciousness.

Transits to Pluto

The energies of Pluto in your natal chart concern factors, both within yourself and in your environment, that produce change. The typical Plutonian change is slow, evolutionary and commonly experienced as inevitable. These energies require that you allow changes to take place, even if they require letting go of someone or something to which you are strongly attached.

The difficulty is that sometimes the energies of Pluto challenge your attachments without ultimately requiring you to let them go. At other times, you will be required to. What you need to keep in mind is that if you allow yourself to let go gracefully, you will usually find that it was a good thing to do. As the Sun transits your natal Pluto, you will confront situations in your everyday life where these issues arise.

A transit of the Sun to your natal Pluto is not likely to result in a major transformational crisis unless other circumstances and other transits indicate that you are in such a crisis. In such a case, the transit of the Sun over your natal Pluto may coincide with the day when such crises reach a climax. The chief difficulty these transits present is that they require you to have a sense of which issues in your life are not working and need to be changed, both internal and external. If you systematically try to keep these transformative energies under complete control, you will eventually have to deal with them in such a way that they will be completely out of control.

So, if your everyday life demands that you look at it to see what needs to grow, diminish or pass away completely, the best thing you can do is confront these needs honestly and with confidence that you can change. When Plutonian energies are resisted and not tolerated, they can become extremely difficult to deal with.

Having said all of this, Pluto spends several years in each sign of the zodiac and can spend several months in or around a particular degree of the zodiac. This means that everyone born near you in time will be getting transits to natal Pluto at about the same time as you. So, one thing you must determine is how strongly and personally the energies of your natal Pluto normally affect you. Individuals vary considerably in this respect. For most people, transits of the Sun to natal Pluto represent relatively minor crises and difficulties on a day-to-day level.

Transits to Chiron

The Sun has the quality of the Hot as well as the quality of the Dry. While either or both qualities can be in excess and therefore unbalanced, they are generally present in a moderate and balanced manner. The heat of the Sun provides the energy by which the creative process can occur. The light of the Sun represents the consciousness by which the creative process is governed.

In addition, it is not widely recognized among astrologers that the Sun God in ancient times, usually under the name of Apollo, represented the highest forms of creativity and the clearest, most powerful states of consciousness. This works well with the integrating quality of Chiron. For that quality to manifest at its very best, it requires not only consciousness but an intention that is strong and governed by that consciousness.

It is also true, however, that the Sun can represent the will dominated by ego drives. This is the heat of the Sun combined with the dryness of the Sun, brought to the level where it becomes a disintegrating instead of an integrating force. When combined with the energy of Chiron in this way, it ceases to be healing and becomes a potentially destructive energy. In all transits of the Sun over Chiron, by any aspect, this is a potentiality of which you must always be aware, and you must always attempt to control it. Otherwise, things work out badly rather than well, and there can be wounding instead of healing.

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Transits to Midheaven

Both the Sun and the Midheaven have much to do with the direction of one’s life. The Sun indicates the basic energy of life on both the physical and mental levels and, specifically on the mental level, signifies will, intention and the forward thrust of one’s life that comes from growing in wisdom and consciousness. The Midheaven is one of the points in the chart that indicates the direction of that thrust. As a result, the combination of these two in your annual cycle is extremely important in understanding the rhythm of your life energy as it is directed to the several departments of your life according to the transiting Sun’s aspects to the natal Midheaven.

On a mundane level, these transits tell us much about which way a person’s intention is pointing at any time of the year. Sometimes what one intends is in harmony with the long-range direction one is taking; sometimes it is less so. However, all the aspect relationships made by the transiting Sun to the natal Midheaven are necessary to the evolution of one’s life, for the Sun must shine into every possible aspect of life as it pertains to the overall direction of that life.

Transits to Ascendant

The Sun, both in the natal chart and in transit, represents one of the most important centers of energy that one can experience both in the world and within oneself. Like the astronomical Sun, the astrological Sun indicates everything that is a source of energy and power for everything else. The Ascendant degree — the degree rising in the east at the moment of birth — is the most important channel for transmitting the identity of an entity, insofar as it can be experienced externally, into the world that surrounds that entity. So, in human terms it represents both your physical appearance and the way you express your personality to the world.

Therefore, as the transiting Sun makes its various aspects during the year to the natal Ascendant, it gives your physical body and the manner in which you express your personality a burst of energy. This means that during these transits throughout the year you are prone to project yourself into your environment with more energy than usual. It is up to you whether what you express is honest and authentic. In the long run, even when it may seem inconvenient or inexpedient, it is best that what you present to the world is as real as possible.

On the physical level, you will find that you have higher than normal amounts of energy for doing this. As a result, even the most difficult of these transits represent opportunities for you to make an impact on your surroundings through both physical energy and increased psychological vitality.

Transits to the Lunar Nodes

There seem to be three principal significations associated with Sun-Node combinations. The first is a changing set of relationships between conscious intention and will versus instinctual patterns and habits. The second is a changing set of relationships between actions and behavioral patterns that lead to forward evolution in the life of an individual, especially at the level of lifetime psychological and spiritual development. The third is found in two German schools, the Hamburg School (known in America as the Uranian System) and Cosmobiology, the school associated with the Ebertins. In this system both nodes are treated as points that connect the individual in a general way to other people according to the nature of the aspecting planet. No distinction is made between the North and South Nodes in this system.