Basics of Planetary Transits (Example Sun)

I was not able to finish the post on weekly predictions due to various reasons. As it is a habit to come up with an article at the end of the week, I am sharing the notes on transits that I refer to most often. I am aware that these notes are not very useful to many of the readers who come to this site for quick information, but this may be seen as my attempt to make my notes public and help someone out there with the jyotish knowledge.

Yesterday was Guru Poornima and I would like to thank teachers like Shri Suresh Chandra Mishra, Shri Jagannath Bhasin and Shri L.R. Chawdhri who have taught me planetary transits through their books.

Planetary transits are called गोचर in Hindi/Sanskrit. Transits are a different method of predictions based on current planetary positions of planets in reference to the natal (at the birth) positions of planets in the birth horoscope. The positions of planets as calculated at the time of birth of a positions is called natal positions and is always fixed. At the current instant, the position of planets is something else and this position is used to make predictions. Weekly, monthly forecasts and predictions in various magazines, newspaper columns and websites that are generic in nature are based purely on transits. Since we take only the Moon sign (Janma Rashi) into account, all of these results are based on the position of natal moon and the current position of planets. This is very generic and often the disclaimer would be present in these magazines and websites that the “actual results will be modified due to current dasha/bhukti and other jyotish tools like akstakavarga”. Therefore, please take these forecasts with a pinch of salt, for these show a picture, but not a complete one. This is the reason why the predictions that are published in magazines, newspapers and websites seem right only to an extent. With only the janma rashi available, only so much can be done.

The muhurta information based on panchanga is a useful one and should be keenly followed.

To give you an example of how classical astrology books talk about these transits, let me share what is said about Sun. I will keep on sharing the notes on other planets as and when I ditigize them.

It is important to talk about Vedha position.  A Vedha position is the one that is capable of neutralizing the effect of a good transit. Any planet (other than Saturn, who is son of Sun) is capable of obstructing the good effect of Sun’s transit. Phala Deepika says “वेध विचार के बिना गोचर फल कहना स्वयं को उपहास का पात्र बनाना ही है.”

This summarizes the effect of Sun on a janma rashi, without taking anything else into account. As I mentioned before, the exact results of transit will depend on not only other tools like Asktakavarga, that are very important in determining transit results. The overall results also will be modified according to dasha/bhukti of the person.