INNER TRANSITING PLANETS IN ASTROLOGY

There are some Astrologers that write about the fast moving inner planets and predict the effects that they should have on your overall development.  They speak about how they affect you and unfortunately, exaggerate their importance.  They generalize the effects that they will have on your life without knowing what area of life will be affected (as there is no way for them to know which house the planet is in in YOUR Chart). 

Mercury, Venus and Mars all move approximately one half to two degrees per day.  The orb of significant influence in a Chart is about 5-6 degrees, approximately 3-4 degrees applying and then 2-3 degrees when separating.  As a result, the influence of each planet is roughly 2-3 weeks at best; the strongest point of influence would be one to two days.

In order for these planets to have an impact in your life, they would have to cross one of the angles, (the ascendant or midheaven and to a lesser degree the IC and DC).  They would also have an impact if you had a Stellium or several planets in the same degree.  Their influence is very fleeting in nature and may even pass with little notice of their effect by you.

During any retrograde periods with the inner planets (which is rare), their effects will be experienced for a longer period of time and usually will be somewhat strengthened.  The influence is felt or experienced again when it crosses the same degree while moving direct.  If your angles are at the same degrees, you will experience the energies of these planets more intensely but once again for a relatively short time frame.  Again when these retrograde planets pass over a Stellium or planets in the same degree, their influence will become known to this individual.

These influences are generally minor in nature except when in retrograde and rarely used in comparison to long term (outer planet) transiting effects.  The outer planets, because of their slow movement, can be felt for years and have a great impact in our lives.  Transiting Mars (and sometimes the transiting Sun) is used as timers for major events linked to the outer transits or progressions.

In order to ascertain accurate trends and occurrences in a person’s life, you must have an accurate birth time and then define the placements of the birth planetary positions in each house before determining any accurate description of potential events and themes.  Therefore, when you read the newspaper column on your birthday or other given time frames, understand that this is an extreme case of generalization and only associated with common character traits (at best) of a given Sun sign.  Please take this into careful consideration before reacting to any daily horoscope prediction produced for the masses.

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