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As promised, here is a tutorial on how to figure out where, exactly, the current New/Full Moon or any transit is hitting your chart.
Generating Your Natal Chart
Many of you use Astrodienst to generate free natal charts so I’ll refer to that site as an example. Once you enter your birth data (year, month, day, place and time of birth) on the site, go to the Extended Chart Selection. It’s at the bottom, right hand side of the Free Horoscopes page. The Extended Chart Selection will give you oodles of options on how to generate your chart. If there’s a certain House system you prefer you can select that under the House System drop down list. But if you’re not sure, stick with the default.
Locating The New/Full Moon In Your Chart
Go to the “Please select the type of chart you want” drop down list and choose “Natal Chart and Transits”. You’ll see your chart, natal planets on the inside, transiting planets (for the current day) in green on the outside. If you want to see the transits for a future/past date, look under “Options” and change the date to whenever you want.
This is where it can get confusing if you’re trying to pinpoint the position of the New/Full Moon. The position of the Moon you see around the outside of your chart will not be the exact position of the New or Full Moon. Astrodienst calculates the Moon for Greenwich Mean Time or Universal Time. But the Moon changes position every few minutes and this varies according to what time zone you are in. Astrodienst is not inaccurate (far from it); they just need to pick a universal position for the Moon.
Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about this. I’ll tell you the exact date, sign and degree of the Moon the moment it becomes New or Full. That’s all you need to know. So if I say the New Moon will occur at 17 degrees Libra, find 17 degrees Libra on your natal chart. You can locate the degree by finding a planet or angle that’s close to this; Astrodienst will list the degrees of all your planets and angles (house cusps) right below the chart. Or you can just count the little lines that you see around the edge of your chart. Each line equals 1 degree. Count 17 lines in (going counter clockwise) from the start of Libra and you have 17 degrees Libra. That is where the New Moon will fall in your chart.
Locating Transits In Your Chart
Locating a transiting planet in your chart is a bit easier. The green planetary symbols around the outside are the transits for that day. Where you see them is where they will be hitting your chart. It doesn’t matter what time zone they are calculated for. As I mentioned above, you can change the date to see where a certain transit will be (or was) in your chart. When I write about transits, I always tell you the sign and degree they fall in. The Astrodienst chart will give you a visual representation of these influences.
The Strength Of A Transit
The influence of a transit is strongest when it is exact. This means a square between transiting Venus in Cancer and transiting Uranus at 5 degrees Aries is strongest when Venus is at 5 degrees Cancer. When Venus is approaching Uranus, the strength of the transit increases. This is known as an applying aspect. Uranus will start to feel Venus’s approach around 2 degrees Cancer. As soon as Venus moves past 5 degrees Cancer it is classified as a separating aspect and rapidly loses strength. Venus at 6 degrees Cancer forms a separating square to Uranus at 5 degrees Aries but it’s on its way out the door. It’s finished with Uranus so the energy between them is weak.
If anyone has questions, feel free to shoot me an email or comment.
Great post! It is great that you will post the exact aspects for us readers to look for. But, may I ask, exactly how do you locate the exact degree? It seems that involves changing a time setting. The sign and house of the moon is probably the most important information, but I would like to know how to locate the information that the Libra moon is at ’17 degrees’ exactly.
Do you mean how do I know the exact degree? I have professional astrologer’s software that calculates it (Solar Fire). You can also Google it and you’ll find some astrology websites that will tell you the degree. Also, if you create an account at Astrodienst (it’s free) it will tell you the degree on the daily forecast. But you can’t see it in advance unless you pay a fee. OR…just be aware that the New Moon is always conjunct the Sun and the Full Moon is always opposite the Sun. So the degree that the Sun is at will be the degree of the Moon. If you want to know when the Moon will conjunct or oppose the Sun, Planetwatcher gives you a nice, visual representation of this. You can progress forward and backwards to see what day the Moon will arrive at a certain position.
But the degree of the Full or New Moon will not change according to the time zone. It will always be 17 degrees Libra (or whatever) no matter where you are located. What will change is the time of day or night the Moon arrives at that degree (and becomes New or Full).
I was wanting to know the degree AND how do you know exactly what time of day it reaches that degree depending on where you are in the world. What you have explained helps very much (especially about the New Moon always conjunct the Sun/Full Moon Oppose).
Thank you for the clarifications and resources!
I also use an ephemeris (a listing of the signs and degrees for all the planets throughout the years plus exact times) as a backup. Astrodienst has an online one but I use this one: “An American Ephemeris”.
Thanks!