Track your planets, and what today's sky does to your chart
All nine grahas right now: house from your moon, supportive or testing by gochara, retrogrades and Sade Sati.
Planet Transits Today, Read Against Your Own Chart
Gochara is the branch of Vedic astrology that reads where the nine grahas are right now, counted from the sign your Moon occupied at birth. The tool above does that counting for you and marks each planet supportive or testing. This page explains the rules it is applying.
About this tool
Why transits are counted from the Moon
Most people expect transits to be read from the ascendant. Classical gochara is read from the janma rashi, the sign holding the natal Moon, and this is the one convention that separates a real transit reading from a generic one. The Moon is the mind in Vedic astrology, so a transit is measured by how a planet strikes the mind rather than the body.
The practical consequence is that a transit affects people by moon sign, not by sun sign. Saturn arriving in Pisces does something specific to everyone born with the Moon in Aquarius, Pisces or Aries, and something quite different to everyone else. This is also why a daily horoscope organised by sun sign is a much coarser instrument than it appears.
A serious reading looks at the same transit from the lagna as well, and at the natal house the transiting planet owns. The tool reports the gochara verdict from the Moon and shows the house, so you can see both the rule and the raw position it came from.
The nine grahas and how long each stays
Transit speed decides how much weight a transit carries. The Moon changes sign every two and a quarter days and is read for the mood of an afternoon. Saturn takes two and a half years and is read for the shape of a chapter. When an astrologer says a transit is significant, they almost always mean a slow one.
- Sun
- One month per sign. Supportive in the 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th from your Moon.
- Moon
- Two and a quarter days per sign. Supportive in the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 10th and 11th.
- Mars
- About forty five days, longer when retrograde. Supportive in the 3rd, 6th and 11th.
- Mercury
- About three weeks, and retrograde three times a year. Supportive in the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 11th.
- Jupiter
- About one year per sign. Supportive in the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th.
- Venus
- About three and a half weeks. Supportive in most houses, difficult only in the 6th, 7th and 10th.
- Saturn
- Two and a half years per sign. Supportive only in the 3rd, 6th and 11th, which is why Saturn has the reputation it has.
- Rahu
- About eighteen months, always moving backwards. Supportive in the 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th.
- Ketu
- Always opposite Rahu, so also about eighteen months. Supportive in the 3rd, 6th and 11th.
Sade Sati, and the two shorter Saturn periods
Sade Sati is Saturn transiting the 12th, the 1st and then the 2nd house from your natal Moon. At two and a half years per sign that is about seven and a half years, and because Saturn takes roughly twenty nine years to go round, almost everyone meets it two or three times in a life. It is the most talked about transit in Indian astrology and also the most oversold.
The three phases are read differently. The first, with Saturn in the 12th, is usually about expenditure, sleep and things ending. The second, over the Moon itself, is the heaviest and is read for the mind and the body. The third, in the 2nd, is about money, speech and family, and is generally the phase people find easiest.
Two shorter Saturn transits are read alongside it. Kantaka Shani is Saturn in the 4th from the Moon, traditionally read for home and peace of mind. Ashtama Shani is Saturn in the 8th, read for health and sudden change. Each lasts two and a half years, and the tool flags both when they apply.
Retrogrades, and what they do not mean
A retrograde planet is not moving backwards. It appears to, because Earth is overtaking it or being overtaken. Vedic tradition calls a retrograde planet vakri and considers it stronger, not weaker, which is close to the opposite of the popular reading imported from Western astrology.
Mercury goes retrograde three times a year for about three weeks, which is common enough that treating it as an explanation for a bad week explains almost nothing. The slower planets matter more: Jupiter and Saturn are retrograde for roughly four months of every year, and Rahu and Ketu are retrograde permanently.
The tool shows which planets are retrograde right now and when each one turns direct, so you can see the actual station date rather than a vague warning.
What a transit can and cannot do
A transit acts on what the birth chart already contains. The classical formulation is that the dasha sets the theme and the transit sets the trigger: a difficult transit during a supportive dasha behaves very differently from the same transit during a difficult one. Reading a transit on its own, with no birth chart underneath, is the most common mistake in free astrology content.
Classical gochara also has an exception system called vedha, where a planet in a particular house blocks the result of another planet elsewhere. It is rarely applied in popular transit reports. If a verdict here reads more positive or negative than you expected, that layer, along with your dasha, is usually where the difference sits.
Transit questions
Should transits be read from my moon sign or my ascendant?
Classical gochara is read from the moon sign, and that is what this tool does. A full reading checks the ascendant as well, and the natal houses the transiting planet owns, but if you only have one reference point the Moon is the traditional one.
What is Sade Sati and how long does it last?
Saturn transiting the 12th, 1st and 2nd houses from your natal Moon, about seven and a half years in total. It recurs roughly every twenty nine years, so most people meet it two or three times. The middle phase, with Saturn over the Moon, is read as the heaviest.
Is Mercury retrograde actually a problem?
Far less than its reputation suggests. It happens three times a year for about three weeks each time, which is nearly a fifth of the calendar. Vedic tradition reads a retrograde planet as strengthened rather than damaged, which is close to the opposite of the popular Western reading.
Why does this need my birth details for a transit report?
Because a transit means nothing without a reference point. Saturn in Pisces is one fact; Saturn in your 6th house is a reading. The house count comes from your natal Moon, which needs your date, and ideally your time and place of birth.
Do transits affect everyone with the same sign the same way?
Broadly by moon sign, yes, but only broadly. The same transit lands differently depending on which houses that planet owns in your chart and which dasha you are running. Two people with the same moon sign and different ascendants will experience the same Saturn transit through different areas of life.
What is the difference between a transit and a dasha?
A dasha is a planetary period running in the background for years, set from your natal Moon at birth. A transit is where a planet actually is in the sky today. The usual formulation is that the dasha decides the theme and the transit decides the timing within it.
Which transits are worth paying attention to?
The slow ones. Saturn at two and a half years per sign, Jupiter at one year, and Rahu and Ketu at eighteen months. The Moon changes sign every two days and Mercury every three weeks, which is too fast to shape anything larger than a mood.