Why “Good” Transits Feel Bad Sometimes
Klaus Pichler, Strawberries, 2012
Transits from Jupiter and Venus can rock us on our heels — not in pleasure but in terror. These planets bring connection, joy, pleasure, abundance, opportunity, possibility, epiphany, kindness. So far so good. But what if those things are so unfamiliar to you that, like new organs, you reject them?
What if Jupiter brings you an opportunity that turns you into a rabbit shaking under a briar? What if Jupiter shows you, in all this possibility, all your fears around scarcity? Stories you tell yourself about how big or small you are allowed to be? What if Jupiter insists that you open your arms so wide to accept this huge planet’s gifts that you feel your tendons might snap? What if Jupiter reminding you how interconnected you are when you have felt so lonely just makes you feel sad, because why couldn’t you feel it before?
What if Venus brings you a love (it need not be romantic) so tender and good that a wave of grief overtakes you, weighing you down with memories of how little affection you’ve received in the past? What if things are so good and yet you feel unnerved, which in turn unnerves you all the more? When you should, by all accounts, be happy, but can’t settle into it. When you see so clearly how you are primed to wait for the other shoe to drop and struggle to be present with the good that is here. What if it brings up your questions about what you think you are worthy of? What if it shows you something about your (in)ability to receive, even when the table is laden with treats?
What if the very beliefs that keep your life together, however badly, now all have to be rewritten? And you’re tired? And you don’t know where to start?
If you are told that a transit is going to be amazing and you find yourself sobbing in the shower instead, this could be why.
It's likely something is incredible, something truly benefic is present. But transits don’t happen out of context. Your whole life comes along for the ride as do the realities of being here, and being beautifully, devastatingly, bottomlessly complicated.
If you’re having a “positive” transit and it feels like hell, it can be helpful to balance the benefics with their complementary malefics. We need martial energy to protect the part of us that accepted so much less than we deserved. When Jupiter's boons are overwhelming, some Saturnian reality checks may be in order. What is actually happening? What is actually present? Take in the huge vision of Jove with steadying eye of Kronos. One step at a time. Jupiter is sometimes described as “excessive,” but I think excess is a matter of containment. If it can all be held (a Saturn word), then it can be as big as it needs to be.
Venus and Jupiter can bring dreamy, delicious, nourishing experiences. They are also giant space creatures working on time scales that are so much longer than a single transit or planetary return. It can help to look at their cycles. When was the last time Venus or Jupiter did something similar in your chart? How is that time period similar to the moment you’re in now? That may offer some clarity too.
Regarding good transits, the thing I most want to say is that you don’t have to make the most out of anything. You haven’t messed up if a positive transit or benefic profection year was rough. Change is destabilizing, even good change. Capacity-stretching is uncomfortable. Epiphanies can happen at rock bottom. Hope may arrive in an odd shape. Feeling safety, comfort, and affection when you haven’t experienced it before or haven’t experienced in a long time is a shock.
Go tenderly.
