What is gochar? Planetary transits in Vedic astrology

P.V.R. Narasimha Rao (PVR), author of Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach, defines it plainly: 'By transits or gochaara, we mean the motion of planets in the skies.'

Every planet has two positions that matter here. The natal position is where the planet was at the moment of your birth; the transit position is where it is at a given time.

PVR explains the point of comparing the two: 'By correlating the transit positions on a given day with the natal positions of several reference points, we can draw some conclusions about the nature of results experienced by the native then.'

He frames the division of labour this way: natal positions 'stand for the innate potential of a nativity and the transit positions show the temporary influences', which he calls 'planetary pulls and pushes'.

B.V. Raman, in Hindu Predictive Astrology, notes that the birth chart fixes the planets' positions, 'But there is No stoppage of planetary movements'. Transits are the study of those later movements.

Transits are counted with whole-sign houses: the sign of the reference point is the 1st house, the next sign the 2nd, and so on.

Two reference points are common. Raman writes: 'In predicting Gochara results, the Moon and the birth constellation play a prominent part.' The sign holding the Moon at birth is the janma rasi (birth sign, the moon sign). PVR agrees: 'The most popular natal reference in transit analysis is Moon.'

PVR also reads transits from the lagna: 'We can see which house a planet is transiting in, with respect to natal lagna, and expect the planet to influence the matters of that house.'

The table below uses Skybond's teaching chart (not a real person's), which has Cancer lagna and the Moon in Leo. Read one row at a time. Take Saturn in Pisces: counted from Cancer it lands in the 9th house, and from Leo in the 8th.

Jupiter in Leo sits in the 2nd from the Cancer lagna and the 1st from the Leo Moon, because Jupiter is then in the Moon's sign, Leo. The same transit lands in a different house depending on which reference you use, which is why both columns are shown.

The bar chart above shows roughly how long each planet stays in one sign, from B.V. Raman: the Moon about two and a quarter days, the Sun about a month, Mars about 45 days, Jupiter about one year, Saturn about two and a half years, and Rahu and Ketu (the shadow points, which move backwards through the signs) about 18 months each.

Raman gives the slow-moving planets, Jupiter and Saturn, the most weight in transit reading: 'The triennial results may be ascertained from Saturn, the yearly effects from Jupiter, the monthly results from other planets and the daily influences from the Moon.'

PVR is direct about this: standard transit results 'are given only for reference. In reality, not everyone with the same janma rasi experiences the same results', and 'The results given by planets depend on what they stand for in the natal chart.' His example: the same transit of Mars touches different matters depending on which houses Mars rules in a given birth chart. Raman concurs: 'There is no denying the fact that the birth horoscope directly affects Gochara results.'

Timing has layers. Raman advises: 'The Dasa and Bhukti ruling at the present time should be carefully noted as also Gochara positions.' A dasha is a planetary period derived from the birth chart; a bhukti is a sub-period within it.

Raman also writes: 'unless Gochara is combined with Ashtakavarga, results cannot be predicted with appreciable accuracy.' Ashtakavarga is a system of benefic points (bindus) assigned to each sign for each planet.

Then there is vedha, which Raman glosses as 'an obstructing force or point': a favourable transit can be blocked when another planet transits a paired sign at the same time. His example: the Sun's good transit of the 11th from the Moon is obstructed if another planet (except Saturn) is in the 5th.

Raman closes with a candid note: 'there does not appear to be a uniform method in the whole of India.' Different texts weigh these layers differently, and Skybond presents each view as its author's.

According to Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS, R. Santhanam's translation), chapter 26, every planet aspects the 7th sign from itself. Three planets look further: Mars also aspects the 4th and 8th from itself, Jupiter the 5th and 9th, and Saturn the 3rd and 10th.

PVR extends this to transits: 'We can also look at the aspects cast by transiting planets.'

To read a transit fully, note not only the house the planet occupies but the houses it aspects. A transiting Saturn, for example, touches the house it is in plus the 3rd, 7th and 10th from it. To practise, locate each slow planet's sign first, then count.

The four cards above show the event types in Skybond's catalog: a planet changing sign (an ingress), a planet changing nakshatra (lunar mansion), a planet turning retrograde or direct (a station), and two planets meeting in one sign (a conjunction).

Skybond publishes one transit article per event for each of the 12 ascendants at /transits/{sign}/, free to read. In the app, transits are written for your own houses, counted from your lagna and from your Moon.

The live block above shows where Saturn and Jupiter are when you load the page and when each next changes sign, computed from Skybond's ephemeris (dates in IST). Rahu, Ketu and every other event are listed by ascendant on Skybond's transit pages.

Use the live block to place each planet, then count houses from your own lagna and Moon as shown in the worked example above.