The moon feels like attention. When she moves over a planet in your chart, she's not making something happen — she's reflecting light into that part of you so you can pay closer attention to it.
This page is a short guide to tracking that attention. It pairs with the Parts & Charts episode on parts activation and tracking transits, and with the Daily State Log template you'll find linked below.
If you've ever wondered why some days you wake up tender, or restless, or suddenly hungry for something you can't name — and you've also wondered whether astrology has anything useful to say about it — this is for you.
The moon is the fastest-moving planet in your chart. She makes contact with one of your birth-chart placements every day or two. Which means: every two or three days, a different part of you is being lit up by her attention.
Tracking the moon is the easiest way to start tracking transits. It's also one of the most accessible ways to notice the difference between a part doing its everyday work and a part getting activated. The body often knows first. This page is here to help you catch what your body is already telling you.
Two ideas from the episode that may be useful as you start tracking:
A transit doesn't manufacture anything. It illuminates what's already there. Two people with the same transit live through it as two different days, because the rooms being lit are theirs alone.
A part being activated is information, not a problem. When the moon passes over your natal Mars and you find yourself suddenly fired up about something small, that's not a malfunction. That's a part of you raising its hand. The tracking is how you learn to recognize the hand-raising before it takes over the room.
You can hear the full conversation between me and Chelsea Owens — licensed therapist and Certified IFS Level 3 — in Episode 29 of Parts & Charts.
1. Pull up your birth chart. I always use astro-seek.com — free, accurate, and the interface shows you degrees clearly. You'll need your birth date, time, and city.
2. Write down the sign and degree of your placements. Start with the moon, Venus, Mars, and Saturn. Example: Moon at 14° Cancer. Mars at 3° Libra. The degree matters as much as the sign.
3. Check where the moon is today. Astro-seek's current planetary positions page will show you. The Chani app is also a beautiful daily reference if you prefer something on your phone.
4. Look for the overlap. When the transiting moon reaches the same sign and degree as one of your natal placements — within about 3 degrees on either side — she's transiting it. That's the window.