Your birth chart captures a frozen moment in time—the sky as it appeared when you took your first breath. But astrology doesn’t stop there. The planets keep moving, and their current positions (called Gochar or transits) act as triggers for the promises written in your natal chart.
Jagannatha Hora handles transit analysis beautifully, though the feature remains buried for many users. I’ve seen people open two separate charts side by side, squinting to compare planet positions manually. There’s no need for that. JHora includes a dedicated transit overlay that places current planetary positions directly around your birth chart, plus an animation feature that lets you scroll through time like a video player.
Here’s how to access and use these tools properly.
Finding the Transits Tab
After loading your birth chart in Jagannatha Hora, direct your attention to the top row of tabs—not the chart tabs in the middle section, but the main navigation tabs running across the upper portion of the window.
Look for “Transits” (it typically sits near “Dasas” or “Strengths”). Click it once.
If this tab doesn’t appear in your interface, the fix is straightforward. Navigate to Preferences > Display > Select Tab Setand switch to either “Full” or “Standard” mode. The software ships with several tab configurations, and some minimalist presets hide the transit functionality.
Understanding Mixed Mode: The Overlay View That Actually Works
Opening the Transits tab presents you with several sub-tabs. Most users click around randomly here, which creates confusion. The view you want is specifically labeled “Transit/Natal – Mixed Mode”.
This display does something clever. It nests your birth chart (the natal positions) in the inner portion while showing current planetary transits in an outer ring surrounding it. At a glance, you can spot exactly which houses the transiting planets occupy and whether they’re conjunct or aspecting your natal placements.
For instance, if you’re tracking Sade Sati, this view instantly reveals whether transiting Saturn sits on, before, or after your natal Moon. No mental gymnastics required.
One common stumbling block: the planetary symbols may appear as empty boxes or strange characters if your system fonts aren’t configured correctly. Should you encounter this, my guide on fixing font display errors walks through the solution.
Setting a Custom Transit Date
The sidebar panel on the left side of the screen contains date and time fields. Pay close attention here because there are two separate date entries, and confusing them ruins your analysis.
The upper date field shows your birth details. Leave this alone—changing it alters your natal chart entirely.
The lower date field controls the transit date. By default, JHora populates this with the current date and time. To check transits for any other moment—whether that’s your wedding anniversary, a job interview next month, or some pivotal day from your past—modify this lower field.
Type in your target date, press Enter, and watch the outer ring of the Mixed Mode chart update immediately. The natal positions stay fixed while the transit planets shift to their new locations.
The Animation Tool: Watching Planets Move Through Time
Manually typing dates works fine for specific moments, but what if you want to track Saturn’s journey through your chart over the coming years? Or pinpoint exactly when Jupiter enters your seventh house?
JHora includes an animation feature that most users never discover. Look below the transit date entry for a row of arrow buttons: [<<] [<] [>] [>>]
Adjacent to these arrows, you’ll find a dropdown menu setting the time increment. The default is usually “1 Hour” or “1 Day”—useful for Moon tracking but painfully slow for outer planet analysis.
Change this dropdown to “1 Month” or “1 Year” depending on what you’re examining. Now each click of the forward arrow [>] advances the transit chart by that increment. Click repeatedly and you’ll see Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu, and Ketu migrate through your houses in real time.
This becomes genuinely powerful for predictive work. Suppose you’re curious about relationship timing. Watch for Jupiter or Venus transiting your seventh house or crossing your seventh lord. When you spot such a transit coinciding with a favorable dasha period, you’ve identified a potential activation window. My detailed breakdown of marriage timing using Vimshottari Dasha and transits explores this synthesis further.
Why Your Transit Moon Position Looks Wrong
This trips up nearly everyone at some point. You open the transit chart expecting to see the Moon in, say, Taurus based on what the panchang says—but JHora shows it in Aries or Gemini.
The culprit is almost always the location setting.
Transit calculations are location-dependent. The Moon moves roughly 13 degrees daily, and the precise degree at any given moment varies based on where on Earth you’re casting the chart from. Your birth chart location and your transit location don’t need to match.
Check the transit data entry section (typically bottom-left of the sidebar). If you were born in Chennai but now live in Toronto, the transit chart should reflect Toronto as the location for accurate current positions.
Should JHora fail to recognize your transit location, displaying a “Location Not Found” message, you can input coordinates manually. My troubleshooting guide for location errors covers the exact steps.
Practical Application: What to Actually Look For
Having the transit overlay functional is step one. Knowing what deserves attention is where real astrological work begins.
Saturn transits demand the most respect. When Saturn crosses your natal Moon (Sade Sati), moves over your Ascendant, or aspects the lord of a significant house, expect that area of life to face pressure, delays, or restructuring. These transits unfold slowly—Saturn spends roughly 2.5 years per sign—so use the animation tool set to monthly increments to track its path.
Jupiter transits often bring expansion and opportunity to whichever house Jupiter occupies. A Jupiter transit through your fifth house might coincide with creative breakthroughs or children-related developments. Through the ninth, perhaps higher education or long-distance travel.
Rahu and Ketu transits stir up the houses they occupy with obsessive or karmic themes. Rahu transiting your seventh house, for example, creates unusual intensity around partnerships. I’ve written separately about Rahu in the seventh houseif you want to explore those dynamics.
The animation tool shines brightest when you combine transit observation with dasha analysis. A transit alone rarely produces major events—it needs a supportive dasha period to fully activate. Watching both simultaneously (transits in the overlay, dasha periods in the Dasas tab) gives you the complete predictive picture.
Quick Reference: Transit Tab Checklist
Before wrapping up your transit session, verify these settings:
- Tab visibility: Transits tab present in top navigation (adjust via Preferences > Display > Select Tab Set if missing)
- Correct view: “Transit/Natal – Mixed Mode” sub-tab selected for overlay display
- Birth data untouched: Upper date field still shows your original birth information
- Transit location accurate: Lower location field reflects where you currently are, not your birthplace
- Time increment appropriate: Animation dropdown set to days for Moon, months or years for slow planets
Wrapping Up
The transit overlay transforms Jagannatha Hora from a static chart generator into a dynamic predictive tool. Once you’re comfortable with Mixed Mode and the animation controls, you can track planetary weather against your natal chart with precision—no second window, no manual comparison, no guesswork.
If you haven’t configured your basic JHora preferences yet, my settings guide covering Ayanamsa, chart style, and display options will help you dial in the software before diving into transit analysis.
Now open your chart, switch to the Transits tab, and set the animation to yearly increments. Watch where Saturn lands in 2026 and 2027. Is it approaching a sensitive point in your chart? That’s your cue to prepare.