Transits are WEATHER. That’s the first and most important thing to know about them: they are temporary, just moving through, like clouds on a mountain. Planets move at different speeds, depending on their orbital periods; occasionally they slow down to station before turning retrograde or direct; but they are always en route to somewhere else. No matter how dire the aspects may appear, they will pass.
A given transit, however, may not FEEL transitory; and that’s the second important thing to understand: we are not our transits. While they may activate aspects of our character, pointing the way to new development, they can also trigger old habits and bad decisions. We need to separate what we know of ourselves at core from current tempests– which are weather.
Astrology can help.