A solar return chart is cast for the day and time the Sun (solar) returns to the exact place it was when you were born. Generally this occurs on your birthday but on occasion it happens the day before or the day after.
Your solar return chart stands alone, independent from your natal chart.
Most astrologers feel these charts are useful in providing a map of the year ahead.
Do you track your solar return?
Get your personalized Solar Return Report.
i’ve always had some trouble reconciling the idea that astrology matters with the idea that you can change everything by traveling to a different location at a key time. i recently got engaged so this idea of ‘picking your chart’ has been on my mind w. all the wedding planning. ultimately astrology is pretty far down on the list of things to worry about (after friends/family, atmosphere, season, and venue availability) but it has me sort of freaked b/c one of the times i’d like to get married has mercury retrograde –eek. elsa!
but then i just think – REALLY?!- if i get married that weekend instead of the next one, my fiance and i are going to have a completely different relationship? i can’t buy it…i don’t want to!
i pay attention to my solar return. i’ve never really gotten into these charts but do notice certain themes per each year familiar to the chart. i’ll probably do a huge post on this later on due to the excessive details and jargon…
this year, SR sun conjunct descendant from the 6th. nothing too interesting in that particular sense, yet.
I use my current location. My problem with the travel on your birthday thing is then you come home… and it seems the home chart would be the one you live, even if you leave your heart in San Francisco!
My birthday is around the corner and my chart bugs me too…I’m new to astrology so I am not sure how much it really plays out. Looking at last year, it turned out how it looked..stellium in 12H with sun so I was focused on transcending, growing, etc. My natal 7H cusp on the asc and I got married to the love of my life, jupiter/pluto in 4H whereby we bought a house, rented my other place and am hoping for kiddies soon…also sun sq moon in the solar return so we have had some growing pains as a couple but it’s working out and helping us grow closer.
Wow, I suppose it is pretty freakin’ accurate. The other day I was thinking of where/how far I could drive on my b’day next week, but due to work commitments I cannot. It’ll be what it will be.
My solar return for 2008 had a bunch of planets in the 3rd and i started a blog and got into the astroblogosphere. My solar return for feb 2009 features a mega mega stellium in the 12th which I also had in 2005, and that year I spent a lot of time alone but I did come out that year on the internet that I was an astrologer which was at that time scarey to do. 2009 I am a pisces ascendant, stellium in 12 sextiling mars in 10 and sun conjunct ascendant.
I pay attention to it in the weeks surrounding my birthday and then I forget all about it. Sometimes after the year has passed I check the previous chart to see if it matches my experience. But I don’t have many certainties about it because I haven’t been doing this for very long..
Do you use your birth location or where you currently live in the SR chart?
I always look even if not sure what to expect from it. Last year’s SR turned out pretty dead on, with Saturn-Venus in 7th opposite a packed Aquarius 1st house. I fell out of love with my husband and his oppression, and reinvented myself completely.
This raises a question. My SR AC is almost the same this year as my natal one, so the SR looks like the transits I’m having (i.e., Jupiter and Pluto in 7th, eek.) The same thing is true for my man’s SR. But the years before and after, ACs nowhere near the natal one. Anyone know the astronomy of this? Does it repeat every so often? We were both born the same year.
I definitely cast solar return chart. I’ve not the luxury to travel on my birthdays in general, so I’m not sure if it makes a difference or not? The jury is out for me on that. I also look at lunar return charts if I note certain transits or progressions. Lunar return will often help me spot certain months of important activity.
I have also noted a shift in energies starting about 3 month before my birthday, basically when my natal Sun sign is squared by the transiting Sun. The new dramas start to unfold then. For instance, each time I have sold my home, it always happens around that time.
I also had a horrible solar for this year… Uranus in house 5 – separation, breaking up (Uranus) with my lover (house 5)
Don’t do what this ‘astrologer’ did while still too much of a novice to try to set a location for a solar return of my own. Inadvertantly, I put all of my solar return angles right slap on my regular angles. It was one of the worst years of my life.
Years later, and the better I get at astrology, the less inclined I am to run a solar return chart for the coming year, or run them into future years as I used to do. One astrologer already said I “know too much” and since I do progressions and transits and solar arcs and dasa bukti work (the last in Vedic) I feel that is enough.
It is fascinating to look at solar returns for a couple of the strangest or worst years of my earlier life. They have been revealing after the fact, and its a very interesting study. I have also seen people do half year returns and have that work too. In the past I have always experienced a noticeable shift in energy around my birthday, but some years it is bigger than other years.
Do you cast your chart for the same location you were born in, or the one you’re in currently? Sorry if this is a silly question.
Er, or one that was already answered. Thanks!
Most people (eg. astrodienst) recommend doing it for where you were born. Some of us try to change the year by celebrating the birthday where the chart looks better. for me, it either didn’t work at all, or else it backfired in my face. Might as well just use the birth place I guess. Or maybe, if you are going to live in the new place all year, do it for there.
doesn’t math make everyone horny?
bwhahahha!
cassie, you confused me! i thought i was commenting on the math post…
Never have I ever done this. Not for lack of interest, but because I assimilate my personal astrological teachings gradually and the need/desire to do so hasn’t arisen yet.
As an aside, I live with someone with 6 planets in the 6th House and having Capricorn is a godsend for that! I’m so fucking Taurus all that work would make me break down and weep!
I have a hard time understanding them when I try to do one. My ascendant came out in Capricorn this year, and I do feel The Drive to do stuff, but so far it’s just not panning out well, even with Jupiter on the ascendant. (Mars is on the descendant, maybe that’s thwarting it.) Uranus in 2nd, so money is dicey (but I have natal Neptune there, so it always is). Sun/Venus/Mercury in 3rd, but again, I don’t feel like anything is panning out there yet. And every year for years on end I’ve had Venus/Saturn ties. Every dang year! I’m so sick of Venus/Saturn I could vomit!
I suppose it could be worse, really.
Don’t know if this site is still active as the last posting was over 1 year ago, but I couldn’t resist making a comment.
Finding anything on the subject of Solar Returns is a rarity! I have been practicing “elective” Solar Returns since 1996. Of course, one cannot change the “hand they’re dealt”, but by “relocating oneself” around the globe the planets will shift into other houses and the effect of the aspect will be felt “elsewhere”. This includes ridding negative aspects or creating fortunate ones to major angles.
I am far from wealthy, but have the advantage of working for an airline and can fly (free) to wherever I need to be and I can tell you that it WORKS! I would NEVER accept a “pot luck” Solar Return. Sometimes I don’t have the luxury of chosing the perfect “set up”. If I have a very scary chart my focus is soley to avoid disaster, by “arranging” my chart in the least destructive way. Normally though, my “theme” is constant.
Between my 7th house Pisces Sun (romantic dreamer in need of marriage) and my Chiron sextile Moon (unfullfilled without my Prince Charming) This is the theme which has propelled me to such places as Paris, Rome, Lahaina, Oslo and much less exotic destinations such as a 2 hour drive to the beach. And NO! It doesn’t work like magic. I can only “set the conditions”, it’s not about “Hokus Pokus”.
Aside from getting married, other things have been incredibly accurate and good fortune has manifested! It really works, but it is NOT magic! It is science…and in the words of Mick Jagger, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”.
All I want is a DAMN MAN! 😀
Is that asking too much? I just want to get married and smother some poor slob with love and kisses and eternal devotion! I’m not asking for the impossible. Other women have what I want. WTF?
Why does it elude me?
I wonder if it’s that damned freedom loving Aqarius ruling my DSC?
Newbie question: How do you make a solar return chart?
Caroline, you can do a solar return if you sign up at astro.com go to free charts then Extended Chart Selection and pick Solar Return Chart.
If you live somewhere different than the location where you were born, modify the reference place.
My friends and I have been doing some “research” without books :D, basicly we imagined how our past and future solar returns might or have affected our lives, and than i said, you know girls that’s it’s a joke, we know nothing of this, but it’s fun, and this year we looked at the solar return right before my birthday (my sun is in scoprpio) and it falls in the sixth house… I swear i work more than i have ever worked and i am reeeaaally project oriented… and i always “feel” the change first and then go look it up…so this year, acording to your post, I will bee a busy bee… 🙂 the sixth house is in gemini in my case… and this means a lot of attention on a lot of different areas, or is it just that I will be reeally curious and comunicative? Like i might have said, we are only starting to learn astrology. 🙂 But there is something to this… and it’s fun:)
salut!
*sorry, i got it wrong, so my solar return sun is in the sixth house, in scorpio, but my ascendent and moon fall in gemini… so that means i will work a lot (since my natal moon is in taurus, i feel the increse of work ;)) +++what does a Pluto in the 7. house mean when we speak about solar returns? in my natal chart it conjucts my sun in Scorpio, 11. house. I don’t understand this, so i will be thankful if someone can give an opinion:)
Thank you. I like your blog:) …was looking something up and it’s fun, aha, i was looking at transits…nice job!:) Like the calendar:)
I tracked my solar return this year. I had Mercury conjunct my Sun and already it’s been very very busy year so far. I’m always on the go as I have something to all the time.
Also my descendant was on my ascendant as well as venus conjuncting my natal venus. I think I will have an interesting year.
Yes, I cry every birthday. I can be pissed off that I was born into an oppressive Capricorn life, among other harsh aspects. But interesting that I see my young and younger Capricorn friends have such an optomistic and bold view that all passed me by, must be more outer planets influence.
It’s called you probably suffer from depression and has nothing to do with you being a Capricorn. It’s called you probably have a chemical imbalance and probably have your whole life. I’ll bet you are completely deficient in minerals. Get these liquid minerals called Concentrace and start adding 40 drops to a 1.5 liter bottle of water and drink it everyday. And for God’s sake…go to a doctor and be tested for depression
Thank you Bluzulu. I have heard from a few Astrologers that it is Capricorn’s nature to go through depression every month, (it is the way they get to release things)
I had to take anti depressents years ago because I could not sleep, and as soon as I could sleep, my life turned around.
I recently started taking a “dusting” of Prozac, as recommended for relief for arthritis pain. Side benifit has been, no more depression!. Now I’m not really sure if this is a natural and good thing, but I am thinking about Abraham’s advice about how there’s no need to work through all that crap(which I did already for the most part, yea), that your only job is to feel good and allow goodness in.
Well, I am going through all kinds of ominous squares, returns, on an on, yet I feel like I’m sailing. I just expect the best to happen, even if it’s not what I envisioned. And I take time to be grateful for every little thing that happens in my day.
This year SR… gemini rising- mercury rx conj sun in 12th- both square saturn. Venus, uranus, north node in 12th; mars in pisces 🙈. This is my saturn return year- oh the saturn pluto square again- joy! the transit uranus square saturn year and the transit chiron square my rising year. The flying hell. Why do I get to have my saturn return in the middle of this planetary mix? Was my t-square not hardcore enough? Hot sensations, unforgettable feelings, get rekt. 😊👍