The Solar Return Chart: Your Year Ahead

Astrological prediction can be approached in a variety of ways, but most practicing astrologers agree that transits are the most informative method of forecasting. Transits are determined by locating where the planets are on any given date, and then seeing where they fall within the framework of your natal chart. Their ever-moving placements show how outside influences are constantly shaping your inner and outer life, and where (house) and how (sign) these influences affect you most strongly. The signs that these planets are moving through affect all of us in some way. However, the houses through which the planets move show where you are most profoundly experiencing their strengths—where you are being influenced and shaped by their specific types of energies.

The Solar Return Chart is a unique system of forecasting in that it creates an entirely new chart, complete with all twelve houses, all signs and all of the planets. A new horoscope is created each year based on the exact moment the Sun moves to the degree and minute it occupied at the exact moment of your birth. Because this always occurs on or within a day of the birthday, the solar return chart is sometimes referred to as the “Birthday Chart.”

Each year, when the transiting Sun reaches the same sign, degree and minute of your natal Sun, it revitalizes the Sun, giving it new energy and new direction. By creating a horoscope for the exact moment this exact conjunction occurs, you are able to trace the specific details of the year ahead. Even though the solar return chart is a complete horoscope within itself, it does not take the place of the natal chart and transits to it. In order to gain the full value from the solar return, you should always evaluate it in comparison to the natal chart, although many astrologers fail to do so. It is true that the solar return can stand alone, but you will not get the full value from its interpretation without considering the natal chart in partnership with it in order to personalize the interpretation. Otherwise, the interpretations may not connect to you. Throughout this book, the author shows how to make this comparison.