What Is the Solar Return and Why Does It Happen So Close to Our Birthday?

by Robert Wilkinson The Solar Return happens each year when the Sun returns to the exact degree, minute, and second of longitude that it occupies in our birth chart. It is a snapshot of the planets as they are at that moment, and it’s said the Solar Return shows us what’ coming in our next year. The reason it always happens on the day before, day of, or day after our birthday is because the Earth shows up at that point in its orbit at the same general time as when we were born. Depending on several factors, including where we were born relative to where we are, it often occurs on the day before or day of our birthday. That’s why the birthday was an important yearly marker in the old days, since it’s literally “the return of the Sun to our Sun.” That renews our Light/Life for another year, and shows us the patterns we have to deal with. Some of them haven’t changed much since last year, since the planets haven’t moved very far. But other planets will be in different signs and in different aspect with the other planets from year to year. We can choose to do that moment at home, or somewhere far enough away that it will make a significant difference in the Ascendant. That also will change the house positions of the planets, and therefore which planet rules which houses. So while we have no control over what sign a planet will be in or the aspects it makes, we have total control over what signs are on the angles and which areas the planets occupy and rule. For example, in my chart for the coming year, the Solar Return time shows the Moon at 13 Taurus quintile Mars at 24 Cancer and Saturn at 25 Pisces is sextile Uranus at 25 Taurus. These aspects are the same whether I’m in Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, London, or Rome. The planets in the solar return will all occupy the same degrees of their signs and make the same aspects to each other regardless of where we do the solar return. What can change based on where do choose to do our Solar return is the house positions of the planets, no small thing! This allows us a degree of control over which natal and Solar return house rulers occupy the Solar return houses. The place we do our Solar return determines several very important things: a) By changing locations, we change the Ascendant and Midheaven, and can even change the signs on the angles if we go far enough from our home, b) where the rulers of our natal houses fall in the Solar Return chart, and c) where the rulers of the Solar Return houses fall in that chart and our natal chart. These lead to countless possibilities in how the Solar return chart impacts our chart, and where we play out our natal and progressed tendencies in the year to come. Each of the locations I mentioned would have a different degree and/or sign on the Ascendant, which in turn affects the signs on the house cusps, and therefore what houses the planets occupy in the SR chart. You can see how some years we may want to adjust the signs on the houses and house positions of the planets when we realign our Light with the Great Light. That moment reminds us that we are Light Beings, illuminating others as they illuminate us. When the Great Light returns to an resonance with our personal Light/Life, we can be illuminated in ways that show us we are Stars of Light in an infinite field of Light/Life. And it shows us our “Lodestar” we follow throughout our life as we search for illumination, since each year at this moment we “light up our Light.” It’s important to remember that the Solar return chart cannot override the ongoing transit patterns to our natal planets. It is a snapshot of a frozen moment which shows us our particular lessons regarding those birthday transits in relationship to our “expectation of the year” as revealed by the angles and house positions of the planets. It gives us the power to put our Solar return Jupiter in any house we want, knowing that everything else changes as well. Every planetary house shift in the Solar return impacts how the affairs of our natal houses will play out over the next year. Which House System to Use After years of research in the 70s I decided to use only an Equal House system for Solar Return charts. The correlation between 360 degrees with 365 days with equal houses makes for some precise timing. As I measure the Equal houses from the Ascendant, unless I’m in far north or far south latitudes, the MC/IC axis in the 9th or 10th, which has profound implications for our public self. I’ve also measured Equal Houses from the MC which puts the Asc in either the 12th or 1st, also with important implications related to our Self-awareness relative to the vertical axis of our existence. Of course other astrologers have different approaches to this, as well as where it should be calculated for. I always calculate the chart for where a person is, and no other place. Some think it should be done for our birth place, our home, or where we spend the most time in the following year even if we’re none of these places when the SR happens. I take the view that like birth, the fact is that we can only be where we are in any given moment, breathing that air and being part of the magnetic field of that exact place when the Sun makes any given aspect to our chart. We cannot have a Solar Return in Malibu if our body is in London. We cannot have a SR (or any other type of planetary return) in Texas if we are in Vancouver. A SR chart is a chart done for the transits where we are in an exact moment in time. It is a “real time snapshot” of the patterns in a specific moment of space-time where we’re breathing and meditating and “Being.” A Solar Return Meditation I’ve given this to you in past years, and it bears repeating here. Each year I do a specific meditation at the time of my Solar return, unless it’s the middle of the night. Even then, before I go to bed I program my mind to welcome any and all forms of illumination and visionary group work in the coming year and in those years where the SR is in the early hours, I usually wake up a few minutes before the moment of the return, and maintain receptivity to the Light. It's very beneficial to meditate at the Solar Return because of the alignment of the Great Light with our personal Light, because we are attuning our heart Light/Life with the Cosmic Source of our Light/Life. If possible, find a peaceful or powerful place, like a park, lake, or energy point in the area where you can still the body and the mind. If you’re doing it at your home, your altar is a fantastic place to attune to the greater Light available at the Solar return. I recommend going into a meditative state at least 15 minutes before the exact minute of the return, as that allows us to still our mind and body and cultivate receptivity. Because this is the return of the Light with our Light, it is a Solar meditation and therefore Light/Heart centered. As you enter deeply into the receptivity of merging your individual Light with the on-going Greater Light, move into and stay centered in your heart. It is the source of all knowing, all illumination, all love, and all power in our life. Surrender, release the ego mind and its distractions, and open to the highest and greatest Light you are and always have been. Allow the Great Light to inspire you, and open to experiencing the Light you are within the greater Light field we all are together. Open to “seeing the Light” and you will be illuminated at exactly the right time. That is the Divine Law. Hold this meditation for as long as you can after the Solar Return moment, since this fixes the energetic pattern in your various subtle bodies.An attunement of 30 minutes can make all the difference in what follows in the days, weeks, and months after, since it sets up a pattern of alignment and attraction that opens us to illuminated forms of "knowing" which transcend our rational mind. Other Oracles Yield Different Perspectives On What Is To Come I’ve always felt it is a good thing to get alternative views and additional information when it comes to knowing what’s ahead. So besides the astrological chart of the Solar return, I also use other types of oracles to understand as many factors in the year to come as I can discover. Sometimes I do these readings before the SR, sometimes after. Among the different things I consult are the I Ching, to get a sense of the quality and lesson of the year; Tarot, Angel, and Animal cards to get a sense of the themes in the year to come. I assume these will indicate what I can expect, and/or what I am learning, and/or what tools I can use to move and groove through the next 12 months. When it comes to oracles, I view them as showing me symbols about what to be aware of in the next year, both within me and outside me. They may show external patterns and events, but these are never separate from our responsibility to choose which patterns we will embrace and which ones we need to greet with courage and intelligence. I’ll close with a note on why we should do Solar returns for where we are, and not where we were born or anywhere else. I know some prefer to do the Solar return for where someone lives even if they’re in another place at the SR moment. I just don't see how one can be anywhere other than where one is at a given moment. I wouldn't do a horary or electional for Chicago if I was in San Diego when I posed the question, even if I lived in Chicago. While we may be multiple interpenetrating subtle bodies of energy all coexisting with our bodies at every moment, ultimately we are where we are, breathing the air and Prana of that point in the world. We are an electromagnetic unit of consciousness in an intersection of space and time positioned within a specific part of Earth's larger electromagnetic field. We move through space, and ultimately aren't really anywhere all the time, though we do spend more time or less time in certain spaces Where we are when we are is a convergence in space/time with its own unique "meaning" and function. We cannot know that we will have the same experiences if we stay at home than if we are somewhere other than home. The amount of time we spend here or there is irrelevant since we cannot know we would have the same revelation in place A as place B. If I had a realization on top of Mt. Denali, I would mark the time for there, and not wherever I live. It would have a specific degree on the Asc and MC which would be different than somewhere else. We cannot know that we will have the same experiences if we do a SR in Phoenix instead of NYC, except for the relationship of the planets to each other as rulers of our natal houses. We cannot assume the road not taken leads to the same experiences as the road we know. This is standard astrological practice. If we have a horary, and inceptional, or an event, we mark time for where we are and no other place. As a Solar return is basically an inceptional chart for the beginning of a new solar year, we must make that chart for where we are. I’ll be posting more this week about why Solar returns are important, how to read them, and how different Solar returns over time generated long term patterns in my life. Looking at your Solar returns over a series of years often yields astonishing insights into our evolution over time! © Copyright 2025 Robert Wilkinson

from Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology https://ift.tt/dB71D8U
via IFTTT