The Solar Return

[Greybeard]

Thttp://www.astro.com/cgi/chart.cgi?cid=l1zfileGYpyzR-u1199976133&lang=e&gm=a1&nhor=3&nho2=2&btyp=23&mth=a&sday=6&smon=2&syr=1953&hsy=0&zod=&orbp=&rs=3&ls=1&ano=1&mnode=-Ym&asp=0&ast=

[Greybeard]

To see the chart of reference click on the link.
I don't know how other people insert the actual chart in here....
Maybe someone can teach me...

The chart of reference is a Solar Return chart, with the natal chart in the inner ring....the solar return positions are in green around the outside.

The solar return is a chart cast for the exact moment the sun returns to the zodiacal position it held at birth, for the place of residence at the time of the return. Its purpose is as a predictive tool for the one year following the date of the return, which is approximately a person's birthday.


In 1953, right after my 11th birthday, I was taken by my father to live in the lemon-growing town of Corona, California. I had never in my life seen a Mexican or heard a word of Spanish, and was suddenly immersed in a tide of brown-skinned kids speaking a language I couldn’t understand. It didn’t take long before I found myself standing on the sidewalk, one afternoon after school, thinking: “If I learn Spanish I can speak to almost every person I meet between Canada and Tierra del Fuego.”

The naïve 11-year old adopted the choice to learn Spanish, not knowing he had just set the course of his life.

I can think of dozens of such events in my life; trifling choices of the moment, seemingly of little consequence, but which shaped my life. How many such choices, quite likely forgotten, have you made?

It is in this, my 12th year, that I became a relatively independent and self-governing person. My family had fallen apart, Mom and Dad separated. Dad had to work, I was alone most of the time, so that left me free to take care of myself and do pretty much as I pleased. This twelfth year was pivotal in another way, too. I really began stepping out into the wider world, exploring possibilities.

I won’t go through the whole chart, but would like to point out a few details. Uranus is seen to have just passed over the natal Ascendant. This planet had been floating back and forth across the Ascendant for a couple of years, but now he is moving ahead and unleashing his full power. Uranus brings personal liberty and self-governance, breaking free of restraints. Uranus often brings separations. Unsettled, often chaotic conditions follow him; he brings unexpected changes. The old order is overthrown. Because Uranus is in Cancer he is ruled by the Moon during this transit; he affects her and she affects him. Moon intrinsically has a bearing on “home, family, nurture, security”; and she also represents those things “accidentally” in the natal chart here because of her locus in the 4th House. Therefore, we can expect this area of life to be affected as Uranus makes passage over the Ascendant.

And in fact we see a second set of contacts that supports this idea. At the time of the solar return, both Neptune (which is directly connected to “home and family” by its natal position at the cusp of the 4th House) and Saturn are in exact aspect (under 3°) with natal Moon; they besiege her and in fact hold her under duress. The family is under extreme pressure with no way out. Neptune symbolizes dissolution and undermining; Saturn brings the fall or collapse of things. He brings sadness and melancholy, a sense of isolation.

A third factor pointing in the same direction: Moon in the Return chart is exactly square the Ascendant and her own Nodes, from the Return 9th House (“distant places”). Thus, the Moon receives exceptional emphasis in this year of life. The mother was gone out of the life, temporarily. The 11-year old boy was set adrift with little nurture available. The family fell apart.

Mercury is lord of the 4th House in the natal chart. We see that Pluto has come to oppose him in both the natal and return charts. The old and outworn conditions in the family will be uprooted and eliminated. Also, Venus is co-ruler of the 4th in the natal chart (she rules the intercepted Libra there), and she is brought into high focus in the return chart because the return Ascendant, and the North Node as well, conjoin her natal position.

We haven’t even scratched the surface of this return. It tells so much of “what will happen” during the twelfth year of this kid’s life. But from the above transits (a solar return is a special case of a transit chart) it is easy to see how the life is centered around the breakup of the family, with all its consequences.

[Greybeard]

Jean Baptiste Morin, who in my view is the best authority available on solar returns...he "wrote the book" back in the 17th century...says that the most effective solar return is the one which has the same house structure as the birth chart [i.e., the same rising sign]. However, what is notable here is that this chart is Eloquent...it describes that pivotal year in my life in such detail...and the reason is that the Return Ascendant (plus the Return North Node) fall right on natal Venus. And Venus is central to the natal horoscope.

The coincidence of the Return Ascendant falling on Venus, and Uranus simultaneously crossing the natal Ascendant -- well, it's no coincidence.

Planets and sensitive points like the Ascendant are actual facts seen in the sky. I will call them "celestial facts."

These celestial facts are used by the astrologer as symbols that can be applied to "anything on Earth" -- they are "universal symbols," each of them with a specific range of meanings. All of the symbols derive their meanings from the actual facts regarding the symbol as a planet (or point); the symbolism cannot derive from mythology because that would destroy the integrity of astrology. It would be inconsistent.

[VesicaPhoenix11]

To see the chart of reference click on the link.
I don't know how other people insert the actual chart in here....
Maybe someone can teach me...

Right click on the chart, and select view image; that will open a new window with just the chart. Right click and select save image - put it in a folder with a name you can find again. Then when posting, insert that image and it should show chart in the post.

[Greybeard]

Thank you for the instruction....I'll try it.
If I put it in a persona forlder, on my hard drive....will that show?
Or do I have to use something like Flikr?
This "thread posting" thing asks for a URL.