How to read a solar return chart

A solar return chart is cast for the exact moment the Sun returns to its birth position, once a year around your birthday. This guide walks you through reading one in six steps. You find the Ascendant of the year, place the Sun and Moon by house, check planet strength and compare it all with your birth chart. The chart describes themes for the year and names no events.

What is a solar return chart?

The Sun returns to the same degree and minute it held at your birth once a year. A chart cast for that instant shows the sky at that moment. Astrologers treat it as a symbolic summary of the year that follows, until your next return.

Because the chart is cast to the minute, an accurate birth time matters. If yours is a guess, start with the guide to an unknown birth time.

Step 1: Which place do I use?

Most people pick one of two places. One is your birth place. The other is wherever you are when the return happens. They produce different Ascendants and houses. Whichever you choose, note it, and keep the same method from year to year. Reports and calculators should state which one they use.

Step 2: What is the Ascendant of the year?

The solar return Ascendant is the sign rising at the moment of return. It sets the tone and your style of approach for the year. Its ruling planet is a thread through the chart, much like a chart ruler in your birth chart.

Step 3: Which house does the Ascendant fall in?

Place the solar return Ascendant in the houses of your birth chart. The house it lands in is often read as the area of life that gets emphasis. Our table for all twelve houses gives plain descriptions.

Step 4: Where do the Sun and Moon fall?

In the solar return chart, check the house of the Sun and the sign and house of the Moon. The Sun suggests where you put energy. The Moon suggests the emotional tone and what you tend to need.

Step 5: How strong are the planets in the return chart?

Planet strength applies here too. Each planet rates as Strong, Harmonious, Weak or Afflicted. A Strong planet in a key position has support. A Weak or Afflicted one suggests more effort. See our Core Method for the levels.

Step 6: Which aspects are tight?

Look for the closest aspects between planets in the return chart and aspects between return planets and birth planets. Read only the few tightest ones, or you will drown in detail.

How do I compare the solar return with my birth chart?

Use this quick table.

Look at	Compare with	Ask
Return Ascendant	Birth houses	Which area of life is emphasized?
Return Sun house	Birth Sun	Where is energy directed this year?
Return Moon	Birth Moon	How does the emotional tone differ?
Return planets in angles	Birth planets	Which birth themes are activated?

How do I put it all together?

Write a short summary in four lines. Note the Ascendant sign, the house it lands in, the house of the Sun and the sign of the Moon. For instance: “Gemini Ascendant, falling in my sixth house, Sun in the tenth, Moon in Pisces.” Then turn each into a question. Which routines would I like to refine? Where do I want to be seen? What do I need emotionally this year? The chart supplies prompts. You supply the answers.

What mistakes should I avoid?

• Casting the chart for the wrong year. The return chart for the birthday in a given year describes the year that follows.
• Mixing methods. If you used your birth place one year and your current location the next, you cannot compare the two years directly.
• Treating it as a forecast. The chart does not tell you what will happen.
• Skipping the birth chart. The return chart has meaning only against your own chart.

What should I not expect?

A solar return does not tell you what will happen. It does not predict health, money, relationships or legal outcomes, and it should not be used as advice. Treat it as a prompt for reflection. See our disclaimer.

When does the solar return happen?

It happens once a year on or very near your birthday, when the Sun reaches its exact birth degree. Because of leap years and the length of the solar year, the exact moment can fall a day earlier or later than your calendar birthday, and the time of day changes from year to year. A good calculator works out the exact minute for you.

Where do I go next?

Look up your year’s Ascendant in the twelve houses table. Make sure you understand your own chart first with how to read a birth chart. For a written, reviewed reading, see Year Ahead. The solar return hub lists all related pages.