Your solar return chart explained: the chart of your year, and how to read it

What is a solar return?

When you were born, the Sun sat at a precise degree of the zodiac. It passes that point again once a year, within a few hours of your birthday: sometimes on the day itself, sometimes the day before or after, because the solar year lasts about 365 and a quarter days. The chart cast for that moment, just like a birth chart, has its own Ascendant, Moon, houses and aspects.

It holds until the next return. Your birth chart says who you are and never changes; the solar return says what this particular year brings out in you. That is why it is always read alongside the birth chart, never on its own.

It is not a yearly horoscope, which speaks to everyone born under a sign. The chart of the year depends on your exact solar degree and on the place where it is cast: two people with the same Sun sign have very different years.

How to calculate your solar return on the site

The calculation is free and needs no sign-up. If you have already calculated your chart, its page offers “My free solar return (the chart of my year)”: your details carry over, nothing to retype.

1. Open the solar return calculator.
2. Enter your birth details as you would for your chart: a first name if you like, then date, time and city of birth.
3. Tap “Calculate my solar return”: the chart of the current year appears, the one that opened on your last birthday.
4. Move from year to year with “← Previous year”, “Current year” and “Next year →”.

At the top of the page, the line “The Sun returns to…” gives the exact degree of the return, its date, its time and the place used for the calculation. That is the starting point of your astrological year.

Does the birthday location matter for a solar return?

Yes. At the moment of the return the planets sit at the same degree everywhere on Earth, but the Ascendant and houses of the year depend on where you are. The majority tradition therefore uses the place where you spend your birthday.

The free calculator casts the chart for your birthplace, and the page says so. If you celebrate your birthday elsewhere, the Ascendant and houses of your year may change. The year-ahead reading as a PDF asks for the “City where you will be on your birthday (optional)” and is calculated for that place.

How to read your solar return: the rising sign, Sun and Moon of the year

Below the return line and the year buttons, three boxes sum up the essentials: “Rising sign of the year”, “Sun of the year”, which shows its house, and “Moon of the year”. Each one leads to its interpretation page. Read them in this order:

Then connect the chart to your birth chart: which natal house does the year’s Ascendant fall in? That is the area of your life where the year settles. The site works it out for you in “The landmarks of the year” as soon as your birth time is known. And when the rising sign of the year matches your natal rising sign, the year feels like you: you are fully yourself in it.

• The rising sign of the year sets the tone of the twelve months: the way you step into situations, the attitude the year asks of you. In Capricorn it invites you to build; in Sagittarius, to widen your horizons.
• The house of the year’s Sun points to the central area, where the year asks you to invest your energy and where results show: work in the 10th house, partnership in the 7th, home in the 4th.
• The Moon of the year describes the emotional climate: what you will need to feel at home, and, through its house, the area that moves inside you.

Angular planets: what marks the year most

A planet of the year sitting close to an angle, meaning the Ascendant, Midheaven, Descendant or IC, colours the whole year. On the wheel these four points are labelled ASC, MC, DSC and IC. A planet within a few degrees of one of them, on either side, counts more than all the others.

A few pointers: an angular Jupiter opens doors, an angular Saturn calls for structure and patience, an angular Mars announces a year of action, Venus a year turned towards relationships and pleasure. To spot them without counting degrees, open “All the aspects and houses of the year”: a conjunction to the Ascendant or Midheaven shows up there plainly. The houses explain each area of life.

The reading of your year, and the rest of the page

Below the three boxes comes the reading of your year, composed in a few seconds from the chart of the year and your birth chart. It opens with “The climate of your year”, moves through “The central area of your year” and “What the year asks of you”, and ends with “Your gesture for the year”. It gives no dates: the month-by-month calendar is in the year-ahead reading PDF.

The first parts appear straight away; the rest opens with a free account and stays in your space. How it works is covered on the express reading page. Next come “Keep this chart and its reading” · “Share”, the “A question about your reading?” line that opens the chat for questions about your year, the wheel of the year, then “Your year in detail”, with the rule-based landmarks, every aspect and all twelve houses.

Without a birth time, the calculation still works, but the natal Sun is taken at noon: the moment of the return can shift by several hours, and the rising sign of the year is only indicative. The reading then mentions neither houses nor the Ascendant. The page on your birth time explains where to find yours.

Solar return, transits or year-ahead reading: which one to use?

The solar return is a snapshot taken once a year: the structure of your twelve months. Transits are the film, the current planets moving over your chart, useful for a week or a given date. The two work together, and the My transits page shows how to follow the second for your own chart.

To go all the way with your year, the year-ahead reading is a 20 to 25-page PDF at €9.99: the chart of the year read on its own, then laid over your birth chart, the major transits of the period and a month-by-month calendar, all shaped by what you expect from the year. You choose the current year or the next one, and your exact birth time is required. The details are on the written reading page.