Solar return
The solar return is the chart drawn for the exact moment the Sun comes back each year to its natal position, around the birthday. Read as a map of the year ahead, it is compared with the birth chart to draw out its emphases: the Sun's house, the year's Ascendant, the dominant planets. It is one of the oldest and most widely used predictive techniques in astrology.
The Sun's yearly return
Each year the Sun passes again over the exact degree it held at your birth, within a few hours of your birthday. The chart of that instant opens, tradition says, the climate of the following twelve months. One looks at where its Ascendant falls, which house holds the Sun, which planets take the lead.
A chart to overlay
The solar return is never read alone: it is laid over your birth chart, like tracing paper on the underlying map. Where you happen to be on your birthday matters too, which keeps this technique alive. Read it as a tint for the year, a dominant color to work with, rather than a fixed program.
Sources
- , Planets in Solar Returns (1992)
- , Planets in Transit (1976)