Solar Returns - A Horoscope For Each Year?
Astrology has many methods for forecasting the future, and one of the most popular is the 'solar return'.
This is the horoscope set up for the moment the Sun returns to the place it was when we were born.
It will always happen on our birthday, or very close to it.
According to astrological theory, the solar return describes the year ahead.
It's a technique that has historical pedigree.
For example John Gadbury, in a book published in 1680, analysed the solar returns of King Louis XIV of France.
In the modern era many astrologers have been keen to push solar returns, perhaps for commercial reasons.
It's a good way of getting clients to come back every year, by saying you'll analyse their forthcoming solar return.
Some astrologers have gone further, by claiming that your location at the moment of your solar return is important.
So if someone was born in New York, and they were in Los Angeles when the Sun returned to where it was at birth, an astrologer should set the solar return for Los Angeles rather than New York.
In extreme cases, people would check beforehand where the perfect place to have their solar returns was.
So they would consult their astrologer, and if the astrologer said they should be in Paris at the critical moment, they'd make the necessary travel arrangements.
This approach is not just extreme, but also flies in the face of tradition.
You can't escape your fate by travelling to a different location.
No, your solar return should always be set for the place you were born.
Furthermore, they should never be looked at in isolation.
Instead it's a trigger, that needs to match the symbolism that's highlighted by other astrological methods.
I can illustrate this with the horoscope of Bobby Kennedy, the brother of John F.
Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968.
At the time of Bobby Kennedy's birth, in Brookline, Massachusetts, on November 20, 1925, Mars, the planet of violence, was very close to the Western horizon.
This was a signature of conflict, as well as being a warning that at some stage in his life Bobby Kennedy could be the target of an assassination attempt.
Forty-two years later, on November 20, 1967, at the precise moment of Bobby Kennedy's solar return, in a horoscope set for Brookline Massachusetts, Mars was again on the Western horizon.
The warning was clear - the following year, through until November 1968, was going to be very dangerous.
And as it happened Bobby Kennedy was fatally wounded on June 5, 1968.
However it must be understood that the position of Mars in the November 1967 Solar Return did not, in itself, point to the assassination.
It was the fact that this Mars position resonated with the original horoscope.
Which takes me back to the question of whether you can have a horoscope for each year.
It's a nice idea, but unfortunately astrology is a multi-layered discipline, and if you focus too much energy on a single technique you'll quickly become disappointed.
This is the horoscope set up for the moment the Sun returns to the place it was when we were born.
It will always happen on our birthday, or very close to it.
According to astrological theory, the solar return describes the year ahead.
It's a technique that has historical pedigree.
For example John Gadbury, in a book published in 1680, analysed the solar returns of King Louis XIV of France.
In the modern era many astrologers have been keen to push solar returns, perhaps for commercial reasons.
It's a good way of getting clients to come back every year, by saying you'll analyse their forthcoming solar return.
Some astrologers have gone further, by claiming that your location at the moment of your solar return is important.
So if someone was born in New York, and they were in Los Angeles when the Sun returned to where it was at birth, an astrologer should set the solar return for Los Angeles rather than New York.
In extreme cases, people would check beforehand where the perfect place to have their solar returns was.
So they would consult their astrologer, and if the astrologer said they should be in Paris at the critical moment, they'd make the necessary travel arrangements.
This approach is not just extreme, but also flies in the face of tradition.
You can't escape your fate by travelling to a different location.
No, your solar return should always be set for the place you were born.
Furthermore, they should never be looked at in isolation.
Instead it's a trigger, that needs to match the symbolism that's highlighted by other astrological methods.
I can illustrate this with the horoscope of Bobby Kennedy, the brother of John F.
Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968.
At the time of Bobby Kennedy's birth, in Brookline, Massachusetts, on November 20, 1925, Mars, the planet of violence, was very close to the Western horizon.
This was a signature of conflict, as well as being a warning that at some stage in his life Bobby Kennedy could be the target of an assassination attempt.
Forty-two years later, on November 20, 1967, at the precise moment of Bobby Kennedy's solar return, in a horoscope set for Brookline Massachusetts, Mars was again on the Western horizon.
The warning was clear - the following year, through until November 1968, was going to be very dangerous.
And as it happened Bobby Kennedy was fatally wounded on June 5, 1968.
However it must be understood that the position of Mars in the November 1967 Solar Return did not, in itself, point to the assassination.
It was the fact that this Mars position resonated with the original horoscope.
Which takes me back to the question of whether you can have a horoscope for each year.
It's a nice idea, but unfortunately astrology is a multi-layered discipline, and if you focus too much energy on a single technique you'll quickly become disappointed.