by Robert Wilkinson
As I noted in the article posted yesterday, the Solar Return happens every year when the Sun returns to the exact degree, minute, and second as it was when we were born. It can happen the day before our birthday, the day after, or on our birthday. A chart done for that moment, set for wherever location we are at, gives us a snapshot of factors at play in our year to come.
As many of you know, my birthday is April 1. However, as I shared in the previous Solar Return article, I always meditate in the immediate time before, during, and after the exact moment of the Solar Return. That moment happens at 4:53 pm PDT today.
Usually I feel my consciousness “quickening” the moment the Sun returns to 12 Aries, so I begin to enter into the Solar Return Zone about 5 hours before the exact moment. This year I’ve been feeling a lot of activity on my Sun for a while, since Mercury and Venus both made a pass over my Sun between March 13-16, and I’ll get a second pass of Mercury RX conjunct my Sun very near the coming Inferior Conjunction at 12 Aries on April 1.
So today I have cultivated an inner space to make my consciousness receptive to the promise of the possibilities of what could develop in the year to come from the doing the best with the Solar Return factors. It’s also a great exercise to reconstruct what other Solar Return charts looked like, and how they manifested.
Following the Breadcrumbs through the Forest of Time
The other years when Mercury, Venus, Mars or an outer planet have been in early Aries I also felt the quickening through those planetary functions. In March 2011 Jupiter conjuncted my Sun, and so that Solar Return chart had Jupiter at 16 Aries. My Solar Return chart for 2011 was a “before the beginning of the adventure,” and by April 15 I knew we were going to move to a distant land, and were already in motion by the 2012 Solar Return. Yes, sometimes it is THAT dramatic!
Taking a look farther back, the 1997 Solar Return chart featured Venus exactly conjunct Saturn at 11 Aries. That year I ended a marriage that hadn’t worked for many years, my pioneering Mercury retrograde book was published to international rave reviews, I sold my home in Austin and left an old life, met Ammachi, and began a relationship that just gets better with every year that goes by!
My Solar Return chart in 1998 had Mars at 21 Aries and Saturn at 22 Aries, both still reasonably close to my Sun. Yes, that year was truly a furious battle with an evil man, and taught me self-discipline. In 1999, my Solar Return chart had Jupiter at 12 Aries, which opened a different, more fulfilling era of my life. The battle still raged, but there was so much divine protection that I marvel how blessed we can be, even in our darkest hours.
The Aspects Show How and When Forces Will Be Released
Four years ago I got a Cardinal T-square, while three years ago I got a Grand Fire Trine involving the Sun, Jupiter, and the Ascendant, with Mercury trine Saturn, Moon tredecile Venus, and Venus quintile Neptune! Two years ago I had a Sun trine Saturn, Jupiter square Saturn and Mercury conjunct Uranus, and a Moon conjunct Pluto trine Jupiter. Talk about a mixed bag!
Remember, none of these aspects between planets exist in a vacuum. The aspects in a Solar Return show the structural relationship of the “frozen moment” that indicates primary lessons we will deal with. For most, the transits move on; for the Solar Return, the configurations in that moment are part of the evolution of our Light/Life.
Still, as I gave you then, I believe that the 2016 chart with Sun trine Saturn, and Saturn conjunct the Part of Fortune in the 9th, indicated the publishing of my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. The harmony between my Light and my Wisdom born of life experience manifested as the Sag quality of publishing a book exploring both the worldly and spiritual dimensions of the power we have to take command of our lives, living our eternal freedom to explore ever-greater vistas of Truth.
This year’s chart has 18 Virgo rising, putting the focus on inner guidance, and as it falls in my natal 2nd hourse, it should manifest as a resource to be drawn on or bring me resources as I rely on that inner guidance. As it falls in the actional level of the Scene of Education, you can bet this will be an active year where I’m learning and/or teaching what I already know (SR Asc conjunct natal SN).
The Ascendant also quintiles my natal Uranus, biquintiles my Mars, and biquintiles my Moon! This indicates FOUR points of a Great Quintile will be active this year, with gifts, special interactions, and unique blessings poured out during the coming transits of 11-15 Aquarius, 23-27 Aries, 5-9 Cancer, 17-21 Virgo, and 29 Scorpio-3 Sagittarius. Any transit through any of these zones will trigger the 4 points of the 5 pointed Star pattern through my 2019 Solar Return. October through December looks especially good in this regard!
With the Moon in Libra binovile Mars conjunct Saturn, I have no doubt that many spiritual realizations will come forth this year as I learn to tune in and connect with my invisible helpers. This will balance and recalibrate my natal 12th house (Moon rules my 12th) by learning patience and disciplined use of power (Mars conjunct Saturn) in all 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 10th house activities (Mars and Saturn ruling those natal houses).
The squares from Aries to Capricorn will give me a lot of power to direct organized activity, since the Aries is trine my natal Leo energy and the SR Capricorn is trine my natal Venus. Of course, the outer planet aspects discussed in every lunation article are also in play, specific to our charts. In this one, the ruler of my 5th and 8th is in a triseptile to the spiritual ruler of my 6th and 7th, and will be triggered each time any other planet makes a conjunction or 7th harmonic aspect to 21-25 Scorpio and 26-30 Aries. There are too many other factors to cover here, but as you can see, reading the Solar Return is a much different thing than just reading a birth chart!
Why Use the Return of the Sun?
Since the Sun is the ultimate point of reference in a Solar Return chart, everything indicated by the Solar Return must in some way serve to bring forth that Light of the True Self, the Light of the Heart. That’s why the house position of the Sun, and how it aspects the Ascendant, are very important in a Solar Return chart.
It is said the moment of the Solar Return, the transiting Sun exactly conjunct our natal Sun, opens us to our Solar Self, the Limitless Light that illuminates us. As we are illuminated, so we illuminate others. That's why the Sun in a chart is the single most important indicator of our true Self.
The Sun shows us our Light/Life that continually integrates and re-integrates us with the source of all vitality. It is our self-renewing quality to shine forth like the Superstar our Eternal Self is. The return of the Light with our Light offers us a chance to re-identify our lives with its incredible power and radiance. You can see how this is an important recurring moment in our evolution toward "Sun-ship."
Here, There, or Somewhere Else?
To answer a number of questions about where the SR chart should be calculated, I always calculate the chart for the location where a person is, since that's where we experience the commencement of our next Solar year. We cannot be anywhere other than where we are. That’s why we do the chart for wherever our body is at the time of the return of the Sun to its exact longitude at birth.
Some offer that it should be done for the birth place, but if we are not where we were born, then why do a chart for there? Others feel that it should be done for your home location, and not a place you might be visiting for a few hours or days at the time of the Solar Return. However, here the same logic holds. If you are not at your home location at the moment of the SR, then you're not there.
We can only be one place in space during that specific time. If you're breathing the air at that location, if you’re part of the magnetism of that place on Earth, that's where the chart is done for.
The fact that we can experience our Solar Return anywhere we choose gives us some latitude in shaping how we will experience the year to come. That’s because where we choose to be at that moment influences what signs and degrees are on the angles and therefore what house the SR planets are in, and how it fits into our chart, and our chart fits into it.
We cannot influence the planetary aspects, since they are set by time itself rather than space. In the Solar Return, a square is a square and a trine is a trine regardless of what sign is on what house. Still, we have the ability to determine what houses the planets fall in based in where we do the Return.
We cannot change the basic spread of the planets, but we can change what quadrants are emphasized, and which planets rule which houses. Then the various aspects work out based in which house rulers are interacting with other house rulers.
Some years I literally traveled across the continent to achieve a certain set of positions. Other years I stayed home since it yielded a great chart, or because of time, space, financial, or some other "real world" limitation.
Other years I've been able to go a short distance to affect the degrees on the angles, placing the planets in seemingly more favorable positions. Even a shift of one degree may matter in this regard, since that may affect the Part of Fortune and occasionally even what sign is on what house cusp.
Some years that shift in one degree matters more than others. In 2013, the chart done for where I lived was so profound, I stayed home and did my meditation here rather than go anywhere else. FYI, it had the star Sirius on the Ascendant. Sirius is the “Sun of our Sun,” said to be the source of the Ageless Wisdom on our planet.
Three years ago I chose to stay home, since the Ascendant at 11 Sagittarius created a Grand Fire Trine with Jupiter and the Sun! I could have altered the Part of Fortune a degree if I wanted to drive about 20 miles east of Tucson, but since it fell at 11:20 pm, I thought I’d pass. I have found that some years we pretty much are “told” where to be, regardless of what our desire mind believes.
Last year and this year I chose to stay home, since I would have had to go a long way to make any substantial difference, and it would not have yielded much benefit for the expense of time, energy, and money.
As I told you in past Solar Return articles, I've had some very strange Solar Returns. One involved getting up at 4:20 am in New York City and trying to meditate, which of course is not the best time to do it unless you've trained your body to get up that early.
I had just flown in to do some charts and talks out in the Hamptons, and saw that the Solar Return chart was better for staying in the city that night rather than driving out to the East End and doing the meditation in Bridgehampton. The meditation was short, since my body was still on Pacific time, so it felt like 1:20 am (not the best time to meditate!) Still, that chart yielded the results I hoped for, though mostly they demonstrated at the end of that Solar year rather than throughout the entire 12 month period.
Another weird Solar Return involved driving a half hour to meditate in a park in a strange small town in Northern California at 12:55 am, which became somewhat surreal since the police kept cruising by checking my car out. I'm sure they were wondering why a strange car was next to a park in the middle of the night! As you can imagine, that also was a relatively short meditation. That Solar Return also yielded the results I hoped for, given the limitations of the aspects and just how far I could tweak the chart.
Still, I've had some really great meditations in other years at more reasonable hours, which is a very good way to launch a new Solar year. By all means try to achieve whatever focus you can for as long as you can, since everything really is connected on many levels simultaneously.
Marking Your Development Across Time
Even if your Solar Return has already passed, much can be discerned by studying the chart set for wherever you were at that time. You may see how some things have transpired already, or are challenging you to move your view in a certain direction.
You may get clear about why you're feeling differently, or why you have had a new set of interests since your last Solar Return. Even if you were not in meditation at your last SR, you can still meditate on what the chart is showing you about how you're viewing and experiencing this particular year of your life. Seen from an angle of Solar integration of your Light/Life, you may get clues of how this time is helping you align your consciousness with your Solar Self.
As I mentioned, sometimes the effects of doing the Solar Return in another place have seemed to be "postponed" until near the end of that particular Solar year, while other years the effects have been fairly evident and sometimes even dramatic from the outset. Regardless of where we choose to do the Solar Return, it's always good to be in meditation at that moment of perfect Solar alignment with our natal Sun. We can set many intentions at that time, though I must add that we seldom achieve anything lasting not already indicated in the natal and progressed charts.
That's because the Sun symbolizes our integrity, power, light, and centeredness within our "Solar system" of life and affairs. If what we want, intend, or attempt isn't in line with our integrity or Path to Illumination, then even if we muscle it into existence, it will usually dis-integrate fairly quickly, being a set of aggregates with no substantial reality.
Nothing is forever except our Light, Love, and Power to "restore the Plan on Earth." And one Solar Return gives one set of lessons and harvests, while previous and future ones hold different lessons and realizations.
Because this article has become very long over the years with subsequent additions and re-writes, I’m going to post the rest in another article. There’s also a fourth in the series due to questions I’ve been asked along the way. See you on the other side of the SR!
Mahalo, L'chaiim, Prosit, A Salut, Namaskar, A votre sante', Aum and Blessings!
From the April Fool, enjoy this day (and weekend!)
© Copyright 2018 Robert Wilkinson
Happy Birthday Robert! These articles are well-timed for me, since mine is April 4.
Posted by: Denise | March 31, 2018 at 05:20 PM