Is the Solar Return Different From Our Birthday, and Why Is It Important?

by Robert Wilkinson

Since my Solar Return happens in a few hours, today we explore why this is the most important Solar event in our year. While it doesn’t override other influences such as progressions and transits, it does give us a snapshot of what our year to come will look like.

We begin by taking a new look at the basics of what the Solar Return is, and how it relates to our birthday. We all get one Solar Return each year, and it’s a great time to envision how we would like our coming year to manifest.

What Is A Solar Return?

The Solar Return is a transit chart done for the moment the Sun returns to the exact degree, minute, and second it occupied at birth. It is calculated for wherever we are at that exact moment, which is why we have some measure of control over what signs are on the angles of the chart. I’ll explain why it should be done for the place we’re at downstream a bit.

The planetary positions are fixed in their spacial relationship as a function of time, so we have no ability to manipulate the aspects, since they hold true regardless of where we are. In my SR chart this year, I have a Moon sextile Jupiter. That doesn’t change if I change my location. Only the house positions of the planets change as we choose our location. In that regard, all the planetary Sabian Symbols will be the same regardless of which house a planet is in.

Because it is based on the moment the Sun returns to the exact degree, minute, and second of longitude of our natal Sun, it's the precise point in time when we can re-tune "the Great Instrument!" When the Great Light returns to an exact unison point with our personal Light/Life, we can be illuminated in ways that show us we are Stars of Light in an infinite field of Light/Life. And it shows us our “Lodestar” we follow throughout our life as we search for illumination.

Our Solar Return’s Relationship to Our Birthday

Over the years I've heard many wonder about the Solar Return chart and its importance in showing events in the year that follows that point in time. Is it the same as our birthday, and if not, what is the difference?

Every year, our birthday falls on a specific day. In my case, April 1. However, the Solar Return, the return of the transiting Sun to our natal Sun, can happen the day before our birthday, the day of our birthday, or the day after. It all depends on where we are.

For example, if a Solar Return happens at 11 am in Santa Monica, then it happens at 2 pm in New York, 7 pm in London, 8 pm in Amsterdam, and a half hour after midnight the next day in India (except when DST is happening in one but not the other). So the next question is why does this matter? Is there a difference in choosing to do our Solar Return one place and not another?

The difference is found in the Angles and house positions of the planets. Each of these places would have a different degree and/or sign on the Ascendant, which in turn affects the signs on the house cusps, and therefore what houses the planets occupy in the Solar Return chart. That determines two very important things: a) where the rulers of our natal houses fall in the Solar Return chart, and b) where the rulers of the Solar Return houses fall in that chart and our natal chart.

This affects countless variables in how the SR chart impacts our chart, and where we play out our natal and progressed tendencies in the year to come, since the SR shows how we are reorienting toward reality for the year to come. Again, it cannot override natal and progressed “who we are,” nor can it prevent or hasten transiting lessons, though it can show us our particular lessons regarding those transits in relationship to our “expectation of the year” shown by the Solar Return chart.

Which House System to Use, and Why Compute It For Where We Are?

To answer a question I’ve been asked countless times over the years, after years of research a long time ago, I decided to use only an Equal House system for Solar Return charts. I found I got some very precise timing from that system, since it correlates 360 degrees with 365 days. As I measure it from the Ascendant, it naturally places the MC/IC axis in the 9th or 10th, which has profound implications. I’ve also measured the Equal Houses from the MC which puts the Asc in either the 12th or 1st, also with important implications related to our Self-awareness relative to the vertical axis of our existence.

To address another issue, I only calculate it for where we are, and no other place. I have read that some believe it should be done for our birth place, while others think it should be done for where we spend the most time in the following year. However, the fact of our reality is that we can only be where we are in any given moment, breathing that air and being part of the magnetic field of that exact place when the Sun makes any given aspect to our chart.

We cannot have a Solar Return in NYC if our body is in Malibu. We cannot have a SR (or any other type of planetary return) in Florida if we are in Vancouver. We are where we are when a chart is constructed for a given moment. A SR chart is a chart done for the transits where we are in an exact moment in time. It is a “real time snapshot” of the patterns in a specific moment of space-time.

That's the primary difference between the Solar Return and our birthday. The birthday is the same each year, but the Solar Return changes each year depending on where we are, and is an exact point in time.

Besides the Ascendant changing across time zones, there are often significant differences even within a time zone. For example, Santa Monica and Spokane WA are both PDT on April 1, but though on the same time, they have different ascendants due to their relative latitudes and longitudes. The same is true for Austin TX, and Madison, Wisconsin. Both CDT, but very different degrees on the angles even though their clocks read the same time. These create significant differences in what is on the angles of the Solar Return chart.

A Solar Return Meditation

Each year at my Solar Return, I do a specific meditation. It's an extremely good thing to meditate at the Solar Return, since our inner Sun is aligned with the outer Sun, bringing our heart Light/Life into attunement with the Cosmic Source of our Light/Life. As this is a general form, please adapt the ritual as you need to.

If at all possible, find a really peaceful or powerful place, like a park, lake, or power point in the area where you can still the body and the mind. Of course, if you have an altar, that is a great place to open to the greater Light available at the Solar Return.

It's important to enter into meditation at least 15 minutes before the moment of the Solar Return, since that allows you some time to "get out of your own way." This meditation is specifically Light/Heart centered, so focus on opening to a greater receptivity that this is the moment of the "return of the Light" to your Life.

As you enter deeply into the receptivity of merging your individual Light with the on-going Greater Light, move into and stay centered in your heart. It is the source of all knowing, all illumination, all love, and all power in an individual life. Surrender and let go of your ego mind and your feelings, open to the highest and greatest Light you are and always have been, and allow the on-going Greater Light to illuminate your inner Light.

Open to being inspired, and you will be inspired. Open to experiencing the Light you are within the greater Light field we all are together. Open to “seeing the Light” and you will be illuminated at exactly the right time. That is the Divine Law.

If you can, please try to hold this meditation at least 15 minutes after the Solar Return moment, since this can help "fix the energy" in your various subtle bodies. (No, you don't have to reference your watch to make sure you're "doing it right." ;-)) This attunement for 30 minutes can make all the difference in what follows in the days, weeks, and months after, since it sets up a pattern of alignment and attraction that can open us to illuminated forms of "knowing" which transcend our rational mind.

Augmenting Our Understanding of What Is, and What's To Come

Because I like as much information as possible about the "meaning" of the year to come, I also consult various "oracles" at my Solar Return to offer me symbols of what my next year will concern. Sometimes I do this before the meditation, other years afterward.

Examples of these symbolic messengers are the I Ching, Tarot, Angel cards, Animal cards, and other means to get a sense of the quality of the next year. Sometimes they indicate what I can expect, and/or what I am learning, and/or what tools I can use to move and groove through the next 12 months.

Mostly I suspect that due to synchronicity, these show me symbols of what's happening within me that will ex-press in the year to come. Occasionally they indicate external patterns, but again, these can never be separate from our power to choose which patterns we will embrace and which ones we'll ignore.

So by all means, remember to calculate your Solar Return chart to get insights into what's been, what is, and what will be. Tomorrow I’ll give you another article I wrote some years ago that goes into some depth about many things I haven’t covered here related to this very important moment in time that happens to every one of us once each year throughout our lives.

© Copyright 2019 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Lady Shamla Rose]

Beloved Robert Wilkinson

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

May your Day be beautiful! Your year wonderful! And your life glorious!

Much, much Love and Happiness!

In divine friendship
Lady Shamla Rose

[Bonnie Orgren]

Gratitude for your presence, your courage, your expression; in love we rejoice with you. Thank you for choosing to be on Earth during this period of major transition. May this solar year bring blessings of strength, influence and bliss.

[nancy]

I have read this several times. happy birthday! different insights with re-read this time.