I just celebrated my 42nd birthday and as usual, I reviewed my solar return chart with Inga. As the natal birth chart indicates a script for your entire life, the solar return indicates a script for one year of your life. That script indicates what challenges and issues you’ll be facing and what energies you can call on to assist you in the year ahead.

We always review the previous year’s solar return and check my progress. Invariably, it’s like reading a checklist of my accomplishments and when we look back at several years, it’s amazing to see the progression of growth through the various areas of my life. I’ll walk you through some of the highlights of my solar return for August 23, 1999 and then compare it to this year’s so you can see what I mean.

On last year’s birthday, the Sun was in the 10th house of my chart. According to Inga’s Natural Houses guide, the 10th house is labeled “Career”. Along with my profession, it reflects my status in the community and my attitude toward responsibility and ambition. The placement of the Sun in the chart indicates where I’ll spend the most energy and what part of my life will be most emphasized. Looking back at 1999, that is right on the money. I was promoted at work and was asked to participate in both the reinvention of not only the department I work in but also the entire company.

For this coming year, the Sun is in the 8th house of my chart. The 8th house is labeled “Power” in Inga’s Natural Houses guide and reflects transformation, personal power and growth through facing my unconscious attitudes. Hmmm, that’s sounds mighty mysterious to me! Mercury is right next to the Sun in the 8th house so I’ll have a greater awareness of the unconscious while all this spiritual growth is occurring from that Sun energy. That sounds helpful! Last year, Mercury was in my 10th house with the Sun so it brought a lot of creativity and networking energy to bear on the career issues.

Venus was also in the 10th house last year so relationships would play a key role in my career development and indeed, they did. Now Venus is in the 8th house with Mercury and the Sun so relationships will most likely be more complicated and intense. This energy will allow me to explore the unconscious side of my relationships and I’ll have to heal the fears and insecurities that I find there in order to achieve greater intimacy.

Jupiter in last year’s chart was in the 7th house, the house of “Partnerships”. Since Jupiter’s energy is expansive, I received a lot of assistance from others in many ways. In addition, my relationship with Inga grew stronger and deeper. This year, Jupiter is in the 5th house, the house of “Creativity”. That sounds like it could be fun as this should translate to something like expanded self-expression. More motorcycling perhaps?? It will be fun to look back on this year and see how this energy manifested itself in my life.

I’ve been reviewing my solar returns for the past 7 years or so and I’ve found that life goes smoother. It may be due to my mindset changing from one of minimizing pain and maximizing pleasure to one of tackling my growth issues pro-actively, inventorying my strengths and weaknesses and lining up my planetary and cosmic allies. I love the sense of accomplishment I feel each year as I review that growth report card. And with as challenging as my issues have been this past decade, I breathe a sigh of relief that I didn’t flunk and I don’t have to deal remedially with those lessons.

I’ve just scratched the surface of my solar return chart for you. There are many more planets, signs and houses to tell you about but enough typing! Bring yours to our monthly party and I’ll bring mine and we’ll compare and explore them over a good bottle of wine! */:-)

P.S. If you’ve never had a solar return chart interpretation or you’ve skipped one or two, you may consider calling or e-mail Inga.

If you’d like to study your Solar Return chart further:

* Natural Houses
* An outstanding, easy-to-use, interpretive book is: Planets in Solar Returns – A Yearly Guide to Transformation and Growth by Mary Shea