Posts Tagged ‘lunar returns’

“Delineating a Solar Return Chart as if was a Horary Chart is Mind-boggling”

One of the methods in delineating what is going to happen in the coming year besides the method of profections, progressions, firdaria, transits, my favorites are the solar and the lunar returns for the period of time in question.  Morin felt that the method gave him many clues to the coming year, and with the confirmation of at least three other indications would substantiate what is about to occur, as long as the promise of what was going to happen was indicated by the natal chart.  In that sense I feel Morin thought destiny could not be change if the promise of what was to come was not indicated by the natal birth chart.  What could changed and to be improved upon, is how we would live our destiny and the quality of the promise given at birth.  Any suggestions or methods that will help me in working with the returns, I become very excited about and I usually need to practice and use it with my delineation to see if it would improve and increase the accuracy of my forecasting of the influences for the coming year.

So I became very excited when I came across a question in one of the astrology forums on the internet in which the person asked about delineating the return as if it was a horary chart.  As I thought about it, I began to realize how mind-boggling it was, and why I didn’t see this before in dealing with this technique.  A Solar Return chart is calculated for the exact moment of the individual’s birth time for the year in question to forecast the general outlook the person may look forward to during that period of time.  The return becomes a map pointing to where the action is, by the emphasis on certain houses, planets and signs.  This is very similar to a horary chart, as the horary chart is the birth map of the question asked by the individual of the astrologer.  The solar return is also asking the question, the question involves the condition of the individual for the coming year.  By seeing it as a horary chart, certain aspects of the chart immediately will jump out and become the focal point we need to deal with first.  The ascendant, the midheaven, the Sun, the Moon, and the houses the planets are in, gives us a quick clue to the in-depth delineation we are about to embark upon.

With the attitude of approaching the solar return delineation as a horary, one can get to the point of the question immediately without any hesitation, describing the conditions and the events of the period in question.  Seeing it in this way we get rid of the clutter, and begin to concentrate and to deal with what truly concerns us at the moment.  And that is the conditions, the potentials, the possibilities, the discoveries and the adventures that await the individual during this period of time.  It also gives us a picture of where the person is at mentally, physically, spiritually and how quickly if at all, the individual will react to any situation during the coming period of time.  Looking at the return chart as a horary, one begins to see the period of time in relation to the individual, instead of the individual first, and then relation to period of time.  In this way the delineation of the coming year leaves the ordinary and may become the extraordinary.  In working with several charts in this way, it is mind boggling how much more colorful, more precise and more detailed the delineation becomes when using all the steps and rules associated with this method.

“Patrick Swayze – Sept 14th 2009 – Solar Return Eighth House”


As the news of Patrick Swayze’s death, star of one my most favorite movies “Ghost”, hit the airwaves, news agencies, and the internet, I could not help but wonder if his demise would have shown up in his solar return chart for this year?  Although I consider myself a modern astrologer, I am interested and am reading the ancient traditional astrology, especially Morin and William Lilly.  To me astrology also needs to predict possible outcomes, but that is not to say that our lives are predestined, since I feel we do have free will to choose our paths.  Jean – Baptiste Morin in his “Astrologia Gallica Book twenty – Three Revolutions” explains what houses can possibly show sickness and death.  I was amazed that by following Morin’s step by step method, it did show what I was looking for without too much digging.


The first step is to check the planets in the eighth house which contains only the north node which might possibly indicate severe illness, and the ruler of the eighth which is Saturn in the fourth house representing the end of life square mars on the angle in the twelfth house of sickness and hospitalization.  Mars being on the angle shows the importance of this planet for the year and in the house of illness square the unpredictable Uranus in the tenth sextile the Node completing the cycle.  This was right to the point and his Lunar Return Chart started the day before, pointed to the importance Mars would play in the unfolding drama during the month.  Morin always felt the Solar Returns gave an indication of the coming year, and that you needed to use Primary Directions, transits and other methods to determine the exact time period it would happen.  It continually amazes me how astrology continues to prove it self, amidst this modern world of technology.


In my astrological internet groups I have seen paragraphs devoted to transits, progressions, and antiscia to show his sickness and death, but none as simple to the point like Morin’s method.  I am not saying the other methods are not valid, but in this complex world I like to get to the answer in a simpler method and Morin’s system works for me.

  Patrick Swayze solar return

“Planets in the First House – Colors the Rest”



I have always thought that the best way to learn and study astrology is by using your own chart as a guide to all the principles and rules one would be learning.  One of the first principles one learns in interpreting the chart, is that the first house always indicates what the individual looks like, and is like.  The ascendant sign gives us a clue to the personality and any planets in the house would give a more detail account of the person.  This I found to be very true in my own chart, with the ascendant at Virgo and with its ruler Mercury in Gemini in the ninth, and the planet Neptune in the first house.  Neptune in the first house is a bridge from the mysterious, the illusions, the imaginations, the mysticism and the spirituality to the physical world of reality.  The planet also brings with it confusion, deception, creativity, sensitivity, fantasy and a developed intuition.

Dealing with Neptune in my early years, I never could make a simple decision due to the fact I could lay out a multitude of correct answers for any given problem, and I could imagine situations that could never possibly show up.  The problem wasn’t making a decision, but it was which outcome would I really want, was the question.  Neptune made every answer beautiful and the right one.  I could be very tired and not be able to finish a project at hand when a whole new story line would pop in my head, from out of the blue.  This always drove me wild and made people think I was flighty.  As I grew older, I am not sure if it toned down, or did I learn to work with it better.  As my astrological knowledge increased I began to see something I found very amazing, as it was very true in my own chart, and I saw it happening in others.

That interesting tidbit was that any planet in the first house will influence and color the other planets in the natal chart, and possibly in other types of charts like the solar and lunar returns.  Neptune made all my other planets act as if they were under his magical influence, giving a Neptune type of effect to the different planets.  The following are my thoughts of how Neptune colored each of my planets.

Sun                  Spiritual high, flighty and not grounded or practical

Moon               Emotionally highly activated, melancholic heaven

Venus              Fantasy and love unrealistic and futuristic

Mercury           Constantly thinking out of the box

Mars                Unconventional outburst of energy

Saturn              Structure and path, always needing to be different

Uranus             Never the normal always the paranormal

Pluto                Rebirth and change, always a volcano of imagination

The colorings on some of the planets were quite drastic at times, and other colorings, were not noticeable, unless one really looked for it.  Depending on the circumstances and what was happening with the aspects, the colorings were like rainbows with a pot of gold at the end.  Discovering this I realized how much more diverse and interesting it made me as a person and as the aspects from the transits hit, it confirms how much influence the planets in the first house really had.  Next time you want to see a kaleidoscope of your personality, try seeing if you have any planets in the first house and how it affects the other planets.  And if there aren’t any planets, see how the ruler of the ascendant colors the other planets.  Enjoy the adventure, and learn more about yourself at the same time.



“Why More on Morin?”


I have always wondered whether we choose our destiny or does destiny choose us.   As a student of astrology for many years I can attest to my stupidity in choosing some of the paths I have taken during my life’s journey.  I am not sure, had I known some of the predictions during my early years, it would not have made any difference. But now I am certain that I may not be able to avoid all the pitfalls, but will avoid more then before.  Like Morin, astrology proves to me there is a divine force directing this world.  I love the way he thinks, because he has developed a system that works, and allows one to build upon it.  There are no key systems to the interpretation of the chart, as much as a synthesis of the chart in a very logical manner.

I find reading his books difficult because of the differences of the language, translation into English and the time period, but if one will persevere the fruit of the labor is worth it.  The importance of always relating the directions back to the natal is a point sometimes forgotten in this modern astrology.  The way he uses the lord of the cusp and the opposite houses gives meaning that makes sense.  His book “Astrologia Gallica Book Twenty-Three Revolutions” deals with solar returns and is indispensable in any book collection.  Since studying him I only have praise for him, as I am beginning to have for the many other early traditional and classical astrological writers and practitioners.

The strange thing about Morin is I have come full cycle as my first astrology consultation was from a devotee of his system.  I didn’t know at the time, but I wish now that I was more receptive to the message.  The following paragraphs are my edited version of Morin from Wikipedia.  You will be able to read the whole article on their website.

“Most famous for his work as an astrologer, towards the end of his life Jean-Baptiste, Morin completed Astrologia Gallica which consisted of twenty six books covering natal, judicial mundane, electional and meteorological astrology.  Morin is known as having been particularly concerned with prediction through methodical extrapolation of what is promised in the natal chart.  His techniques were directions, solar and lunar return, and he regarded transits a subsidiary technique though one key to accurate timing of events nonetheless.

Morin challenged much of the classical astrological theory of the day, including the astrology of Ptolemy, in an attempt to present a solid set of tools while rendering reasons for and against particular techniques, some of which may be considered crucial to many astrologers before and during Morin’s lifetime.  At the same time, Morin vested himself heavily in promoting in mundo directions, a technique largely based on the work of Regiomontanus that became available thanks to then-recent advancement in mathematics.  In his work, Morin provides examples of successful delineation of events that otherwise could not be delineated with the same relative degree of certainty.

Morin’s life has been that of trial and tribulation by his own testament.  He died in Paris of natural causes at seventy three years of age.”

%d bloggers like this: