Solar return calculator
Once a year the Sun comes back to the exact degree it held the moment you were born. The chart for that moment is the chart of your year, birthday to birthday. This finds it to the second, computed with the Swiss Ephemeris.
What a solar return is
The Sun takes a year to travel the zodiac, so once a year it arrives back at the exact degree and minute it held when you were born. That instant is your solar return. Astrologers have cast a chart for it for centuries and read it as the chart of the year ahead, from this birthday to the next.
Your natal chart reads the seed, and the solar return reads the season: it does not replace your birth chart, it shows which rooms of it the coming year opens. The rising sign of the return sets the year's tone, the house the Sun falls in names where your attention goes, and the Moon shows what the year asks of you day to day.
Why the place matters
The return happens at the same instant everywhere on Earth, but its rising sign and houses depend on where you are. Tradition casts the chart for the place you spend the birthday, which is why some people travel for it. If you will be away, enter that city above; if you leave it blank, the chart is cast for your birthplace.
Why the birth time matters
Your birth time pins your natal Sun to the arcminute. Without it the Sun is known only to about half a degree, so the return moment can move by up to half a day, and the rising sign changes every two hours or so. With no birth time, the calculator shows the window, the planets' signs for the year, and the Moon's possible signs, and leaves the rising sign and houses out rather than guess.
Your year, read from your own chart
The Solar Return Reading reads this chart in full against your birth chart: the year's rising sign and its ruler, the house your Sun returns to, the Moon's year, and the contacts that switch on, written as one reading.
The Solar Return Reading on EtsyCommon questions
What is a solar return?
Your solar return is the moment each year when the Sun comes back to the exact degree and minute it held when you were born. It falls on or within a day of your birthday. The chart cast for that moment is read as the chart of your year, birthday to birthday: where the year's attention goes and what it asks of you.
Why is my solar return not exactly on my birthday?
The calendar year is about six hours longer than 365 days, and leap days reset it, so the Sun reaches your birth degree at a slightly different clock time every year, sometimes the day before or after your birthday. The calculator finds the exact second, then gives it in the time zone of the place you name.
Does the location matter for a solar return?
Yes. The moment is the same everywhere, but the rising sign and the houses depend on where you are when it happens. Tradition casts the chart for where you spend the birthday, so if you will be away, enter that city. Leave it blank and the calculator uses your birthplace.
Do I need my birth time for a solar return?
For the rising sign and houses, yes. Without a birth time your natal Sun is known only to about half a degree, so the return moment is known only to about half a day, too loose for an Ascendant. The calculator then shows the window, the planets' signs for the year, and the Moon's possible signs.
How is this calculated?
Your natal Sun comes from the Swiss Ephemeris for your birth date, time and place. The calculator then iterates to the instant the Sun returns to that longitude in the year you choose, casts the chart for that instant in whole-sign houses, and checks it against the year's contacts to your birth chart. It is the same engine that writes the Solar Return Reading.