Solar Return Chart
Type your birth date, time and place, and the year you want. The chart is cast for the minute the Sun comes back to its natal degree.
What a solar return is
Every year, close to your birthday, the Sun comes back to the exact degree it held when you were born. A solar return chart is cast for that minute and read as a forecast chart for the year that follows, from one birthday to the next.
The moment shifts from year to year by several hours, and sometimes falls on the day before or after your birthday, because a calendar year is not exactly one trip around the Sun. That is why the exact birth time matters: an error of a few minutes moves the return time and can change the rising sign of the year.
Astrologers look first at the return's rising sign, the house the Sun falls in, and the Moon's sign. We use the birth place by default. Some astrologers cast the chart for where you spend the birthday instead, which changes the houses but not the planets.
Reading the year's rising sign
| Return rising | Tone of the year |
|---|---|
| Aries | Initiative, a fresh push |
| Taurus | Building security, slowing down |
| Gemini | Learning, short trips, busy talk |
| Cancer | Home, family, roots |
| Leo | Visibility, creative risk |
| Virgo | Work habits, health, details |
| Libra | Relationships, balance |
| Scorpio | Depth, shared resources, change |
| Sagittarius | Study, travel, wider horizons |
| Capricorn | Career goals, responsibility |
| Aquarius | Friends, groups, new ideas |
| Pisces | Rest, retreat, imagination |
Worked examples
- Born 1990-03-05 at 10:00 in New York: in 2026 the Sun returns at
2026-03-05 03:39local time. - That return chart has the rising sign
Capricorn - Born 1972-06-15 at 23:40 in Sydney: the 2027 return falls the day after the birthday, at
2027-06-16 06:43
How this is calculated
Natal Sun longitude from astronomy-engine; the return instant in the chosen year is found by bisection in the six days around the birthday, then a full chart (Ascendant, Placidus or chosen houses, Sun to Pluto) is cast for that instant at the birth place.