astrology question

hi, i'm new here & would like to ask something... i've been interested in astrology for a few years now, know the basic idea of a natal chart & transits, but i would like to learn more about progressions and solar returns.
i can draw up the charts for them, but then i get lost; what do you look for in such a chart? do you have to pay extra attention on certain aspects, or planets, or houses?
and would you keep the natal chart in mind (compare it or something), or would you just look at it as it is?
(i have some major pluto-transits coming up, and i would like to see if i can relate that to my solar return this year; if there's a connection or something, just can't figure out the solar return yet ))))
thanks

Hi Bat,

The Solar return is a chart for a specific period of time, meaning it has a beginning and an end...from one birthday to the next. Now, reading it differs a little from reading a natal chart (because the natal chart never changes)...

Points to consider: The ascendant and the ascendant ruler (what house and how it's aspected)...planets in houses and how they are aspected. The Moon sign is important for it gives a clue as to your emotional tendencies for the year. The Mars sign is also important and denotes how you will or will not take action. The Sun of course is always the same as your natal; Mercury is never more than 28 degrees away from the Sun (astrology is a math game) and Venus is never more than 48 degrees from the Sun, so those signs aren't as important as the houses and aspects. The Sun however, is the star of the show.

I've been using Solar returns for many years and have found some years they really tell a story and other years, nothing seems to be accurate.

You may want to put your natal chart around the wheel of the Solar return and vice-versa (a little complicated as you're now working with 20 planets instead of 10). Check out the aspects between both sets of planets and house placements.

There are a few good books on the subject and the one that comes to mind is Mary Shea's "Planets in Solar Returns", her website is: www.maryshea.com.

If you have any questions, please ask. Good luck.

AG

thank you thank you thank you!!!
this puts a lot in perspective already, i'll have to check some things again but this clears things up (it's beautiful how things can fall in place - i see some shiny white light i think, thanks )) my solar return this year had a mars/pluto conjunction in it, and i couldn't place that, kept on thinking about plutonic power things and never really looked at it from the mars-side; now it makes sense... a lot of sense actually

bat51

ps: thank you!

double thanks for the great head start

Up to now, I haven't done any study on solar charts, but will now.

Kalin