As in a natal chart, the first thing you look at is the position of the Sun, Moon, and Ascendant. Their positions and aspects describe the fundamental vehicle the year will become: they will tell you if you’re jumping into a Jaguar or boarding a bus, crowding into a tram or leasing a Lamborghini. Since the Solar return Sun is the same as your natal Sun, any aspects to it are also transiting aspects to your natal horoscope, thus uniquely entwining both charts and making the Solar aspects especially important. The house position of the Sun and Moon tell you where your main action will be all year, and the Ascendant sign show the overall style. Easy aspects of these to the rest of the chart will show a year whizzing by according to plan. Hard aspects will indicate tangles and tests of your resilience. It’s all about how to make the most of the best and turn challenges to your advantage to get top results from the year.

The Ascendant

Your Looks, Your Presentation

The Sun

Your Inner Personality and Style

Teaching Ideas Sun Conjunct Mercury Your plans and designs this year are closely tied up with your ego, which can serve you well personally but may also have you too close to the subject to be objective about what you’re preparing. A little advice from outside wouldn’t hurt before you make it all your own exclusive dog and pony show.

Love of the Future Sun Conjunct Venus Your purpose this year is to please and be pleased, which sets a pleasant tone on everything, whatever else happens. As with birthday presents, the assumption may be that what you want is what others want, too, and that may not be the case, so make sure your desires are on the same track before you spend.

Outward Success Sun Square Jupiter You may find yourself over or understating your case this year, as it’s hard to get a grip on where you should move out into new territory and where to just stand your ground and develop what you’ve got. You’ll go with gusto one moment, hesitate the next for fear of overdoing it. The right road is somewhere in the middle.

Preserve Discipline Sun Trine Saturn Support comes from traditional quarters this year, so feel free to lean on previous experience and contacts to shore you up and sustain you when the new stuff fails to produce to expectation. No point in reinventing the wheel when you’ve got a reliable set ready to roll, proven, tried and true.

Vision of Unity Sun Conjunct Neptune You’re in an extended period of inner realignment, a shifting of ideals and sometimes uncertain goals that paints a soft-focus background to everything you do. Who you are is changing to who you’d like to be, but the results are ot yet clear, so clear action to express your inner self is sometimes a dicey proposition.

Critique of Change Sun Sextile Pluto In many ways, others’ misfortunes are turning to be your advantage this year, in ways you may not even be particularly aware. You’re getting a bit of a free ride on a division of destiny that may be trampling some, but that’s not your affair for the moment. When you’re given a boost by the folks upstairs, you take it.

The Moon

Your Feelings, Reactions, Emotions

Social Support Moon in Libra This year may find you with the distinct inclination and ability to throw yourself into relationships - both your own and those of others - in ways you may have been reluctant to do previously. Your heightened sensitivity to others and the energy that engenders can plunge you into situations where you might previously have hesitated. That of course could lead to some fascinating entanglements, though if you don't keep your head about you you might find yourself in over your head. Here the best defense is a good offense, so as long as you're a moving target, you'll be ahead of the game.

Psychological Support Moon in 12th House You can get yourself in trouble this year if you don’t watch how you react to things right off the bat. Before you respond with a big yes, think twice about what you’re getting into, no matter how it feels. Feelings and emotions can delude you, simply because you don’t see what’s happening behind your back. You may have the opportunity to uncover hidden and previously dark sides of yourself, but don’t rush into dark closets without adjusting to the light. There’s a fine line between inner discovery and waking sleeping dogs. When in doubt, let them lie this year, or wake them gently.

Public Control Moon Square Pluto There’s a constant contest to get control of yourself this year, and thus to get control of the situation around you. Part of the problem is in thinking you really can control things, and part of it is in refining your approach, which seems to fail you the first few time you try it out. Despite belief otherwise, it will be a compromise in the end.

The inner planets change significantly from year to year and indicate the personal permutations your life is going through. Basically, it's the framework of how you play the game, who else is playing, and how they're playing it. Easy aspects mean you win with no contest, hard aspects suggest a more hard-fought game that may put your life skills to the test and increase your personal growth and talents through experience. Take a look at both sides and consider what games to play, what ones to avoid, and the best strategies - whether you want to raise, hold, or walk away.

Mercury

Your Mind and Intellect, Thoughts and Plans, Communication

Psychological Ideas Mercury in Pisces Your thought processes don't have to make sense to work well, and sometimes your off-the-wall hunch is as solid as the next person's sure-fire plan. Even if you can't explain it, you can still go ahead with it if it makes internal sense to you. You can troubleshoot and document it after you've proved it works anyway.

Creative Ideas Mercury in 5th House Playful words are the lead-in to many an interesting conversation this year, and the freer you can be with them, the more will develop. The creative approach doesn’t just happen – there’s a plan behind it that helps it all unfold. What’s yours? That’s what you’re about to discover.

Ideas to Express Mercury Conjunct Mars This year is a bit of a brain-burner, with a lot of mental energy simmering underneath your brow, intense considerations and planning running well into the night. Turning off your mind is the last thing on your mind as there’s just too much to think about. Focus is the least of your problems, though getting some sleep may be.

Curator Mercury Trine Saturn Your thinking this year is unusually logical and orderly, which allows you to lay down some well-conceived foundations for projects in preparation. Unhurried solutions are usually the most lasting, and it takes a steady hand to put on the perfect finishing touches as well. From beginning to end, a deliberate pace makes for a robust resolution.

Venus

Your Needs, Wants, Desires

Selfless Love Venus in Pisces Pleasure comes as much in the imagination as in the tangible gifts that you might seek, as it's more about heeding the romantic call than digging into any one pleasurefest that actually delivers pleasure. Tenuous threads of the spirit call up possibilities that may seem unearthly at time, yet strangely satisfying.

Love of Home & Family Venus in 4th House To get what you want in life, it’s important to be pleased with your own circumstances to begin with, so you radiate quality. This year you will want to pay some extra attentions filling out and feathering your own nest, so that when you leave home, it’s just another brief escape from the palace, noticed by all.

Public Success Venus Square Jupiter Hunger is the best sauce, and the condiment most likely to make you overindulge. Pushing desire to the limits of diminishing returns is one of this year’s challenges, and that means knowing when you’ve had enough – physically, emotionally, or financially. The moment it begins to seem stale, move on, don’t try to improve it by repeating it.

Preserve Discipline Venus Trine Saturn By stretching out your resources this year, you’ll have all you need, and you won’t have anything to waste and throw away at the end. That comes partly from knowing how to rein in your desires, and partly from knowing you have to. Ultimately, it’s both trim and satisfying, emotionally, physically, and financially.

Inspiration Venus Conjunct Neptune Desire, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder and if wishes were fishes the ocean would be you. It’s that kind of year, when need fuels the imagination to flower into fantasy of every sort. Where the object of desire must remain outside, the experience lies within. Learn to tell the difference, this year.

Mars

Your Energy, Life Force, Excitement

Urge to Accept Mars in Pisces Where the direct approach might fail you, the clever and slippery one will not, as the power goes to the deceptive retreat, not the fierce hammer blow. The wearing approach of water, not forceful fire or earth, is what triumphs for you as you simply flow around obstacles which then dissolve after you pass.

Creative Drive Mars in 5th House Work hard, play hard – this year may make them synonymous, as working creatively and playing intensely go hand in hand. The knack will be putting yourself in a place with just enough structure for direction but not so much that you can’t gain momentum. Find the road, then jam the throttle.

Every year sees the giant planets, the wielders of social and economic change, move along a significant notch, opening new doors of opportunity, while closing others. Each solar return suggests a new shift in strategy to get you where you’re going and keep you ahead of the game. It’s about what’s new and what’s not, what’s happening and what’s history. When you know when the shift is about to start and where it’s going, you know which way to steer.

Jupiter

Ambitions, Goals, Possibilities

Communications Career Jupiter in Gemini A year of multiple plans and schemes is ahead, where everyone talks a lot about what they're about to do, but not all of it will be decided or acted upon. There's more discussion than action, and lots of avenues are explored before narrowing down the options. Multitasking is a must, because there will always be more than one iron in the fire.

Business Career Jupiter in 8th House If you find everyone is knocking on your door to offer you credit, enjoy the opportunity but with care. Remember, a loan is just a product that someone else makes money on. Still, resources from other places are useful to tap when you’re tapped yourself, or when you’ve got new fish biting this year and want to save your bait.

Examine the Path Jupiter Sextile Uranus It's a good year to invest in mutual discovery, where what you stumble on somehow perfectly dovetails with what just fell into your partner's lap. You don't need to push or pursue the far-out to go really way into yourselves, and you'll probably even have a little help from your friends, because right about now they're probably doing it, too.

Public Teaching Jupiter Square Neptune This is for the world at large a year for taking that second look at what life seemed to offer, or that it claimed to promise. When optimism fails, hopes lead to disappointment, and a lot of other confusions which are the result of both unclear desires and fuzzy thinking. Be ahead of that game and let others suffer from it.

Saturn

Caution, Wariness, Wisdom, Boundaries

Obstacle: Business Saturn in Scorpio Those who have been keeping the wrong sort of secrets will pay for it, but not necessarily in public. Secret or private endings abound and behind-thescenes justice may give the appearance of business as usual, belying the true change in course. Open and aboveboard is the safest place for you to be.

Obstacle: Energy Saturn in 1st House Rushing this year along won’t help, as you’re more likely to take it at a slower pace, and perhaps the better for it. A sometimes-grave demeanor gets you taken seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously as a result. Gravitas is great, but it’s sometime short on fun or a reasonable resemblance to reality.

The Hard Calls Saturn Sextile Pluto This year features a background in which previous social conflict has been resolved and the powers that be seem to be pretty much doing their jobs. It means you'll get more mileage out of being a cooperator and someone who does not rock the boat. There is more headway to be made running with the tide than against it.

The positions of the outer Planets - Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto - change little from one Solar return to the next, so they add more of a backdrop, the stage set on which the yearly play is performed. They are very powerful, however, and their long-running helpful and troublesome aspects are not to be taken lightly. They can be like a rope to swing yourself across the stage or a trap door that will cause a fall if you're not watching. Knowing their aspects with the other inner planets and the Lights, and where they fall by house, lets you in on just where to watch for them, what mood they're in, and how to get them on your side.

Uranus

Discovery, Revelations, New Ground

Freedom: Action Uranus in Aries Discoveries are made by forcing the issue in this seven-year period. Breaks and discontinuities seem to come from out of the blue, even though they have been gestating for some time. Belief systems around you change radically at sudden shear points, revealing the obvious only after the fact, leaving the most aggressive in charge.

Freedom: Creativity Uranus in 5th House The muse is fickle this year, but when she arrives you’d better be front and center because the creative change will be loud and clear. Expect a bolt of inspiration from the blue and be ready to alter course on a moment’s notice to accommodate it. You’d be sorry if you turned down gifts from above, however inconvenient.

Outward Uranus Square Pluto This several-year period (most recently centering around 1933) occurs only once every 128 years and is reputed to have the effect of transforming and sometimes violent technological progress upon society at large. Too lengthy to have much more than a background effect, it nevertheless sets the tone of the period.

Neptune

Dreams, Hopes, and Fantasies

Embrace: Life Neptune in Pisces Spiritual revival will be just one hallmark of this period, as will a general tendency for those who pretend to it not to give to those who actually do it. Flights of romanticism are daily fare, even to those whose life is not romantic in the least. When there is nothing else, there is always a dream, a pure dream, waiting just beyond.

Release: Home Neptune in 4th House There’s a soft light around the thought of home and hearth this year, which may be sometimes asking more of it than simply staying put can deliver, yet it is still comforting to retreat to your lair and dream. Put on rose-colored glassed when you’re doing it, and you won’t worry about minor dust gathering until it really needs attention.

Pluto

Necessity and Fate, Power, What Must Be

Control: Practicality Pluto in Capricorn A period of sixteen years of a culture value shift toward getting business done as if it were a mission is underway. It will create vast wealth, as it will have little to hold it back morally - but the generation spawned by this period will have to redesign the great structures so made in a deconstruction of what went before. Like when cement skyscrapers were first built - they were touted to last longer than the pyramids, but a generation later they began to fall to the wrecking ball.

Control: Ideas Pluto in 3rd House Information is power, your power this year if you use it wisely. The challenge will be wielding it with enough finesse so that you use the truth to your advantage and not simply take advantage of some aspect of the truth. Prioritizing your messages now is everything, so they ultimately ring true.

When Solar return positions occupy the same spaces as planets in your natal chart, this highlights those natal inclinations for the whole year. It will mean that certain elements in your fundamental character will be emphasized both internally and externally. These will be the areas that most appear to represent you for the moment and that others will seize upon as entry points to your personality. These are the areas in which you can put your best foot forward to make the most effective and satisfying steps ahead, your first line of challenges and opportunities to embrace the world.

Sun

Your Inner Personality and Style

Teaching Ideas Mercury Conjunct Sun Your ability to say who you are is particularly heightened this year, and you can lay out your goods for all to see and understand simply by delineating a word-picture where you might have had to rely on a personal appearance before. This allows you to sell yourself in multiple places at the same time.

Pluto

Necessity and Fate, Power, What Must Be

Transform Ideas Mercury Conjunct Pluto Some things have to be done and others have to be accepted, but it really helps when you know and can say just how and why. This is a year for articulating your destiny, making clear to yourself and others exactly what must be done and laying down an undefeatable game plan. It may not be entirely your own, but your words put your personal stamp on it.

Sun

Your Inner Personality and Style

Love of the Future Venus Conjunct Sun No one pleases you quite so well as you please yourself this year, so have a good time with it. When you're happy with your own show, so is your audience, and you're likely to be putting on a gracious and ingratiating performance for an appreciative house. Catch some of your own rays, there's nothing like it.

Venus

Your Needs, Wants, Desires

Accent on Values Venus Conjunct Venus You take another step in understanding and living out your own desires this year, as if re-familiarizing yourself with what you want and your style of going about getting it. That means reformulating and refining goals to build on what's already there and bring a greater level of consistency and insistence that brings success that's uniquely you.

Pluto

Necessity and Fate, Power, What Must Be

Ideas of Control Mars Conjunct Pluto Your ability to steamroll over any obstacles that present themselves is doubled, but your judgment as to whether that's the right approach needs to keep up with your inner forced march. Don't do it just because you can — but don't hesitate to do it if you must. Power and responsibility are the lessons at hand.

Midheaven

Your Reputation, Career, Life Path

Manage Career Overview Jupiter Conjunct Midheaven Now is the time for others to toot your horn, so don't feel you have to do it, too. If anything, modesty is the best policy to underplay what may be general overstatements about your abilities. Make the best of the free advertising, so you can use it later when it's not so easy to come by.

Uranus

Discovery, Revelations, New Ground

Insights Saturn Conjunct Uranus You are likely to find that whatever directions in you which tend to lead you to the out of the ordinary are somewhat suppressed and you may find yourself being a bit more establishment than you had intended this year. In technical endeavors however, this is just the time to distill your more important ideas.

Mars

Your Energy, Life Force, Excitement

Ideas of Freedom Uranus Conjunct Mars This is a very high-energy and sometimes risky period and real caution should be taken during its effect. It is very easy to overdo things, overshoot the mark, resulting in accident or injury. A great intensity is upon you, to be used with optimum skill and care like a fine weapon or racing car.

Sun

Your Inner Personality and Style

Vision of Unity Neptune Conjunct Sun This is a year of rose-colored glasses for your personality as a whole, when amorphous internal mood shifts seem to be your main motivating factors. A good time for pulling in and writing down possible new directions you would like to take, but not favorable for making solid, long-range decisions.

Venus

Your Needs, Wants, Desires

Inspiration Neptune Conjunct Venus You are in a rather misty period during which desires feed the imagination and vice versa, but practical fulfillment of either may be hard to achieve. Rather than look for immediate results seek a condensation of needs that may be brought into reality with action as time and opportunity provide.

Moon

Your Feelings, Reactions, Emotions

Ideas for Change Pluto Conjunct Moon This is a period of profound, deep emotion, likely brought on by external events but triggering and testing your most important abilities to respond to life honestly from within. Customary responses will be shallow, inappropriate - the deeper wellsprings of the soul must be tapped now.

Where you spend your birthday and how the sky looks from that location can profoundly affect how your year turns out. The ideal birthday chart has the most favorable planets up front, ready to push you forward and the more troublesome ones tucked away where they can cause the least mischief. Sometimes that happens right where you would normally be, so you can just stay home for your birthday. Sometimes the best place to be is on the other side of the globe, involving an expensive (though perhaps exciting) journey. Often, however, just moving a few hundred miles east or west just for the twenty-four hours before and after your solar return can make all the difference in the world, allowing you to put your best foot forward for the entire year.

Here are a list of places near you and around the world and how being there would affect your coming year. Some are good for growth and expansion, others for learning there are places better for money and career, or others best for home and family development. You choose, and then perhaps take a look at a second, revised report for your new place of choice, your travel decision to improve the year. You will likely find it reads quite differently in many critical areas and perhaps worth the travel expenses to maximize your twelve months ahead.

Take a look at your choices, then decide where to go on your birthday, in order to get to where you want to be the rest of the year.

As the year moves on, so does your Solar Return chart: it swings around an entire 360 degrees by daily progression and the Moon moves half a sign. At the same time, transiting events in the sky trigger sensitive degrees of your birthday chart. These are the times to look for specific events that activate these parts of your yearly picture and will offer times for making your best moves. These, together with your natal transits and progressions, paint the daily picture of your coming year, from birthday to birthday, until your next Solar Return.

Teaching Ideas Sun Conjunct Mercury (TR-SR) High mental energy burns hot, a real brain boiler. The trick is to keep up with everyone without missing a stitch or dropping the ball. Great ideas abound, but don't buy everything you see until you give it a second, cooler look. Everyone can be too close to the subject to realize that what recommends it is only the heat of the moment.

Ideas for Effort Sun Conjunct Mars (TR-SR) High physical energy is pushed by extra motivation and a lot can be accomplished as long as burnout is avoided. Push it to the edge and then back off before pulling a muscle. Similarly, don't let the person behind you urge you beyond your limits. The power available should be harvested, then invested.

Problems Appear Ascendant on Saturn (PSR-SR Slowdowns are the order of the day, brought on by extra work, added commitments, less firepower. This, too, will pass in a few days, but you have to go through it, not around it. You may be taken extra seriously about how you present yourself right now, so when in doubt, lighten up for the sake of all concerned.

Ideas to Act On Venus Conjunct Mars (TR-SR) It's sparkle plenty time, when love and desire are born and animal magnetism is instilled into every step you initiate. It's the perfect time for love, romance, and passion and it's also got star power written all over. If you want to start something with high profile public appeal, now's the time, so shake it, shake it!

Inisghts Appear Ascendant on Uranus (PSR-NA) Unsettling events, unexpected surprises, and generally choppy waters describe this day or so when the social wind is fickle and gusty. If you reply in kind, it could make for a real wreck, so patience and tolerance is your watchword for the moment. It could be a great in the end, but it won't be if you reject the intrusion.

Ideas of Freedom Mars Conjunct Uranus (TR-SR) A general tendency to fire off too fast, shoot from the hip and miss, and boil over unpredictably marks this as a very volatile time. Accidents abound, tempers flare, and sudden moves bring cause for regret. Look both ways crossing the street and avoid potentially explosive situations -- and don't fly off the handle yourself.

Original Ideas Sun Conjunct Uranus (TR-SR) A feeling of explosive urgency is in the air, and you can fall into some serious personal discovery if you ride that wave. You can also get into some heated debate in a flash as there's an all-or-nothing tinge to events that resist reining in. Exploit the moment, but wait on pursuing it further until heads cool.

New Ideas Venus Conjunct Uranus (TR-SR) Original tastes and sudden desires decorate the day, marking a change of pace for anyone with an adventurous heart. Eschew the ordinary and go for something off the wall, not off the shelf. Don't knock it if you haven't tried it. New sensations will be a major focus of startups, leaders in a new sensibility.

Ideas to Express Mercury Conjunct Mars (TR-SR) Ideas catch fire and the mind races as your thinking cap jams into fifth gear. A heady time, indeed, but you'll need to keep pace with the rest of the world, which is experiencing the same thing. Anything you choose to do with your interior software will keep this high pace in times to come, so strike while the iron is hot.

Insights and Ideas Mercury Conjunct Uranus (TR-SR) Lightning-flash ideas lead to sudden, keen insights about how to make things work better. Leading-edge inventiveness abounds, so get your patent in while it's hot. In general, it's a good time for that "aha!" light bulb to go off over your head, so keep your mind open and write down what comes to you.

Appears Spiritual Ascendant on Neptune (PSR-NA) You may find yourself in a bit of a fog for a couple of days, but it could be a pleasant one if you're basically on course otherwise. You can soften your image, try a new look on for size, or pretend to be someone you're not and get away with it. Your dreams feel particularly real, so bring one to earth now to savor later.

Problems Appear Ascendant on Saturn (PSR-NA) Slowdowns are the order of the day, brought on by extra work, added commitments, less firepower. This, too, will pass in a few days, but you have to go through it, not around it. You may be taken extra seriously about how you present yourself right now, so when in doubt, lighten up for the sake of all concerned.

Manage Practical Emotions Midheaven on Moon (PSR-SR) Rather suddenly your reputation really matters and so does emotional entanglement with what people are saying about you. You really care, and you show it with your own little broadcast of your reactions to the situation. A good day or two to get the word out about yourself, sell your image to the world.

Career Ideas Venus Conjunct Jupiter (TR-SR) Big appetites and a large bite out of life depict the day, and that means dig right in there but don't overdo, whatever need you are satisfying. Spectacular beauty will characterize launches in love or money, but it might be well to take overweening charm with a barrel of salt. Nevertheless, go ahead and revel in it.

Manage Appearance Midheaven on Ascendant (PSR-SR) You're beginning to see yourself getting noticed as a result of the last few months' efforts, and it might be well to double-check that they're getting the right message and are correctly passing on the image you'd like to build your reputation on. They should be reporting what you see in the mirror.

Career Thoughts Mercury Conjunct Jupiter (TR-SR) All kinds of new plans and schemes fill the air, and if you can latch onto one that really works, you can go far. If there is a problem, it is winnowing out the best from the rest and settling on what to do with it. No time for details now, just get the concepts right and lay down big plans for the future.