Today is the solstice and what better time than to check out Solar Returns and in particular the one that could have the single biggest impact on humanity over the coming year.
First of all, I have to admit that I’ve always had a certain ambivalence about solar returns.
They can and often do describe the conditions in the person’s life at the time, but is that unique to the method? Could it be that the things that a return brings up are simply slower moving planets transits to the Sun, which would be working anyway?
If there is a specific solar return effect, does it last for the whole year? If so is there a way of timing it within that period?
As usual, most of the evidence offered for an astrological effect is personal or anecdotal, very little of it is empirical in any real way.
It is difficult to properly test transits because you need the same experiences for different people, but since 2024 is a Presidential election year, I decided to look at the return charts for that year of the previous winners and losers.
And since we have just been through the 60th anniversary of the death of JFK, what better place to start than with that.
Kennedy’s birthchart clearly indicates his assassination.
The 8th house stellium with the Saturn/Neptune conjunction at the Midheaven is as clear an indicator that you are going to get of someone dying in high office.
And the transits of Uranus and Pluto at the time in square to his Sun were the triggers as I have outlined in The Assassination Of JFK – Conspiracy Or Fate?
But does his solar return for 1963 show this horrific event?
Of course it does.
We can see that the chief transit that identified JFK’s death, Pluto square to his Sun is extremely prominent in his solar return chart for 1963, as it is right on the Midheaven.
Not only that but the Moon is repeating the natal square between the lights and right in the middle of Uranus and Pluto.
JFK’s natal Mercury/Mars 8th house conjunction is reenacted here with Mercury at the same degree of Taurus but also part of a Grand Cross involving Saturn and the Ascendant.
We also have an exact Venus/Neptune opposition.
There is an interesting point about timing in solar return charts. Could the Moon’s applying aspects act like a horary to describe the events that would unfold over the year?
Maybe, although looking at the above, perhaps not quite as the Moon has 4.5 degrees to go to reach the conjunction with Pluto and JFK was actually assassinated almost 6 months later.
With all 4 of the heavyweight slow movers involved in harsh aspect patterns and Jupiter having no connections at all, this is one of the toughest solar return charts I’ve seen.
And a real contrast to the one 3 years previously that got him elected.
There are some tough oppositions here too involving Pluto and the Ascendant and the Moon with Saturn but both of them form powerful but favourable T squares focusing on an apex Sun/Venus and Mars in Aries.
With Jupiter in the 10th house, this is a strong chart thrusting him into the spotlight but maybe the oppositions are also hinting at the tragedy that would unfold three years later.
But every cloud has a silver lining for someone.
With his Virgo stellium in square to Kennedy’s Sun, Vice President Lyndon Johnson was always likely to benefit. And Pluto’s transit through his Virgo stellium would do that for him.
Jupiter was in Johnson’s solar return 10th house too, but the real pointer was the Sun/Pluto conjunction intriguingly in the 7th house, because it was his younger partner that got him into the White House.
His solar return for 1963 is little short of astonishing.
The exact Sun/Venus conjunction in the 10th house would land him the top job almost three months later.
Which is also interesting as the Moon reaches the square with Pluto in just under 3 degrees time. So perhaps the idea that was suggested in JFK’s 1963 solar return chart is clarified by this one.
The ruling Mars in the 11th house opposite Jupiter also points to high political office.
Richard Nixon’s solar return fell in between winning the 1968 election and the inauguration but with the Sun right on the Midheaven it clearly shows the Presidency.
Nixon’s SR Sun in trine to a Moon/Pluto conjunction would be further evidence.
It’s true that the Sun is square to Saturn in the 12th but that could be an indicator of what was to come in his Presidency.
Nixon was reelected 4 years later.
An exact Sun/Jupiter conjunction in the 10th would agree, but it didn’t last long.
Tricky Dicky was forced to resign in 1974 after the Watergate incident. His Solar Return chart for that year shows the Sun exactly setting which is a fitting testimony to the end of his Presidency.
The Moon in exact opposition with Venus is probably reinforcing that feature.
But then as one man’s door closes, another’s opens.
Interestingly we have another Sun in the 7th house theme, and it’s closely square to Uranus at the Midheaven so the Vice President takes over.
Not for long though.
It’s true that the Sun is conjunct Venus but that’s in the 12th house with a wide orb and it’s Saturn rising that lost him the 1976 election.
Jimmy Carter’s victory in 1976 was down to Pluto’s transit conjunct his Sun.
His solar return for the year didn’t really add anything much although the Sun’s trine with Jupiter could be the extra piece in the jigsaw.
But Carter was a one term President because of Saturn’s transit to his Sun.
The exact Sun/Moon square in the solar return chart confirmed his exit in 1980.
Ronald Reagan’s SR for 1980 had the Sun in trine with the Moon, Ascendant and Pluto.
Reagan was President for his two terms and then succeeded by George Bush senior.
Bush’s solar return for 1988 is very clear.
The Sun’s close conjunction with Venus and the Moon’s with Jupiter was always going to put him in the White House.
Bush’s 1992 chart also had the Sun/Venus conjunction.
However, the Moon’s conjunction with Pluto in the 10th and Uranus and Neptune rising pointed to a change.
The Moon has 6 degrees to go to Pluto and 6 months after this return there was another occupant of the Oval Office.
Bill Clinton’s SR Sun was in the 10th house in close trine with the Moon.
There is also the small matter of the Venus/Jupiter conjunction on the 11th house cusp in close trine with Uranus and Neptune.
The year 2000 saw George Bush junior scrape home.
A return with a Sun/Mars/Mercury/Venus conjunction in the 11th house would seem to have handed it to him.
Barack Obama’s victory in 2008 is less obvious from his own return for that year.
But probably the Moon/Mars conjunction opposing Uranus is enough to give it to him.
There were so many factors that pointed to Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, the most obvious one was his 10th house natal Sun/Uranus conjunction being activated by Uranus’ sextile transit.
Trump’s solar return picks this out powerfully.
Uranus right on the Midheaven and the Sun conjunct Venus in the 11th is just one more to add to the mix.
Given that Trump’s Progressed Sun was conjunct his Ascendant, transit Uranus and Jupiter were trine and sextile his Sun and Moon, the pre election lunar eclipse fell in the same degrees as his lights with an apex Mars right on his Moon and this solar return, it’s amazing that so many astrologers missed it.
It makes you wonder what methods they could possibly be using. Maybe he had an asteroid biquintile a malevolent fixed star in his 8th house profection year.
Whatever it was that led them to get this prediction so wrong, it has obviously not encouraged them to reassess their methods.
Those of us that reside on planet common sense ( about 5% of astrologers it seems according to the numbers that picked both elections correctly) could see Trump’s 2020 fall just as clearly as the 2016 victory based on the simple fact that transit Neptune was square to both his Sun and Moon.
And if that wasn’t enough to grab our attention, his solar return for that year was shouting it out loud.
The Moon and Mars joined Neptune with the red planet just a few minutes away. All of this square to his Sun dumps him on his arse whilst crying fake.
The tight Jupiter/Pluto conjunction on the Descendant gives all the power to his opponent.
Joe Biden’s own return for that year also picks up that conjunction with the Moon within half a degree of Jupiter.
So as we arrive at the start of another election year, it looks like these two old cronies will be at it again.
So what do their birthday charts say?
Will 47 be 45 or 46?
Trump’s SR has a Moon/Saturn opposition close to the Midheaven. However this focuses onto a Sun/Venus conjunction which is almost as close as the 2016 one.
Five times out of seven a solar return Sun/Venus conjunction has put its owner in the White House and there are significant other reasons for the two that didn’t ( Ford in 76 with Saturn rising and Bush in 92 with Moon/Pluto in the 10th).
There are significant major transits to Joe Biden’s chart that would suggest his Presidency will come to an end this year (Pluto is square to his Moon and Uranus opposite his Sun).
Biden’s solar return does not seem to be offering any help.
A total of 4 oppositions – Sun/Uranus, Mercury/Jupiter, Moon/Venus and Mars/Pluto would be suggesting a difficult time.
Right after the last election, I said that we all have to hope that Neptune’s transits would land Donald Trump in jail because if it didn’t, Uranus conjunct his Midheaven and Jupiter approaching his Sun would probably put him back in power in 2024. See Donald Who? How Low Can He Go? and What Next For Teflon Don?
With less than a year to go and the full impact of Joe Biden’s Uranus and Pluto transits still to come, I don’t see that these Solar Returns offer us anything other than a bleak orange future.
It’s still not too late for the Democrats to put up someone other than Biden to fight Trump, but it’s not looking likely at the moment. It’s possible that the fallout from the Hunter hunt ( Pluto square Joe’s 5th house Moon ) could see Biden senior withdraw and someone with a better birthday chart take up the challenge of stopping a Trump return, but otherwise it’s looking increasingly desperate.
Maybe I’ll have to start looking for some solace in asteroid releasing.
Posted on 21st December 2023
YOU CAN BOOK YOUR OWN PERSONAL ASTROLOGY CONSULTATION HERE
CARPE DIEM – WHEN TO SEIZE JUPITER’S BULL BY THE HORNS IN 2024
TREAT YOURSELF – REMEDIES INDIVIDUALLY TAILORED TO YOUR BIRTHCHART AND TRANSITS
PROGRESSED LIFE SUPPORT – WHEN WILL YOUR SOULMATE BE COMING ?
WHAT’S HAPPENING MAN ? USING HORARY TO ANSWER ALL YOUR QUESTIONS
HOW TO CHANGE YOUR FATE – USING ELECTIONS TO ENSURE THE BEST POSSIBLE OUTCOME FOR EVERY VENTURE
ANTICIPATING THE TURNING POINT IN YOUR LIFE