returns °

personal rebirths

a home tone that resets. a TRANSITING planet aligns with the degree it’s in, in a set chart. The moon returns each month, the Sun once a year, Jupiter every 12 years. A new chart gives flavor for the coming return journey. new eyes to guide new paths.

Let's say we are looking at your birth chart and we want to deeply explore the condition of your Moon—there’s an emotional quality you’ve been feeling and want to see if it’s reflected somewhere in astrology. We would look at the sign your moon is in, the house it’s in, and what aspects to other planets it has. We might then look at how a transiting planet is affecting it since this is a recent development. But maybe there is a lunar quality you’re still sensing that none of this explains. This is where a return chart might be able to help.

Each time a transiting planet returns to the same degree that it is in your natal chart, we can draw up a whole new chart, called a return chart, for the exact time of this return. This chart would give some flavor to that planet for its next return journey—until the next return. Some planets are very slow, and in a human birth chart, we will never have a return for it; others we may only have one or three returns, or looking at the Moon, we will have a return every. single. month.

A lunar return chart can show tweaks to your emotional filter that might be felt in life. It’s the same moon but with a slight effect or some effects layered on top. In the below images, the left (or top, if you are on your phone) is an example of a natal moon’s home tone vibe—a bit easy and light, yet contemplative and introverted. On the left (or bottom), we have the same general mood, but maybe one month you are feeling a bit more emotionally vibrant, out of focus, and a little more in the clouds than normal.

What is a return chart?

What do we look for in a return chart?

The zodiac sign and degree of the return planet in the return chart will be the same as the natal planet, but the house it’s in can change. Aspects being made to other planets from the return planet can also impact the filter it’s featuring. I also tend to look at the rising sign of the return chart as this will influence some sort of personal agenda, or direction, this planet is being swayed by.

Let’s revisit the above images. Let’s say that the left image (or top, if you are on a phone), representing the quality of the natal moon, is a nature-loving Taurus Moon in a contemplative and analyzing 6th house. This would mean it lives in a Sagittarius rising chart, always referring back to a love of feeling free. Let’s also say that it’s making an aspect to Saturn, giving it a boost of focus and seriousness.

In the other image, representing the filter that the lunar return chart is adding, let’s say that the Taurus Moon finds itself in the 3rd house, more curious, scattered, and vibrant. This would give this return chart a Pisces rising, adding a diffuse and spacious agenda. Let’s also say that Venus is conjunct this Moon, adding a desire to feel things more deeply and intimately. Your natal planet is always set in a certain way, but a return can enhance and detract from how that is being experienced.

Below are examples of the natal chart and lunar return charts we just explored.

return themes

Lunar Return

RETURN TIMING: Every 28 days
This return chart can bring insight to the experience of your emotions, moods, and subconscious conditions for a 28-day cycle. This is the best return chart to experiment with to notice how return charts flavor your life as you can tune into differences in return charts each month.
Solar Return

RETURN TIMING: Around each birthday
Each birth year, our Sun beams into a new journey. A solar return chart can show a lot about the quality of our vibrancy, creative essence, and ego over a birth year. I look at the house of the Sun, aspects to it, its ruler, and the rising sign in the chart—I soak it all in.
Mercury Return

RETURN TIMING: About once a year
A Mercury return chart can show you influences your mind might experience over the course of a year—what are you interested in, learning, thinking about, connecting, moving, and plugging into life? Tap into this chart for clarity of mind and for insight around what you might enjoy feeling plugged into.
venus return

RETURN TIMING: Every 10-12 months
A Venus return chart can show you what you might feel attracted to over the course of a year, how you might feel compelled to spend or budget, what you are interested in buying, the quality of affection and relationships you are tapping into, as well as what inner values you are focused on.
Mars Return

RETURN TIMING: About every two years
Mars gives us direction, motivation, and passion. Tune into your Mars return chart to see what kind of filter your fighting spirit is experiencing, affecting your typical quality of assertiveness and moving toward what ignites life force and authenticity. Activate with a little more nuance with this insight.
Ceres Return

RETURN TIMING: Around four years
Ceres is the planet that helps us to bring things to fruition. Take something from birth to maturity. You might look at your Ceres return to see how a filter might be affecting what kinds of things you are producing or an emphasis on how you are maturing projects, children, and yourself.
Jupiter Return

RETURN TIMING: Every 12 years
Jupiter returns don’t happen often in our lives, but these returns can show us a lot about those big picture aims and visions we are working on—the next great American novel, developing a grand philosophy, an expansion of a business. Use this chart to gain insight into what you’re aiming for in the grand scheme of things.
Saturn Return

RETURN TIMING: Every 27-29.5 years
The climber, builder, father, boss. Saturn tells us a lot about what we take seriously and how we focus our attention to hold intentions, make plans, and build with determination. We only have 2-3 of these returns in our lives, marked by challenges and often redirection around our career and aspirational path.
Uranus Return

RETURN TIMING: Every 84 years
If we are lucky to live into old age, we experience one Uranus return. It’s around this time when our elders suddenly become a bit f*^% it in attitude. We’ve lived through it all and nothings shocks us, so we become more liberated to be, do, say, what we want. Check your grandparents’ Uranus Return chart to see what flavor of liberation is infusing their weirdness. In Human Design, it is said that in our early 40s, at our Uranus opposition, we flip from working out past-life karma with our south node to getting to work on our destiny with our north node.
Neptune Return

RETURN TIMING: Every 165 years
We obviously do not experience a Neptune Return in our small human lifespan, so there is never a new filter added to this planet in our chart. We can, however, note in our early 40s a square to transiting Neptune, breaking through with our own authenticity around spirituality and art. Two or so years before a Uranus return happens, if we are still alive, we will also experience a Neptune opposition, gaining a new kind of spiritual intuition and depth, right before we get to be weird and wacky with a Uranus Return.
Pluto Return

RETURN TIMING: Every 248 years
Our lord of Death and Transformation takes his time. We never have a Pluto Return, but we can study things like country charts, which might. The US is right there, at its first one, which started in 2022 and is still quite potent. Many countries implode under this powerfully transformative time, but some, like Great Britain, have been through about three of them: the Great Famine of 1315, one when the Elizabethan era began, and the last one at the reframing and creation of the United Kingdom in 1801, absorbing Ireland as part of its country. We will experience a Pluto square between 36 and 61 due to its highly elliptical orbit. This can bring a time of great personal transformation, affecting much about your direction and authenticity with which you life your life.