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The
Birthday and Half-Birthday Charts
You can improve any area of your life by traveling to the
right place twice a year, once on your birthday, and again, six months
later on your 揾alf-birthday.?Every year, the Sun 搑eturns?to
the degree it occupied when you were born. A horoscope made for that
exact time and place is called
a Solar Return Chart and it affects you for the next year. Most of the
effect, however, comes in the first six months.
Six months later, you have your ?/font>Half-Solar
Return Chart?/font>, and that affects the last half of your personal year. The
nice thing about these return charts is if you don't like them, you
can change them. Like any horoscope, these return charts must be set up
for a place as well as a time.
You can't change the time of your birthday or half-birthday, but you
can choose where to be at that moment.
When you travel, the chart wheel
turns and the house positions
of the planets change. More importantly, the aspects to the Angles of the
horoscope change (the Ascendant and Mid-Heaven). The Angles are
extremely important. They show the points where we make contact with the
external world, how we begin things. They are where the horoscope rubber
meets the road. And for return charts, Angles change when we travel.
One of my favorite moves is to place Jupiter, planet of
expansion and 搇uck?in the second house (money) and have it trine
(120 degrees, a 搇ucky?angle) the Mid-Heaven (career). After all,
if you've going to improve career, you might as well get paid for it.
Oh yes. One very important thing before we start. The
Earth's orbit wobbles around
the Sun. Because of this Precession,
the Sun takes a little longer each year to return to the place it
occupied at your birth (yes, of course, it's the Earth that's moving
around the Sun, but since we live on the Earth, horoscopes are set up
geocentrically). We
have to correct for this in order to get an accurate horoscope. So be
sure the solar return charts you use are precession
corrected. In practice, this means that the Sun's position will be
a little bit more than it was on your birth chart. And the change gets
bigger every year. Eventually, because of this precession correction,
everyone's birthday comes out a day later.
I have to tell you right at the start that this view is
controversial among astrologers. I use the Tropical
Zodiac,
but precession correction is a technique from sidereal
astrology. Isn't this mixing apples and oranges? What can I say?
It works. And since I have six planets in Earth signs, to me, that's
the bottom line. In December 1997, I gave a lecture at an NCGR
conference comparing the corrected charts with the non-corrected ones.
On several occasions, they gave similar results. However, whenever they
gave different answers, the precession corrected return horoscope won
hands down.
A
Few Caveats
- Three
quarters of the Earth's surface is water. Sometimes, the best place to be on your birthday or
half-birthday turns out to be in the middle of the ocean. Or it
might be some country that is in the midst of a civil war. What do
you do in cases like that? You go to the second or third best place.
You will still get some improvement and, six months later, you get
another chance to travel and change things again.
-
Traveling
on return charts does not automatically bring you everything you desire. If you want to sit in your room and have someone knock on
your door to offer you a really great job, you've asking for a
miracle, not a boost. And you will have a really long wait. If you
would like to have a fantastic relationship but, to put it mildly,
you don't take care of your personal hygiene, well potential
lovers will come into your life all right. But they will leave
after the first whiff.
-
You
can seldom improve more than one thing at a time. For instance, it will be either career or relationships.
However, you could choose one now, and the other six months later.
-
Sometimes
the planets happen to make a lot of stress aspects. No matter where you go, some area of your chart will have
problems. In that case, travel to the place that's the least
bad. At least, with your knowledge of your return horoscope,
you will know where the problems are and can take preventive steps
in advance. Brace yourself and get through it. In six months you
have another chance to travel and improve your life.
-
Results
depend on your initial situation. If you are a 90 year old high school dropout, a birthday
trip cannot make you a nuclear physicist or an Olympic champion.
When it comes to income and career, the best improvements seem to
come when you are self-employed, are paid on commission, or are
looking for a new job. If you work for civil service, on the other
hand, your salary and position are set by law and contract. In a
case like that, you don't get the best benefits of birthday
travel. Unless, of course, you are moonlighting on the side. The
more flexible and open your position, the better the results.
Case
Histories
The best way to learn about return charts is to dive right in
and do them. In most of the cases, I'll give you the chart for the
city of residence first. Then I'll explain the reasons for being
elsewhere.
The first example is
My
own solar return for 1981, the year I first traveled on my birthday. Notice that there
is a T-square formed by the Sun and Moon (which co-rule the body) with
Pluto, planet of extremes (including death). On top of that, this fell
in Angular houses making the configuration stronger. Naturally, since I
have the Moon in Cancer (sign of hysterics and hypochondriacs) I
panicked. I figured if I could get that T-square in Cadent houses
instead, it would be weakened. But that would also weaken the Sun and I
didn't want to risk health. What to do?
Then I remembered that elevating
a planet would make it stronger. If the Sun were in the 9th house, it
would be both Cadent and
elevated. To do that, I would have to move the planets counterclockwise.
That meant traveling at least 40 degrees west. Going to L.A. would do
the trick. I went, stayed there for 36 hours (it was so smoggy, I
didn't leave the hotel) and came back. A day later, my phone started
ringing off the hook with new clients. That was the year my income more
than doubled and I became a full time astrologer.
The funny thing was, I wasn't even trying to increase my
income. I just wanted to put those stress aspects in weaker houses. I
took another look at the return horoscope. As you can see from the
My
1981 solar return for L.A., Mars (action) is right on the Mid-Heaven (career). Jupiter
and Saturn make trine aspects to Mars (aspects between planets don't
change with one's location) and now, they trine the Mid-Heaven as
well. When Jupiter and Saturn get together and hit something important
in your horoscope, it increases the possibility of major life events.
Mercury rules the house of money (Gemini is on the house
cusp) and it sits in the sign Aquarius, where it happens to be very
strong (揺xalted?is the term). Mercury also makes wide trines to
Jupiter and Saturn. So money and career are both strengthened.
Notice too, that Neptune, one of the rulers of astrology, is
sitting in close conjunction to the financial axis, the line that runs
from the 2nd house cusp to the 8th house cusp. The Moon and Pluto are
also making favorable aspects. Almost no attention is given to aspects
to house cusps (other than aspects to the Ascendant and Mid-Heaven).
This is unfortunate because they do work.
The next example is the chart of a client who's company was
downsizing. They were going to get rid of her entire department. She
wanted to travel to increase 搇uck?in her career area so that she
could get a new job. I outdid myself with this one. In
Client
One,
New York horoscope, Mars made a trine to the Mid-Heaven, but that
wouldn't do. Mars would just give her extra energy to use in her
career.
When you absolutely, positively have to expand something
beyond all bounds, turn to Jupiter (assuming that it is not afflicted).
You can see the results in
Client
One
(Newfoundland). Jupiter makes a trine to her Mid-Heaven from the 2nd house
(money). She called me a few weeks after her birthday to tell me that
they had fired everyone in her department. Except her. She even got her
old supervisor's office.
Another client came to me in tears because she was close to loosing a
building she owned. She spent thousands for renovation and it was still
half vacant. The bank was talking foreclosure. The next solar return set
for New York was not good
Client
Two,
New York. Gemini was
the sign on the Mid-Heaven (career) and Sagittarius was on the Nadir
(the bottom of the chart). The Nadir rules the home, but I find that it
rules real estate matters in general. The planets that rule these signs
(Mercury and Jupiter) were making a square (90 degrees, a stress
aspect). Not good for a real estate business. It was time to turn the
wheel.
Jupiter was making trines to both Uranus and Neptune. If we
could put 13 degrees of Taurus on the Mid-Heaven, there would be a grand
trine and it would strongly improve career. That would be about 19
degrees difference from the New York Mid-Heaven. The
Client
Two
(Des Moines, Iowa) horoscope shows
the results. Not only is Jupiter trine the Mid-Heaven. It is also in the
2nd house (money) and Jupiter is the planet of 搇uck.?And it sits
right on the financial axis.
She called me 3 months later to say she couldn't talk to me
because she was too busy showing apartments (only a Sagittarius or a
Gemini would do that!). Within 5 months, all of the apartments were
rented. In the meantime, her bank sold the mortgage to another bank. The
new mortgage holders lowered her interest by a point and they forgave
over $2,000 in late fees that the first bank had charged her.
Here's another example of improving business and finances.
The solar return in our next example did have Jupiter in the 2nd house
(money). But, as you can see in the
Client
Three,
New York chart,
it was way at the end of the house. Besides that, there were no aspects
to the Mid-Heaven, meaning little action in career. I sent him to Saint
John's Newfoundland as well. As you can see from the
Client
3, Newfoundland horoscope, Jupiter makes an almost exact aspect to the
Mid-Heaven. The closer the aspect is to exact, the greater the effect.
When he came back for an update, he told me that there was a potential
client whose business he had been trying to get for over two years but
they couldn't work anything out. While he was in Newfoundland on his
birthday, she called to tell him that he got the deal. Oh yes. He also
told me that his phone was 搑inging off the hook?with new business
for the next three months.
I repeat, any area
of your life can be strengthened, not just money and career. Another
client asked me if there were someplace she could go on her coming
half-birthday to improve her love life because 搃t's dead.?Her
half-solar for New York
Client
Four,
(New York) had the sign of Sagittarius on the cusp (beginning) of the
5th house (romance) but Jupiter was in the previous house. That's
known as 12th house position and the matter in question tends to be
weakened. Not only that, but her Mid-Heaven (career) was afflicted
with five square aspects from those planets in her 6th house.
Squares to the Mid-Heaven can be dealt with by traveling 30
degrees in either direction. 30 degrees east of New York would have put
her in Brazil. But then, Pluto would have moved to the bottom of the
chart, opposing her Mid-Heaven. It's generally not a good thing to
have the planet of death affecting your career and home. 30 degrees west
put her in Denver.
As you can see,
Client
Four (Denver) put Jupiter,
planet of 揼ood luck? expansion, and increase, in her 5th house
(romance). On top of that, Jupiter
made a trine aspect (120 degrees, a 搇ucky?influence) to her
Ascendant. This too improves relationships. There were now 3 sextiles to
her Mid-Heaven instead of 5 squares and that should have helped her
career. But I forgot that the Mid-Heaven also rules your 損ublic
image?and Jupiter increases and expands whatever it touches.
When she came back for an update, her first words when she
walked through the door were 揘o more guys!?What happened? Sure
romance picked up almost immediately. But then one of her friends got
her on the 揜olanda Watts Show? a talk show whose topic for that
day was 揥omen Who Couldn't Find Dates.?She got over 20 calls and
letters from all over the country.
揑 have a
boyfriend now, but these people are still calling me and writing me and
bothering me?she complained. Since I抦 a Capricorn Sun Sign, I told
her to make a list of their names and sell it to other women. She was
not amused. A few weeks later, that episode of 揜olanda?was
rebroadcast, and my client got even more calls and letters. For years
afterwards, every time she came for an update, she would ask where she
had to be to improve money and career. Romance was not mentioned. And
that is why I say...
...Be
careful what you wish for because you can get it!
One more word of caution. Always
check
Everything. Transits, progressions, solar arcs. And check them to
midpoints as well. I had a client who didn't want a complete reading,
just her solar return chart. All she was interested in was where to be
on her next birthday so she could get a better job. I forgot where I
sent her. About two months after she got back, she was suddenly fired.
Something was hitting in her transits. A few weeks later, she did get a
better job, but the shock could have been avoided had she let me check
everything. Be thorough and avoid nasty surprises.
back to "What You Can't Change"
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