Finding plot points

So every 29 days, the moon returns to the degree and minute it was in when you were born, and every time that happens, you can generate a "lunar return" chart, which is the sibling of the "solar return," what I affectionately refer to as a "birthday chart" (because it's the chart that tells you trends for the next year, birthday to birthday). Lunar returns are predictive tools, just like everything else in astrology, and represent the vibe of the times. I read lunar return charts constantly, because they tell me about plot points. If you are looking for a new job and come to me, I am generating lunar return chart after chart on the fly, looking for traffic in the 6th house and 10th house while we talk. If you are looking for a relationship, I'm checking lunar returns for Venus action and traffic in the 5th and 7th houses. If you are looking for a "good time" to do a certain type of thing, well, I'll look at your regular transits first, and then it's off to the lunar returns to find a time that something probably will happen. If someone's pregnant, I'll look for the lunar return that looks chaotic for timing in terms of when the baby will be born, a trick Elsa of Elsaelsa.com taught me, which hasn't failed yet. But, mostly I keep that information to myself because sometimes babies come earlier than expected, and I say that from experience.

I used to collect lunar return charts of breakups so I could see what was causing what, but almost all of them either had Saturn or Uranus exactly on the descendant (at the beginning of the 7th house, which is the relationship house), so I got bored and stopped doing that. Breakups are some of the most straightforward things on earth, energetically speaking.

Return charts area easy to read once you get used to them, though I understand for many people reading charts at all is daunting (you get used to it, I assure you). I'd argue that learning to read lunar returns is low-stakes because if you're wrong, it's for a very brief period of time. I'll never stop recommending this book to learn to read them, and there's a chapter of a book called Cycles of Destiny by Ronald Davison that's out of print that I use one chapter from, and the rest of the book is confusing.

The other thing you have to do is learn to tolerate layering charts on top of other charts. In this case, the lunar return goes on the inner wheel and the birth chart is on the outside (if you do the reverse, you're just looking at your current transits). At first, it looks like too much information visually, but if you leave a birth chart out of examining a lunar return chart, you're leaving valuable information out, because lunar returns can either activate what we affectionately call "natal potential," which means "birth chart energy." It can be activated for better or for worse. If you have a lunar return chart where someone's birth Venus is brought to the lunar return's ascendant, that's usually a month where you can expect a theme to be love or money or possessions. If their birth Pluto is brought to the lunar return's IC, well, that's emotional trouble you might not want to discuss. Or they're moving.

I know this sounds like a lot, and it is a lot, but you get used to it the more you practice.

One thing I learned to do this year (and I am very annoyed that it works so well, because how did I not know sooner?) is layer your solar return on top of lunar returns: the lunar returns seem to activate the potential in solar returns, as well. It's absolutely bonkers. It works so well that I've had to do it a lot for previous years to see what was causing what.

Sometimes when you are the owner of a chart, it's easy to lose the plot, because you have things you want to have happen and they feel very high-stakes, so you will look at whatever energy you can find as a thumbs-up or thumbs-down as to whether something will happen. What I have learned is that lunar returns tell you reliably that there will be activity in specific areas, but you have to look at your transits and progressions rationally to see what kind of activity to realistically expect. Said another way: you might get categorically what you're looking for, but you might hate it. For example, if you are unemployed and have a ton of 6th house/10th house stuff in your solar returns and lunar returns, you'll likely be working, but if you also have Uranus transiting Saturn, you might not love that job you find, at least not until that transit wears off. This is hard to do when it's your own energy, and I say that from experience. It's fully possible to have things line up nicely, and I've seen that happen plenty, I'm just saying for the record: you can see activity, but you cannot say how you will fell about it until everything plays out.

Astrology is a tool, and a powerful one, but it will never provide an answer to the question "will I be happy?" That's an inside job, anyway.

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