> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.glowstorytelling.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# How to interpret your Solar Return chart (a step-by-step guide)
- URL: https://www.glowstorytelling.com/solar-return-chart/
- Published: 2026-10-05T20:00:28.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-05T20:01:41.000Z
- Description: In astrology, a solar return chart is the chart of your birthday. Just like your birth chart contains symbolic clues into your personality, gifts, and challenges across your lifetime, the solar return is a predictive chart for your year ahead. It’s a guide for your year.
- Author: Dani Fankhauser
- Tags: astrology

As your birthday approaches, you may have a natural instinct to reflect on the year past, the achievements, challenges, and your most memorable moments. 

This can be a time of celebration. It can also be a time to reconcile with what's changed, and how it's changed you. 

Naturally, you may wonder what the year ahead will hold.

In astrology, a Solar Return chart is the chart of your birthday. Just like your birth chart contains symbolic clues into your personality, gifts, and challenges across your lifetime, the Solar Return is a predictive chart for a single year. It’s a guide for the year ahead.

If you’re ready to be born anew, and express a new side of your personality in this new year, you’ll be pleased to know that each year you’ll most likely have a different rising sign. If you’ve always wanted to be a Scorpio rising, this could be your year to command power and intrigue with your presence! 

Basically all your planets will be in new spots, except your sun, which will remain the exact degree it was when you were born. (This is what the whole chart is based on.)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/75/3a/753af99f-cfaf-4d9c-bae8-0633e21d217c/content/images/2026/09/IMG_1048.jpg)

Photo credit: Kendall Higgins

In this post, I’m going to show you step-by-step, with screenshots, how to calculate and analyze your own Solar Return chart. Because it’s my birthday today (that’s why newsletter subscribers are getting this post a day early!), I’ll use my own 2026 Solar Return for examples.

Looking at your Solar Return chart is a fun way to have a reflective moment near your birthday, but it’s also a great way to review the year past, or the year you’re currently in, to see how the archetypes are playing out, and where there are opportunities to better align with what energy you're in.

*Want to skip to the fun part and let me do the heavy lifting?* [*Book an Astrology Reading here.*](https://www.glowstorytelling.com/astrology-reading)

Ready to put your astronomer-philosopher hat on? Let's cast some charts. 

## How to view your Solar Return chart

1. Go to: [https://www.astro.com/cgi/chart.cgi](https://www.astro.com/cgi/chart.cgi?ref=glowstorytelling.com)
2. Enter birth data and create a user profile
3. Fill in your birth info, and create an account
4. Go to the three-bar menu at the top left, and under "Horoscope Drawings and Data," click Extended Chart Selection
5. Under Chart type change Natal Chart Wheel to Solar Return chart, then the green button Show the chart >>

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/75/3a/753af99f-cfaf-4d9c-bae8-0633e21d217c/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-29-at-7.35.17---PM.png)

Now, you're looking at your upcoming Solar Return chart. 

If you want to change it to last year, just change the Start date to be previous to the birthday you're looking to see. 

Here's mine:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/75/3a/753af99f-cfaf-4d9c-bae8-0633e21d217c/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-29-at-7.37.48---PM.png)

Most of what we're looking at will come from this chart alone. 

But, a few things, like which natal planets interact with Solar Return angles or planets, and what natal house the Solar Return sun is in, will need your natal chart and Solar Return chart cast side-by-side. 

To do that, find the Chart selection button in the upper right, change Chart selection to Natal + Solar Return chart, with houses, and then Show the chart. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/75/3a/753af99f-cfaf-4d9c-bae8-0633e21d217c/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-29-at-7.41.56---PM.png)

In this bi-wheel chart, your natal chart is on the inside, and the Solar Return chart is on the outside rim. In particular, look for the sun (mine is at 12 degrees Libra). The suns will be in the same spot. While my natal sun is in the 10th house, you can see the outer sun (Solar Return sun) is in the outer 11th house (Solar Return's 11th house). 

The rising, or ascendent, is always the start of the 1st house. But for Solar Returns, we want to see where the Solar Return rising falls on the natal chart. So, find your way to the line marked AC on the outer rim (for me, in the upper left quadrant). Notice how that falls into the inner circle's 11th house. My SR ascendent is in my natal 11th house.

What does it all mean? Let me explain. 

## My 2026 Solar Return

Your approach to the year ahead is determined by your Solar Return ascendent, or rising sign. Basically, you get to try on a new rising sign for the year. This is the most important part of the Solar Return chart, so if you take nothing else away, keep in mind what your rising sign is, that sign’s goal, and what you can thus expect life to present opportunities for you to learn!

My ascendent this year is Scorpio. Scorpio’s goal is presence, and thus Scorpio’s tend to keep a few friends close, emphasize loyalty, cut out the superficial fluff, and can be obsessive towards their goals.

My Scorpio ascendent is conjunct my natal Saturn. Saturn is about discipline, patience, persistence, and is often represented by the wise hermit. We’re already seeing a theme here around privacy.

But, my Scorpio ascendent is in the natal 11th house, of hopes and dreams, friendships and networks. So it’s not so much about solitude, but more about the trusted close network and private channels. This seems very in line with what I’m building this year with my paid newsletter. Telling stories behind a paywall allows me to feel safe telling the truth, because there’s a transaction of trust.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/75/3a/753af99f-cfaf-4d9c-bae8-0633e21d217c/content/images/2026/09/IMG_3838.jpg)

Next, we look at the sun. One website describes the sun as where you want to shine, but upon reviewing past years’ Solar Returns, I find it’s where I struggle. Perhaps that is one and the same. The sun is the ego. Where the ego comes out, we’re sure to face challenges and learnings. Last year, my Solar Return sun was in the 2nd house of money and self-worth, and I had some painful struggles with money, but ended the year with a newfound and deep sense of self-worth that I wouldn’t have accessed otherwise.

This year, the sun is in the 11th house of the Solar Return chart. We’re back to friends and networks, an arena that will be a focus and also an ego investment. I can be on the lookout for challenges here. I often think of social media and the fame of virality being 11th house themes. It could be that I struggle to be seen, or that I face consequences from being seen.

Now we’ll look at the moon, which shows us where our heart is invested. Mine is in Leo, in the 9th house, but square Venus. In terms of aspects to other planets, I’d pay the most attention to conjunctions, and then if you want to go deeper, note any tight oppositions or squares.

A Leo moon wants to express and be seen, and the 9th house represents travel, publishing, higher education. It’s more largely associated with expanding your perspective. So we’re getting a snapshot of a moon who wants to be expressing her heart on stage, spreading her ideas wider. This is starting to play into the 11th house themes mentioned earlier.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/75/3a/753af99f-cfaf-4d9c-bae8-0633e21d217c/content/images/2026/09/IMG_3005.jpg)

Finally, I look for notable aspects in the Solar Return chart. I have Mercury (mind) and Venus (relationships) conjunct in the 12th house (mystery, the unseen, psychic skills). This is a good combination for imagination and writing fiction, but also adds onto the privacy and secrecy theme we already explored. I’m also focusing more on my energy healing work, and having planets in the 12th house boosts my metaphysical abilities.

I have Uranus in the 7th house, which tells me my romantic relationships this year are likely to be about change and rebellion, not necessarily stability or commitment. (Oof.)

One last tip is to look for any planets at 0 or 29 degrees, with 0 indicating the start of a new journey, and 29 being karmic completion or the final test. The nodes and Chiron are both at 29 degrees. Because Chiron moves slow, most of us currently have a Solar Return chart with Chiron at this completion point. Chiron represents core wounds and healing.

All put together, I see a year of commitment and slow growth, building a trusted inner circle, and by shifting my focus inward, producing great writing and results for energy healing clients. In the past year, I did a lot of healing work on romantic relationships (I had Venus and the South Node on the ascendent in last year's SR chart 🤮)—and this year might contain a romantic catalyst.

## Your Solar Return worksheet

*Note: You’ll mostly be looking at your Solar Return chart as a standalone chart, and I’ll refer to those planets and houses as “Solar Return moon” or “SR moon”, etc. But we also look at the way your Solar Return chart interacts with your birth chart, or natal chart. So, I may also refer to the “natal house” meaning where a Solar Return planet lands when you cast the Solar Return chart on the outside rim of the natal chart.*

### Ascendent: Your approach, focus, and attitude for the year.

Ascendent (rising) sign:

What natal house the ascendent is in:

Any natal planets or points conjunct the SR ascendent, midheaven, descendent, or nadir:

### Sun: Where you want to grow or shine, and where the ego will emerge.

What SR house the SR sun is in:

Any SR planets or points making aspects to the SR sun (conjunct, opposite, square):

### Moon: Where your heart is for the year.

What sign the SR moon is in:

What SR house the SR moon is in:

Any SR planets or points making aspects to the SR moon (conjunct, opposite, square):

### Love and money

What sign and house Venus is in:

What’s in the 7th house:

### Other notable themes

Any planets at critical degrees:

*I tried to make this easy! How did it go? What did you learn? Any questions about your chart? Drop a comment!*