Lunar Return

Definition

A lunar return is a chart drawn for the exact moment, each month, when the Moon comes back to the precise degree it held at your birth. The Moon takes about 27.32 days to circle the zodiac once, so this happens thirteen times a year (365.25 divided by 27.32 gives roughly 13.37).

In Tradition

In Western practice, the lunar return is used as a short-term extra chart, read alongside the solar return to pick out which months of the year tend to be the most eventful.

In Practice

An astrologer casts the thirteen lunar returns of a year to find the monthly rhythm within a solar return year. The months that stand out are the ones where prominent planets from the solar return turn up again in the lunar return — sitting on an angle, or in a close aspect.

Historical Origin

The specific practice of casting monthly lunar return charts is documented from at least the mid-20th century; Margaret Hone describes it in The Modern Text-Book of Astrology (1951).

Further Reading

• Margaret Hone, The Modern Text-Book of Astrology