Return Chart

Definition

A return chart is a horoscope cast for the exact moment a celestial body returns to its natal zodiacal position, computed for the location of the person whose chart is being read. The most common returns are the solar return (Sun, annual) and the lunar return (Moon, monthly). Other returns — Jupiter, Saturn, Mars — yield longer-cycle charts read as openings of a new period in the body's signification. The chart is read as a self-contained horoscope governing the period it inaugurates.

In Tradition

Across the Hellenistic-Arabic-Latin lineage the return chart is the canonical annual-and-monthly predictive technique. The Arabic phrase taḥwīl al-sana ('conversion of the year') is the technical term for the solar return; the Latin tradition renders it revolutio anni. Dorotheus Book IV grounds the per-year judgment on the annual revolution of the Sun to its natal place. The chart is read as the foundation on which the year's transit, profection, and aspect-judgments are hung.

In Practice

Practitioners compute the return moment with ephemeris precision: the exact instant the body's zodiacal longitude returns to its natal longitude, with the chart cast for the location of physical presence at that moment (latitude shifts the angles even though planetary positions are largely unchanged). The return chart's angles, Moon, and lord-of-the-year are the principal indicators of the period's character. Per Dorotheus Book IV.1, 'when a native is born, the lord of the year is the lord of the house in which the native was born,' with the profected lord assessed by its natal-root condition and its return-chart position. Modern practice typically casts the solar return for the relocation latitude where the year will be spent; some practitioners cast for the natal location regardless. Lunar returns are used for monthly pacing. Liber Hermetis Ch. X preserves a distinctive Hermetic variant: 'on the day of birth, for a subsequent year, diligently equating the planets, we thus discover the horoscope of the year' (Zoller trans.).

Historical Origin

The annual-revolution doctrine is preserved as taḥwīl al-sana in Dorotheus Book IV (via ʿUmar al-Ṭabarī, c. 791 CE) and as revolutio horae in Liber Hermetis Ch. X (Zoller trans.). Dykes notes (footnote 120) that the Arabic ʿumar is the usual word for 'revolution.' The technique is centrally preserved across Sahl, Māshā'allāh, and Abu Maʿshar; Bonatti's *Liber Astronomiae* consolidates the Latin tradition.

Etymology

Origin: English. Meaning: Compound of 'return' (from Old French retorner, the body's return to its natal position) + 'chart.' The Arabic-preserved technical term is taḥwīl al-sana ('conversion of the year'), the Latin is revolutio anni ('revolution of the year')..

Further Reading

• Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum
• Robert Zoller, Liber Hermetis (trans.)
• Bernadette Brady, Predictive Astrology: The Eagle and the Lark
• Robert Hand, Planets in Transit