In stating the case for relocating Tom wrote:

The influence is on the individual not the place. Therefore when the cosmos impresses it influence for the year on the native it does so on the native based on where the native is, not on where he was when he was born.

It looks as though no one has questioned this idea that ?The influence is on the individual . . . ?, and ?Therefore when the cosmos impresses it influence for the year on the native . . .? Influences and cosmic impressions? Can we be so sure that it's all about positioning ourselves on the planet and receiving rays and influences from the cosmos? Does it truly boil down to rays acting upon us? We may be unquestioningly assuming that rays shoot down and influence our material bodies and little gray cells, a version of a simplistic cause-and-effect story which has been favored by modern science.

Maybe it's more helpful to think in terms of 'As it is in the sky, so it is within the individual'. By that I mean that the outer sky may in some way more accurately serve metaphorically as an inner sky ? the power of metaphor, symbols, and poetry. The motion above reflecting the motion within. This takes us into the realm of Platonic and Neoplatonic ideas, images and archetypes. There may be planetary rays but they would be more of a spiritual or psychic nature. It would be a question of connecting or aligning with them rather than being their passive target.


In my previous post I wrote:

I start with the birth location with its inherent pattern of angular signs in the return charts. I do take a look at the current place of residence which is activated and validated through the possessions, daily routines, and concerns of the native.

Our personal story begins with birth, so the place of birth can reasonably said to always be with us. Our hopes, dreams, fears and daily drudgery take place at our current residence ? ?Home is where the heart is?, that sort of thing. So it looks like a pretty good case for a strong emotional or psychic connection to the place of residence and the return charts for that location. But running off to a birthday location ? isn't that a turning away from our daily concerns and routines and therefore a strong break from the life that we are living on a daily basis? By dashing off for a few days we aren't aligning our lives with the sky, but rather breaking the connection between the sky and the life we are living daily. After a birthday getaway we return home and go right back to living our usual patterns of images and metaphors, thoughts and ideas, and wait for the ?influences? to have their effect on the story we have been living. We have simply scampered off briefly in hopes of taking in a few rays.

As we all know, the planets don't change their zodiacal positions or interrelationships when the native relocates. The change is in the planets' relationship to the local horizon and, therefore, how they are viewed and experienced in that environment. As we are the center of our local horizon, that would seem to point to the real purpose behind relocating as inducing a shift in our own perception and an openness toward the images presented by those planets. But such an openness probably could be accomplished anywhere without the need to strategically place oneself in the supposed right spot at the supposed right time, so why not just stay home, enjoy your birthday, and ponder the return charts drawn for the location of your story's beginning and the place of your current daily activities and concerns?

However we can see how progressions and directions unfold from the nativity. Returns are a bit different in that they are not part of the development of the chart. They happen at a particular time and when they happen the native is at a particular place and it seems to make some sense to cast them for that place.

I've come to realize that returns are part of the development of the chart, most strongly with solar returns. The Sun at birth had a position on the zodiacal circle and will take that position again and again. Future identical placements are, in a sense, already there in seed form. Rather than mere disconnected events, the future zodiacal placements are a furthering and development of the Sun at, say, 24? Aries 27' 22''. If we are comfortable with secondary progressions showing an unfolding of the chart with their 1-day-equals-1-year, then we should be at home with a luminary or even planet showing an unfolding with its return to the same degree, minute and second of its natal position.

It's because of this unfolding and development that I think we need to keep the natal location with its unfolding pattern of return angles as the base. Just as most astrologers don't switch locations for secondary progressions I believe that some pondering of the matter will show that the return chart angles need the birth location in order to remain linked to what was inherent at birth.

I can't help but to add an anecdote to this interesting discussion. A teacher of mine (a traditional astrologer) was a firm believer in relocating the Solar Returns. He went as far as traveling to Finland from the US to change his SR to a more desirable one. One year, as we were still going to his class, he bragged that he wanted to bring more students into his practice (he only had 2). That year he traveled to some exotic destination that made Jupiter (dignified at the time) prominent and angular in his Solar Return. That year indeed he had 5 times more students than usual, as the year was coming to an end though, they all dropped out, and in the end he ended up with the same amount of student he had started with.

I believe in relocation of the charts, it makes some difference, but it cannot alter the course of once karma entirely. In observing my solar returns year after year, they work for the location where I was during the Sun return, and the themes of the year maybe different depending on how far from your usual place of life you were, but they still play out in a way that builds on the previous year. My mom, for example, often spends her birthday with us in the US, while she lives in Eastern Europe. I observed both SR (for her natal city) and for our city where she spent about a month during the summer, and the later worked in her life more so than the natal SR, but it continued from the previous year.

I've found returns to be more accurate for the place I've been when the return happened rather than either my birthplace or my current place of residence. Strikingly so. And yes, I'm weird enough to draw up two locations, three if necessary.

For example, during several years, by birthplace and place of residence, I'd not have been travelling at all by looking at the SR, but given that I was in a different country on my birthday, it did indicate a lot of foreign travel - and that's just how it worked out.

Of course, this upcoming SR is a doozy. I'm already ill, and I'm looking at a solar return at my place of residence with five planets in the eighth, all opposed by Saturn in 2 (and all those planets are aspected by Saturn natally), with Moon as the odd planet out - on my SR IC, which happens to be conjunct my natal ascendant. I realise no matter where I am it's going to be a difficult year with Saturn opposing five planets, but I'd rather have a 9th/5th house crisis than an 8th/4th house one any day.

Trust me, if I could get away for this one, I most certainly would.

I have a client who's had the extreme bad luck of having Mars fall on their SR descendant two years in a row, and the person is going mad with Mars on the descendant issues, mostly marriage-related, some business partner related. It'll be angular for them next SR, too, and yes - in a case like that, I'd definitely recommend a holiday in another location around their birthday. It certainly couldn't hurt.

Kirk, Olivia,

Equally compelling arguments.

Regarding the relationship between the heavens, the earth and man in-between, I have often thought of how so many people travel to a certain spot simply drawn by death.

The parents of a colleague of mine decided to relocate with him when he took up a job in a different town. The father fell in love with the place within days of their arrival and said he wanted to settle down there for the rest of his life. They are of the Shiite faith and he made enquiries regarding Shiite burial grounds in the town. The following week while walking leisurely back home from the market with a small bag of fruits and vegetables, he dropped on the wayside, was discovered by certain kind strangers who redialed the last number on his mobile and finally brought him home dead. I was struck by the whole thing. The man did make a conscious and considered decision to relocate. Or did he?

Mansoor

I tracked my own solar returns for a few years, then gave it up as a waste of time. Maybe I didn't do a good job of reading these charts, though.

To me, the solar return is a kind of transit. Mighen't we also travel on our Venus return, lunar return, Mercury return, &c. to get more benefits out of our lives? There's a slippery slope argument here, somewhere.

Also, wherein is it written that people should have only "vanilla" lives? We are born with charts that are mixed bags of easy and difficult aspects. Rather than indulging in "astrology tourism" to escape life's challenges, I think it is far more intelligent for people to prepare themselves to face life's difficulties. They should get a little more back-bone, I say. Congenital illnesses, poverty, and family feuds aren't going to perk right up just because the native takes a holiday.

Moreover, especially for modern astrologers who work with Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, these planets can hang out in-aspect and in-orb for a very long time. If I spend a few thousand dollars to fly to the Falkland Islands to get a nicer chart on my birthday and I've got transiting Pluto square sun and Mars for the next two and a half years, he is going to be waiting for me when I get back home again. For a long time.

Having said that, I support a choice-centered astrology in which people can take deliberate, positive steps to enhance their lives. I also used astrological maps of planetary lines (available in the special charts section of the free charts pages at www.astro.com ) as one piece of information to choose the location for my current home, and it has worked out really well.

And, well, if people have sufficient leisure time and income to indulge in astrology tourism, well that's their decision to make.

Relocating for your birthday to change your life experiences is crazy!

God forbid astrologers sound whackadoo--we might lose our credibility and forfeit the Nobel Physics Prize.

Relocated or Aimed Solar Returns is one of the most fascinating predictive directions astrology can make at this point in time. I have been studying it for years with friends and celebrity charts. My personal experience with relocating has been intriguing and fruitful.

Don't mock and dismiss what you don't understand. Astrologers should know better.

Perhaps there should be a distinction made between relocation astrology and SR vacations (for a day or two)?

This probably works for some people, but I think it especially depends on the individual's natal and situation(s) in the SR you're trying to address. If someone has a lot of bad luck, they probably won't even make it to the plane ride for their SR vacation to better their situation. I have natal ASC ruler Moon in the 6th square Saturn (who is stationary, peregrine and conjunct the NN) - someone could offer me a free ticket, and I'd bet you I'd miss the ride because of some unforseen catastrophe, either via a family death, car accident, malfunction for the plane, etc. A tree would fall on me if I got through all of that nonsense.

Another thing is that this would be a perk for the richer clients because how many people can go across the world on their birthday? The fact is if you can afford to cart yourself off far enough (and the family will want to come along, etc.) to move planets around, you are already ahead of the game in certain areas because you probably have things like a good job, health insurance, a nice place to live, and just your basic needs covered - you have a lot of extra spending money, so how bad can your life be, I say? You get to travel to another country, so your year is definitely better than a lot of people I know!

Your location will also just say a lot about the area in question that looks problematic. Not finding love? Maybe there aren't enough singles in your city. Can't find work in your field? There's probably another city that is faring better. As someone who struggled (we're talking quite literally in the thousands for job apps) to find work throughout my 2010 SR (with Saturn in Virgo retro, opposite SR ASC ruler Jupiter, Saturn smack on the MC), I can tell you that my SR location, which is close to my natal, is not ideal for finding work (it has a poor economy, is isolated in the country, etc.), especially in my field (the sciences). That is just common sense and no astrology is even necessary for me to see that the location is "bad" for 10th house matters. Anyone who lives in my area has to commute quite far (which is what I am now doing - 30 hrs per week). I had many close calls for out of state/city jobs that all fell through, so even "luck" didn't want that to happen, as "luck" often has her say for anyone, whether they want to go on vacation or not. Had I been able to move without a job offer, which might have put Saturn somewhere less challenging, I probably would have found work much easier. Then again, if I had money to burn I wouldn't really have a problem in the first place, and therefore would not be a person with such a difficult influence. If I were able to take a SR vacation, and I assure you Saturn has afforded no fun for me this year, not looking to root myself somewhere, I seriously think I would have just been more broke!

I tracked my own solar returns for a few years, then gave it up as a waste of time. Maybe I didn't do a good job of reading these charts, though

I used to think that way until I read Morin's Book 23 of Astrologia Gallica. I have said before and I will state again that this might be the most instructive astrology text I've ever read. That being stated, it is also true that one needs, at least, a basic understanding of Morin's astrology and at the very least that requires understanding Book 21 before tackling Book 23. Solar returns are far more than transits, according to Morin. They are a reinforcing of the Sun's power over the individual and by so doing they reinvigorate the natal chart and what it "promises" or more correctly it releases or obstructs the potential within the natal chart. When we view it that way the SR becomes far more understandable and useful.

What is interesting about the method of solar returns from the Hellenistic period is that the Moon "selects" the rising sign of the return, not your location, so effectively it does not matter where you are.

However, I once was in Denver on my 21st birthday almost 2000 miles away from home (it was not planned to adjust energies) and my natal angles returned to the degree (which normally only happens every 33 years). I took it to mean that fate was more determinate for me at the time.