Some of the most popular posts on this site are those about solar returns. This article is the most popular one, so I’ve decided to re-edit and refresh to give you an updated perspective on this subject. This post was the first of two posts that, together, give you a simple guide to interpreting your solar return chart. The focus in this post is on the activities associated with each solar return chart house. The houses that are emphasised in your chart will be the focus of your attention during the solar return year.
Table of Contents
Solar Return Houses: Introduction
Solar Returns are one of the best tools of predictive astrology. However, because solar returns generate a temporary chart – only lasting for one year – interpreting the planetary placements is different in emphasis from the analysis of the planets and houses in your natal chart. Chart interpretation in your ‘birthday chart’ is more event driven, as the chart shows the major themes that will play out during the year. How you respond to those events will be the thing that matters most.
In this post, I’m going to give you an outline of what each house in your solar return chart means, together with the keywords associated with each house. Planets in your solar return chart are interpreted in the context of their house placement, so I want to remind you of the basic rule: the planets tell you ‘what’ will happen and the houses tell you ‘where’. Keep that in mind and analysing your chart will become easier.
Solar Returns: First House
The first house in your birth chart represents the face you show to the world. In solar returns, that remains true. However, that ‘face’ lasts for one year. Temporarily, you present yourself in a particular way in the context of what’s happening in your life during that year. Your personality (as described by your rising sign) has a temporary overlay; changes in appearance, or the start of something new, often accompany solar return first house placements.
The notion of ‘self’ is important. You may present your best self, or you feel self-conscious, self-centred, self-important or self-controlled. The solar return first house is where you present yourself in the moment. Planets in this house influence your persona; you may start afresh in connection matters signified by a planet in this house. The meaning of a planet in this house is up front and personal because the planet is on display. It’s the first thing you see as your birthday dawns.
First House Keywords: The Self, Identity, Independence, Self image, Self Awareness, Self Assertion, Focus, New Beginnings, A New Approach, Enthusiasm, Seeking Attention, Paying Attention.
Solar Returns: Second House
The solar return second house contains your personal finances and the resources you have at your disposal during the year. Resources, financial or otherwise, enable your needs to be met. This house contains your income, so there may be financial changes during the year. This house is also concerned with resourcefulness. It’s where you save, squander, find ways to boost your earnings. You may find big bills heading your way. It’s also where you manage what you have and learn to budget or prioritise.
You benefit from material resources and learn to be resourceful. Decisions are value driven. Placements in this house affect your values and self esteem; in other words, how you value yourself. How you deal with your resources – and this is not simply your wage slip but also your own talents – has a direct correlation with the price you put on your head. The trick is to get the price right, not too much and not too little.
Second House Keywords: Personal Finances, Personal Resources, Earnings, Talents, Income, Budgets, Bills, Spending, Values, Self Esteem, Self Worth, Stability, Security, Confidence.
Solar Returns: Third House
The solar return third house is where you think, talk, read, write, walk, text, email, exchange gossip, exchange numbers and change your mind. This house is where you connect; you’ll find public transport, cars, phones, computers, contacts and information overload. You may engage with the outside world, most likely your immediate environment or neighbourhood. You may be involved with local issues this year. You may make new contacts for social reasons or as a result of internalised mental pressure.
This house is often characterised by restlessness. Short journeys – those carried out in your own country rather than overseas – are likely to be a feature this year. The third house often indicates mobility and mental flexibility. Planetary placements here will give an indication of your state of mind, as well as the nature of the issues that are demanding your attention. You may be kept busy by your placements in the solar return third house. And you will relay that fact to anyone in earshot.
Third House Keywords: Contacts, Communications, Exchanges, Language, Meetings, Email, Communications Devices, Cars, Public Transport, Mental State, Mental Flexibility, Ideas, Busy, Restlessness.
Solar Returns: Fourth House
The solar return fourth house takes you home. A tenanted solar return fourth house highlights home, family, attachments and stability. Your parents are found in this house (some astrologers place your parents in the fourth and tenth houses, I find the fourth house is more representative of them both). You leave home or find a new home in this house, as it relates to your living and domestic situation – and that includes people living in your home and its state of repair or decoration.
Relocation, house repairs, remodelling and redecoration are solar return fourth house matters. Family affairs found in this house and there is nothing like family to stir the emotions. You may need to care for a family member or you may nurture yourself more than you have done in the past. This house is where we nurture (flowers, families, ourselves) and such matters may demand your time and energy if your chart points that way.
Fourth House Keywords: Parents, Parenting, Families, Home, Houses, Land, Gardens, Nurture, Nature, Roots, Stability, Attachment, Food, Cooking, Kitchens, Lodgers, Tenants, Decorating, Repairs.
Solar Returns: Fifth House
The solar return fifth house is a house of fun, which is a relief after all those family issues. With an emphasis on this house, you can express yourself or develop a new interests. This house is associated with creativity of all kinds. And being creative means more than just artistic creativity. You will be creative in ways that are relevant to you. You will develop your creativity to express who you are. Creating (or recreating) yourself may be a major project when this solar return house is emphasised.
Creativity applies to every field of human endeavour. If you love science, sewing, sport or sex, an emphasis on this house may prompt you to take a risk, try something new, engage more with the thing you love, have more fun doing it and boost your confidence at the same time. In this solar return house we create and also procreate. Our children are found in this house and they are our greatest creation of all. This is the house where the child in us comes to play.
Fifth House Keywords: Theatre, Plays, Players, Games, Sport, Recreation, Creation, Creativity, Self Expression, Pleasure, Me-time, Romance, Flirtation, Enjoyment, Entertainment.
Solar Returns: Sixth House
After the fun fifth house, the sixth house brings you down to earth. This house reminds you to get real about life. Pragmatism is found here. Work is found here, as is your work/life balance and all matters relating to your lifestyle choices. Changes to the nature of your work will be shown here, as will issues affecting your daily life over the course of the year. This house is a practical house. It’s where you become organised and efficient. There may be opportunities to refine your skillset or learn new skills during the year.
Sixth house placements in your solar return chart may show problematic issues. There may be health issues or lifestyle choices that need your attention. However an emphasis on this house is not all doom and gloom, as the sixth house is a place of improvement. The primary message is this: get your house in order. If that involves working hard to resolve an issue or facing up to a problem that you would rather not deal with, then so be it. Work is, after all, the rent you pay for life.
Sixth House Keywords: Lifestyle Choices, Practical, Responsibilities, Organisation, Time-keeping, Health and Fitness, Diet, Routines, Pets, Work Life Balance.
Solar Returns: Seventh House
The year’s significant ‘one on one’ relationships are found in the solar return seventh house. For that reason it’s often important romantically. During the year, there may be romantic partnership issues, but not all partnerships are romantic. Significant relationships may be business relationships or professional or contractual agreements. You may spend the year negotiating business deals or legal matters, as they are often indicated by placements in this house.
One thing I have noticed about this house is its immediacy; even temporary relationships will be significant during the year. Unlike its natal chart counterpart, the solar return seventh house does not describe your capacity to relate. Solar return seventh house placements may describe a person you meet, a partnership you enter into, or an issue in an existing partnership. The wider message of the solar return seventh house is this: you need to negotiate your way through life; you are not alone.
Seventh House Keywords: Partnerships, Contracts, Relationships, Legal Matters, Business Relationships, Professional Relationships, Negotiations, Commitments.
Solar Returns: Eighth House
The best way to describe the solar return eighth house is as follows: it’s transactional. There may be a heavy emotional price to pay if you have to part with something – or someone – precious to you. Alternatively, you may want something that belongs to someone else. Their money. Their body. Their partner. Hence this house’s traditional association with power, big money, crime, sex, birth and death. They are the transformational issues that change life forever. There is no turning back from events in the solar return eighth house.
You meet a turning point in your life in this house. Negotiate it well and it will enable you to grow. You meet your obligations. You realise that life has its share of power games. You learn that relationships involve compromise. You give way to people or ‘legal entities’ more powerful than you. Placements in this house are feared because of their ‘death and taxes’ associations, but this house is not to be feared. Its focus is change – and how you deal with it. Draw the line. Move on. And pay your dues.
Eighth House Keywords: Major Changes, Major Decisions, Sexual Relationships, Death, Birth, Phases of Life, Insurance, Taxation, Loans, Investments, Inheritance, Crime, Violation, Power.
Solar Returns: Ninth House
By the time you reach the solar return ninth house, you’ve learned about life. You know who you are and what you own. You’ve got opinions. You know where you’re from, what you like, and how to look after yourself. You know how to relate and pay your way and now it’s time for you to get out there and see the world. Long distance travel and intellectual growth are found here. With a ninth house emphasis, you feel optimistic. This year, expand your life and do something that involves pushing your boundaries.
When this house is prominent, long distance travel is a common occurrence. You may journey somewhere you consider alien, unfamiliar and more challenging than your usual holiday destination. You’ll encounter things that are foreign to you, include people, food and languages. Expand your horizons by engaging with higher education if you decide to remain at home. Placements in this house will broaden your mind and alter your world view during the year. Book your ticket and go.
Ninth House Keywords: Optimism, World View, Travel, Higher Education, University of Life, Intellectual Development, Understanding, Perspective, Long Distance, Foreigners.
Solar Returns: Tenth House
The tenth house begins at the apex of your solar return chart. Your achievements become visible. The solar return tenth house is public, but this doesn’t mean you’ll be headline news during the year. Public, in this house, means social standing rather than social media. Social standing is your public identity and it’s found here. That means your career, marital status – or any way in which you are classified by wider society – including by your reputation. If you are going to be brought to public attention, you will find it here.
Placements in this tenth house show where your careers is headed. On occasion placements in this house may be an indication of marriage because marriage involves public image, social responsibility and public or social commitment. The big, important, authoritative issues are found here. You succeed – or fail – and your life (in terms of your career or public status) is adjusted as a result. Placements in this house are an opportunity to define yourself in the eyes of the world.
Tenth House Keywords: Career, Ambition, Life Direction, Status, Reputation, Important Matters, Responsibility, Executive, Decision Maker, Boss, Important Person, Marriage (indicator), Public Identity.
Solar Returns: Eleventh House
Friends, the future, hopes and wishes, social contacts, social media, technology and invention, freedom, ideals and good fortune. Not to mention step-children, profits and personal aspirations. They are all in the eleventh house. A more succinct definition runs along the following lines: you feel a sense of belonging in a communal sense in the eleventh house. The solar return eleventh house is not about ‘you and them’ because you are ‘one of them’.
A tenanted solar return eleventh house highlights your social relationships. There may be issues with friendships, shifts in allegiances or alterations in your political outlook. We feel validated by associating with like minded people. We gain a sense of belonging when we discover our tribe. You ‘come out’ or have your ‘me too’ moment in this house, knowing there are others who will have your back. Placements in this house make you realise you’re not alone.
Eleventh House Keywords: Friendships, Group membership, Team Player, Social Life, Social Media, Technology, Social Conscience, Politics, Ideology, Political Activism, Idealism, Aspiration, Step Children, Profits – material and otherwise.
Solar Returns: Twelfth House
You get away from it all in the solar return twelfth house. This house contains dream holidays on deserted beaches. The ashrams, temples and bars you visit on your quest for spiritual enlightenment are also found here. Addictions of all types fill this house. The twelfth house makes no distinction between meditation and marijuana. Will a heavily tenanted solar return twelfth house turn you into a substance abuser? Your previous history may dictate the terms, but this house is filled with matters you would rather avoid.
Psychological issues may surface and demand to be heard. Fortunately, the ghosts of the past can be exorcised. Drop your baggage. Try to get away from it all. Be kind to yourself. Soothe yourself with music, art, a good book, the theatre or cinema; losing yourself does not have to be expensive or illegal. Alternatively, you may benefit by putting the needs of others first. Caring for others and hospital visits are found in this house. So is jail time. Getting away from it all is not necessarily a voluntary exercise.
Twelfth House Keywords: Hospitals, Drugs, Alcohol, Addiction, Shadows, Physical Therapy, Psychological Therapy, Dreams, Escapism, The Past, Dream Holidays, Beaches, The Sea, Sailing, Undercurrents, Cinema, Music, Dance, Trance, The Soul.
Further Reading
Solar Returns: Discover Solar Return Chart Planets
Mars in the Solar Return Eighth House
Saturn in the Solar Return Third House
Neptune in the Solar Return Fourth House
Saturn in the Solar Return Fourth House
Sun in the Solar Return First House
Further Information
My books on this subject, Solar Returns: An Introduction, and Solar Returns: Planets in Houses are available at all on-line book sellers and in print.
Solar Returns: An introduction is also available as a .pdf download from this website. Paypal payments only.
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Sara Shipman
Sara Shipman is an astrologer and writer. She created Starcrazypie.com in 2020 and writes the content on this site. Sara Shipman is the author of the Predictive Astrology and Real Life Astrology series of astrology books.
Top-notch blog… wonderful posts!!
Thank you – much appreciated!
You’re sincerely welcome.