Solar return chart
A solar return chart is cast for the moment the Sun returns to its exact position at the time of your birth. This moment happens once a year, around your birthday, and its time shifts by about six hours each year; so in some years it can fall a day before or after your birthday. The solar return chart is used to interpret the general themes of the year running from one birthday to the next.
The chart's rising sign changes according to where you are at the moment of the solar return; so spending your birthday in your birthplace or in a different city changes the positions of the houses and the Ascendant and affects the interpretation. In this chart astrologers examine the rising sign, the Moon's sign and house, which houses hold clusters of planets and the aspects the planets make to the birth chart. The annual chart does not replace the birth chart; it adds a one-year layer on top of it. The interpretations describe a tendency and do not predict events with certainty.
