Making Solar Returns Sing and Dance

I can make solar return charts sing and dance. If you try my process, you can also. I do want to make it known that I was never trained to do anything with solar return charts. My first astrology teacher, Press Roberts LPN,, felt that all prediction could be garnered through a combination of progressions and transits. He dismissed solar returns as being a waste of time, as they were just transits anyway. My current teacher, Noel Tyl, doesn’t like solar returns because he had some unfortunate experiences that resulted from too much stock being placed on a solar return that was predicated on an erroneous assumption. He is also uncomfortable about some previously unaddressed issues of solar return calculations.

Timing is perhaps the biggest shortcoming of solar return charts. Basically, they seem to represent a summary of the year taken as a whole. In the experience of people in my circle, the most significant time is three (3) months after the solar return. In fact, a couple years ago, my son asked me why everything seems to happen in November—for both him and me. Significantly, both my son and I have August birthdays.

When Noel Tyl invited Mary K. Shea to write an essay on solar returns, Mary claimed that solar returns manifest 3 months before they happen. Although I have seen it happen to a much smaller degree, those events that happen three months beforehand are generally the more benign manifestations of the solar return. My observation, that solar returns are felt most strongly 3 months after they happen, corresponds best with the “opening square” in Grant Lewi’s transit theory, as those are the most traumatic manifestations.

Much of what I believe about solar returns has been derived from my own experimentation. First, of course they really are just transits. But the solar return chart does provide a lens through which we can focus our look at those transits. They give us a guideline to help us narrow the scope of the operative progressions, arcs and transits. Second, there is a question about which zodiac to use. The zodiac that you choose for natal astrology should be the one to use for solar returns. I am firmly committed to the tropical zodiac. Some tropical astrologers want to use something called the precession-corrected tropical zodiac. To me, the word “correction” implies that there is an error. I prefer to call that method “precession-adjusted”, but, nevertheless, I do not use it. Likewise, the precession-adjusted zodiac is really just apologia by the closet astronomers whose belief in astrology is more tenuous than they care to admit. If a person believes in sidereal astrology, s/he should stick with it all the way. So, I recommend the tropical zodiac in solar returns, just as I recommend it in natal astrology.

The major previously unaddressed issue about solar returns is the choice of location where to cast the chart. There are two strongly held beliefs. One prefers to use the current location. The other favors the birthplace. I submit that both definitions may be correct at times. I have also found a third alternative which works best for me. I view the solar return chart as being very dynamic, so dynamic, that if the client moves during the course of the year, the previous solar return chart must be recalculated for the new location.

Consider, if you will, my own horoscope. I was born August 15, 1950 at 4:24 p.m. PDT in the Forest Park neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. I have Aries on the 4^th cusp, and the ruler Mars is in the 10^th house at 3:12 Scorpio. Every major move I have ever made was made for the reason of career advancement, usually within a financial industry.

In 2003, I was living in Salem, Oregon. In early 2004, I was offered a job at a bank in Nampa, Idaho. I had not been to any part of Idaho since 1974, when I passed through on an interstate bus. I moved to Nampa March 11, 2004. My 2003 solar return for Salem, Oregon had 27:54 Libra rising. Just for fun, I wondered what my re-cast solar return for Nampa would show. Amazingly, the re-cast chart had 3:15 Scorpio rising—just a scant 3 minutes from my natal Mars. And I had moved to Nampa to work in a bank!

This observation explained a lot for me. Regardless of where you were living when your solar return came around, you will need to recalculate your solar return to your new location when you move.

As long as we are talking about calculations, now is the time to mention to be sure to calculate your favorite Arabic parts at this time, too. I will discuss them later.

Now that you have calculated the solar return chart, the next (and most obvious) problem is how to read it.

I have seen and heard several theories about how to read return charts, and I feel they should all be kept in mind, but only in the back of your mind.

First and foremost, it must be remembered that a solar return chart represents the summary of a year. Second, it must also be remembered that nothing can really happen in a yearly preview, unless the natal chart says that it can happen. Third, as return charts are defined when a transit makes a precise conjunction to its own place in the natal chart, conjunctions, and to a lesser extent, oppositions, between the return chart and the natal chart provide the major clues about how to read the solar return chart.

Go back, if you will, to my natal horoscope. Then calculate my solar return for August 15, 2001, also for Forest Park. I was working in Portland’s Forest Park neighborhood and dividing my off time between my home in Salem, Oregon and my mother’s home in Portland’s Kenton neighborhood. As Salem is 50 miles south of Portland, the differences among the solar returns for any of these locations are negligible.

Two items caught my eye immediately. First was the tight opposition between the Sun and Uranus, with only 20 minutes of orb. The Sun was both in and ruling the 4th house, and Uranus was both in and ruling the 10th house. This combination suggested that age 51 would bring changes and issues involving home, career and status. I was also intrigued by the other massive opposition—that between Saturn in the first house, ruling the 8th and the Mars-Pluto conjunction in the 7th, sharing rulership of the 6th with Mars ruling the 12th. (The notion that Pluto is the true ruler of Aries was rather popular in the early 1970s. I believe that concept is one whose time has passed.)

It has been my personal preference to take a look at my solar returns about 6 months before they happen. If they, as Mary Shea thinks, do register 3 months before they happen, then I’ll have some time for preparation. Otherwise, the long lead time will give my subconscious mind some food for thought. As my marriage had been barely tolerable for several years, I kept wondering if I would have the fortitude to terminate it. The horary astrology technique of counting houses, which is just as valid in natal astrology, gives us the definition that the 10^th house represents the end of the marriage. So the “big bells” in this solar return chart all suggested that my marriage would come to a screeching halt. Other indications of marital issues in the solar return chart include Jupiter, ruling my natal ascendant conjunct my natal Uranus in the 7^th and Mercury, ruling my natal 7^th, opposing my natal Jupiter.

There are really only two ways for a marriage to end: divorce and death. Then there are subsidiary considerations within those. Who would leave whom, or who would die? On the surface, I could not rightly tell. I decided to examine the appropriate Arabic Parts, which I often find to be a useful tool. Apparently, some astrologers have never considered the idea of adding Arabic Parts to a return chart. Go ahead, you have my permission. (Parenthetically, I believe that the most common definition of the Part of Divorce is wrong. Some people believe that if the Part of Marriage equals ascendant + descendant – Venus, then the Part of Divorce should reverse the order of the descendant and Venus. That opinion is weak because such a point will always be opposite to one’s Venus. Cosmobiological theory equates conjunctions, oppositions and squares; so that formula for the Part of Divorce will add nothing to a horoscope. For the Part of Divorce, I favor ascendant + descendant – Saturn, as Saturn is the natural ruler of the 10th house.) The Part of Death is almost universally agreed to be ascendant + 8th house cusp – Moon. There is an alternative Part of Death, which I really can’t say much about. It is Saturn + Mars – MC.

I calculated those Arabic Parts. The Part of Divorce was 4:18 Sagittarius, conjunct the descendant from the 6th house with an orb of 4½ degrees. The Part of Death was 9:38 Sagittarius, conjunct the descendant from the 7th house with an orb of 48 minutes. (That other Part of Death was 22:21 Aries. That one is just within the 12^th house, trine to the Sun and sextile Uranus. It also suggested a death, but did not suggest whose.) I remember saying, “Oh my God, I wonder if Georgie is going to die.” I banished the thoughts because I didn’t have the self-confidence in my skills and because my teachers felt so lukewarm about solar returns. On November 12, 2001, my wife, Georgie, had a fatal heart attack. I hated being right in that manner, but the points are that I was right, the solar return worked, and it manifested 3 months after my birthday.

I don’t purport to know everything about solar returns. There is a huge amount of room for learning new things about them. I just want to encourage all who read this blog to keep observing and experimenting with return charts and not to be cowed or browbeaten by the pseudo-intellectuals and self-anointed experts.

Don Borkowski

Woodburn, Oregon

dgborkowski@msn.com

(503) 843-9277

Lois Rodden and Houses

Lois Rodden was a friend of mine (pen-pal variety, as we never met in person). She used Placidus houses for years and years until she knuckled under to the pressure by her local students in the Los Angeles-San Bernardino area of Southern California and switched to Koch. I could live with that because I could reverse-engineer the charts she supplied to create Placidus houses. Then the late Jayj Jacobs talked her into using equal houses, which was not acceptible to me. Many British users of equal houses add the MC as a point in a chart, but Jayj, following the lead of his father, Moby Dick, was in total disdain of the MC. An equal house chart, without a Midheaven, is very, very difficult to reverse-engineer.

It was later demonstrated that Lois' 6th and final bout with cancer left her so full of medication that some of her later decisions were rather questionably too Neptunian.

Lois was born in Lang, Saskatchewan, Canada. In March, 2008, I took a weekend trip to Regina while I was living and working in North Dakota. I drove through Lang on both the trip up and the trip back.

Don Borkowski

dgborkowski@msn.com

(503) 843-9277

Don Borkowski

dgborkowski@msn.com

(503) 843-9277

Pen names, etc.

I got a computerized horoscope back in 1970, roughly a year before I decided to learn astrology for myself. It said that Neptune conjunct the MC would incline me to take a pen name. I never have, but I needed something on Tylnet to distinguish myself from Don McBroom. I got so hurt when people would say how smart and wonderful Don is, and then realize that they didn't mean me.

A co-worker started addressing me as "Donbee" after I would sign forwarded jokes as "Don B." So to Tyl students, I am Donbee, and Don McBroom now uses Don Mc. Oddly, neither of us is named "Donald".

My late wife's birth name was Loreta Gene McLearen. Loreta is pronounced with a long E. So my wife was "Reta Gene" to her family and "Lori" to her friends. In the late 1960s, she actually knew the Beatles and had an affair with George Harrison behind Patti Boyd's back. So she later changed her name, legally, to Georgeanne Harrison. Then she married me and took Borkowski as a surname. And much, much later changed her name back to Lori McClearen.

I should add that during the time she knew the Beatles, she told Paul McCartney that in America, “traffic wardens” were called "meter maids". Paul thought that was so funny, that he teasingly called her "Reta Gene the Meter Maid" and from that hook, a song was born.

Names seem to be a function of both the first and third houses, with each contributing different attributes of names.

Don Borkowski

dgborkowski@msn.com

(503) THE-WASP [843-9277]

 

 

The Conscientious Astrology Writer

Perhaps the biggest challenge for a conscientious astrological writer is to communicate which arrangements of planets, houses, signs and aspects are meaningful to humanity as a whole and which are germane only to an individual.

Let me give a specific example. About 1970, Isabel Hickey wrote unequivocally in Astrology: A Cosmic Science, that if a man has Moon conjunct Saturn and the majority of his planets are in feminine signs, then he must be homosexual. I had no idea where the heck she got that. But the damage was done. One of my best friends at the time had that signature. He was so distaught, that he gave up the study of astrology. Although, I long had the sophistication not to believe everything that I read in books, my friend was not so lucky, You see, I, too have that signature­-- as does my son. And all three of us are exclusively hetero.

I was not a fan of Mrs. Hickey's for this and other reasons. When my wife and I attended an astrology convention in 1983, we met a nice man who thought the world of Isabel Hickey. A quick look at his chart showed that he had the Moon conjunct Saturn and the majority of his planets in feminine signs. Before I got the chance to ask him how he felt being labeled as homosexual, it dawned on me that not only was he gay, but that his chart most likely was the template that Isabel Hickey had used. Putting two and two together, I concluded that Mrs. Hickey probably invented that rule on the spot just to make that man feel better about himself. So I'm sure that that signature worked for him, but not necessarily for anyone else.

So the astrological writer must be extremely careful not to allow an ad hoc signature to morph into something bigger.

I ran into a similar situation when I was giving a lecture. I frequently have the problem in which someone will take one of my off-hand remarks and try to make a federal case out of it. When I rectify a chart, I tend to single out what makes a person special, uncommon, or even unique. I like to take a solar chart and rotate it so that the most plausible combination of planets and houses is displayed. Then by using solar arcs, transits and progression, I'll adjust that chart to fit the timing of known events.

My paternal grandparents were both born in Ukraine. They were married 58-1/2 years from 1896 until my grandfather died in 1955. They had 7 children and outlived 4 of them. That is a rather uncommon fact. In dealing with my grandparents' charts, I developed an ad hoc signature for them. Both of my gransparents had charts that contained a group of four planets that were close enough to be put in the same house. That house would be the 12^th because it is the 8^th from the 5^th. This is when people would confront me. I had to make things clear that if you have any planet in the 12^th house, it does not mean that your child would die. However, if, God forbid, you were to outlive a child, then the astrological reasons would be known.

After I developed plausible charts for my grandparents, I corrected the birthtime based on known events, such as their emigration to the United States in November, 1913.

Don Borkowski

October 9, 2012, 8:13 p.m.

Sheridan, Oregon

dgborkowski@msn.com

Sex, Sex, Sex

Before any serious discussion of sex can take place, it must first be established what component of sex is being addressed.

I date my involvement with astrology since June 7, 1971. My first teacher/mentor, Press Roberts, LPN, had such a profound influence on me that most of my astrological beliefs/philosophies were established upon what I learned from him. A couple weeks after meeting him, Press asked me which house I thought sex came from. I replied sheepishly, “The... uh ...5^th?”

Press then answered most dramatically, “Don't shit yourself, boy. It's the 8^th. I've never forgotten that. Many years later, I enrolled in Noel Tyl's Master's class. And I have felt conflicted since then as Noel feels just as emphatically that sex comes from the 5^th house as sex is how children are made and because sex is, or should be, connected to love.

Cutting to the chase, I feel that the emotional component of sex would definitely be the 5^th house, but that the physical component of sex would come from the 8^th house. Examples abound. Back in 1992 when Bill Clinton first became part of the national conciousness, and long before anyone had heard of Paula Jones or Monica Lewinsky, I took a look at his chart. Bill Clinton has the Moon in Taurus in the 8^th house. So I told my wife that this guy loves oral sex with women. When she said that I had a dirty mind, I replied that it was all in the keywords. The 8^th house is physical sex. The Moon is women. And Taurus rules the mouth. What a strightforward example of how keyword astrology can work!

Even Noel, himself, has written that he has taken Viagra© on occasion. His (convoluted) explanation was that he has Neptune (of weakness) in the 4^th house, which is the 12^th dynamic of the 5^th house. I would have said that his 8^th house was ruled by Saturn,which is in opposition to Neptune. This introduces Neptune into his sexual profile more quickly and directly.

By definition, the 5^th house and the 8^th house will always be square to each other in the mundane sense. When studying the philosophical meanings of houses and their interrelationship, it is best to think of houses in an equal house system. Then it becomes blatantly obvious that it would take the transiting Sun 9 months to travel from the 8^th house to the 5^th house. As 9 months is the typical duration of a pregnancy from intercourse to birth, the assignment of the 8^th house to sex becomes much easier to accept.

Recently a top local psychic gave me the good advice to stop comparing myself to other people. For the longest time, I was embarassed that I was the oldest of my peers to lose his virginity. I'm bringing this out in the open in accordance with my psychic's advice. Actually, I had 3-1/2 years of astrological experience when it happened, which meant that I made it a point to look at the clock. As I wrote earlier, I had felt conflicted about which astrological house truly represented sex. In my horoscope, Venus rules the 5^th house, but is tenanted in the 8^th. Studying my own chart wouldn't settle any questions. In fact, when I first had sex, February 21, 1975 at 10:10 pm PST in Sellwood, Oregon, the midheaven was exactly conjunct my natal Venus!

Don Borkowski

dgborkowski@msn.com

October 1, 2012, 3:17 pm

Sheridan, Oregon

Health and HIlary Clinton

In light of Dick Cheney getting a heart transplant, I decided to look at some other politicians from a health perspective. From the orientation of critical illness, I am most concerned by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's chart. Hillary Clinton was born October 26, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois. There has been some debate about a.m. versus p.m. and how close to 8:00 her birth was. Knowing that Chelsea was delivered by C-section, I feel confident in altering Hilary's birthtime by adding a single minute, to get 8:01 a.m. Chelsea has Mars Rx at 4:36 Virgo and Jupiter Rx at 4:50 Virgo. So the tweak made Hilary's MC just a wee bit closer at the time of the delivery.

If Hilary Clinton were a male, I think that she would be a prime candidate for prostate cancer. She has Scorpio on both the 12^th house of critical illness and the ascendant--the health center of the horoscope. Pluto, the ruling planet is conjunct both Mars and Saturn, which suggests both irritations and blockages. Her Sun in the 12^th house also suggests a systemic weakness in those body parts associated with Scorpio. She has Jupiter in the first house, both as a final dispositor and peregrine. I think Noel Tyl's evaluation of health is pretty good, with some exceptions. Personal experience has led me to consider Scorpio, rather than Libra, to be the ruler of the bladder. Since Hilary does not have a prostate, I think she is at high risk for bladder cancer.

When cancer is analyzed astrologically, Jupiter presents a true conundrum. Jupiter in the 1^st house does preserve the basic health. Yet with Jupiter as both a final dispositor and peregrine, there is a risk of uncontrolled cellular growth running away with the organism, which is exactly what cancer is.

Then there is the issue of Hilary's Pisces Moon. Although, I don't particularly like Hilary, it breaks my heart when I discover that someone that I do like has a Pisces Moon. I've seen far too many people die of cancer at far too young an age, if they have the Moon in Pisces. We've all seen far too many Pisces Moons get hooked into some kind of addictive behavior. To name just a few are Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Rush Limbaugh.

Back on June 17, 2009, Hillary Clinton fell and broke her elbow.  Still some people might think that the fact that she broke her elbow would give credence to the evening (Gemini rising)chart, I think that looking at the transits (and other predictive tools) might give us more insight in general.  The first thing I noticed was transiting Uranus squaring its own place.  Uranus is easily associated with things that happen suddenly, and accidents certainly happen suddenly.  Hillary's natal Uranus is in Gemini, and will function as such regardless of what her ascendant is.

At noon, her TP (tertiary progressed) Moon was 23:04 Taurus, which is close to some midpoints involving the North Node, the ascendant and Mercury.  As I don't have the time that she fell, the incident does seem more consistent with a morning birth.

Perhaps it's too early to voice my concern, but at the end of 2017, Saturn. Mercury and the ascendant will all all arc to Hilary's Sun while Neptune arcs to her Moon. If she were to develop bladder cancer, I suspect that time to be the most ominous.

                                                                                 Don Borkowski

dgborkowski@msn.com

A Simple Synastry Snapshot

I took up the serious study of astrology back in the “What's your sign?” days of the early 1970s. And even with the sophistication that the passage of 40 years can bring, sometimes looking at synastry from a macrosmic level can be revealing. The term, “macrcosmic” or “macro” level is one that I use when I just want to discuss basic, overall principles, rather than quibble over details that would normally just get in the way.

Recently, I have been looking back at my involvement with astrology and noticed that many of the people who have been the most supportive and encouraging of me have had the Moon in Leo. Just off the top of my head, I can think of Press Roberts, Edith Custer, Joan McEvers and Noel Tyl who fit this description. In the course of conversations with various friends in the astrological community, nearly everyone would have a different point of view regarding these people. So then it became obvious that these people were whom I needed for my fulfillment, whether or not my friends needed them for their fulfillment. On a macro level, their Moons were nurturing my Leo Sun. The next question that I needed to ask myself was, “Does this principle work in the other direction; in other words, does my Virgo Moon nurture anyone with a Virgo Sun?” My father was a Virgo with a Cancer Moon and a Libra ascendant. Basically, I had a good relationship with my father, despite the clashes between my realism and his idealism.  Interestingly, when I was in college, my best friend was a Virgo with a Leo Moon.  To a greater or lesser degree with both supported and nurtured each other.

Besides the Sun, the other two major building blocks of the horoscope are the Moon and the ascendant. I have noticed that if a person has troubles with a given Sun sign, people with the Moon or the ascendant in that sign are often more difficult to deal with—with one exception. For some reason, Aquarius ascendants are easier to deal with that Aquarius Suns, but Aquarius is the only sign that exhibits that phenomenon.