Year Ahead Questions to Ask Your Solar Return

Nadia's return has Sagittarius rising, so the Sun in Libra falls in her eleventh house and the Moon in Gemini in her seventh; she asks about groups, partnerships and what keeps her steady.

A solar return chart is cast for the moment the Sun returns to its natal degree, and astrologers read it as a symbolic frame for the year that begins at that moment. The most useful way to read it is to ask what it invites you to think about. “What will happen?” gets you a guess; “What does this ask me to consider?” gets you a plan.

The questions that follow are sorted by chart feature, so you can open the chart and pick the ones that fit. Choose about five, write your own answers first and compare afterward, so your thinking leads.

Good questions share a few habits. They begin with what, how or where, they point to something you control and they connect to a real part of your life.

• Ask open questions, not yes or no ones.
• Ask about your choices, and leave other people’s inner lives out of it.
• Tie each question to something concrete, such as a role, a routine or a relationship.
• Limit yourself to about five, and write your own answers before you compare with the chart.

Angles are the four sensitive points of a chart, and the angular houses (the first, fourth, seventh and tenth) are the ones that traditionally carry the most emphasis.

The house that holds the return Sun is the easiest place to start, because it is one fact you can find in seconds. A stock prompt for each of the twelve houses is in our solar return chart guide. The step that matters here comes next: turning that stock prompt into a question about your own life, so the answer can be checked later.

Questions that touch money, health or law can be shaped the same way, as long as the answer is a topic to bring to a qualified adviser and not a decision taken from the chart.

1. Write the house and its broad area in plain words, such as “sixth house: daily routines and work habits”.
2. Name one concrete thing in your life that belongs to that area right now.
3. Ask an open what, how or where question about that thing, with you as the one who acts.
4. Add a date, usually the start of the next season, when you will look at the question again.

Nadia is a constructed person whose return has Sagittarius rising, the Sun in Libra and the Moon in Gemini. Counting whole signs from Sagittarius as the first house gives Capricorn 2nd, Aquarius 3rd, Pisces 4th, Aries 5th, Taurus 6th, Gemini 7th, Cancer 8th, Leo 9th, Virgo 10th and Libra 11th. So the Sun is in her eleventh house and the Moon in her seventh.

She picks three questions: which groups and hopes deserve her time, what her closest partnerships ask of her and what she needs to feel steady. Before looking further she writes that she is stretched across three groups and wants more time with her sister. Comparing afterward, she sees that her answers agree with the chart on groups, and that the chart says nothing about her new job, which she decides to think about without it.

Some questions ask the chart for what it cannot hold. “Will I marry this year?”, “Will I get sick?” and “Will I earn more?” invite a forecast, and no placement answers them. Rewrite them as “What do I want from partnership?”, “How do I want to look after myself?” and “What do I value about my work?”

Decisions about health, money, law and safety belong with qualified people, such as a doctor, a financial adviser or a lawyer. A return chart can give you a topic to bring to them and cannot stand in for them.

How many questions should I keep? About five is plenty. More than that turns the page into a to-do list, and you are less likely to reread it.

What if my own answers and the chart point different ways? Keep your answers. The chart is a prompt for thinking, and a mismatch tells you that the symbol is not where your year’s real attention lies.

Should I share the questions with someone? If a trusted friend helps you think, yes. Talking an answer through often sharpens it more than rereading the chart does.

What about location, house system and birth time? Each can change the house the Sun falls in, and our solar return chart guide explains all three. Here, write the location and house system at the top of your page so your questions stay tied to one chart.

A return chart cannot promise events, and it does not replace a full search of your personal transits. Its job is to hand you a short set of questions. Put them on a single page and reread the page at the start of each season.

Choose five questions from the tables today, write your own answers and leave the chart for later. The answers are the part that belongs to you.

When the next season begins, reread your page and mark each question as still open, partly answered or no longer relevant. Retiring a question is as useful as answering one, and it keeps the list from turning into another source of pressure.

A return chart cannot answer questions like whether you will marry, get sick or earn more, and it does not replace a full search of your transits.