Solar Return Secrets (My 6-Step Birthday Ritual)

It’s my birthday! In this episode, I walk you through my astrology birthday ritual. It’s something I do every year, and it leaves me feeling so nourished and supported. Listen up for inspiration on how to create your own birthday ritual and how to start making sense of your solar return chart.

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Transcript

Hey, Astro lover. Welcome back to the Astrology with Claire Podcast. I'm your host, Claire Gallagher, and I'm really excited that you're here joining me today. Today is my birthday. Yay. I'm turning 40, and I thought it would be fun to. Let y'all in on my secret birthday ritual. This is my astrology ritual that I do every year on my birthday, and it's so powerful and so nourishing that I just wanna share it with you.
There are six steps, and yes, there are some steps in between those six steps because this is astrology and it gets complicated. But I'm gonna do my best to break this down in an easy to follow format.
First of all, who cares about birthdays? We do. Why? Because from a traditional or ancient astrology perspective, which is what I practice on your birthday, your annual [00:01:00] time Lord, or your planet of the year, hands over its power to a new planet and everything switches up. So from an ancient astro perspective, your entire birth chart kind of lies dormant until certain planets are turned on and they are given rulership over a certain duration of your life.
Now, there are multiple, uh, ways to figure out which planets have rulership and for how long, but the one I use the most is an annual system that switches on your birthday. So my time Lord is switching today and I spend a couple hours every birthday reflecting over the last year and projecting what I think is ripe and ready and switched on in my natal chart for the next year so that I can plan and co-create with my natal chart instead of working against it.
You can do this ritual at any time. If your birthday has passed, or maybe [00:02:00] it's six months from now and it's your half birthday, I encourage you to do this anyway. And if you wanna do this with me, this is basically a version. Of my birthday ritual service, which is something I offer one-on-one as an appointment.
And if you wanna do this with me, just head to astrology with claire.com/appointments and click on the birthday ritual and we will do this together. I cannot wait to celebrate you.
Okay, so first things first. This is not a step, but this is getting ready for the ritual. You want to gather your materials and your materials are going to include a couple things. One, any journals or calendars from the last year, and when I say year in this episode, I mean from birthday to birthday, okay?
I don't mean calendar year. So grab your journals, grab your Google calendar or your paper calendar, whatever it is that you use to manage time, [00:03:00] and any other pieces of paper or books that are gonna help jog your memory of what happened this past year. I.
You're also gonna need your drink of choice and maybe some snacks, because this can take a little bit of time and whatever makes you feel in the mood or in the zone. So whether that's a candle or some music, you know, really make it special for yourself. Get some flowers if you want. Really make it sacred.
So I had my, I had two actually. I had my oat milk, maa latte here at the house, and I took a break in the middle of my birthday ritual and took a walk. So I had part A and part B. And my point in sharing that is there's no wrong way to do this. Like stretch it out or compress it. Like whatever feels good to you, this is your time to celebrate yourself.
Okay, so you have your journals, you have a [00:04:00] drink, you got some snacks. You've set the tone, set the mood, and now it is time for step one. Step one of my astro birthday ritual is reflection. I want you to take some time to thumb through your journal. You don't have to read every entry, but um, if you want to, that's, that's great and super fulfilling, but thumb through your journal, especially month by month and like get a beat on what happened, what actually occurred this past birthday year.
And the way I like to do this is twofold. I like to read over my birthday wishes from the previous year because I do this every year. I, I have those written out in my journal, so I like to reread those, my intentions or wishes, whatever you wanna call them. And then I like to, I literally called it things I did or made, and it's a list of things I did or made this year [00:05:00] and it's just a bulleted list.
And this helps me, especially as a creative entrepreneur to jog my memory on what actually happened. 'cause um, I can figure out the chronology of the year based on the names of my services and programs that I ran. And it's just kind of a fun way to remember what happened. So do that for yourself. Make a list of things I did, things I made, or things that happened.
And this is really important for astrological learning and record keeping. And maybe I should do another podcast on this some other time. But I really recommend having a chronology of your life written out, year, age by age. So at 39, this happened at 40, this happened at 41. This happened. And that is one way when you're studying time lords, you can really begin to draw patterns over different parts of your life.
And that's like a can of worms. We're not, not even gonna go there. But the reason other than just general [00:06:00] reflection to write this list out is so you can put it into your time, Lord Journal at, uh, the certain age that you're living right now. So this will go under age 39 for me.
So I started by reading some journal entries, going through my calendar and writing down all of the things that I made and all of the things that I offered this year, and also major events like I moved house. So that was a big deal. I wrote my second book, which was a big deal. I. Did lots of different appointments, which wasn't a big deal, but was interesting for the year.
And I ran, um, a membership that was really important to me. I also gave up coffee, which was really weird, and I almost got a coffee today, but I decided I'll just keep trying for a little while longer. But anyway, it was just really nice to kind of see in one, uh. On one page, all of the things that [00:07:00] occurred, and if you really wanna be astro nerdy about it, you can compare the list of what actually happened to your previous birthday ritual where you kind of project what's going to happen.
Now, if this is your first birthday ritual, you're not gonna have anything to compare it to, but you will next year.
Also, under this, I guess this is like step one parts. See, I wrote down my birthday wishes from last year that actually manifested and came true, and one of my birthday wishes last year was to have a second book contract. And not only did I get a contract, but I finished the book and that is fantastic.
Next. Under the reflection piece, I really like to write out a prayer of gratitude for the year, and you can address this to whoever you want. I'm comfortable with the word God. I like to say God and all your planets, so. I thank you, God, on all your planets for this year. I praise you for, [00:08:00] and I just went on and on about, um, how I'm just so grateful that I got to spend time doing what I love, what I feel like I'm meant to do, which is to write books and some other things about protecting my health, protecting my marriage, strengthening my friendships, and all of the beautiful clients that are in my life.
So I highly recommend starting this. Um. Practice out with Thanksgiving because it'll really set the tone for the rest of the practice. Okay, so that's step one. And there were several steps within there. It's reflection. So you're going to reread any intentions or wishes from last birthday, do a reflection of the major events of the year in a bullet list style, and create, um, some gratitude rite of prayer of Thanksgiving for all of the things that unfolded this year.
Now it's time to do the astrology. This is step two. The astrology [00:09:00] spans several steps, and step two is annual perfection. So this is that system I was talking about a second ago that breaks your life into. Ages and assigns one planet to each age. So there's a planet ruling your year right now. And to determine who that planet is, I'm gonna refer you to my free webinar called Get Clear With Your Planet of the Year.
It's gonna walk you through how to do that. You can find it at astrology with clear dot. Com slash webinar. The link is also in the show notes. I don't have time to go through that today, and plus it's helpful to have a visual. So with the webinar, there are slides that will walk you through how to do it.
But the first step in the step number two is to figure out who your planet of the year is. So who is taking the reins? Who are you co-creating with this year? And for me, you know, you determine that by figuring out your house of the year, your sign [00:10:00] of the year, and then your planet of the year. For me, my house of the year is the fifth house.
And my sign of the year is Aries. And Aries is ruled by Mars, so that makes Mars my planet of the year. So I want you to figure out who your planet of the year is, and if you don't know much about that planet, take some time to research. Its symbolism, its meaning both in your natal chart, but just generally, because that's gonna give you a lot of information about the tone of the year and the types of things that might unfold.
So I know that with Mars ruling. My time this year, it's gonna be about taking bold action, being courageous, maybe doing a few things that frighten me, but also doing the things, uh, that are gonna get momentum, like taking action, which I already said moving forward. So really getting things going is something that [00:11:00] Mars can do.
I know there's a lot of other things that Mars can do that maybe aren't so fun. But for the birthday ritual, I like to focus on the positive, and I like to think of Mars as working on my behalf, fighting on my behalf, getting things done on my behalf.
Now there's a couple houses that are gonna be activated for your year and for me it's the fifth house, which is the house of, um, good fortune, which sounds nice. At first glance, we'll take it. And then we also have highlighted the house where your time Lord lives natally. So for me, that's the ninth house and then the other house that the time Lord Rules, which for me is the 12th house.
I want you to figure out all of the houses that are active for you this year and just have a think about what those topics of life are and what you would like to do within those topics or areas of life. [00:12:00] So for me, five, nine and 12 are active, and so we have themes of creativity, themes of. God and spirituality, um, are highlighted.
And I know that something that I wanna create this year has to do with spirituality and astrology combined together. So more on that later. But that is how I'm interpreting, um, the houses that are highlighted for my year.
Again, if you wanna figure out what your house of the year is, go to astrology with claire.com/webinar and I'll show you how to figure that out. All right. Step number three in the birthday ritual is to get your solar return chart and to have a look at your planet of the year within your solar return chart.
Now I'm gonna put a link in the show notes, but I'm gonna read it out right now so you can get a accurate solar return chart and it's horoscopes dot astro [00:13:00] seek.com/solar-return-chart. That's a mouthful, but what that is gonna do is it's gonna give you a buy wheel where you have your natal chart in the center and your solar return chart on the outside. This is really important because in my opinion, from an ancient astrology perspective, your solo return chart should never be read in isolation.
Everything has to be rooted in your natal chart in order for it to have meaning. And so when we're reading the solar return chart, we wanna wrap it around or root it in the NA chart. And Astros seek is gonna give you a buy wheel with that solar return chart wrapped around the needle. Another thing I want you to do is when it.
Asks you for your current location put in where you were born, that is gonna give you the proper solar return chart, at least from my perspective. And I would also click on the little link for extended [00:14:00] settings and change it to whole sign houses. So get a copy of your solar return chart by wheel. And what you're gonna do is you're gonna find your planet of the year in the solar return chart.
And if you have a lot of astro knowledge or even just a little bit, you are gonna compare and contrast your natal time, Lord. With your solar return time, Lord. So again, my time, Lord, this year is Mars. So I am comparing my natal Mars, which is in Leo in the ninth house to my solar return, Mars, which happens to be in Libra in the 11th house.
And as an astrologer, I have a lot of thoughts on what that means, like which Mars is strongest, how, uh, Mars is likely to operate this year. And so you would wanna read up on Mars and Libra if you were me. It's gonna tell you Mars' personality, its strengths and its weaknesses. There's a [00:15:00] lot of other things that you would wanna do if you have a lot of advanced astrological knowledge in comparing the time lords.
But I think for a base level, it's sufficient to compare the signs and the houses, so, oh, okay. My natal Mars is used. To being in the ninth house, my solar return, Mars is in the 11th house, so there's probably gonna be more action around, uh, collaboration and alliances and partnerships and friendships this year rather than acting solo.
Step three. Part B is to find the ascendant of your solar return chart and figure out what natal house it falls in. So I'm gonna say that again. Your solar return chart has an ascendant degree and it's gonna fall somewhere in your natal chart. Houses one through 12, and I want you to find that point and figure out what house it's in.
And that is gonna give you another highlighted area [00:16:00] for the year. So for example, my solar return, ascendant falls directly. On my son in the 10th house. So I know that this year isn't just gonna be about fifth house things, ninth house things, or 12th house things. It's gonna be about those things within the context of my public life, my reputation, and my career.
 Step three, part C, you are going to look at the solar return. Transits to natal planets. This is the trickiest step, and this is why I want you to go to Astros, seek and pull up a solar return chart because it's gonna spit out all of the transits for you in a list below the by wheel.
So scroll down and you're gonna see a big list of aspects from your solar return chart. To your natal chart. Now, from an ancient astrology perspective, [00:17:00] these are your transits that are active for the entire year. I'm gonna say that again. Your solar return chart. It represents your transits that are active for the entire year.
So you could actually not watch transits if you wanted to moving in the realtime sky for the rest of the year. You could just pay attention to your solar return as transits, and that would give you plenty of information for the entire year.
So print out that chart and that list of transits or copy and paste it into a document if you wanna save trees. And we're going to do a process of elimination and a process of highlighting what's important. The first thing that you wanna highlight as. Important and things to pay attention to is anything that involves your time, Lord.
So any aspect on that list for me that has Mars in it, whether it's in the first position or the second position, I'm gonna highlight that as important. [00:18:00] If I see the symbol for a conjunction from a solar return planet to a natal planet, I'm gonna highlight that as important. And if I see any planets in the sign of my year, so for me that would be Aries or the fifth House.
I'm gonna highlight that as important. So again, any aspects that involve your time, Lord. Any conjunctions between the solar return chart and the natal chart and any planets that happen to be in your house or sign of the year on the day of your birthday. That is going to severely limit your list to only the things that are really vital and important for you this year.
So, for example, I'm focusing on Mars, and in my solar return by wheel, I notice that the planet Mercury is making a conjunction to my natal Mars this year. So that is a [00:19:00] transit that I'm gonna have for the rest of the year. I am also noticing that my solar return Mars is making a sex tile to my natal ascendant.
So that is a transit quote unquote, that I'm having for the rest of the year. And in terms of like what's transiting my house and sign of the year, unfortunately I have Saturn and Neptune transiting the sign in house of the year. But that's okay. I can deal with it. So I'm not gonna describe what those things mean in this podcast, and I don't wanna bore you with my own life details and my own projections about my life.
 I just wanna give you kind of a step by step process on how to start picking apart your own solar return. So as a recap, when you get your solar return by wheel, the first thing you wanna do is find your solar return time Lord, and figure out how it's similar or different from your natal time, Lord.
Then you're gonna find your solar return ascendant and see [00:20:00] what house it highlights in your natal chart, and if there's any planets, it makes a conjunction to then. You are gonna pick out any important aspects between your solar return chart and your natal chart and treat them as transits for the entire year.
Okay? You are probably already astro full at this point. Again, if you want me to do this for you and with you, come to a birthday ritual appointment and it'll make a lot more sense 'cause I'll break it down for you with visuals and give you interpretation. However, the next step, the fourth step, is to look for any other major transits coming up for the rest of the year.
These are additional transits that are not captured in the solar return, and so you would look out, uh, for the next 12 months and see if any outer planets or slower moving planets like Saturn are making important aspects to any of [00:21:00] your visible planets or angles. And I know for me that Uranus is going to square my sun this year.
And so I put that on my list of important things to watch. And Pluto is conjunct my moon still. So I think that's important too. So that made the list. Okay. That was a lot of astrology. So we did perfections, we did solar return and we did other transits. The fifth step is much more intuitive, and that is to, from the information you just gathered to write some astrology informed birthday intentions and wishes, and of course, they don't have to be rooted or validated by the astrology. But if you are astrologically minded and you believe in astrology, the things that are most likely to come about this year are the things that are supported by the solar return chart and the natal chart.
So I did that and. [00:22:00] The way I like to write intentions is to start with thank you. And the way I say it is thank you spirit. And then I write the intention or the wish as if it already happened.
So I'm gonna read one as an example. This is a little vulnerable for me, but I wanna give you a direct example of how to write a birthday intention, and this is about my upcoming book, which is called Cosmic Year. And it says, thank you, spirit, that the cosmic year book release was a huge success. It repaid the advance on day one, brought me enormous opportunities and booked out my products and services.
So that's the first one on my list, and I wrote two pages of intentions and wishes, all of them supported by the astrology for my upcoming year. And we finally come to the last step in my birthday [00:23:00] ritual, and that is step six, which is to write a letter to yourself from your time, Lord. So you're gonna write a note to yourself from the perspective of your time, Lord, planet, or your planet of the year, and.
There's a lot I could say about how to do this, how to get into the head space for this. But, um, I'll save that for another time. However, what I did was I just wrote at the top of the page, Hey, Claire, and I just let it flow and I wrote myself a letter from Mars and the kinds of things that Mars told me.
Is its intentions for me for the year. It also gave me some reminders, things it wanted me to remember as the year unfolded, and it also reminded me of how it sees me, how it views me as strong and as a champion, which I thought was really [00:24:00] cute.
So that's it, that is my birthday ritual with my solar return secrets. I'm sorry if this was a little hard to follow without a visual. Um, I'm considering heading to YouTube as, uh, a way to make this astrology stuff a little bit more accessible 'cause it definitely needs a visual component. But anyway, that's, that's on my birthday Intentions and wishes.
We'll see. We'll see if it comes true. But the last thing I did is I went back to the beginning and I read everything out loud. I think the spoken word is super powerful. So I went to the top way back at the beginning where I wrote gratitude out for the past year. I read that out as a prayer, and then I read out my birthday intentions and wishes, and I also read out the letter from Mars.
To me, and that felt like just a really lovely way to close the ritual and to kind of say amen. And [00:25:00] so it is. I hope this gave you a few ideas on how to craft a birthday ritual for yourself, and also gave you a few pointers on how to use your solo return chart, because not all of it is important. You don't need to read the whole thing, although you can Really, what's important is that.
Time, Lord, in the solar return, the ascendant of the solar return, and any of those aspects that I mentioned in step number three. Again, if you wanna do this with me, if you want me to do it for you, head to astrology with claire.com/appointments and click on the birthday ritual and make an appointment with me, and I would love to be a part of your special day.
And if you need help figuring out your planet, house, and sign of the year, head to my free webinar. Get Clear With Your Planet of the year@astrologywithclaire.com slash webinar. Alright. Thanks for spending my birthday with me. [00:26:00] Sending you so much love. Talk to you soon.