Making Monthly Predictions with Lunar Return Charts
This is one of my top predictive techniques!
Today, I am sharing one of my favorite prediction techniques: the lunar return chart. Some of you may be familiar with solar returns - I did an article on this timing method last fall that you may want to revisit first before reading any further. However, there is almost no information on lunar returns, both online and in print. (If I’m mistaken, please let me know in the comments!) Back when I was first getting into astrology, I remember scouring the internet, trying to find insight into how to interpret lunar returns, and all I found were a few tidbits of information here and there on obscure online forums - definitely not the most reliable source. So over the past few years, I’ve taught myself how to read lunar return charts through trial and error.
Before we get into what a lunar return chart is, let’s first review why the moon is so important in astrology. Everyone has their moon in a specific sign and house in their birth chart, which is telling of what activities and environments make you feel safe and secure, as well as how you process your emotions, how you nurture yourself and others, as well as emotional reactions you picked up in childhood that you might automatically revert back to.
The moon is also so important when it comes to various predictive techniques. You can track the moon phases each month, from new moon to full moon to new moon back again, to decipher when it’s time to work hard and pursue goals versus when you might be better off resting and reflecting. In addition, the secondary progressed moon will show where your emotions lie for a 2.5 year long period, and can also describe longer, thirty year increments of your life.
When looking at planetary transits, the moon changes signs every 2.5 days, so it cycles through the twelve zodiac signs in about four weeks. Therefore, once a month for a couple day period the moon will return to the same sign as your natal moon sign. This is what we call your “lunar return.” The exact timing of the lunar return is when the moon not only returns to the same sign of your natal moon, but also to the same degree.
In the diagram above, you can see that this person’s natal moon is in Aries at 16 degrees. The transit moon, seen in orange on the outer circle, is also at 16 degrees of Aries. Therefore, this person is having their lunar return.
The day in which this exact lunar return happens every month is an especially significant day for you, because on that day you get to hit the refresh button for the next four weeks. New mindsets, habits, or priorities may come to you at that time. Similar to a solar return, where you get your own personal new year on your birthday each year, that happens to you every single month on more of a micro level with a lunar return.
On or right around the exact day that your lunar return occurs, the most important events for the month tend to take place. Situations, opportunities, or mindsets set in that influence your emotions for the next four weeks. Therefore, it is through using lunar return charts in readings that I’m able to nail down predictions to almost an exact date.
Before we go further in learning how to interpret a lunar return chart, let’s first go over how to pull one up, so you can practice doing your own.