POM 2021 Solar Return

[Patrick Machado]

Less than a quarter of it to go. There are very few factors, so I've included Eris and Sedna.

r Saturn on MC 3º30′
t Neptune on MC 8º22′

t Moon-Pluto sq. 0º30′
t Moon-Eris co. 0º52′ M
t Moon sq. r Neptune 1º34′

t Saturn-Uranus sq. 0º05′
t Pluto co. r Neptune 0º11′ M
t Jupiter sq. r Sedna 0º14′
t Mercury-Uranus sq. 0º35′ M
t Sedna sq. r Sun 0º43′

What can I say? This has been, by far, the most stressful, unpleasant, and challenging year of my life. I think a lot of that was the ongoing Pluto transit to my Neptune (also embedded into the middleground of the SSR), but the standard interpretation of the main feature of the SSR, a transiting Moon-Pluto aspect, is very descriptive of my last eight months as a whole. I've never changed this much in the span of only a few months. A comparable amount of change (if a comparison is even possible) normally takes at least a couple of years.

Life has felt random, bewildering, ruthless, insurmountable. As I'm writing this, the following phrase came to mind as representative of an attitude I felt life suggested me to take: "If you're going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance."

But the most important thing was that, early in the year, I had an insight that gave me renewed purpose in life and that may make this year, in retrospect, more pivotal than it seems even now. It's also made everything else more bearable.

The past three months or so have been significantly easier. I think the SSR has already delivered the really heavy stuff. (Hence my looking back on it almost as if it's already a done thing.)

[Jim Eshelman]

Thanks for sharing this. It's really quite interesting. Those Moon aspects are quite stunning in their effect.

Looking at the chart on a normal wheel, natal Saturn on MC really stands out, seeming to dominate the chart; but it's not that strong, i.e., it has probably been closer to an angle the last few years (since our angles tend to move across our natal planets and this MC is "past" - it was probably quite close to IC two years ago.

But those Moon aspects! As George Takei famously likes to say, "Oy, my!"

28°33' Pis - s Eris - 0°26' 11H
0°10' Ari - s Moon - 1°18' 11H
0°40' Cap - s Pluto - 5°44' 8H
1°44' Cap - r Neptune - 5°33' 8H

The stress that you mention is consistent with the half-degree Moon-Pluto alone, with Moon-Eris (exact in mundo) having added effect about which we only have a vague idea. (But that vague idea of Eris seems to match your description of the time.) All of this on your Neptune - drawing out and rewriting the way you put reality together - is quite dramatic.

And I must say I'm tickled to see someone making good use of TMSA, as you obviously have done here. Am I correct that this makes wrestling with a return chart a whole new positive experience?

[Patrick Machado]

It does indeed.