Assessing my 2023 SSR (hindsight - things learned)

[Jim Eshelman]

I can now give a realistic hindsight assessment of my 2023 SSR. This is important because I learned something NEW AND IMPORTANT. After all these decades of watching returns closely, the 2023 SSR presented me with a very significant question that - when confronted with it - I thought should be a basic thing that we should have known long ago. But I didn't.

Now I have experience in the matter and I'm ready to take a position on it.

The big question boils down to this: If a return has (say) a benefic exactly angular but that benefic is strongly afflicted, do we get (1) a fundamentally good period because the positive benefic overwhelms everything else in the chart or (2) a fundamentally bad period because the theme of the benefic dominates the year but its afflictions show that it will be assaulted or damaged - in short, royally {bonked} - during the period of the chart.

The same question applies to malefics as well and can be generalized across a complex range of planets. Also, we could of course have mixed outcomes - not just the simple "it was great!" or "it was terrible!" Despite this more moderate, middle, mixed path, it remains a valid question (that cuts deeply into our understanding of how these things work) to ask: Does the essential essence of the closely angular planet fundamentally mark the time, or does it merely set the theme with its aspects showing the nature of actual events.

In practical terms: With abundant close Jupiter (and the chance to have it even closer and more abundant) BUT strong afflictions to the Jupiter, would the primary outcome of the year by financial breakthrough (coming out of the year much better off than I went into it) or financial ruin (coming out of the year much worse off than I went into it)?

My immediate concern, of course, was for my own situation. However, this alerted me to the fact that I didn't really understand this question (which I think is a pretty basic question). I could find no analogy in my experience of solar and lunar ingresses (which resemble returns in many ways) that clearly answered the question.

[Jim Eshelman]

My SSR looked fine enough for home (though complex and with threatening factors). I thought I could improve it by going to Solvang, CA (feel free to calculate it for there yourself and see the differences). It would have remarkably precise angularities: I thought to overwhelm the negative possibilities with negligible-orb benefics. Then, as October got closer, I wondered if I was simply inviting the most extreme catastrophe and should just stay home.

In the end, circumstances necessitated my staying home for the SSR. My home in LA is at 34N03'46" 118W18'47".

At the bottom of this post, I give a full technical breakdown of the SSR.

Taking only the Class 1 angularities, we see both Jupiters and natal Venus (with both Uranuses just outside Class1). There is also natal Saturn (noting that it's natal, not transiting, Saturn.) The balance is heavily benefic leaning. Beyond this "closest" category are quite acceptably foreground (Class 2) transiting Pluto (stationary) and Mars and natal Mercury. Just counting the planets, it seems heavily benefic but with some personal pulling back and limiting myself, room for very significant changes that I couldn't anticipate from the start, and some threats that seem potentially serious and are less strong than the Class 1 benefics. Furthermore, the rising Jupiter is mundanely square natal Jupiter-Uranus (and opposite natal Saturn) while Pluto is ecliptically aspecting Jupiter-Uranus and mundanely natal Saturn.

This simple assessment is a reasonable description of the year I'll describe below. However, it does not yet, zero in on the direct threat I saw. Of the closely foreground planets, notice:

2°49' Cap - t Pluto stationary
3°20' Can - r Uranus
3°31' Rim - t Mars/Pluto ===========
3°37' can - r Jupiter
4°13' Lib - t Mars

I didn't (and don't) mind Pluto to Jupiter; but Mars-Pluto to natal Jupiter is another matter. I never mind (and, in fact, enjoy and seek out) various combinations of Uranus and Pluto, but the magnitude of change suggested by the chart combined with Mars-Pluto to Jupiter, combined with a few other things like Pluto (mundanely) square natal Saturn (but with Jupiter opposite natal Saturn) put the focus in a worrisome way.

The chart itself remained benefic-biased, using techniques that are now part of my standard approach. However, at the time of first seeing this upcoming SSR, they were still experimental in my mind, I wasn't as sure of them as I am now. One of the things that has gotten very solid in my mind is that, though I mostly "read from the aspects" and readily drop out the widest angularities to get a tighter view of the chart... despite those things, the initial assessment of the good-bad tone of the period relies on the whole angular planet balance. Using this way of initially looking at the chart, the breakdown would be:

JUPITER = 9
Benefic = 17, Malefic = 9
Dignity = 9, Indignity = 5
Change = 9
Spotlight = 0

This says the year will be mixed but ultimately advantageous and dignifying on balance, with lots of change happening. This is a fair (if boring) assessment.

If I had gone to Solvang for my birthday, the Class 1 angularities would have looked like this:

r Venus Dsc -2°54'
t Mars on WP -0°34'
t Jupiter Asc -0°15'
r Jupiter IC 0°00'
r Uranus IC +0°39'
t Pluto MC +0°28' stationary
r Saturn Dsc +1°15'

(And still 17 aspects just among these planets!) I was leaning toward thinking this was too intense even with the precision of the Jupiters; circumstances eventually took that decision out of my hands.

Here is the workup of the SSR as it occurred:

t Uranus Asc -3°53'
r Venus Dsc -1°42'
-----------------------
t Jupiter Asc +1°06'
r Saturn Dsc +2°37'
r Jupiter IC +2°57'
r Uranus IC +3°20'
t Pluto MC +3°34' stationary
t Mars WP +1°11'
r Mercury Dsc +5°36'

t Moon co r Pluto 3°19' M

r Jupiter-Uranus co 0°17'
r Jupiter-Saturn sq 0°20' M
t Pluto op r Uranus 0°31'
t Mars sq r Jupiter 0°36'
t Pluto op r Jupiter 0°37'
r Saturn-Uranus sq 0°43'
t Mars sq r Uranus 0°53'
t Pluto sq r Saturn 0°57' M
t Jupiter op r Mercury 1°02'
t Mars-Pluto sq 1°24'
t Jupiter op r Saturn 1°31' M
t Jupiter sq r Jupiter 1°51' M
t Pluto sq r Mercury 2°03' M
t Uranus op r Venus 2°11' M
t Jupiter sq r Uranus 2°14' M
r Mercury-Uranus sq 2°17' M
r Mercury-Saturn co 2°24'
t Jupiter-Pluto sq 2°28' M
r Mercury-Jupiter sq 2°39' M
t Jupiter op r Venus 2°48' M

[Jim Eshelman]

In hindsight - as at the time - the primary theme of the year was financial. There were other things - things overlapping the prior year (such as Marion's accident and recovery), my adding a new dimension / role in my job that gave me new skills and a chance to make a difference (and may lead to more financial advantage soon), plenty of Mercury stuff at work and here in Solunars (but coming to an almost complete stop on the book I have 80% finished), the Houston trip, and more.

But the main themes were financial and, as this was also the area of worry that stirred my initial questions, I should outline this in detail. (Probably more detail than good sense advises, but I think there is no harm in it.)

BEFORE THE SSR YEAR BEGAN
As I'll probably mention again below, this occurred in the midst of a long-term Pluto transit opposing my Jupiter-Uranus. I had been "rehabilitating" my financial status for a while. I had no debt worth noting but simply hadn't used any form of credit (going cash-only) for decades, which means my credited scores were as low as possible. I'd spent a couple of years working on this - accumulating and using credit (all the little steps one does) - and had worked up to a good score in the 700s. As a backdrop, I have a good job, stable, paying pretty well (costs have risen faster than income over the last decade, but it still passes in LA as a high-paying job). We were in pretty good shape.

Our car was aging out. We needed to replace it rather than enter the "nonending nickel and dime" zone. In the summer of '23 we created a plan: Marion strongly wanted (and I concurred) a larger vehicle - a minivan - that we could use day-to-day and also use as a camping vehicle on road trips. I did the math and decided to pull the amount we wanted to spend (and about another $10K for bridging funds) from my 401(k). The market was down and was going to stay that way for at least a few months (it turns out I pulled the loan just before a bad market downturn). Instead of paying someone else interest for five years, I could pay myself pretty steep interest for three years and probably replenish the funds at a higher rate than the market would. This would mean around a thousand dollars less a month (as I paid it back) but Marion could make up that much and more driving Uber (which she wanted to start doing). We'd have the car, probably break even or beat the market in the 401(k), and have about the same level of income while paying it off.

Things were stable. They looked good. We love the car we got at the start of August '23 (a 2019 that someone bought immediately before Covid-19 and apparently barely drove for three years). Essentially new but at a satisfyingly low used car price.

One month later, on September 1, things changed. Marion broke three bones in her ankle. (We were on our first long weekend outing with the car. Kali and I slept in it a few days while Marion was in the hospital.) It would take her about six months to recover (after September surgery). This changed everything because she couldn't drive for the foreseeable future, and we were still going to be out that thousand a month. We wouldn't feel it until almost precisely my birthday because it repayment wasn't going to come out of my check until the end of September. (When she later started driving Uber, we found that the expectations of what she could earn were inflated. We never really had the replacement income we had expected.)

AS THE SSR YEAR UNFOLDED
So... we didn't really feel the income impact until about my birthday in October. We have great health coverage - it covered nearly all the (eventually) $600,000 in medical billing. (The rest was from money already set aside pre-tax for medical purposes.) I rearranged my schedule so that I worked from home about half time so I could tend to her more (taking my usual birthday vacation in early October as time off). We worked out a good rhythm - but survival costs definitely exceeded my income. We were lucky by that time to have a LOT of credit available, at least half of it with no interest for much of the year that followed.

Long story short: The bad part was that we had living costs over our reduced-income heads and managed to max out (over 95% use) all the credit we had before it was over. There were many times during the year that we thought we might not make rent or had to tightly pull back on food costs. We never really got there, but got close several times. If nothing else, the two Jupiter-Saturn aspects showed having to manage what we had WAY better and harvesting the good credit we'd worked up to when we needed it.

The good side: Little "lucky breaks" kept happening. The single best was for the second most important thing of the year: My cornea transplant the last week of December. Because we'd gone way past our insurance plan's out-of-pocket max, my surgery and all of its follow-up was free (100% covered). On making expenses and paying down some of the debt, we'd get occasional breaks, like my annual bonus coming at the right time, or a sudden project surge that gave me an unusual amount of overtime for a couple of months. We had to be careful, always had some worry, and always came out a little ahead.

The worst times were the three periods when transiting Saturn opposed progressed (SQ or PSSR) Moon. You could predict the extra struggles to within a few days. We'd be "just fine," then Saturn would move back into orb of SQ Moon and we'd wonder for a few weeks how we were going to hold the pieces together. Then the transit would pass.

During most of this time, it looked like the worst side I'd fantasized about the SSR might emerge, though we were hanging in there.

THE TURNING POINT
In about the last third of the solar return year, two things happened that changed the story. (Call it Act III of the story.)

The largest thing involved an unexpected source of cash in large volume. I have mentioned this before and, regrettably, still have to keep quiet about the details. (There is a lawyer working on an unrelated matter for us that feels my openly discussing this would weaken the other matter.) I can describe the conditions: This was 'found' money, money that was already mine and I didn't know about, which might have sat there forever (or perhaps eventually timed out) if I hadn't acted. [It resembles an investment I knew about in the distant past and it hadn't been in my mind for years that it existed.] The eventual amount was close to four months of pay. Once I started inquiring, it came in pieces over several months, always coming just as I had a Sun-Jupiter aspect closely angular in a lunar or demi-lunar return.

When I first learned of this, I thought it would get us 100% out of debt. However, we continued acquiring debt in the course of living. Nonetheless, the last pieces brought us from about 95% use of available credit to 20% and saw our credit scores move once more into the 700s. The last piece came while on my birthday vacation - before the birthday - so, literally, all contained within the bounds of the old 2023 solar return.

The roller-coaster finances so typical of Jupiter-Pluto continued until the end of the cycle. At the very end, we had new sudden costs - two car repairs related to the electrical system, having to rent a vehicle for a week instead of use our car that was in the shop (probably good not to put 2,500 miles on it), and deciding to splurge a bit while on vacation. But we're still in the "under control" header.

The other thing that happened over the summer is a permanent improvement: I realized sometime in June or July that, since my 2024 birthday is my 70th, I'm at the age where Social Security maxes out, i.e., the amount won't increase by waiting. Not claiming Social Security at 70 is simply leaving money on the table, donating it back to the government, etc. So, I applied over the summer, was approved, and - though I won't see a check until mid-November - it will be "the October check." It was effective when midnight struck for my 70th birthday, three hours before my 2023 SSR expired. I'll collect my monthly SS benefit while still working (meaning that instead of two pay checks a month I'll now get three). This will more than make up the money we're short while paying back the car, allow some further investments, and have extra cash on hand. (We play to do more travelling in the next year than we've done in the last couple.)

AFTER THE 2023 SSR
This is better than breaking even. The "found money" got us through the difficult year. We're now in a place where we have the car, have 50% more money coming in, have credit scores in the upper tiers - and, if all goes well, I may have a significant raise coming about the first of the year for the extra job duties I took on this year. My stitches (from the cornea surgery) come out about the same time, so I may have another level of improved vision (which has already gotten pretty good). We have definitely come out of the last SSR year better than we went into it.

[Jim Eshelman]

So that's my answer: My original either-or question (stated in the extreme as, "Will this mean financial breakthrough or ruin?") has a clear answer: BOTH ARE TRUE: great benefit, luck, and even a flood of income from the closely angular Jupiters AND financial difficulty, struggle, loss, and hardship from the afflicted Jupiters.

I suppose the involvement of Mars (which, with Jupiter, usually just means "somehow your money goes away") points specifically to the struggle side of it. The two kinds of Jupiter-Saturn show the need to manage it more attentively.

In the future, I will interpret this sort of return as saying that one can expect significant challenges and difficulties AND will come out OK. BTW, I've seen other returns (lunars) over the last six months that have the same characteristic (I think they were all Venus instead of Jupiter).

In hindsight it seems unbelievable that I've gone 40 to 50 years not having a solid answer to this question; but there it is. The key, which has become clearer and more important over the last year or two is to FIRST make that firm good-bad-mixed assessment of the period - bottom-line how the year, month, or fortnight will go - and then interpret everything (good, bad, and indifferent) in terms of that first assessment.

[Jim Eshelman]

That completes the main purpose of this thread - to assess that question based on the evidence of the year - but I have more to say about the old SSR.

First, this is an important example of how SSRs clarify the current-life priority of our transits. Transits alone are powerful: You could do 70-80% of all period analysis ("prediction") work with transits alone (properly understood how to use them). What return charts give us is a way to find when these rotate toward the surface in more dramatic ways.

Outer planet transits always hit in multiple passes, across many months or years. What people often miss is that on multi-pass transits the main window lasts from when the transit first enters partile orb until it last leaves partile orb. Forget about the ins and outs along the way - at least, for the main consideration that this entire first-in to last-out zone an alchemy is in process intended to change you, to have your life speak to you and reshape you going forward. The aspect can be operative if foreground in return charts before it first reaches partile (as foreshadowing of the longer-term alchemy) and after it last leaves partile (as aftershocks and tying up loose ends), but the main time is during this partile window.

My natal Jupiter-Uranus conjunction is 0°17' wide. Pluto first entered partile orb of my Jupiter-Uranus in February 2022 and will last leave this month, exiting the partile Jupiter orb October 27, 2024. (It left Uranus for the last time in January, but has been foreground in my SSR until now; and, now, I have Uranus square my Pluto.)

This nearly three-year window has been - as I knew in advance it would be - a time of fundamentally shifting my Jupiter conditions, almost certainly for the better. It was about the time that it began that I realized we probably should start acquiring credit and building good scores. (Thank goodness we did - otherwise, we wouldn't have had emergency fallback options during the tough times. That, of course, is exactly what it's for.)

During that time, there have been different "adventures" when this has rotated to lunar return foreground. This has been invariably neutral-to-good unless a malefic was involved, which has almost never happened - until the 2023 SSR.

Since I move around to a different place for my SSR each year, I haven't had this as a recurring angularity during all the years of the Pluto transit. (I would have had that if I'd stayed in LA for all those charts.) For example, in 2021 (covering the first year Pluto was partile to my Jupiter-Uranus) I had my birthday in Memphis, putting transiting Jupiter, transiting Uranus, and natal Venus on angles. In 2022 we went to San Diego to get a precisely angular Venus - though that year I did have natal Jupiter-Uranus minutes from WP but transiting Pluto too far off to take too seriously. Then came 2023 - the year it was partile on my birthday AND stationary AND on MC if I stayed in this general area. This is the year it really came to a head for many reasons (partile, stationary, SSR angular, and simply coming to the end of its three-year process). These considerations affect how such transits work their ways into our lives.

Who knows what comes next (the new year should be quite a different sort of adventure) - but when you contrast how 2025 will start to how 2022 started, my financial situation is definitely transformed and ready for the future.

[Jim Eshelman]

This last year's SSR brought another interesting characteristic: SSR planets contacting natal angles.

This matter comes up now and then. We do need to tweak Time Matters to address it as part of the return chart aspectarian (but not until after the option for planet-angle aspects is added in general). Occasionally, I see someone wanting to use SSR planet to natal angles as if the planet were "foreground in the return." It's not foreground in the return, though: It's transiting a natal angle. I'm sure the correct way to assess it is the way you would handle any other transit at the time of a return.

My 2023 SSR had a partile Venus-Saturn opposition. From the SSR's point of view, it's middleground and perhaps has some value as a partile aspect but wouldn't be expected to define the year. However, the aspect fell closely on my LOCAL natal angles:

5°14' Leo - L Asc
5°56' Aqu - s Saturn
6°43' Leo - s Venus

I can't entirely dismiss the Saturn importance (after having just written pages about our financial struggles of the last year). Yet, it wasn't a Saturn-dominant year (even with natal Saturn closely angular in the SSR). It had Saturn elements that primarily showed (showed strongest) when transiting Saturn opposed one of the progressed SSR Moons.

If this had been an SSR Venus-Saturn opposition across angles of the return itself, the year would have been quite different. Yes, during the first few months I was caretaking my recuperating wife and doing a great deal more; but that sort of caretaking isn't a transiting Venus-Saturn theme, it's a natal Venus-Saturn theme (or, in my case, progressed Venus-Saturn, which are in conjunction right now). If transiting Venus-Saturn had been this angular in the return itself, there would have been more burden, probably greater concern about her recovery (which, however, went faster than doctors predicted and always looked like it would go well). Our cat probably would have died when she got a kidney infection instead of recuperating quickly. Any number of other things would have gone sour and dour. You can't just put the natal angles in as if they were additional SSR angles and read the chart from that perspective.

On the other hand, there were Saturn effects and, yes, some of them involved spouse. I think this is rightly understood as follows: Though neither this Venus nor Saturn was angular in the SSR, there waw a non-foreground partile Saturn transit to natal Descendant (0°42') in the SSR. This goes in the "Other Partile Aspects" column along with any other non-foreground partile transits.

In fact, since the first part of the year was marked in my life by my wife's injury and recovery, I'm quite intrigued that transiting Saturn was on local Descendant just as transiting Neptune was on natal (birthplace) Descendant. Double malefic whammy to Descendant. One of the clearer examples of angle distinctions.

[Jim Eshelman]

A few final observations about the chart overall.

The first step, of course, is to bottom-line the year as good, bad, or mixed. As already noted, the chart is mixed though heavily leaning toward benefic. This differs from other years (including my new 2024 SSR) that were overwhelmingly biased toward benefic. So the first conclusion is: The year is mixed but, on balance, has substantially more blessings than harm.

That catches the tone well. When you look at only the CLOSEST angularities - the four Class 1 angularities - you get a similar picture with two Jupiters (in close mundane square), natal Venus - and then natal Saturn also. These allow an accurate assessment of the major particulars of the year.

Foreground natal aspects are a mix of highlighting things that are always with me. Besides the natal Jupiter-Uranus and Mercury Saturn, we find:

r Jupiter-Saturn sq 0°20' M
r Saturn-Uranus sq 0°43'
r Mercury-Uranus sq 2°17' M
r Mercury-Jupiter sq 2°39' M

This could be simplified as my Jupiter-Uranus squaring my Mercury-Saturn mundanely; but there are particulars to get from this. Suddenly having a Jupiter-Saturn square that I normally don't have is consistent with the need to more prudently and conscientiously handle financial matters. It also matches the taking on a new mission at work to demonstrably distinguish myself from others in my job category by creating new tools to make everybody's job and day easier ("earning one's place, gain through concrete effort," etc.). Mercury-Uranus and Mercury-Jupiter are in the same vein, including mastering new coding language at work and overseeing a new cycle of significant growth of TM here on the forum. Saturn-Uranus is less obvious (at least in ways that are clearly different from an angular Saturn anyway).

Notice that these are all changes in me - in behaviors arising from within me rather than coming from the universe. They are natal aspects. The only events they show are the events that arise from me embodying these aspects.

Next come five partile aspects. One simply says, "Oh, there's going to be a whole lotta change this year." The others show my initial areas of concern about "attack" on my prosperity and security. These are the strongest non-natal aspects in the foreground and, in fact, did show encroachment in financial well-being, significant shifts having to be made, etc.

t Pluto op r Uranus 0°31'
t Mars sq r Jupiter 0°36'
t Pluto op r Jupiter 0°37'
t Mars sq r Uranus 0°53'
t Pluto sq r Saturn 0°57' M

I don't see how the transiting Mars-Pluto square itself worked except in their shared transits to Jupiter-Uranus. That is, there were no themes of forced or blocked power, belligerent individuality, forced "face the music" accountability, or cumulative stress. (The police didn't come after me once!) Probably they showed just in their collaborative transiting.

Transiting Jupiter to natal Mercury-Saturn resembles (and somewhat reiterates) the natal Mercury-Jupiter-Uranus-Saturn. However, transiting Jupiter also suggests success. Jupiter's transits to natal Jupiter-Uranus are part of the prosperity and luck themes initially seen in the chart.

Transiting Jupiter-Pluto is similar to transiting Pluto to natal Jupiter. I think it had mostly the same meaning, though a lot of t Ju-Pl themes showed also, especially the roller coaster finances and the recurring sense of turning a corner, reversing the tide, recovery, etc.

I'm not clear what transiting Pluto square natal Mercury means. Is there something in my thinking, writing, etc. that I'm overlooking. Most of the drawing together perspectives to forge an overarching paradigm was the year before. I've had several renewed curiosities this year, have been reading more Einstein and Hawking (but is that this transit or the natal Mercury-Jupiter-Uranus?). It's probably right in front of me, but I'm not seeing it.

And then, finally, Jupiter and Uranus both opposite natal Venus in mundo. In fact, their mundane midpoint is 0°19' from my Venus. I don't see that this is anything specific, but perhaps a broader set of things: My marriage, already in excellent shape, has gotten even stronger, we've had plenty of fun, we've been working through the practical difficulties as a team, we enjoy our travels just as we always have. Other than "Venus life strong and going remarkably well," I can't pick out anything in particular. It's only unsatisfying because it doesn't seem distinctive to the last year in particular. (It's an example of Uranus' transit to my Venus that wasn't that close ecliptically a year ago but dominates the SSR this year.)

[Mike V]

So that's my answer: My original either-or question (stated in the extreme as, "Will this mean financial breakthrough or ruin?") has a clear answer: BOTH ARE TRUE: great benefit, luck, and even a flood of income from the closely angular Jupiters AND financial difficulty, struggle, loss, and hardship from the afflicted Jupiters.

[...]

In the future, I will interpret this sort of return as saying that one can expect significant challenges and difficulties AND will come out OK. BTW, I've seen other returns (lunars) over the last six months that have the same characteristic (I think they were all Venus instead of Jupiter).

[...]

The key, which has become clearer and more important over the last year or two is to FIRST make that firm good-bad-mixed assessment of the period - bottom-line how the year, month, or fortnight will go - and then interpret everything (good, bad, and indifferent) in terms of that first assessment.

So, is it fair to say then that the angular planets determine the core, invariable tone of the chart, and then everything else will, at its most intense, rival it in strength (and at its least intense, just add other themes)?

For example, made up SSR:

Double Venus exactly angular. Both Venuses are afflicted by every possible malefic between both charts, but not a single one of those is foreground. Would it be fair to say the year is expected to be at least 50% pleasing, gentle, affectionate, and easy?

[Jim Eshelman]

So, is it fair to say then that the angular planets determine the core, invariable tone of the chart, and then everything else will, at its most intense, rival it in strength (and at its least intense, just add other themes)?

How find myself reading them is: The weight of angularities determines the overall good-bad-mixed tone of the chart (but not much about what happens), then the aspects say what happens (but not how you feel about it).

[quoteFor example, made up SSR:

Double Venus exactly angular. Both Venuses are afflicted by every possible malefic between both charts, but not a single one of those is foreground. Would it be fair to say the year is expected to be at least 50% pleasing, gentle, affectionate, and easy?[/quote]
The problem with answering this hypothetical is that - for the most part - we need to interpret the chart as if non-foreground planets don't exist. So, if none of the malefics is foreground, then their aspects "don't exist." (The exception is that partile non-foreground aspects often - but not invariably - need attention but more as a "fill in the fine points" than actually describing the month.)

'So, in your example, the overwhelming amount of Venus would define the month and there may not be much to say. The year would be 100% to be happy.

But let's assume, instead, that the malefics were Class 3 angularities. Barely angular, for technically foreground so we count their aspects. It would still be a primarily Venus time, thought of as good (benefic dominance) when one looked back on it, but there would be (depending on the aspects) hurts, delays, frustrations, embarrassment in the social etc. events.

If the malefics were stronger - say, Class 2 (but the two Venuses EXACT so they still overly weight) - you et closer to my last SSR (everything was Class 2 or closer), Here you might get more disappointments; or, with say Saturn and Pluto to the Venus, it could be one of those bitter-sweet times when there is a lot of powerful love felt amidst grief or loss. If Venus is still the strongest, it still is probably remembered as a tender, loving time on balance; whereas if, say, Pluto were exactly angular and made a foreground aspect to a Class 2 Venus angularity, the loss and separation would be the predominant feeling (in a context of love) instead of the love being the dominant feeling.