Solunars by Aldebaran Sidereal Academy

I recall the technique in Interpreting Solar Returns. The first time through, the chart is read as a new nativity with the techniques you would use for a nativity: soft aspects significant, constellations somewhat significant, houses a little bit significant--at any rate, whatever significance they would have in a nativity. Then the second time through is done "return chart style": natal and transiting planet both plotted, hard aspects only with tighter orbs, angularity given even more importance, constellations given very, very little significance, houses no significance whatever.

I believe the above represents what Jim's thoughts when ISR was written (please correct me if I am wrong). I have used the read twice technique and found it useful. Does this fit with current thinking? OTOH, everything I've read seems to indicate SLR's should be read return chart style, with no "new nativity" reading. This seems to be empirically true, but I don't have a theoretical rationale "why".

My own experiments seem to indicate a new nativity reading of a lunar return can provide some little bit of useful info, but it very unreliable compared to the same type of reading of a solar return, and probably not worth doing.

Perhaps the real distinction is the duration of the chart in question: I have had sixty years to actualize every factor in my nativity and it ain't over, which is good since I ain't done. A solar return is good for a year and that's a least enough time to actualize some things (like a partile trine to a foreground planet, for example), maybe a month just goes by too quickly for anything that's not really blatant to actualize, and the blatant stuff shows up in the return chart style reading anyway. If this is the rationale, I'm OK with it, but the question has me curious and I would love to hear some more experienced voices on this topic

I agree completely on the duration theory.

Yes, I still think of the "read twice" the correct approach, though it has become somewhat automatic in me so I don't always do it so mechanically. And yes, I don't think it applies to Lunar Returns - that would have been a dramatic difference if I'd ever written Interpreting Lunar Returns as Bob Jansky hoped I would - and my theory is that it's because of duration of the chart. Lunar returns are tight, crisp, narrow.

Mike wrote:

I have had sixty years to actualize every factor in my nativity and it ain't over, which is good since I ain't done.

I hear you Mike, in a couple months I will hit 70 and the more experience we have 'actualizing' our natal factors, the more an astrologer can see/understand the truths about our life tracks relative to our environments. "Know Thyself"

The only times I pay close attention to SLR planets aspecting natal planets in a SLR is when I see an angular tight/partile 0,180, or a SLR planet setting up parans to natal planets in the SLR. I think these type SLRs are special in our life journeys. For example: below is a link with a bi-wheel for my wife’s Sept 5 SLR (inside wheel), and her Natal (outside wheel). Note SLR Jupiter partile cnj her Natal Venus partile 90 SLR MC. IMO, these type ANGULAR SLRs are very rare, but when they occur, they precisely time major destiny tracks in our life with major manifesting energies, imo. Fagan discussed these type SLR’s in his writings and even said these partile 0,180 SLR transits to Natal planets do not even have to be in the foreground of a SLR to be very important. There was a time in my life where I ran out all partile benefic transits 0,90,180 to my Natal Chart for 3 years, and then checked to see if these partile benefic transits occurred on the DATE of one of my SLR. If so, I then would check and see if I could find a desired location, moving these partile SLR transiting aspects to my Natal factors where they were partile angular in the SLR on the DATE of my SLR, in order to execute a practical desired objective, and the results were quite mind blowing relative to life.
Wife’s Sept 5 SLR
http://imgur.com/a/uxqlY
Fagan article:
http://www.westernsiderealastrology.com ... april-1954

I think we have to pay attention to all foreground transits to natals in the SLR - using wider orbs than we'd usually use for transits, probably as much as 5°, certainly up to 3°. It's quite common to see that a transit you didn't think was anywhere close enough will suddenly become active because it falls in the SLR foreground.

Now, Steve is specifically looking for big, decisive events. I'm looking for a whole range of events, large and small, and (even more so) a mapping of the ongoing range of experience of a person through their life - the ongoing shift of perception filters and how this affects behavior and manifests events. This difference, I think, is behind our practical differences in approach to some of these things.

We also need to pay attention to natal planets that are angular, and just recently provided a spreadsheet so that natal planet mundane angularity can be determined in return charts.

An interesting example came up a few days ago of the importance of these natal planets. Calculate OJ Simpson's SLR before the murder of his wife and Ron Goldman. The SLR by itself is (to put it mildly) intense! A tight Mars-Jupiter opposition across the horizon (Mars rising, Jupiter setting) is in near-partile mundane square to Uranus on MC. Neptune is also on MC, a little more widely, with wider (borderline?) aspects to Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus. Using only the first three, you can expect something intense, physical, startling, sudden violence, and more. (I won't detail the Jupiter part, which is more subtle to OJ's psyche; but it is well documented that he thought of Nicole as property, and these aspects are consistent with a sense of entitlement, with "physical success," with crossing moral or legal lines, and more.) If you add Neptune, you get Mars-Neptune and Jupiter-Neptune aspects especially, which say much about the event.

That's just the SLR by itself. It fits, though I doubt any of us would have picked it out as all that bad a chart, certainly not the chart for one of the worst things ever to occur in his life. But add one detail: His natal Saturn-Pluto conjunction squared Ascendant (natal Saturn +1°23', Pluto -1°46', midpoint 0°12'). There are no partile aspects involved, but the Mars (for example) is 2°34' from square natal Saturn, which is quite good enough in a lunar return for angular planets. The two most gruesome aspects - Mars-Neptune square, and Mars square natal Saturn - are not the partile ones, although we do have important and descriptive, tightly angular partile aspects.

Even without the Mars transit (which, however, is quite compelling), the simple angularity of his natal Saturn-Pluto is, at its most innocent, reflective of a major loss crisis for him. At its least innocent, it is reflective of his coldest, hardest, most remorseless side emerging from the shadows to prominence.

OJ Simpson (AA data), born July 9, 1947, 8:08 AM, San Francisco, CA
Murders discovered June 13, 1994, 12:10 AM, Brentwood, CA
SLR June 2k 1994, 4:03:31 AM, Brentwood, CA

Jim wrote:

Now, Steve is specifically looking for big, decisive events.

Exactly Jim! I put my bank account (gambling/speculation) and peak recreational activity (fun with my mate) into action designed around these big decisive Sidereal Astrology charts involving partility and angularity (your teachings), as long as I don’t see the symbolism manifesting in a manner which is not my specific desired objective. If I have a choice to pick my peak benefic times, I want to do it with the most potent angular Sidereal chart available. Sometimes we have no choice with specific objectives, and have to flow with the natural course of where normal everyday living has brought us. I like to choose my peak benefic charts for ‘out of the ordinary’ times/events to do specifically what I enjoy doing based on knowing/understanding how my Natal Chart has naturally flowed in my life. My natural course for my life has much to do with Sidereal Astrology. Many times my benefic cycles manifest with learning new things about Sidereal Astrology, which is only allowed by your forum. Everybody’s life flows differently based on their natal charts and life objectives.