If you really want to know....

[whiteheather]

If you really want to know....

This is a really basic question here, so please forgive me. What happens is that I am confused by the array of returns, progressions, and arcs. The complexities are so daunting.... If you really tried to map out the next 6 months of your life, how would you go about it? The solar arc will show you something, the Mars and Venus returns will show something else - possiblty contradictory? - and then there are the different progressions, and then of course there are the transits without which nothing happens, so each single one of these charts is going to experience its own transists too, so.... Once you have drawn all those charts with their myriads of transits -- do you avoid a major headache and make sense out of this astral noise??

Is it that you really have to think about what you are actually going to investigate when you decide to analyze a return? For a general direction for the next year, you do a Solar Return? For entrepreneurship or other self-directed endeavors, a Mars Return? For love and social affairs, a Venus return? Does each different return only get interpreted in that vain, or is it possible to see self-directed business ventures in a Venus return, or a love affair in a Mars return? A new relationship in a Solar return? What if the different returns "contradict each other?" You see what I am getting at?

I realize I am asking a theoretical question without relating it to anything concrete, which isn't really the style of this forum, and I am aware of course that I can research all this myself by using past events of my life and drawing different returns and so forth and see how it all fits together, and I fully intend to do this but in the meantime I would like to know if this is pretty much how it is done or if I am completely off on a tangent.

I wasn't able to read your article on returns, Kim, for some reason the page didn't load, but I'll keep trying.

Thanks for reading.

[jade]

Hi again Whiteheather,

You poor thing......go to the Mars Return page 1 and scroll down to Kim. She has the direct link you can click on that is about returns.

In that you'll find that whatever house is on the ascendent of the return by sign, brings that natal house "to first house importance" and any planets found in that natal house.

It will be much easier to understand as explained therein and of course you can then pose any questions to Kim!

Jade

ps, thanks for your answer to my post Kim....

[whiteheather]

I got it, Jade. The page with Kim's article loaded properly this time.

[jade]

groovey......

[Kim Falconer]

Hello Whiteheather,

First up, I LOVE theoretical questions! Never hold these back, please!

You asked Is it that you really have to think about what you are actually going to investigate when you decide to analyze a return?

My immediate answer here is Yes and NO! If I am doing a reading for someone, I never ‘look’ for what I want to analyse but allow the themes in the return to jump out at me (which they do, quite vividly). I also am guided by the nature of the planet returning.

I see the solar return as giving a ‘preview of coming attractions’ in EVERY aspect of life (every house) for that year. In the Qabbala, this is Tiphareth…the center…YOU!

I see the Lunar returns as highlighting specific areas of life each month—What’s changing? What’s in flux? How does that feel? Yesod in the tree of life.

Mercury returns highlight, as you suggest in your question, those things associated with communication and the written and spoken word. For those who study the Qabbala, this would be HOD.

Venus returns highlight what we VALUE, the emphasis on what feels good, what doesn’t and where and when and how our socially significant relationships will flourish (or not flourish!) It can be about money and finances if that is something you value. This is Netzach in the tree of life.

Mars is the engine that gets us up in the morning. The Mars cycle is much about work. Gaburah!

Jupiter is a greater cycle, 12 years. Think of it like a long term solar return only growth and progress is over 12 years instead of 12 months! This is Chesed in the tree of life.

Saturn return? We all know this cycle! Nodes too…it’s about walking the path. Are you on it? Strayed? Napping? These returns tell volumes! The blessed Binah in Qabbala. Chiron too, Da-arth in the tree of life…the key!

To AVOID the blur of confusion in ways and means that we can progress and direct and transit and return a chart, make sure (everyone!) that you don’t overload yourself with too much input! Here is basically how I do it when I am going to read for someone (so I’m spending anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour with someone’s chart that I have never seen BEFORE I switch on the mic.)

1. I look at the natal and allow the natal themes to jump out and assert themselves. I plot asteroids that are related by name or by the queries that came with the reading request.
2. Then I look for the themes that are hiding. (I actually say out loud, “Who’s hiding in here?”
3. They usually show themselves then!)
4. Next I plot the current transits around the chart. I look first at where SATURN and URANUS
are because this is what the client will be feeling, without a doubt. By house and aspect, these
transits are almost never taking a back seat! I note all relevant transits from Mars out.
5. Next, I plot the progressed Moon, Asc. & Sun in the Natal chart—then I look at progressed to
progressed and Prog to natal .
6. Then I decide what to return. Usually it is the Sun, unless another specific return is requested
or indicated. I look at the return in the basic ways that are described in the article I wrote on my main page (don’t know why it wouldn’t load before)
7. If the reading has a specific query, and I can’t see it staring me in the face so far, I look at midpoints, other directions and draconic links.
8. Then I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and turn on the mic!


When studying astrology, you do these same things over much longer periods of time. If you EVER start to get overwhelmed, go back to the natal, take a deep breath and consider what you have covered. Then start again from a different vantage point, a different technique.

Does that make sense?

All these predictive techniques are just ways and means of untangling the threads of meaning in the natal chart. It IS bloody complex yet so keep that in mind. One step at a time.

I would never sit down and read all possible returns and demi returns and progressions and directions for a client at one time. I might not even get to all that over a decade!

You’ll find you will develop your favourite techniques and stick to them for a while, then slowly add another. You are building up a body of wisdom and this takes time and patience. You don’t want to end up with an upside down pyramid! It’ll just topple over!

I hope this helps!

Warmly,
Kim

[gemstar]

Hi Whiteheather...I appreciated you posting this question!! Many of us can feel overwhelmed with the variety of returns charts....arcs. solar returns, progressions etc....I certainly do! Thanks for asking!

Kim-Thanks for taking us through the process You use when doing a reading. The way you described looking at a chart first and asking 'who is hiding in there' was very descriptive! It made sense and instead of readily answering a question, look FIRST at what the chart is saying. Too often we get wrapped up in answering a particular question and maybe overlook the obvious message right in front of us!!

As I learn more and more about the different predictive chart methods, I do find that some sort of technique will assist and organize my thoughts and processes. Thanks for sharing your procedure with us because it sorts out things in a manner which I can build on!

Hugs-

GemStar

[Kim Falconer]

You are most welcome!

I'm delighted to have all of you to share this with!!!

Kim

[samina]

Whiteheather, you voiced my own thoughts exactly! Thanks for speaking up.

And Kim, thanks for your generous & detailed response. You've outlined a wonderful practical approach that'll help keep me from going cross-eyed from info-overload, for sure! lol


samina

[whiteheather]

Thank you for your feedback, Kim, Gemstar, and Samina.... I was hesitant to pose this question for fear of sounding ignorant since everybody here knows so much. Luckily I was too curious and asked anyway, and now I am glad I did. Apparently I struck a cord.

Kim, I am very grateful to you that you shared with us the intimate process of analyzing a chart. It's really quite interesting and amazing... I feel reassured that even you admit that it can be overwhelming, and not to look at everything all at once. Trying to read a chart is kind of like analyzing a work of art, a painting let's say, or a novel, where the more you look (or read), the more you discover all the different themes and layers that pervade it. That is so much more pleasing than thinking of the chart as a road map that is just going to tell us where all the tourist attractions lie. I like your approach much better!

Also, you bring Quabbalah into this. I am impressed -- but why is the self "Tiferet" which means beauty? I guess that would be for another forum..... And Saturn is Binah? That surprises and pleases me at the same time, since "he" sits so prominently in my 5th house. Believe me, I would have preferred ANY planet in my fifth, or even no planet at all... (Which is funny because I love Cappies!)

I am doing my solar return right now, and I'll be posting it soon in a different thread.