Solar Return Details API

Solar Return Details

Returns a comprehensive set of details for a Western Solar Return chart for a given year — the annual predictive chart cast for the exact moment the Sun returns to its natal degree in the tropical zodiac, which occurs once per year near the individual's birthday. The Solar Return is one of the most widely used annual forecasting techniques in Western astrology, providing a chart that describes the themes, opportunities, challenges, and dominant planetary influences for the twelve-month period beginning at the solar return moment.

What This API Does

This endpoint accepts an individual's birth details, their current geographic location for the target year, and the desired solar return year (solarYear), then computes the precise moment of the Sun's return to its natal tropical degree and generates the complete Solar Return chart for that moment. The Solar Return chart is cast for the individual's current location rather than their birth location — a standard practice in Western Solar Return astrology, since the practitioner's physical location at the time of the solar return is considered to influence the chart's house framework. The endpoint returns a rich consolidated dataset covering the Solar Return chart's planetary positions, house cusps, angles, aspects, and key interpretive indicators, providing a complete annual forecast picture in a single response. The X-With-Labels header controls whether descriptive labels and interpretive text are included alongside the raw chart data.

Data Returned

The response provides a comprehensive Solar Return chart dataset for the target year:

• Solar Return moment — the precise date, time, and timezone of the Sun's exact return to its natal tropical degree for the target year, which serves as the birth moment of the Solar Return chart

• Solar Return planetary positions — the tropical sign, degree, house placement, and retrograde status of all planets in the Solar Return chart, cast for the solar return moment at the current location

• Solar Return house cusps and angles — the tropical degree of all twelve house cusps calculated according to the specified house system, along with the Solar Return Ascendant, Midheaven, Descendant, and IC

• Solar Return aspects — the natal aspects within the Solar Return chart between its own planets, providing the internal aspect structure of the annual chart

• Cross-chart aspects — the aspects formed between the Solar Return planets and the individual's natal planets, identifying which natal chart points are activated by the Solar Return planetary positions

• Solar Return Ascendant sign and degree — the rising sign of the Solar Return chart, one of the most significant indicators of the year's overall tone and the individual's primary focus for the twelve-month period

• Natal planet house placements in Solar Return — which houses of the Solar Return chart the individual's natal planets fall in, revealing which Solar Return life domains are activated by the natal planetary energies

• Key year indicators — summary assessments of the Solar Return chart's most significant features, including the Solar Return Ascendant's sign, the house placement of the Solar Return Sun, and the dominant planetary themes for the year

• Interpretive labels — when the X-With-Labels header is enabled, descriptive labels and interpretive text for key chart features, providing human-readable context alongside the raw positional data

Main Use Cases

• Western annual forecast generation — computing the complete Solar Return chart as the primary annual predictive tool in Western astrology, providing the planetary and house framework for a twelve-month forecast beginning at the solar return moment

• Jyotish and Western practitioners — accessing a consolidated Solar Return chart dataset for client annual consultations, covering planetary positions, house cusps, internal aspects, and cross-chart natal activations in a single response

• Astrology platforms and apps — powering annual forecast features that display the Solar Return chart alongside the natal chart, showing users the planetary positions and house structure of their current solar year

• Solar Return relocation analysis — leveraging the separate current location inputs (cLat, cLon, cTzone) to compute Solar Return charts for different geographic locations, enabling practitioners to advise clients on where to be for their birthday to optimize the Solar Return Ascendant and house placements

• Cross-chart activation analysis — using the cross-chart aspect data to identify which natal planets and points are most strongly activated by the Solar Return chart, pinpointing the natal themes most likely to be emphasized during the solar year

• Multi-year Solar Return planning — running the endpoint for consecutive solarYear values to compare Solar Return charts across multiple years, identifying years with particularly favorable or challenging Solar Return configurations

• Automated annual report generation — using the consolidated Solar Return dataset as the data source for automated annual forecast report sections, providing all necessary chart data in a single call

Key Functionality

• Computes the precise Solar Return moment — the exact date and time when the Sun returns to its natal tropical degree for the target year — rather than using an approximation, ensuring the Solar Return chart is cast for the astronomically correct moment

• Accepts separate current location inputs (cLat, cLon, cTzone) distinct from the birth location, correctly implementing the standard Western Solar Return practice of casting the chart for the individual's location at the time of the solar return rather than their birth location

• Accepts a solarYear parameter to compute the Solar Return chart for any past, present, or future year, enabling historical review, current year analysis, and multi-year forward planning

• Returns a consolidated multi-component response covering Solar Return planetary positions, house cusps, angles, internal aspects, and cross-chart natal activations in a single call — reducing the number of API requests needed to build a complete Solar Return reading

• Supports an X-With-Labels header that controls whether interpretive labels and descriptive text are included in the response alongside raw positional data, enabling both data-only responses for programmatic processing and enriched responses for direct display

• Supports a configurable house system via the X-House-Type header, enabling Solar Return house cusp calculations under any of the major Western house division methods, since the Solar Return Ascendant and house placements are highly sensitive to the chosen house system

• Supports configurable lunar node type via the X-Node-Type header (mean or true nodes) for consistency with other Western endpoints

• Computes all positions in the tropical zodiac, consistent with the Western natal and Solar Return astrology framework

• Designed for localization — the Accept-Language header controls the language of sign names, planet names, house labels, aspect names, and all descriptive and interpretive content in the response

• Serves as the primary Western annual forecast endpoint, providing the complete Solar Return chart dataset that underpins year-ahead prediction in Western astrology, and intended to be used alongside the natal chart endpoints for cross-chart activation analysis