☽ Free Lunar Return Chart Calculator
Umbriel's free lunar return calculator casts the chart for the moment the Moon comes back to its natal degree — roughly every twenty-seven and a third days, and read as a chart for that month. Free, no account.
- What you'll needBirth date, time and place, and where you will be that month
- What you getThe exact return moment and full chart for any lunar month, past or future, at the location you choose
- CostFree — no account required
Runs in your browser. Nothing to install, nothing to set up.
What it actually is
A lunar return is the same idea as a solar return on a much shorter cycle. The Moon comes back to the exact degree it held at your birth every 27.32 days, and the chart for that moment is read as a picture of the month that follows.
Because it happens thirteen times a year, it is a working tool rather than an annual event — practitioners use it the way you might use a weather forecast, and it is one of the few techniques that produces a fresh whole chart often enough to check against your own experience.
⚠️ It needs an accurate birth time more than most. The return moment is derived from your natal Moon's exact degree, and the Moon moves about half a degree an hour — so a birth time out by an hour moves the return by roughly two hours, and the return chart's Ascendant by thirty degrees. An entirely different chart, from an hour's error.
As with the solar return, where you cast it is a live question. Umbriel lets you set the location rather than assuming your birthplace.
How Umbriel computes it
The return is found by searching for the instant the Moon's longitude equals its natal longitude, refined to the second rather than interpolated from a daily table — the Moon moves too fast for a table to be good enough here. Because the Moon's motion is uneven, the interval between returns is not constant, so each one is solved for individually rather than stepped forward by a fixed 27.32 days. Every pass is listed, so a month with an awkward boundary is visible rather than rounded away.
What's in your result
- The exact return momentDate, time and zone the Moon actually returns, not an approximation.
- The full return chartEvery planet, angle and house for that moment.
- Any month you likePast or future, not only the current one.
- Your choice of locationBirthplace or wherever you will be.
- The return against your natal chartWhere the month's chart falls across the one you were born with.
- Returns for any bodyThe same calculation for Jupiter, Saturn or anything else, with every pass listed.
Common questions
What is a lunar return?
The chart for the moment the Moon returns to its exact natal degree, which happens about every 27.32 days and is read as a chart for the month ahead.
How often does a lunar return happen?
Roughly thirteen times a year — every 27 days and 8 hours, the Moon's sidereal period.
Do I need an exact birth time for a lunar return?
More than for almost anything else. The Moon moves half a degree an hour, so an hour's error in your birth time shifts the return by about two hours and swings the return Ascendant by thirty degrees.
Should I cast it for home or where I will be?
Both practices exist, exactly as with the solar return. Umbriel lets you set the location so you can look at both.
Can I read a lunar return without a solar return?
Yes, and plenty of people do — it stands on its own as a chart for the month. Practitioners who use both tend to read the solar return for the year's theme and the lunar return for how a particular month expresses it.
Is the lunar return calculator free?
Yes — any month, any location, with no account.
Go deeper
Each of these is a free tool in its own right.
Umbriel offers every system here as a set of prompts to think with, never as a statement of fact about who you are. Take what's useful, leave the rest.