☉ Free Solar Return Chart Calculator
Umbriel's free solar return calculator casts your birthday chart for the exact moment the Sun returns to the degree it held at your birth — which is often not on your birthday. No account, no email. You can cast it for your birth city or for wherever you will actually be, which is a real disagreement in practice and worth seeing both ways.
- What you'll needBirth date, time and place — and where you will be on your birthday
- What you getYour solar return chart for any year, cast for the exact moment the Sun comes back to its birth degree, at the location you choose
- CostFree — no account required
Runs in your browser. Nothing to install, nothing to set up.
What a solar return actually is
A solar return is the chart for the moment the Sun comes back to its exact natal degree, which happens once a year and is read as a chart for the year ahead. It is one of the oldest predictive techniques still in general use, and one of the few that produces a whole chart rather than a single indication.
⚠️ It is usually not on your birthday. The Sun's return lands a little before or after the calendar date — sometimes by a day — because a tropical year is not a whole number of days and leap years shunt it about. Anyone who casts the chart for midnight on their birthday is casting a different chart, often with a completely different Ascendant, since the angles move a degree every four minutes.
The second question is where. Traditionally the return is cast for the birthplace; a widespread modern practice is to cast it for wherever you happen to be at that moment, which changes the houses and the angles entirely while leaving the planets alone. Some astrologers travel deliberately on that basis. There is no settled answer, so Umbriel lets you set the location and see what changes rather than deciding for you.
What's in your result
- The exact return momentDate, time and zone of the Sun's actual return, rather than your birthday at noon.
- The full return chartEvery planet, angle and house for that moment, drawn as a wheel.
- Any year you likePast or future, not just the current one.
- Your choice of locationBirthplace or wherever you will be, so you can compare the two.
- The return against your natalHow the return chart sits over your birth chart, which is where most of the reading happens.
- Returns for any bodyThe same calculation for the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn or any other body, with every pass listed.
Common questions
What is a solar return chart?
The chart for the exact moment the Sun returns to its natal degree, cast once a year and read as a chart for the year ahead — from that birthday to the next.
Is the solar return always on my birthday?
No, and this catches people out. The return lands a little before or after the calendar date because a year is not a whole number of days. A chart cast for midnight on your birthday can have a completely different Ascendant from the real return.
Should I cast my solar return for my birth city or where I am now?
Both practices exist. The older approach uses the birthplace; a common modern one uses your location at the moment of return, which changes the angles and houses. Astrologers disagree, sometimes strongly. Umbriel lets you set the location so you can look at both instead of inheriting someone's preference.
Do I need my birth time for a solar return?
Yes. The return chart's angles and houses depend on the exact moment of return, and that moment is derived from your natal Sun's exact degree — which comes from your birth time. Without one, the planets are still right but the houses are not meaningful.
Is the solar return calculator free?
Yes — the exact return moment, the full chart, any year and any location, with no account and no email.
Go deeper
Every one of these is a page in its own right, written out one at a time.
Related free tools
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.