DIY Birthday Astrology Reading
Birthdays were never my thing until I became an astrologer. Now I know too much to overlook them. Your birthday is like your personal new year. The planet that’s guiding your days (did you know you have one of those?) hands over the steering wheel to another planet and everything changes. It’s a big deal.
From an ancient astrology perspective, the planets in your birth chart lie dormant until they’re “switched on” and given rulership over a certain duration of your life. There are multiple systems for figuring out which planet has rulership and for how long, but the one I use the most is an annual system where the planet ruling the times switches on your birthday. This planet is called your time lord or planet of the year. I walk you through identifying your planet of the year in this free webinar.
Every birthday, I spend a couple of hours reflecting over the last year and determining what’s “switched on” in my natal chart for the upcoming one so that I can co-create with my natal chart instead of work against it. This ritual is so powerful and so nourishing that I couldn’t help but share it with you. Although I try my best to break this ritual down into easy-to-follow steps, astrology can get complicated. So, when in doubt, do it with me.
What You’ll Need
A journal or notebook
Any journal entries since your last birthday
Your electronic or paper calendar (whatever will remind you of the main events since your last birthday)
A delicious drink and maybe some snacks
Whatever helps you set a sacred mood (candles, music, flowers…)
Your natal chart
Your solar return chart
Step One: Reflect
Step one of my astrology birthday ritual is to reflect over the last year. To be clear, when I say year, I mean from your previous birthday to this current birthday. Since I do this every year, I like to start my reflection by reading over my birthday wishes from the previous year and noticing which ones actually manifested or came true. Then, I just flip through my journal and read what catches my eye. Take some time to thumb through your journal with the intention of reminding yourself of the main events and overall tone of the year. You don't have to read every entry, unless that excites you of course—just get a sense of what the last twelve months have been like.
Next, write a bulleted list of the main events. This is when you may need to reference your electronic or paper calendar. If you were to look back at this year ten years from now, what would you want to remember? As a creative entrepreneur, I like to include in this list all of the things I made, services I offered, and projects I was a part of. As an example, here’s a couple things on my list this year:
We moved house.
I finished writing my second book, Cosmic Year.
After I create my bulleted list, I add it to a larger document where I keep an overall chronology of my life. As an astrologer and time nerd, this is a pet project of mine. I highly recommend it if you want to study astrology more seriously. Having a life chronology divided up by age allows you to draw patterns between years that were governed by the same time-lord planet.
I end my reflection by writing out a gratitude prayer for the past year. I’m comfortable with the word God, but address the prayer to whomever or whatever resonates with you. I start my prayer with, Thank you, God, and all your planets for this year. I praise you for…and I let it flow from there. I highly recommend starting this ritual out with thanksgiving because it really sets a positive tone for the rest of the practice.
Step Two: Identify Your House, Sign, and Planet of the Year
Now it's time to dive into the astrology for your upcoming year. You’re going to start with a technique called Annual Profections, which I referenced at the beginning of this post. Annual Profections divides your life into ages and assigns one house to each age. For example, forty is a fifth house year. Once you identify your house of the year, you can identify your sign and planet of the year.
I just had my fortieth birthday. Forty is associated with the fifth house. In my birth chart, Aries occupies my fifth house. Aries is ruled by the planet Mars. So, the fifth house is my house of the year, Aries is my sign of the year, and Mars is my planet of the year. If you’d like me to walk you through this, watch this free webinar.
With Mars as my time lord or planet of the year, I know my year will be filled with Mars things. Perhaps it’ll be about taking bold action, being courageous, and doing a few things that scare me. With the fifth house highlighted, I might be focused on creativity or pleasure. And with Aries as my sign of the year, I expect the main events to unfold quickly.
Your turn. Figure out your house, sign and planet of the year and do some research. Really get to know the meaning and symbolism of these three celestial pieces. This is going to give you a lot of information about the tone of the year and the types of things that might unfold.
Step Three: Evaluate Your Solar Return Chart
Next, grab a copy of your solar return chart. I recommend this solar return chart generator. I also recommend setting the location for the solar return chart as your birth location and using whole-sign houses. What this generator will spit out for you is a bi-wheel with your natal chart in the center and your solar return chart wrapped around the outside. If you scroll down, it’ll also give you handy list of all the aspects between the two charts. This is essential! In my opinion, the solar return chart doesn’t have any power on its own, and it should always be read within the context of the natal chart.
Although you could read your entire solar return chart, I don’t think it’s necessary. There are three things that I think are important: your solar return planet of the year, your solar return ascendant, and any aspects between your solar return chart and natal chart that involve your planet of the year. Let’s walk through these one by one.
Your Solar Return Time Lord
First, find your planet of the year within your solar return chart. Note what zodiac sign it’s in and what (natal) house it’s in. Just like you did before, do some research on what this sign and house mean. For example, in my solar return chart, my time lord Mars is in Libra in the eleventh house. So, I would want to research how Mars in Libra expresses and what kind of events Mars in the eleventh house might bring about. This is going to tell you about your time lord’s personality, as well as its strengths and weaknesses.
If you’re really astro-savvy, compare and contrast the planet of the year in your natal chart with the one in your solar return chart. Which one is strongest? This will tell you if the year ahead is likely to be better or worse than usual.
Your Solar Return Ascendant
Now, find the ascendant of your solar return chart. What natal house does it fall in? This is going to give you another highlighted house for the year. For example, my solar return ascendant degree falls in my natal tenth house. That means tenth house themes like career, reputation, honors and public life are hot for me this year. Pay special attention if your solar return ascendant degree falls on (conjuncts) a natal planet. This planet and whatever it represents is activated.
Important Solar Return Aspects
The last thing you’re going to do with your solar return chart is identify the important aspects between your solar return chart and your natal chart. If you use this generator, all of the aspects will be listed out for you beneath the bi-wheel chart. From an ancient astrology perspective, these aspects are like transits that are active for the entire year. A transit is when a planet in the real-time sky talks to a planet in your natal chart. Transits correlate with change and events. I like to think of solar return aspects as transits or storylines that are “baked in” to your entire year.
There are going to be a ton of aspects listed, but they don’t all matter. Print out the list, grab a highlighter, and highlight the following:
Aspects that involve your planet of the year
Conjunctions between solar return planets and natal planets or angles
Any planets moving through your house/sign of the year
Arguably, these are the only solar return aspects that really matter—they’re what will be palpable for the year ahead. Just like you did with everything else, take some time to think about or research what these aspects mean and what type of events or opportunities they might foreshadow.
For example, since Mars is my time lord, I would highlight any aspects on the list that involve Mars. As I’m scrolling through, I notice that solar return Mercury is making an aspect to my natal Mars. Ding, ding, ding! This is an important aspect/transit that will be active for my entire year. If your head is spinning right now, take heart, this is really high-level astrology—it ain’t easy!
Step Four: Write Your Intentions for the Year
Okay—you’re done with the heady astrology! The next step is much more intuitive, and it’s to write some astrology-informed birthday intentions or wishes for the year. Now, they don't have to be rooted or validated by the upcoming astrology, but keep in mind, any intentions with celestial backing are more likely to manifest. What has celestial backing? All of the themes you picked out in steps two and three.
I suggest always beginning your intentions with Thank you, and writing them as if they’ve already happened. For example, here’s one of my intentions for this year: Thank you, Spirit, that the Cosmic Year book release was a huge success. It repaid the advance on day one, brought me enormous opportunities, and booked out my products and services.
Your turn. Don’t hold back! I love to dream big and write a couple of pages of intentions. This is my favorite part of the birthday ritual.
Step Five: Write a Letter from Your Time Lord
The last step of my birthday ritual is to write a letter to yourself from the perspective of your time lord. This is a practice I call Planet Channeling, and you can learn all about it in this free webinar. I just write, “Hi, Claire,” at the top of my page and let it flow.
You can expect your time-lord planet to share about its intentions for you, things it wants you to remember as the year unfolds, and how it sees you. I believe your time lord wants the best for you and that it’s going to speak in a loving, constructive tone.
And I like to top it all off by going back to the beginning and reading everything out loud. There’s something magical about reading my gratitude prayer, my birthday intentions, and time-lord letter out loud—it’s a nice way to say, And so it is, or Amen.
Have so much fun with this DIY birthday reading! Don’t be afraid to tweak it and make it your own. And if you’d like me to do this for you, I’d love to see you in the Birthday Ritual.