Does Relocation Really Work?

In modern astrology, there is a belief that celebrating your solar return in a new location can attract good fortune or help you avoid the challenges of the coming year. However, astrologers have differing opinions—some argue that relocated solar return works, while others believe it is the ultimate remedy against the hardships of fate.

Yet, no one has thoroughly investigated this question in practice. The main challenge with verification lies in the fact that modern astrologers lack reliable predictive tools to clearly see events in both the place of residence and the location of the solar return celebration and then compare the predictions with reality.

Our school has an advantage—we use reliable 17th-century predictive techniques that have proven effective in practice. Using these methods, we will test whether relocation truly works.

The Year's Key Event According to Directions

Here is the situation: We have a young woman's natal chart, and we are examining the main event that is expected to happen in her life in 2012. The year's key event does not depend on the location of the solar return but exists as a potential for realization per se. The solar return only clarifies whether this event will occur and, if so, in what details.

The potential for the event arises from primary directions derived from the natal chart.

In our case, we observe a single significant direction for 2012:

A noble trine of Venus (promittor of a positive event) is approaching Jupiter (the significator of a particular area of life where this positive event will occur).

Let’s start with Jupiter:

• It is located in the 1st house, representing life as a whole. However, this doesn’t specify where to expect the event.
• It rules the 3rd and 5th houses, indicating siblings or children.

In the context of the woman’s life, no events related to siblings are anticipated, but the birth of a child is a pretty plausible option. If our hypothesis is correct, Venus must directly connect to the 5th house to signify a child. Let’s verify this:

• Venus rules the 5th house by exaltation.
• It casts an almost exact aspect to the cusp of the 5th house in its place of exaltation. This specific aspect of Venus promises a child.

Indeed, we see that the promittor of a child approaches Jupiter, the significator of children and life as a whole, which indicates the birth of a child in 2012.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that in the natal chart, Venus is under the influence of Mercury, the ruler of the 9th house. Literally, conception occurs in the context of Mercury and what it represents—namely, a long journey or being abroad.

Now, let’s check which event promittor is approaching another significator of a child—the cusp of the 5th house:

We see that a single aspect approached the significator of a child this year—a trine of Venus in July 2012. And as we recall, Venus promises a child. This serves as a second confirmation of the year’s key event.

Thus, we expect conception to occur in the spring or summer of 2012.

Solar Return for the Place of Residence

Now, we calculate the solar return for the place of residence (which coincides with the birthplace) to check whether conception will occur if the woman does not relocate this year.

I selected the solar return starting in July 2012. Note that the timing of conception indicated by directions (March–July 2012) closely aligns with the beginning of the solar return, where its potential is at its peak.

In this solar return, I focus on just two planets—Jupiter and Venus. Do they repeat their roles as planets of children? Let's see:

• Venus in the solar return conjuncts its natal position, strengthening its natal role. As we recall, it predicts a child. This is the first confirmation.
• Venus is placed in the 5th house of children, not elsewhere in the chart. This is the second confirmation.
• Jupiter is also in the house of children, reaffirming its natal role as the ruler of the 5th house.
• Jupiter (the significator of children) conjuncts Venus (the promittor of children) in this solar return, repeating the configuration of the primary directions.
• The ruler of the upcoming year, Saturn, who rules the 1st house, will manifest under the influence of its dispositor, Venus. This indicates that the year will be centered around conception and pregnancy. This is the fifth confirmation of conception around July of this year.
• Finally, Venus, in the solar return, becomes the ruler of the 5th house of children. This is the sixth confirmation.

Thus, the solar return 6 times confirms that conception will occur around July 2012 (as promised by primary directions). Moreover, the solar return provides additional details about the circumstances of conception:

• This year, Venus is again under Mercury's influence, reiterating its meaning of "conception abroad," as noted earlier.
• Venus becomes the ruler of the 9th house of long journeys, linking conception to foreign countries.
• The ruler of active endeavors, i.e., the 10th house this year, Mars, also comes under the influence of Mercury, the significator of foreign lands in the natal chart. This suggests that part of the year will involve travel.
• Saturn, the ruler of the year's life direction, is located in the 9th house of the solar return. Its trine at 22 degrees Gemini precisely aligns with the cusp of the 9th house in the natal chart—another indication that part of the year will involve travel.
• Venus in the solar return casts a close aspect to the cusp of the solar return's 9th house, once again connecting conception to a distant journey.
• Jupiter in the solar return is in Gemini. This indicates that either conception will not occur, as Jupiter is in detriment, or that conception will happen during travel since Jupiter operates under Mercury's influence, the ruler of the 9th house in the natal chart. Considering all the above, the second interpretation is chosen, further confirming the conception away from home.

Therefore, the solar return for the birthplace clarifies that the year's key event is conception around July 2012, which will occur abroad.

Solar Return for the Relocation

The woman celebrated her solar return in Munich. This gives us a perfect opportunity to test whether relocation works. Let's analyze the solar return for Munich:

• Here, Venus also returned to its natal position, reaffirming its natal role related to children.
• Jupiter, the ruler of the natal 5th house, became the ruler of the year's life (i.e., the ruler of the solar ASC). This is the second confirmation of conception. However, that is where the confirmations end.
• Venus lost its connection to the 5th house in the solar return—it no longer rules or resides in it.
• In the solar return, Jupiter also lost its connection to the 5th house—it is no longer positioned there.

Two confirmations in the solar return are clearly insufficient to realize the year's main event. In other words:

The solar return calculated for the relocation place does not confirm any conception this year.

Event Validation

So, we have two hypotheses:

1. A brief stay in a new location for the solar return does not work; the solar return for the place of residence continues to operate. In this case, we expect that the woman will conceive somewhere away from home around July 2012.
2. Relocation works; in this case, the brief trip to Munich cancels the event (or, rather, prevents the event's potential from manifesting).

Here is what happened in reality. The woman described the events of that year as follows:

My husband and I were in Munich from June 27 to July 7, then we went to the Czech Republic and stayed there until July 20. That's when conception occurred—around July 20. I also gave birth to my first daughter while traveling. My friends even joked that I needed to go abroad to get pregnant.

As you can see, in this specific example, Hypothesis 1 was confirmed: with a short stay in a new place and subsequent return to the place of residence, the solar return for the place of residence continues to operate.

Conclusion

Why do we observe this pattern? As I see it, the answer is that a solar return is tied both to the person's location and natal chart. The essence of a solar return is to form a flow of events or circumstances that facilitate the realization of the year's main event within the conditions where the person spends most of their time.

In our case, the woman spent most of her time living in her hometown, where she already had a family: her husband and first daughter. A brief trip to Munich and subsequent return did not change this context—her husband, family, and living conditions remained constant. If, under these conditions, the stars predetermined a journey, conception, and pregnancy, then this scenario would unfold based on the circumstances of her permanent residence.

For the Munich scenario to manifest, she would have needed to move to Germany beforehand and live there for some time, creating new conditions to activate the local solar return. In that case, according to the Munich solar return, conception would not have occurred in 2012.

The takeaway from this case is to focus on the solar return for the place of permanent residence, where the person is tied to their current circumstances and spends most of their time.

P.S. To deepen your understanding of predictive astrology using natal charts, join the second part of our predictive astrology course.