☽ Lunar Return

Lunar Return Calculator

A lunar return chart is cast for the moment the Moon comes back to the exact degree it held when you were born — which happens roughly every 27.3 days — and is read as the emotional weather of the month that follows. Enter your birth data to calculate this month or any other.

Natal Chart💾 Save

Name

Date

Time

:24h local

Country / Place

Latitude

°'

Longitude

°'

Timezone

☽ Lunar Return Options

Month

LR Location

Use birth location (traditional)

Use current/relocated location

What is a Lunar Return?
Once every ~27.3 days the Moon returns to its exact natal degree. The chart cast for that precise moment describes the emotional tone and key events of the coming month. The LR Ascendant changes sign roughly every 2 hours, making the location important. Use this alongside the Solar Return for the full yearly picture.

☀ Solar Return

How the lunar return works

A return happens a little more than twelve times a year, whenever the Moon arrives back at the exact degree and minute it occupied at your birth. The chart drawn for that instant is read as a description of the month running from it to the next return, which is why the returns overlap the calendar rather than lining up with it.

Because the return is a specific moment rather than a date, the Ascendant and houses of the chart depend on where you are when it happens. This calculator can use your birth place or a location you choose, which is the reason two people born at the same moment get different lunar returns once they live in different places.

What to look at first

The lunar return Ascendant sets the tone of the month and the house framework everything else falls into. The house holding the return Moon shows where the month's emotional attention goes. The aspects the return chart makes to your natal chart are the useful part: they name which pieces of the birth chart this particular month activates.

Questions people ask

How is this different from a solar return?

Same idea, different body and a different span. A solar return is cast when the Sun comes back to its natal degree, once a year, and is read for the year ahead. The lunar return does the same job for a month, which makes it the finer-grained of the two.

Does birth time matter here?

Yes, and more than for most techniques. The Moon moves about half a degree an hour, so an approximate birth time shifts the natal Moon, which shifts the moment of every future return, which shifts the entire return chart. With an uncertain birth time, treat the return date itself as approximate rather than exact.

Should I use my birth place or where I live now?

Where you actually are for the month is the more common choice, on the reasoning that the chart describes your experience of that month and you will be living it there. Astrologers disagree about this, so both options are offered above and comparing the two is a reasonable thing to do.

Related: Solar Return · Moon Phases · Moon Signs