Solar & lunar returns
The revolution chart — Persian and medieval. Abu Ma'shar, On the Revolutions of the Years of Nativities
Casting a chart for the moment a planet returns to its natal place is medieval practice, given its fullest early form in Abu Ma'shar's book on the revolutions of nativities (translated by Benjamin Dykes as Persian Nativities IV, 2019). The solar return marks the birthday to the minute; the lunar return recurs about every 27.3 days.
What it measures
The exact instant a transiting body regains its natal ecliptic longitude, charted for a chosen place. Because it is a return to longitude, the lunar cycle used is the tropical month — about 27.32 days, roughly thirteen a year.
Where practitioners disagree
- For which place is the return drawn?
The birthplace (ours) — or relocated to where the person actually is that day
A genuine and unsettled dispute; the two can put the return's angles in different signs.
This engine: The birthplace by default, and the location used is always shown.
Sources
- Abu Ma'shar (trans. B. Dykes), Persian Nativities IV: On the Revolutions of the Years of Nativities (2019)