The moment of your astrological birthday, called the Solar Return, results in a special chart each year. This chart shows what special opportunities and challenges you will face between this birthday and next. Many people consult astrologers for an annual update around their birthday for precisely that reason.

Your astrological birthday is not always the same as your chronological birthday but may be a day before or after. This is true for the same reason we need a leap year every four years--the true year is 365.25 days, so there is a four-year cycle in Solar Returns as well. To be technical, this moment--which we rely on astrological software to find--occurs when the Sun returns to the same zodiacal degree, minute, and second it was at your birth. (Find out how to order this chart below.)

A healing application of this technique is that you can make a one-of-a-kind essence at the moment of the Solar Return that will help you make the most of the opportunities of the coming year and strengthen you against the challenges. I am not talking about a mixture of your favorite essences by various companies, though that could be helpful too, but instead about actually creating an essence yourself.

It would be considered a Cosmic or Environmental Essence, based on the astrological pattern in the heavens at that moment. It is similar to various essences made at full moons or eclipses, like WWES' Full Moonlight Essences or the Hale-Bopp Comet Essence made by Earth Essence.

I made this happy discovery by accident one year around my birthday, which is chronologically on July 5th, but astrologically is sometimes as early as the 4th and sometimes as late as the 6th. It happened that my Solar Return that particular year was late on the evening of July 4th.

At that time, I was part of a local group of people who were making and testing essences, and one member, Bev Mustin, was known for making unusual essences. (One she made during a hailstorm was fairly catalytic, while the thought of another of hers makes me shudder to this day--garden slug!) However, on that particular 4th of July evening, Bev made an essence at the height of a spectacular firework display.

When she gave me a bottle of her fireworks essence, I thought, "That was just about the time of my Solar Return. I wonder if it would help me with some of the tough aspects in that chart?" I began taking the essence, and, sure enough, it did seem to help me move quickly through some of the conflicts and challenges shown in my Solar Return. I returned to her essence periodically all that year when the same difficulties arose in various situations, and it always helped.

The experience lead me to conclude that anyone who got a Solar Return chart and had a sense of both the challenges and the opportunities promised in the chart could create a potent essence for themselves for the year. General instructions on how to make an essence are given in some of the articles in our index, but some special methodology or ritual would be needed to "set" the astrological factors into the water.

For instance, for a period of at least 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after the Solar Return moment, you could put a copy of the Solar Return chart underneath a clear glass bowl of spring water and concentrate on what you know about the chart.

You might ponder the Moon sign, Ascendant, and any special astrological patterns it contains. You might focus on each of the planets in the solar system in some way--say by looking at pictures of them or mentally invoking them--and announce your intentions in the realm of life that planet represents. If you wanted to do more writing in the year to come, for example, you might invoke Mercury.

If you're a beginner at astrology, you might instead use the half hour or so it would take to set the essence as a special time to meditate on the challenges you are facing, your current goals, and things that are going well that you would like to enhance. While you might not understand the astrological patterns in a concrete way, you will pick up on them intuitively.

Complete the ritual in some suitable fashion, like writing your wishes and intentions for the coming year on paper and burning them. When you intuitively sense that the astrological patterns are "set," into the water, procede with turning that water (called the "mother") into an essence by following the instructions in the articles in the Making and Testing Essences section of our Articles Index.

Be sure to mix the resulting "stock" essence into a dosage bottle that you can come back to in the months that follow whenever you feel the need. This essence is a personal one, for you and you alone, because it is unlikely that you'd ever meet anyone who shares your exact Solar Return.

But when, exactly, is your astrological birthday this year? Unless you have the software for it, the only way to know the precise moment of your Solar Return is to have a chart service or astrologer do one for you.

You'd need to supply your original day, month, time, and place of birth, and also--if you're not spending your birthday in your birthplace--to specify where you will be on your birthday. One place on the net where you can order your Solar Return is AstroLabe--choose Option 2. I would love to hear more about your experiences as you work with the resulting essence.

BIO: DONNA CUNNINGHAM does astrological consultations by appointment and is avilable to interpret solar returns, which would be a great birthday gift for a friend or loved one--or for yourself!

Donna, who is one of the editors of this e-zine, has a master's degree in social work from Columbia University and is also an internationally-respected astrologer with over thirty years experience. The author of thirteen astrological and metaphysical books, Donna's FLOWER REMEDIES HANDBOOK can be ordered on our book page. Click here to visit her web page or to send her e-mail.

ART CREDITS: This background was created by Starbaby Designs. The birthday art came from Kids Domain, and the animations from the Animated Gif Archive.

The World Wide Essence Society does not mean to imply any recommendation of nor give certification to any individuals or companies above. This article is provided purely for informational purposes. We ask consumers to make their own determination as to quality of the services and products offered above. This article is not meant to be advice, and the information is not meant to replace medical or psychological treatment.

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