Any experience with Lunar returns???

bittermoon said:

I am curious how you read them. I tried to read the last couple of lunar returns like I do with solars. They actually seemed quite positive on the love and job front. Neither of them materialised. Not even close. Perhaps I'm not reading them right.

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You read them like a Solar Return, yes. But you have to work towards them, they don't just happen. Like, if the chart says you'll get a job, it doesn't mean you're going to wake up one day and be at work. You have to look for a job, fill out applications, etc. Sometimes they're practically handed to you, and you just disregard them for various reasons without thinking your Lunar Return is playing out. The same applies to love, if you just sit home or avoid potential suitors it'll never happen.

Other times it does play out, just in subtle ways or not in ways you'd hope. Or maybe you're just missing key pieces of information that point to it not happening (oh joy, Venus in the 5th! not realizing it's peregrine).

You also have to look at your natal and realize your limitations. Your Lunar Return can say you'll win the lottery, but if your natal says you'll be poor your whole life, stop playing the big jackpot games because it just won't happen.

A more profitable method is looking at the Lunar Mansions; I must say, however, that the Vedic methods for Lunar consideration, the nakshatras (their Lunar Mansions) and special techniques for judging the forthcoming influences of the Moon, are quite advanced and often yield interesting results (note: one can use our Tropical zodiac when applying the various Vedic Lunar methods, one does not necessarily have to use the sidereal zodiac)

MSO, well yes, of course you have to work towards them. In the last few months I have been applying for jobs, and I have left the house so I could perhaps 'meet' new people.

Funny you mention the Venus example, because that's exactly what I had. LR Venus, also my LR chart ruler, was in the 5th house, conjunct my natal Asc. It indeed was in a pitted degree. Perhaps a good thing I did not realise that at the time. I tend to withdraw into my own world, then don't want to go out anymore. At least it was good for me to socialise that much.

Dr. Farr, I don't understand anything you wrote, but I will do some research into lunar mansions.

Don't let it bother you! A lot of what I have to say is pretty far out (far out Farr!) But do investigate the Lunar Mansions (there is much historical evidence that these were the original "zodiac", long before the constellations/signs we are familiar with over the past 2000 years) There are 28 Mansions (or if you investigate the nakshatras-the Vedic term for Lunar Mansions-they use 27) and in a way its like a "sub-zodiac", and they are especially useful for predictive applications, and in making elections (choosing favorable times for undertaking certain activities)

I am all in favour of far(r)-out-of-the-box approaches, dr. Farr!

It is also perhaps my perspective. I feel I need to get back into my happy zone. When I felt good, energised, happy, healthy, and worthy, good things came very easily to me. I have some heavy transits going on in my chart right now, so I am looking for anything positive to focus on, to pick me up, to give me hope. Of course, in that state one might overlook a thing or two (such as a 5th house Venus in Pisces... nice... a pitted degree.... not so much).

Perhaps I'm too attached to read my own Lunar Returns.

Those pitted degrees are a bummer, but I don't really put too much weight onto them (I do, just not too much). For example, you may have a planet on a raised degree in exaltation, but it's in a bad house (say the 8th or 6th). You're still going to have a rough time of it.

As for your Venus example, I personally do not believe Venus functions very well in the 5th House. I see the 5th house as being about action. You have fun, you play games, you have sex. You don't admire having fun, you don't yearn to play games, you don't desire to have sex. That's what Venus does, it makes them enjoyable, but it doesn't give you the oomph to get up and do it. Now Mars, heh. That's a planet that knows how to enjoy the 5th House.

No, instead I see the 11th as a great place for Venus. al Biruni describes the 11th House as "Happiness, friends, enemies, concern for the next world, prayer and praise, friendship of women, love, dress, perfume, ornaments, commerce, longevity." Now that's Venus if I've ever seen it.

Interpreting charts like this can be very difficult, you just need to learn more and keep trying to decipher what's going on. I look at my Lunar Returns and I try to make predictions based on what I see. I write my predictions down and wait until the end of the month to see what happened. Then I look back over my chart and compare notes. For me, that's the best way to learn. For others it may be a bit tedious (and time-consuming, naturally), but it's the best advice I know to give at the current moment.

In the Greco/Roman experience, Venus joys in the 10th house; certainly Venus is benefited in the 11th (the joy of Jupiter), and probably very resonant with the significations of that house, as MSO suggests.

Vedic astrology generally allocates benefic results to a 5th house Venus, provided the planet is not debilitated (by being in a sign of detriment or fall), eg some quotes from Vedic authors (Bhrigu, Brihat Jataka, Saravali)
"...person concerned will be intelligent...native will be wealthy and honored, will have happiness from children, and will be very intelligent...native will be happy, have children and friends, be very fond of enjoyments and pleasures, and will be wealthy...native will get success in his undertakings but only by hard work..."

These indications being modified by a variety of other concommitant influences, as always!