I find Solar Returns to be very reliable...not necessarily for predicting death. Lunar Returns? Yes and no. I know this makes me sound obsessive but in an experiment to see how reliable they are, I've been looking at my lunar returns for the past year and comparing it to what I've written in my journal/what I actually remember happening that month. I generally find that the months just go by too fast to really mean anything, but I have noticed that during my most climatic months, a lunar return angle was conjunct the SR moon (which is also the ruler of the SR chart 2015-2016).
When I got into the astrology business back in the 1970's, the glamour boy at that time was this opera star turned astrologer named Noel Tyl.
Tyl was feted like some rock star and I have no idea why, in the same way that I do not completely understand why Donald Trump is popular or even the future President ! My own natal chart is quite weak and not very powerful, but some charts are perhaps better (luckier?) than others ?
Tyl then touted his encyclopedic, 12 volume
Principals and Practice of Astrology, with b.s. spin and marketing similar to a New York ad agency ? which included the vastly over rated Solar Return and the equally overrated Lunar Return, complete with diagrams and testimonials and it was peddled to us in the astrology community like swiss cheese.
Meanwhile, HITLER was given a profile in Tyl's
Principles series ? What for ? , we know that all of you Capricorns have a little bit of "Nazi" in you, why study Hitler? LOL you might as well study Donald Trump !
Fortunately, I am not sucked in, that easily ?
Companies like Neil Michelsen's Astro Computing Services made a freaking fortune back then, printing out solar returns and lunar returns for the public, at a buck a shot !
But, here's the problem. The Solar Return is bullsh*t and highly over-rated and astrologers like Noel Tyl deceived the public merely to sell their books !
And my own home library has all types of books; Tyl's books, Hand's books, books on the solar return like Alexander Volguine's, and I even took in a live seminar from the late Lois Rodden on Solar Returns, Lunar Returns, and even Mercury Returns !
Well, 40 years later, ask Herr Tyl what he thinks of solar returns and lunar returns, now ! LOL
Tyl disowns them ! Thinks they don't work for him, yet he wrote books about this technique ! But, guess what, his new love, which he touts in his newer books, is solar arcs, which absolutely REEK, FAILS, when it comes to accuracy and relevancy !
I had a personal reading done once by Tyl and the natal reading absolutely s*cked !
So yes, solar and lunar returns are a big fail ! Then, there is the thorny question of which solar return location works best, the one for the birth location, or wherever you happen to be on the date of the solar return !
Thankfully, I won't be lulled into that debate !