Plan the year your chart is actually asking for
Learn to cast and read a Solar Return, the chart for the birthday year. Use it to plan your own year around what it's built for, then offer it to your clients as a yearly planning session they come back for every birthday.
What changes when you read your year first
It was never a willpower problem
You set the goals. You made the vision board, or the spreadsheet, or both. And somewhere around the third month the whole thing started to feel heavy, like you were dragging the year behind you instead of walking with it.
That isn't a discipline problem. More often it's a timing problem. You were planning a year your chart wasn't describing.
Every year, on or near your birthday, the Sun returns to the exact degree it held the day you were born. Somewhere out there the Sun comes home, and you're on the couch with a laptop and a cold coffee, trying to decide whether this is the year to launch the thing.
The chart cast for that moment is your Solar Return. It describes the year ahead: where your focus naturally goes, what wants to be built, what wants to be finished, and where you'll feel the pull to slow down.
In business terms, it's the brief for your year. Most people never read it.
Your year doesn't start on 1 January
I learned this from my own records. My Hay House contract was signed on 19 June 2023, sixteen days after my business's birthday. Three weeks earlier and it would have belonged to the previous year's chart: a different house, and a completely different story about what that year was for.
Your year begins when your Sun comes home, not when the fireworks go off.
A technique with a return visit built into the sky
Read your own year first. That's where the technique lands, because you feel it working in your own business before you ever explain it to anyone else.
Then take it into your client work. A Solar Return is cast fresh every birthday. Offered as an annual planning session, it gives your clients a reason to come back to you every year, and gives you income you can see coming instead of starting from zero every month.
The toolkit teaches you the technique. How you weave it into your client work is yours.
Everything you need to read your year and plan it
A self-paced kit you'll come back to every birthday. You'll learn how to:
Cast your Solar Return correctly, including which location to use
Read the planets, retrogrades and overall shape of the chart
Interpret your Solar Return Sun, Moon and Ascendant, the three placements that set the tone
Read the aspects to your Solar Return Sun
Turn what you find into clear intentions and a plan for the year
The Solar Return Workbook
56 pages, revised for 2026. Planets, retrogrades, chart shapes and interpretation tables, a real case study from my own chart, and a Solar Powered oracle reading for the year.
Three instructional videos
Step-by-step teaching on casting, reading and interpreting your return.
Fillable worksheets
Type straight into the PDF, from drawing your chart to your reflections. A path from chart to plan you can repeat every year.
Three reference libraries
The Solar Return Sun by house and aspect, the Moon by house, and the Ascendant by sign.
Made for two kinds of reader
If you're new to your birth chart, start there first. This toolkit will make far more sense once you know your way around your houses, and it will still be here.
You run a business, or you're building one, and you want to plan your year with more than a calendar and good intentions.
You're an astrologer who wants a technique you can offer clients year after year, as an annual session rather than another one-off reading.
You can find the planets, signs and houses in a birth chart. That's the level of astrology this toolkit assumes, and the tables do the rest.
You'd rather understand the year yourself, and come back to it every birthday.
Hi, I'm Kathryn
I'm a business astrologer and the founder of the Business Astrology Academy. I was a business coach before I was an astrologer, and the two have never really separated: I use the chart to make better decisions, not to predict them.
I'm the author of the Business Astrology Oracle Deck, published by Hay House, and I train astrologers to bring business strategy into their work. This toolkit is the part of that work you can start at your own kitchen table: your year first, then your clients'.
Your year, read on your terms
Instant access. Yours to use every birthday.
Get the Solar Return ToolkitNot right for you? Email within 7 days of purchase for a full refund.
Before you begin
What do I need to get started?
Your date, place and time of birth. An approximate time still works, but your Ascendant and houses depend on it, so the more accurate your time, the more you can trust them.
How much astrology do I need to know?
Enough to find the planets, signs and houses in your own chart. The interpretation tables for the Sun, Moon and Ascendant, plus the hemisphere and quadrant guides, do the rest.
Do I need a business?
Not at all. Your Solar Return describes your whole year, and plenty of people use it for life as well as work. I've written it with your business in mind because that's where most of my readers want the clarity.
Can I use this with my clients?
Yes. The technique is yours to use in your client work, and that's one of the best ways to use it. The workbook, videos and worksheets are for your personal use, so please don't share or resell them.
When should I use it?
Ideally in the weeks around your birthday, but it works at any point in your Solar Return year. Then again next birthday, and the one after that.
What currency is it in?
USD. Your bank converts it at checkout.
What if it's not right for me?
Email within 7 days of purchase and I'll refund you in full.
What happens after I buy?
You'll get a confirmation email with your receipt and your access link straight away. Questions? Email admin@kathrynhocking.com.
There will never be a perfect time, just the best available time.
Your Solar Return won't hand you a perfect year. What it will do is show you the shape of this one, so you can stop fighting it and start building with it.
xx Kath
Plan my yearAstrology is a planning tool, not a prediction. How you use what you find is always yours to decide.