In the Astrological world, birthdays are one of the most important anchor points of your year. They are referred to as your Solar Return as this is when the Sun (solar) is returning to exactly the same spot it was when you were born. Like an adventurer returning home, your birthday signifies that you have reached the end of a year-long cycle and that a new, different adventure is about to be starting on your journey of life.

Rather than being a day solely to celebrate your birth, it is also a day which signifies the beginning of your very own new year. Unlike the collective new year experience on the 1st January when nothing fundamentally changes, this isn’t the case when it comes to your personalized new year.

Over 2,000 years ago, classical astrologers had developed techniques that dived more deeply into the experience of each birth year. They understood that different parts of life would be activated in different years and placed this information within a 12 year cycle. While this information was lost for hundreds of years, since it was retrieved 30 years ago, many people now understand the importance of their birthday from a different perspective.

In this stunning book, Prue Nichols explains the ‘annual profections’ technique (which only requires knowledge of your birth date) – an illuminating way to look at the themes and patterns in our lives.