A few simple geographical concepts to orientate yourself







So now we have gained some understanding of some of the concepts regarding latitude (North-South distances), longitude (East-West distances), time zones and signs of long and short ascension. All of this, as we have already mentioned, is required to orientate ourselves on the atlas and maps for choosing the place that will be the most appropriate one for us to ensure that we have a good RSR.
By proceeding in this way we will often be called upon to add or subtract a series of tome zones to understand where we will spend our RSR. Even in this case the eminent scholar Ciro Discepolo has opened the way for us, providing a series of rules which we will describe.

The first rule is that, taking into account Italy as our reference point, we move westwards – across the meridian, remember? – we will see that the BSR (Basic Solar Return) ascendant will move upwards if instead we moves Eastwards, and the ascendant of the BSR will move downwards. In respect of the latter option, bear in mind the example shown previously, in which a theoretical ascendant under the sign of Taurus in the first radical house would be brought in Gemini in the second radical house by going to Athens (in other words eastbound from Italy).
Always remember that a movement for your trip will have an important significance only if it takes place on a longitudinal basis, in other words carrying out the famous movement from West to East or vice versa. To the contrary, a movement in latitude, in other words from North to South, would gain practically no significance, unless you take into consideration a considerable distance between two places, as occurs, for example, between Halifax (Nova Scotia – Canada) and Stanley (on the Falkland Islands). Check this yourself on the atlas by running your finger on the meridian that links the two locations.

Let’s take a recent example that has been talked about a lot: the recent loss of the popular Mike Bongiorno.
Mike was born on 25 May 1924 at 9.30 pm in New York, and we know for certain that he celebrated his last birthday (on 25 May 2009) in Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia. I can already imagine what you’re thinking; good grief! Lucky for him that he left to ensure himself a year “protected” from troubles; four months later he died!
Yes that’s right… but a fundamental concept should immediately be made clear. A relocated Solar Return does not have the goal of avoiding your death or that of those close to you, and indeed it is Ciro Discepolo who repeats this concept in his Solar Returns essay. To quote him: “We cannot avoid anybody’s death with an aimed return”, which in any case would be taking our fantasies about power a little too seriously!
Always remember that by taking an astrological trip unfortunately we cannot save someone from a serious illness or voluntarily or involuntarily kill someone else. An RSR trip is instead taken to provide us with a “shield”, with protection for the next twelve months, but it will not avoid deaths or misfortunes or illnesses, if they have been on-going for who knows how many years.
What is certain is that before “aiming” an astrological birthday, in other words before choosing a location to go to in order to pass our RSR, each of us should have in mind what we wish to do, in other words to establish some goals to submit to an astrologer who will try and please us by sending us where the stars will help us get better after a long illness, rather than finding a partner, or helping us in financial terms etc.

In the case of Mike Bongiorno, because he was no longer a young man, the astrologer should have firstly thought of his health, and we will see in detail in this case that the astrologer did not give him sound advice, though without doubt in good faith.

Mike Bongiorno was a Gemini with a Capricorn Ascendant.
If he had stayed in Milan – where he lived – he would have had a BSR with a Libra Ascendant (a sign of long ascension, bear this in mind!) at 26° 50’ in the ninth radical house, which is not particularly dangerous but…by looking instead at the planets in his BSR we immediately see that there certainly were dangers in Milan: a threatening Mars on the cusp of the seventh house but still in the sixth by a degree (one of the three extremely dangerous positions according to Ciro Discepolo. Go and read the significance of each planet in the houses of an SR in this section) and then a stellium (an accumulation) of planets in the eighth house: Sun, Mercury and the Moon, which is the equivalent of an Ascendant in the twelfth house.

The person who advised him to leave Milan did the right thing, but unfortunately – even if, let us repeat it, certainly in good faith – advising Mike Bongiorno to go to Riyadh placed an equally dangerous Sun (always in accordance to the rules established by Ciro Discepolo) on the cusp of the seventh house but with a degree still in the sixth house, and thus Bongiorno went from the frying pan into the fire! If to this we add Saturn transiting in bad aspect to its radical Moon …well…the premises were certainly not good. However, let us remind you: it was certainly not the trip to Riyadh which took Mike away, even if we have to admit that the Sun in that position in the RSR emphasised the hard transits that Mike had in 2009 (we refer you to the relevant article of transits interpretations in relation to RSR).

Note also another good thing: since the much loved TV host moved a few meridians east from Milan, he “lowered” his long ascension Ascendant from 26° 50’ of Libra in the ninth radical house to 4° 51’ of Sagittarius in the eleventh radical house, in other words he advanced by a complete sign since – as you can check for yourself – he jumped the sign of Scorpio.
It would have been sufficient to send Mike, for example, to Nassau (Bahamas), and therefore in the opposite direction to the one he went in, in other words West compared to Milan. In that case he would have made his long ascension BSR Ascendant “rise” from 26° 50’ of Libra in the ninth radical House to 14° 35’ of Leo for another degree in the seventh radical house (no particular problems), however putting Mars safely in the ninth RSR House (an excellent position according to the very useful rules defined by Ciro Discepolo) along with Venus, the Moon in the eleventh RSR House and the good Sun and Mercury combination in the tenth RSR house.

Do you now understand how the meridians and short and long ascension scheme works? Without having acquired a certain automatism in regard to these two concepts it is a bit difficult to orientate yourself by guessing to aim a location for a good RSR.

Instead, if you wish, you can now observe a planisphere, starting from where we are, in other words Italy, as an observation point. You will see that, going West we arrive in France, England, Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands, Azores Islands, and then there’s a “hole” which is called the Atlantic Ocean, and then we come to the Bermuda Islands and lastly we arrive to rediscover the “new lands” in the Americas. Therefore, by moving from Italy towards all the territories mentioned above our BSR Ascendant, if we need to act in this sense of course, “rises”: is that clear?

If instead we go East of Italy we find Greece, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the countries in the Middle East (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan), Russia, and then the Maldives, India, China, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, then the Philippines, Australia, the Solomon Islands and New Zealand. Thus, by heading from Italy Eastwards, in other words versus the aforementioned territories, your BSR Ascendant “descends”: understood?

Coming back to the Mike Bongiorno case, a movement towards the east was carried out for his 2009 RSR, even if we strongly recommended him to go West compared to the place he lived in (Milan), in other words to the Bahamas, and in this case, let us remind you once again, since a sign of long ascension (Libra) was the Ascendant in his BSR, in order to gain a significant benefit from his trip he should have moved to the Bahamas to “lift” his BSR Ascendant by a couple of signs: from Libra, all Virgo plus half of Leo, to finish at 14° 35’ in the sign of Leo.

Instead, as far as movements in latitude are concerned (from North to South), bear in mind that as a basic rule you will obtain a little advantage only if your trip takes place over long distances.
To be clear on this: for everyone living in Italy and who move from Italy for their RSR often go towards Paris or London when a long ascendance BSR Ascendant is present (in other words between the sign of Cancer and Sagittarius), which can only give a small advantage – in terms of movement if astrological houses – of no more than a few degrees. If instead we change a short ascension BSR Ascendant (in other words between the sign of Capricorn and Gemini) even just going to London could instead give us a difference of eight, ten, sometimes even up to fifteen degrees “movement”. Especially if the BSR’s short ascension signs are Aquarius, Pisces, Aries and Taurus.

You will therefore have understood that the geographical coordinates of a location very much affect our destiny, exactly like they did at the moment we were born. This is why it makes sense to move to a certain location rather than another on the day of your birthday. If we didn’t give any weight or value to this issue then it would not make any sense calculating birth horoscopes based on the geographical coordinates of the place we were born, since it wouldn’t make any difference…but we know that his isn’t the case!

The time of our birth:
This is strictly related to the choice of destination in which our astrological birthday, or RSR, should be passed.
In fact, just like the exact time of birth provides us a whole series of information regarding our radical sky with the maximum level of precision, in the same way it allows us to find the most suitable place for our RSR with the maximum level of precision.
Remember that if you do not know the time of birth (yours or that of the person you wish to “send” somewhere) the results may even be nullified. Even a difference of ten minutes is enough to get an unfavourable planet in one of the three famous “dangerous houses” and everything will have been in vain. Even for just ten minutes!

So, how can we be sure that the time of our birth is correct? Rather than rely on the often confused memories of our family members (it’s a classic in big families or with old parents who remember “roughly”) the only way is to ask your municipality for an extract – not the birth certificate! - of your birth, which is the only document which contains the time of your birth. This is a certainty which applies to all those born from about the mid-60s onwards, that is for all those born in hospitals and/or clinics.
Instead, for those who were born at home it is necessary to rely on the person who declared the birth with the municipality after the birth, including the time of birth of the person in question.

We would in this case like to recommend to those of you who would like to continuously apply the RSR technique but are not sure of your time of birth to use the RSR to correct it. In this sense, an astrologer who recommends your destination, or you if you’re doing this yourself, should get used to placing favourable planets such as Jupiter and Venus (this rule is always applicable and it is strongly recommended by Ciro Discepolo) in the cusp between two houses. In this way if the time is correct you will make both sectors act (remember that a planet acts with an orbit of 2.5° compared to a house’s cusp. If instead the time is wrong you can check which of the two sectors was positively influenced by the planet. Again from this point of view, as astrologer who is recommending a destination for an aimed birthday for the first time should avoid, at least until he/she is sure of your time of birth, to place Ascendant or planets such as Saturn and Mars in the cusp between two houses, especially if they are the first, sixth, and twelfth house.
There is also a procedure for the correction of a person’s time of birth, which was developed by Ciro Discepolo and which is included in his literature, which includes a three year study of the entrance of Mars in the houses of the birth chart.

Now all you have to do is discover how and why you need to position your SR Ascendant in a house of your birth chart rather than in another one, in the article dedicated to this issue. Enjoy your reading!


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