One of the most popular readings amongst my clients is the annual birthday reading. It is also the most popular reading for which I get requests for gift certificates. Fortunately, it doesn't have to take place on your birthday itself, but most people like to book the reading for a date within about a month of their birthday.

Astrologically speaking your birthday is an outstanding opportunity to annually assess where you are in life and to take a look ahead into a new year. Aside from being great fun, this reading is one of the strongest tools available to liberate your free choice from the hurly-burley chaos of the material world.

If you have an accurate time of birth, we look at your Solar Return chart to get the big picture of what trends are in front of you. While the Solar Return chart paints with a fairly broad brush, it is quite useful to set the stage as to the temper of your year. Potential areas of activity or non-activity in your life are fairly clearly delineated in the Solar Return chart.

The core of the reading, however, is the detailed look at transits and progressions going through your chart for the next year. These are the "windows of opportunity" everyone has every year of their life to clean up the crud and get going on something new and wonderful. The only catch is that each year they are quite different from the year before.

In life change sometimes comes rapidly, sometimes slowly. Here is the chance to know ahead of time which it will be, and more importantly: when.

What sort of change is coming? That depends on a lot of factors, the most important of which is your free choice. If you choose to go with the energies of change constructively, then you'll be fine, whether the energies be fast, slow, or some mix which is as unique as you are.

In Karmic Astrology we pay particular attention to the transits of Jupiter, Saturn and the outer planets (Chiron, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto). These are the planets which by transit open up periods of time when spiritual growth takes place. Sometimes they are indicators of events, but not always.

Ultimately growth has to come from within. Sometimes growth manifests as an external "event" in life although experienced individuals know that is not always the case. A change of consciousness often can be more profound than soap opera of events taking place (and a lot easier to handle). Most spiritually experienced individuals try to avoid the soap operas. The birthday reading can help a lot with that more mature approach.

With modern ephemeris calculation we can now pinpoint usually to within a day when an energy of spiritual change will enter or leave a person's life. Sometimes these energies are only present for a few days, but other times the energies ebb and flow over a period of many months. By knowing their exact timing for the entire year, you can plan your life around your spiritual evolution (and even keep your day job, if you like).

These energies do not work in your life separate from your life. They are part of your life. So if you have a few interesting or complex things going on in your life (and who amongst us does not?), these energies of change interact with your life. While it is your job is to get that interaction to work in a useful fashion, and the astrological reading is designed to give you the head start necessary to achieve your spiritual goals by planning.

For instance if you're thinking of a job change (often a dharmic issue for the spiritually aware person), and you know that three months down the line a very strong energy of rapid change is due to burst forth in your life (otherwise known as a Uranus transit) for six weeks, it makes sense to get your resume updated and circulated now and get your networking going now.

That way when the energy of change happens, you're fully prepared to seize the day. In the case of a Uranus transit, it's also useful to be prepared for the unexpected (which is not an oxymoron--there's much which can be done). "Carpe diem" is a philosophy of life which can be handled in a practical way.

We go through every week and month of the upcoming year in this fashion. It makes no difference what the energy is coming into your life. If you are prepared to work with it, you'll come out on top.

Recognize that I am only the Cosmic weather forecaster. I can tell you in detail what the energies are and when you'll be experiencing them, but that's all I can do. You have to decide what, if anything, you are going to do with those energies. Happily I generally have clients who are quite motivated to make such decisions. They're the really neat people in this world.

Regardless of where a person might be on their spiritual journey (just getting started or a seasoned veteran), the birthday reading is a unique opportunity to step back and look at the general drift of life direction and then get right into the ebb and flow of life knowing that the changes life brings also bring the next steps on your spiritual path.

Life and the spiritual path are one and the same. The idea of the birthday reading is to give you the tools to have them work together harmoniously every single day of your next year. It's one of the nicest birthday gifts you can give to yourself or to someone you really care about.

Like all the astrology readings, your birthday reading is tape-recorded and you get the tape, and you also receive the full-colour copy of your natal and solar return charts. The reading usually lasts only an hour, but it's an hour jam-packed with practical information on how to take advantage of opportunities to take off spiritually. Please have your accurate birth data at hand at the time you book your appointment. Click here for the fee schedule.