2
Far from a dumb question, it's quite a matter of debate. As far as I know the general medieval practice is to use the birthplace; one dissenter I know was Jean-Baptiste Morin, whose astrological practices were based on his metaphysical and natural philosophy. If I might make a suggestion, a good place to start on the subject is the audio lecture by Ben Dykes (who does not advocate relocation by the way); his instructions are very clear and illustrated by multiple examples.

3
Hello Wolfie,

Since this is basically a "either or" question, look at a few years where you had major events and cast two Solar Returns...

Both likely give information, but one method will (disclaimer: likely ;) ) stand out as THE method.

I did this a long time ago with the 24+ events from my life and the residence method gave better results.

I haven't looked back... ;)

4
hi wolfie,

paying attention to detail is an important requirement when doing anything... your question specifically states you are 'trying to learn medieval astrology.' based on your particular quest, i would skip using any relocated data..

6
I think the revolution cast for the location that one is spending the most time at is more telling generally. I have a personal account back from 1982 when I happened to be residing in Denver, CO during my college years. As most know, if one lives one's entire life at the birth place, your natal angles return every 33 years. It isn't possible otherwise. But I had my natal angles return in Denver when I was 21 and Jupiter and Mars were transiting my ascendant at 2 Scorpio to the degree (there is no place else on earth where this could have happened so exactly - if you follow the oblique horizon one gets the ascendant but not the MC; vice versa if one follows the longitude (meridian), one gets the MC but not the ascendant). It also happened to be my 10th house profection year. It was the most important year of my life.

Those who want to change an otherwise difficult revolution by going somewhere for about a day and returning are likely to be disappointed. To the extent that fate is pressurized by material causes, one had better be ready to mount an equal and opposite pressure to forestall what might be built up as inevitable. Going someplace for a few hours won't generally cut it.
Curtis Manwaring
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC

7
Martin Gansten wrote:Actually, I'd be interested to see any reference to a medieval work stating explicitly that the revolution should be cast for the place of birth. I can't recall seeing the topic discussed at all prior to the (late) Renaissance.
If YOU haven't found a reference, I would like to see it too.

There is a dearth of focused study on the topic of relocation. Not only is there disagreement about relocating itself, but how long must residence be in the relocated position? The default opinion seems to be that natal location reigns. In the absence of evidence this is an opinion. The belief that flying across the planet for 24 hours on your birthday will alter anything, other than your sleep cycles, is an opinion. Nothing wrong with that as long as it's acknowledged.

8
My own continued approach to such matters is to see which techniques are giving hits/repetition (convergence). If every technique was shouting Mars and then you did multiple solar returns, the one that emphasized Mars the most might be the "correct" one, although even then it is probably wiser to say that perhaps the different return charts tell different stories about the year. That is to say each one may emphasized different yet equally important factors. In practice it is probably best to always be humble, keep an open mind, and go with whatever is making sense at that particular moment for that particular chart. As astrologers we fall into the danger of overthinking everything and being torn by slightly different takes on a single technique etc. One example is the 4th/10th father/mother debate. Let the chart speak for itself. In a friend's chart I find that the 4th quite clearly indicated the native's mother because Venus was in Taurus there in the 4th house/sign and disposited the lot of the mother in Libra. Mars was square Venus and during the Mars/Venus firdaria and profected Asc at the 8th sign from the 4th, her mother died of cancer. My point is that we need be careful about assuming a one size fits all.

9
"Dear James
In the two treatises on anniversary revolution by Ibn Ezra that I have published, no geographical location is specified. However, ?Ibn Ezra repeatedly says than many calculations should be done using the table of ascensions for the country where the native was born. See, for example, in my last volume, p. 185, 189, 199, etc.
Best regards,
Shlomo Sela"

10
Martin Gansten wrote:
Actually, I'd be interested to see any reference to a medieval work stating explicitly that the revolution should be cast for the place of birth. I can't recall seeing the topic discussed at all prior to the (late) Renaissance.
I suspect behind this dearth of discussion is the basic fact that for the vast majority of people in the medieval period social mobility was much more limited. This started to change in the early modern period and today has become a significant social reality. So the issue probably wasn't prevalent enough to require a critical rethinking of technique. What a contrast to today where people frequently relocate across not just countries but continents.

One of the social changes that instigated such a discussion was the age of exploration outside Europe in the later 15th century and particularly the settllement of the Americas that followed.

Hence we also see the first debate in the early modern period (eg Cardano, Morin etc) on the technical implications of southern hemisphere nativities in the 17th century.

Mark
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly

12
Mark wrote:Martin Gansten wrote:
Actually, I'd be interested to see any reference to a medieval work stating explicitly that the revolution should be cast for the place of birth. I can't recall seeing the topic discussed at all prior to the (late) Renaissance.
I suspect behind this dearth of discussion is the basic fact that for the vast majority of people in the medieval period social mobility was much more limited. This started to change in the early modern period and today has become a significant social reality. So the issue probably wasn't prevalent enough to require a critical rethinking of technique. What a contrast to today where people frequently relocate across not just countries but continents.

One of the social changes that instigated such a discussion was the age of exploration outside Europe in the later 15th century and particularly the settllement of the Americas that followed.

Hence we also see the first debate in the early modern period (eg Cardano, Morin etc) on the technical implications of southern hemisphere nativities in the 17th century.

Mark
... and most of that mobility was out of distress.
The Pilgrim fathers or their likes, or Australian settlers were all in distress of some kind.

The ones who would move with social enhancement were:

Horoscopes of females who married into wealth family of a distant land.
All those Queens that King Edward married and then chopped them off or horoscopes of Kings who lost and regained their Kingdoms e.g.
: Charles II or Charles De Gaulle,Shah Reza Pahlavi would be helpful.

PD