Astrocartography: Where is the best place?

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Before diving in, if you’ve never heard of astrocartography and aren’t sure what it’s all about, you can first read An Intro to Astrocartography.

For everyone else who already knows a little about astrocartography and the power it offers in understanding the story of location, now you might be wondering how you can take action based on your own astro map. Where is the best place to be?

Where is the best place based on your astrocartography map?

The short answer is that it depends. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all rule to follow that marks the spot on your map. There are some generalizations and a few things we can look out for while considering your priorities in life, but to know the full story requires professionally analyzing your astrocartography map because your birth chart and map are unique to you.

It’s also important to remember that there is no such thing as the perfect place. There isn’t a place in the world where every part of life is harmonious at all times because life just doesn’t work like that. We all have challenges at some point in our self-development, family, relationships, career, etc. It’s more about what’s most important to you in life right now and what you would like to experience in a place that should help you determine where is best for you.

What are your priorities right now?

First think about what you want most out of life at this moment. If you were to move or relocate, what do you want most in a place? Try to be more specific than ‘overall wellness’ because there is no perfect place or perfect chart that has it all. Is it most important to you at this point in your life to build and grow a business? Settle down and have a family? Take a break and adventure traveling around the world? Live more in nature and develop your spirituality? Find love and enjoy romance? Improve your health and fitness? Find community with like-minded people? What comes up for you as most important?

Next go deeper on what you want exactly. If your priority is a place to settle down and call home, what is your ideal home situation? Is home your private, peaceful sanctuary or a place where everyone gathers regularly? Do you want to be in a warm or cold climate? Are the politics and religion of the location important to you? Are you open to living in another culture and learning a foreign language, or do you prefer to stay within your home country?

These are just a few things to consider to be able to make the most out of your astrocartography map.

Planetary Lines

Once you know your priorities, we can start looking at the astrocartography map. There are over 40 lines on your map (and even more if you include other objects like asteroids). For every planet, there are 4 lines, one for each of the angles. These lines combine the meaning of the planet with the angle. The four angles and their meanings are as follows:

Ascendant (AC or AS) - personal, will, and identity

Imum Coeli (IC) - home, family, ancestry

Descendant (DC or DS) - others, relationships

Midheaven (MC) - career, public image

Since each planet has a line for each angle, you have for example the lines Sun AC, Sun IC, Sun DC, Sun MC, then Moon AC, Moon IC, Moon DC, Moon MC, and so on. These lines also have a range of about 700 miles, and the closer you are to one, the stronger you’ll feel it.

So which of the planetary lines are the best?

This will depend on the placement of a planet in your chart. Some planets are ‘happiest’ in certain signs and houses, or ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘strained’ in others. Easy and hard aspects can also significantly affect how they play out. Look out for planets that have more trines and sextiles rather than squares and oppositions for an easier, supportive experience, or vice versa if you are looking for a challenge and some growth.

If you have a day chart (the Sun was above your AC/DC axis at the time of your birth), Jupiter is usually your most supportive planet and Mars your most challenging. If you have a night chart (the Sun was below your AC/DC axis), Venus is usually your most supportive planet and Saturn your most challenging.

Generally Venus and Jupiter are considered the most positive and supportive planets. Venus is about love, pleasure, and creativity, while Jupiter is about expansion, good luck, and optimism. All planets have a shadow side though, so it could also play out as indulgence, excess, arrogance, and laziness. However, it depends on their placement in your chart. If there are a lot of challenging aspects or if the planet is in a difficult zodiac sign or house, that planet might actually be more challenging than supportive.

On the flip side, Mars and Saturn are generally considered the most negative and challenging planets. Mars is about conflict, competition, and frustration, but also ambition, vitality, and leadership. Saturn is about delays, discipline, and feeling stuck, but also productivity, organization, and responsibility. Again, it depends on the planet’s placement in your chart to get an idea of how it may play out when you relocate. For some Saturn or Mars are favorite lines, so it all depends on their placement and what you're looking for.

And how do you know if you should be on an AC, IC, DC, or MC line? That depends on your priorities and what is available on your map in your desired regions. Maybe you’re most concerned with career, so then we would look especially at MC lines, or if it’s about home and family, we would focus on IC lines. If you want to find your people or a romantic partner, it's about the DC lines, and if you want to focus on yourself and your growth, it's about the AC lines.

Here are a few keywords that describe a few themes of each planet you’ll find on your map to help you get a general idea, but remember that the details are dependent on your birth chart.

Sun - identity, visibility, self-esteem, ego

Moon - emotions, intuition, self-care, family

Mercury - communication, learning, quick, spontaneous

Venus - love, beauty, art, indulgence

Mars - ambition, action, leadership, conflict

Jupiter - expansion, success, confidence, growth

Saturn - restriction, delays, authority, responsibility

Uranus - freedom, authenticity, surprises, innovation

Neptune - spirituality, creativity, escapism, idealism

Pluto - transformation, psychology, power, truth

Chiron - inner child wounds, trauma, healing

Continuing with our example of prioritizing finding a new place to call home, let’s say you have Moon in domicile in Cancer in your chart, which is a sign in which the Moon is happy and comfortable, and it has trines and sextiles, all of which are easy and supportive aspects, making your Moon lines overall quite supportive. With that, living near a Moon IC line would be a lovely option, especially since the Moon on the IC can be a telltale sign of a place feeling like home. Living especially within 200 miles of that line would be a place of comfort, nurturing, and emotional bonding in the home.

Parans

However, other details in astrocartography can make or break what you’re looking for in a place. We also have to consider parans, which are the latitudinal lines formed where two planetary lines meet. These lines don’t depend on their placement in your chart, so for example a Moon/Jupiter paran is combining the energies of Moon and Jupiter and is generally very positive for everyone.

Parans have about a 70 mile range north or south, and the closer you are, the stronger the influence. These can highly affect your experience of a location. So you could be near a supportive planetary line, but also within a few miles of a difficult paran like Mars/Saturn, and that paran could color your experience of a place to be challenging. You don’t have to move far to decrease that influence though!

Note that as of the time of writing this post, professional astrology software is needed to accurately view parans on the map. It’s possible to get a sense of them on astro.com, but you can’t see where exactly and how far away they are from a particular location.

Relocated Chart

After planetary lines and parans is checking the relocated chart. This is a chart that represents the planets at the time of your birth but at different places around the world. Planets are still in the same signs as in your birth chart, but when you move, the planets may change houses, so different areas of life come into focus. The angles and their aspects may change too, and this can affect how you feel about yourself (AC), your home and family (IC), your relationships (DC), and your career and public image (MC).

With our example of living near a Moon IC line, we know that the Moon is on the IC, but we’ll need to check the relocated chart to see which houses all the planets are in and aspects to the angles. What planets are on the angles? Where did planets with squares and oppositions or the planets with sextiles and trines shift? Which houses/themes in life are more supportive or challenging in this location? How will you feel here (AC), how will your relationships go (DC), and how will your career go (MC)? These are all answers in interpretation of the relocated chart.

Other astrocartography details

The planetary lines, parans, and relocated chart together will tell you the majority of the story of a place, but to get more details or fine tune on a location, we would also look at local space lines, aspects, midpoints, and cyclocartography. That is a lot more detail that we’ll save for another time, but know that the stories on your astrocartography map are so much more than the planetary lines.

There is no perfect place

Lastly I want to reiterate that although you can find the best places for you based on your priorities through astrocartography, there is no such thing as a perfect place. We are all human and experience ups and downs throughout life. We are meant to grow and overcome challenges, and that will happen no matter where you are. Transits reflect what's affecting everyone everywhere, and your birth chart and astrocartography map are with you for life. We all face hardship and happiness in cycles, and the power of astrocartography is awareness of the story of where we are and maximizing it to our advantage for our growth and desired experiences. Whether you see challenging or supportive lines, there’s a reason your intuition is calling you to a place to experience a story that is waiting for you.

Astrocartography Readings

Astrocartography can quickly escalate in complexity, but I hope by now you have a better understanding of your astrocartography map! If you would like professional guidance on finding the best place for you to move, go on a retreat, or build your business, you can book a written or live reading with me here! We'll go over everything mentioned above and more!

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Astrocartography: Where is the best place?

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