How to read your astrocartography map: Beginner’s guide
Astrocartography, often referred to as the astrology of place or locational astrology, is a tool for understanding your soul’s journey around the world and how different parts of you become alive depending on where in the world you’re based.
If you’re unfamiliar with astrology, here’s a simple way to think about it: just as astrology can give you insights into your personality, relationships, and life path, astrocartography extends this concept by showing how you and your life can look like in different places around the world.
In this blog post, I’m going to share tips on how to read your astrocartography map so you can use this insight to make informed decisions about relocating.
What is astrocartography?
Your birth chart is a snapshot of the sky at the exact time and place of your birth. This chart is divided into different areas that correspond to various aspects of life, such as career, love, and home.
Astrocartography projects this chart onto a world map, showing where each planet’s influence is most potent - these are called astrocartography lines or planetary lines.
By understanding these planetary lines, you can find out how different places impact your life and well-being.
By analyzing your astrocartography chart, you gain insights into which locations might bring out the best in you—or where you might encounter challenges.
However, both supportive and challenging energies are rooted in your natal chart - they are not native to any locations. By relocating, you simply make certain parts of your life’s journey (your natal chart) more in/visible and, potentially, easier to deal with or accept.
In this sense, learning how to read your astrocartography map also requires that you intimately get to know your natal chart.
Step 1: Generate your astrocartography chart
The first step in getting started with astrocartography is to create your personalized map. Here's how:
Gather your birth details: Before you can generate your astrocartography map, you need to have accurate birth details: date, time, and place of birth. The more precise your birth time, the more accurate your map will be.
Use an astrocartography tool: Several online tools can generate your astrocartography map for free. Some popular options include Astro.com and Astrodienst. I suggest Astro.com as it allows you to effortlessly zoom in and out of locations. Enter your birth details, and the tool will create a map highlighting various lines representing planetary influences.
Step 2: Understand the basics of the astrocartography map
Astrocartography lines: Your astrocartography map will feature different lines, each representing the influence of a specific planet. These lines include (with brief and generic explanations of these lines):
☉ Sun line: Where you can express your true self but where you may become dependent on external validation.
☾ Moon line: Locations that can make you feel right at home or terribly emotional.
☿ Mercury line: Where your life may be marked by lots of communication, learning, writing and networking.
♀ Venus line: Areas where love, beauty, and harmony are enhanced, but where you may become equally lazy and idle.
♂ Mars line: Places that boost your energy, drive, and passion (which also includes firey anger).
♃ Jupiter line: Where opportunities for growth and luck can occur, but you may equally find yourself overdoing things or experiencing extremes.
♄ Saturn line: Locations where discipline, structure, and challenges arise.
♆ Neptune line: Great for artists and healers, but not so great for seeing things clearly and settling down.
♇ Pluto line: Where your soul will go through many reinventions - a constant “out with the old, in with the new”
☊ Moon’s Node line: Where your soul’s purpose can be realized.
Chiron line: Where you may feel sensitive and find yourself wanting to heal yourself or others.
These are the power lines, but you will also find minor astrocartography lines (aspects) on your map that you will also experience equally as much. Regardless of the line, you are within the sphere of influence of a line within 250 km / 155 miles left and right of the line.
Note the angles: Alongside the symbols for the planets, you’ll notice abbreviations such as MC, DC, AC and IC. These are the angles in your natal chart and they tell which part of your life do these planets touch.
Midheaven (MC) - your career and public aspirations
Descendant (DC) - your relationships, your projections
Ascendant (AC) - how you come across to others, your identity
Imum Coeli (IC) - your inner self, your home life
Note line crossings: Pay attention to places where two or more lines intersect. These areas can be particularly powerful, bringing together multiple planetary influences. Astro.com lists these crossings, but make sure that these are within 1 degree orb (check the latitude coordinates of the location compared to the crossing) as crossings do not have as wide of a sphere of influences as astrocartography lines.
Step 3: How to read your astrocartography map
After identifying the key lines and crossings on your map, it’s time to interpret what they mean for you:
Start with locations you’re deeply familiar with: Look at locations where you’ve lived for an extended period of time - which astrocartography lines do you see there? Which angles do they activate (MC, AC, DC, IC)? Where do these planets land in your natal chart (which house and sign?) How does the planetary energy and which part of your life it influences resonate with what you experienced in that location? By first allowing yourself to connect with the planetary energies that you were exposed to for long periods of time, you’ll get a first-hand experience of how astrocartography works in your life.
Look up specific places you’re drawn to: Now look up specific places that you’re drawn to, have travelled to or you’re considering relocation to. Which astrocartography lines do you see there? Which angles do they activate (MC, AC, DC, IC)? Where do these planets land in your natal chart (which house and sign?) How does it make you feel to have this part of your life coming to prominence? Does it align with your goals?
Pull up your relocated birth chart: If you want to go even deeper, generate your birth chart as if you had been born in your desired location and change your birth time to match the local timezone. This is called a relocated birth chart and it gives you detailed insight into how different parts of your life will change should you choose to relocate. How do the planets move around in your chart? What does it mean for different parts of your life in that location? Does it align with your goals?
If you don’t have any locations in mind: This requires that you’re very clear on your goals and what you want to focus on that your next location is supposed to support you with. Then look up the corresponding house in your natal chart and the planetary ruler that is associated with the sign of that house. This is the planetary line that you need to look for in your astrocartopgrahy map (alongside the appropriate angle - MC, AC, DC, IC). You can also look for the planetary lines that you find in the relevant house in your natal chart (if any). This will ensure that the location you’re considering moving to will bring focus to the desired part of your life. However, if there are challenges in your natal chart in this part of your life, these will also be activated if you go ahead with relocating (this is not something to be afraid of - it’s part of your soul’s mission to work through this aspect in your life regardless of where you’re based). You may then want to generate a relocated chart for this location to dive deeper into how your life could play out in that location.
Astrocartography can be complex, but as a beginner, focus on understanding the basic influences of the main planetary lines. As you become more comfortable, you can dive deeper into aspects and secondary lines.
You should also remember to use astrocartograph as a guide, not a restrictive rulebook. Trust that you’re drawn to specific locations for a reason and you need to trust your intuition above all else.
It’s more worthwhile to relocate with eyes wide open about what may be in store for you in your desired location, rather than prevent yourself from relocating in fear of something bad happening.
If you want more detailed guidance on how to find supportive locations for you around the world, download this free astrocartography guide.
If you want personalized guidance to help you decide on relocating, book a reading with me here.