What is Astrocartography?
Have you ever noticed how we each experience travel destinations in a unique way? Perhaps you’ve been to a place before where you felt a deep connection, or maybe you’re feeling drawn to somewhere and don’t have any logical reasons for it. In this blog post, I’m going to introduce you to Astrocartography, a fascinating technique that generates a world map connected to your astrological birth chart.
By understanding the energies and experiences associated with different locations, Astrocartography can offer valuable insights into why we feel certain connections to particular places and what experiences we might attract when we travel.
If you love travel and astrology, this might be a new portal to you and I’m really excited to share with you.
How does Astrocartography work?
I don’t know how familiar you are with Astrology. Basically, in natal astrology we cast your birth chart. This is a scheme that shows how the planets were positioned at the moment of your birth from the perspective of the place you were born.
So let’s say you were born at 6am, the sun was rising in your birth town. At the same moment, on the other side of the world, it was setting. Meaning, were you born in this other place, you wouldn’t see the sky in the same way.
What Astrocartography does, is that it shows you how your birth chart is different when you change the location. That doesn’t mean when you move your birth chart changes. But this relocated chart will show you how you may experience things when you travel.
Next, let’s talk about a building block of the astrocartography map: cardinal points.
The cardinal points
There are 4 cardinal points:
Ascendant - where a planet is at the most eastern part of the chart, representing how you see the world and yourself
Descendant - the point opposite the ascendant, representing important relationships
Midheaven - where a planet reaches the highest point in the sky, representing your career, actions and reputation
Imum Coeli - the point opposite the midheaven, symbolizing your inner world, your family and roots
The reason why we’re talking about these points is because when a planet is one of them, it becomes really powerful. And so, sometimes you can travel to a place where one planet is cardinal and this will tell you a lot about your experience there.
The major contribution of astrologer Jim Lewis is that he created a map where we can see right away where in the world a particular planet is cardinal.
If you’re a curious person like me you want to see what your ACG map looks like! It’s very easy to do it, Iet me show you…
How to create your Astrocartography map for free
First you have to go to astro.com and create a profile with accurate birth data. It’s really important that you make sure your birth time is exact.
Then click on Free Horoscopes > Locational Astrology > AstroClick Travel
That’s it! Don’t take the general descriptions as the ultimate truth, I’ll explain why…
Planets are archetypes. What I mean by that is, we think about Venus as love, but the way each person deals with that is unique. No two people will have the same experiences when traveling to the same line.
That’s why the answer to the question: “what is the best line” doesn’t exist. And if someone tries to sell you that, run!
That being said, it’s important to understand these archetypes in order to assess your integration, or how you are living them. I’ve prepared an e-book to help you decode their meaning in your life. You can download it for free by clicking here.
What are Shadowed Planets?
Think of planets as parts of our psyche. We all have every one of them. However some of them are conscious and others not.
Jim Lewis explained the differences between our experiences in astrocartography lines with the concept of shadowed planets.
A shadowed planet is a part of yourself which has not yet become fully conscious. One example is Mars/ Venus. Most women will identify themselves more with Venus and most Men with Mars. We might feel more comfortable in a line that is well assimilated, while planets we don’t see as part of ourselves may lead us to denial or external events to help us see them. Maybe she’ll feel compelled to start acting in a more assertive way or she’ll meet people that represent this martian energy.
Going deeper: Relocated chart
If you’re already familiar with your natal chart and want to go into more detail in your Astrocartography, you can also cast your relocated chart. While in the astrocartography map you have a global vision of planetary energies around the world, this chart looks like the birth chart but for the place you’re interested in.
You can notice if there are any angular planets, if your ascendant has changed and if there are houses that natally didn’t have any planets and now have.
To create a relocated chart, you can do it for free as well in astro.com in the “extended chart” selection, just pick “relocated chart” and make sure to change the reference place to the city of your choice. You don’t have to change anything in your profile, it will automatically adjust it for you.
The reason I adore this area of Astrology
There are different ways in which you can activate planetary energies in your life. First one is through time but it doesn’t really depend on you although having awareness of your transits and progressions is recommended.
The second one is through relationships. Synastry astrology helps us understand how different people in our lives help us develop parts of ourselves that were unconscious until now.
Finally we have the activation through location. I find it truly amazing that by moving around the world or through remote activation we can intentionally connect to the energies that will most serve us at some point.
I have been of course my first client and it has helped so much to understand, then flow with my Moon - Jupiter lines here in France where I moved 11 years ago that I’ve decided to become certified in this area by Jim Lewis’ foundation, Continuum. I would love to help you in your journey with a 1:1 reading. If you’re interested, find out all the details by clicking on the button below.
