Would You Let the Stars Tell You Where to Move?
Whether you know the exact placements of your full birth chart or barely remember the right answer to “What’s your sign?”, it’s fair to say that astrology is, well, everywhere. If you’re ready to take your astrology obsession to the next level, you might consider a practice known as astrocartography. Also called “locational astrology” or “astrogeography,” the concept was popularized by writer and astrologist Jim Lewis in the 1970s. It involves using your natal or birth chart—a type of map showing where the sun, moon, and planets were positioned on the zodiac wheel during your birth—to create a map of the world.
This map, which is available on the internet superhighway for your convenience, is unique to each person and can feature up to 40 lines crisscrossing north to south and east to west. To the untrained eye, it’s bound to look overwhelming at best. To interpret your map, you may want to call in the professionals. Astrology experts will tell you the significance of each line, which is based on what planet the line itself represents and where it’s positioned. If a certain line crosses over a certain city, it’s meant to illustrate a place of potential significance—whether it’s positive or negative depends on which line it is.
You don't just have to be looking to make a big move to use astrocartography. If you're planning your next vacation destination or even just curious about your geographical sweet spots and pain points, it might be worth it to have a professional decipher your astrocartography map. Granted, it can be a somewhat expensive task, with sessions ranging from $150 to $475. To learn more about how it works, we interviewed a few people who have turned to astrocartography to give them direction and help them decide their next big step.
Astrocartography expert Elizabeth Smith first learned about the locational astrology method from a magazine back in the 1970s. “I was intrigued because I was already pretty impressed by astrology and studying it on my own,” she says. “I sent away for my map, and my journey began.” Smith found astrocartography so “uncannily accurate” that she continues to learn about and practice it four decades later.
Smith put her knowledge to the test to plan a move from New York City to a smaller town—she was looking for a place that would allow her to continue working while spending as much time as possible with her family. “I used astrocartography and moved to an area of the country that was conducive to having a home and family life, but that was also conducive to wealth being increased,” she explains, “through the value of my real estate purchase as well as the opportunity to make money without having to leave my child.”
Smith ended up on the Carolina coast, a transition her map suggested would be advantageous and that she says “worked out very, very well.” Since then, she’s continued honing her craft and working with clients to help them identify countries and cities that may be likely to bring prosperity—and ones that may be better to avoid.
One of those clients is Kelly Campbell. She met Smith around four years ago in Brooklyn, where Smith was working as an astrologer. “She introduced me to astrocartography as an opportunity, a tool to optimize big changes in my life,” says Campbell, who was working as an actress. She’d begun to feel like big-city life wasn’t for her, and was craving a change of scenery.
“It was important to me to find influences on the map that were prosperous for me,” says Campbell, “somewhere where I was supported with community, as well as a fertile ground to create my business.” One of those places was Asheville, North Carolina, a town where a few of Campbell’s extended family members happened to already reside. Two months after seeing her chart, she was packed and en route.
Now, two years later, Campbell runs a local investment club and has found a solid community in her new home base. “Doors started opening up and opportunities started flowing in a way that had been hard to generate up in New York,” she says.
But while Campbell feels this was the right move for her, she cautions against thinking astrocartography works like a magic wand. “When I would look to astrology, it was about utilizing the tools to help me make a pretty massive decision that I otherwise don't know how I would have made,” she says. “On one level, Asheville aligned with the things that I wanted on a very basic plane. On another level, I wanted to make sure that the move would be good for the things that I was trying to build.”
Fateh Baser can relate. She met her astrologer Maya White while living in Hollywood, Florida. At the time, Baser was running a software company and teaching yoga on the side. When she decided to sell her company and her home, she consulted White, who turned her on to astrocartography.
“I have a Venus line going through Costa Rica,” says Baser of her astrocartography map, “so that's really positive for love but also for earning money.” She made the move to Costa Rica 13 years ago and now runs Waterfall Villas, a “vegan detox yoga wellness retreat.”
Baser says she still consults her map before taking a trip or deciding on a retreat location. “I believe that the more aware we are and the more things that we know and can see, the better off we are,” she says. “That's exactly what astrocartography has given me: an insight into an area that can influence your life in a positive way.”
If you’re not looking to up and move right this moment, the good news is that there are less literal interpretations one can draw from the map, like adding objects into one’s home from a region where the map indicates good luck. If you’re itching to start over or chart a new course in an unfamiliar place, by all means research things like public transportation and housing prices—but knowing what the stars have to say about it can’t hurt.
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
