by Elizabeth Smith, Master Astrocartographer
Once people discover location astrology they soon learn that their astrocartography map can show them the best places in the world to live, work and thrive.
Astrocartography is a visual picture in map form of how your location astrology changes when you go to or interact remotely with any location on Earth. It looks like a global map with many colored lines crisscrossing each other.
Each of these lines represents a specific planetary influence you’ll feel manifesting in a specific area of your life in that place. The closer you are to the line, the stronger and more frequent that influence will be felt.
One of the first questions many people ask upon first seeing this powerfully revealing map is “What do the lines on my astrocartography map mean?”
Every planet in astrology has a specific energy or personality that affects us in specific ways. Where in our lives that impact occurs is determined by where that planet was located at the moment we took our first breath. The traditional natal or birth chart, our map of the sky at that moment, shows us where Mars will operate in our lives.
The astrocartography map builds on that greatly expanding our access to astrological information. It shows where that planet’s energy becomes active not just in that area of our lives (known in astrology as a house) determined at birth but where on Earth it activates in any one of the four most potent (angular) areas of the chart known as the Ascendant, Imum Coeli, Descendant and Midheaven, all of which impact crucial areas of our lives.
When we are living or traveling in a location where a planet becomes active in the Ascendent, it affects us internally through our thoughts shaping who we believe ourselves to be.
THE ASCENDANT (AC) LINES
We identify in our minds with the energy of the planets in the ascendent and act more like them out in the world. For example, Mars, a strongly yang or masculine planet, has the affect of energizing us with the desire to take action. We may become more ambitious, outspoken, physically active, impulsive, heroic, courageous and/or aggressive. If we move to where Mars is in the ascendant, our self expression, who we believe ourselves to be, becomes more like Mars.
THE IMUM COELI (IC) LINES
If you are under a Mars IC line, it’s a different story. The IC rules your sources of security including your home, family, community experiences, cultural influences and how you interact with your mother or maternal figures in your life. With Mars there you may have a lot of physical activity going on in or near your home such as renovations, building projects, exercise or athletic activities, gardening or love of the outdoors may be prevalent. Since every planet can express as a high or low frequency, Mars, God of war, can also produce domestic quarrels, hostile neighbors, accident proneness as well as many other phenomena that are classic signs of its presence.
THE DESCENDANT (DC) LINES
If you find yourself drawn to a place on your astrocartography map that is near Mars in the DC or descendant, the red planet will manifest its nature in the form of the type of people or situations you attract into your life. Rather than the planet coloring your thoughts and interests as it does in the Ascendant, when it’s on the other side of the world it colors the thought and interests of your close associates.
Your closest friends or partners may be athletic or highly competitive or impulsively quick tempered for example. Situations that quickly become competitive or escalate into some form of confrontation will be more likely here as tempers flair more impulsively in those you are closest to under your Mars DC. If Mars plays out in a higher frequency people may be active in a highly disciplined or productive way such as an accomplished athlete, business person, outdooorsperson, machinist, carpenter, dentist or a military or other uniformed professional, all of which are ruled by Mars.
THE MEDIUM COELI / MIDHEAVEN (MC or MH) LINES
The fourth type of line that you’ll find on your astrocartography map is the MC (medium coeli in Latin) or Midheaven line. Like the AC, DC and IC lines, there will be an MC line represented somewhere on Earth for every planet.
Any planet in the MC in a location will manifest in your life on the public stage meaning it will help shape your public reputation, your profession determining what you like and dislike doing for a living and how successful or not you are at what you do.
In location astrology the MC planets also shape all of your encounters with strangers and acquaintances in public places, on the internet, the phone or wherever you interact with people you don’t know well. Why do you get a great impression of a certain place when you visit and someone else thinks the locals there were terribly unfriendly? Look to the Midheaven planets to understand why we all leave places with such different impressions!
In conclusion, to understand a line in your astrocartography map first learn about the nature of the planet it represents then about how that planet is known for acting in that specific area of the chart. Each of the planets has very distinct characteristics and they will shift into any one of the four angles described above allowing you to have a very specific window into the influence they may create in your life in that place.