What the Relocated Chart Adds
to Astro*Carto*Graphy Interpretation
©2000 by Erin Sullivan

NOTE: The following is an excerpt from Erin's book, Where in the World? Astro*Carto*Graphy and Relocation Charts, which can be ordered from http://www.erinsullivan.com

Astro*Carto*Graphy maps emphasize angular planets and their power. The Ascendant, MC, Descendant and IC are graphically portrayed by lines overlaid on the map of the world. This is the “big picture”, the global view of your birth time as it shows what is rising, setting, culminating and at the nadir all over the world at the time of your birth. Aspects, signs and houses are not emphasized in A*C*G maps - only parans, crossings, zeniths and the lines depicting angularity of planets around the world.

Astro*Carto*Graphy is personal, in that it is a chart of the angularity of each of your own planets, seen on the world at the moment of your birth, it does give a specialized placement of planets - only planets on angles. So we look to Astro*Carto*Graphy maps not to see what is in the eleventh house or the fifth house in a certain town or city, but to see what's on an angle somewhere in the world. A*C*G maps show where your own natal planets have a driving sense of power and place.

Relocation charts are more precise and thus bring in the “local picture” and the geographical viewpoint, because they take into account the houses, the signs and the aspects between the planets, thus involving the intensely personal, central view one has of the heavens, and therefore of one's life. Dramatic horoscope changes can occur when we relocate, but there are also subtle ones that show up in the relocated chart.

For instance, if you move only a short distance and yet that move has altered your house system such that it shifts your Sun or your Moon into another house, that is important. Normally, you won't notice it the minute you arrive, because it takes some time and much energy to make a major move. So you are unlikely suddenly to feel, "Oh right, my Sun has now just moved from the eighth house to the seventh house, therefore relationships are going to be really much better for me, and I'm not going to be dwelling always on the mysteries of life but on friendship, relationship and lighter hearted things." That would be mad.

However, you might find that if you moved there, lived there for a couple of years - a Mars return is about the time it takes to take root in a place - that kind of subtlety will manifest. You will still be the same person and the Sun will have its same aspect, let's say it squares Saturn, so you still are that same individual with a strong challenge to the ego. You still will be required to develop under stress and hard work, but you may find that in partnerships and relationships you are much less interior and more involved - that you are not as isolated (eighth house Sun) and more capable of working with another.

The further away from your natal place that you move, the more dramatic will be the way you play yourself out. I think that if we are going to consider relocation as a choice, rather than as happenstance, then it is good to be practical about the move, taking into consideration all the ramifications, and also doing the relocation charts.

There are many reasons for moving. The basic two reasons are you must move, or you want to move. Most people move because they are aesthetically and/or pragmatically attracted to a place. Work is better, education, cultural attraction, aesthetics are more appealing, it is better for the family, and so on.

That is why I think Astro*Carto*Graphy comes in as an important tool, because if one is emigrating from one part of the world to another, then it is important to see the overall ‘tone’ of the area. People who feel an urgent desire to move to other countries for reasons other than just the kind of buildings that are there and the art work, are usually being called by their soul - there is some soulful attachment to the place, some deep work that needs to be done in that place. A*C*G might give you the global picture, but the relocation chart will give you the local picture.

The global picture is Astro*Carto*Graphy, the local picture is the actual setting of the horoscope for the little tiny village/town or major city where you want to live, say within a 600 mile proximity of the big line that has attracted you. You can use both. Because Astro*Carto*Graphy doesn't show you the houses, but only the angular planetary power energy, you will also want to look at the houses in the relocated chart. For instance, if we are considering a choice of a couple of places because we love both, and a major A*C*G line runs midway between them, or is in the vicinity of both, then setting the relocation chart will fine tune the places. Assuming that both are equally placed in our hearts as places to go, and the choice can be made rationally through mapping, then you will find using these methods helpful to you and your clients.

Subtle Changes as Seen in the Relocated Chart--
Same Person, Different Perspective

Let's say you want to move to Sydney or Melbourne, Australia. They are far enough apart that it would make a subtle difference in your relocation chart. Initially, A*C*G might have drawn you to that part of the world and it would be better for you for various reasons, maybe a Venus/DSC line crossing a Moon/IC line is happening just off the coastline, mid-way between the two very different cities. So, the area is lovely to contemplate, but what are the details? So if you set up a relocation chart for Sydney and then one for Melbourne or Adelaide, then you would find subtle differences between the way your natal self, your “hardwired” self resonates with the area, and how the area receives your energy.

One of the cities you chose might dramatize the idea of the challenge in career with the Sun in the tenth house, for example. Whereas if you shifted it further over to the west, so that the solar emphasis was then placed in the ninth, it may well put you into a space of more being open for learning, study - of being an enthusiastic student rather than a driven, career-oriented person. So the change can be quite subtle. If I were considering relocating, I would consider the nature of myself, my circumstances, the ethos of the place itself, and my planets and then try and find the best place for my planets' best behaviour.

Where are the planets going to be much happier, and taking into account that your natal chart is YOU, but you in a different aspect, how will that part of you be expressed differently over time? Where are they going to be more productive? Where would the individuation process be better facilitated especially if we want to foster and bring to the fore an underdeveloped or shadowed side of our self. If we are thinking of moving, then we would want to base it on aesthetic, practical and astrological pictures.We need to take into consideration not only astrology but the person and the intent of the person in making a move.

NOTE: This excerpt was taken from Sullivan, Erin: Where in the World?, Astro*Carto*Graphy and Relocation Charts, Volume 12. CPA Press, London, February 1999. See another excerpt here. The book is available on-line from midheavenbooks.com. Also visit Erin's site at www.erinsullivan.com or send her e-mail.

BIO: Erin Sullivan is Canadian born and has been a consultant astrologer and teacher since the late 1960s. She has lectured worldwide and led workshops and symposia on many aspects of human development using mythology, psychology and the rich language of astrology. She has been called 'the astrologer's astrologer' and is one of the world's most eminent consulting, writing and lecturing astrologers.

Her astrological background is broad. She was awarded three distinctions from the Fraternity for Canadian Astrologers. She was a founding member of the Association for Astrological Networking (AFAN), and founder of the Media Watch program at the height of the astrological boom in the 1980s.

Her work took her to London, England in 1989 where she has been a tutor for the Centre for Psychological Astrology since then, and the Series Editor for Penguin's Arkana Contemporary Astrology Series. She is an adjunct faculty member for the Central American Institute of Prehistoric and Traditional Cultures at Belize.

As of September '99 Erin has taken on the position of Professional Accreditation-Trainer for the Jim Lewis trust and Continuum. The A*C*G Continuum Jim Lewis Home-Study course is soon to be offered and mentored by Erin Sullivan.

CREDITS: This web site was created and is maintained by Donna Cunningham of Word of Mouth Web Design. Photos from Art today.