Fundamentals of Astro*Carto*Graphy®

Birth Chart

Probably the best known astrological technique today is the birth chart: a mapping of the positions of the planets at the moment of your birth.  Drawn on a traditional chart wheel, both perspectives of planetary position are shown:  the position of the planets in the zodiac and the position of the planets with respect to the horizon where you were born.  From the strong correspondence between your unique birth and the unique picture of the stars at the same moment, the astrologer can construct an impressive sketch of your personal potentials as symbolized by the chart.

Transits

As time goes by and you live your life, the planets continue to move.  And as they move they periodically cross over important positions in your birth chart.  These crossings are called "transits" and they call attention to that factor in your birth chart.  Transits make it more likely that you will notice the operation or effect of the birth planet.  Astrologers often say that transits "trigger" events involving planets in your birth chart.  As a simple example, consider the solar return, which is a transit of the current sun over the same position it was in your birth chart.  This happens on (or very near) your birthday.  Most people will  recognize the strengthening of will, ego, and attention to self that occurs on your birthday.

Relocation

We have just seen one way that astrologers relate passage of time to the birth chart.  But another kind of change can happen during your life: change of location.  Here we are particularly interested in the second perspective of planetary position: their relation to the horizon.  As we travel around the earth, our perspective of the planets changes. The part of the sky that is overhead in New York is somewhere else in Los Angeles.  Astrologers have long noticed this and created relocated charts to correct for change of location.

So when we compute a solar return chart, we compute not only a chart for  today's date, but also for your current location.  We adjust all the changed circumstances. But what about the birth chart itself, can we isolate the effects of changes of location (irrespective of time) by simply recasting the chart for the new location, but keeping the same birth moment?  This is the premise of the "relocation chart" which was in use long before Astro*Carto*Graphy.  A relocation chart shows you a picture of planetary positions at the moment of your birth, but at your current location.

The relocation chart suffered from several problems:  First, it was unclear exactly how the chart should be interpreted.  Did it simply replace your birth chart?  Very few astrologers believed this.  Most astrologers felt that the relocation chart had some kind of secondary importance to the birth chart.  The second problem with the relocation chart was that it was difficult to use for people who were considering "hypothetical" moves to various alternative locations.  And finally, the relocation chart gave almost too much information.  In the case of a transit, particular events simply called attention or strengthened individual planets in the birth chart.  In the case of relocation charts we get a whole new chart without clear indication of what specifically has changed from the birth chart.  This is where Jim Lewis started to apply the concept of  angularity to simplify the analysis of relocation.