Relocation Charts and Astro*Carto*Graphy Introduced. copyright, Erin Sullivan

Excerpt from “Where in the World: A*C*G and Relocation Charts. By Erin Sullivan. CPA Press. 1996. London. www.midheavenbooks.com PART II - The Astrology and Psychology of Relocation: Finding your place in the world. (the following is a segment of the book taken from the seminar given at the CPA in 1995)

Introduction to Relocation in relation to Astro*Carto*Graphy

Finding our place in the world can be complex these days, with all the options, possibilities and freedom available to the majority of the world. The seamless globe allows transition from place to place, country to country in a dizzying way. Accessing places remotely, through business, relationship and now, the internet, is everyday stuff to us. This is not always a good thing - it creates too much choice, too much potential and engages far too much intellectual energy for many to cope with. The fact that we have all the options in the world is both a blessing and a curse. Much of civilization’s neurosis stems from apparent choices.

 Using astrology to better understand these choices, and using it sensibly, can reduce the anxiety about changing locations. Moving and relocating to specific cities and areas involves setting a relocation chart, that is, a horoscope for the new place based on your own natal chart time. There are going to be overlaps between seeing both the relocation and the A*C*G© together, and using them effectively. Some of the technical material for A*C*G is going to be better digested now, after a week of thinking it over and examining A*C*G maps, so we can spend an hour or so delving into some of your queries regarding the material in the A*C*G seminar if you like.

I will start by reviewing some of the material from the last seminar, and then take any queries that have arisen in the last week, specifically about Astro*Carto*Graphy, as it pertains to relocations charts and your own experiences.

Relocating within Astro*Carto*Graphy lines

Last week we were talking about Astro*Carto*Graphy, emphasizing angular planets and their power - on the Ascendant, MC, Descendant and IC. This concept was graphically portrayed by lines that were 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. As you recall, aspects, signs and houses are not emphasized in A*C*G - only parans, crossings, zeniths and the lines depicting angularity of planets around the world.

Relocation is more precise and thus, brings in the “local picture”, because it takes 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. Though 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.

Not everybody is comfortable living in angular places and I don't necessarily think that you should move to a place because you have lines there. I think that you should consider whether you really wish to deal with a place that demands a tremendous amount of awareness, consciousness and effort relative to the planetary agency symbolized by the planet line. The places that I mentioned last week, lacking in planetary lines on your maps, are places which are intermediary places, places without urgency or specific tasks to complete. Jokingly, but possibly seriously, I call them “karma free zones” because wherever you have a planet in your natal chart, you have to pay attention. It is an alert place. It is a place of intense focus and growth. This is particularly true of A*C*G maps, as they focus on the angles, which are the axes of intense purpose and direction. Having no lines through areas is rather like an untenanted house in the horoscope.

Obviously, if your horoscope has no planets in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth houses, that doesn't mean that you have no career, no friends and no interior life, it simply means that you are not absolutely determined to develop those areas. They will develop. You can go there, you have got to get things going but the empty houses are not as strongly destined or fated, and do not present an obvious challenge. Wherever you see a planet, you see an agency where you will, whether you like it or not, be required to work on an aspect of your psyche, depending on which planet it is, and depending on the aspects involving that planet.

Thinking globally while living locally

Relocation can be subtle. You could move a very short distance and find a qualitative difference in your life. Moving exactly due north or south from your birthplace the MC will remain the same, but the Ascendant will change. This is because the sidereal time remains the same down any given meridian of longitude, however you will see a “yawning” of the Ascendant as you move from the equator at 0°, toward 60° north or south. For example, on the Spring Equinox, 21 March, at a few minutes past noon at the Prime Meridian( 0° longitude) in Greenwich - it is 00:00:00 hours sidereal time, and at that time, the MC is 0° Aries. At the equator, the Ascendant is 0° Cancer, but as you move north from the equator, to 20°, the Ascendant is 8° Cancer; at 35° north, the Ascendant is 15° Cancer; at 50° north, the Ascendant is 25° Cancer, and at 60° north it is 4° Leo. (The reverse signs are the case in the Southern Hemisphere). So, I have set all the examples here for 12:00 noon Greenwich Mean Time on 21 March, 1997, near the spring equinox. And, relocated three charts keeping the same GMT.

In Figure 1, we have a chart set for noon, in Greenwich and a chart for the same time, but in Tema, Ghana, some 46° due south, on the exact same meridian. The MC is the same, while the Ascendant has closed in by 24°, due to its proximity to the equator, where the ASC/MC are 90° apart.

In Figure 2, we have two charts set for the same time and date, but this time relocated east of Greenwich by one time zone. However, Cologne, Germany is in northern Europe and Constantine is in Algeria, Africa, which is due south of Cologne. Cologne is about 15° north of Constantine, but on the same meridian, as you see. Again, you can see the difference in the Ascendants of the two cities, while the MC remains the same. In extreme southern and northern latitudes, say between 45° and 60° south or north, there can be a great variance between the angular relationship of the MC and Ascendant in the course of a day. The closer to the equator, within five degrees of it, the angle remains fairly constant at a square.

When moving, depending on the season and time of day, that in accord with the changes at the Midheaven and Ascendant, the intermediate houses will shift, as well - those being the second, third, fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, eleventh and twelfth house cusps. There are three main house systems most commonly used by astrologers - Placidus, Koch and Campanus - but still there are many who use the Equal House system which I do not favour because it is not based in celestial measurements, and I like 'facts' - that is, I like to see what is at the midheaven against the backdrop of the zodiac at the same time seeing what is rising in the east. Those three are the most common house systems used today that employ the same angles on the horizon and meridian, but use three very different systems of domification. For your work and research, I would stick with the house system you use in practice. Be consistent with your house system, which does not mean do not try out others, as that is necessary in the first years of study. . . but do stick with one to work with consistently.

Houses are one of the theoretical measurements that people can argue until they are blue in the face about what's right or wrong.

For the purpose of teaching this seminar today, I advise you to stick with your house system in both the natal and all relocation charts - then you are working within the same system. My feeling is this: astrology as a system works if you stick to the system you are using. As soon as you start deviating and saying, "Oh well I'm going to relocate my chart and instead of using Placidus I'm going to Campanus houses." - you are just going to confuse yourself. So stick with the house system that you use.

Changing places - why move?

Dramatic changes in the position of the Asc and MC, thus the natal planetary array within those angles, can occur when we relocate, but there are also subtle ones. 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 that 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. In other words, 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 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 big 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. (The influence receding incrementally after 250 miles radius away from the precise line position - remember 1 degree = sixty miles. (at least for all latitudes, with Longitude, that mileage incrementally diminishes toward the polar regions) You can use both. Because Astro*Carto*Graphy doesn't show you the houses, but the power energy, you will want to look at the houses.

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 - 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, but 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 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. I have done this a lot and it always works no matter how I try to think it differently!!!! (n.b. - note in October, 2007: As my Saturn was returning, I went to 'live' on my Mars/Saturn IC line in the country of Kuwait for 6 months. And, it was just as you might imagine, I tried everything to make it ok - in my head - but it did not work. It was truly Mars/Saturn, and I have my Sun in a square to it. It was the hardest living situation I have ever been in. So, my psyche in synchrony with the power line of MA/SA=IC was not a mind over matter thing, it was pretty much disastrous psychologically and thus proved A*C*G to be deadly accurate.)

Where are the planets going to be much happier? Where are they going to be more productive? Where would the individuation process be better facilitated especially if we are wanting to foster 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. So, for example, I think some planets are more comfortable in quiet places, rather than angular. I would consider very carefully locating to a place that has hard statements on angles, unless you plan to exemplify that configuration in a socially or politically useful way. By that I mean, weighty generational configurations like a Saturn/Uranus conjunction, Uranus/Pluto conjunction, a Saturn/Pluto conjunction, a Saturn/Neptune conjunction or the T-cross that occurs with Jupiter, Uranus and Saturn in Libra that presented in the nineteen-fifties, and so on. These are important configurations denoting a personal connection to a collective intent or theme, and if they are too much for an individual to bear in an angular - conscious - fashion, then outstanding events will occur.

Choices - heaven on earth

Recall Christopher, in the previous seminar, with the Saturn/Uranus conjunction in his tenth house, becoming angular in Africa, and rather than being a voice of the collective, became a victim of the external collective politics. Adventures of this level of intensity do not suit all of us. (Figures 8 and 8a in the previous seminar on Astro*Carto*Graphy.)

When you are considering relocation, the best place to start is at home, thinking of your own self.

How would you rather live out your celestial array? Where would you rather see the most challenging aspects enacted within the context of your life? Would you rather have them engaged in the ninth house where it can become an argument with the gods or a philosophical pursuit, or would you rather have it enacted in your fifth house where it might be interacting with your children or a lover or taking speculative risks that could be very dangerous?

So, these are some of the most important considerations to keep in mind. There are individuals who have shifted a hard and ineradicable, inexorable natal aspect from, say, the fourth house, where they are dwelling constantly on matters of the family and transforming the family and working all these aspects out in the microcosm of the family collective, yet could use them in ways which would transform society. One of my clients who appears as a case in Dynasty, who had ME for almost seven years, the immunodeficiency illness, was born with the Uranus/Pluto conjunction in the Ascendant, opposite Saturn on the Descendant and forming a T-cross to her Mars/Venus conjunction in Sagittarius in the fourth house. So she was continuously processing her family dilemma through her psyche and her body until finally it became somatic - she fell ill and she has worked through all that.

The good news is that at the end, as I was writing the story up for the book, I had to write a last minute add-in that she had got married, has relocated to another part of the world and she has really changed that drama into another, more enjoyable drama. She now is in place whereupon she has a Uranus/Pluto/Midheaven; Saturn/IC with the Mars/Venus/Ascendant and it's a much more healthy challenge, living and working in an exciting place where she is offered diplomatic jobs, mediation work in the ‘war zone’ and so on. She shifted her T-cross around to different angular prominence! So you can shift the focus of yourself, by moving yourself, but for Fiona, the family dynamic still exists, her work still exists, her T-cross is still there, but it is to a better cause, because she is using herself in another way.

I can see we are definitely going to use some of our work on A*C*G last week in this session, hence the two projectors again - one for the natal and another for the map or the relocated charts.

Spheres of influence: zodiac, ecliptic, equator

Audience: May I ask you a question? In the beginning you said relocation takes into account our houses whereas Astro*Carto*Graphy doesn't. I wondered why? Why is it that relocation takes into account houses and not Astro*Carto*Graphy?

Erin: Good, your question offers an opportunity to clarify something before we move into the more personal and experiential part of the work today. Horoscopy and A*C*G mapping are different systems, showing different views, depicting different astronomical pictures. A*C*G focusses only on angularity of planets, and accounts for both latitude of the planets and their zodiacal longitude, therefore, we have a more accurate visualization of the planets in the sky, not just in the ecliptic.

The houses of the horoscope are based on an earth view of the sky and the ecliptic (zodiac), whereas the angular lines of the A*C*G map are based on the sky’s view - a planetary view - of the earth. The houses are there, in the locations specific, but they are not the significance, the point, of the A*C*G map. Philosophically, it is based on power in angularity. In other words, if a planet is on an angle, it has more power than it does when it is in an intermediary house.

Audience: And so it does in relocation charts - I was born in London. I noticed that although I have SU/MC line almost on the dot of London on the map, I actually have the Sun about 2° into the tenth house natally. So, it looks Sun/MC but it isn’t quite an exact conjunction. So, if I were to set a chart for, say, Dover, on the coast, it would then show on the horoscope the exact Sun conjunct Midheaven?

Erin: Yes, in fact, that is right - perfect illustration. Your Sun is so close to the MC that the A*C*G line looks close to London, but to get the fine tuning down, you must find the place whereupon that line is precise. And, it would be about Dover, a bit north of it, right on the tip of the peninsula. Perhaps you should put some energy into Dover and see what you can develop over there!

You see, the A*C*G gives a big picture, which we then can refine to houses and precise degrees on the angles by setting a relocation horoscope - but as you will see shortly, with Freud’s examples, what you see in the horoscope with respect to angles, is not always what you get in the more astronomically correct A*C*G map - especially with Venus, the Moon and Pluto.

Audience: I have been looking at my map and my relocation and natal charts and see that even though I have a wide opposition to Pluto from the Sun natally, there is actually a place on the earth where I have Sun/Ascendant and Pluto/Descendant crossing. . . it is in San Francisco. Now, that means that I have an opposition by paran? That they are a “mundane opposition”?

Erin: Yes sort of, even though that isn’t a real term - mundane opposition - but that is precisely what is going on for you. Your wide opposition does not become a tight opposition, degrees don’t change, but the view of them does.

Audience: Strange, I have the opposite situation in San Francisco! I have a pretty close conjunction of Sun and Pluto in Leo, they are only 2° apart. . . and the Pluto is right on the Descendant in San Francisco (PL/DSC), but the Sun/DSC is apparently quite a bit south of the city. . . almost over Los Angeles.

Erin: Ah, again, a good example. Your Astro*Carto*Graphy chart showing its Pluto/Descendant line running through San Francisco and your Sun/Descendant line running up south of it. This illustrates the “problem of latitude” I spoke of in the A*C*G seminar. Remember, this is particularly applicable to Pluto, especially in Leo, Virgo and Libra.

Audience: Oh! I see, I have a virtually perpendicular Venus/ASC/DSC line - and I have Venus at 8° Libra! But, Mars is in Cancer, which is very curved along the ASC/DSC line!

Erin: Actually, that is a bit different - considerably different - because Venus is in the equinoctial sign of Libra, not because of its place on the ecliptic, as this situation with Pluto illustrates. Now, let’s go back to your example of the close conjunction of Sun and Pluto, Susan - yes, they are conjunct in zodiacal longitude, but when you see them on the A*C*G, map you actually see the planets as they are according to their latitude as well.

Audience: And, how does that work? (*here follows - in the book - a segment on the amazing example of Sigmund Freud's natal horoscope and A*C*G and relocation chart from Vienna, Austria to Maresfield Road, London, UK) It especially points out the "problem with Pluto" - which is terribly Freudian and an exceptionally descriptive example!