Timing our moves & travels using Astrology & Astrocartography
If you’ve ever heard the rather cliché saying “in the right place at the right time”, you probably can’t help but smile because there’s definitely a lot of truth to this.
I’ve heard stories of people packing their bags and starting their lives over in a new country, only to return home less than a year later. And you know what? There’s nothing wrong with that!
Sometimes a location is so incredibly ideal on paper, but then reality shows us otherwise…
What a lot of us fail to acknowledge, though, is that the place isn’t necessarily the problem, often, it’s just that the timing is off, and therefore things just didn’t fully align.
This is another element I like to look into when reading Astrocartography.
What should we look at to determine when to time our moves and travels?
There are several astrology tools you can use to gauge the best timing. These include solar return charts, progressed birth charts, and transit charts.
Solar return charts: A chart for a particular year that calculates the exact moment when the sun returns to its exact natal position that it was in the sky when you were born. It is common for some of the planets and house placements to differ from those in your original birth chart. The purpose of a solar return chart is to provide insight into the energy, themes, and potential situations for a specific year.
Progressed birth charts: A progressed birth chart shows how your birth chart evolves over time. It is calculated using the secondary progression technique which works by advancing the positions of planets in the original birth chart by one day for each year of the person’s life. For example, if you’re 30 years old, your progressed chart is based on the positions of the planets 30 days after your birth. When analyzing progressed birth charts, it’s especially important to look at the progressed sun (shows major identity shifts) and progressed moon (shows current emotional themes and inner needs).
Transit Charts: Transits show us astrological activity taking place at the current moment, whereas transit charts show the current positions of the planets, luminaries, and celestial bodies in relation to your birth chart. When a transiting planet moves through a particular house in your natal chart, it activates the themes of that house.
Annual Profections: These show the area of life that is focused on in a specific year. This technique assigns an astrological house to each year of a person’s life. For example, a 7th House profection year would put 1-1 relationships into focus.
Cyclocartography: Cyclocartography involves looking at transits across various locations on Earth. Specifically, how those transits interplay with specific Astrocartography Lines on our Astro Map.
The Annual Profections Wheel
FAQs
Are the planetary lines and relocated charts permanent?
Yes, these are long-term influences that are static and therefore do not change. However, transits, solar returns, cyclocartography, and annual profections could influence how we feel and the types of experiences we have in different locations, but there are considered outside influences, if that makes sense.
2. How long do transits last?
This really varies. The inner planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars) move more quickly than the outer ones (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.) For example, the Sun transits a house every 30 days give or take, depending on the month. Pluto, on the other hand, can take anywhere from 12-30 years to transit a house.
3. Could a challenging transit, progression, or solar return cause me to have a more difficult experience in an otherwise supportive location?
Yes, absolutely. These could indicate difficult or transformative experiences in any location. But remember that cyclocartography looks at more location-specific transits.
Some difficult transits to be on the lookout for…
Saturn or Chiron in the 4th House: I’m currently experiencing this right now! Both Saturn AND Chiron are in Aries and my 4th House is ruled by Aries-how fun! These transits are challenging because they often point to issues or lessons relating to home, family, roots, ancestry, and our sense of security especially within our physical space. Saturn and Chiron are rather slow moving and so these transits last several years.
Saturn Return, Nodal Return, Chiron Return: These prompt us to break old patterns, get out of our comfort zone, and learn important lessons. Chiron returns force us to confront our deepest fears and emotional wounds. All of these tend to act as catalysts that jolt us into action and transformation.
Malefics (Saturn or Mars) in the 6th House: These could point to stressful work situations, burnout, feeling unfulfilled, or overly burdened in some way.
I want to emphasize, though, that there are coping mechanisms to deal with difficult transits and that they are inevitable, no matter how strong our birth chart or relocated chart may be.
