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Astrocartography

Your chart, drawn on a map.

Astrocartography projects the planets of your birth chart onto the surface of the Earth: the places where a planet was rising, setting, overhead or underfoot at the moment you were born. This hub explains what the lines are, how a relocated chart differs, and how Shymea computes both.

Last updated: September 5, 2026

What astrocartography is

A birth chart is cast for one place. Astrocartography asks what the same instant looked like from everywhere else. Because the Earth turns beneath a fixed sky, each planet was at that moment on the horizon or the meridian along particular curves of the globe. Those curves are the planetary lines, and the tradition reads a place near a line as bringing that planet's themes forward when you live there or travel there. The technique is a twentieth-century development within Western astrology; it uses the same planets and the same chart, only the geography changes.

The four line types

  • ASC (rising) line — the planet was on the eastern horizon. Traditionally the most personal expression of the planet: how you come across, your body and vitality.
  • DSC (setting) line — the planet was on the western horizon. Associated with partners, other people and what you meet through relationship.
  • MC (culminating) line — the planet was highest in the sky, on the upper meridian. Associated with career, reputation and public direction.
  • IC (anti-culminating) line — the planet was on the lower meridian, beneath your feet. Associated with home, roots, family and private life.

Planetary lines

  • Sun lines — places associated with visibility, confidence and being recognised; a Sun MC line is the classic career-relocation line.
  • Moon lines — places that feel like home quickly; emotional life, family and belonging come to the front. Also the line most sensitive to a rounded birth time, because the Moon moves fastest.
  • Venus lines — pleasure, ease, aesthetics and relationship; often the lines people find most comfortable to live on.
  • Jupiter lines — expansion, opportunity and generosity; traditionally the most benefic of the lines, but also associated with excess.
  • Saturn lines — discipline, structure and responsibility; places where things are earned slowly. Not a line to avoid, but one to enter with a plan.
  • Mars lines — energy, drive and friction; useful for athletic or entrepreneurial aims, harder for rest.

Shymea also draws Mercury, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto lines. The detailed reading of each combination, and the difference between in-mundo and zodiacal lines, is in the astrocartography lines guide.

Relocation charts

A relocation chart is the other half of the technique. Instead of a map, it is a full chart re-cast for the same birth instant at a different place: the planets keep their zodiac positions, but the Ascendant, Midheaven and every house cusp are recalculated for the new latitude and longitude. A planet that was in your natal twelfth house can sit on the relocated Ascendant. Reading a relocation chart is ordinary chart reading with new houses.

How Shymea computes it

Lines are computed in mundo, from equatorial coordinates, using the JPL DE442 ephemeris through Skyfield. For each planet the engine takes the apparent geocentric right ascension and declination at the birth instant together with Greenwich apparent sidereal time. The MC line is the meridian where the planet's hour angle is zero and the IC line is 180° from it; for the ASC and DSC lines the engine steps through latitude and solves the horizon condition for the longitude where the planet's altitude is zero. Relocated charts run the same Placidus house calculator used for natal charts with the new coordinates substituted. The complete pipeline, including orbs and time handling, is on our methodology page.

Where this sits in Shymea

Astrocartography maps and relocation charts live in the Navigate section of the Shymea app, alongside the horary and decision tools; Navigate is part of the premium tier. The web guides are free. Further reading in the journal: Should I take this job?, Solar return charts — which can also be relocated — and House systems explained.

A note on what the lines can and cannot tell you

A line is a geometric fact about the sky at your birth; what it means for a move is a traditional interpretation, not a measured outcome. Shymea will not tell you a city is your best or worst place, and a Saturn line is not a reason to cancel a trip. Use the map as one input among many, alongside the ordinary reasons people move.

Get the appAstrocartography lines guideMethodology

Common questions

What is astrocartography?
Astrocartography projects the planets of your birth chart onto a world map, drawing the lines where each planet was rising, setting, culminating or anti-culminating at the exact moment you were born. Living or travelling near a line is traditionally read as bringing that planet's themes forward. The chart never changes — only the place you view it from does.
How accurate is astrocartography?
The astronomy is exact: the lines are computed from the JPL DE442 ephemeris and are correct to well under a degree of longitude. What is not exact is the interpretation — no study shows that living near a line produces a specific outcome. Treat the map as a way to think about place, not as a forecast. An accurate birth time matters most for Moon lines, which shift fastest.
What is the difference between astrocartography and a relocation chart?
Astrocartography is the map view: where on Earth each planet was angular at your birth moment. A relocation chart is the chart view: your full birth chart re-cast for a different place, so the planets keep their zodiac positions but the Ascendant, Midheaven and every house cusp are recalculated. The map shows you where to look; the relocated chart tells you what actually changes when you get there.
What are parans in astrocartography?
A paran is a latitude where two planets are simultaneously angular — one rising while another culminates, for example — even though their lines cross nowhere near each other on the map. Parans run as horizontal bands rather than vertical curves, which is why a place can carry a strong planetary signature without sitting on any line. Shymea computes parans alongside the lines.
Which astrocartography line is best to live on?
There is no best line, and we would not tell you there was. Jupiter and Venus lines are traditionally the easiest to live on, Saturn and Mars the most demanding — but a Saturn line is where things are earned and built, which is exactly what some people want from a place. What matters more is which line, on which angle, and whether the life you want there matches the planet's themes.
Do I need my exact birth time for astrocartography?
Yes, more than for most techniques. The MC and IC lines shift about one degree of longitude for every four minutes of birth time, so a time rounded to the nearest hour can move a line by roughly 15 degrees — hundreds of miles. If your time is uncertain, read the slower planets' lines with caution and the Moon's with real scepticism.