INTRODUCTION:

There are several ways to determine how we function in different places. One of the most popular is to use the relocated chart. The relocated chart is constructed by making believe you were born in the place you are interested in. If you were born in New York City and you live in Los Angeles, you construct a chart for a baby who was born at the same instant in time that you were born but this baby is born in Los Angeles in stead of New York City. The clock time in Los Angeles is 3 hours earlier but it is the same instant in time.

If the relocated chart in Los Angeles has Venus on the 7th house cusp, you are likely to find love and romance in that place! You may want to know where else the relocated Venus is on the 7th house cusp. The places where Venus is on the 7th house cusp move gradually from Los Angeles and can be placed on a map. This is what an AstroMap is. The first AstroMaps were produced by Jim Lewis and he called the maps astro*cartography maps. Jim Lewis's astro*cartography maps, however, use an unusual method of calculations called "in mundo" rather than "in zodaco", which I will discuss later, but the overall concept is the same: you can see where planets are angular (i.e. on the angular house cusps.

How about places where Jupiter trines the MC to help your career? Although Jim Lewis used only conjunctions to the house cusps, other astrologers started mapping other aspects.

Using only conjunctions, few places are significant. If you use minor aspects and midpoints, there are influences in all places.

FRIENDSHIP AND FAMILY MAP:

How I stumbled into the Friendship and Family Map:

1. The navamsa chart is THE chart to look at in Vedic astrology. It is a marriage chart and a dharmic (path in life) chart.
2. The navamsa chart IS the 9th harmonic chart.
3. It seems reasonable to put 9th harmonic aspects to Moon and Venus in a Love and Romance Map or a Friendship and Family Map. From my experience with the 9th harmonic, I believed the 9th harmonic would be appropriate for the Friendship and Family Map. Marriage in India is often viewed as being about creating family, not about falling in love in the fashion that became emphasized in the later Middle Ages.
4. At conferences people kept remarking that "I live on that yellow (not red) line. What does that mean?". This led to the pilot study that confirmed the theory as well as the anecdotal evidence from using the system.

Theory:

1. Aspects to relocated angular house cusps are extremely important, and
2. The "minor" aspects and the midpoints to these angular house cusps are not minor at all; they are major.

THE MARRIAGE OF EAST AND WEST:

In India the 9th harmonic is extremely important. In the modern West, astro*cartography is extremely important. The 9th harmonic in the astro*cartography map tells you where you are comfortable. The 9th harmonic is the "alienation buster" like the "ghost buster"; it gets rid of alienation in your life! This marriage of East and West may be one that both the East and the West do not like because we tend to rely on what we have learned in astrology and sometimes we can be a bit skeptical that someone else knows as much (or God forbid, more) than we do. However, I believe that this marriage of East and West is a breakthrough for astrology.

THE PILOT STUDY:

People who have lived in a place for more than 5 years or so and are very comfortable there have Moon or Venus in 9th harmonic aspect to an angle within a 1 degree orb. The hypothesis was validated in the pilot study.

Having all the details correct: the planets, the aspects, the orbs, etc. is important for validating a theory.

Also, the study showed that people who did not relocate did not have the aspects.

New theory: staying in your place of birth is a point of power, although it also tends to keep your energy system less flexible, adaptable, and varied - even if you travel frequently from that place which of course would help you to be more varied, so people who do not move can travel more frequently to prevent having to narrow of a view and too narrow of a focus.

DETAILED FRIENDSHIP AND FAMILY MAP:

The Detailed Friendship and Family Map shows what resources you have in a place. Rather than asking where to live, this can help you see what is available to you to help you feel comfortable and at home where you live.

Also note that some "oddballs" want career success, artistic creativity, or inspiration more than bonding with friends and families. These people are actually less common than one might think, but there is no one answer for everyone.

BOOKS: A good source that has the above materials is David's book, AstroLocality Magic and also in Kepler astrology program.

AUTHOR: David Cochrane