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Astral Atlas
Western · Wiki 14

Locational / relocation / astrocartography / local-space

Interactive maps and relocation
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How to use Astrocartography

Explore where a planet occupied an angular position at the chart instant: rising (AC), setting (DC), upper culmination (MC) or lower culmination (IC). Select a line to inspect its geometry and the chosen interpretive theme.

Inputs: Reference chart date, time and time zone; source location; selected planets; a destination or map point. Preserve the original instant when comparing destinations. Show birth-time uncertainty if known.

  1. Confirm the active chart and its time-zone conversion.
  2. Search for a destination, then show a small selection of planets and angle types.
  3. Select a line or map point. Read the planet and angle label before reading its interpretation.
  4. Compare nearby lines and inspect the same planet's natal position and aspects.
  5. Pin up to four places for comparison. Open Local Space to calculate a chart at a new origin while preserving the same instant.
Teaching example · invented coordinates

Suppose the selected location is reported as 80 km from a Venus–MC line. First identify the line as Venus at upper culmination at the reference instant. Read the Venus–MC interpretation, then open natal Venus and its aspects. A useful note is: “Explore public-facing creative or social themes here; compare the natal Venus context.” The distance is a geometric result, not an 80%-favourable score. This is an illustrative result, not a calculated place recommendation.

MC marks upper meridian alignment, not necessarily an overhead or visible planet. This map uses geometric altitude 0° without atmospheric refraction or parallax, with displayed latitudes limited to ±85°. A circumpolar body may have no rising or setting there. Distances are to sampled displayed segments, not measurements of influence strength. A crossing is not automatically a paran. Use the separate Paran explorer to compare angular events at a chosen place and time. Changing tropical or Lahiri labels alone does not move the physical lines.

Open Astrocartography →All glossary terms →
Sources and conventions
How to use Local Space

Compare planetary directions around a local horizon with directions toward places. The tool displays azimuth and altitude, then projects a great-circle direction from the chosen origin.

Inputs: Reference instant, reference coordinates, planet selection and azimuth convention. If using a relocated horizon, supply the new location while keeping the reference instant explicit.

  1. Confirm the chart instant and choose an origin.
  2. Choose whether to move the natal directions or calculate directions at the new origin.
  3. For directions calculated here, select Calculate relocated chart and wait for the new origin result.
  4. Select a planet and read its north-zero clockwise azimuth and true altitude.
  5. Choose a destination and compare its bearing with the planet direction; show the opposite direction only when that is the intended convention.
Teaching example · invented coordinates

The inspector reports Venus at azimuth 90° and altitude +20°, using north = 0° and clockwise bearings. Venus points east from this origin; +20° describes its height above the horizon, not 20° north of east. A place due east shares that initial bearing. The interpretation can invite reflection on Venus-associated experiences along that direction; the calculation itself establishes direction only.

A Local Space bearing is not an astrocartography rising line or a zodiac sign. Moving birthplace bearings and recalculating at a new origin are separate modes. Recentring the visible map alone performs neither calculation. The great-circle path projects an initial bearing; it is not the planet’s path across Earth. Below-horizon bodies retain negative altitude. Directions within 0.01° of the zenith or nadir are omitted because azimuth is unstable. The interface uses north = 0° and east = 90°; convert a source’s azimuth convention before comparing numbers.

Open Local Space →All glossary terms →
Sources and conventions

History & development

Locational astrology predates its modern computerized maps. Continuum, which preserves Jim Lewis's legacy, credits him with making Astro*Carto*Graphy accessible through computer technology rather than inventing every form of location astrology. Relocation, astrocartography and local-space methods should remain distinguishable.

Mythology & symbolic world

Practitioners apply planetary themes to places and directions. A 'Venus line', for example, names a planetary-angular relationship in a map; its association with harmony or attraction is an interpretation, not a measured property of the city.

Provenance: where the rules come from

Relocation, angular world maps and Local Space are separate operations. The astronomy sources explain reference frames and horizon events; practitioner manuals specify how their software combines those coordinates with a locational reading. The calculation recipe below describes Astral Atlas’s implemented model. A feature documented by another program is not automatically available here.

How it is calculated

At the selected instant, use apparent geocentric right ascension α, declination δ, Greenwich apparent sidereal angle θ, latitude φ and east-positive longitude λ. Hour angle H = θ + λ − α. The MC meridian has H = 0° and the IC meridian H = 180°. Geometric horizon lines satisfy cos H = −tan φ tan δ: rising uses negative H, setting positive H, then λ = α + H − θ. If the right-hand side lies outside −1 to +1, this model has no horizon crossing at that latitude. Local Space instead projects an initial topocentric azimuth. Relocation preserves the UTC instant and recalculates local axes at the new coordinates.

Choices that change the result: Here the world map uses a geometric altitude of 0° with no atmospheric refraction or parallax correction. Apparent equatorial coordinates include astronomical corrections; “apparent” does not mean that atmospheric refraction was added. Latitude sampling is 0.25° and the displayed range is −85° to +85°. Reported distance is to these sampled segments on a sphere. Changing tropical to Lahiri changes sign labels and the selected symbolic lens; it does not move these physical map lines.

Inspect your calculated data →

Uses & use cases

  • Compare the same chart instant across destinations with the map and a relocated chart.
  • Distinguish an angular world-map line from a bearing measured around one local horizon.
  • Inspect why a body has no rising or setting line at a high latitude before treating a gap as missing data.
  • Compare Western and Jyotish planetary themes while keeping the modern locational technique explicitly identified.

Interpretation methods

Method 1

Read the angular condition first

In World maps, select planets and AC, DC, MC or IC lines. Choose a destination, inspect the line label and distance, then read its planet-and-angle symbolism alongside the natal context. A meridian transit does not require the body to be overhead or visible.

Study example

For invented right ascension 100° and Greenwich sidereal angle 30°, the MC longitude is 70° east and IC 110° west. At the equator, the geometric AC and DC longitudes are 20° west and 160° east.

Method 2

Compare a relocated chart

In Local Space & relocation, enter an origin and choose Calculate relocated chart. Keep the original UTC instant. Compare its Ascendant, Midheaven and the selected chart convention before adding an interpretation. Entering the same clock reading in the destination’s time zone would describe a different instant.

Study example

A destination can change local angles while the same-instant geocentric planet longitudes remain the same. This is an editorial comparison exercise, not a prediction about the destination.

Method 3

Choose the Local Space origin rule

“Natal directions moved to this origin” carries the birthplace azimuths to a new origin. “Directions calculated at this origin” requires a fresh origin calculation and uses its own topocentric azimuth and altitude. Compare the destination bearing with the selected planet direction.

Study example

A displayed azimuth of 90° points east from the chosen origin. Moving that bearing and recalculating Venus’s local direction are different operations and can produce different lines.

Method 4

Keep the interpretation in its declared context

Use the shared reading lens to choose planet meanings. In a Lahiri/Jyotish view, the map uses graha themes as a modern Atlas synthesis; it does not claim to implement a classical Jyotish relocation judgement. The geometric map still uses the same equatorial positions.

Study example

Switching zodiac labels can change the displayed sign or interpretation while leaving a Venus–MC line in the same place. A shifted sign label is not a shifted sky position.

Explore these reading approaches

Locational and relocation study ↗Astronomical and computational reading ↗

Concepts in this tradition

Follow a term for its definition, word origin, evidence and connected ideas.

Locational / relocation / astrocartography / local-space →

Disagreements & limits

  • Map lines express geometry, not guaranteed experiences or measured influence strength.
  • A body can be circumpolar or remain below the horizon at a particular location. A missing horizon line and a line clipped outside the displayed latitude range are different situations.
  • The map’s zero-altitude convention is not a weather-corrected sunrise prediction or a model of terrain obstructions.
  • The nearest displayed segment is an approximation; it is not an exact distance to an untruncated global curve or a universal astrological orb.
  • Parans, extra aspect lines and a full automated relocation judgement are not implemented. A visual line crossing does not identify a paran by itself.
  • Local Space retains negative true altitudes for below-horizon bodies. Azimuths within 0.01° of the zenith or nadir are omitted; a great-circle projection is not a planet’s path across Earth.

Sources & evidence

Practitioner sources describe their own systems. Historical and astronomical sources support different kinds of claims. Reading exercises are editorial teaching examples.

  1. Continuum and the Jim Lewis Slayden Foundation ↗original lineage and institutional account
  2. Skyfield: Positions — local horizon and atmospheric refraction ↗first-party astronomy documentation
  3. Skyfield: Almanac Computation — horizon events and meridian transits ↗first-party astronomy documentation
  4. Astro Gold: Astro Locality Maps — mapping method conventions ↗first-party practitioner software documentation

Connected entries

Tropical natal / modern Western →Fixed-star / Behenian / parans →Transits / solar and lunar returns →