INTRODUCTION One thing is certain about you, no matter where you are --you're one of the people who gets a lot out of life because you look beneath appearances and are willing to think for yourself, astrology being somewhat off the beaten track these days. So what is ASTRO*CARTO*GRAPHY*EXPLAINED? It's based on the common, instinctive idea that a person has different chances, luck, experiences or options in different localities -- that you aren't exactly the same person in New York that you are in Los Angeles. It works by looking at the planets' relationships to the places you've asked about at your birth moment. If a particular planet was especially powerful in the location noted when you were born, then the affairs that it symbolizes should predominate if you travel there, reside there or even have anything to do with that location from some other place.
Since 1976, when the now-standard ASTRO*CARTO*GRAPHY technique was introduced, wide acceptance by both the astrological community and the public has validated it. In addition, ASTRO*CARTO*GRAPHY has been able to benefit from the actual experiences of the thousands who have ordered its maps. The product of this experience is this new service.
WHY DO PEOPLE MOVE?
To understand how this information will be useful, perhaps we should question why people move around so much in the first place. In addition to the obvious reasons are psychological ones. Psychologists (Carl Jung especially) have suggested that people instinctively seek wholeness, or a completeness of their experience. If it's true that different locations accent different parts of your potentials, moving offers a way to speed evolution, to get acquainted with new parts of yourself. So if you find that a location you are obliged to reside at is one in which some of the more problematical influences predominate (such as Saturn, Neptune, etc.), you should look beneath the superficial and immediate desires and concerns of your life and try to understand what emerging consciousness has brought you here. Every location is good for something, and you would not be considering living in a difficult one for no reason. Also, don't get frightened if some of the interpretations sound extreme or perilous. Every planet has numerous possible manifestations, and, while we've tried to include them all here, rarely do the more extreme ones occur. The point in this report is to enable you to anticipate the nature of influences at your potential residence and so become able to recognize and utilize their most positive manifestations.
Different people are apt to react differently to the same astrological influence. You will feel more comfortable with what you already know, so certain planets will be easier for you to live under than others. For example, if you are a woman with traditional values, Mars and the Sun will possibly pose more problems for you than for a man, since the qualities and life experiences associated with these planets are not usually socially encouraged in women's upbringing. Similarly, men will find the Moon and Venus more challenging. People who tend to follow external authorities and believe in society's order as unchallengeable may find themselves more at home under Jupiter and Saturn lines, and stressed by new experiences under Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, while individualists and the more self-reliant will reverse these reactions.
You might find it useful to realize that, when faced with challenging astrological potentials, it is sometimes easy to "project" these onto your mate or partner, seeing the emerging parts of your own psyche as things THEY are doing. If your interpretations seem to fit your mate, realize that these things are happening because of possibilities in yourself that you aren't ready to face, and try to develop the positive sides of the astrological potentials described.
EVERY PLACE IS GOOD FOR SOMETHING
But the most important thing to realize is that every location is good for something; if you recognize and understand its potentials, you can use them constructively. You'll find that in some instances you don't even have to travel or live in the location -- that its influence affects you through people who come from there, or remote concerns, such as business, cultural or other life interests that symbolize those psychological potentials described by this report.
So here goes with the ASTRO*CARTO*GRAPHY*EXPLAINED analysis of the locations you're interested in. We hope it opens up for you opportunities to find what you're looking for in life; but we also hope it enables you to look beneath the surface, to see patterns in your own development and your instinctive growth toward wholeness.
Los Angeles, Ca.
To understand the following influence, you should be aware that it is strong in this locality, though not overbearingly so. While reading the psychological description of its manifestation below, you should recognize the major theme that has operated for you (or will operate) here, though it may not be your prime concern at all times. You can ignore it for long periods, and this moderation of the influence tends to mitigate some of the more frightening and dangerous excesses that can occur. Probably, the more unusual manifestations won't happen to you, as this influence merges with others in your personality, creating a more balanced manifestation.
Pluto-Descendant:
IF YOU'RE JUST VISITING, SEEK PEAK EXPERIENCE AND SYMBOLS OF CHANGE
On a vacation or short stay, you probably won't have time to develop the deeper and more permanent changes listed below, but you might encounter a symbol or person who stands for a self that you may become at some future time. This awareness can be precipitated by exposure to the concept of mortality in some form, which could include sexuality as well as birth or death. This is a likely location for "self-renovation," particularly if undertaken consciously, such as in psychoanalysis, or for other types of peak experience. In Pluto's realm, the structures of society and selfhood give way to a more universal order. Do be careful though, especially if the ideas described below are repugnant to you.
LIVING HERE IS THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE
If you are tired of three-dimensional reality, the laws of physics, cause and effect, and society, this zone may be congenial, as here the odds are continually defied, firsts and lasts in life are encountered, and actual miracles can happen. Most people would rather not think much about death -- we live as if we were immortal and feel that death is something that happens to other people, hopefully ones we don't know. But awareness of mortality is an important motivation for the quality and energy of life; philosophers have counseled us to live each day as if it were our last, and the power and intensity of the sexual experience stems from its relation to death, as through reproduction the individual is born anew. Death is the opposite pole from birth, and sex the bridge between the two. Residence in this zone will immerse you in experiences somehow allied to these peak-intensity realities, and images of rebirth, renewal, destruction, eroticism, alienation, rape, and leave-taking are apt to prevail. Exposure to such universal truths poses problems, as much of the world's day-to-day operations (like concepts of property and privilege) are predicated on ideas of immortality and continuity. In touch with absolutes, you tend to see yourself and others as one in five billion, truly equal in mortality, and exposure to (or awareness of) death changes your perspectives on life, leaving you seeing it with greater depth and clarity.
The theme of social alienation is prominent here, and you will probably do something to isolate yourself from normal, day-to-day, superficial, and trivial social intercourse, then complain about this self-imposed rejection, lamenting your image of outlaw or social pariah. You should have thought of that when you made yourself a focus or symbol of social forces. Total inner transformation of the kind stimulated by this zone demands total isolation and an awareness of the unique and lonely position of the individual as focus of the whole; it's impossible to communicate your self-perceived position in infinity and fate. Withdrawal from family and other unquestioned alliance underlies a war with anything that tries to define or confine you. Such total personal transformation is not pleasant, usually, as ferment and death of parts of self must precede new growth. The fields must be burned for new planting.
STEPS ALONG THE ROAD TO NOTHING
Pluto was, of course, the god of the underworld and lord of dead souls. His kidnap of Persephone in the myth adds to the concepts of mortality and finality, those of rebirth, loss of virginity, the imprisoned female, abduction, and birth, and suggests that within the female (and her capacity for childbirth) lies the potential to transcend death, to return from Hades. There is also implication of renewal through peak experience and the erotic, as well as symbolic association with resurrection motifs. Through all the trauma, identity is purged, and a new self emerges, enlarged by the intensity and greater depth it has experienced.
The earlier stages of consciousness of this zone are apt to center on loss, as it is only through this that the new can be given room to grow. A loved one may leave your life; childhood may be "lost," with a resultant resentment against family; virginity and "innocence" may be lost, creating a resentment against sexuality or perhaps the opposite sex. Social position or status may be lost, with a resultant feeling of alienation and outlaw consciousness --you alone pitted against everyone else. This stage sees a wounded pride and an "I'll get even" mentality that can run the gamut from self-destructive despair to firearms fetishism, with the emphasis on how much you have been wronged. A more mature outlook centers on acceptance and begins to adapt to the new situation. Depression and pessimism are internalized and gnaw less evidently at the outer personality, but there is a feeling that life will never be the same. Finally, in stages of mature, conscious awareness of the power and nature of this zone, you are able to see the immortality that is afforded by the perishing of old forms and their replacement with the new. Life's limitations are seen as its motivations, and its losses are seen as a necessary part of the equation of existence. In this stage, true magic is possible, as this alchemy of mortality is Nature's secret of creation; when understood on inner psychological planes, it allows the transcendence of physical laws, along with sentimentality, illusions, even blind hope and faith. The butterfly emerges from the cocoon, and just when hope was abandoned, a miracle occurs, redirecting life with a singleness and purpose only dreamed of before. For those who give up the pleasures of the trivial, nature awards the absolute.
INTENSITY ADDICTS
In light of the foregoing, it should be clear that it takes a special sort of person to enjoy and prosper in this intense and powerful zone. But it is hard to know who will or won't, as anyone is apt to change radically here, perhaps into a person who enjoys intensity more. But the process will be more painful if you're the type who shies away from the darker side of life experience, wants life to be pleasant, ordinary, superficial, social, and stable. If the power of sexuality frightens you and changes or upheaval elicit more fear than anticipation, then this zone may be particularly trying for you, but the depth with which your experience is rewarded may be all the more needed. People attached to their possessions, who feel that money constitutes security, also have problems, as the experiences of this zone force acknowledgement of the impermanence of material reality and how it is underlain by the more powerful laws of energy exchange and equilibrium.
As a man, your tendency may be to relate to the separativeness and intensity of this zone with a brutal competitiveness, a rebellious, outlaw mentality, becoming resentful and alienated from society as a result of some real or imagined injustice to which you have been subjected. Often there is an isolation from women or a tendency to objectify relationships into the purely sexual. Femininity seems alien and absent or can take threatening forms, as in designing and treacherous relationships; this may extend to the broader concepts of cooperation, community, and society, which you tend to deny yourself. Relationships of all kinds center around power, money, and possessions and you learn, rather unwillingly, a new respect for your limits in an unequal society.
FLIES, WOLVES, DOGS, AND MONEY
On more immediate and practical levels, while in this area, you may come into closer contact than before with the central themes of death and rebirth; partnerships may undergo transformation, relationships become intensely competitive, or people close to you might pass away, leaving you with a more intimate and painful grasp of this universal reality. Sex is also apt to become more prominent in your life, and firsts in erotic experience often are encountered here. Socially, power struggle seems the key concept in this zone, and your relationship with society may center on oppression or persecution, with resultant formation of self-reliance and resentment against authority and "normalcy." If you do not experience these realities directly, they may come to you through other people, and outlaws, criminals, underworld types, and the extremely powerful and unprincipled may enter your life. There is even the possibility of becoming the victim of violent crime, but this is most often the case only when people repress the other, less extreme expressions of this energy, so that it has no choice but to manifest outwardly and beyond your control. All these uncommunicable experiences and traumas serve to assure that the rest of your life will be shorn of some of the illusions that most of us live in, and this heightened awareness of reality, like that of a Nazi concentration camp survivor at a cocktail party, makes you somewhat unwelcome, as you force recognition of issues most of us would rather forget.
Obsessions are also often experienced here, and when they have passed or you have moved elsewhere, you will wonder at the power of an idea and the hold it held over you. In this zone, you are stripped to your essence, and in learning a weighty lesson, you acquire a sensual depth, a magnetic charisma that requires you to live in a world more real than most. Your work may deal with these vital issues in some way, as, for example, counseling the recently traumatized or bereaved. Flies, wolves, or dogs are among the symbols of death and decay which may surface frequently as signs of the change going on within. Money, itself a potent symbol of how material reality can acquire a life of its own, will be a preoccupation or obsession in this area. The acquisition of depth is the overriding purpose of what happens to you here, and any attempts to forestall this will only up the ante. Better to make a study of mortality and to seek understanding of the extremes of human possibility.
WHERE CATALYSTS OF CHANGE COME FROM
Even if you cannot travel to these zones, they are apt to stand in your mind for absolutes, firsts, lasts, and beginnings. People from these places may arrive as great changes are about to beset your life, or, similarly, you may be a catalyst for change in other's lives who live there. The symbols of decay, fermentation, and rebirth may be associated somehow with this locality and, a total resurrection of your possibilities may accompany any dealings with it.
The particular position that Pluto occupied in this location at your birth will direct this type of energy and experience particularly into certain life areas; while the most important thing to understand is the underlying meaning and psychological principle, these are apt to manifest more obviously in specific life areas than in others.
IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE
The position of Pluto at this location tends to stress relationships and your public image, both of which are apt to be scenes of great change, upheaval, and self-discovery. There can be conflicts here, as the world, hostile and contentious, seems intent on extinguishing you. You must do battle with the very things and people that are closest to you, while the outer world withdraws and leaves you alone to defend yourself against the crises demanding change and transformation. You are drawn to people with whom relationship is intensely combative or sexual, often from the desperation and fear of being alone. If you win this battle, you are free from dependency for the rest of your life, but marriage and relationships will never be the same again. Power needs, competitiveness, and hostility mark the beginning of their evolution here. Rebirth experiences follow encounters in which your identity, will, and reason are subject to intense pressure. There is considerable danger of injury here, or experiences close to death, the purpose of such experiences being to direct your attention and will inward; much strife may be avoided if you accept a more introverted and unconsciously directed life. Alienation and destruction in relationships may be the first chapter of the rest of your life, but they may seem at the time like the last.
Some of the more magical and unlikely manifestations listed above are likely to happen in this locale, including contacts with criminal circles, near-death and peak experiences, and confrontations with authorities over freedom and self-determination. There is some possibility that you can change world opinion, lay your life on the line for some heroic objectives, but there is, all in all, too much danger here for prolonged residence. Issues of violence may have to be dealt with, including the coming to terms with the fact that any human is a potential killer --including yourself. The ultimate battle of self-hood is here fought with those closest to you, and when you finally break away it will be to a new self-concept far more integrated, whole, and complete within itself, though this is not accomplished without stress and contention.
This location is a little east of the precise planetary influence; therefore, of the possibilities listed above, those which seem most external, objective, and detached from your own self and personality are the ones most apt to manifest. As suggested, the influence will act itself out in a social arena, but, specifically, will act most often in people, situations, and social or cultural influences that represent external authority or the whole of society and its values. If you're in a position of authority, you will clearly exemplify the potentials described above; but more likely will be your repeated exposure to others who act out both this role for you and the role of authority as well. You are assimilating your own leadership potentials from these experiences, as you are powerfully influenced by cultural, educational, legal, or religious institutions. Expect the people, gender, social roles, and professions mentioned anywhere above to become dominant in your social and career life, and anticipate that they will offer important guidance and valuable insights as to what your ultimate social power is and where it lies.
In addition to what has been explained above, you should understand that the latitude at which this location is found is a very important and potent one for you. A large number of subsidiary influences will confuse and complexify the issues set forth above, and relationships especially are under stress here. If you wish to preserve the indications set forth above, without the complexity of this latitude's influence, you might well consider moving 300 or 400 miles north or south of this location.
TEMPORARY INFLUENCES
In addition to the permanent, lifelong planetary influences described above, which affect the location you inquired about no matter when you reside there or deal with it, there are also important influences of a temporary nature. These operate strongly during the period about which you inquired (this year if you did not specify a time period).
Transiting Jupiter:
FULL SPEED AHEAD - A TIME TO PROGRESS
During the time period you designated for residence in this zone, there is a powerful temporary influence, lasting about three months, though possibly briefly recurring throughout the year. When it is past, your reactions to this zone should return to conformity with its lifetime indications described above, but during this period, expansiveness, optimism, and increased self-esteem are promoted by external events which offer opportunities, honors, rewards, and recognition. You will be dealing significantly with concepts of conformity and social or cultural regulation at this time, most likely through authorities' recognition or reward of your accomplishments, but your appetite for success and wealth may exceed the benevolence of even this fortunate influence, as you complain that what has been offered you is not enough or is not what you wanted.
Objectively, however, business is apt to be excellent, and opportunities proliferate; social advancement occurs, and health improves. Progress is made in an atmosphere of plenty and surplus. Others see you as somehow deserving of recognition and honor (perhaps subtly unwanted or limiting to freedom and individuality), and your teaching and healing abilities are at peak effectiveness now. You exude leadership and "quality" and expect everyone to acknowledge an inherent superiority which you feel now, an expectation that may not lodge well with the less trendy and fashion-conscious of your acquaintances. Too bad for them, though, since you may now be admitted to the company of the rich and famous (albeit briefly), expand your social circle, and find you have more (too much?) to do to worry about depressing problems. Others' rights and opinions may not seem very important right now, as you feel your way is the only right way and that this opinion is validated by the new world of opportunity which seems to be opening for you. In the midst of all this hope for the future, keep in mind this influence is short-lived, and try to accumulate durable and real accomplishments.
These, then, are the important astrological influences which affect this location, now and in the future. Needless to say, they all won't manifest the moment you arrive, but will indeed emerge as the most powerful psychological potentials over time.
EPILOGUE
This concludes our enumeration and description of the planetary influences, permanent and temporary, that affect the locations that you submitted. As you have observed, some of the information is psychological in nature, as it is the belief of ASTRO*CARTO*GRAPHY that planets act, not through any mystical "power" or magic, but by paralleling potentials in the human psyche, and in orderly and comprehensible fashion, marking the development of this maturity. It is hoped that you are able in this way to see that there are really no "good" or "bad" locations for you --that in the process of growing into mature completeness, you will have to experience every psychological possibility. At best, this report will work to inform you what these are for you in the locations you are considering, letting you know what to expect, and so empowering you to be able to utilize the most positive possibilities.
