An Introduction To Astrocartography With The Cosmic Latte
In spiritual practices, the make-up of birth charts are often used to understand more about a person’s character and traits, including personal habits and behaviours, as well as how they interact with the external world - but that’s not the only way of using them. Enter astrocartography.
By Grace Freeman / May 23, 2023
For anyone who’s into astrology, the significance of a person’s birth chart is renowned: it’s their own personal spoked wheel of how the planets were placed during the time and place of their birth.
Whichever zodiac constellation each planet is shown to have been sitting under at this time determines their sign. So, for example, if the Sun was sitting in the constellation of Gemini at your birth (like me), then that means Gemini is your sun-sign - more widely known as your star-sign - and so on.
In spiritual practices, the make-up of birth charts are often used to understand more about a person’s character and traits, including personal habits and behaviours, as well as how they interact with the external world - but that’s not the only way of using them. Enter astrocartography.
so what is astrocartography?
The concept of astrocartography was first pioneered by astrologer Jim Lewis in the 1940s. It’s a type of locational astrology that takes a birth chart and then lays it over a map of the world - in essence, it’s your cosmic footprint, set against Earth’s geography.
Once all lined up and read correctly, it gives you a new kind of map that shows you all the places that will be most meaningful or transformative for you across different aspects of your life. Cool, right? I thought so, too.
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meet the cosmic latte
Daniela Karpenos, founder of super-cool spiritual space The Cosmic Latte, has been delving into astrocartography for some time, with her own interpretative offering in the form of Astro Maps.
“I’m all about practical, logical applications of astrology,” says Daniela. “I know it doesn’t sound that fun, but when there’s so much mystique shrouding the practice, it can take away from understanding how to apply it to your life. It’s about, you know, bringing the stars down to Earth.”
“When you calculate the charts yourself, it can sometimes look crazy,” she continues. “There’s lines everywhere and you have to know all the astrological symbols to truly find what you’re looking for - it’s not super intuitive or approachable, particularly for anyone who’s new to astrology. With the Astro Maps, my goal was to create something that had me doing the brunt work for people and to produce something that was beautiful and clean and concise.”
how do the astromaps work
The Astro Maps are detailed digital guides, including recommendations on your overall top three places to live and top ten travel destinations, plus answers to any particular questions you might have - context is important and allows Daniela to dig even deeper.
“I love it when people add questions! Like, I’m thinking of moving to Brooklyn, can you help me decide? I really love to get into it and make a case for the energy of all those places. You know, it’s up to the person and we all have free will, but I can say, ‘Look, here is the energy of this place and here is the energy of that place - and, by the way, if you haven’t considered this other place, then I also think you’d really enjoy living here.”
With astrology defined as pseudo-scientific since the middle of the 18th century - it’s rooted in study of tangible celestial objects, rather than sheer guesswork - knowing the detail of someone’s journey so far can be key in understanding their map placements.
“It’s really helpful for me to look at a person’s hometown’s energy and to be able to talk them through why they might’ve moved away or decided to stay, for example,” explains Daniela. “When I’m developing a guide for someone, it’s important to hear about where they’ve been as well as where they want to go - working backwards as well as looking forwards. Energies are different for everyone in each place and it’s really cool to be able to break it down and outline it for someone.”
how can we interpret them?
The real beauty of astrocartography is that, as with every type of practice, we make it as big or as little as we want to. We get to choose how we understand and weave its offerings into our lives - and it really can pave the way for making moves we’ve always wanted or might’ve only dreamt about before.
“I’ve talked with people who met their partner on their Venus descendant line or met people who feel like they’re at home on their Moon line,” Daniela says. “But it can also be affirming for the places that we’ve been tugged to visit. It doesn’t have to be literal - people don’t have to necessarily travel or relocate to all the places that I recommend to them, but they can channel bits of those places. There are always ways to incorporate bits and pieces of our own maps into our homes and our daily lives.”
It’s a lovely thought, isn’t it? Knowing we have the freedom to patchwork parts of our lives together based on the places that call to us - music from Cuba, artwork from Oslo, recipes from Sicily - and while astrocartography can be (and is) used to fuel big life changes, it doesn’t need to mean that we do something hugely seismic with what it gives to us. Well, not always. Be right back, moving to Mexico.
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