Astrocartography — your birth chart, mapped onto the world
Every planet in your chart draws a line across the Earth. Where that line falls, the planet sits on an angle of your chart — and the place starts to behave like that planet. 96Astro computes all of them from the Swiss Ephemeris, to arc-second accuracy, and adds the Vedic layers most astrocartography tools leave out.
What an astrocartography line actually is
At the moment you were born, each planet stood at some altitude in the sky — and somewhere on Earth, at that same instant, it was exactly rising, exactly setting, exactly overhead, or exactly underfoot. Join all the longitudes where that was true and you get a line. Stand near it and that planet is angular in your chart: not stronger in itself, but far louder in how the place feels and what tends to happen there.
This is why two people can move to the same city and have completely different decades. The city is the same. The lines crossing it are not.
Midheaven line
The planet is at the top of the sky. Career, reputation, visibility, the role the world hands you.
Imum Coeli line
The planet is at the base of the chart. Home, family, roots, the private life you build there.
Ascendant line
The planet is rising. Identity, body, initiative — how you act and how the place changes you.
Descendant line
The planet is setting. Partnership, marriage, clients, opponents — who you meet there.
What each planet's line tends to bring
A line is not a verdict. It describes the raw material a place hands you — which the rest of your chart, your dasha and your own choices then shape. Read it as terrain, not fate.
| Planet | On the MC / IC | On the AC / DC |
|---|---|---|
| Sun | Recognition, authority, being seen; the place where a career takes on your name. | Confidence and visible presence — you are noticed rather than blending in. |
| Moon | Home, belonging, family life; a place that feels like somewhere to settle. | Emotional openness, closeness to the public, care work and nurture. |
| Mars | Drive and ambition, competitive work, but also friction with authority. | Energy, courage, assertion — and a shorter fuse than you have elsewhere. |
| Mercury | Writing, teaching, trade, negotiation; work that runs on words and information. | Restlessness, curiosity, a busy social and intellectual life. |
| Jupiter | Growth, patronage, teaching and reputation; opportunity arrives with less effort. | Optimism, generosity, good counsel — and a tendency to over-extend. |
| Venus | Beauty, art, comfort and money through taste; pleasant public standing. | Love, attraction and partnership; the place where relationships find you. |
| Saturn | Duty, structure, slow-earned authority; success that arrives late but stays. | Discipline and restriction — a demanding place that matures you. |
| Rahu | Ambition, foreign gain, unconventional routes upward; fast rise, unclear ground. | Obsession, intensity, sudden exposure to the unfamiliar. |
| Ketu | Detachment from worldly role; research, spirituality, withdrawal from the public. | Introspection, letting go, and a sense of having been here before. |
The layers most astrocartography maps do not have
Parans — where two lines cross
A paran is a latitude where two planets are angular at the same moment. Crossings are the sharpest points on any astrocartography map: two themes fused into one place, for better or worse.
Rashi bands
The zodiac projected onto the globe as vertical bands, so you can read a location by sign as well as by line. A Vedic reading most Western astromapping tools simply do not offer.
A full relocated chart
Not just lines: the complete Vedic chart re-cast for the city — new ascendant, new house framework, new bhava strengths — so you can judge a place with the tools you already use.
Dasha timing for the place
A city that suits your chart still needs the right period. 96Astro reads Vimshottari, Char and Yogini dashas against a location, so the answer is not only where but when.
Local Space and zenith points
Directional lines radiating from where you stand now, and the exact spot on Earth each planet stood directly overhead at your birth.
Cities ranked and scored
246 world cities scored against your chart, overall and per goal — career, wealth, marriage, study — with the distance to every line that produced the score.
How to read your own map
- Cast your chart once. Date, exact time and birthplace. Time matters here more than almost anywhere else in astrology — the angles move roughly one degree every four minutes.
- Open Location Astrology. Your world map draws with every planetary line, coloured by planet and labelled by angle.
- Start with the benefics. Find your Jupiter and Venus lines before anything else, and note which of the four angles they sit on.
- Check the distance, not just the look. Click any city and 96Astro reports the exact kilometres to each nearby line. Under about 150 km is strong; past 500 km it is background.
- Read the relocated chart. A line tells you one thing. The re-cast chart for that city tells you the whole story, including which house your existing yogas land in.
- Then check the timing. Run the dasha view for the place before acting on it.
Astrocartography, relocation astrology and remote reading
Astrocartography
Every planet's angular lines drawn across the whole world at once, so you can scan continents for possibilities.
Relocation astrology
A single place, re-cast in full, with houses, strengths and dashas.
They answer different questions and 96Astro gives you both from one cast — the map to find candidates, the relocated chart to judge them. Neither replaces your natal chart. Your birth chart is who you are; location work only changes the frame it is read in. A promise the natal chart never made will not appear because you moved.
Common questions
What is astrocartography?
Astrocartography maps your birth chart onto the surface of the Earth. For the exact moment you were born, each planet was on the horizon or the meridian at some longitude. Joining those positions draws a line across the globe, and standing near that line places the planet on an angle of your chart.
What do MC, IC, AC and DC lines mean?
MC is the Midheaven: career, reputation and public role. IC is the base of the chart: home, family and roots. AC is the Ascendant: how you appear and act. DC is the Descendant: partnership and how others meet you. The same planet reads differently on each of the four.
Does moving actually change my chart?
No. Your planets keep the longitudes they had at birth; nothing about the sky changes. What changes is the ascendant and the house framework, because those depend on where on Earth you stand. Relocation rotates the houses — it does not re-cast the planets.
How close to a line do I need to be?
Influence is strongest on the line and fades with distance. A common working orb is about 100 to 150 km either side, weakening to roughly 500 km. 96Astro shows the exact distance in kilometres from any point you click, so you can judge it rather than guess.
Is 96Astro's astrocartography Vedic or Western?
Both. The lines come from the Swiss Ephemeris and can be read tropically or sidereally, and 96Astro adds Vedic layers most astrocartography tools do not have: rashi bands, a full relocated Vedic chart for any city, KP analysis and dasha timing for the place you are considering.
Is the astrocartography map free?
Yes. Cast a chart on 96Astro and open Location Astrology to see your world map with every planetary line. Deeper features such as city ranking, relocation reports and dasha timing are part of the platform.
See where your planets fall
Cast a chart once and the whole world opens up — every line, every crossing, every city scored against your own chart.
Open your world map