Plan Your Next Vacation (or Move) by Your Stars

I’m a big believer that a combination *right timing* and *right place* can change your life. A handful of times, it’s been places that have initiated a whole new way of life for me. In the right place, seed ideas take root, a spiritual home is found, or two people’s destinies collide on an exotic star-filled night. Van Gogh’s destiny collided when he found Arles, France, his creative hot spot. In the right place, destinies click. Places are that powerful.

So what causes one person to feel at home in Brisbane, another to be spiritually drawn to Tibet, another to fall in love in Italy, another to write a book in Vienna? Whether we move, or just go on a vacation, different parts of our birth chart spring to life or fade into the background. How does this work? Let’s say you were born at sunset in Italy. At that moment, in Japan, the Sun would be rising, in San Francisco it would be high noon in the sky, and in Bombay it would be midnight.

Astrologers who plot these rising, setting, noon and midnight points onto a special map call these your “Sun lines”. Doing the same for all planets, we might find our ‘spiritual home’ on a Moon (home) or Jupiter (spirituality) line, or find our Venus (art, love & relaxation) line an exceptionally creative and relaxing place. Below is a list of both positive and shadow experiences for the planetary lines.

Sun: direction, ‘finding my self’, confidence, charisma, vitality, will, limelight, fame, leadership. Shadow: ego, pride, vanity.

Moon: heightened feelings, a sense of home, connection to tradition, belonging, need to root, nurturing instincts, emotionalism, sensitivity, obligations to public/private life. Shadow: dependency, inconstancy, neediness, preoccupation with family.

Mercury: increased mental activity, curiosity, self-expression, writing, intelligence, learning/teaching. Shadow: restlessness, over-thinking, insomnia, scattered-ness

Venus: appreciation, love, romance, intimacy, beauty, art, pleasure, sensuality, enjoyment of life, happiness. Shadow: laziness, romantic complications, love entanglements.

Mars: physical vitality, assertiveness, high energy, courage, entrepreneurialism, intensity, competitiveness, athleticism. Shadow: confrontation, aggression, conflict, unrest, hostility.

Jupiter: high enthusiasm, optimism, joie de vivre, opportunity, salesmanship, good luck, fortune, confidence. Shadow: over-estimation, blind faith or optimism, over confidence.

Saturn: self-discipline, focus, ambition, perseverance, learning through the school of hard knocks, status and recognition only earned here through hard work. Shadow: austerity, solitude, loneliness, wisdom through hardship, lowered vitality.

Uranus: shock appeal, surprising change, freedom from the past, liberation, unusual interests, maverick impulses. Shadow: upheaval, unpredictability, instability.

Neptune: spirituality, imagination, illusions, glamour, romance, dreams, submission of will, artistic inspiration, sensitivity, impressionability. Shadow: addiction, delusion, deception, impracticality, losing touch with reality.

Pluto: heightened psychological awareness, healing transformations, experiencing your own power. Shadow: powerlessness, wounding, trials by fire, radical upheaval & catastrophe, experiences outside your control -- like death and sickness.

Nodes: karmic meetings with others, encountering people tied to your destiny, circumstances that help you grow and evolve, past-life connections, familiarity, loss (South Node).

Please note: we cannot change our birth karma and soul purpose by astro-relocating to a new destination. If we have difficult relationship karma to work through and we move to a Venus line, we could attract difficult experiences in love, because that’s our spiritual work. An astrologer trained in astro-mapping can help you choose the right place for you.