Ancestral Astrocartography

With the growing popularity of Astrocartography, coupled with the fact that through air travel our world has become easier than ever to travel, it may be easy to forget that going from faraway land to faraway land is not as new of a concept as it may seem. 

Yes, within the time span of a day we can do what took our ancestors quite possibly many months or years to achieve, but human beings have always been nomadic. It is written in our DNA. Even once the Agricultural Revolution started and we became more complacent and stationary because we had what we mostly needed, there were still driving factors that pushed humans to leave the locations where they were born in order to seek a better life somewhere else. Maybe it was something as simple as the biological urge to strengthen offspring by not procreating with your not so distant cousin. Or maybe it was an inner urge to discover new and exciting places. Maybe there was no choice, natural disasters that destroyed all they knew, attacks from neighboring groups. The possible stories are endless, and your imagination can run wild thinking about what your ancestors may have had to go through in order for you to be sitting comfortably where you are today. Maybe those stories are not so distant, and heavy within your heart, maybe you are looking to heal or connect with your roots. 

When assessing your Ancestral and Past life stories on your Astrocartography map or in you chart, the IC point, and IC lines are one of the main areas of consideration. You may have seen the Letters IC when pulling up your Astrocartography maps on free sites such as Astro.com.

What is the IC?

Also know as the Imum Coeli, this is a very potent and powerful angle within our charts. The term Imum Coeli is Latin for ‘Bottom of the Sky’, because it is quite literally the lowest point in the sky registered in our charts, and it represents our roots. Your IC lines show you where each planet or Asteroid was at their lowest point on the globe, during your moment of birth. Any planets conjunct this angle will give us added details as to the main themes of our ancestral and karmic stories. Its ruler and it’s location and aspects will give further information.

In both my client work and my studies of the maps of my own family, I began to notice significant patterns within the map that I felt were too straightforward to be ignored. Both my brother and I have our Saturn IC line running through the area of Brazil where our father is from. Saturn in our charts and maps can signify our lineage, Saturn is the archetype of the elder of course, and usually it can signify the paternal lineage as well. Furthermore, my son has his Moon IC line running through the same exact area. The Moon, especially on the IC, points to the lineage, home, or story of the mother. I found this to be rather striking, and began discovering more and more synchronicities in my client work and personal family charts and maps. I wanted to investigate this more. I have noticed the patterns within family birth charts and incorporate the family story into my birth chart readings very often. I believe our birth chart shows not only our own story but the story of others in our lives that affect us. However I found it rather jarring to see these stories played out on the maps as well, and with quite intricate details as I began to add more layers to it such as the story of the relocated chart, the paran lines, and midpoints.

Now, personally I believe that both ancestry and past lives are connected. I believe in soul groups and that we choose specific people to connect with and either help or learn from in this lifetime. I also believe that along with choosing specific people we also choose specific places. Whether it is past life or ancestral related can sometimes get a little tricky, but also not really when you consider this one obvious fact:

We all have a common ancestor somewhere.

The more I did research the more I found patterns that were too repetitive to be ignored. I began to feel an inner calling towards focusing on combining Ancestral Astrology with Locational Astrology.

I come from a cross cultural background. There can be a certain messiness that comes with having parents that come from oceans apart, and without getting to personal, I realized that the more I worked with clients with similar backgrounds, the more I felt called to use Astrocartography as a means of healing and understanding for people from similar cross cultural upbringings as mine. When the dialogue unfolds, and the maps reflect our own history, there can be a sense of relief in knowing that there is a reason WHY. Not only do we receive information from our maps and chart that can help us clarify our purpose, but we can also use it to connect to the ancestors that are trying to reach us, and gain clarity on the places we need to be going in this lifetime. 

With everything going on at the moment, and through all of the chaos, noise, and uncertainty, maybe it’s time to go back to the places our ancestors came from? While at the same time moving forward and into some place new, venturing off into the unknown just as our ancestors before us did. There are answers to these kinds of questions in our maps and in our charts. Within our maps we can SEE those places where our ancestors have been, or places where we have spent many lifetimes before. We can see the places where we may need to tie up loose ends, or make those connections we are meant to make in this lifetime.

When looking to find our ancestral and past life connections there a few places we look to on the maps. It’s important to keep in mind that all IC lines may have a connection to your Ancestry or past lives in one way or another, and there are details within the birth chart that may suggest karmic connections to specific Planetary IC Lines. For example, looking to the planetary ruler of the IC may provide some insight into a particular location. So it is important to be familiar with planetary rulership when looking to find the IC line that may hold a deep connection with your heritage. A Sagittarius IC, look to a Jupiter IC line, a Gemini IC, look to a Mercury IC line, etc. However the following lines are the main lines that tend to always show up in correlation to a persons roots or past, and they are as follows:

Moon IC - In order to learn about our Maternal ancestral stories or our emotional karmic connections, the Moon IC line is where we look. I have seen any one of the moon lines show up on an angle of significant maternal ancestry for a person. Whether it’s the Ascendant, Descendant or Midheaven line. This is because the moon in our charts and in our maps tells the story of our Mother. The Moon IC line can also speak to our karmic experiences of having several lifetimes repeated in the area it crosses lived as a mother, a female leader or healer within a community, or lives of intense emotional family connections. Sometimes the line will be going through a place of paternal lineage, but it is the female ancestral and karmic experiences passed down from the father’s side that are asking to be worked through and illuminated within this lifetime.

Sun IC - When taking into consideration the father and the father story within our birth charts and maps it is our Sun’s placement and Sun lines that we look to. Depending on the condition of the Sun in one’s chart, the Sun IC line can be one of the best places to become a father and honor the father’s lineage. Tapping into themes of vitality, confidence, authority, and honoring these themes in our ancestors become the medicine of Sun IC lines. If there is not an obvious paternal ancestral connection to the area of one’s Sun IC line there could be past life stories begging us to take a peek to heal our father wounds. From personal experience and before even knowing of the medicine of Astrocartography, I did a past life resgression that helped me to work through my relationship with my father in this lifetime. In that lifetime he was from the area where my Sun IC line runs through even though he was raising me in a different location in that life. Showing a repeated theme of cross cultural unions. I do not have any recent direct ancestral connections to that area, but do have some to an area close by, so taking into consideration that the lifetime was over 800 years ago, the possibility of a distant ancestral connection then becomes very likely.

Saturn IC - Indicates ancestral stories or connections, particularly through the grandparents. It may show a location where grandparents immigrated to or from, but there is typically a story here in regards to them and their lineage. Saturn is the archetype of the Elder, Saturn represents structure, hard work, wisdom and all of the things that come along with age. Our Saturn IC line many times represents our Father’s Ancestral Lineage. A Saturn line may feel difficult for some, and for some more than others. Those that grow up on a Saturn line often feel limited and restricted, bound to duties and often duties that deal with elders in their family. Although this may be difficult, there is room here for enormous soul growth and karmic debt settling. Here there is opportunity for long term growth. A Saturn line is great for meditating on any long term work that you came here to do, and more specifically the Saturn IC line may show you the story of how to connect with your ancestors through structured work, or the duty and responsibility that comes with raising a family, or maintaining a business. Therefore, honoring your own ancestors through the growth of your own family, business, or responsibilities. Saturn rules tradition, and therefore connecting with the traditions of your ancestors on your Saturn IC line can be some of the most powerful ancestral work one can do.

Pluto IC - Often indicates a location where you have spent many many lifetimes. These are very deep ancestral or past life roots. Pluto is a generational planet, therefore this location often indicates a place of multi generational experiences. These are ancient roots, and there is often a rather deep shamanic connection to this land. This location offers the opportunity for deep shadow work and ancestral healing opportunities. Wherever we find a Pluto IC line on the map we are looking at DEEP roots. This area usually indicates very ancient ancestral connections, or a place where we have lived many, many lives, generation after generation, after generation. It is a place to do deep ancestral wound healing, and shadow work. Clearing out the karma of generations, and the collective wounds that may be carried through generationally are themes in this location. As always, if there is not an obvious ancestral connection remember the possibility of past lives. There is also the possibility of kinship via a very ancient ancestral connection.

Nodal IC/MC - When looking at the Nodal lines on your map it is important to remember remember that the nodes follow each other. Where ever your North node is, your south node will be there in the opposing house of the Relocated Chart. With the moon’s nodes we are looking at themes of karma, fate, and destiny. The south node indicates areas that you have mastered either through ancestral inheritance or past lives. The north node can show us where we are headed, or where we are ‘meant to be’ in this life time. Since they stay together, looking towards their house placement can help with the details of where there is expected to be a lot of activity in an area of life (north node), and were there is a decrease in activity (south node). 

Ruler of the Nodal North Node and South Node - Can show us the places we have been (south node) and may need to go (north node) in order to tie up loose ends, as well as our places of significant destiny in this life. 

Chiron IC - There are many many difficult and unfathomable things that our ancestors have had to go through, and much of humanity is still suffering on varying levels. Healing the Ancestral or past life wound, and alchemizing in order to heal others, that’s what the Chiron IC line teaches us. Chiron IC lines can be very common in areas where people have an ancestral connection to a land that for reasons of war or political violence, they might not be able to return to. This is a very common theme with a Chiron IC line, often it may be that their ancestors had to leave that place for that reason, even if the land itself may be a safe place to return to today. 

Houses in the Relocated Chart - Significant placements falling in the 12th, 8th, or 4th house in a relocated chart can give us more detail about our ancestral story in a location. This is because all three of these house have strong spiritual significations. These houses are naturally in trine with one another. The 4th house signifies of Ancestry, the 8th house, our inheritances, and the 12th our connection to the divine and ancestral communication, but also past life significations. In all of these the significations of the planets, their signs, and aspects can be analyzed for further details on the karmic or ancestral story.

4th House - The 4th house in our charts shows us our story of home and family. It is quite literally the ‘house’ house, and therefore represents most things connected to our home. It is a dark house, planets passing through the 4th house are literally at their lowest and darkest points in the sky when they pass through the 4th, therefore it holds a representation of out inner and private worlds. When the sun passes through the 4th house, it is the darkest part of the night. It shows us our story of Ancestry and the main themes of our family life. It also represents the end of things and the completion of cycles. When a planet is relocated to the 4th house, it is close to the IC, or Imum Coeli. Planets in the 4th house in a Relocated Chart can hold an Ancestral story for us.

8th House - The 8th house is another important house to consider. Mainly the 8th house deals with the things we inherit. Inheritances are under it’s domain, both in regards to our personal properties and finances, as well as ourselves. What are the traits and qualities passed down generation after generation, what is the cyclical story? The 8th house can answer these kinds of questions. The 8th house is also the house of secrets, so there may be something secretive about the family story or something the family had to hide from. The 8th house also deals with matters of both life and death, both the birthing process and the crossing over process are under it’s domain, the portal from this world into the next. When looking at a Relocated Chart, an area with prominent 8th house influences or a stellium relocated here for example, can speak to a place where we have inherited many qualities from either through our physical bodies or our physical properties.

12th House - This is both one of the most spiritual and one of the most difficult houses of the Zodiac. It signifies the subconscious and the hidden aspects of life. But it is also traditionally associated with secret enemies, isolation, and exile. As a result of its connection with exile, it is also connected to the difficulties associated with immigration. A 12th house stellium or significant planets relocated here can tell an ancestral story of being forced to flee a home country due to difficult circumstances. It can also show us karmic and past life associations to a location with significant 12th house placements. Things like Hypnosis and Past Life Regression work are under the domain of the 12th house. While the 8th house covers the actual crossing over process of matters of life and death, the 12th is more about what exists in the ether and where our souls dwell before and after this life. Pay attention to places where your Sun, Moon, or a Stellium moves into the 12th house in the relocated chart.

These three houses can essentially be considered the Ancestral houses of the Zodiac and therefore should be taken into consideration when analyzing any Relocated Chart for potential past life or Ancestral stories.

I encourage you to study your own map and look towards these placements to see, do they hold any ancestral or potential karmic influences for you? Maybe you already have an affinity towards these places but can’t explain why. Maybe your ancestors are telling you about connections to places through the maps that your immediate family may not even be aware of. There had always been speculation as to the ancestry of my husbands paternal Grandmother. She claimed to have some asian roots, although his DNA results showed only indigenous South American roots. His Pluto IC line however runs through Southeast Asia. My husbands DNA results left out his grandmother’s southeast Asian ancestry, but the maps said otherwise. Later on, there was an update in his DNA results, proving the maps to be correct in where his Pluto IC line fell.

This is new and exciting territory! A way of connecting to our ancestry and past lives through a unique compass given to us through our birth charts. I am passionate about sharing and studying this technique with others. If you would like to know more about how you can connect with your ancestors and their stories and how it could help you in this lifetime, you may always book my Ancestral Analysis Astrocartography reading. Our ancestors are always trying to reach us to guide us. After all we ARE our ancestors, because we are the amalgamation of them, we hold them within us. Tuning into that vibration instead of looking towards societal standards of how we should be living our life can be powerful work. Astrocartography and Ancestral Astrology can provide us with answers and a way for that ancestral voice to be reaching us and guiding us. It can be a powerful healing tool to understand how the ancestral or karmic voice can resonate through both your chart and map in order to help you clear out past pain and make room for your destiny within this lifetime. 

My Ancestral Analysis readings help you to do just that, look back to the past, in order to find clarity in your personal karmic and ancestral story so that you can move forward and discover your meant to be places. You chose this to incarnate within your bloodline, in this life, at this time. The locations you choose are an equally significant part of your story and they hold unique energies for you. Both your birth chart and your Astrocartography map are precious Archaeological sites just waiting to be excavated.