Alyson Haines is a soul alchemist & spiritual guide who works with the Akashic Records, Soul Codes, Reiki, & Astrology. She is also the Host of the 'But, What if You Did?®' Podcast.
I just got back from a roadtrip with my husband and this was the first time I got to travel to one of my Astrocartography lines since beginning to study Astrocartography.
If you are unfamiliar with the term Astrocartography – Astrocartography is the branch of astrology that studies the energy of location & space.
Even if you are new to astrology, you’ve likely heard the term ‘natal chart’ or ‘birth chart’. Think of your natal chart as a snapshot of where the planets were in the sky at the exact moment you were born. Your natal chart tells a story about your life and what you came here to do. If we took your natal chart and laid it across a map of the world we would be looking at your Astrocartography map.
If this is your first time hearing the term Astrocartography, you may be surprised to learn that different locations hold different energies for each of us. As an example – perhaps you’ve noticed that the family vacation every summer in Maine has always felt frustrating for you for no explainable reason or maybe you visited a small town in Italy over winter break and it immediately felt like home even though you had never been there before. Our natal charts are unique – a cosmic fingerprint of sorts. And with that – how we feel in different locations is also unique to us.
But Astrocartography is more nuanced than just pull up your Astrocartography map and see what line you’re living on. And believe me when I say – I know how tempting it is to pull up your map on free websites and read the little blurbs when you feel a reading is just not accessible for you – I’ve been there and done that. But it usually does more harm than good.
Now that I study Astrocartography I advise against pulling up your map and trying to self-interpret without a professional astrologer and here’s why – there’s more to the story than just the line on the map.
Timing matters.
The first Astrocartography reading I invested in for myself – I received a screen shot of my map from a free website and the ‘supportive’ areas of the country that were highlighted by the Astrocartographer didn’t account for Parans [latitude lines – think of them of concentrated pockets of energy that can shift your entire experience], timing, or midpoints just to name a few.
I left the reading feeling totally empowered – only to realize months later that I actually felt totally mislead because I didn’t understand the nuance of the system.
The point of this article isn’t to deep dive the nuance of ‘What is Astrocartography?’ but rather to share my in the moment reflections and experiences from traveling to my Venus MC line when transiting Venus was exact on my Natal Venus.
Now before we go any further, I know I’m going to get this question in the comments so I’m just going to answer it now. “Do I do Astrocartography readings?” And the answer is ‘No… and…’. I do not offer 1:1 Astrocartography readings. This is still a branch of astrology that I feel I am very much still learning and I generally feel I need more than a couple of hours to deliver a quality experience.
Understanding the energy of location and space is something I spend considerable time exploring with my private coaching clients because we have more of an opportunity to explore nuance and how your energy body shifts from different experiences. Private coaching gives us the space to explore what can’t be explored in a one off session.
And with that there are several incredible Astrocartographers in my network that are thoroughly trained and really excellent at what they do. If you are wanting to book an Astrocartography reading, I recommend booking with one of the readers found in THIS DIRECTORY.
Currently I live about 150 miles from my Venus MC line. You can feel the energy of a line for several hundred miles in either direction. The closer you are to the line the more potent the energy. I do experience the energy of this line where I live but it’s more of a moderate strength experience. This roadtrip would take me within a few miles of the strongest energy – so this was likely going to be a different energetic experience.
In my natal chart, my natal Venus is in Libra in the 11th house. Venus rules Libra so generally transits to my natal Venus have a supportive quality to them. My Midheaven point [MC] is also located in my 11th house. My MC is about 5 degrees from Venus in my natal chart. The day we were closest to my Venus MC line, transiting Venus was conjunct my natal Venus – activating that point in my chart.
Something I’ve observed from having conversations with other Astrocartographers is that when they travel they are very intentional to not hyper-fixate on needing something to happen. The energy is always active – so even when we don’t see a tangible result in the moment it doesn’t mean something didn’t happen. I tried to be really intentional to not go searching for a result.
When we arrived at our hotel, I opened my social media for the first time all day and had 3 DMs that honestly stopped me in my tracks.
One of them was from one of my former coaches who shared she had a vision of me starting a YouTube channel where I did like live readings/channeling sessions. This was interesting to me because the 11th house is representative of community but think like social media communities. It’s more of the para-social relationship vibe – not IRL friends. The idea of doing something more prominent on YouTube has been coming up quite a bit recently so this felt like interesting timing for that message.
I had another message from a past client sharing some ideas for marketing my 2026 Year Ahead Astrology Readings. If you follow me on my social channels you know that I’ve been obsessed with these readings lately. Once I learned how to put all these different timing techniques together and spent some time forecasting the energetic shifts I will move through in 2026 – I couldn’t stop talking about how cool it was. I couldn’t wait to launch these.
What I found interesting about the timing of this message was the Midheaven point [MC] represents our public image and how others see us. And even though I support clients energetically in a number of ways, I see a noticeable shift occurring in how others view my work. Many in my community seem to view me as a professional astrologer first and an energy worker/channel second.
The third message was a little more private so I’m not going to share the details of that one here but it was also very reflective of the Venusian energy.
As a practicing Astrologer and Astrocartographer, it was absolutely fascinating to witness the alignment between when these messages were received and the Venus conjunct Venus transit going exact. We were only within a few miles of my Venus MC line for a little under 24 hours but it was truly mind blowing that we could visit a location and still witness the energetic shift in such a short period of time.
Now there is one more piece to this story that feels important to document. Zodiacal Releasing is an ancient hellenistic astrology predictive timing technique that shows you the astrological weather of different seasons of life.
In Zodiacal Releasing there is something known as the Lot of Spirit Activation. Lot of Spirit is what we look to in our charts to understand our purpose in this lifetime. The Lot of Spirit Activation is basically like a green light from the universe that you are on the right path. I have been in a Lot of Spirit Activation period since the end of September and it goes through mid-November.
Lot of Spirit Activation periods can reveal a lot of information about how to find more intentional soul alignment if we are paying attention. I was definitely meant to travel to this line during this period of time and the messages received absolutely hold meaning even if it isn’t super clear how it all translates in this exact moment. Lot of Spirit Activation periods for me are generally challenging – and this Lot of Spirit Activation has definitely felt challenging and confusing but has also been filled with so many little messages that have left me feeling hopeful and inspired.
Here’s an example of another sign that came through earlier this month during this Lot of Spirit Activation period. Earlier this year, I discontinued my 1:1 Reiki Sessions. There wasn’t as much interest as there previously was. Reiki wasn’t my main modality and so when I felt called to clear some space in my calendar – I knew this was the way to do that.
And so really the only time I offer Reiki now is in group sessions that are typically co-hosted with other somatic practitioners. In the last month, I started receiving a number of messages from people asking to book 1:1 Reiki Sessions.
If this hadn’t been during a Lot of Spirit Activation period, I’m not sure I would have re-opened my books for sessions. But because of the timing, it felt like a wink from the universe that this was something worth paying attention to.
I asked my community on my social channels if 1:1 Reiki sessions were something they were looking for and received more interest than I expected. I thought that was so interesting. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own plans that we miss the signs to invite in more ease and flow. It can feel like an internal tug o’war trying to convince yourself to surrender to the pivot when you’ve felt so sure of the path. But, also, sometimes the pivot is exactly what we need and can open the door we actually need in this season of life.
This is what makes Astrology, Astrocartography, and Timing so powerful though. Think of your natal chart as the map to help you find more ease, more alignment, more flow.
This may be my first Astrocartography inspired reflection – but it certainly won’t be the last.
If you are interested in exploring your Astrocartography and learning to read & work with your personal energetic forecast – I invite you to explore my 8-week private coaching container ‘Anchored’. Anchored is designed to help you strengthen your energetic foundation so that it holds steady as the external world shifts. It’s designed to show you how to use your natal chart, locational astrology, and timing to find more ease and flow regardless of how unstable the world feels. To explore if ‘Anchored’ is right for you – Click HERE to learn more and book a free connection call.
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Alyson Haines is a soul alchemist & spiritual guide who works with the Akashic Records, Soul Codes, Reiki, & Astrology. She is also the Host of the 'But, What if You Did?®' Podcast.