ASTROLOGY ARTICLES BY JON

Big Change: The Astrology of my Move to LA

On March 30th, I'm moving cross country from New Bern, North Carolina to Los Angeles, California! It's something I've wanted to do for a long time and things finally worked out so it could happen. Let's look at the astrology of my move to LA. Change usually happens slowly, often there's a series of smaller events, planning and maneuvering, that lead up to the big change, and through astrology we can get a good idea of when these big changes might occur in a person's life.

The angles show our orientation to life: the Ascendant (AC), or the eastern most point, shows self, our personality; the Descendant (DC) or the western most point, describes our relationships, our significant other; the Imum coeli (IC), or the lowest most hidden point, describes our inner most self, our home; and the Medium coeli (MC) the highest most visible point describes our public self, our career. If you want to get a quick feel for someone's orientation in life look to where the majority of their planets lie in their chart; if for example you see a strong emphasis to the west (DC) then they are relationship-oriented and probably devote a lot of their time to other people.

As we learned in my article Timing Big Change with Astrology hard contact (square and conjunction/opposition) of the outer planets (Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) by transit or solar arc to the angles (AC, DC, MC, and IC) are the best indicators of big change in astrology. A cross country relocation is a big change so we would expect to see a lot of transit activity to the angles of my chart at the time of my move. All the angles are important, but the IC is symbolic of home. So we would expect the IC in particular to play a strong role in the astrology of a move. Notice that my IC is at 0 degrees Aries. Aries is ruled by the planet Mars, and so it is the ruler of my IC. So Mars is an important significator of domestic life in my chart.

The Moon is the ruler of the sign Cancer (home) and the natural ruler of the 4th house of home. So anytime there is a change in domestic life we look to the Moon. The 4th house of home is also a very important factor in this equation so we want to look for transit activity in my 4th house. In most unequal house systems the IC marks the beginning of the 4th house of home so in those systems Mars would rule my 4th house.

I recently adopted, by the way, the "whole sign" house system because it keeps things simple. Back in the old days the signs and houses were synonymous. If Aquarius fell on your third house cusp, the ancients would call it the "house of Aquarius" and that was that; the whole sign of Aquarius is your third house. With the unequal houses you usually get at least two sometimes three or more signs in a house. This just simplifies things for me especially in terms of rulership. The Angles are still just as important in this system they just do not start the houses.

In my chart 16 degrees of Sagittarius rises, so in the whole sign houses the sign Sagittarius is my first house as opposed to the first house starting at 16 Sagittarius and then including part of Capricorn. Now to get to the 4th house we would count 4 houses starting with Sagittarius as house one, Capricorn as house two, Aquarius as house three and Pisces as house four. So Pisces is the 4th house in my chart using whole signs as opposed to Aries and the traditional ruler of Pisces is Jupiter. So in whole sign houses Jupiter doubles as my Ascendant ruler (Sagittarius) and my 4th house ruler Pisces.

Also notice that Jupiter in my chart is at 16 degrees Pisces so it shares the same degree as my Ascendant (exactly square it). So Jupiter plays a special role. So today we're going to look at transits to my angles (especially involving the IC), and to the 4th house. Also we will be looking at transits to and from the Moon (natural ruler of the home), Mars (IC ruler), and Jupiter (AC ruler and whole sign 4th house ruler) at the time of the move.

We want to start with the slowest moving planets first so we will begin with Pluto. Pluto is currently at 5 degrees Capricorn, so although he's not making an exact aspect during the move, he's only 5 degrees past an exact square to my MC/IC axis. The last exact pass was in September 2009 and that's when I was visiting LA. Also notice he's only 6 degrees past an exact conjunction with my natal Mars (ruler of the IC) which was exact in 2008 and that's when I started cultivating a relationship with my dear friend Elle in LA. So although transiting Pluto's not playing a direct part in the move, he was a chief player in the build up.

Next we look to Neptune and we see that transiting Neptune is closely sextile my natal Moon on March 31 and also applying sextile to my natal Mars. Although this does not signal a major move by itself it does add some color, maybe it refers to the whole "La La land" thing: Hollywood is a very Neptunian place, Tinsel Town the place of film, glamour and make believe so Neptunian!

Next we look to Uranus and we see that he's about 3 degrees from my IC at the time of the move and only two degrees from a square with my natal Mars. The transit of Uranus (the planet of uprooting) to my IC (roots) is the BIGGEST indicator of a major relocation.

Saturn (Lord of discipline and responsibility) is exactly conjunct my MC (opposite my IC) and this tells me that this move will involve a lot growth and maturity. My responsibility (Saturn) in the word (the MC) is increasing and as we all know Saturn never makes things easy.

On the bright side March 30 is my exact Jupiter Return day The Jupiter Return is traditionally a fortunate period of opportunity, growth and expansion. It kicks off a whole new 12-year cycle of growth. Jupiter is future oriented, so the "things" that are started at the Jupiter Return often blossom into something much bigger and better at the end of the 12-year cycle.

Jupiter also rewards us, at my last Jupiter Return I had the opportunity to start playing guitar (again) and that got me in touch with my latent artistic/creative abilities which are now a big part of my life. Perhaps the reward at this return is the opportunity to move to a bigger pond.

So those are the major players and the inner planets act as triggers. Transiting Mars square Uranus echoing the larger transit of Uranus square Mars acts as a trigger signifying the breaking away from roots. Transiting Venus conjunct Moon, trine Mars and square Sun hopefully adds some grace to the picture. Transiting Mercury conjunct natal Moon is a classic trigger for a change in residence. And this is all punctuated by the full Moon across the 4th and tenth house axis (in the Placidus chart) opposite Pluto acting as great trigger illuminating a major change in domestic situation.

So that's how it all comes together. And you can do this with your chart! Just look ahead and see when the next major contact to an angle occurs from transiting Saturn, Uranus, Neptune or Pluto occurs by transit or solar arc. And remember that change happens slowly most of the time so in the mean time you can do the preparation that will help realize the change that you want to make happen.

One last note: although I was born in Arizona I've spent the last 30 years or so on the east coast where I have an especially strong Saturn influence. While Saturn has some great qualities, overall he can be a BIG bummer. There's a branch of astrology called relocation astrology or Astro*Carto*Graphy that helps people find a more auspicious place to live in the world. I'm not an expert on it, but I can direct you to Moses Siregar, who specializes in it. It's something to look into especially if you're really struggling in your present location, there may be relief for you somewhere else.

The photograph above of the Los Angeles skyline is a public domain image and is used with permission from the photographer.