What local space astrology actually is

Picture yourself standing in the middle of a big open field, turning slowly in a circle. That circle is your horizon, divided into 360 degrees of compass direction called azimuth. Every planet sits above that horizon, or below it, in one of those directions.

If you drew a line straight down from a planet to the horizon, it would land on a compass direction. Walk that way and you're walking along that planet's line. Local space is simply the map of all those lines.

There are no zodiac signs in this system, and the houses are reversed, because everything is measured against the real compass. The first house sits due east, the fourth due north, the seventh due west and the tenth due south.

Your lines change when your address does

Your birth date and time are fixed, but the place you stand isn't. A local space chart is calculated for a specific latitude and longitude, so the same planet points a different way from every address.

The aspects between your planets stay the same wherever you go. Your angles are what change. That's why astrocartography maps your planets across the world, while local space zooms in on the place you actually live.

Get your chart for where you live now

Start with a local space chart for your current address, using your birth date and time. It needs to be for where you are now, not where you were born, because the lines radiate out from the centre of your home.

One quick check before you read it. Most people count compass degrees from north, so north is 0, east is 90, south is 180 and west is 270. Astrodienst counts from the south instead, so if you switch tools, confirm which way yours counts.

Find north, then lay the chart over your floor plan

Find due north in your home. A map app works, or a compass if you want to be accurate.

Then centre the chart on your floor plan so north on the chart matches north in your house. A printout on tracing paper works well, or you can draw the lines onto a sketch of your floor plan with a protractor.

Now walk the chart. Follow each line out from the centre of your home and note which rooms and objects it crosses.

Every line runs both ways. A line pointing a few degrees south of west also runs a few degrees north of east, so look at both ends.

Ten planets, ten lines

There are ten planetary lines, plus the lunar nodes. Some sit close together and others far apart, and each planet reacts to what it crosses in its own way. Two lines within about five degrees of each other start to blend, counting only conjunctions and oppositions.

Objects and parts of your home carry a planetary flavour too. A line does the most good when it runs through the things that match it, and here's the traditional matching.

When a line meets the wrong object

Each planet has one or two others that rub against it. A Saturn line through your Moon objects, like the washer or the plants, can feel heavy. A Mars line through your Mercury things, like the phone or the books, can make that corner feel sharp.

You don't need to panic about any of this. The simplest fix is to move the object somewhere better, and if it's a fixed part of the house, traditional methods borrowed from feng shui can help.

Altitude matters too. A planet more than about 60 degrees above the horizon points to the upper floors, the attic or the roof, and one below the horizon points to the basement or under the house.

Planets on the compass points

Any planet within about three degrees of due north, south, east or west tends to dominate that direction. North and south mirror your IC and MC, and west and east match your Vertex and Anti-Vertex.

The closer the orb, the stronger the influence. If Jupiter is one degree from north and Saturn four degrees from east, Jupiter leads.

The sector version: local space houses

You can also split your surroundings into twelve 30-degree sectors, one for each house. They stay fixed to the compass, so the first is due east, the fourth north, the seventh west and the tenth south.

Houses are looser than lines, so use them for general direction. Heading west-southwest puts you in the seventh house, which suits meeting people, and north-west is the fifth, which is the one for romance and fun.

Northeast leans towards money. If a planet sits within about seven degrees, its energy overrides the house.

Now zoom out to your neighbourhood

Your lines don't stop at the front door. They carry on across your street, your town and the rest of the planet.

Lay the chart over a city map, centred on your home, and you'll see why some areas feel easy and others don't. Then look at where you actually spend your time, because the line you travel along most often is the one working on you most.

The classic example is a musician who practises where their Venus line runs, and tends to be more productive there. The same line through a building site might just make the crew slower to start.

The AstroNat Home Finder does this for a whole town. You enter your birth details and where you're looking, choose what matters most, like family, money or rest, and it names and scores your top three neighbourhoods on a map.

If you rent, share a home or can't move

You don't need to own a house or have a big budget to use any of this. Local space works at the scale you control, like where you put your bed, your desk, your plants and your phone charger.

Moving a lamp costs nothing, so it's a good first experiment. Give a change a few weeks before you decide whether it did anything.

Try it at home in 6 easy steps

• Step 1: Get your chart. Pop your birth date, time and place into a local space tool, then ask for the chart for the address where you live now. Use your exact birth time if you can, because the planets' compass directions shift through the day.
• Step 2: Check the compass. Find out whether your tool counts degrees from north or from the south, so you don't read every line backwards.
• Step 3: Find north in your home. Use a map app or a compass, then centre the chart on your floor plan with north lined up.
• Step 4: Walk the chart. Follow each line out from the middle of your home in both directions, and list the rooms and objects it crosses.
• Step 5: Match planets to objects. Use the table above. Note where a line runs through something that suits it, and where it meets something it rubs against.
• Step 6: Move things, then wait. Start with objects, not walls. Give it a few weeks, then try the same lines on your neighbourhood with a city map or the Home Finder.

Don't forget real-world practicalities like your income, visa restrictions, family obligations, climate preferences & cultural assimilation like language etc. Your relocated charts won't show all that.

Can't move right now? Read how to use astrocartography without moving abroad. The world-map version is how to read your astrocartography map: every line explained.

Looking for home on your world map? Start with where home sits on your astrocartography map. Working from anywhere? Read astrocartography for digital nomads and remote workers.

Questions people ask

Further reading: Steve Cozzi, Planets in Locality (1988); Michael Erlewine, Local Space: Relocation Astrology (1981).