| name | astrocartography |
| description | Generate and interpret astrocartography (ACG / locational astrology) — planetary lines, parans, crossings, local space, and how moving to a different location changes a chart. Use when someone asks about astrocartography, ACG, the best place to live, what city is best for their career or love life, relocation, or planetary lines. |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| updated | "2026-05-23T00:00:00.000Z" |
Astrocartography (ACG / Locational Astrology)
Use this skill when someone asks where on Earth they're "luckiest" for love, career, growth, or healing — or what changes if they move. ACG maps the four angular positions (rising, culminating, setting, anti-culminating) of every planet at the moment of birth across the globe, producing planetary lines. Living near a line activates that planet's energy in the corresponding angular theme.
Tier requirement: Several ACG endpoints (aspects, midpoints, crossings, declinations) require the Scale tier ($199/mo). Power-lines, hits, and parans are available on Developer tier. The combined /acg/features endpoint is service-tier (Ela Map only).
Required Information
- Full birth date
- Birth time (essential — ACG IS the angular system; time uncertainty wrecks it)
- Birth location
- (Optional but useful) One or more target locations the user is asking about, OR a desired theme (career, love, healing, spirituality) to find the best lines for that theme.
Standard Procedure for Birth-Data Endpoints
Any endpoint that takes a birth chart (natal, synastry, composite, transits, returns, progressions, Human Design, Vedic, ACG) MUST follow this sequence. Skipping any step produces a wrong chart — usually wrong by hours of arc.
Step 1 — Resolve location to coordinates
If you don't already have precise lat/lon, call:
GET /location/autocomplete?query=<city, country>&limit=5
Confirm the right hit with the user if there's ambiguity (e.g. "Portland, OR" vs "Portland, ME"). Record the latitude and longitude of the chosen result.
Step 2 — Resolve timezone for that location AT THE BIRTH DATE
Historical timezone rules matter. A city's UTC offset in 1962 may differ from today (DST rules, war time, jurisdiction changes). Always look up the timezone for the specific birth date.
POST /timezone/lookup
{ "latitude": <lat>, "longitude": <lon> }
Response gives an IANA timezone string like "America/Los_Angeles". The BirthLocation field below REQUIRES this — it is not optional.
Step 3 — Build the request body
The SubjectRequest schema requires birth_datetime, birth_location, and name. The IANA timezone goes into birth_location.timezone:
{
"subject": {
"name": "Subject",
"birth_datetime": { "iso": "1990-04-15T14:30:00" },
"birth_location": {
"latitude": 41.8781,
"longitude": -87.6298,
"timezone": "America/Chicago",
"city": "Chicago",
"country": "United States"
}
}
}
The iso field is the local civil time at the birth location. The API handles the conversion to UTC using the supplied IANA timezone. Do not pre-convert to UTC and do not pass an offset suffix on the iso string unless the user explicitly knows it.
Step 4 — Choose house system (ask if appropriate)
The natal chart endpoint defaults to Placidus. Before computing, briefly ask:
"I'll use Placidus houses by default (the most common modern Western system). If you prefer a different system — Whole Sign (Hellenistic/traditional), Koch, Equal, Campanus, Regiomontanus, or Porphyry — just say so."
Once chosen, pass it through configuration.house_system on the request.
Step 5 — Always request format=llm unless raw JSON is requested
This reduces token usage by ~73% and gives you a readable, interpretable response. Add ?format=llm to the URL.
Time-unknown handling
If the user doesn't know their birth time:
- Sun sign, outer planets, North/South Node sign — reliable.
- Moon sign — only reliable to within ~12 hours. If the user knows roughly morning/afternoon/evening, it usually narrows enough.
- Rising sign, all house placements, Midheaven — unreliable. Do not interpret these without a time.
- Default fallback: use 12:00 noon local. Disclose: "Without a birth time, I'm using noon as a placeholder. Your rising sign, house placements, and Moon sign may not be accurate. The rest of the chart is still meaningful."
For Human Design, type/strategy/authority/profile depend on precise time — flag any time uncertainty and suggest the user rectify with a Human Design analyst or rectification service before relying on these results.
The Four Line Types
Each planet has four lines circling the globe:
| Line | What it means | Effect of living near it |
|---|
| AC (Rising / Ascendant) | Planet on the eastern horizon at birth | The planet's energy infuses your identity & first impressions in this location |
| MC (Culminating / Midheaven) | Planet at the highest point | The planet shapes your career & public visibility here |
| DC (Setting / Descendant) | Planet on the western horizon | The planet's energy enters through partners & relationships here |
| IC (Anti-culminating / Imum Coeli) | Planet at the lowest point | The planet shapes your home & inner foundation here |
Planet Line Themes
| Planet | Quick read on its line |
|---|
| Sun | Vitality, recognition, "being seen"; can be ego-inflating |
| Moon | Emotional belonging, family feeling, nostalgia; can be moody |
| Mercury | Communication, learning, writing, networking |
| Venus | Love, beauty, art, money; magnetic, but can over-indulge |
| Mars | Action, ambition, sport, conflict; energizing but reactive |
| Jupiter | Expansion, luck, teaching, abundance; the "lucky" line |
| Saturn | Discipline, mastery, structure, sometimes hardship; mature life |
| Uranus | Disruption, freedom, breakthroughs, unpredictability |
| Neptune | Spirituality, art, dissolution; risk of confusion/escapism |
| Pluto | Transformation, power, intensity; can be cathartic or destructive |
| Chiron | Wounding and healing; gravitates toward healer paths |
"Best line for X" quick map
| Life theme | Lines to favor |
|---|
| Career / public success | Sun MC, Jupiter MC, Saturn MC (with effort) |
| Love | Venus DC, Venus AC, Moon DC, Sun DC |
| Healing | Chiron AC/MC, Neptune AC (carefully) |
| Money | Jupiter MC, Venus MC, Pluto (high-risk high-reward) |
| Spiritual practice | Neptune AC/MC, Jupiter IC, Moon IC |
| Home & belonging | Moon IC, Venus IC, Sun IC |
| Adventure / reinvention | Uranus AC, Jupiter AC |
Computational Endpoints
Generate the lines
POST /acg/power-lines
Returns the geographic coordinates (lat/lon paths) of every planet's four lines for the subject. Use this as the map.
Find lines near a target city
POST /acg/hits
Body includes the subject + a list of locations. Returns which lines (and how close in km) are near each target city.
This is the most common ACG question: "I'm considering moving to Lisbon — what lines are there?" → /acg/hits with Lisbon as the target.
Crossings — where two lines intersect
POST /acg/crossings
Returns geographic points where two planetary lines cross. Crossings concentrate the energies of both planets — extremely potent spots (often profound or intense).
Parans
POST /acg/parans
Parans are latitudes (not points) where two planets are simultaneously on the angles. A paran line affects a band of latitude around the globe — even cities far from a power line but on a paran latitude feel the combination.
Midpoints (Scale tier)
POST /acg/midpoints
Lines for planetary midpoints (e.g. Sun/Moon midpoint line, Venus/Mars midpoint line). Used for more nuanced reading.
Declination Lines (Scale tier)
POST /acg/declination-lines
Parallels of declination — alternative to ecliptic-based lines, useful for fixed-star and out-of-bounds work.
Aspects to Local Angles (Scale tier)
POST /acg/aspects
Where natal planets form aspects (not just conjunctions) to local Asc/MC. Captures sextiles, squares, trines to the angles at any location.
Local Space
POST /acg/local-space
A directional system from a chosen reference city. Tells you what direction to travel (e.g. "Mars is to your northeast, Jupiter to your south-southwest") for any purpose, even short distances within a city.
Combined Features (service tier only)
POST /acg/features
Returns a bundle: lines + crossings + parans + hits in one call. Available only to service-tier consumers (Ela Map).
Relocation Chart (alternative view)
If the user is asking "what's MY chart in Lisbon?" — i.e. wants the full chart recomputed for the new city — that's a relocation, not ACG:
POST /ephemeris/relocation?format=llm
ACG and relocation answer different questions:
- ACG = "what lines pass through Lisbon?" — surface-level scan
- Relocation = "what's my Lisbon Ascendant, Midheaven, and full house arrangement?" — full chart
A good ACG reading often combines both — name the lines passing through a city, then offer to compute the full relocation chart.
How to Deliver an ACG Reading
If the user asks about a SPECIFIC city
- Run Standard Procedure for their birth data
POST /acg/hits with that city as target- List every line within ~700 km of the city, sorted by proximity
- Read each line by planet + angle (e.g. "Venus DC line passes 80 km west of Lisbon — strong romantic and creative magnetism through partnership in this region")
- Note any crossings nearby
- Offer to run the full relocation chart for that city
If the user asks "where SHOULD I move for X?"
- Run Standard Procedure
POST /acg/power-lines to get all lines- Filter to the planet most aligned with X (career → Jupiter/Sun/Saturn MC; love → Venus DC/AC, etc.)
- Identify cities along those lines from the user's mention or your knowledge
- Cross-check with
/acg/hits for those candidate cities
- Recommend 2–4 specific cities with the reasoning for each
If the user asks "what's MY map look like?"
- Run Standard Procedure
POST /acg/power-lines- Describe the 3–5 most striking lines (longest stretches over populated regions; benefic lines through known major cities)
- Flag any nearby crossings
- Note parans of significance
Honest Framing
- Lines are influence, not destiny. Many people thrive far from any "good" line. Many struggle right on top of a Jupiter line.
- Width of influence: typical practitioners read lines within ~700 km (about 4° longitude). Beyond that, the influence diminishes.
- Crossings are intense, not always good. A Mars/Saturn crossing is brutal; a Venus/Jupiter crossing is lucky. Read by planet pair, not just by "this is a crossing."
- You bring your chart with you. ACG doesn't change your birth chart; it amplifies or rearranges the angular expression. Saturn lessons happen wherever you go — Saturn lines just put them at the front of the stage.
- Practical factors matter more than astrology. Visa, family, language, climate, and economics matter more than any line. ACG is one input among many.
How to Frame Astrological Readings
- Symbolic, not deterministic. Astrology maps patterns and tendencies; it does not predict fixed outcomes. Every placement has light and shadow expressions, and conscious effort changes how a chart plays out.
- Not a substitute for professional advice. Astrology is not medical, legal, financial, or psychotherapeutic guidance. If a user is in crisis or asking about real medical / legal / financial decisions, recommend they see a qualified professional in that field.
- Honor the whole chart. No single placement defines a person. Synthesize across signs, houses, aspects, and dignities before offering interpretation.
- Be specific, not generic. Cite the actual placement and explain its meaning in context, rather than reciting trait lists.
- Be balanced. Don't flatter or doom-cast. Hard aspects are growth-producing; soft aspects can become laziness.
- Stay curious. If a user pushes back on a reading, that pushback is data — chart interpretations are dialogues, not verdicts.
Example Flow
User: "I'm considering moving from Portland to Lisbon. What does that look like astrocartographically? Born March 3, 1995 at 7:22 AM in Portland, Oregon."
- Standard Procedure → Portland coords + tz + subject body
POST /acg/hits with Lisbon (lat 38.7223, lon -9.1393) as target- Identify the 2–4 nearest lines (e.g. "Venus MC line ~50 km east — career through art/beauty; Jupiter DC line ~400 km north — partnerships through travel/teaching")
- Note any crossings in the Iberian region
- Offer: "Want me to also compute your full relocated chart for Lisbon — Ascendant, Midheaven, and house re-arrangement?"
