Ask An Astrologer: Where Should I Look In My Natal Chart To Find If I Should Follow My Wanderlust Or Stay Put?
Hi Emmalea!
My partner and I are leaving NYC after nine years to go nomadic for a while - we're so excited! We have our own businesses and are able to live and work anywhere. We're excited to travel for the next 6 months to a year, but have no idea where we want to eventually live and settle down. Our families and friends are spread across three countries and our parents and good friends have all moved around, so neither of us has a clear home base to return to anymore. We both really want to live somewhere a.) by the ocean and b.) not in the middle of a city, but other than that it could be anywhere in the US, France or Martinique (where we grew up). It feels weird to not have a clear hometown with a bunch of family or friends in one place anymore! I'd love any advice on how to determine a good place to put down some roots. We're not immediately looking to buy a house or have kids, but we want to live somewhere with a different lifestyle than NYC, and there are so many places to contemplate.
Is there anything in my chart that I can look to in order to better understand what I might need in this time, or why I'm feeling pulled to move around?
Dear Travelling Root Seeker,
I took a peek at your chart for this one and noticed that yes, there are some reasons you might be feeling pulled to both adventure and find roots.
So, you have a few major planets in Cancer (your Sun, among others). Your Sun is the fuel on which the rest of your chart runs. The moon rules Cancer and one of the moon's primary needs is that feeling of roots, home, and deep ancestral comfort. So yes, it makes total sense that this is what your soul seeks. First: celebrate, because lunar life fuel is glimmering and nuanced! Here's what I'm seeing re: moving around + staying put --
My "poem-scope" for Cancer this month involved something to the tune of you're thinking of getting HOME tattooed on your knuckles. Hand tats aside, you're partly feeling this need for ROOTS because there is so much action in your 4th house, the literal roots of your chart. The sun is there, which is our noetic light, guiding you down into the quest for that eventually rooted feeling.
Sagittarius rules your 7th house of partnership and Sag is very into the larger picture and voyaging to faraway lands on the map and in the mind-soul with that super determined arrow. Jupiter (jovial and lucky planet of expansion) is traversing that 7th house of yours.
Translation: The universe keeps saying yes to travel, adventure, and expansion (with partners) and to quote Jenny Lewis, right now You're the Voyager. More, more, more says the earth’s aura. As we know, a zillion yeses can be difficult to sort through; one downside to Jupiter is its potential to overwhelm.
This 7th house action means that perhaps one answer to the question of finding roots lies in that partnership you’re speaking of; something to the tune of Billy Joel’s “Home is Just Another Word For You.” Locating the feeling of home will likely guide you toward the physical place of home. When you’re feeling uprooted whilst sipping that Kool-Aid of the cosmos, look to your 3rd house which will tell tales of your immediate environment, community, and communication vibration.
For that deep, ever-present, ancestral home intel, my two pieces of astrological advice are:
1. Look to your natal 4th house, where the true roots of your chart lie, harkening the invisible place below the earth from whence we sprang and,
2. Follow the moon, as her lunar intelligence will help guide you to that mountainous, oceanic place you’re searching for in your inner and outer worlds. Pay special attention to when the moon, which changes signs every 2-3 days, is in Cancer.
Wishing you stellar travels and rooted homey vibes emanating from the many splendored planets and lunations of your ultra-lunar chart!
P.S. If you type in your birth info to this Astrogeography site, it generates a map of your planetary lines, offering clues as to which energies are where on the world map for you. Super simple and more directly place-oriented
Emmalea Russo is a writer, astrologer, and creative. Her writing on astrology, culture, art, and literature appears in Cosmopolitan, Poetry Foundation, The Thirlby, Los Angeles Review of Books, Fanzine, BOMB Magazine, and elsewhere and her published books are G (2018) and Wave Archive (2019). She has been a writer-in-residence at 18th Street Arts Center (LA) and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (NY). Emmalea writes and podcasts on astrology and culture at The Avant-Galaxy. In her practice, she combines ancient and modern astrology, tarot, and creative praxis, helping her clients connect with their stars for a more cosmically nuanced life experience. She uses astrology as a language, art, and tool for connection.
In this bi-monthly column, Emmalea will tackle real-life situations from an astro perspective. Think: A punk-rock Dear Prudence, with a natal chart for good measure.