How to order Astrocartography maps
What you need to know to evaluate an Astrocartography map:
1. Making a conscious choice to live where life is best - you do have a choice
2. Quick and easy step-by-step instructions with sample ACG map interpretation #1
3. For astrology students and curious non-astrologers - why this step-by-step guide is important
4. Principles of ACG map analysis - Things you need to know
5. The secret to successful ACG map evaluations: How close is close? And how far away is far enough? It's all about measurements
6. Interpretation of planetary lines - Thumbnail sketches and risk assessments
7. More than one line - Planetary combinations
Evaluating ACG maps step-by-step:
8. Prepping the ACG map - Determining best and worst areas
9. Prepping latitude crossings - Fine tuning the good areas to find the best areas
10. Sample ACG map interpretation #2
11. Transposing the ACG map results onto a world atlas with sample ACG map interpretations #3, #4, and #5
12. Case histories and the ACG story of some US presidents
Some stuff students of astrology might want to know:
13. Other techniques - Cyclo*Carto*Graphy, solar returns, relocated natal charts, and local space
14. Other variables to consider - East or west, four angles, and how an ACG map relates to a birth chart
15. Home computer programs pros and cons
16. Fifteen techniques for reading ACG maps by Jim Lewis
17. Important trademark information about the term Astro*Carto*Graphy by Ken Irving
18. Jim Lewis' certification course contact information and ACG blog sites
Bibliography
About the author and contact information
This is the first point-and-shoot book on relocation. Get your Official Jim Lewis Astro*Carto*Graphy Map and follow Tanzer's instructions. You measure half an inch on either side of the nasty lines and scratch them out. Tanzer gives a list. You then highlight the favorable lines. This leaves you with a world map marked by big vertical stripes.
The next step is to consider the various latitude crossings. These are latitudes at which one planet is on the ascendant/descendant, while another planet is on the MC/IC, and, according to theory, extend their influence around the globe at that particular latitude (N/S). You again scratch out the bad ones (Saturn on the ascendant, Mars on the MC sound like fun to you? Me neither!) and go for the good ones.
You are to ignore places which have no lines running through them, as these are areas of no great interest.
The result will be places where you can actually live. If you're lucky, at least one of them will be in a country in which you have a legal right to live and work.
What do I think? Elliot was kind and gave me the full, personal treatment a year ago. Head-to-head, and I can be most awful under such circumstances. I could not see that it worked for me, but then, I am fussy. I also think the "half inch" rule should be expanded when a malefic is natally on the 4th house cusp, as the result is extreme geographic sensitivity. I am of the opinion that when Pluto (or Saturn) is on the 4th houes natally, that it's best to leave one's place of birth and go a long way east or west, as Pluto will make one unhappy with his native country as a whole.
Otherwise, I find that what people need in life is an overall sense of direction. When you're six months old, do you know which of the many languages spoken on this planet will be the best for you to learn? Absolutely not. Is this an important question? Positively, yes. It may make a great deal of difference if you grow up speaking, say, Russian, even though you were born in, say, San Francisco. But for the most part we have no say about this. The decision is made for us, we merely adapt.
Such, increasingly, are my feelings about relocation. Use Tanzer's techniques and you will not go anyplace bad. You should, in fact, end up someplace fairly good. And, for better or worse (hopefully better), you will adapt and get on with things. It's not that I disagree with Tanzer's methodology (avoid malefic planets, pursue benefic planets), so much as I've never lived under benefic lines, and, as my Jupiter is opposed by my Saturn, while my Venus is opposed by my Uranus, I never will. It's also helpful to remember that moves inside your native country are conditioned by your third house, its ruler, and planets in it, while moves to foreign countries are conditioned by your 9th house, its ruler, and planets in it. There are people who compulsively cannot stop moving, such as myself, as well as others who cannot move at all. If you are in one of these circumstances, formal relocation will neither force a move, nor keep you in one place.
Because these lines move rapidly, minute by minute, it is important that your birth time be within five minutes of exact. Normally, if your birth time was recorded on your birth certificate, you have a good enough time.
The book is lavishly illustrated, in color, of Astro*Carto*Graphy maps under study, complete with pencil scribblings and red ink notations. You can easily, and graphically, see what Tanzer is up to, and do it yourself.
In the back is a bizarre note on "Astro*Carto*Grapy" as a trademark term, by Ken Irving. Suffice to say, the only way Elliot could get "Astro*Carto*Graphy" in the title of his book was if he used only genuine Astro*Carto*Graphy maps in it. Among the admonitions is this, from pg. 104:
My publishing house is coming out with a book on Astro*Carto*Graphy next year. Is this all right?
Go through the title and manuscript and consider whether that term is being used to describe Jim Lewis's techniques and maps, or whether it really is being applied to competing products. . . We'd be happy to review the manuscript and suggest changes or additions.
Which sounds heavy-handed. Who is this "we" ? Ken Irving himself? At the end of the notice, Irving is described as an editor of American Astrology since 1974. He's not identified as a legal representative of the estate of Jim Lewis, so what he wrote is presumably his personal opinion. We are instead referred to Greg Howe at Astronumeric. So why did Greg not write this, since he, not Irving, has legal standing to do so? I mention this as Uranian-Transneptunian astrology has long been ruined by heavy-handed trademark/copyright issues. It would be a pity to see that copied here.
The originator of this mapping system, Jim Lewis, died in 1995.
My review copy lacked the DVD that is part of this book. While I did not read every word on every page, I did not find any references to the DVD in the book. There is no entry for it in the Table of Contents. I presume it will show Tanzer giving a presentation of his method of interpretation.
Published by the author, 112 pages, oversize. Includes 60 minute DVD.