My One Way Ticket To Mexico & Intro to Astrocartography
My lease was up in February 2024, and after a year of travel due to my business and spiritual practice growing, I realized I was never actually “home”. I was paying a whole bunch of rent in a place I was physically never at, in an area that I didn’t enjoy, so I knew change was needed. I did not foresee the call to pack everything up, sell my car and belongings, and buy a one-way ticket to Mexico City, never having set foot in the country before, but hey -
I’ve done crazier things.
With 2 suitcases and a backpack in hand, this decision turned into a year and a half of slow travel. I’ve had the privilege of experiencing travel in various ways (domestic travel, international travel, camping, RV life, solo travel, roadtrips, etc) since I was a child, so I was really open to where this adventure was going to lead me.
The point of this blog and the following series is to highlight one of my favorite takeaways from my time of slow travel - astrocartography. If you’ve read or watched any other Holy in Between entries, I talk about how, on a molecular level, the in between space is moving energy - atoms continuously moving because energy is neither created nor destroyed. So to keep the energy moving on a macro level within our worlds towards wholeness, healing, joy, and elevation on our paths, you’ll hear me talk about our guiding points:
Ori, the deity that embodies our purpose and personal destiny, the study of our Ancestors, who we come from and their experiences, and then allowing their stories and lineages to guide us to the Land associated with our specific ase, juju, and magic.
Slow travel allowed me space to take time to get really in tune with my Ori because when it’s just you and new cuisines, new people, new countries, new currencies, newness all around you without the pure adrenaline to do all the things as a short vacation trip would suggest, or the ability to take time and really immerse one’s self into routine and community as one does when permanently moving to a new location - there’s a balance that’s needed. Can you balance the new, exciting experiences in front of you with the foundational routine that’ll keep your nervous system and bowels regulated?
Taking it a step further, I began to integrate astrocartography into the mix to give myself some context about how my personal energy would interact with the energy of the land. I’m a huge advocate for tools that help us better understand the language of Ori, our destiny, and why we’re here which can include divination, our birth chart, personal assessments, etc, so hell yeah we was gon dive into all the chisme of my chart to ensure I was as prepared as possible on this journey.
For those new to astrocartography, here’s a quick rundown. Astrology has an insane amount of levels; there are also hella systems that have their own lane for understanding the overall math (read, patterns) of the relationship between celestial beings' energy and ours. My astrology has always been in alignment with my numerology and divination readings, whether they were my initiation readings (the energy of my life) or seasonal readings (the energy of current seasons and transits), which is why at the end of the day, I was with the shits and have taken time to study it. I believe the act of spirituality is simply learning and engaging in the language of the spirit you want to commune with. Religion is the act or ritual of maintaining that relationship. Astrology became another language I could learn to understand my Ori and how to show up for myself.
So, taking the energy of one’s birth chart, which is dependent on the specific time and location of one’s birth, we open up the conversation to how one’s energy interacts with the bigger world around them. It’s what validates when one person travels to a location and loves it, while another person might go there and absolutely hate it. From my understanding, it’s all about how the energies vibe with each other, which was a really important factor to me when traveling.
People are on social media scrolling through the hype of various places, traveling there, and getting caught up. Feel free to use your imagination on what caught up means. Travel is a spiritual practice because it’s movement, so I just want people to have the tools needed to travel well with as much spiritual protection as possible, as this world and country continue to change.
Astro.com has a great astrotravel breakdown; tap in and don’t forget that any and all astrology interpretations are someone’s bias, and that your birth chart is a culmination of the synergy of a lot of different energies. Relocation astrocartography is a thing if you feel inspired to move, but taking it a step further, when you apply all those energies to your astrocartography, be mindful of the bigger picture our charts paint when considering planet lines. For example, Venus lines are generically painted as places that feel good and attract aligned relationships and other feel-good hubbabaloo. Venus is my chart ruler and in my 7th house, so comfort in my body and in my community is top of the priority list FOR ME. If you’ve traveled with me before, you know not much is needed to make me happy outside of good food, good vibes, and a solid plan to ensure my safety at any given time lol. I thrive when I’m told to look cute and show up, and a nap is always included in the itinerary because being well rested is a nonnegotiable - FOR ME.
So take time to get to know your birth chart. Research astrologers to help you begin interpreting it and stay off ChatGPT. Then dive into astrocartography and use it as a way to be in tune and reflect on how you feel in certain places, not the end-all be-all of your travel choices.
Back to this one-way ticket.
When it came to where I chose to go on this adventure, from previous experiences, I knew when a specific land was calling out to me (more on this when I cover Puerto Rico lol). I would have dreams of myself in a place, and then wake up to a bajillion synchronicities that were all of a sudden pointing to that location being my next destination. At first, this gave me extreme anxiety because when I chose a location I thought would be best, I would try to do my due diligence by planning appropriately, and was met with so much resistance. But then, when it was time, Spirit would tell me the next destination, I’d feel it in my bones that it was time to wrap up my affairs wherever I currently was, and somehow, making my next arrangements flowed like butter on a hot skillet.
The Spirit I’m referring to here was the ancestors of the lands I was being called to. Whether they were my personal blood ancestors, elders who recognized those who would be good stewards of their home, or whatever! Lol, they were loud, always had my back, and so much to show me. Which leads me to the actual land, and the whole point of this series.
When I would arrive in a location, I would take my time to really meditate and get in tune with the energy of the land. I’d take note of the pace of the culture, how they interacted with their history, truth, and indigenous ways, their efforts towards political and social progression, as well as how I, as a foreigner, could get in where I could fit in and support (because hello, I was the guest first and foremost). Being mindful of conscious travel, not supporting gentrifying/colonizing practices, and community needs - I’d note how safe my body felt being out and about, what my dreams were saying, how my body felt eating the culture’s main dishes, and if there was any resistance felt in engaging in events or conversations. As a Black American woman, it’s a conscious act not to take my bias with me everywhere I go. In the States, statistically, everything is fighting me - the food, our healthcare system, our government, lotions and perfumes, the dating ranks, I CAN GO ON AND ON. It was also a conscious act to continuously check my privilege when considering the ongoing conversation around the efforts of Black Americans’ search for safety and home post-enslavement.
But the spirit of travel teaches that my mind, my spirit, and my body are my first homes to retreat to for safety. Anything outside of that is outside of my control - so how quickly can I identify what in my environment amplifies the feeling of safety vs what’s not safe? And then how quickly can I remove either myself or those obstacles to my safety?
Astrocartography added language to support this practice. There were places I traveled to that felt like I was Olodumare’s favorite, and every experience was like a warm hug telling me how loved I am. There were places where everything about the land, the people, and my experiences triggered the fuck out of me, and I cried endlessly. Places in which I felt divine inspiration and got a lot of creative and business work done, vs places that felt like my only mission in life was to sleep and turn my brain off.
The world is changing rapidly when we consider climate change and policies that don’t support our well-being. My only hope in sharing is that if you, too, are inspired to get up and go, just know that outside of visas, passports, and tangible resources, you have spiritual tools as well to support your decisions and validate your feelings.
I cannot wait to tell you more about my travels and their corresponding planet energy lines! In the meantime, here are some reflection questions to consider:
If you and your lover were to pick up and move tomorrow, where would you go? For safety? For time alone to enjoy each other?
Did anyone in your family participate in the Great Migration from the South?
What snack are you bringing on a long road trip?
Wishing you well,
Janiece Ifasooto