This post is part of a mini-series on how traveling and living on various AstroCartography lines has helped me develop as a person. If you've not read part 1, make sure to read it first, before diving into this segment. I’ve also decided to move the Australia trip into the next part, because it’s already so long!
We’re back with another segment of this mini-series!
In the first segment, I took you to my countries of origin and how living in both impacted my evolution as a person. I also shared what it was like to take my only trip back to my first country (which holds Saturn IC + Mercury AS lines for me), after 3 years of living in the second one (no ACG lines).
It was personal and heavy, but hopefully also enlightening. Because these experiences are at the base of who I am.
Now we’re going to explore how my first travel adventures helped me build my confidence, but not without confronting some fears first!
First Family Trip to Paris (Pluto AS + Sun AS Lines)
I was 20 years old when I travelled to a country I have never lived in, for the first time. I was ecstatic about this trip, not only because it was an opportunity to travel to somewhere new, but it was an opportunity to practice my French in a real life setting and not in the classroom.
I had studied French for a total of six years and it was one of my absolute favourite subjects. I was so excited about this upcoming five day trip, that I studied the metro system off by heart and took the reigns of planning the trip for five people.
We jam-packed a lot of activities in our short trip: walking up to the tip of the Eiffel Tower, taking a macaron baking class, going to EuroDisney, visiting the Louvre etc. My mum and I even visited a Parisian jazz club which was a memorable night.
I had the opportunity to also wander the city by myself on two occasions. One morning I took myself to Montmartre, an artsy arrondissement with a village feel (despite the tourists) and ordered myself a blueberry cheesecake in a cafe. And during another afternoon, I stuck in the area after visiting the Louvre, and allowed myself to wander wherever my feet felt like going. I was on cloud nine, elated to finally exercise my wish to explore a new destination by myself.
I found myself at the Palais Garnier, where I stumbled onto some sort of film shoot. Once the scene wrapped, a journalist was there to talk to the actors and we got to talking ourselves, after they were done. He then asked if I wanted to go for a coffee.
Uh oh… stranger danger?
I, admittedly, was nervous about this at first. I was 20 years old, he was double my age and I wasn’t interested in putting myself in any dicey situations. But he seemed kind, so I checked with my gut and it gave me the a-okay.
And it was. In fact, we had a great conversation, talking about the world and our lives and our philosophies. I mean, we attempted to. Because his English was worse than my French, we were holding this conversation in French and I wasn’t fluent. I’m still not. But somehow we managed to communicate and understand each other. And I learned to trust my gut and confront my fears, even if they take me out of my comfort zone, whilst also keeping myself safe, just in case.
The AstroCartography…
I felt so happy in Paris and being able to navigate the city and get by with my imperfect French, gave me a lot of confidence in myself. I was ready to greet every situation with a smile on my face. This would be the Sun AS Line, with the sun being about joie de vivre and raison d’etre (joy of life & reason of being. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself using the French terms), but also about confidence. The ascendant being about me.
Confronting my fears as I decide to step into an unknown and potentially scary situations, would definitely be the Pluto AS line. The AS is again about me and my experience, but Pluto is about deep transformation that’s often scary, because you have to confront your shadows and fears first.
How did it contribute to my evolution?
It was scary at first to step outside my comfort zone, in multiple ways I never had before. But I was well prepared and followed what felt good for me. Doing so gave me immense faith in myself and in my ability to explore what's foreign to me. To meet the unknown, and to know that I always have my own back. It was empowering, confidence-building and quite exhilarating. It gave me the seed of a desire to do more.
First Solo Trip To Kenya (No ACG Lines)
My yearn to travel had only grew and I wanted a real adventure. I wanted to get to know a culture on a deeper level and spend more time in one place. I wanted to go somewhere where I had never thought of visiting, and for it to be a place that's wildly different from the countries I grew up in. However, I still wanted it to be relatively close to where I live. So I had decided that I would visit Africa!
For a few years, I had been very eager to volunteer abroad - as a way to spend significant time in a country, get to know the culture deeper and be of a little assistance, where applicable.
There are concerns and criticisms around volunteering abroad, which are valid. How much can a college-aged kid really help, in a culture or with an issue that they don’t have a deep understanding of? Are they just trying to act upon a saviour complex, by playing hero for a few weeks? What if they are unknowingly enabling a broken system to keep running, that is actually harmful to the community they’re trying to help? Even preventing qualified professionals to complete the tasks and jobs, that they’re temporarily taking on?
I researched and prepared for nearly 9 months (!) before my trip - I was obsessed with making this trip happen and wanted to get every detail right; so that my first real trip abroad would be a good (or at least, harmless) experience for everyone involved.
On the day of my flight, it must have hit me what I was about to do because I had a full blown panic attack. How am I going to navigate the airports? Will I succeed in taking advantage of my long layover in Amsterdam to see the city? Will I arrive at my accommodation in Nairobi without any anxiety-inducing hiccups?
I was freaking out so much, my youngest sister, who was 12 at the time, had to calm me down and remind me that I'm fully prepared.
But once I got myself to my destination safe and sound, after meeting a few other fears along the way, everything fell into place and I was ready for the full experience.
If in Paris I got my first taste of freedom and saw the sprouts of a burgeoning confidence, in being out in the world - my trip to Kenya was a three course meal of liberation, my confidence blooming into a wild, robust bouquet of self-assurance.
It was a full month of being in a beautiful, new country, vastly different from my own, challenging myself and engaging deeply with my surroundings. I had really unique experiences that allowed me to observe the fabric of Kenyan life, thanks to a local friend I had made. And it was here where I connected with travellers from countries such as US, Colombia, India, Australia, Ireland and more, essentially enabling me to glean insights about other corners of the world too.
I felt so happy and in my element, as a new traveller. I was learning a lot and Kenyans were so wonderfully kind. I had a blast.
The AstroCartography…
This trip is interesting in terms of my AstroCartography, because I have no ACG lines and it's not too far from my home country, which meant I was still a relocated Sagittarius Ascendant.
The external energies felt very similar to being back home - easy to manage and neutral (No ACG Lines). But I had a blast (I was raving about the experience for years after) and, at the same time, I had to confront some of my fears in this trip. Certainly at the beginning.
Despite not having any ACG lines here, and my relocated ascendant being the same as where I’ve lived for half of my life - I can't help but notice that the themes of my trip were similar to what I experienced in Paris. Perhaps, the energies of what I experienced in Paris (Sun AS + Pluto AS lines) carried over to my next trip, but with the added help of my relocated Sagittarius ascendant - experiencing myself as a carefree traveller and getting to officially live that out. (Paris had put me back to my own natal Scorpio Ascendant).
How did it contribute to my evolution?
I came home a very different Ella after this trip. It was my first Big Trip, all alone, and I learned so much about myself and my abilities. I came home feeling even more empowered, than what I felt from my little tastes of freedom in Paris.
This trip was crucial, because it was right after this trip that the universe screamed at me to start a travel blog. A creative endeavour that I thought would be a failed experiment of 3 months, but gave me years of satisfaction, personal development and lead to so many important experiences and connections that I still have to this day! This trip was the start of me identifying as a Traveller.
I hope you enjoyed this segment of my mini-series “My Travel Experiences Told Through The Lens of My AstroCartography”!
In the next post, I'll be describing how this new found confidence was crushed (uh oh), but lead to some beautiful healing (phew).
If you want to check your own AstroCartography Map…
I recommend you check Astro.com - click the menu bar, click on “Free Horoscopes”, then “Locational Astrology” and finally on “AstroClick Travel”. It's free to use and you get accurate descriptions of the lines, when you click on a location. You just need to enter your birth details (date, location and time).
Conversely, if you want to learn more about AstroCartography from a professional (as I'm merely a passionate hobbyist), I'd recommend you check out Helena Woods, or Sandra Nelly who was trained by Helena and has her own Substack newsletter!
Once you do, come back here and let me know what you discovered about your map!
Has travel positively influenced you in any way? What fears did you have to confront while traveling abroad? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
Speak soon,
Love, Ella x
P.S. - Did you read part 1? I talk about how living on my Saturn IC + Mercury AS lines in one country, and on no lines in another country, has shaped my development. I recommend taking a look, in order to understand where I come from.