How to Read Your Star Map

• The room of life itself — who you are, how you meet the world, the direction of your life.
• The room of siblings and peers — brothers, sisters, close peers and partners in work.
• The room of partnership — love, marriage and the person beside you.
• The room of children and what you create — children, students, projects and what you bring to life.
• The room of wealth and resources — how money comes, how it goes, and how you handle it.
• The room of health and body — your body, your energy and how you carry stress.
• The room of movement and the wider world — travel, moving, and how you are seen away from home.
• The room of friends and allies — friends, teams, networks and the people you lead.
• The room of career and calling — work, vocation, ambition and public role.
• The room of home and property — home, family roots, property and your sense of place.
• The room of wellbeing and inner peace — contentment, pleasures, spirit and peace of mind.
• The room of parents and elders — parents, mentors, authority and where you come from.

Rooms face each other in pairs across the map, like doors across a hallway: life itself faces movement and the wider world; partnership faces career and calling; home faces children and what you create. A room is always partly coloured by the one opposite.

Each light has its own painting and name on your map. You do not need to learn them all; tap any light to read it when it appears.

1. 1

   Start in the room of life itself

   Your star map opens in the room of life itself — who you are and the direction your life takes. The great light living here is your life star, shown as its own painting on your chart. If you read only one thing on the map, read this.

2. 2

   Meet the lights in the room

   Most rooms hold one or two great lights and a few smaller ones. Read the great light first — it sets the character of the room — then let the helping lights soften it and the sharp lights sharpen it. A room with The Granary and The Steady Hand feels safe and well stocked; the same room with The Wildfire added has more heat and hurry.

3. 3

   Notice how brightly each light shines

   Every light shines more or less brightly depending on the room it sits in — from shining at its brightest to a faint light here. A bright light gives its gifts freely. A faint one still gives them, but asks for effort first. Faint is not bad; it is simply slower to warm up.

4. 4

   Look for the four marks

   Up to four small marks are scattered across your map: Plenty, Power, Renown and Tender spot. Wherever a mark lands, that room has extra charge. The birth marks describe your whole life; the map also shows which rooms this decade and this year are marking.

5. 5

   If a room is empty, look across the hall

   Some rooms have no great light of their own. They are not empty of meaning — they borrow the light of the room directly across from them. If your room of partnership is empty, for example, read it through the room across the hall, more softly.

6. 6

   Find your second anchor

   One room is marked as your second anchor. It is the room you lean into more and more with age — where your energy settles in the second half of life. Many people find it explains a later change of direction.

7. 7

   Follow the seasons through the rooms

   The map is not still. A ten-year season moves through one room at a time, and so do this year, this month and today. The chart tells you, for example, that these ten years move through the room of career and calling and this year passes through the room of home and property. That is where life is putting its attention right now.

• Plenty — Things come easily in this room — money, help, goodwill. A natural source of ease.
• Power — You take charge here, and your word carries weight. A place to lead.
• Renown — You are seen, trusted and spoken well of here. A place your name travels.
• Tender spot — You care a great deal here, so it can hurt. Go gently — it is also where you learn the most.

Example

The Quiet Moon in the room of life itself

The Quiet Moon is soft light that sees in the dark: intuition, emotional depth and care for home. As a life star it describes someone who leads quietly and notices what others miss. Shining brightly, it gives that gift easily. Shining faintly, the same gift needs patience and a calm place to grow.

If the room also carries Plenty, ease and support tend to find this person. If it carries a Tender spot, their sensitivity is both their strength and where they get hurt — and so where they grow most.

Meet every light in The Energy of the Fourteen Great Lights and its two companion posts.