Last June, Maureen treated me to a Europe vacation. In a sunny hotel room in Prague, I started writing the most upbeat, breezy thing I've ever done. But when I returned home to North America (Vancouver) and took up the piece again, I began weighing it down with details, precision and - involuntarily - a more somber mood.

In Europe, my "relocated" ascendant is SAGITTARIUS, sign of optimism, cheerfulness and lengthy writing. On the west coast of N.A., it's VIRGO - the sign of detail, practicality, and earthiness. Obviously, it affected my writing.

Astrologers have long known that where you live affects your luck, mood, even the events that occur, because your rising sign and degree (30 degrees to a sign) slowly move as you travel east/west (NOT north/south). You might need as much as 2,000 miles to change your rising sign, but as little as 50 miles will change your rising degree. (Often, you can change your entire sign in a much shorter distance. If you were born near the end of one sign, a short distance would take you to the beginning of the next sign. Travel east advances you through the signs: e.g., Leo to Virgo; going west takes you backwards: e.g., Virgo to Leo.

(At the equator, the distance around the earth is approximately 24,900 miles, or 40,000 kilometers. So you would give yourself a different "rising degree" simply by moving 111 km, or 69 miles east or west from your present location. At temperate latitudes - say Rome or New York - these distance would be much shorter.)

Since the zodiac contains 360 degrees, and each degree "indicates" a different influence, you can, to a certain extent, "choose" your life by choosing where you live. To show how one mere degree can make a difference, look at a few: the 12th degree of LEO describes someone who is gentle, lucky, modest, and favored for inheritance; the 13th describes a powerful, steadfast, skeptical, sometimes sad/sullen person; the 14th, intensely spiritual and artistic, but unlucky with practical affairs; the 15th, many journeys, inborn power, bright mentality, a natural ruler. All are Leo, but what a difference between them!

With North America's large commuting distances, many of us "inhabit" one degree at work, another at home. Sometimes, when I have clients for whom nothing has gone right for years, the answer leaps out at me from their cartography charts: they're living under a "bad line" and should move. I reject "spiritual masochism" here (the belief that the client is under this bad line to "learn a lesson"). If moving will improve his/her earthly life, I recommend it. A happy earthly life seldom harms the spirit!