Steffy Tellez Schnaas, a holistic wellness consultant at One&Only Mandarina in Nayarit, tells me that living in Tulum is almost too easy for her. According to astrocartography, she’s supposed to feel this way. The practice uses someone’s astrological birth chart—that is, an in-depth study of personality traits based on when and where a person was born—to create a world map intersected with lines representing where luck, love, transformation, or even just good vibes await. When we chat over Zoom, she’s brought both her personal chart and my own to demonstrate.
In Schnaas’ case, a Venus line for love, luxury, and ease runs directly through Tulum. “Within three months [of moving to Tulum], I ended up buying a house, and one year later I grew my business threefold,” she says. That success led to partnerships with high-end resorts like Rosewood Mayakoba and Four Seasons, Naviva, and a black book of travel agents who now regularly reach out with their clients’ birth charts, asking for honeymoon suggestions per her astrocartography analysis.
Though astrocartography has been around since the 1970s, when it was created by astrologer Jim Lewis, its popularity has been on the rise in recent years—much like that of astrology in general, which has grown into a $3 billion dollar industry in 2025, and is projected to triple in the next half-decade. According to Pew Research Center, 30% of Americans follow astrology, which also explains why it feels so palpably part of the zeitgeist. Given astrocartography’s ties to place, it’s no wonder that travelers have taken an interest. If astrology can give us a way to understand our daily lives, astrocartography can, perhaps, provide a roadmap for understanding the places we go.
If you ask Schnaas, astrocartography can also tell you where not to go—or, which places may be more challenging, and even life-changing, as a result. Just before she found easy living in Tulum, Schnaas learned about astrocartography after a traumatic accident in the Middle East. “One of the biggest life shifts for me was when I broke my spine while living in Dubai,” she says. She then learned that the city was intersected by her Saturn and Mars lines of karma and confrontation—but a look at the lines over Tulum led to her harmonious new home.
Simone Alyssa, a 37-year-old lifestyle content creator, has actually moved seven times based on her astrocartography report. Before the pandemic, Simone Alyssa (who prefers to go by her first and middle name) was only traveling or relocating based on where work sent her. Once she quit her corporate role to pursue social media full-time, Simone Alyssa sought new sources of inspiration to decide where to go next. That’s when she discovered astrocartography.
