Home is Where The Heart Is - or is it?

The Geography of Belonging. Home is a felt relationship with land, weather and story, not just a postcode

A Felt Sense Of Home

“Home is where the heart is”

For me this is a quintessential saying and one which I wholeheartedly agree with. Feeling at home is literally that, a feeling, which comes from the heart. It is not a logical decision, it is a holistic sensation. Far more than a collection of sights, sounds or smells, it is the whole combined. It is how I feel when I am in good places where I have had roots, connections. Not just to people but to the land and the weather.

Roots, Seasons, And Family Rhythm

Here I am back in the house where I grew up, having left over 30 years ago. Naturally I come back from time to time. I welcome the family banter, the familiarity of patterns. My family are farmers, not generational farmers who have done it or aeons, my grandad started this farm, passed it to my Dad (eventually, this is another story, not one for today) and now my sister runs it with her husband. Despite farming not being in the blood we all live in rhythm with the land. The seasons mark different ways of being. We didn’t learn to do this, we flowed into it.

Continuity And Its Texture

There perhaps aren’t many people who are in their 50’s who have both parents still alive and happily together, and in the same house where they were brought up. So there is a strong sense of continuity for me. My Dad has it even stronger, he was brought up next door and his parents lived there until they passed. We aren’t a super close touchy feely family. Not even when I was little and my grandparents were alive and kicking so the home part isn’t so much about happy families. Nothing bad happened, everyone was just so busy. Family outings had to be squeezed in between milkings and when the weather was clement but there wasn’t any harvesting or land preparation to do.

A Map Of Feelings: Astrocartography

You will have heard about astrology, you’re a Pisces or a Libra and all that. There is a branch of it called astrocartography. This is a link between your birth chart and the places where you will feel happy and comfortable living. I haven’t explored this so thought I would to see if either of the places I have lived have any correlation to my birth chart.

Here is what it said: https://upastrology.com/astrocartography-map-travel-relocation-calculator/response

Lines Within Reach

To feel the benefits of these lines you need to be within 200 miles of the line itself. My birth home is within this parameter of 4 lines: Pluto IC, Jupiter DC Sun MC Mars DC

Where I live now is within 200 miles of Pluto IC and Moon DC

Reading What The Lines Suggest

So what does this mean from an astrocartography point of view. Pluto IC is about transformation - I do like to promote change. Jupiter is luck and expansion - this line was to the East of my birth home and I did move further East and as I did my career and personal life took off. Sun is being at home with yourself. That one took a while but getting to actually accept and like yourself is highly recommended, if you don’t already. Mars - drive and assertiveness - Uh huh. Friends and colleagues can tell you a whole load of stories about me along those lines.

Settling Into A New Balance

Now I have settled and feel equally at home. Still near that line of change and now with the Moon line close by - emotional balance. I do feel calmer than ever and very in tune with my partner although he is quite opposite to me in some ways. Kind of like the ebb and flow of the tides. He and I were together in UK too but our balance and integration has happened in Spain.

Spain: Light, Weather, Ease

In Spain we are in the countryside, we get to watch the light of the different seasons play across the hills and mountains. We feel the warm summer sea breezes and the Spring and Autumn gales. Rain flies in on bubbling clouds, in great outbursts rather than damply dripping for days. There is space, an ease. The land is gently farmed for olives or fruit. Goats wander the slopes.

Timelessness In Two Places

Both in the UK and Spain there is a sense of timelessness, things happen as they should without checking a clock or calendar. The colours are different as are the birds and plants not to mention the weather. Yet both feel like my home. Did I get pulled to my little piece of Spain or would I feel at home anywhere with mountains, peace and open spaces?

The Search, The Pull, The Almosts

When we first had the idea to move, we came to Spain to look for a part which we felt could work for us. We had an idea of what we wanted but we also knew that we would feel the right place. After two weeks of looking around, quite a small part of Spain, we did indeed find an area which felt right. We got as far as putting an offer in for a house on that trip. The purchase didn’t go through as the sellers wouldn’t correct the property’s paperwork. So we moved to a rental. We had found a place via Facebook, the owners lived in the UK not a million miles away so we could go up, ask questions and sign a rental agreement. This place is less than 10km from the house we put an offer in on.

When A House Is Not A Home

The rental was not a happy experience so we were compelled to look for a property to purchase. After an extensive search we picked one. Not far away, in astrocartography terms but a different valley and a different feel. It was a great starting point but things started to feel a bit scratchy. New neighbours moved in and they were talking about projector tv of Football games in the garden and regular karaoke parties for their friends. That’s the opposite of us so we chose to sell up and move. The neighbours got the blame but in reality they were the excuse not the reason. Home just didn’t feel quite right.

Returning To The First Pull

We looked, we hoped, we offer, we lost. Finally, in a moment of almost desperation we looked at a property within 2km of that first one we tried to buy. I wasn’t sure but A knew. It was his home already. We bought and we moved and the house feels like we have always been there. On the same valley that called to us several years before. There was a pull. We couldn’t resist.

Elements Underfoot

The commonality to these threads is being connected to outdoors. To the elements, wind, water, earth and the fire in our bellies and the molten core of the earth. The area where I now live was once volcanic. It was also under the sea in another time. Wind flows off the mountains. The valleys are rain run off. So we have all four elements: fire, air, earth and water below our feet and all around us. It is easy for us to connect to the never changing rock yet ever changing landscape. All we have to do is notice.

A Human Urge To Step Outside

Talking to my Mum about this she mentioned how so many people wanted to go outside and walk during the covid lockdowns. Like a primeval urge. I too believe that humans need a connection to the earth and elements to be content and happy. We need to see the sky and the cosmos beyond. To feel the winds of change in our faces to remind ourselves that life moves on, nothing stays the same. To bathe in the natural waters of rivers, lakes and oceans. Feeling rooted to the earth and rock beneath our feet, this anchoring is stronger than gravity. Humans are part of nature.

Heart, Place, And Invisible Threads

Home is where the heart is. The heart is connected to the world around it. By sensations, by the invisible threads which feed our souls.

An Invitation

Go out, find your places where you feel alive and invigorated.