A wide-ranging reader, entertaining lecturer, and enthusiastic traveler, Jim Lewis has been acclaimed by many as one of the twentieth century's greatest astrologers. In the 1970's he popularized his unique form of locational astrology for which he coined the name "Astro*Carto*Graphy", and in the entreprenurial spirit of that time, formed a business of the same name to spread the word.
Astro*Carto*Graphy was a new approach, a new attitude about astrology based on the idea that people could use their astrological chart to take control of their lives, make positive decisions, and even change their environment by moving or travelling to where the astrological conditions were more advantageous.
I met Jim in the mid-70's when he was first turning Astro*Carto*Graphy into a thriving business. He needed to automate the drawing of his maps, and since my company, Astro Numeric Service, was just across the bay, we took on the job. This began a friendship and business partnership that lasted over twenty years.
Leaving my suburban town of El Cerrito to meet Jim Lewis in San Francisco was like going to a different world. He lived in a modest penthouse overlooking San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. Hanging inside of the ring of windows around the apartment were over a dozen crystals of various sizes and shapes, each reflecting the sunlight as it filtered through the city's ever-changing patterns of fog and blue sky. Parked on the street below was Jim's timeless VW bug, squeezed into a space intended to protect it from the busy city traffic. If there were ever a time and place made to nurture modesty, innovation, communication, and creativity, this was it.
Jim's life was a whirlwind. In addition to carefully working out the mathematics of Astro*Carto*Graphy, he wrote interpretations for all the various planetary configuratinos, gave periodic seminars in his apartment, managed his office operations, conceived and designed all his ads, travelled all over the world for conferences and lectures, and still found time to participate in the community organizations he believed in.
Jim Lewis died of cancer in 1995, but not before he had developed a world-wide following in the astrological world and with the general public as well. He received two of astrology's most prestigious awards: The Marc Edmund Jones award in 1978 and the Regulus Award for Research and Innovation in 1992. In addition, his book on Astro*Carto*Graphy, included in every Astro*Carto*Graphy map kit sold for over 30 years, is clearly one of the most widely read astrological texts on the market today.
More information about Jim's work can be found at Continuum, a site to build on the Jim Lewis legacy and further the study of Astro*Carto*Graphy. Astrocartography.Net is a new site which offers articles and discussion about Astro*Carto*Graphy as well as opportunities for astrologers to publish articles and blogs about locational astrology. Another excellent web reference is Planet Lines, by Kenneth Irving who edited Jim Lewis's posthumous book, The Psychology of Astro*Carto*Graphy.
Gregg Howe
Astro Numeric Service
