Your birth chart outcome change according to the place you live, and also to the conditioning, which you acquired by your family and culture.

Writing astrological interpretations to fit the more than 100 countries represented by 12andus’ users is a big challenge because astrology interacts with the different cultures in unique ways.

For instance, let's take a person with a techno-creative Mercury in Virgo in the 9th house trine Uranus in Capricorn in the 5th house. This person would probably thrive in Silicon Valley but struggle to find a supportive environment for its potential in an undeveloped country, where, nonetheless, it might exert a creative role in his community.

In both cases, the symbols of pioneering, geniality, travel, a well-developed analytical mind, and perseverance would be present.

While the first person might create a disruptive software application for travelers by working day and night incessantly, the second person might patiently carve a more efficient canoe to bring his tribe through the Amazon River (or maybe using the invention to go for a date in another village since the 5th house is also involved :-)

As another example, a woman with Venus conjunct Mars in Scorpio living in a liberal country might realize those energies as a dominatrix, while a woman living in a very traditional country might become obsessed with a man who left to become a soldier in a war zone and she might want to reach him.

In both cases, obsessions, danger, intensity, and control are all symbolically present, but in very different modalities.

For this reason, at 12andus we prefer to talk in symbolical terms instead of talking about facts or events. Symbols are a sort of archetypal “seed-words” giving birth to concepts and actions according to the culture where such archetypes are rooted.

So we prefer, for instance, to talk about the 5th house as a symbol of creativity, which includes performing arts and pro-creativity, as in sexuality and parenthood, or about the Jupiterian symbol of “far” which encompasses the geographical far as in traveling, the intellectual far as in superior knowledge, and on the spiritual plane, the far/deep inner traveling toward self-knowledge.

If we consider symbols as seeds, we might say that the symbols are stable, like the seeds' DNA, but the seeds' outcomes, the trees, are different according to the soil and weather conditions. The same species of tree can thrive in certain conditions or suffer in others.

The problem is that when an astrologer talks in symbolical terms and asks the client for more information, it often creates misunderstandings. Talking in symbolical terms can be felt by the client as generic and even a tricky way to say something that fits all sizes.

To make things worse, when an astrologer asks the client for more background information, the latter might be surprised and think “shouldn't he/she be the one supposed to tell me about myself”?

An astrologer is not cheating when talks in symbolical terms or by asking more information to the client. Those further information help to frame the environment where the planetary symbolical energies take place.

Of course, there are also dishonest astrologers as there are dishonest plumbers, doctors or politician (probably the majority in the latter case).

Another difficulty is when an astrologer's client listens from the astrologer something which is part of his nature that is not accepted, recognized or acknowledged. Past familiar or cultural conditioning or the structures of the ego itself prevent the client from being aware of its own nature.

As an example, if the astrologer finds elements pointing to a sensual person, this might be negated by people whose cultures condemn such feelings, which in turn affects self-acceptance.

The ego, often in the form of conflictual aspects of the Sun, Mars or Saturn, also might become a barrier to acknowledging who we are. For instance, a Sun square Mars in a person might negate its dreamy and sensitive Neptune dominant by identifying its nature as a very active and competitive person. Then repressed Neptune gets its space by bringing intoxication every night.

Much of the astrologer's work is actually about helping the client first to acknowledge and then accept its very own unique traits.

See also:

Can artificial intelligence be applied to astrology?

The benefits of knowing our birth chart and traits

Astrology forecast without self-inquiry are pointless

Why we should finally stop with the Sun sign astrology

What to expect from an astrological reading

Astrology forecasts and astrologers don't know what will actually happen to you

Is our personality defined by the birth chart?

Human astrologers and 12andus' reports

What does your dominant planet say about you?

The difference between “signs” astrology and personalized astrology