It is the first question almost everyone asks after generating their map, and the answer you find depends entirely on which site you read. One says 70 miles. Another says 700. Both sound confident.
Here is what is actually going on.
The short answer
Roughly 100–150 km (60–90 miles) for a strong effect, with a weaker influence often described out to 300–500 km (200–300 miles).
That is the range most practitioners work with. It is a convention, not a measurement — and it is worth understanding why before you make a decision based on it.
Why the numbers disagree
Astrocartography inherited the idea of an orb from traditional astrology, where an aspect between two planets is considered active within a few degrees of exact. Locational astrology borrowed the concept and converted it into kilometres.
The conversion is where it falls apart. A degree of longitude is about 111 km at the equator and shrinks to nothing at the poles. So a "1° orb" is a different distance in Quito than in Reykjavík. Some astrologers convert degrees to distance at your latitude; others just pick a flat number in kilometres and apply it everywhere. Both approaches are in circulation, which is most of why the published figures don't agree.
Nobody has run a controlled study. There is no dataset of people who moved 140 km versus 160 km from a Venus line with outcomes tracked. The numbers you see are accumulated practitioner convention — useful as a working tool, but not evidence.
We would rather tell you that than invent a precise figure to sound authoritative.
A more useful way to think about distance
Stop asking "am I on the line or not." Ask "how loud is this line where I am."
- Under ~150 km — the theme tends to be an obvious feature of life there. If you have lived near a line, this is usually the range where people report noticing something without being told to look.
- 150–350 km — present but not dominant. Often described as a background tone rather than the main event.
- 350–500 km — faint. Worth noting if it is your only nearby line, easy to ignore otherwise.
- Beyond that — treat the place as neutral for that planet.
The fade is gradual. Nothing switches off at any particular kilometre; the boundaries above exist to make a map usable, not because the universe checks your odometer.
What matters more than distance
Three things routinely outweigh a hundred kilometres either way:
Your birth time. This is the big one. The MC and IC lines shift east or west by roughly 1° of longitude — about 111 km — for every 4 minutes of error in your birth time. The AC and DC lines distort even more, and unevenly. If your birth time is uncertain by half an hour, your angular lines could be off by 400 km or more. Arguing about a 150 km orb while working from a guessed birth time is measuring with a micrometer and cutting with an axe.
Which angle the line is. A Venus MC line and a Venus DC line 100 km away are not the same proposition at all. The planet tells you what gets amplified; the angle tells you which part of life it lands in. Getting the angle right matters more than shaving kilometres.
Crossings. Where two lines intersect, most practitioners consider the effect noticeably stronger than either line alone — and a crossing 200 km away can be more significant than a single line at 100 km.
How to judge your own city
- Check your birth time first. If you don't have it from a record, treat every angular line as approximate and lean on the slower-moving planetary lines instead.
- Look at what is within ~300 km, not just what is touching your city. Include the second and third nearest lines.
- Note the angle of each one, not just the planet.
- Look for crossings near you before you weigh single lines.
- Then test it. Distance arguments are cheap; a week in the city is real evidence. Notice what you do without deciding to — that is usually where a line shows up, rather than in dramatic events.
If the line is unreachable
Very often the best line runs through the middle of an ocean, a country you cannot get a visa for, or a place you simply cannot afford. This is normal, and it is not the end of the exercise.
Take the nearest reachable point on the line and accept a diluted version. A city 300 km from your Jupiter line is not the same as being on it, but it is not nothing. You can also work with a region's themes without living there — through its language, its media, its people, or clients and work based there. That is a smaller effect than moving, and it costs almost nothing to try.
The honest summary
The 100–150 km figure is a reasonable working default and you can plan with it. Just hold it loosely: it is a convention the field agreed on, the sources genuinely disagree, and your birth time accuracy probably introduces more error than the orb you are worrying about.
The map is a tool for narrowing choices and asking better questions about a place. It is not a measurement instrument, and no one benefits from pretending otherwise.