Sun IC line
Home as the source. The Sun IC line (Imum Coeli) runs through the places where Sun was at the bottom of its daily arc when you were born.
☉Sun lines· Imum Coeli
What the Sun IC line means
With the Sun beneath you, identity grows from the private side of life: a home base, family, land, the work done when nobody is watching. People settle here and build something durable. It is a fine place to recover a sense of self, and a poor one for seeking applause; the recognition you want tends to arrive late and quietly.
On the IC the Sun is at its midnight point, and the line lies exactly half a world from your Sun MC line. What it lights up is the house, the family and whatever you're building without an audience. A renovation, a family firm, a long book, a garden that takes five years to come right: work of that kind tends to go well here, and you'll feel more like yourself doing it than you would somewhere showier.
Traditional astrology gives the Sun to the father, and the IC is the root of the chart, so the line is also read as a place where the question of a father comes up, or of your own turn at heading a household. That can mean making peace with an old story. It can also simply mean becoming the person everyone phones on a Sunday.
Where it runs
The Sun IC line runs from pole to pole too, half a world away from the Sun MC line. Everywhere on it, Sun was on the meridian at the bottom of its daily arc when you were born.
Distance and birth time
A line is a band, not a wall. Zenith Map's scores count a line in full on it, about 60% at 250 km, about 14% at 500 km and not at all beyond 1,000 km. Astrocartographers draw the edge in different places; the methodology page gives the reasoning for this one.
Every line in a chart moves west by a quarter of a degree of longitude for each minute later the birth: about 28 km at the equator and 14 km at 60° latitude. A time rounded to the nearest quarter hour can put your Sun IC line up to about 200 km from where it's drawn, which is why the map draws bands when you say the time is approximate.
Questions
Is the Sun IC line good for settling down?
Yes, if what you want from a place is a home and not a stage. Astrocartography reads the Sun IC as a line for settling, putting down roots and feeling more yourself in private, often around family or property. It's less suited to a career that depends on being seen; the Sun's light on this line falls on home and family.
What's the difference between the Sun IC and Sun MC lines?
They're the two ends of one axis and lie on opposite sides of the globe, 180 degrees of longitude apart. The MC line runs where the Sun was at noon at your birth and stands for public life, work and reputation. The IC line runs where it was midnight and stands for home, family and the private self. You can't live on both at once.
Related lines
The other Sun lines: Sun MC, Sun ASC, Sun DSC.
Imum Coeli lines of the other planets: Moon IC, Mercury IC, Venus IC, Mars IC, Jupiter IC, Saturn IC, Uranus IC, Neptune IC, Pluto IC.