tical degrees, but, more importantly, to work with the stars in their paran relationship
to each other and the planets. Thus, the addition of the computer into the astrologer’s
toolbox has enabled them to work with observational information, allowing them
once again to be watchers of the sky, although now it is from the desktop.
Parans are the natural way of working with the daily rotation of the sky, for at
any time (provided one is not at the poles) there will be stars rising on the eastern side
of the circle of the horizon. They will be rising on the full half-circle of the horizon,
not just due east. As a star rises, for instance, to the northeast of the point of observa-
tion, there may be, at the same time, another star in the southeast also rising. The two
stars would be rising simultaneously, and are said to have a paran relationship because
they are both on the line of the horizon at the same time.
Similarly, a star may be rising in the east as another star is setting on the west-
ern side of the circle of the horizon; these two stars are also in paran relationship. The
important point is that the full circle of the horizon is used, not just the eastern and
western points of the ecliptic.
Another very obvious point in the sky is the culmination point. Facing either
north or south, an imaginary line passing directly overhead, cutting the sky in two, is
the prime meridian. Where this line cuts the ecliptic is the current MC or midheaven.
Stars anywhere along this line are culminating, reaching the top of their rising arc and
about to start travelling downwards towards the western horizon. This culminating
point adds another possible paran placement.
The Moon may be culminating just as a bright star is setting or rising. If this
were the case, then the Moon would be in paran with this star. Indeed, whenever a
star or planet is on any of the four major points of its diurnal movement—rising
(ascendant), setting (descendant), culminating (MC), or on the nadir (IC)—and
another star or planet is also on any of the four points of its diurnal motion, then the
two points, star or planet, are in a paran relationship.
This is a natural approach to working with the sky. The mere act of standing
and watching a night sky results in working with parans. One may note, for example,
that as Venus rises a bright red star is setting; this is a paran relationship between
Venus and the red star. Indeed, observations such as this make up some of the earliest
recorded astronomical and astrological material.
But the night sky shows another phenomenon, which Ptolemy called star
phases. Star phases have not been used in astrology for nearly 2,000 years. They were
the subject of one of Ptolemy’s astrological works, The Phases of the Fixed Stars,and
were a predominant feature of any consideration concerning fixed stars in ancient life.
However, as astrologers became disconnected from the sky, the astrological impor-
tance of star phases faded, first, because of the popularity of the easy technique of pro-
jecting a star onto the ecliptic, and second, because phases belonged to the older,
more-difficult-to-reconstruct, visually based systems.
Nevertheless, whether astrologers observe it or not, each star does have a
unique pattern of visibility for any given place on earth. Some stars will be visible in
the night sky for a period of time, yet later in the year they will fail to appear and be
THEASTROLOGYBOOK [249]
Fixed Stars