Parans in astrocartography

What a paran is

The word comes from a Greek term for stars that rise alongside one another. In astrocartography, a paran is a latitude where two planets were on angles at the same moment: one rising while the other was overhead, one setting while the other was underfoot, both rising together, and so on.

There are four such events, the same four that give the lines their names: rising (the AC), setting (the DC), overhead (the MC) and underfoot (the IC). For every pair of planets you have switched on, the map checks every combination of those events and finds the latitudes where they happen together.

One kind of pair is left out: both planets on the meridian at once, each one either overhead or underfoot. Whether that happens does not depend on latitude at all, so it never marks out a band of the world.

How to turn parans on

1. Enter your birth details and draw your lines.
2. Open the Lines tab and, under More layers, tick Parans.
3. In "Parans of", choose a planet. Its paran latitudes with every other planet on the map are drawn as horizontal lines in the two planets' colors, each named in plain words, for example "Venus rising as Jupiter is overhead".
4. Click any place. Its panel lists the closest parans within 1 degree of its latitude.

Only the planets you have switched on take part. Showing all 12 bodies at once produces many parans, which is why the map asks you to focus on one planet at a time.

Why a paran wraps the whole world

A paran is a latitude, not a point. At the moment you were born, the pairing (say Venus rising as Jupiter culminates) happened at one spot on Earth. But the Earth keeps turning, and over the following hours every place on that same latitude meets the same pairing in turn: Venus rising there just as Jupiter reaches the top of its sky.

Astrologers who work with parans read that whole circle of latitude as carrying the pairing, all the way around the globe. A city on the other side of the world, with none of your lines nearby, can carry a paran simply by sitting at the right latitude.

On the flat map a paran latitude is a straight horizontal line from edge to edge. On the globe it is a circle that gets smaller toward the poles. Parans that involve rising or setting stop where one of the planets no longer rises or sets: for a planet with declination d, beyond latitude 90 minus d, ignoring the sign.

What is the difference between a paran and a line crossing?

A line crossing is a point: the spot where two of your lines meet on the map. A paran is the latitude through that point, read all the way around the world. A crossing reading weakens as you move away from the spot; a paran reading holds anywhere near that latitude, however far east or west.

	Line crossing	Paran latitude
What it is	The point where two of your lines intersect	The circle of latitude through that point
Where it applies	The crossing and its surroundings, fading along either line	The whole band around the world; distance east or west does not matter
On the flat map	A point where two colored lines meet	A horizontal line from edge to edge
How close counts	Distance from the point, with no agreed figure	About 1 degree of latitude north or south is a common working width
Birth time	Moves with the lines: about 111 km at the equator for every 4 minutes	Barely moves, except for the Moon
On this map	Visible wherever two lines meet	The Parans layer in the Lines tab, one planet at a time

Where two of your lines cross on the map, for example your Venus AC line and your Jupiter MC line, you are looking at the exact spot where Venus was rising while Jupiter was overhead at your birth. Draw a horizontal line through that crossing and you have the paran latitude. Every paran latitude passes through the crossing of its two matching lines.

The difference is in how far the reading reaches. A crossing reading looks at the point and its surroundings, and it weakens as you move away along either line. A paran reading takes the latitude of that point and stretches it east and west around the world. Both views are in use, and they answer different questions: "what happens near this crossing?" versus "which band of the world carries this pairing?"

This also explains crossings that seem to sit in the middle of an ocean. The crossing itself may be far from anywhere, but its latitude may run straight through a city you care about.

How to read a paran latitude

Read the two planets together, then the two angles. "Venus rising as Jupiter is overhead" combines Venus (warmth, ease, connection) with Jupiter (opportunity, growth). The rising half colors your own manner; the overhead half colors public life. The same two planets meeting as setting and underfoot would be read through partners and home instead.

As for how close you need to be: a band of about 1 degree north or south of the latitude is a common working width, and the place panel uses the same 1 degree. Some astrologers allow a little more. Distance east or west does not matter for a paran, only latitude.

Parans and your birth time

Here parans behave very differently from lines. Your lines move about 111 km at the equator for every 4 minutes of birth time error. Your paran latitudes hardly move at all, because they depend on where the planets were among the stars, not on how far the Earth had turned. Only the Moon, which moves fastest, shifts its parans noticeably over a day.

That makes parans useful when your birth time is uncertain, or unknown. Choose "I don't know my birth time" in the Birth tab and the map draws no lines; it shows your paran latitudes for noon of your birth day instead, leaving out the Moon, which moves about 13 degrees a day. If you know your time only roughly, check your Moon parans with care and lean on the others. For how lines and parans fit into a full reading, see how to read your astrocartography map.