Parallel and contra-parallel

Meaning

Most aspects measure the distance between two bodies along the zodiac, around the sky. A parallel measures something else: how far north or south of the celestial equator each body stands, its declination. Two bodies with the same declination are parallel when both are on the same side of the equator, and contra-parallel when one is north and the other south by the same amount.

Astrologers who use them read the parallel like a conjunction: the two functions blend and colour each other. The contra-parallel is read more like an opposition, a pull between two sides that asks to be balanced. Most treat both as a second layer that confirms or shades what the aspects along the zodiac already say, rather than as aspects of the first rank.

A parallel can join two bodies that make no aspect at all along the zodiac. On the ecliptic, two points equally far from the start of Cancer, such as 10° Gemini and 20° Cancer, have the same declination; so do two points equally far from the start of Capricorn. Real planets also stray a little north or south of the ecliptic (their latitude), and the Moon and Pluto can stray a good deal, which shifts their declination.

The Sun’s own declination never goes beyond about 23°26′ north or south; a body that goes further is said to be out of bounds.

In practice

• Venus at 18°10′ north and Mars at 18°40′ north are parallel within 30′, even if they stand in signs that make no aspect: a quiet blend of affection and desire beneath whatever the zodiac says.
• The Sun at 21° north and Saturn at 21°30′ south are contra-parallel: will and duty facing each other across the equator, read like a soft opposition.
• A pair that is both conjunct along the zodiac and parallel in declination is read as doubly close.
• Look first at parallels to the Sun, the Moon and the angles, and at those that repeat an aspect already present.

Origin and history

Declination tells the seasons. Ptolemy paired the parts of the zodiac that lie equally far from a solstice: when the Sun is in either of them, days and nights have the same length, and the two rise and set at the same points of the horizon (Tetrabiblos). The antiscia of traditional astrology, mirror degrees on either side of the axis from 0° Cancer to 0° Capricorn, grow from the same idea. For a point on the ecliptic, its mirror degree has exactly the same declination; but the old authors reasoned from the length of the day and the rising of the signs, so antiscia and parallels are best seen as cousins rather than twins.

How Ulune calculates it

• Ulune lists parallels in the Table: in the Aspects part, under “In declination”, and in the grid, where a switch fills the other half of the grid with them (∥ for a parallel, # for a contra-parallel).
• Two bodies count when the sizes of their declinations differ by 1° or less: parallel if both are north or both south of the equator, contra-parallel if they are on opposite sides. That difference is the orb, and the list runs tightest first.
• Declinations come from Swiss Ephemeris, latitude included. For the Ascendant, the Descendant, the Midheaven, the IC and the Vertex, which lie on the ecliptic, the declination follows from the longitude and the true obliquity of the ecliptic on the birth date. The lots are left out.
• The two ends of an axis are not paired with each other (the Ascendant is always contra-parallel to the Descendant), and a parallel to one end of an axis is a contra-parallel to the other: the Table shows it once, with its mirror.
• Without a birth time, a parallel that might not hold through the whole day is marked ~.
• Parallels are not drawn on the wheel and do not enter the configurations.

Correspondences