Line crossings and parans in astrocartography

Crossings and parans

A single line puts one planet on one angle. Where two lines cross, two planets were angular at once: one overhead and the other rising, say, or both on the horizon. Astrocartography reads the two together there, and a crossing near a place you care about counts for more than either line would alone.

The crossing is a point, but its latitude isn't. Travel east or west from it and the same two planets still come to their angles together, just at another time of day. That whole latitude is a paran, from the Greek for rising alongside, and it's how a city thousands of kilometres from the crossing can still sit under the pair. Zenith Map draws parans as bands about a degree either side of the latitude, roughly 110 km.

Which lines cross

MC and IC lines are meridians, straight from pole to pole, so two of them never meet. Each one crosses every other planet's rising and setting curve once, which gives each pair of planets up to four crossings of a meridian line with a horizon line, and the rising and setting curves can cross each other too. With the ten main bodies that's forty-five pairs and around 250 crossings in a chart, but only 40 to 90 of them fall between 60° north and south, where nearly everyone lives. The rest crowd towards the poles, where the rising and setting curves bunch together.

How to read one

Read the angles first. The MC is work and reputation, the IC home and family, the Ascendant your own body and manner, the Descendant other people. Venus setting as Jupiter culminates is about partners and career; the same two with Jupiter on the IC and Venus rising is about a comfortable home.

Then read the two planets in the natal chart. If they're in aspect at birth, a square or an opposition say, that relationship is what comes up at the crossing, louder. A Venus–Mars crossing for someone with Venus square Mars isn't the same place as for someone with the two in trine.

Mind the birth time. An hour's error moves every crossing 15° of longitude, more than 1,600 km at the equator, while a paran's latitude hardly moves, because it depends on where the planets were in the sky rather than the time of day. The Moon is the exception: it moves fast enough that a Moon paran needs a good birth time too.

Every pair

Sun

Sun–Moon, Sun–Mercury, Sun–Venus, Sun–Mars, Sun–Jupiter, Sun–Saturn, Sun–Uranus, Sun–Neptune, Sun–Pluto.

Moon

Sun–Moon, Moon–Mercury, Moon–Venus, Moon–Mars, Moon–Jupiter, Moon–Saturn, Moon–Uranus, Moon–Neptune, Moon–Pluto.

Mercury

Sun–Mercury, Moon–Mercury, Mercury–Venus, Mercury–Mars, Mercury–Jupiter, Mercury–Saturn, Mercury–Uranus, Mercury–Neptune, Mercury–Pluto.

Venus

Sun–Venus, Moon–Venus, Mercury–Venus, Venus–Mars, Venus–Jupiter, Venus–Saturn, Venus–Uranus, Venus–Neptune, Venus–Pluto.

Mars

Sun–Mars, Moon–Mars, Mercury–Mars, Venus–Mars, Mars–Jupiter, Mars–Saturn, Mars–Uranus, Mars–Neptune, Mars–Pluto.

Jupiter

Sun–Jupiter, Moon–Jupiter, Mercury–Jupiter, Venus–Jupiter, Mars–Jupiter, Jupiter–Saturn, Jupiter–Uranus, Jupiter–Neptune, Jupiter–Pluto.

Saturn

Sun–Saturn, Moon–Saturn, Mercury–Saturn, Venus–Saturn, Mars–Saturn, Jupiter–Saturn, Saturn–Uranus, Saturn–Neptune, Saturn–Pluto.

Uranus

Sun–Uranus, Moon–Uranus, Mercury–Uranus, Venus–Uranus, Mars–Uranus, Jupiter–Uranus, Saturn–Uranus, Uranus–Neptune, Uranus–Pluto.

Neptune

Sun–Neptune, Moon–Neptune, Mercury–Neptune, Venus–Neptune, Mars–Neptune, Jupiter–Neptune, Saturn–Neptune, Uranus–Neptune, Neptune–Pluto.

Pluto

Sun–Pluto, Moon–Pluto, Mercury–Pluto, Venus–Pluto, Mars–Pluto, Jupiter–Pluto, Saturn–Pluto, Uranus–Pluto, Neptune–Pluto.

The globe draws the crossings of every line it shows; Pro adds the paran bands and all 21 bodies.