← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 104/235
Parallel
A parallel is not measured around the zodiac at all. Every planet has a declination — its distance north or south of the celestial equator, the projection of the Earth's equator onto the sky. The Sun's declination swings between about 23°26' north at the June solstice and 23°26' south at the December one; the other planets roam the same band, and sometimes a little beyond it. Two planets with the same declination on the same side of the equator — both 15° north, say — are in parallel.
Because the ordinary chart wheel shows only longitude, parallels are invisible on it and easy to miss. Two planets can be in parallel while forming no aspect by longitude at all, or they can be in parallel and conjunct, which many astrologers read as an especially strong bond. deVore records that equal declinations were noticed long ago, and the technique was developed in modern times by astrologers such as Charles Jayne and Kt Boehrer.
Orb
Parallels are kept tight: most astrologers allow 1°, some up to 1½°. In the charts here the allowance is 1°, for natal charts and transits alike. Its strength is how close the two declinations are against that 1°: 1 when they are identical, 0 at a full degree apart. See orb.
Ease or tension
A parallel is read much like a conjunction: the two planets blend and amplify each other, and the result takes its colour from who they are — Venus parallel Jupiter generous and warm, Mars parallel Saturn effortful. Declination contacts are not counted in the ease and tension chart, which weighs aspects by longitude only.
In a chart
Read the pair as a team, as you would a conjunction, but quieter and more internal: a parallel often describes a link the person feels before others see it. A planet beyond the Sun's greatest declination is said to be out of bounds, and its parallels can carry that planet's unusual, less governable quality to whatever it touches.
In transit
A transiting planet reaching the same declination as a natal one is a transit by declination. Slow planets can hold a parallel for months, since declination changes slowly near its turning points. In the list of transits here, declination contacts are hidden by default and can be switched on.
Kinds and conditions
- The opposite case — the same number of degrees, but one north and one south — is a contraparallel.
- A parallel is measured in declination, so out-of-sign does not apply to it; nor are parallels marked applying or separating in the charts here, though in principle they build and fade like any contact.
- An exact parallel at the same time as an exact conjunction is the tightest bond two planets can make.