In numerous articles, I refer to the main software I use in astrological research, Starlight. I thought it might be worth writing a bit more about this tool and why I favour it as an astrologer specialised in fixed stars.
If you have some familiarity with fixed stars in parans, you might know that Bernadette Brady has been a pioneer in reviving this technique, and devised her own method of calculation for fixed star parans1. Her method is used in the Astrodienst Brady parans file which you can generate for free (see this article for a step-by-step tutorial on this).
Note: this is not a sponsored article. I’m just giving you my honest impressions about this software from going on 5 years of working with it.
So, if there’s a free calculator online, why bother with software, you might wonder? Well, for a while, I only used the Astrodienst file method: I would generate a bunch of PDFs, survey the stars therein, cross-reference, end up with 40+ tabs open (and too many syncs to count). It worked in its own unhinged way, but it was time-consuming and really chaotic. There was no way to target-search in my database and neatly look at all people who have a natal Sun in paran to Scheat, for instance. I could only save many PDF files, and then do a keyword search within the folder where I’d saved them. It was tedious. So after over a year of doing fixed star research and consultations solely using these Astrodienst files for parans, I decided to purchase Starlight in order to expand my study of fixed stars.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.