Fixed star consultations
Insights from three years of natal astrology consultations with fixed stars in parans
I’ve been giving consultations incorporating fixed stars in parans as a technique for almost three years now. It seems like a long time and a short time all at once. On the one hand, it seems like it was just yesterday that I started experimenting with parans and felt like learning and discovering astrology a second time, because I still feel the same awe, everyday1. On the other hand, it seems like forever ago! It sounds weird to think that only three years ago, I wasn’t familiar with the constellations that I spend so much time with these days. But then, stars know you even when you don’t know them; so studying them felt like coming home, in many ways.
Not long ago, someone commented on an Instagram post from last year, which presented fixed stars as one of my passions and main techniques: they asked if I still gave this type of fixed stars consultations, because they couldn’t find it on my agenda. I simply hadn’t fathomed this possibility: that people might ever think I had stopped!
Every single consultation I give includes fixed stars, so there was no point in making a dedicated format2. Of course, some clients ask to specifically focus on fixed stars, which I’m happy to do. But in any case, the bare bones of my prep stay the same3. I always, always look at fixed stars.
I am of the opinion that I can’t divorce a planet from its parans. A Sun in paran to Regulus will always be a Regulus-pilled Sun. If someone comes to me to talk about their Regulus Sun, perhaps I won’t go into a lengthy tangent about Regulus4, but I’ll definitely weave Regulus into my interpretation of their Sun placement. If they’re in a profection year activating the Sun, that also activates Regulus5 in my book.
Of course, this isn’t to say you can’t, in general, study a planet without looking to parans: lots of people do, and that’s fine! It would be weirdly dogmatic to pretend you can’t practice astrology interestingly without parans. Just because I don’t care to do something doesn’t mean it doesn’t work well for other people. I’ve consulted with colleagues who don’t work with fixed stars6 and received great insights. And there is a bunch of techniques I don’t work with much or at all, that I know are great for colleagues7 and that I’ve benefited from in readings8.
Three main challenges
What type of challenges can arise when working with fixed stars in client work? I’ve outlined three main ones that come to mind.
Exhaustivity is a myth
There’s something that I suppose is not specific to fixed stars9, but is definitely happening all the time with fixed stars: I will never get to everything in my prep notes. Perhaps that’s one more argument for astrology as a Saturn discipline, as you learn to be with frustration10 — although in truth, I can’t say that I end consultations frustrated that I didn’t get to talk about every single thing in my notes. I mean, it would be like going to the Ocean and pestering that you didn’t get to swim in every corner of it. Silly, right? I try to trust that we were steered to talk about what was needed. My priority always goes to listening to the client’s priorities, and doing my best to stay open to what comes through in the moment. I really do believe consultations to be a co-creation, it’s not just a thing I say; and as such I don’t try to pin-point in advance the main focus of a consultation. I prep according to the client’s curiosities and needs, but then things happen as they happen. Unless the client is frustrated, I’m good! I got used to having three times more notes than was actually discussed. That’s part of the work for me, and not a real issue.
Resources to dig deeper are a little scarce
Another challenge that I’ve encountered re: fixed star consultations is actually the lack of resources that I can recommend, especially for French-speakers. When it comes to English-speakers, there are books, there are classes — not many compared to other areas of astrology, but if you want to learn fixed stars in parans, there is stuff out there11. But in French… There are very few of us who seriously work with fixed stars. Basically none with truly extensive experience12. No book I can think of; Brady hasn’t been translated13. So I routinely have to ask people if they’re okay with English resources, and just… point to my own stuff. That is frustrating to me, not being able to share more resources for people to dig deeper on their own after a consult. That’s also why I wrote so much about fixed stars in French14!
Grounding is key
Another challenge15 is what I would call grounding or anchoring. Fixed stars are so huge. It’s giddying! I don’t mean that they are distant, far-off and aloof — I keep having the wildest syncs, fixed star work feels distinctly spirit-led, and they’re often quite playful16. I mean that there are literally unfathomably big and powerful, and as a little human, it sometimes feels overwhelming. It can be exciting, but also very disorienting if you’re not careful. To a degree, grounding is important with any type of astrology depending on your personal sensitivity. But for fixed star work it might seem all the more crucial to touch grass17.
My favourite things
Oh boy, this could get long. There are so many things I love about fixed star work!
Relevance and deep resonance
As far as client work goes, it’s so heart-warming to see how strongly it resonates for folks. While I’ve had a good share of clients who are themselves astrologers, they’re not necessarily specialised in fixed stars, and a greater part of people I work with in consultations are not familiar with the constellations at all. But as I said earlier, regardless of whether you know of the stars, the stars know you and already speak through you. I have so many examples of this — clients already having tattoos that speak to the themes of an important star for them natally, or being professionally involved in something that is textbook for the constellation, etc. There have been so many moments of “Waow, this is incredible, and speaks to me even more than zodiac sign astrology in my chart!”18. It’s a gift that keeps on giving, and I’m really grateful for this. Facilitating bridges of awareness and deeper relationship between people and their natal stars is one of my happiest places as a consulting astrologer!
Humbling
Another thing I love about fixed star astrology is how it forces to stay in touch with humility. I will never be able to intimately know every star in the sky. I will never be “fully taught”, exhaustively, in every single constellation, or even the main 64 that Brady wrote about. I might learn every delineation by heart, I might spend time studying and compiling data, but there will always be mysteries I won’t be able to touch. There is so much lore, always infinitely more to know and experience, beyond my scope and beyond my wildest dreams. I actually find this utterly enchanting! In a neoliberal world obsessed with “progress”, optimisation, visible and measurable accomplishment, I feel that there’s something healing about working with something that is so unfathomably vast. It’s like, okay, I can engage with this but I can’t delude myself into thinking I can control it, and that is good, actually. Arguably, this applies to astrology in general, but I think fixed stars really drive the point home particularly efficiently.
Interconnectedness and community
On a related note, this highlights the importance of community19. What I haven’t had a chance to explore yet, a colleague might have. It’s such a joy to see other people study and work with fixed stars! Again, I feel that this applies to astrology as a whole, and I’ve always thought it crucial to encourage community-building within the astrological field, but it’s exacerbated by fixed star study. We’re not islands, we need each other; astronomical advancement and software might make us forget this, but being super competitive and proprietary when it comes to astrology is really shooting ourselves in the foot. We do better together, by truly supporting each other20. As long as a colleague isn’t doing something unethical, I will strive to support them in their own explorations!
Hoping this proved an enjoyable read; I’d be glad to hear from you in the comments section, let me know what you think!
If you’d like to chat about fixed stars in your natal chart, you can book with me here. You can find more info about me and my approach here.
Until next time ✨
I reckon it’s pretty obvious if you have been following my work for any length of time, but I really am besotted with the sky that way.
Some people do really cool stuff with dedicated consults though! Maeg Keane’s Rays of Light consult is a great example.
Okay, perhaps calling it bare bones is a misnomer. But basically I list all the planets, their parans and aspects, look at sect, House placements (whole sign + Placidus), current profections, and depending on the type of consultation, current Solar Return(s) and secondary progressions.
I likely will, though, unless they don’t want me to 😂
There are also additional nuances, depending on the category of parans Regulus falls into. For instance, if it’s in Lower Culmination (what Brady also calls “Hearthstone parans”, it’s likely to be particularly foundational so all the more relevant. And by the way! I picked up parans + profections from Óscar Moisés Díaz and their excellent talk Star Lords, available on YouTube here:
Or very, very little and/or not in parans.
I don’t use zodiacal releasing much, especially for clients, despite having studied it quite seriously, but I’ve heard the world again and again from what Kira Ryberg does with it, for instance!
Had a blast hearing from Diana Rose Harper about decennials recently!
This happened to me before I got into fixed stars, for sure.
Saturn, lord-lady of edging.
Beloved colleague Amaya Rourke compiled an amazing list of resources to learn about fixed stars, here : https://www.amayarourke.com/writings/coming-into-relation-with-the-fixed-stars-where-to-learn
By this I mean a couple decades. Three years is actually very little in the grand scheme of things! I have no French-speaking elder I can turn to.
If someone would like to pay me to translate Bernadette Brady to French, hmu.
Which applies to all fixed star work including research, not just consultations, perhaps even all the more relevant for solitary research, actually.
Looking at you especially Castor, lol.
No, really. Spending time with trees is suuuuper helpful in my experience.
Again not to say you can’t practice well and helpfully without fixed stars! This is just something I’ve been told often.
And by community I don’t mean sharing a hashtag, I mean actual community, bonds of trust and mutual support.
If this comes off as naive, might I suggest you think harder about neoliberal exploitation and how it rots us off from the inside by isolating us each from each other?
The humor you embed in the footnotes 🙏🏼🙌🏼💥
I’ll keep my eyes peeled for French sources. Have you ever asked Philip Graves (of astrolearn.com ) if he has any leads?
As a french astrologer I have been facing the same issue concerning the lack of resources written in French. But since my main carreer is in translation, (English to French) I have decided to dedicate myself to translating astrology books. Which book on fixed stars would you like most to see translated?