Andromeda DavisThere are three very significant influences in astrology: Your sun sign (or zodiac sign), your moon sign, and your rising sign (ascendant). All these influences work together to provide a more complete picture of your personality. In this article, we’ll introduce you to your rising sign, also known as an ascendant.
In the development of astrology, rising signs were among the first to be employed in creating a personal horoscope chart. It’s one of the factors that make every zodiac sign unique from other individuals who possess the same sign. This helps explain why two people with the same sign can have their similarities, yet be different. Rising signs help explain these differences.
What are rising signs?
Your ascendant sign refers to the zodiac sign that was rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of your birth. To determine the sign, you will need a birth chart, which can easily be found online.
Knowing the exact date and time of your birth will allow you to calculate your ascendant sign with a strong degree of accuracy. As rising signs place the planets in their houses, it’s very important that your birth chart be precise.
Rising signs & the elements
Just as signs of the zodiac represent the elements of Fire, Earth, Air and Water – similarly, rising signs also fall into the elements and take on their characteristics.
What do rising signs do?
Rising signs influence the first impressions we give to others. When you first see someone, the impressions you pick up about them are related to traits given off by their rising sign.
Thus, how the world sees you when they first encounter you, has more to do with your rising sign than your zodiac sign. In fact, the traits imbued upon us by our rising sign are often more obvious to other people than they are to ourselves.
Our rising sign influences our public face, our logo, packaging or storefront if you will – our outward impression that draws some to us and keeps others away.
Your ascendant sign can also be thought of as a public mask. It may not be a true representative of all the traits of the person on the inside. Instead, it presents a public persona. Many people act very differently in public than they do behind closed doors, and your rising sign reflects the difference in traits.
These traits can also be thought of as a form of “autopilot” one adapts in a certain environment.
How rising signs work
One reason you need a birth chart that calculates events at the exact moment of your birth is the fact that zodiac signs appearing on the eastern horizon change every two hours.
How much influence your rising sign has over you depends on how close it is to the beginning of the zodiac house it falls in at the time of your birth.
If the ascendant falls closer to the beginning of a given zodiac sign, then the stronger the traits of that zodiac sign will be in that person.
Conversely, the farther the ascendant falls to the end of a given zodiac sign, then the weaker the traits of that zodiac sign will be in that person.
When a person is born at night, then the sun is in a weak position, therefore their sun sign is weakened and the traits of the ascendant have a stronger effect.
How your rising sign combines with your zodiac sign
For example, a zodiac Fire sign like Aries, which has a trait of boldness, that has an ascendant water sign, could be more subdued in public.
Conversely, a shy zodiac sign like Virgo, with an ascendant Fire sign, could be more outgoing in public than others of their same sun sign.
Shea Lee
