If you’ve just started dipping your toes into the wonderful and mysterious world of astrology, it’s likely that you’ve come across something known as the “Rising Sign”. It goes by two other names as well: namely The Ascendant, or The First House. These are just different names for the same thing, really. In essence, The Rising Sign is an absolutely integral part of who you are and the starting point of your astrology chart.
How It’s Calculated
Speaking of the starting point, the Rising Sign, or Ascendant, is exactly that – it’s the beginning of your unique story, the point from where the rest of your chart unfolds. The Rising Sign is the astrological sign on the Eastern horizon at the time, date and place of your birth. It’s an extremely sensitive point, and changes every four minutes. Which leads us to the next question:
What If Someone’s Born At The Same Time As Me?
This is one of the most common questions an astrologer gets when a client or student gets curious about the Rising Sign. What if someone is born within two minutes of me, in the same place? What about twins?
Firstly, there are a few special methods in which astrologers analyze the charts of twins – one being when the twins “split” the chart, which means that each one “lives out” different areas of the same chart and shares it, so to speak. But there are other, more complex methods too complicated to go into right now as well.
When it comes to someone born in the same place and time as you, we apply the “nature/nurture” concept. We all have a choice as to how we work with the energies contained in our birth charts, and it very much depends on how we are raised, where we are brought up, our family life, what our karma is, and what choices we make.
What if you don’t have an accurate birth time? That’s easily remedied – most Astrologers have a method of “rectifying” the time using your life events. All you need to do is supply these major life events and voila! You have a birth time!
How Important Is the Rising Sign?
Put it this way – in India, one of the most ancient civilizations and home to very powerful forms of astrology, The Rising Sign is all-important. Even more important than your Sun sign! (known to us in the west as your star sign).
The Rising sign is that moment when you take in your first breath. This is symbolically seen as the moment you enter your physical incarnation, and hence, is very karmic. It governs how you live your life, your approach, your relationship to the world, your motivations and so much more.
What Does the Rising Sign Mean?
There are a few things that are connected to the Rising Sign, namely:
- Your physical appearance & image
- Your general approach to life/how people sees you/first impressions
- What motivates you
Your Physical Appearance:
There’s a story that when you go to an astrological conference, astrologers will try and guess what your Rising Sign is by how you look – what you wear, the color of your hair, your height, weight and even where you have tattoos!
Obviously, it takes an extremally skilled astrologer to be able to deduce these things, but generally speaking, anyone worth their salt should get at least a “sense” of your Rising sign by how you look.
For example, if you have the zodiac sign of Aries as your Rising Sign, it’s likely you’ll wear sporty clothing (Aries loves sports), have a few piercings and tattoos, and even be prone to get flushed and red when working out. You see, body modifications come under this zodiac sign, and the reason you get rosy after a run is because Aries is a fire sign!
Let’s use another example: Aquarius Rising people, you probably dress in strange clothing (Aquarius is weird, we all know it), and tend to prefer darker colors, such as black or grey, which comes under the rule of this sign. Your eyes may have a dreamy, detached look about them, and you may have fair or light hair. There are more in-depth ways to discover exactly the shade of your hair or eyes, so this is a simple version.
We can go on and on, but this is the gist of it. Your Rising Sign governs what you wear, how you wear it and what physical image your present to the world.
Your General Approach To Life And How People See You – The First Impression
Your Rising Sign also dictates how you generally approach life – your attitude, essentially. This sign says whether or not you’re sassy or sweet, shy or loud, intense or people-pleasing, and so much more. it’s the First Impression that people have of you.
The funny thing is, is that most people ask an Astrologer to tell them what their Sun sign (star sign) is. Some astrologers can definitely tell the Sun sign, but really, they see the rising Sign first. We all see that first, Astrologer or not.
We may, personally, feel even more connected to the qualities of our Rising Sign than our Sun Sign. Our Sun sign is who we really are and the Rising sign is how we go about finding out who we really are. It’s the journey to the Sun sign, in other words.
For example, let’s say you’re a Pisces rising with an Aquarius Sun. Your approach to life and how people see you is like a Pisces. Emotional, sensitive and caring, you come across in a way that’s compassionate, empathic and dreamy. You may wear floaty, spiritual-type of clothing (see point one above), and relate to the world with rose-colored glasses. People may even tell you how sensitive and gentle you seem. These are all Pisces qualities.
But, over the years that someone gets to know you, perhaps two years or so, your Sun will start revealing itself – who you really are. An independent, rational, detached and analytical Aquarian, who is much more intellectual than the seemingly emotional Pisces Rising energy. You learn to then combine the two so that you can become integrated. And realize that what you’re putting out there to the world is what people are picking up.
It’s always interesting to compare these two and see how you appear (your Rising Sign), and who you are (the Sun Sign).
Of course, you can keep it simple and just explore your Rising Sign’s qualities. For example, if you have Sagittarius as your Rising sign, you come across in a way that’s fiery, happy go lucky, adventurous, optimistic, fun-loving, honest and fickle. People will see these qualities about you and describe you in such a way.
What Motivates You
The Rising sign’s element is what generally motivates you in life. What lights your fire, what’s important to you.
If you have an earth sign as your Rising sign (Virgo, Taurus or Capricorn), you’re motivated by physical and material security. A roof over your head, a job, and money in the bank. This is important and governs all your activities.
If you have a water sign as your Rising sign (Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces), your main motivation is emotional security. You need to feel safe, usually through a relationship. However, whatever you do, career or love, you need to feel secure.
If you have a fire sign as your Rising sign (Aries, Leo or Sagittarius), you tend to be motivated towards making some sort of impact on the world. To take action and live with passion!
If you have an air sign as your Rising sign (Gemini, Libra or Aquarius), you’re motivated by connections to others. By communication, sharing ideas, social relationships and ideas. You need intellectual estimation and to be constantly learning in whatever you do.
A Last Word: The Planet Connected To Your Rising Sign – The Chart Ruler:
There’s one last tidbit of information you need to know about your Rising sign. Not only is the zodiac sign very important, but so is the planet that rules that sign. This planet becomes your “Chart Ruler” and describes you and your life in more detail.
For example, if you have a Gemini Rising (Gemini as the Rising sign), then the ruler of this sign is planet Mercury. Mercury rules learning, education, communicating, ideas, teaching, studying, curiosity and change. In a way, you become Mercury. You are a bit like this planet. You will be sensitive to this planet’s transits and sign changes in real time. Mercury’s retrograde affects you more than most, because he’s your chart ruler.
Here’s a quick glance of signs & their planet rulers:
- Aries Rising – Mars: action, drive, energy, passion
- Taurus Rising – Venus: love, money, relationships, harmony, pleasure, values
- Gemini Rising– Mercury: learning, communication education, ideas, change
- Cancer Rising– The Moon: nurturing, home, family, feelings, sensitivity
- Leo Rising – The Sun: confidence, power, self-expression, creativity, play, love, the leader
- Virgo Rising – Mercury: learning, communication education, ideas, change
- Libra Rising – Venus: love, money, relationships, harmony, pleasure, values
- Scorpio Rising – 2 rulers – Mars & Pluto: action, drive, energy, passion plus intensity, control, power and drama
- Sagittarius Rising – Jupiter: expansion, growth, travel, teaching, excessiveness
- Capricorn Rising – Saturn: hard work, responsibility, authority, rules, leader, insecurity
- Aquarius Rising - 2 rulers – Saturn & Uranus: hard work, responsibility, authority, rules, leader, insecurity plus the rebel, independent, unique, freedom-seeking, erratic, weird
- Pisces Rising - 2 rulers – Jupiter & Neptune: expansion, growth, travel, teaching, excessiveness plus escapist, creative, musical, intuitive, imaginative, dreamy, confused
In Closing:
It’s easy to find your Rising Sign – simply look up how to calculate it online using your birth details (time is essential!), and you’ll get plenty of links to follow. The next step is to google or look up your Rising sign and read up on it. Follow up with checking your planetary ruler and reading more on that planet. Both The Rising Sign and the Planet that rules it will describe you very accurately and how your life has been up until this point. Happy investigating!
