Ascendant
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The astrological ascendant, or rising sign, is the zodiac sign that was ascending on the Eastern horizon at the specific place and time of a person's birth. According to astrological theory, celestial phenomena reflect or determine human activity on the principle of 'as above so below'. Astrologers believe therefore that the ascendant signifies a person's awakening consciousness, in the same way that the sun's appearance on the eastern horizon signifies the dawn of a new day. [1]
Due to the fact that the ascendant is specific to a particular time and place, it signifies the individual environment and conditioning that a person receives during their upbringing, and also the circumstances of their childhood. [2]. For this reason, the ascendant is also concerned with how a person has learned to present him or herself to the world, especially in public and in impersonal situations. In some circumstances, it can therefore function as a shield or mask to guard a person's real nature - in other words the 'defense mechanism' every person has to cope with unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations.
The Ascendant is thus considered to be of great significance in all schools of astrology due to the fact that it in effect serves as the filter through which everything in a horoscope- including the Sun and Moon- is expressed. Most astrologers believe that the Rising Sign exerts an influence equal to or more powerful than the Sun and Moon. In Jyotish, the ascendant is without question the most individual and defining element in the chart. The ascendant also has a strong bearing on a person's physical appearance and overall health .
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[edit] Relation to the first house
Astronomically, the ascendant of a given geographic location at a particular point in time is the angle on the zodiac which is ascending over the Eastern horizon. There are exactly 30 degrees per astrological sign, and because 12 multiplied by 30 equals 360 which is the span of the ecliptic, all twelve signs rise and fall during the course of one 24-hour day. This exact rising degree forms the first house cusp of a horoscope and is therefore said to be of great significance in the interpretation.
Since the ascendant usually forms the cusp of the first house in a modern horoscope many astrologers believe that it naturally corresponds to Aries, the first astrological sign of the zodiac, but these assumptions were not always made. Ancient astrologers used whole-sign house systems almost exclusively, which meant that each house of the chart began at 0 degrees of each sign. The first house was the one in which the point of the ascendant fell, but the ascendant itself did not form the boundary of the house.
Secondly, the concept of each house having a corresponence to a zodiacal sign, which is sometimes called natural houses or the natural zodiac, is a modern one. In the original formulations of astrology, Mars, which rules Aries, the first sign, actually was most at home and most powerful in the sixth house, not the first. Some astrologers, nowadays, think that the ascendant could correspond to other signs in spite of Aries, like Leo (the sign of appearance, pride, egocentricity and self-importance, all characteristics that could likely be suitable for the first house) or Libra (because Libra rising seems to give the most good-looking appearance, very likable humane characteristics and diplomatic abilities, so astrologers think that is the best position for an ascendant).
[edit] Chart ruler
The planet that rules the astrological sign of the ascendant is called the "chart ruler, and is said to be of particular importance. So for example, if the ascendant sign is Libra, Venus will be the chart ruler, and so 'set the tone' for the chart in many ways.
[edit] Long and short ascension
Because the Earth's axis (see axial tilt) is tiled relative to the ecliptic, the twelve signs do not take the same amount of time to cross the eastern horizon. At the equator, there is very little difference (Pisces, Aries, Virgo and Libra take slighltly less time than the other signs) but as one moves from the equator, larger and larger differences emerge.
In the northern hemisphere, the signs of Aquarius, Pisces, Aries and Taurus take much less time than the theoretical two hours to cross the eastern horizon, whilst the signs of Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius take much longer than two hours to do so. For example, at the latitude of Paris, France:
- Pisces and Aries take only about fifty-five minutes to cross the eastern horizon (this is referred to as the length of ascension or simply as the sign's ascension)
- Aquarius and Taurus have an ascension of only about seventy minutes
- Cancer and Sagittarius have an ascension of around two and a half hours
- Leo, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio have ascensions of around two hours and forty-five minutes
At higher latitudes, these differences become even more marked. At the latitude of St. Petersburg, Russia:
- Pisces and Aries ascend in only thirty minutes
- Aquarius and Taurus ascend in only forty-five minutes
- Capricorn and Gemini ascend in an hour and a half
- actually individual degrees near Sagittarius or Cancer ascend twice as slowly as those near Aquarius or Taurus
- Sagittarius and Cancer ascend in two hours and forty minutes
- Leo, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio take as much as three hours and fifteen minutes to ascend
Astrologers consider the differences between the rate at which the signs ascend to be of importance. In many house systems, houses can become very large when they cover Aquarius, Pisces, Aries and Taurus because these signs are seen to be much smaller from the perspective of a northern hemisphere observer.
Some astrologers, such as Richard Nolle, consider the prepondance of Ascendants in signs from Cancer through Sagittarius (known as the western signs) to be symbolic of the highly relationship-oriented character inherent in a complex or civilized society as found today in the northern hemisphere but never developed in equatorial or south temperate latitudes where eastern (Capricorn through Gemini), individual-oriented Ascendants are equally or more common (Richard Nolle, Chiron: New Planet in the Horoscope, pages 78 to 82).
In the southern hemisphere, long and short ascension are reversed. For instance, at the latitude of Concepción, Chile:
- Pisces and Aries ascend in two hours twenty minutes
- Aquarius and Taurus ascend in two and a half hours (see note about ascension in low latitudes above)
- Capricorn and Gemini ascend in two hours twenty minutes
- Sagittarius and Cancer ascend in almost exactly two hours
- Scorpio and Leo ascend in about ninety minutes
- Libra and Virgo ascend in about seventy-five minutes
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External Links
- You can calculate free your Ascendant (rising sign) and Your horoscope chart.
- Calculate a Rising Sign or AscendantA Simple way to determine your rising sign.
