Ascendant

The Ascendant is the degree of the zodiac that was rising over the eastern horizon at the moment and place of birth. Astronomically, it is where the ecliptic, the Sun's apparent path, crosses the eastern horizon. The sign it falls in is called the rising sign, and the word is often used loosely for that whole sign and even for the whole first house, though strictly it is a single degree.

The cusp of the first house

In almost every house system the Ascendant marks the beginning of the First House, and the houses are counted from it. Lilly explained the name simply: when the Sun reaches this point it ascends, rises and becomes visible above the horizon. With the Descendant opposite it, the Ascendant forms the horizon axis of the chart, the line between what is above the earth and what is below.

What it signifies

Traditionally the Ascendant and its sign describe the body, temperament and vitality of the person, and their general manner of meeting life. Modern astrologers read it as the persona and the first impression: the instinctive approach to new situations, the style a person shows before others know them well, and the lens through which they tend to see the world. Planets close to the Ascendant, on either side, are among the most prominent in any chart and colour that first impression strongly; Lilly counted a planet in the Ascendant as having the greatest accidental strength of all.

The chart ruler

The planet that rules the rising sign is the chart ruler: the planet of the Ascendant, which traditional astrologers called the lord of the Ascendant, or the significator of the person. Its sign, house and aspects add a great deal to what the Ascendant describes. A person with Libra rising, for example, has Venus as chart ruler, and where Venus stands shows where that life tends to put its energy.

Why the birth time matters

The Ascendant moves quickly. As the Earth turns, every degree of the zodiac rises in the course of a day, so the Ascendant advances about one degree every four minutes on average, and a new sign rises roughly every two hours, faster or slower depending on the sign and the latitude. Without a reasonably exact birth time the Ascendant, and with it the houses, cannot be known. An error of a few minutes can move it by a degree or two, and an error of an hour can change the rising sign. As Isabel Hickey put it, the Ascendant can be known only when the birth time is known.

Reading it

Like everything in a chart, the Ascendant describes a tendency of manner and approach, not a mask a person is bound to wear. It inclines; it does not decide who someone becomes.

Related

• Descendant, the opposite angle
• First House
• Chart ruler
• Midheaven
• House system