The Ascendant

greybeard

Well-known member
The Ascendant – that point along the ecliptic that intersects the eastern horizon of the place of birth, where any body (star or planet) will be exactly on the horizon if exactly on the ecliptic – is the point where the invisible becomes visible. It is a point of conscious manifestation, of self-awareness... awareness of an individuality and separateness from other manifest beings, awareness of being aware. This is the self as distinct from all other selves. Our relationships with these other beings are shown at the Descendant, whether they are in conflict or are complementary. Here is where outer meets inner and the clash creates a conscious being. Our inner self shines through this portal to the outer world, our vision of that outer world is seen through this lens. The Ascendant and the First House must be considered in any question because it is the point through which all of our creative inner energies must pass on their way into the outer world or through which they are first recognized and acted upon as they enter into our consciousness. This is a point of manifestation where the self meets and interacts with manifest reality. It is “I AM.”

In this regard, a careful examination of the Ascendant is necessary to understanding the life because this is the point where destiny is created as the fruits of our own actions and the impingement of the external. It must always be involved in any sort of manifestation. Because this is the point of all beginnings – the solar day begins here – and the final outcome of anything is always subject to the conditions of its beginning, birth or inception, the Ascendant conditions and is in its turn conditioned by the events, both inner and outer, conscious and unconscious, spiritual or material that occur at this point where our being is made manifest, where we project our inner self into the world at large and know ourselves.

The close examination will include many factors, which when the significance of each factor, taken separately, is understood and its relative power of expression through the Ascendant is weighed and balanced, the synthesis of these factors will show what sort of tools are available to the self in its struggle to be, and whether they work smoothly or disruptively. Among these factors is the zodiacal sign on the horizon of birth, which sets the tone of the life. Any planet inhabiting the First House – especially if near the rising degree, and preferably in the same term may act powerfully in the personality. Close aspects, major and minor, to the horizon support or weaken our position in the world around us. The orb of each aspect assists in gauging relative strength of expression. Conditioning of the aspecting planets should be carefully examined. The conditioning and aspects to the lord of the horoscope, the domicile ruler of the Rising Degree, must always be given importance and power. Moon is always operative through the Ascendant; she is the goddess of substance and form; she is the energy that substantiates us as we meet the transient events of each passing moment. The bound ruler of the rising degree has sway there as does the exaltation lord. The almuten of the rising degree must be taken into account.

This multiplication of factors should cause no confusion. On the contrary, what it does is provide discrete units of information regarding the native, which when put in the hopper and thoroughly mixed give us a very detailed and accurate portrait of the person and the life.

Weighing and balancing involves not only gauging the relative probable strength of expression through the Ascendant (First House) of planets aspecting or holding some dignity in it, but also includes making judgment of the quality of the influences, whether harmonious or disruptive. In performing this investigation of qualities, strengths, weaknesses, skills and talents, and the general traits of the personality we will also have studied many if not most of the planets through the nexus of the Ascendant – which is its function, to serve as a connection, a concentration of energies from two different realms where they collide and are transformed into manifest being. Here, at the Ascendant, is the creative impulse, the Let there be...! It is the First Breath, Prana.

We can see that the Ascendant provides us with the way in. If the Ascendant is the Beginning, it makes good sense to begin our investigation and interpretation of any chart at this point, the Horoskopos. By entering the chart through this gateway to the inner self, by carefully considering each of the various discrete factors that influence its operation, we will very quickly see the chart as a whole.

The Ascendant shows our role in life. Jung calls it the persona, which was the role of the actors on the Greek stage and the mask they wore to depict that role. It describes our horizons in life, our perceptions and perspectives. Here we get a first glimpse of “what is coming up in life,” and see hints of the destiny and issues the native will meet.

With its correspondence to the “first years of life,” or early childhood, we also see those accidents of destiny that most powerfully and deeply affect us and form our being. The Ascendant is accidental in nature. The sign on the Ascendant imbues it (it being the Ascendant and what it represents) with an essential quality, according to the nature of the sign and the condition of its lord, but the Ascendant itself is adventitious, depends on the winds of fortune. Like the other Angles of the chart, it is a point of crisis, of change, a turning point; the life hinges upon it.

Our constitution is described and prescribed at the Ascendant. The constitution embraces not only the body but also the psychological makeup of a person. The Ascendant is our appearance, both our appearance as a new star and the state, condition, manner, impressions, style and circumstances of our being, which can be characterized as psychosomatic. Both mind and body are depicted here, dependent on all of the internal factors found dispersed through the whole chart and brought to manifestation at the Ascendant. Sixth House anxiety or Second House financial setbacks find their way to the Ascendant, always. Energies from within must and will find an outlet, an expression either direct or sublimated, and it will emerge at the Ascendant.

The Ascendant, our manifest personality at the juncture of the inner and outer worlds, is in a constant state of flux, of change. We may in one moment be consumed by anger, by joy or ecstasy; our attention may now be drawn to caring for our children, then be turned toward matters of career or artistic expression, or putting out a fire in the kitchen. The Ascendant (persona) is the mechanism whereby our self-interest is served. It protects our secret and vulnerable inner self from the onslaughts of the outer world, and entices the outer world into its service. It adapts itself to the fleeting circumstances of our existence. The adaptations may be quite successful in some instances and less so in others. The Ascendant is a process which continues its constant change throughout our lives while at the same time displaying a wonderful sort of consistency.

Not so long ago I was reunited with a brother-and-sister-in-law whom I hadn’t seen or spoken to in twenty years; it might as well have been yesterday, for they were the same people I had known two decades earlier, equally predictable in their behaviors and manners. Yet they had passed through so many experiences in the interim, experiences that of necessity changed them, or perhaps more accurately, made them more of what they always were as potentiality became manifest reality.

The Ascendant is our identity, the manifest reality of our being, the fact of our lives. A person studying astrology with an eye to self-understanding would do well to begin at the Beginning, and study the Ascendant with all the factors that affect it.
 

IleneK

Premium Member
What a lovely gift you give us. Such a comprehensive means with which to examine our ascendants and those of others.

I thank you.
 
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Birch Dragon

Well-known member
A great post from greybeard that I hope to keep going.
In my life as a teacher I find that students may catch the lecture but really begin to “get it” in the after-discussion. For myself, I think more discussion will really help me “get it. Can we keep this thread going? Especially if the Asc. is a good place for beginners to begin.

I’ve got two questions, both about how the Asc. works with the rest of the chart. The first is about the Asc. and the Houses. The second is about the Asc. and the planets. But with the second question in particular I’m trying to figure out how the Self of the Asc. is distinguished from the rest of what’s going on in the chart, which also, as I understand it, constitutes the Self (doesn’t it?).

First, the Asc. and the other houses.
Does the Asc wind up characterizing the rest of the houses across a natal chart? Are the characteristics of the houses in a person’s chart the result of the character of the Asc.?
For example, a few weeks ago I had a thought about my own rising sign. As a Virgo rising, the cusp of my 12th house is in the sign of Leo. Thinking about this one day it suddenly made sense – geometric, mathematical sense – that if Virgo rules factors like service and humility than of course the more ostentatious tendencies of Leo – the want to be recognized, to be the rock star, the queen among her peers – would be the self-undoing of a Virgo rising. Those desires would be going against the essential nature of the self. So, I wondered, is Leo in the 12th a natural consequence of the Virgo rising character? Does Virgo carry with it a “karmic” do away with the solar self-centeredness of Leo and so the 12th house of a Virgo housing is naturally of a Leo quality? In fact, might the whole layout of house rulership in a chart be like this?
(Though I guess this wouldn’t work for people with intercepted signs.)

Second, the Asc. and planets:
So the Asc signifies the particular Self of our particular being, in this moment on Earth – and so it’s the “way in” to the rest of the chart. But aren’t the planets also – and particularly the Lights – expressions of our Self? How do we discern between the part of our Self that is expressed by the Asc. and those parts expressed by the other planets? For example, in my case I have a Sun/Moon (and Venus) in Aries and a Virgo rising. I can certainly feel traits of both signs strongly expressed in my self. But blended in ways I can’t quite decouple. How are the Virgo parts of me my Ascendant Self and the Arie parts my Sun and Moon Self. How does a beginner like me learn to really know, to close my eyes and feel the difference. Or do we need to?
I ask to try and discern which parts of a Self I would look to the Asc in a chart to understand, and which parts I would look to the Sun to understand.

Which makes me think… o.k…. I actually have three questions!

What do we say about the difference between charts where the Asc is in clear compliment with the personal planets (let’s say a preponderance of fire and a Sag Asc.) and a chart where the Asc. seems in more disharmony with the rest of the chart? In the second case, does it make for a person with urges, desires, beliefs and even karmic drives that are in tension with her own constitution, her natural manner of expressing them???
 

greybeard

Well-known member
Yes, the other houses derive from the Ascendant, that is, the house structure of the chart originates there and is determined by the rising degree.

In calculating a chart "by hand", from tables, the first thing calculated is the RAMC, which gives the MC. From that the Ascendant is derived, dependent on latititude of birth place.

These two points (they are axes -- meridian and horizon) then allow calculation of the derived houses, using the house system of our choice. But they are derivatives determined by longitude and latitude of birth.

If the Ascendant is the Point of All Beginnings [Daybreak, First Breath, Invisible (Unconscious) to Visible (Conscious)], then it follows that all the other houses begin here. Life begins here. The outcome of all things is dependent on the conditions at Inception. Therefore, as the ancients said, the Ascendant is the Point of Destiny.

The zodiac represents the life cycle, the processes of life as it develops from Emergence (Aries) to Death and Rebirth (Pisces). Pisces is where "Except a corn of wheat falleth into the ground and die, it abdeth alone; but if die, it bringeth forth much fruit" takes place. Pisces is death of the ego, that act of "self-sacrifice" that makes possible the rebirth of self at Aries. The wheel of the zodiac is the life cycle, in order as a process, and if the Ascendant is the beginning of our manifest physical life, then it follows that the rest of the houses proceed from it, in order, and the house are thus determined by it.

The answer is within you. The Virgo Ascendant produces the Leo 12th house. Each horoscope is different. It is the lord of the sign on a house cusp that is most powerfully determinant in affairs of the house. The sign sets the tone of the house; the lord disposes that house and its affairs and outcome. (v. "dispose", "disposition" in Mr. Webster's masterpiece.) This according to the intrinsic nature, conditioning, aspects, etc of the lord.

Interception (in quadrant house systems) does not impair the house structure. It describes an anomalous state of affairs. The anomaly is between signs (cosmic, essential) and houses (mundane, accidental). It is a shifting of essential qualities from their normal area of expression. Interception implies some form of abnormality (not necessarily the hunchback, or Siamese twins...but something deviating from normality in some way.) The word interception means "being cut off from its normal or intended course." We might also use words like "enclosed", "contained", "shut in", "included"....to describe an intercepted sign and its content. It has no normal means of natural outward expression and must resort to secondary avenues. It is highly subjective, turned inward because cut off from its normal flow. It is a symbol of disruption. The meaning of an intercepted sign in actual practice can quite often be seen in a striking and very literal fashion in the life as lived; it is usually seen as house-specific.

The Ascendant is the Point of Manifestation. It is the place where the "inner self" (the psychological-spiritual complex described by the solar system as an interrelated whole) meets the "outer world" (at our horizon). All four angles have this inner-outer function, but the Ascendant is the primary symbol of the "self" as made manifest.

Life is a mystery. I'm old and each day discover facets of self (through living and through my horoscopic charting) that are new to my consciousness. In age I have learned not to get excited; things will come to us in their due time. My vision of who I was, who I am, and who I will be continues to unfold and change. Life is an adventure. I wonder what tomorrow will bring? I'll find that out tomorrow. "Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

The Sun is the center of the solar system (universe). All things revolve around it. Its symbol is a circle (Spirit) with a dot at center (point of manifestation). In the horoscope the Sun is the Spirit, our central Purpose. But notice that the Ascendant determines his house...the angle of incidence of his rays. This brings the Spirit-Purpose down to Earth. The planets in a chart describe the arrangement of energies; the Ascendant describes their particular manifestation. Houses describe surroundiing circumstances, the milieu through which the essential energies will be made manifest.

Two people born at exactly the same time contain exactly the same arrangement of internal energies. But if born at different places, the circumstances they encounter will be different, their lives different, the expression of those energies different. A hydrogen bomb dropped on Hiroshima is horribly destructive; dropped on the Sun, it foms part of a wonderfully creative process. The houses are foundational in astrology; that's why time of birth is the primary consideration in casting and delineating a chart.

I am a proponent of the "What you see is what you get" school of astrology. If the chart seems disharmonious, you get disharmony in the life. If there is a preponderance of Fire and a Fiery Ascendant, it would seem (other things being equal) that the expression of the Fiery inner nature would express more harmoniously than through an Earthy Ascendant.

I think students too often get lost in Astrology, and forget, or overlook, the fact that astrology is all about Real Life, Real People...and Common Sense. Simplify. Look at the chart not as some mysterious occult conundrum (which it is), but as a Map (which it is) of a person and their life. Join the Boy Scouts and learrn to read a map.

Suppose: Venus is lord of the horoscope (it represents the person of the native). Venus is found in the 4th House, between Uranus on one hand and Mars on the other, in close aspect. I would not hesitate to tell the Native "During your childhood you were surrounded by violence." Period. No ifs, ands or buts. What you see is what you get.

The Ascendant has an almost exact fit with Jung's persona. That's where the rubber meets the road. It's where spirit (which has no "reality"; it's intangible) becomes "real". But the persona is a construct, is constantly changing and adapting, is ephemeral. The Sun burns steady, is eternal. So that is the difference between Aries and Virgo. Virgo is the chariot. Aries is the driver.
 

socrates

Well-known member
talking about the asc i am quickly finding that house I in morinus houses system works better.
just 2 of several exemples
Hitler-scorpio house 1
george w bush sun and saturn in house I (sun in 12th didnt say much about him or his dad)

Greybeard,how can I tell if My Sun is in 8th(WSH) or 9th house(quadrante houses)given that i have other planets in both houses and it is hard to tell whether it is my asc ruler or sun or sun ruler that influences my 9th house interests?
for the record Sun,Venus Mars in capricorn in 8th(WSH) but Sun and venus and probably mars by conjunction in 9th by quadrante.
Mercury,the ASC lord is in 9th conjunct saturn,sun ruler in all house systems.
This is why im not sure if my interest in 9th issues comes from sun,or other planets

thanks
 

greybeard

Well-known member
To the best of my knowledge, Morin himself didn't use his houses, but Regiomontanus.

And I don't quite understand (I don't use Morinus) how Scorpio becomes House 1: The Asc is at 27 Libra in Hitler's chart. Surely you don't tuck the Asc away in the 12th.

I get the feeling you need some practice in casting charts and other details of basic astrology. How does Mercury become lord of the horoscope? Whether Hitler has Libra rising (as all my tropicalist friends and neighbors tell me he does) or Scorpio...Mercury is not lord of the horoscope.

If you are a beginning student, may I suggest you use either Placidus, Porphyry or Whole Sign houses and avoid needless confusion. In Hitler's chart 26 Libra 41 is on the Ascendant. If you get anything very far off that, check your calculations.
 

socrates

Well-known member
To the best of my knowledge, Morin himself didn't use his houses, but Regiomontanus.

And I don't quite understand (I don't use Morinus) how Scorpio becomes House 1: The Asc is at 27 Libra in Hitler's chart. Surely you don't tuck the Asc away in the 12th.

I get the feeling you need some practice in casting charts and other details of basic astrology. How does Mercury become lord of the horoscope? Whether Hitler has Libra rising (as all my tropicalist friends and neighbors tell me he does) or Scorpio...Mercury is not lord of the horoscope.

If you are a beginning student, may I suggest you use either Placidus, Porphyry or Whole Sign houses and avoid needless confusion. In Hitler's chart 26 Libra 41 is on the Ascendant. If you get anything very far off that, check your calculations.
morinus houses may have the angles outsider 1st house.Hitler has Libra Asc in 12th Scorpio in first.

I have Mercury ruling ASC not Hitler
check morinus house system at astro.com
 

I cee

Well-known member
talking about the asc i am quickly finding that house I in morinus houses system works better.
just 2 of several exemples
Hitler-scorpio house 1
george w bush sun and saturn in house I (sun in 12th didnt say much about him or his dad)

Greybeard,how can I tell if My Sun is in 8th(WSH) or 9th house(quadrante houses)given that i have other planets in both houses and it is hard to tell whether it is my asc ruler or sun or sun ruler that influences my 9th house interests?
for the record Sun,Venus Mars in capricorn in 8th(WSH) but Sun and venus and probably mars by conjunction in 9th by quadrante.
Mercury,the ASC lord is in 9th conjunct saturn,sun ruler in all house systems.
This is why im not sure if my interest in 9th issues comes from sun,or other planets

thanks
Hi socrates. Can I ask what sign your mercury is in?
 

socrates

Well-known member
Hi socrates. Can I ask what sign your mercury is in?

Aquarius.The thing is im not sure whether it is my Mercury function or the sun that focus on 9th house issues
The fact that saturn,the Sun`s ruler is withit only complicates things further.
So,in WSH Sun,Venus,Mars in capricorn in 8th.Mercury Saturn in first decan and jupiter in second decanate at MC in aquarius in 9th

thanks
 
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greybeard

Well-known member
The Asc is the Asc is the Asc
I have never seen a house system in which it changes degree.
The Asc is a measureable-observable astronomical fact.

If I ever bumped into a house system where the Asc got on a tour bus
I sure as heck wouldn't use it.
 

Drsendero

Well-known member
The Morinus house system is a strange one and there is no evidence that Morinus himself used it, although he did invent it. It doesn't use either the MC or the AC as house cusps, but the first house cusp is 90 degrees from the MC and the tenth house cusp is 90 from the East Point - I have no idea what the logic is behind this nor do I really understand how the intermediate cusps are defined. It ends up giving cusps close to those of the Meridian system. I haven't read of anyone ever using it, but it seems to show up in house system software fairly frequently.
 

greybeard

Well-known member
Thanks Drsendero.

Even with your explanation, don't see how Hitler's Asc ends up at 11 Scorpio....First House cusp yes..his MC is 11 Leo. But Asc? I suspect the OP is confusing terms.

A donde te lleva tu sendero?
 

socrates

Well-known member
Thanks Drsendero.

Even with your explanation, don't see how Hitler's Asc ends up at 11 Scorpio....First House cusp yes..his MC is 11 Leo. But Asc? I suspect the OP is confusing terms.

A donde te lleva tu sendero?

well ,i heard the IC is our home ,the 4th place the land where we build the home
maybe the asc is us, the first house the environment. My ASc is Gemini,Taurus is house I and both my parents are Taurus
 

gismeu

Well-known member
Hi,

this might be a bit off topic, but ....... :)
My ascendent is at 29 degrees 41 min Sagi and I always wondered what if the nurse made a little mistake time-wise? Given that it is so close to Capricorn!
From my life experience of 54 years, I can say that I certainly have both traits of a Sagi as well as a Capricorn ascendent, but my question is, are there ways to either rectify a chart or confirm one of the other?
Having the Sun in Libra makes it easy for me to live with both, i.e. a Sagi/Capri ascendent, but I am still an astrology beginner, thus my asking here?

Thanks for any feedback, gis
 
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