What Is My Rising Sign, And What Does It Mean?
Are you fluent in astrology? Whether it's discussing birth charts, tarot cards or star signs, there seems to be something zodiac-related around every twist and turn. The latest celestial conversation-starter that may well leave you scratching your head? Rising signs.
Now you'd be forgiven for thinking that there were only star signs – rising, falling or otherwise – but you'd be mistaken as there are different differentiations to make for each of us, and it's in reference to our birth charts.
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Still with me? Okay, great. Before ruling yourself as a persona non grata for not knowing how to speak fluent astrology just yet, fear not. Times are hard, in this world and the astrological one too, which is why we've done the heavy lifting to explain exactly what a rising sign is and how you can work out what yours is.
What is your rising sign on a birth chart?
Your rising sign – which you may also hear referred to as your ascendant – is the sign that was rising on the eastern horizon at the time of your birth. It indicates the point where the sky and the eastern horizon met at the time of your birth.
Why is it called a rising sign? 'Because the rising sign was the zodiac sign that was ascending over the horizon at the exact moment you were born,' Aniah, an astrologer on TikTok with just over 300,000 followers, who goes by the handle of @illuminiah, explains in one of her videos on the matter. 'The ascendant is the actual degree of your rising sign because each zodiac sign is considered to be 30 degrees in length and the ascendant tells us the exact degree of your rising sign.'
That's not all. 'The ascendant is a very time-sensitive point and the reason why the ascendant is so time-sensitive is because the sky moves through all 12 zodiac signs every single day in only a span of 24 hours,' she says, before adding, 'That's very fast, and that's what makes your rising sign so personal and specific to you as an individual.'
How do you calculate a sun, moon, and rising sign?
In order to ascertain exactly what your rising sign is, you will need a few key pieces of information about your birth. You need to know your exact time, date, and location of birth, which you can then in-put to a birth chart calculator such as that provided by Astro.com or the Co-star app.
Once you've generated your birth chart, that's it. Birth charts will never change – by virtue of their being informed by the information of a person's birth – so if an astrologer or tarot card reader ever asks for your rising sign, you can refer back to your birth chart, which will tell you what your sun, moon and rising signs are.
What does a rising sign mean?
'The rising sign represents things like your identity, your character, your behaviour, your proclivities, your personhood, your style, your appearance, your self-expression,' Aniah explains, stressing that a person's rising sign is the 'anchor' of their birth chart. 'Without the ascendant we literally wouldn't be able to determine any of the house positions of your birth chart or where any of your planets fall,' she continues.
The ascendant and the first house, in fact, have identical meanings. 'So because your ascendant starts everything off, it falls in the first house in your birth chart,' she says. 'The first astrological house is all about the self and the individual and so is the rising sign.'
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