Rising is Rising

The final push comes and a human is out in the world alone. This moment is the starting point of an entire life and defines the approach to every action henceforth, all springing from the Rising Sign. Every motion goes through this door and colors a person's presentation to the world. This is what the world sees.

Until this time, the inner wheel has no earthly light shining on it. At birth, the life becomes conscious and the wheel is manifest. The make-up, costumes, lines, movements, every aspect of the part played on the world's stage is creating the persona of the Ascendant. The houses of the wheel describe the unfolding events.
The other planets in the chart are integral to a human's expression, but they will all be filtered through the door out: the sign just on the horizon at birth.

People always want to know what will happen. What should I do? Where should I go? Who should I be with? When will I get there? How? Why?
The answers to these questions are found most of all in the Ascendant, the ruling planet, and the movement of the planets through the houses. These are the actual events and the clues are not that complicated.

If you want to know about a relationship, read your own chart. Look at your Ascendant and your 7th house. The rulers. Venus. These will tell you what you need in a relationship and that's all you need to know to understand what's happening. The other's chart is secondary. You will make the person in your own image. Or try to. All you need to see in a failing relationship is how they don't fit your own desires. Simple as that. Nothing you do will change that fundamental.

The search for a home is also somewhat secondary. Some believe, as I do, that home is actually your Rising Sign. So where you live will match the comfort with yourself as you incarnate into this Ascendant.
Because this is not the internal self, but the outer projection, one has the best chance of sculpting this persona to one's own specifications. It is the most malleable. Just as an actor can bend his role with nuance and add his own interpretations, so can every individual remake himself all his life as he wishes.

The older one gets and the more experience collected, the more familiar the individual becomes with this point. The Sun is already felt and known. My view is that in most cases, a person is moving from the Sun characteristics and learning others, unless the karmic repeater, Saturn, is involved. All the placements make up the whole person, but the tangible evidence and actual sequence of events are in the manifest wheel at birth, guided by the Rising Sign. Why not get with it?
In my studies I have found very few people who are truly in touch with this part of themselves, and thus the difficulties in feeling comfortable with their lives. How many do you know who are trying to be like others? The lessons are learned through a lifetime of experience as the projection is reflected back by other people ... the reason for relationship and an intrinsic part of self knowledge. If you know your Ascendant, you know how to read these other people. They are all parts of you, players in your own drama.

I refer to this initial place in the birth chart as the Ace. The 1st house. The beginning of every action in your life. If you start out right with yourself, your chances for success are good. "Right", of course, is for you to ascertain. In a bind? Look to the ASC. Need to make a decision? Look to the ASC. It won't fail. It got you out of the birth canal. A pretty tight place.

As a Sun in Cancer, every time I get into trouble, I get frightened and want to hide. But my Aries Rising will have none of it. When I take up the challenge, wrestle with it with my Aries horns, refuse to be defeated, stand my ground, and own up to my winning incarnation, my life works right. The older I get, the more this becomes the modus operandi. And the experimentation never ends. The perfection of my role on the stage is ongoing.

One interesting question is, "What if my Sun and ASC are the same?" My theory is this. These people are examples to others of the quintessential expression of the sign. You really can't miss it. But there is a certain lack of challenge in these people's lives as if they have nowhere to go. Nothing to work on so obviously. They already are what they are becoming. Some can't quite figure out what to do. Perhaps a further cultivation is the ticket along with an acceptance of a kind of stasis.

So as complicated as the human mind likes to make things, there is always the part of the self that wants things to be well and the sensations of confidence and rightness to be vigorously active. As any actor knows, the production needs good direction. Just look at your Rising Sign. It will tell what to do, how to do it, where to go, and when. Simple.
Illustration: Luca Invernezzi Tettoni