If we consider our Sun signs to reign over our conscience, and our Moon signs to glow upon our most inexplicable emotions and feelings, our Rising signs would fit us like our own skin. Mind, Soul and Body. Together, they form our astrological trinity — our three layers of personality.
The Rising sign (or Ascendant) in a birth chart corresponds to the zodiacal sign that was rising in the East, over the horizon, at the time of birth. In a chart, you can identify it as the sign on the cusp (start) of the first house. Therefore, to interpret how signs on this position act in our lives, we must first have in mind the characteristics of the first house, Aries and Mars, for they are all correlated in a rather complex fashion.
It is important to note that any sign on the Ascendant operates subjectively, rather than consciously. Take, for example, Mars, a planet of passion, energy and drive. It doesn’t operate consciously, through thinking. And it doesn’t correlate to our sensitivity either. Mars, much like pure energy, simply is. From that, we learn that the sign on the Ascendant is how we operate instinctually.
If the Rising sign represents our instincts, it is surely an energy that seems to find a way into anything and everything we do, even though we seem to be consciously unaware of its continuous presence. The sign on the Ascendant is the type of energy that the Soul identifies with individually and automatically. That is, we cannot consciously know ourselves as our Risings signs. Yet, we are our Rising signs anyway.
